Intro: When I was a boy, I was involved in memory work. I did this for 3 years and we competed at the church level, the associational level, and then the state level. It was during those days that I memorized many verses that are my favorites to this day. Psalm 46:1 is one of my favorite go to verses when times are tough, and my spirit us uneasy.

Psalm 46 is an incredible Psalm from top to bottom. What made it even more impressive to me is when I dug into it and discovered where it was birthed from.
In 701 B.C. the king of Assyria named Sennacherib was putting fear in the hearts of all of the surrounding areas. He was taking over territory and expanding his kingdom, and he was ruthless about it. His goal was to march as far south as Egypt and take over all of the area.

On his journey of war and capture and enslavement, Sennacherib comes across a curious little kingdom called Judah. The hub of this area is a city called Jerusalem. He had already taken over the Northern part of the land, then called Israel, and now had his sights on the Southern Kingdom of Judah.

Judah had had its share of problems through the years. Bad decision, bad rulers, who ruled foolishly had weakened it, but they have a King that is ruling now that is different. His name is Hezekiah. Hezekiah reinstated some of the ancient customs such as Passover, and he has pointed the people back to the temple and the work of the priests and sacrifices.

He did what was right in the sight of the LORD, according to all that his father David had done… . He trusted in the LORD God of Israel, so that after him was none like him among all the kings of Judah, nor who were before him. For he held fast to the LORD; he did not depart from following Him, but kept His commandments, which the LORD had commanded Moses. The LORD was with him; he prospered wherever he went. (2 Kings 18:3, 5–7)

Sennacherib is very interested in this King that he has heard of, and he marches into Jerusalem and surrounds the city like a swarm of locusts. They stand outside the city walls taunting the people in the city saying “Don’t listen to your King, your God will not be able to save you from us”.

Hear the word of the great king, the king of Assyria! Thus says the king: “Do not let Hezekiah deceive you, for he shall not be able to deliver you from his hand; nor let Hezekiah make you trust in the LORD, saying, ‘The LORD will surely deliver us; this city shall not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria.’ Do not listen to Hezekiah; for thus says the king of Assyria: “Make peace with me by a present and come out to me.” (2 Kings 18:28–31)

But this city has something else interesting about it: prophets. And at present, there happen to be two effective ones named Micah and Isaiah. King Hezekiah leans on them, and he is now given a word of encouragement through Isaiah. Here’s a paraphrase of the message: “Relax. God says that everything is under control, and you’re doing the right thing in ignoring the challenges of Sennacherib’s men. Don’t worry about him, for he has blasphemed the name of God, and he will be dealt with. Sennacherib will hear rumors that turn him homeward, and there he’ll die by his own sword.”

A few days pass and messengers deliver a letter to Hezekiah from Sennacherib. It is filled with ugly threats of how soon Judah will be destroyed. Hezekiah does something very interesting with this letter. He takes into the temple and spreads the letter out before him and before God. Essentialy he is saying “Read this, Lord.” Look at what I am facing.

The King leaves it all with God. He walks back to his palace, listening to the insults outside the walls, and all the warnings of what is about to happen, and he waits. He just waits on God. The attack is eminent, and he waits.

You can read the climax in 2 Kings 19:35. The angel of the Lord comes by night, and he executes 185,000 Assyrians. When the break of day comes, the men of Judah return to their posts and can’t believe what is laid out before them—acres of Assyrian soldiers, no longer ridiculing, no longer frightening or imposing. It’s a landscape of death. Listen to the exact words of Scripture: “There were the corpses—all dead.” (2 Kings 19:35).

It is out of all of this that this Psalm was written. It is a celebration song. It is a song of the awesome power of God, and a reminder that no barrier is to great for God to overcome.

The Greeks, the Romans, the Assyrians, and the Babylonians all seemed to powerful to overcome, but they are nothing more than Characters from ancient history now.

Let’s look closer at this Psalm now and see more clearly than ever that with God all things are possible, when we lay it before God. As David Jeremiah said, “It is not the might of the enemy, but the strength of God’s power that wins the day”.

Let’s look at some important things to do when trouble comes

1) Run To Your Refuge
a. The Hebrew word for refuge invokes a quiet place to go for protection.
b. For Hezekiah it was in the temple.
c. Refuge is found in many ways in scripture.
d. Psalm 18:2 say “My God is my rock, in whom I take refuge”. Think of the caves that would hide David from the enemies.
e. Psalm 18:30 says “You are my refuge and my shield; I have put my hope in your word”. Think of shields and hiding behind them.
f. Psalm 61:3 “For you have been my refuge, a strong tower against the foe”. Towers gave protection, a place to climb high and look down on the enemy.
g. In Psalm 57:1 David wrote, “I take refuge in the shadow our your wings until the disaster has passed.” Wings as refuge, like a hen covering her chicks.
h. Psalm 59:16 says “You are my fortress, my refuge in times of trouble.”
i. It’s clear that Luther, who helped to redefine modern, faith-based Christianity, carried a high opinion of the place of music in worship. And which hymn was most central to the Reformation? That one’s easy—“A Mighty Fortress Is Our God,” a song Luther wrote based on Psalm 46. This hymn became the battle cry of God’s people during the Reformation, a great source of strength and inspiration, especially among those who were martyred for their convictions. This hymn has been translated into almost every language, and there are more than sixty different English translations of the text itself.
j. David Jeremiah says that our refuge is Awesome, He is Accessible (a very present help), and He is ageless, He was there, He is here, and He will be there.

2) Rediscover Your Strength
a. When we are going through something taxing, and we are in heat of warfare it takes a lot out of us. We are exhausted, and our strength seems to flee.
b. It is at this time that we need more than just a refuge, we need strength.
c. The battle is not over just because we are in the refuge.
d. In times of war city walls would be fortified, and everyone would seek safety inside the city.
e. They feared being cut off from supplies of food and water.
f. The enemy might not be able to come inside, but they would try to stop you from getting the things you needed from the outside.
g. In advance of the arrival of the Assyrians at Jerusalem, Hezekiah had time to prepare his defenses. In the Kidron Valley outside of Jerusalem bubbled a deep spring called Gihon. It provided the water supply for Jerusalem, so it was of enormous strategic importance. Hezekiah knew that at all costs it must be protected, so he redirected the spring through a conduit that was 1,777 feet long, hewn of solid rock. He brought the spring waters beneath the walls of Jerusalem into a reservoir in the middle of the city. Then he covered up all traces of the spring in such a way that Sennacherib would have no idea where the water supply was. If the angel of the Lord hadn’t destroyed the Assyrians that night, the people of Judah would still have had fresh water for a lengthy period of time. Hezekiah had planned well.
h. Note verse 4. There is a river. As the saved people of God we have a river inside of us.
i. “Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life” (John 4:13–14).
j. Soon after that, Jesus said, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water” (John 7:37–38).
k. We have a power inside of us, and a person on the inside of us, who strengthens us for what we must face.

3) Redirect Your Thoughts (v. 8-11)
a. The God of today is the God of yesterday. If we want to know what to expect from Him, we need to only review His record.
b. The God of our yesterdays is the same God today.
c. Satan loves to get us stuck in the present with all of its troubles and problems.
d. Read v. 10. It is in this day of noise and opinion, that we need to be still.
e. We need to be quiet so we can hear his voice, but we have been to noisy fighting over politics, and policy.
f. He is crying out to us to slow down and listen.
g. As we listen we cry out from our Spirits saying “You are God, and there is no one like you”.
h. Note v. 11. The Lord of Hosts is with us.