Psalm

[0:00] The tenth verse in the 46th Psalm.

[0:20] Mainly the first clause, the first part of verse 10 in the 46th Psalm. Be still and know that I am God.

[0:39] The whole verse reads, be still and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the heathen. I will be exalted in the earth.

[0:54] The Lord our God is a jealous God. And he's jealous of his own glory. And so much spiritual experience that is the favored portion of the church of God follows the pattern of divine jealousy for his own glory.

[1:17] And he says, my glory will I not give to another, nor my praise to graven images. And my friends, in the scriptural history again and again, we have indication of the Lord waiting to be gracious.

[1:39] And the Lord bringing situations, I was going to say, into the reasonable realm of impossibility.

[1:53] causing his people to stand at the very threshold of despondency. As if there's nothing before them but to perish.

[2:07] But God waits to be gracious. But God waits to be gracious. We sing sometimes, he tarries oft till men are faint and comes at evening late but never too late.

[2:21] When I was a boy, and my brother David will appreciate memory probably. And we lived at 525 in the road, Coventry.

[2:32] My parents had on the wall at the end of their bed, Jehovah Jireh. The Lord will appear. And in the rhyme it said, he never is before his time and never is behind.

[2:54] He never is before his time. That is, it's in his time, the perfect time. But he never is behind.

[3:06] That is, things never progress too late for the Lord to bring his promises and his purposes to pass.

[3:19] And if there is a grace that is continually and recurring necessary, it is the grace of patience. Patience.

[3:29] Patience. Patience. Because the Lord works in his own time and way, in such a way that we have to prove the truth. My ways are not your ways.

[3:41] Neither are your thoughts. My thoughts, saith the Lord. But my friends, the Lord doesn't wait to let his people perish.

[3:52] He doesn't wait until, as it were, things are so miserably out of hand and impossible to deliver, that we may say, well, I thought it was this way, but now circumstances have developed in such a fashion that all my hopes and expectations have perished.

[4:22] We may come to that conclusion in the premature judgment of our own reason, but things are never out of hand with God.

[4:35] Things are never out of hand with God. I will work, and who shall hinder it?

[4:47] There's no power in earth or hell that has ever frustrated divine purpose. His counsel shall stand, and he will do all his pleasure.

[5:00] My friends, these, I was going to say, scriptural reasonings are so strengthening to faith, to feel, yes, we've got something solid.

[5:11] We've got something firm. The word of the Lord said so, and God is always faithful to his word.

[5:25] Well, now, be still. Be still. You know, that's one of the hardest things for nature to do, especially when circumstances are raging on, as it were, in what we may judge to be the wrong direction.

[5:47] But to wait and watch and pray the unfoldings of God's sovereign will.

[6:00] And there are many illustrations in scripture where things appeared to be going all wrong, but they were really going just right, just right, according to the perfection of divine purpose, love, grace, and power in the lives of his people.

[6:26] Now, I read from the little book of Ruth, and that's a lovely illustration of how things appeared initially to go altogether wrong.

[6:38] We may say, well, the initial decision of Elkanah to go down into Moab was absolutely wrong. It was inconsistent with the will of God.

[6:51] Well, there was much chasing involved in the discipline that brought to pass the ultimate purpose of God relative to the marriage of Boaz and Ruth, which is a divine link in the golden chain, down to our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

[7:16] But in that marriage between those two persons, we have surely a most encouraging sign to the Gentiles.

[7:28] Because, yes, Ruth was a Gentile. But she was essential to the fulfillment of divine purpose that through that chain, the Son of God should be made known in the flesh here below.

[7:50] Well, now, just think of the situation. Three deaths. Two generations.

[8:02] Naomi loses her husband. Boapa loses her husband. Ruth loses her husband. There were no widow's pensions in those days to buoy up, as it were, the providential care of the Lord's people.

[8:22] But the Lord was mindful of these three women in their bereavement. And in many ways, they were naturally very attached, the one to the other.

[8:43] Boapa had a natural attachment to Naomi, but that wasn't strong enough to keep her from Moab and to lead her, as was Ruth, into Bethlehem Judah.

[9:03] But there was a double bond between Naomi and Ruth. Do you know what a double bond is? Do you know what it is to love somebody in the flesh and then to love somebody as well in the spirit?

[9:19] And you feel so united and the relation, the union is so precious that dear Ruth, she couldn't entertain the thought of her mother-in-law going back to Bethlehem Judah and leaving her still in Moab.

[9:40] And all the expressions that are found in the book of Ruth concerning the great attachment that was in Ruth's heart to Naomi, although even Naomi made attempt to dissuade Ruth to leave Moab and come with her, because she said, what have I got to offer you?

[10:10] What have I got to offer you? I'm past age. No sons could be born to me to give you hope for the future.

[10:23] But, my friends, no argument of a fleshly nature could be stronger than the argument that was in Ruth's heart attaching her to Naomi.

[10:35] Naomi, she says, in the ultimate, this wise and gracious woman, Naomi, uses this expression, sit still, my daughter.

[10:49] Sit still, my daughter. And how sweet was the outcome of that relationship which, though bitter in the beginning, was made very, very sweet in the issue when she was married to Boaz and blessed with many blessings, unforeseen by her, even when she covenanted to attend her mother-in-law as she went back to Bethlehem, Judah.

[11:26] The Lord works in mysterious ways his wonders to perform. And nevertheless, what was the issue? What was the issue?

[11:41] Disadvantageous? Greatly to Ruth's advantage. Greatly to Ruth's advantage. There she was introduced to a wealthy man who obviously held her in great esteem and the latter end of Ruth's life was seasoned with prosperity and reliable relationship and affection.

[12:14] Well, now, just to, and I read this on purpose, then said she, sit still, my daughter, until thou know how the matter will fall.

[12:32] Sit still until thou know how the matter will fall. In other words, there is to be an issue, there is to be a result.

[12:48] These things are not happening by chance, but the Lord will bring his purposes to pass as and when he will.

[13:03] Well, now, we could sit and consider together this evening many illustrations. I think of dear Samuel with his anointing, a phial of anointing oil in the house of Jesse.

[13:18] Now, what a necessity of watching the will of God unfold, waiting to see the issue that God had determined.

[13:41] David was the Lord's choice in the household of Jesse. He was the choice, but he wasn't there.

[13:54] All the sons, his brothers, were presented to Samuel. No, this is not the one. This is not the one. And there was a necessity in the family, so to speak, to wait and to see, ultimately, who was God's choice in this matter.

[14:17] Waiting, waiting, waiting. And my friends, how many words are there in Scripture to counsel us to wait?

[14:28] The way of the Lord oftentimes is to keep us waiting. And waiting times are not unprofitable times.

[14:43] They may be distressing times. We may, as it were, wonder from time to time whether we're all together deceived in the matter.

[14:55] But if the Lord's in the beginning, the Lord will be in the end. You can't find an illustration of the Lord beginning and the Lord forsaking halfway through.

[15:12] You know, sometimes we see buildings, don't we? And obviously, the proceedings have come to a halt. Perhaps the builder has gone bankrupt or the one instructing the builder has failed to come forward with the necessary finances for the matter to proceed.

[15:34] And there it stands. Incomplete. Unfinished. You'll never find that in the working of God. You'll never find that in the working of God.

[15:45] If God's in the beginning, God will be in the end too. He that hath begun a good work in you will perform it unto the day of Jesus Christ.

[15:57] My friends, God sees the work from the beginning to the end with respect to the salvation and deliverance of each and every one of his people.

[16:12] But all the exercises, the trials that attend the experiences of the people of God, sometimes the whole argument reasonably considered appears to be in opposition, direct opposition to the fulfillment of the word of God, that word upon which the Lord has caused you to hope.

[16:54] But delays are not denials. Delays are not denials. Yes, the devil may tempt you with respect to the fact that you must have been deceived in the beginning because there seems no issue here and no promise for the future as far as circumstances dictate.

[17:18] But my friends, wait on the Lord. Be of good courage and he shall strengthen thine heart. Wait, I say, on the Lord.

[17:31] Well now let us come. Be still. Be still. you know, it's so foreign to nature, isn't it?

[17:46] This is not a situation of inactivity. This is a situation of much activity that leads us to such a word as the text being necessary to put us in our right place, to make us truly experimentally the children of God, the disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ, that he should be in the first place.

[18:23] His will is in his hand to perform, to bring to pass, us, and we are, as it were, the subjects of his outworking in his own mind, in his own will, and in his own way.

[18:43] Our wisdom is to be still, be still. Now the devil is the enemy of such stillness, and he comes in sometimes like a flirt and suggests to us that we're altogether deceived, we're altogether outside of the intended purposes of God, we've imagined all sorts of things, and it will never materialise, it will never come to pass.

[19:18] I repeat, he tarries oft, till men are faint, and comes at evening late, and my friends, it is indeed a word worthy of our consideration.

[19:34] May God grant it the application that is necessary to quieten the storm, to bring things into focus, to remember that Lord God omnipotent reigneth, that all shall come, and last and end, as shall please our heavenly friend.

[20:00] There's not such a thing as anything being outside of the sovereign purposes of heaven. be still, be still, oh how we need the Lord, by his grace and spirit, to bring us to the wisdom of waiting, the wisdom of waiting, waiting in faith, for the fulfilment of that which God may have indicated to us, not a few times in the past, but as we've gone on and on, the situation seems to get more uncertain, and more difficult to believe that it is in the way of God that we are walking.

[21:02] Well now be still, be still, and you know, we cannot forget in our meditation the situation when the disciples were on the Sea of Galilee, and a tremendous storm broke, didn't it?

[21:27] And there they were, going across Galilee's water, with the winds and the waves, threatening their destruction.

[21:45] And there came one walking upon the water, yes, sufficiently able to show his deity in a simple manner that surprised the disciples and caused them to misjudge the situation.

[22:14] And they, he came walking on the water, and they cried to him in their trouble, and he said, be still, be still.

[22:26] And there was a great calm. Not only in the relative circumstances, in the predicament they were in by reason of forces, over which they themselves had no control, and seemed as it were to predict that they would soon perish, but my friends, be still, be still.

[22:55] And there was a great calm, a great calm. And sometimes, you know, without any change of circumstances, the Lord can bring a great calm into our hearts by revealing to us his absolute supremacy, his absolute control, his perfect knowledge love.

[23:25] of what we need and what is necessary to our ultimate benefit. Be still, calm amidst tempestuous motion, knowing that the Lord is nigh.

[23:44] Yes, not necessarily the winds and the waves, as it were, being still brought into a calm but a calm inside relative to those circumstances that are very trying, very difficult, very perplexing in the flesh.

[24:03] Yes, you feel you can't hardly go on any longer because of the pressures, because of the influences that are so contrary, but nevertheless, there's a calm with regard, be still and know that I am God.

[24:23] I am God. Yes, this person, that person, this circumstance, is that circumstance, they're all under my control.

[24:36] They're all under my control. And when by faith we're enabled to see the Lord in the true perspective, that is, that he sitteth king forever.

[24:49] We're on the way to peace. We're on the way to peace. Be still. Be still. Oh, my friends, there's so many encouragements in the word or the nod.

[25:07] To look to the Lord, to trust in the Lord, to pray to the Lord, and to watch the Lord's miraculous unfolding of his will according to his own sovereign purposes, which you couldn't foresee.

[25:30] You couldn't imagine. You look back over life and realize sometimes that, yes, it was the Lord because none but the Lord could have brought the situation to bear as it now is.

[25:46] And all how reproach we feel sometimes for that turmoil of unbelief, that wretched quagmire of human reason that, as it were, caused us to be full of motion within our hearts, the raging storm of dissatisfaction, discontentment, feeling that we're forgotten of God and there seems no one who understands us or will help us.

[26:23] sometimes, it may seem, cast away by God and man. Nevertheless, be still, be still, be still.

[26:40] The Lord is still in control. Your fears are no safe measure by which to measure the whole.

[26:53] another thing which we prove to be very, very distressing is the prejudgment of deliverance.

[27:10] Sometimes it seems to say, oh yes, things are taking a turn. I remember sitting in Coventry Chapel many years ago now and the late Mr.

[27:26] Glennard Broom was the preacher on a whit Monday evening and he preached from this word in regard to the flood that God brought upon the earth in the days of Noah.

[27:45] Noah. And he spoke of the going down of the waters when the time of deliverance had come, the time of judgment had found its fulfillment and things were beginning to improve and Noah was there with the rest in the ark and no doubt notice was being taken of the prevailing circumstance and Mr.

[28:16] Broom preached from this word and the tops of the mountains were seen and I sat in that chapel that evening and I really thought in regard to a trouble that was really severely troubling me at that time, I could see the top of the mountains and you know I got really buoyed up in my spirit.

[28:38] I thought I'm soon going to be out of this trouble, I'm soon going to be delivered. But my friends, pre-judgment, pre-judgment of a situation, the Lord comes in his own time.

[28:56] It's wise for us to be still and know that he is God everything to the minutest circumstance, the hearts of all men, what men may say, what men may do, everything.

[29:15] It's under God's control. Be still, be still and know that I am God.

[29:27] Now what a wonderful thing it is. I often compare the lot of a believer with the lot of the world. what a wonderful thing it is to believe there's one in control.

[29:41] There's one in control. You think of the situation prevailing in the world today. You think of all the strife and bitterness and wretchedness and filthiness that's affecting the world and society in general.

[29:59] Still to believe. There's a God. things are not out of hand with him. No. We can well suffer his chastening for our independence, our proud boasting of adequacy, independent of himself.

[30:23] We've got, as it were, beyond realization of how dependent and how needy we are upon God for everything.

[30:35] And the Lord may be chastening us, chastening the world for its departures from him and its ignorance of him, but still he's in control.

[30:51] Still he's in control. What a wonderful thing. I often think of the terrible menace it must be to a worldly mind to think things are going as they're going and men's hearts are filling with fear, but there's a steadying principle in the life of faith.

[31:18] The Lord God omnipotent reign is. The nations of the earth are under his control. They're very small in his comprehension.

[31:30] The nations of the earth are but as a drop of a bucket and the small dust of the balance. What us appears to be international confusion is well within his comprehension and his ability to control and administer according to his pleasure.

[31:52] Thank you. text flies into my mind in regard to the quietness and stillness that the Lord can bring into our hearts when he gives us faith truly to believe that he is God, that he is God.

[32:18] I sat down under his shadow with great delight and his fruit was sweet to my taste.

[32:30] My friends, it's a wonderfully peace-giving truth when enabled by faith to lay hold of the absolute sufficiency of the Lord in all circumstances, however wide in their application or however personal with respect to our own particular lives.

[33:01] And now be still and know that I am God. Be still and know that I am God. I'm a God of all power.

[33:13] to all power, the almighty one. Yes, nothing can affect us but permitted of God, permitted of God.

[33:32] And sometimes, my friends, God's divine sovereign permissions do trouble us deeply, don't they? When hard things are spoken, when false judgments are expressed, when as it were, our character suffers greatly, when we're seeking all the time to prayerfully walk out what we feel to be, the will of God in our concerns, in our matters.

[34:08] business. But be still. It's not what man says. It's not what man concludes. It's the determinate counsel and purpose of God.

[34:23] Be still and know that I am God. There's not such a thing as God not having a mind in a matter. God, he knows everything about everything.

[34:39] And therefore, we can take refuge, as it were, in the knowledge that he has permitted it. And by his grace, we can pass safely through it.

[34:58] Now, be still and know that I am God. I am a God who hears and answers prayer. Not always immediately.

[35:10] Not always immediately. Perhaps there's someone here tonight who is under great exercise of spirit in a matter, and you're tried with this trial that was common in ancient time.

[35:28] I cry and shout and he shutteth out my prayer. He doesn't say, I cry and shout and he didn't listen to my prayer.

[35:41] No. And the very suggestion made, and he shutteth out my prayer, is not true, is it? It can't be reconciled with the teaching of scripture relative to the prayers of the Lord's people.

[35:56] God. My friends, he hears the groaning of the prisoner, the sighs and cries of the people of God, even those tears that wet the pillar through the night season.

[36:14] They're all known to God. They're all known to God. Our sorrows in the scale he weighs and measures out our pains.

[36:28] Wonderful, isn't it? And he hears the prayers of the Lord's people, and in his own time and in his own way, he answers those petitions for their good and for his glory, that they might know that he is a God that hears and answers prayer, even the prayers of the destitute and doesn't despise their prayers.

[37:03] Oh, my friends, you may seem to fall into that category of absolute destitution. You wonder whether you've got any religion at all, and you wonder if any of your exercises are the exercises of God and godliness in your heart and you might be right ready as it were to write yourself as a write-off in spiritual things.

[37:28] But, oh, God, he hears the prayers of the destitute and he doesn't despise their prayers. Be still and know that I am God.

[37:40] If you've had the ear of God in a matter, in due time, you'll get your answer. You'll get your answer.

[37:53] In due time, and this is where the necessity of waiting comes in, isn't it? Your time is always ready, he said to the disciples, but my time is not yet.

[38:06] Your time is imperfect. My time is perfect. There's the cause of the disparity between the two. Oh, how needful.

[38:22] Wait then, my soul, submissive wait. Prostrate before his awful feet. You know the, I don't know that I've got the right expression quite.

[38:38] My memory is not what it was. Be still and know that I am God. Be still and know. In the Lord's time, you may be surprised at the way the Lord has brought the answer to your prayers so significantly in your experience that you know there's a God.

[39:06] That you know there's a God. And if all the world stood against you and said I don't, I'm an atheist and I don't believe in God, the very way the Lord has heard and answered your petitions and appeared for you convinces you beyond question that there is a living God.

[39:33] There is a God who condescends to hear sinners for his son's sake and in his own wisdom brings those things to pass which are for the good of his people and the glory of his name.

[39:51] Be still and know that I am God. And now the clock is hastening on isn't it? we get troubled sometimes.

[40:04] Before I was going to say it's need to be troubled. Seemingly. You ever troubled about your dying day? You ever troubled about your dying day?

[40:16] my friends I say this and I would say it most humbly there have been two times in my life when if I had been given the choice whether to die or to live I would have chosen to die not to get out of trouble no not to get out of trouble because I felt so sure that the Lord was my God and I felt so sure that Jesus Christ had paid the penalty of my sins and I felt so sure that there was a place prepared for me at the right hand of God that I would have chose the thought of living and sinning against Christ while continuing this world was abhorrent I didn't want to ever sin against him anymore as it were experimentally feeling that to add to his sufferings was so contrary to all my affections for that dear saviour that had paid the penalty for my sins upon the cross now we don't live there do we we don't live there we have to come down the mountain sometimes to the reality that nature and its hold on life is exceedingly strong you know you look around yourself and you've got your wife you've got your children you've got your friends you've got your home you've got so many benefits to feel that suddenly you might be called upon to shut your eyes upon it all and leave it

[42:15] I think sometimes whatever would my dear wife do if I wasn't there and that may sound proud to you but you know your lives are so interwoven there's some things I do some things she does if she wasn't there to do it I don't know what I should do but I sometimes am proud enough to think if I wasn't there I don't know whatever she'd do the thought of leaving the thought of and then what is before us when we die close our eyes on this world and open the mini term wherever should I stand when the scrutiny of omniscience looks upon me well my friends we dread the thought don't we sometimes in fear that sin may prevail and we shall sink but I think I quoted perhaps this morning if I haven't already this evening and once he loves he never leaves and loves them to the end oh if the lord has exercised his sovereign love in our hearts however small the beginning I say the perfect is the future is perfectly secure in his hand fear not little flock it is your father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom to give it to you you'll never merit it you'll never merit it but grace is grace and grace is the free unmerited favour of god to man and the secret of salvation is grace in god in the lord jesus christ and in the power and perfection of the spirit's work preparing us for a prepared place now be still and know that i am god won't it be wonderful if when we come to the end of life jen i covet this i covet this be still and know that i am god to believe that god who has been with us through the pilgrimage will see us safely home what a miracle of divine grace but what a wonder of undeserved love and care be still and know and know that i am god my friends this is the hallmark so to speak of christian experience know that i am god and he comes again and again we come into exercises we come into multitude circumstances that seem to accentuate our smallness our insufficiency and our unworthiness but we've got a father in heaven we've got a father in heaven there's never been a father on earth to equal him because he's perfect in meeting the needs of his family through and through and forevermore may you and i be enabled to trust our precious souls into his wise and all sufficient hands that he will present us ultimately faultless before the

[46:16] throne of god forevermore amen to take the lord's will of his fair meeting on friday evening reading so that it will be held next lord's day in 961 June 439 be still my heart these anxious cares to thee a burden of swords and snares they cast this honour on thy lord and contradict his gracious word in 961 June 439 Lord

[47:27] Lord note We'll be right back.