Not All Will Find Comfort
By
Jed Greenough
Psalm 46:1-7
God is our refuge and strength,
an ever-present help in trouble.
an ever-present help in trouble.
Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way
and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea,
and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea,
though its waters roar and foam
and the mountains quake with their surging.
Selah
and the mountains quake with their surging.
Selah
There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God
the holy place where the Most High dwells.
the holy place where the Most High dwells.
God is within her, she will not fall;
God will help her at break of day.
God will help her at break of day.
Nations are in uproar, kingdoms fall;
he lifts his voice, the earth melts.
he lifts his voice, the earth melts.
The LORD Almighty is with us;
the God of Jacob is our fortress.
Selah
the God of Jacob is our fortress.
Selah
A psalm such as this is one that many have drawn strength from over the years. People read the extreme example of mountains falling into the heart of the sea and they are strengthened by these words when they consider the calamity that they might be facing in their lives.
This is true for me as well, but I also feel guilt when I haven’t had the faith already and fear has controlled me.
In Matthew 8:23-27 we read,” Then he got into the boat and his disciples followed him. Without warning, a furious storm came up on the lake, so that the waves swept over the boat. But Jesus was sleeping. The disciples went and woke him, saying, "Lord, save us! We're going to drown!"
He replied, "You of little faith, why are you so afraid?" Then he got up and rebuked the winds and the waves, and it was completely calm.
The men were amazed and asked, "What kind of man is this? Even the winds and the waves obey him!"
After reading that, just as in the psalm above, I am strengthened. The reason I find strength or encouragement, is because even though the disciples were with Him they still pleaded with Jesus. True, they like the wind and waves were rebuked for their small faith but he heard their pleas and took care of them.
We didn’t actually walk with Christ as they did but we are blessed with much more information about Him then what they had. At least we have the luxury of His word if we will only use it so that as Ephesians 4:14 says,” Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of men in their deceitful scheming.”
But it isn’t sea scenarios or faith that I want to concentrate on today as much as the images God has brought into my mind through my reading of the psalm for today’s lesson.
Obviously one cannot help but ponder faith, but what really was shouting out to me was that this is a prophecy not just a psalm of praise. You see God did that sometimes, He inspired scripture that meant one thing at that time and yet in hindsight we can easily see it as prophecy; a couple examples which leap to mind are Psalm 22 and Psalm 110.
In Psalm 46 I daresay there won’t be many commentaries for today’s International Sunday School Lesson that will take a prophetic note, but who knows, we will see.
If we view this psalm as only for the moment when we face some fear, the examples given would certainly be extreme, but if we view it in an eschatological sense the images given are not extreme but spot-on with other scriptures that talk about the time of the end.
“There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God Jerusalem is in sight here but (drum roll please) Jerusalem
No river in antiquity, no river today, but one day there will be a river, but we will come back to that if I now have your attention!
I want you to draw from this psalm what it is that God intended it to be for you—encouragement. Encouragement in what will be fatal and frightening times, the times of the end. At some point in what could be the near future when you start to recognize the signs, a psalm like this will be a comfort and a reminder, so write an asterisk in your Bible for this psalm.
It starts out by saying “God is our refuge and strength an ever present help in trouble.”
But from what? Verse 2 and 3 speak of the earth giving a way, mountains falling into the sea, the waters roaring and foaming and the mountains quaking.
Without adding my words to them let me give you some scriptures:
Revelation 8:8
The second angel sounded his trumpet, and something like a huge mountain, all ablaze, was thrown into the sea. A third of the sea turned into blood,
Luke 21:25
"There will be signs in the sun, moon and stars. On the earth, nations will be in anguish and perplexity at the roaring and tossing of the sea.
Revelation 16:18
Then there came flashes of lightning, rumblings, peals of thunder and a severe earthquake. No earthquake like it has ever occurred since man has been on earth, so tremendous was the quake.
Earlier we talked about Jerusalem Jerusalem that will have a river—New Jerusalem
Revelation 22:1-6
The River of Life
Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb down the middle of the great street of the city. On each side of the river stood the tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations. No longer will there be any curse. The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and his servants will serve him. They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. There will be no more night. They will not need the light of a lamp or the light of the sun, for the Lord God will give them light. And they will reign for ever and ever. The angel said to me, "These words are trustworthy and true. The Lord, the God of the spirits of the prophets, sent his angel to show his servants the things that must soon take place."
In part of verse 6 from today’s psalm we read, “He lifts His voice, the earth melts.”
2 Peter 3:10
But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything in it will be laid bare.
The scriptures that concern prophecies yet to be fulfilled are found from the beginning to the end of the Bible including right here in this psalm. The ones I gave above are just a few that deal with the signs of the end of the age. There are many places that cover the earthquakes and the signs in the sky that will appear and as when I was talking about verse 1 I said the psalm starts as an encouragement and though not included in today’s lesson the 10th verse of the psalm does the same thing, “Be still, and know that I am God;”
This psalm is read countless times a day by people as a source of strength but soon a day is coming when the world will be raging and the people of the world will find no comfort but those of us not of the world can at that point “be still.”
Revelation 22:7
Jesus Is Coming
"Behold, I am coming soon! Blessed is he who keeps the words of the prophecy in this book."
For Discussion:
- Why is it, do you think, that God inspired scriptures that meant one thing to the recipients of that day and yet another to us?
- Do a study and discuss the results with your class concerning the myriad of scriptures that harmoniously talk of the signs of the end.
- Has your church had a Bible Study covering Revelation?
- Discuss with the class their individual thoughts concerning the Day of the LORD
- http://matthew24.com
- Encourage the class to share scripture that has been a refuge or source of strength for them.
- Examples of faith that can encourage us both in and out of the Bible
Scripture taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 Biblica. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved.
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