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This command is impossible to obey! · Fifteen Minutes With Fritz - Where Scripture Meets the Sidewalk

• 0:11
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome to Fifteen Minutes with Fritz, a weekly podcast where we bring the Bible into our daily walk.
• 0:19
  SPEAKER_00: We've been seeking encouragement for our daily grind in the Book of Psalms, God's amazing songbook.
• 0:27
  SPEAKER_00: And we've been helped greatly by a book written by Chuck Swindall titled Living in the Psalms.
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_00: Today we're going to look at one of my favorite Psalms, Psalm forty six.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_00: Now I know I've said those words many times over the last several weeks, but I really do enjoy the Psalms and this one in particular.
• 0:49
  SPEAKER_00: And not only is this one of my favorite Psalms, it also contains one of my favorite verses.
• 0:57
  SPEAKER_00: So listen as I read Psalm forty six and please follow along in your own Bible if you can.
• 1:05
  SPEAKER_00: God is our refuge in strength, an ever present help in trouble.
• 1:11
  SPEAKER_00: Wow, we could stop right there, couldn't we?
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_00: This is a verse you might consider underlining because it contains such great words of encouragement.
• 1:21
  SPEAKER_00: Well, let's read on.
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_00: God is our refuge in strength, an ever present help in trouble.
• 1:29
  SPEAKER_00: Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with their surging Sale.
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_00: There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy place where the most high dwells.
• 1:51
  SPEAKER_00: God is within her, she will not fall.
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_00: God will help her at break of day.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_00: Nations are in uproar, kingdoms fall, he lifts his voice, the earth melts.
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_00: The Lord Almighty is with us, the God of Jacob is our fortress.
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_00: Sale.
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_00: Come and see the works of the Lord, the desolations he has brought on the earth.
• 2:19
  SPEAKER_00: He makes wars cease to the ends of the earth, he breaks the bow and shatters the spear, he burns the shields with fire.
• 2:29
  SPEAKER_00: Be still and know that I am God.
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_00: I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_00: The Lord Almighty is with us.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_00: The God of Jacob is our fortress, Sale.
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_00: Before we dive into this psalm, I want to draw your attention to one word that is repeated three times.
• 2:53
  SPEAKER_00: It's the word Sela.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_00: You might be unfamiliar with this word, one whose meaning is unclear because ancient Hebrew scholars never defined it for us.
• 3:06
  SPEAKER_00: Therefore, instead of translating it into English, most versions of the Bible transliterate it directly from the original Hebrew text, hence the rather unusual word Sela.
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_00: What we do know is that it is probably a musical term, and based on one of its root words, it seems to indicate a pause, giving musicians the opportunity to catch their breath.
• 3:34
  SPEAKER_00: This is appropriate given that the Psalms are really a collection of songs.
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, out of the seventy four times this musical term Sela is found in the Old Testament, seventy one of them are in the Psalms.
• 3:49
  SPEAKER_00: A closely related root word to Sela means to lift up or exalt, and another similar root word means to weigh in the balance or to value.
• 4:01
  SPEAKER_00: So when you add this all up, when we come across the word Sela in Scripture, we should pause and reflect on or weigh in on the importance of the words we just read.
• 4:15
  SPEAKER_00: Now in today's Psalm the word follows verses three, seven and eleven.
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_00: It's easy to understand why Sale follows verses seven and eleven because those verses are worthy of further contemplation.
• 4:31
  SPEAKER_00: The Lord Almighty is with us, the God of Jacob is our fortress.
• 4:37
  SPEAKER_00: There's comfort to be found in those words, and it's good to pause and reflect on them.
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_00: Verse three, however, is a little less obvious, because it speaks about waters roaring and mountains quaking, and it's not immediately clear why we should pause and reflect on those things.
• 4:58
  SPEAKER_00: Well, looking closer at verse three, we see that it is actually a continuation of a sentence that begins in verse two.
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_00: Look at the first five words.
• 5:09
  SPEAKER_00: Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with their surging.
• 5:22
  SPEAKER_00: By inserting Sela at the end of this sentence, the psalmist is encouraging us to pause and remember that we need not fear, even though nature itself is churning around us.
• 5:36
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, with that as a bit of an introduction, let's get back to Psalm forty six.
• 5:42
  SPEAKER_00: One thing that jumps out at me is that this is a noisy Psalm, isn't it?
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_00: In the first three verses we have the earth giving way, we have mountains falling into the sea, we have waters roaring and foaming and we have mountains quaking.
• 6:00
  SPEAKER_00: As we read on through verse seven, we find nations in an uproar, kingdoms falling, and the earth melting.
• 6:10
  SPEAKER_00: And in verses eight and nine the Psalmist writes about wars and desolations, bows and spears and burning shields.
• 6:20
  SPEAKER_00: The world is literally falling apart around the writer.
• 6:24
  SPEAKER_00: Then comes verse ten.
• 6:27
  SPEAKER_00: Be still and know that I am God.
• 6:31
  SPEAKER_00: This is probably one of the biggest contrasts in all of Scripture.
• 6:36
  SPEAKER_00: We abruptly go from complete chaos and pandemonium to a command to be still.
• 6:42
  SPEAKER_00: It's almost laughable.
• 6:43
  SPEAKER_00: How can we possibly be still in the midst of all the uproar going on around us?
• 6:50
  SPEAKER_00: And this command seems to be in direct conflict with what we want to do.
• 6:55
  SPEAKER_00: We want to find shelter from nature's fury.
• 6:58
  SPEAKER_00: We want to grab something to defend ourselves from the battles raging around us.
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_00: We want to use whatever is at our disposal to protect ourselves from what is happening.
• 7:11
  SPEAKER_00: And yet God says to be still.
• 7:14
  SPEAKER_00: To be honest, this is an impossible command to obey.
• 7:19
  SPEAKER_00: I struggle to comprehend how to be still given the circumstances the author describes.
• 7:27
  SPEAKER_00: I suppose one possibility is to look at this backwards.
• 7:31
  SPEAKER_00: If we can figure out what it means to know that God is God, then perhaps we can understand how to be still in chaotic circumstances.
• 7:43
  SPEAKER_00: One way to understand that God is God is to look at the words of King David in Psalm thirty one fifteen, which, by the way, is another one of my favorite verses.
• 7:56
  SPEAKER_00: But I trust in you, O Lord, I say you are my God, my times are in your hands.
• 8:04
  SPEAKER_00: Now we've unpacked this verse in the past, leaning on Alistair Begg's brilliant practical summary to help us.
• 8:13
  SPEAKER_00: If I believe that my times are in God's hands, then I am not trapped by some impersonal force.
• 8:20
  SPEAKER_00: I am in the grasp of Almighty God, who knows me, loves me, and cares for me.
• 8:27
  SPEAKER_00: If I believe God is in control, then I am not relying on chance.
• 8:32
  SPEAKER_00: Things aren't happening haphazardly.
• 8:35
  SPEAKER_00: They have a purpose, and the purpose has been determined by the creator of the universe.
• 8:42
  SPEAKER_00: If God is sovereign over all things, then I am being trained in the school of God's providence.
• 8:48
  SPEAKER_00: In other words, God is teaching me something in whatever circumstances I find myself in.
• 8:55
  SPEAKER_00: If I experience prosperity, then I shouldn't be prideful as if it were of my own doing.
• 9:02
  SPEAKER_00: I am prosperous because God is graciously giving it to me.
• 9:07
  SPEAKER_00: And if uncertainty strikes, then I shouldn't panic because God is in control.
• 9:14
  SPEAKER_00: So if I truly believe that my times are in his hands, then I am not trapped by an impersonal force.
• 9:22
  SPEAKER_00: I am not relying on chance.
• 9:25
  SPEAKER_00: I am being trained in the school of God's providence.
• 9:29
  SPEAKER_00: Prosperity is not the occasion for pride, and uncertainty should not be the occasion for panic.
• 9:38
  SPEAKER_00: This is what it means to know that God is God.
• 9:43
  SPEAKER_00: All right.
• 9:44
  SPEAKER_00: Does that help me with Psalm forty six ten?
• 9:48
  SPEAKER_00: Well, a little bit.
• 9:50
  SPEAKER_00: But this is God's word, and I can't really switch the order around to suit my needs.
• 9:55
  SPEAKER_00: The verse doesn't say know that I am God, then you can become still.
• 10:01
  SPEAKER_00: It says be still and know that I am God.
• 10:06
  SPEAKER_00: So we need to find an explanation.
• 10:09
  SPEAKER_00: But before we go there I want to tell you a story, a true story that I think will help us.
• 10:17
  SPEAKER_00: Charles Blondin was a French tightrope walker who lived in the nineteenth century.
• 10:23
  SPEAKER_00: He started walking a tightrope when he was very young, and by age five he made his first public appearance billed as the boy wonder.
• 10:32
  SPEAKER_00: He became a popular figure in Europe due to his amazing skill on a tightrope.
• 10:38
  SPEAKER_00: In eighteen fifty five, he traveled to the United States, joined a circus, and became quite a celebrity.
• 10:46
  SPEAKER_00: He was always trying to improve his act, inventing theatrical variations to keep people buying tickets to his shows.
• 10:54
  SPEAKER_00: In eighteen fifty nine, he came up with the ultimate crowd pleaser walk a tight rope across Niagara Falls.
• 11:04
  SPEAKER_00: He would suspend a rope across the Niagara River gorge from the Canadian side to the American side.
• 11:11
  SPEAKER_00: The rope was eleven hundred feet long and only three and a quarter inches in diameter, suspended one hundred and sixty feet above the Niagara River near the location of the current Rainbow Bridge.
• 11:24
  SPEAKER_00: And so on june thirtieth, eighteen fifty nine, in front of a crowd of twenty five thousand onlookers, he successfully crossed the river without incident.
• 11:36
  SPEAKER_00: Now, as incredible as it might be to walk across the Niagara River on a tightrope, even with this stunt he had to add theatrics in order to keep the audiences entertained.
• 11:49
  SPEAKER_00: He crossed blindfolded, he walked backwards, he rode a bicycle, he walked across on stilts, he did somersaults and headstands.
• 12:01
  SPEAKER_00: He even carried a stove and cooked an omelet while at the very center of the tightrope, then lowered it down to the passengers on the mate of the mist.
• 12:10
  SPEAKER_00: His audiences cheered him on, proclaiming him to be the greatest tightrope walker of all time.
• 12:18
  SPEAKER_00: Then he came up with the ultimate attraction.
• 12:22
  SPEAKER_00: He would cross Niagara Falls while carrying a man on his back.
• 12:26
  SPEAKER_00: The people went nuts.
• 12:29
  SPEAKER_00: Only the great Blondin could pull something like this off.
• 12:32
  SPEAKER_00: Only Blondon had the skill to cross the Niagara River with a man on his back.
• 12:38
  SPEAKER_00: They were certain he could do it confident he would be successful.
• 12:43
  SPEAKER_00: On august seventeenth, eighteen fifty nine everything was ready.
• 12:47
  SPEAKER_00: Huge crowds lined both sides of the river straining to see him accomplish this amazing feat.
• 12:54
  SPEAKER_00: All he needed was one more thing.
• 12:57
  SPEAKER_00: He needed a volunteer to join him as he crossed.
• 13:02
  SPEAKER_00: But guess what?
• 13:03
  SPEAKER_00: Even though he was praised by the crowd as the greatest tight rope walker of all time, not a single person was willing to climb on his back and cross with him.
• 13:15
  SPEAKER_00: No one was willing to put their confidence into action, to trust him with their lives.
• 13:23
  SPEAKER_00: Now why would I tell you a story like this?
• 13:26
  SPEAKER_00: And what does it have to do with Psalm forty six ten?
• 13:31
  SPEAKER_00: Well, sometimes in spite of all the modern tools at our disposal, our English translations of the Bible fall short of capturing the spirit inspired depth and breadth of the original languages, and such is the case here.
• 13:48
  SPEAKER_00: In Psalm forty six ten, it sounds like a simple, straightforward command be still.
• 13:55
  SPEAKER_00: In other words, stand still in the face of everything going on around you and remind yourself that God is in control.
• 14:04
  SPEAKER_00: As I said before, that can be very difficult to do in the face of challenging circumstances.
• 14:12
  SPEAKER_00: But under the influence of the Holy Spirit, the writer did something very unique here.
• 14:17
  SPEAKER_00: Instead of the normal verb structure he used a different form of the verb in Hebrew, one that changes it to a call to action.
• 14:27
  SPEAKER_00: In this form, the verb means to deliberately drop our hands and let go of anything we might be holding on to for protection.
• 14:36
  SPEAKER_00: In other words, don't just stand still, take action.
• 14:42
  SPEAKER_00: As one commentator put it, God isn't commanding us to suddenly feel peaceful, which is hard to force when you are anxious.
• 14:51
  SPEAKER_00: He is commanding you to execute an action that causes peace.
• 14:57
  SPEAKER_00: So you see, we can't reverse the order of this verse.
• 15:01
  SPEAKER_00: We need to let go of everything first, then and only then can we truly know Him and trust Him completely and find peace.
• 15:14
  SPEAKER_00: Because we literally have nothing in our hands to fall back on.
• 15:19
  SPEAKER_00: You see, it's one thing to claim we trust God, it's quite another to demonstrate that trust by dropping everything in our hands.
• 15:29
  SPEAKER_00: Just like it was one thing to proclaim Blondon as the greatest type rope walker of all time, it was quite another to climb onto his back.
• 15:41
  SPEAKER_00: By the way, he did find a volunteer, his business manager, and they did successfully cross the Niagara River together.
• 15:51
  SPEAKER_00: Let's pray.
• 15:54
  SPEAKER_00: Father, thank you for inspiring the writers of your word in such unique ways that the truth of your message is undeniably clear.
• 16:05
  SPEAKER_00: As we seek peace in this troubled fallen world, help us to take that step of faith, to open our hands and release all of our man made things and yield fully and completely to you.
• 16:20
  SPEAKER_00: Then and only then can we know you and know your peace.
• 16:26
  SPEAKER_00: As Cory Tenboom once said, You will never know that Jesus is all you need until Jesus is all you have.
• 16:34
  SPEAKER_00: May that be our prayer today.
• 16:37
  SPEAKER_00: In the name of our Savior Jesus we pray.
• 16:41
  SPEAKER_00: Amen.
• 16:44
  SPEAKER_01: May the God of peace, who through the blood of the eternal covenant brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep, equip you with everything good for doing his will.
• 17:00
  SPEAKER_01: May He work in us what is pleasing to him through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever.
• 17:07
  SPEAKER_01: Amen.
• 17:09
  SPEAKER_00: This is the end of our podcast, but it's not the end of our story.
• 17:13
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you for listening.