Our Church Service on August 28 will take place at 4734 Samish Point Rd, Bow WA 98232 at 11 am

Be Still, and Know That I am God - The Book of Psalms

Aug 1, 2021    Andrey Bulanov

Main idea:
Real faith is a collision between our experienced reality and the reality of what God tells us about himself. Our greatest need is to regain our daily perspective of God as both exalted Lord and ever present Savior.

Outline:

1. God reigns, supreme and undisturbed
2. God loves and dwells among his people
3. Hear the invitation
Scripture references:

• Psalm 46
• Psalm 2:2-4
• Psalm 93:1-2

Application questions:

1. What are the voices that are shaping your reality today? Your emotions? Your fears? You past? Your future? The world around? The news? Social media? Entertainment? Your work? Deadlines? Success? Pressure?

2. Have you ever truly considered God's transcendent character?
3. Do you see him as both transcendent AND present? Do you marvel at the beauty of the fact that God is both exalted and close?

4. Do you see faith as an active process of building your view of reality on God and his character?

Key concepts for discussion:

• The nature of real faith as an active process
• The character of God as both exalted/transcendent Lord AND ever present Savior
• The delight of God to be with his people and save them
• The collision of what we know to be true in Scripture and the messiness of our daily life
• The life changing importance of studying the character of God

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In the beginning of C. S. Lewis' "The Silver Chair", the 6th book in the Narnia series, Aslan meets with a girl named Jill on the top of a mountain just before she goes on her adventure in Narnia. He gives her a job, a mission that she must do. She and her friend Eustace has to rescue a lost prince. But for them to do this, they were given four signs that would guide them on their adventure. After he tells her the signs, this is what Aslan tells her:

Quote from Narnia the Silver Chair.
“But, first, remember, remember, remember the signs. Say them to yourself when you wake in the morning and when you lie down at night, and when you wake in the middle of the night. And whatever strange things may happen to you, let nothing turn your mind from following the signs. And secondly, I give you a warning. Here on the mountain I have spoken to you clearly: I will not often do so down in Narnia. Here on the mountain, the air is clear and your mind is clear; as you drop down into Narnia, the air will thicken. Take great care that it does not confuse your mind. And the signs which you have learned here will not look at all as you expect them to look, when you meet them there. That is why it is so important to know them by heart and pay no attention to appearances. Remember the signs and believe the signs. Nothing else matters.”

One of the deepest struggles that we face is the issue of perspective.
Do you believe that God is good? That he is powerful? That he provides?

We say - yes.

But then the daily adventure of life hits and things are not so simple anymore.

We fear and we struggle and we stress and we just do everyday life - and to be honest the truths that we say we believe actually occupy a distant place when it comes to the rough and tumble of every day life.

We mentally believe these things, we affirm them. but when it comes to the daily grind we don't see them as essentially present or powerful in the moment. they just don't come to mind.

Faith is a tricky thing. you can believe something to be true in your mind but your heart, your emotions, your thoughts and your goals they have auto pilot patterns of thought that just kick into gear without you having to think about them.

Its like the change is in the machine but it hasn't fully dropped yet.

This Psalm is an invitation to merge the often seemingly incompatible reality of God's perfection, power and presence with the chaos, complexity and danger of the world we live in.
The chaos and danger of the world and the inexplicable peace and power of God is a paradox that must be merged in the heart of the believer.

The call here is to come and see and be still and know.

two core truths here:

1. God reigns supreme and undistributed

The confidence of the Psalmist rests on one central fact that he has anchored his heart to - God reigns supreme and undisturbed by the drama and chaos of life in our broken world.

In contrast to the raging waves and crumbling mountains - God is his sure confidence. His view of God is specifically in light of all the things happening in life - in the background, above everything, God is still God.

This is echoed in the call of God to the world - "Stop your fighting and know that I am God"

Other translations say, "Be still, and know that I am God"

What I like about the CSB is that it highlights the fact that God is not just calling us to calmly revere him as God - he is calling to the people in the midst of their fighting, their dramas and conflicts - he wants them to realize something that is critical to their perspective of reality.

So often we are consumed in our vision of our issues, our lives, our problems and our solutions.

We think that all of reality is all that is right in front of us. We fit even God into the story of our own life and our needs and conflicts.

But the way that God presents himself here is different. He is the God who makes all wars to cease. He could stomp and crush all our conflicts - he says, so much of your problems that fill this world are so foolish, self centered and little.

You fight about which one of you is God and the reality is that Its neither of you. You think your biggest issue is to win the fight right in front of you when your true need is to stop what you are doing and look up, consider yourself, consider all things only after you have considered this one central fact: I am God.

God says, "The nations rage among each other about who's in charge out of them when the reality is that I am already in charge. And I don't need your permission or your validation."

No matter what is happening in the world, God is God. God reigns supreme and undisturbed. Here we hit on an attribute of God theologians call "transcendence".

This refers to God as being above, all powerful and in control of all things in a way that is unaltered and untouched by anything that happens down here.

This does NOT mean that he is so distant and above us that he is emotionally detached, that he does not care or that we cannot know him because he is so far above us. We will see in a minute that this is not the case.

Notice these words:

Ps. 2
2 The kings of the earth take their stand,
and the rulers conspire together
against the Lord and his Anointed One:
3 “Let’s tear off their chains
and throw their ropes off of us.”
4 The one enthroned in heaven laughs;
the Lord ridicules them.

Ps 93
1 The Lord reigns! He is robed in majesty;
the Lord is robed, enveloped in strength.
The world is firmly established;
it cannot be shaken.
2 Your throne has been established
from the beginning;
you are from eternity.

Have you ever stopped to consider the stability of God? Have you ever stopped to deeply think about this simple fact - that he reigns, he is in control - and that nothing can alter that fact.

We stress, we fear, we worry - this job/relationship/opportunity/problem is the biggest deal of my life! If this goes wrong thats it! All is lost!

Do you ever stop to consider - nothing ever surprises God, nothing ever stresses him, nothing ever causes fear to arise in him, nothing ever threatens him?

There is profound comfort in realizing that nothing in God, in his purposes, his plans, his victories - NOTHING is depending on me. He is who he is.

This is the ONLY thing that can anchor your experience of reality. He is an anchor-point who is infinite, who is eternal, who is unchangeable and unshakable.

2. God loves and dwells among his people

This God, who is free and above all things - what does he direct his heart and his attention to?

Obviously he is above all things, obviously he is everywhere and he is in charge of the world.

But where does his HEART lie?

"There is a river—
its streams delight the city of God,
the holy dwelling place of the Most High.
5 God is within her; she will not be toppled.
God will help her when the morning dawns.
6 Nations rage, kingdoms topple;
the earth melts when he lifts his voice.
7 The Lord of Armies is with us;
the God of Jacob is our stronghold."

Counterbalanced with his total transcendence, the thing that gives the Psalmist peace is that this God is also infinitely close to his people.

His heart is set to care for, to nurture, to redeem, to save and to protect.

The imagery here is so beautiful - "there is a river, its streams are the delight of the city of God..."

God's presence and love is presented here as a river the flows through the the city of his people. He is the source of life. A gentle quite current that is in contrast to the melting and quaking and shaking and chaotic world.

This God who cannot be altered, this God who cannot be changed, this God who cannot be defeated - is permanently and unstoppably committed to being close to and caring for his people.

I think that the vast majority of our struggles and fears and wrestlings in life boil down to two main questions that we are always asking, though we may not realize it:

1. Is God really in charge?
2. Can he be trusted?

Is the universe not just a random battle? Is life all up to me?? Is there a point?

And if there is a God, why is all this bad stuff happening? Why are so much people getting hurt? Why is my life so complicated sometimes? Does he care about me? - Can he be trusted? Is he the kind of God I can rest in even when I don't understand everything that is happening??

Our human logical thinking will always try to turn these questions in one of two extremes: God cares about you and he didn't want these bad things to happen. He is with you in the process. He loves you. He is like a faithful magic friend who cares a lot and is doing his best.

Or we say, God is sovereign, he is in charge of all things - but he doesn't care about me. He is detached. I am too broken. I am too messed up. He doesn't care about me. I feel like he is distant and that means that he IS distant.

We either lie about how close he is or about how far above he is. Because that makes sense to our logical analysis. That is a god who fits into our little minds.
But real peace in chaos is found is seeing these two characteristics of God that often feel like opposites - as one inseparable whole.

God is trustworthy only because he is transcendent, and in his transcendence - he is unshakably committed to loving and saving broken sinners.
The Bible is the only religion that presents an infinite personal God who is both transcendent and immanent.


3. Hear the invitation.

What if I don't feel like he loves me? What if I don't feel this confidence? What if I get anxious, scared, distracted - constantly. What if I agree with all these truths but I don't have any motivation to seek this God when Monday morning hits.

There are two commands in this Psalm, and the are wrapped up together into one process - a process that invites all the listeners of this Psalm to collide their daily human broken perspectives with the unchanging power and presence of God.

8 Come, see the works of the Lord,
who brings devastation on the earth.
9 He makes wars cease throughout the earth.
He shatters bows and cuts spears to pieces;
he sets wagons ablaze.
10 “Stop fighting, and know that I am God,
exalted among the nations, exalted on the earth.

As I said in the beginning, one of our biggest problems is the problem of our perspective. More specifically, we build our lives around what we feel and experience inside.

Everyday life is messy. And as we try to live out the things we hear on Sunday morning, we find that it clashes with reality - with our own feelings, fears and doubts, with the chaos of the world around us.

It's easy to say I believe in God's power and protection. But it's really hard when I see nothing in the bank account and have no idea where more will come from.

It's easy to say we believe in discipleship and loving people. But when the busy week hits and we feel so awkward and people are so complicated - we retreat to the comfort of our individualism.

It's easy to say that God is my only hope. But that hope seems to slip away like sand between my fingers when my heart is full of depression or anxiety.

Here we see the power of the invitation that this Psalm gives us - "Come and see the works of the Lord... Consider who God is and what he has done...Be still - Stop fighting! And know, that he is God"

Scripture calls us to consider the facts - not the facts of our emotions and fears that swirl in our hearts. But the facts that hold the universe together, the facts that don't change no matter what we feel.

Growing in your faith often requires the active and conscious shifting of perspective. When we say that faith is a gift of God, we DO NOT mean that faith is a passive process for us. Faith is a VERY active process. It includes us stopping in the midst of our lives and questioning our perspective - and actively pulling in the truth of God and his word into the midst of it.

Its like you discover that you are in a fake room with fake windows and fake sunlight flowing in and you need to break down these walls that seem like home to let in the real sun.

At the core of everything is one simple question: who is God? what is he like?

Often times the feelings of our hearts and the dramas of our lives rise up and threaten to block out the light of the sun- to prevent us from seeing reality as it truly is.

But even on those days HE DOES NOT CEASE TO BE WHO HE IS.

"Those who come to me, I will in no way cast out..."

"All who call upon the name of the Lord will be saved..."

"To those who are called according to his purpose, all things work together for good"

We are like Jill and Eustace in the story, who get down into Narnia and our minds start to grow hazy about what is more real - the signs that we were supposed to remember, or the battles and threats right in front of us.

For many of us, our daily spiritual life is backwards. We view ourselves and of God's relationship to us based on HOW WE FEEL in the moment. We feel down. We feel discouraged. We feel frustrated. We feel confused.

And so - we consider ourselves to be weak, lost, broken, hopeless and confusing. We consider God to be distant, we view him as harsh, we view him threatening, judging.

God speaks into our chaos and says, "Who told you I was distant, harsh, uncaring? Where did you get that idea of me?"

"Be silent! And KNOW that I am God, exalted among the nations, exalted on the earth."

What do you do when it all seems to melt down? "Come and SEE the works of the Lord!"

Open this book, and ask the simple question: who is God? What is he like?

Do you realize that, (assuming you are a person who acknowledges the God of the Bible and desires to live for him) - no matter how much you mess up, he still loves you? Do you realize that, no matter how many times you ask for forgiveness, he always forgives?

Of course I am not saying that means you just do whatever you want and sin, because he will forgive you anyways. If you have that mindset you are showing that you actually just want sin, you don't want God.

But for those of us who struggle wit our doubt and fear and frustrated with ourselves constantly - have you ever really RESTED in your Savior? Have you ever really drank in the peace that NO MATTER WHAT HAPPENS, he is still Lord, he still wins, he still loves you and he will bring you safely home?

"Be still, and know that I am God."

What voices are you listening to? Who is defining your reality today?

• Your emotions? Your fears? You past? Your future?
• The world around? The news? Social media? Entertainment?
• Your work? Deadlines? Success? Pressure?
• How are you managing the clamor?
• Do you see God as transcendent up above it all?
• Do you see him as both transcendent AND present? Do you marvel at the beauty of the fact that God is both exalted and close?