Today we're turning to Psalm 46. Psalm 46 for Bible reading. We'll begin our reading of the opening verse of the Psalm together. Let's hear God's word. God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore will not we fear, though the earth be removed and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea. Though the waters thereof roar and be troubled, though the mountains shake with the swelling thereof. Selah, there is a river. The streams whereof shall make glad the city of God, the holy place of the tabernacles of the Most High. God is in the midst of her. She shall not be moved. God shall help her on that right early. Heath enraged, the kingdoms were moved. He uttered his voice, the earth melted. The Lord of hosts is with us. The God of Jacob is our refuge. Selah. Come, behold the works of the Lord. What desolations he hath made in the earth. He maketh wars to cease on to the end of the earth. He breaketh the bow and cutteth the spear in sunder. He burneth the chariot in the fire. Be still. know that I am God. I will be exalted among the heathen. I will be exalted in the earth, the Lord of hosts. is with us, the God of Jacob is our refuge, Selah. Amen, and God will bless always the reading of His holy and blessed word. Let's keep the Bible before us open and call on His name that God would speak to our hearts. Loving Father, we come before Thee in our Savior's name. We bless Thee, O God, that in a world of great turmoil and great flux, There is a place of fixedness, as it were. There is a place, O God, that we can go to, where, Father, there is no change, and that is to our God, who reigns over all things, and who sits supremely majestic upon his throne of glory. Come, Lord, minister to thy saints this very day, and grant, O God, a word in season. Grant, Father, this Thy Word to fix upon every heart and soul we ask. May we know much blessing as we meet around the Word. Grant, O God, the infilling of Thy Spirit, I pray. Glorify Thy Son, for I offer prayer in and through our Savior's precious name. Amen and amen. Come, Philip, let us sing the 46th Psalm. These are the words the German reformer Martin Luther would often say to his colleague Philip During the dark and through the difficult days of the Protestant Reformation, the truths contained within the psalm brought such comfort and consolation to Luther. They formed the basis of his great hymn, the battle hymn of the Reformation, a mighty fortress is our God, a bulwark never failing. Although the penman of this psalm and the circumstances surrounding the penning of it is not revealed to us in sacred scripture. The general consensus among Bible commentators is that Psalm 46 references the deliverance of Jerusalem from Sennacherib's Assyrian army in the days of King Hezekiah. You'll be aware that the Assyrian army had come marching out of the north, pushing southward through Syria and into Israel and then south to the nation of Judah. Before them the fields were golden with green, behind them they lay bare, swept clean by the foraging troops of the invasion force. Unrelenting were they in their pace as they moved north to south, from Israel down into Judah. Their sights were set on the prize, the bastion of Jerusalem, behind her walls, a terrified people, terrified because of their seeming destruction, their impending destruction by Sennacherib's bloodthirsty army, The king of Judah, King Hezekiah, first sought to appease this force by paying large amounts of tribute money to them. However, Assyria's king would have none of it, and so he sends Rabaskin with his army to demand that Hezekiah would open the gates of Jerusalem and surrender to the Assyrian army. Buoyed on by the inspiring messages of the prophet Isaiah, Hezekiah refuses to comply to the demand of the Assyrian king. And so the Assyrian army gather around the walls of Jerusalem. They hope to starve to death its inhabitants. They hoped to starve into submission and surrender, Hezekiah the keen and those locked behind the city gates. However, their hopes were to be dashed as God came in divine intervention. And one night, by one angel, the whole Assyrian army was defeated. It perished where it stood. and Jerusalem was saved. You can only but imagine the shouts of joy that met the ears of King Hezekiah as he went through that city, now delivered from her enemies. Hymns of thanksgiving and odes of praise must have rang through the city and through that jubilant and liberated place. To commemorate the overthrowing of her enemies, many believe that this Psalm 46 was penned either by Hezekiah or by Isaiah the prophet or by some other inspired penman in the land of Judah at that time. If this is the background to the writing of the Psalm, it is then little wonder Many of God's people, when they find themselves in days of trouble, in times of crisis, turn to this very Psalm in the Word of God. Because what we come to read within this Psalm causes the agitated heart to be calmed, the anxious soul to be relieved, and the troubled mind to be reassured. The entire words of Psalm 46, verse 1, and the opening words of verse 2 form the basis of our motto text for this year, 2020. God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble, therefore will not we fear. This is God's word for this congregation. I was able to minister at a meeting on New Year's Day, and the very first thing that was sung was Psalm 46, the psalm that we will end this meeting with. God is our refuge and strength, a help in our present aid in times of our straits of fear. And thank God, I believe that this is the word for this congregation. This isn't just some nice little text that is being plucked out of the air, something that I thought about and thought this would be good for the congregation. This is God's word. This is God's word to this congregation, that God is our refuge and our strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore, will not we fear. Now presented within these words, there are three things that God has promised to be for his people in times of trouble. Three things that we will need him to be for us. In all of the uncertainties that we will meet, in all of the valleys that we will trade, in all of the storms that we'll go through in this new year and just beyond, these are three things that God will be to us as God's people. And we want to consider those three things under three headings. each time. Those headings include explanation, what is meant by the statement, and then reiteration, where God elsewhere in Scripture speaks about Him being such things to us, and then application, what comfort God imparts to us through what He will be for us in coming days. And so, we look at the text of Psalm 46, verse 1 and 2. The first thing that God will be to you, his child this year, is that he will be your refuge. He will be your refuge. God is our refuge. Want to look at that initial statement under the first heading, explanation. What does the inspired penman mean when he makes this affirmation here that God is our refuge? Well, the word refuge, it means shelter. He's our shelter. It can also be translated hope. He's our hope. It can also be translated trust. He's our trust. Now, the psalmist goes on within the psalm to speak about the city of God, the holy place of the tabernacles of the Most High. You'll find that in the verse number 4. In other words, he speaks here about the city of Jerusalem. Now that city was one of the best fortified and impenetrable cities in the world at that time. Large walls, bulwarks, towered over the valley over which the city was perched. Entrance into that city was only by one of its restricted gates, restricted by strong and lockable gates. And yet the psalmist does not say that Jerusalem is going to be the refuge for God's people. He doesn't place confidence in the place where he lives. That is not what the psalmist does. He places no confidence here in Jerusalem being a refuge for God's people. Rather, God is to be the refuge. for all who would trust in him, all who would hope in him, all who would shelter beneath him. He has promised to be a refuge for his people. It is to him and to him alone that you and I will have to flee to for safety. When the troubles and the dangers and the days of trial come to us in 2020, The psalmist reemphasizes this thought of God being our refuge as he makes his way throughout the psalm. There is a refrain that is repeated twice within the psalm. If you look at the verse seven, it says, the Lord of hosts is with us, the God of Jacob is our refuge. And so it is affirmed again, this statement that we have in the opening verse, there is the affirmation of it again, that double witness as it were, that God is a refuge for His people. And then in verse 11, there is a repetition of those words that we find in verse 7, the Lord of hosts is with us, the God of Jacob is our refuge. Three times within the Scriptures, this truth is brought to our attention, drawn to the attention of the readership. I read in Ecclesiastes 4, verse 12, that a threefold cord is not quickly broken. And here we have a verse of Scripture, here we have a statement within the Word of God, repeated three times for us, a promise that God is our refuge, a promise that, thank God, shall never be broken. This cord, this threefold cord, this triune cord, this promise, this thought that God is our refuge is something that shall never be broken. The psalmist had come, whoever it was, he had come in his life to an understanding that all other refuges failed, but this refuge, but this refuge. And thus he pens emphatically that God is our refuge. He is not a refuge among many. But he is the refuge, the only refuge for his people, the only refuge that we as his people can confidently trust in when the storms sweep across life's great wilderness and desert land. We'll find a place of refuge in our God. Moses found that to be so. He found a place in the cleft of the rock. A place of hiding, a place of consolation, a place of shelter, a place of safety. This is what God is to us as his people. God is our refuge. And this thought of God being the refuge of His people is not just found here in Psalm 46, but throughout the Scriptures. We find this thought and this truth that God is our refuge repeated, reiterated time and time again. And so we think of this statement, we think of what God will be to us, reiterated through the Word of God. Just take up your concordance. If you have one at home, you look at that little word, refuge. You'll find it repeated time and time again. There were many in the Old Testament who spoke of God being the refuge of his people. Moses spoke of it. Moses spoke of God being the refuge of God's people twice in Scripture. He speaks of it first of all there in Deuteronomy 33, verse 27. Nor so familiar those words. We find there recorded, the eternal God is thy refuge. and underneath. are the everlasting arms. He returns to this thought of God being a refuge for his people in the oldest of all of the Psalms, Psalm 90, penned not by David, not by Asaph, but penned by Moses. And he returns to this statement, or Psalm 91, I mean, Psalm 91, he pens these words in Psalm 91, verses one and two of the Psalm, if you want to turn there, he that dwelleth, He that dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the Lord, He is my refuge and my fortress, my God, and Him will I trust. David would speak of God being his refuge. When you consider his life, when you consider all that David had to face before he ever reaches the throne, being pursued by Saul, the Philistines being no friend to him. You think of all the dangers that he had to face, the perils that he met along Lyce Road. He needed a refuge, he needed a place of safety and he spoke of that. In 2 Samuel 22, verse 2 and 3, and he said, The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer, the God of my rock, and him will I trust. He is my shield, the horn of my salvation, my high tower, and my refuge, my savior. Thou savest me from violence, from personal experience. He would say these words in Psalm 9, verse 9, The Lord also will be a refuge for the oppressed, a refuge in times of trouble. Psalm 62 verse 8, David gave this counsel, trust in him, in Jehovah at all times ye people pour out your heart before him. God is a refuge for us. Selah. And then Isaiah speaks of God being a refuge, a refuge for him. He would write in Isaiah 25 verse 4, For thou hast been a strength to the poor, a strength to the needy in his distress, a refuge from the storm, a shadow from the heat when the blast of the terrible ones is as a storm against the wall. Jeremiah, the Old Testament prophet, a man who suffered greatly because he was faithful to his God and declaring the Word of God. This is what Jeremiah said in Jeremiah 16, verse 19, "'O Lord, my strength and my fortress and my refuge in the day of affliction.'" Surely all of us who know God in a personal way, can say of him that he is our refuge. We have proven him to be so in days of crisis, in times of calamity. He has been to us a refuge. Maybe you haven't found that to be so. Maybe today you're found out of Christ with no hope, no refuge now, Could I encourage you on this first Lord's Day of a new year to run, to run to Him and to hide yourself in the refuge that is to be found in the God of this Bible. He's a refuge for us. He takes the brunt of life storms. I believe that only eternity will reveal to us that which we were shielded from. Oh, we do not meet life's trials in their fullness. No, they must pass first through him who is our refuge before they ever break into our homes, before they ever cross the thresholds of our homesteads. He is a refuge for us, a refuge for His people. And so let's consider some application. For the Word needs to be applied. The Word will bring no profit to us if the Word is never applied by the Word and by the Spirit and by the preacher. You see, the fact that God is our refuge, something that is clearly declared here within the opening words of the Psalm, firstly alerts us to the fact that we're all going to need a refuge. It alerts us to the fact that there are storms that are going to come. There are trials that we're going to have to meet. What need would there be for a refuge if there'd be no storm? What need would there be for a refuge if there was going to be no valley to descend into? No time when it seems that fear is at its height. and we feel our lives just falling apart, oh, there would be no need for a refuge. And so this thought before us that God is to be to us a refuge, it provides for us, it alerts us to the fact that we're going to face our storms in which this refuge will prove to be a most valuable asset to us. God being my refuge, this is what I'll need. This is what I will need. But secondly, God being our refuge, directs us to face whatever we have to face in this new year without fear. Because thank God our security is to be found in God and in nothing, no one, and nowhere else. He is for us a refuge, a place of safety and shelter. He is one who secures his people. Know the storm, it may shake you as it were. The storm may trouble you. Anxiousness and worry may evade the heart, but thank God we shall not be fully destroyed in the storm. He will be to us a refuge. You think of all of the crises that we may have to face in this incoming year. All of the crises that we may have to face this year. There may be national crises. We do not know. You think of what is happening in Australia at this time, a nation that has forgotten God? And here we are, we are a nation, we have forgotten God. Legislation is coming in coming weeks with respect to great sins, abominable sins. We must not think that this land is going to be spared God's judgment. And so there may be national crisis, there might be religious crises, there might be economic crises that we'll have to face, and then we have the personal crises, the family crises, and they seem to trump all those other crises that happen around us. Where will we find refuge in the day of crisis? When we face the attacks of the devil this year, When we're tempted to capitulate and succumb to the wicked desires of our own hearts in the next 12 months, when the allurements of this sinful age try to capture our hearts in the 366 days, and yes, it is a leap year this year, that lie before us, where will we run to? Where will we hide? so that we will not be overcome, but instead be an overcomer. Well, the answer to where we run to, the one to whom we flee to, is found in the opening words of our Psalm, we shall run to God, because He is our refuge. He is our refuge. How tragic for those, as I've already said, who have not found as yet God to be their refuge. Those in this meeting who will face life's final storm outside the refuge, the blast of which will catapult you into the lowest hell when that storm breaks. outside of the refuge, the place of safety, no hiding in Christ. You who are still in your sin, to you who have no refuge, no hiding place from the storm of God's wrath, to you who have not yet fled for refuge, to lay hold on hope set before you in the gospel, I would say to you today, in this first Lord's day of a new year, fly to Christ for refuge. Fly to him, fly to him lest the storm overtake you and you die in your sin. Where Christ is you'll never be. Oh, to be able to say in the words of Charles Wesley, of a refuge have I none. Hangs my helpless soul in thee. Leave, ah, leave me not alone. Still support and comfort me. All my trust on thee is stayed. All my help from thee I bring. Cover my defenseless head with the shadow off my wing. Can you say that today? That all on Christ, all your trust is stayed. God is our refuge, a refuge that, as one preacher put it, a refuge that is infinite in its amplitude, impregnable in its resistance, and interminable or endless in its duration. The second thought, the second truth, the second thing that God will be for us and be for you his child this year, as in every year, is that He will be your strength. This is such a simple outline, such simple truths, and yet truth that is full of consolation. He is our strength. We explain the word strength in the following way. It really simply means that He will be our might. He will be our power. You see, God, full of infinite wisdom and knowing all things from the beginning to the end, he envisaged when he created man, he envisaged how weak we would be, how prone we would be in growing sickly in our Christian life, how apt we are to stumble and to fall on our journey toward heaven and home. And knowing that, he knew that we would have to find strength outside of ourselves to keep us in the way, to hold us up, to support us in the time of calamity. and the psalmist has it here within the second verse, the earth being removed, the mountains being carried into the midst of the sea, the waters are off, roaring and troubled, the mountains shake with the swelling, they're off, all the calamity, the movement of everything around, the circumstances out of life and out of ourselves being bleak and troublesome and in the midst of flux and in turmoil, God seeing it all, he knew that we would need strength outside of ourselves. How would we ever stand? And so knowing this, he said that he would be our strength. God is our strength. He is omnipotent, upholds all things by the word of his power. It is a power that can never be exhausted. Thank God, a power that can never be frustrated. power that can never be restrained by any creature. This is the strength that God gives to his people, a strength for the trial, a strength for the testing, strength from God to us And we find this thought of strength for God's people reiterated again and again in the Word of God. Just to affirm it, let me appoint you to a number of passages. Psalm 18 verse 32, it is God, the psalmist said, that girdeth me with strength and maketh my way perfect. Psalm 28, verse 7, the Lord is my strength and my shield, my heart trusteth in Him and I am helped, therefore my heart greatly rejoiceth and with my song will I praise Him. Psalm 29, verse 11, the Lord will give strength unto His people, the Lord will bless His people with strength. Isaiah 26, verse 4, trust ye in the Lord forever, For in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength. Isaiah 40, 29 to 31, He giveth power to the faint, and to them that hath no might He increaseth strength. Even the youth shall utterly fail, the young men shall utterly fall. They but they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings as eagles. They shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint. And then we think of those well-known words in Isaiah 41, verse 10. Fear thou not, for I am with thee. Be not dismayed, I am thy God. I will strengthen thee. Yea, I will help thee. Yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness. Time and time again. God says that he will be our strength. You may ask then, as we apply this truth, how is that strength imparted to me? If this is his strength to me, how will that strength ever become mine, personally mine? How will I ever, as it were, attain or obtain this strength that I require just to carry me through this year? What already is on the horizon. It isn't like 2019, the calendar turned over and all the problems disappeared. We know that that doesn't happen. There's already things on the horizon for individuals within this congregation that causes them great fear and they think, how will I ever, how will I ever get through it? You'll get through it by God giving you his strength. But how does it become mine? Well, I believe that His strength is imparted to us through His Word. This is the source of strength. You see, this is food, food for our souls. And what does food do? It strengthens us. The individual who has lost their appetite cannot partake of food, the swallow gone. What happens to that individual? They grow weak. They become sickly. Their strength starts to feel. Ah, but here's something that can strengthen us, His Word. And as we come to the Scriptures, and as we read them, and folks, not only read them, but as we receive them, and as we believe the Scriptures and the promises of God, there comes into our souls a new strength. There is a strange calmness that floods in to the heart. A holy peace comes in to the soul. and we're comforted and we're strengthened by the promises of God. Brother, sister, God is your strength. And thereby, if He be your strength, that cross that He will place on your back this year, that cross will be able to be carried, because by His strength He'll hold you up. Your strength will be made perfect, or His strength will be made perfect in your weakness. Matthew Henry remarked, God is our strength to bear us up under our burdens, to fit us for all our services and sufferings, He will by His grace put strength into us, and on Him we may stay ourselves. God is our strength. And fellow laborer in this congregation, since He be our strength, let us go into 2020 relying on His strength as we labor for Him. You see, Samson, he relied on his own strength. He shook himself, and he went out as at other times. And yet he wished not that God had departed from him. May we never be like Samson. Every time we Go into the children's meeting, into the Sunday school class, into the youth fellowship, out into the open air, we stand in the pulpit, we speak of others, and we meet on a day-by-day basis. May we go in His strength. I will go in the strength of the Lord. That's how I'll go. That's how I will preach. That's how I will labor. That's how I will meet the challenges that we're called to face. Ah, yes. We do it in his strength. And so let's do all things in God's work, whether it be great or small, in and by his strength. The Puritan Thomas Watson said, always labor in the strength of Christ Never go to work alone. The Christian's strength lies in Christ. When you are to do any duty, to resist any temptation, to subdue any lust, set upon it in the strength of Christ. Let's go in His strength. And when we do so, like Paul, we'll be able to testify, as he testified in Philippians 4 verse 13, that I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me. You will be our strength. The third thing that God will be for us and be for you as His child this year is that God will be your help. The Psalmist ends the opening verse of the Psalm 46, describing God as a very present help and trouble. Note the terms, layered, built up, He does not just say that God is a help in trouble. No, no, He is a present help in trouble. But that's not enough. He needs to add another layer to this to bring out its fullest expression. He is a very present help in trouble. The word help, it is the word aid, assistance. Suck her. Later on in the psalm, he speaks again of this help and speaking of the city of God. He writes in verse number five, God is in the midst of her and she shall not be moved. God shall help her. And that right early. You see, God comes to us in our days of crisis. He comes to us in our day of calamity. He comes to help us in our troubles. And we only have to go into Scripture to find that to be so. This is borne out in the Bible's narrative, the record of Holy Scripture. Do we not see of God coming to the help, to the assistance of Joseph? They're in the prison. God bringing him out of the prison house, assisting him. We think of the children at the Red Sea. God coming and helping his people. We think of David in the cave. We think of Hezekiah on his sickbed. God coming and assisting and helping and leading him. What about Daniel in the lion's den? Or the three Hebrew boys in the burning fiery furnace? God came to them. He was their help. He was the one who aided them, who assisted them. And then we not only find it out in Bible history, we find it out in church history. God helping His blood-bought people, bringing them through. I think of those first century Christians. Without God's help, the church would have been wiped out. But God came and helped her. What about those early church fathers? God helping them to preserve truth down through the ages. What about God helping the Protestant reformers? Luther and Zwingli and Calvin and Knox, great men of God. What about God coming to the defense of the Covenanters? God helping His people. I am God helping us now in 2020. God helping His church today. God being with His saints. God helping His people. This is a truth that is reiterated throughout Scripture. It is reaffirmed time and time again. I can find the verses, the text of Scripture. This is the Bible. You may say, oh preacher, you're only filling out your, as it were, your manuscript today with a few verses. This is the Word of God. This is what you need to hear, this is what you need to stay yourself upon, God's promises Psalm 27 verse 9, hide not thy face from me, put not away thy servant in anger, thou hast been my help, leave me not, neither forsake me, O God of my salvation. Psalm 33 verse 20, our soul with it for the Lord, he is our help and our shield. Psalm 40, 17, but I am poor and needy, yet the Lord thinketh upon me, thou art my help, And my deliverer, make no tarrying, O my God. Psalm 121, verse 1 and 2. I will lift mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help. My help cometh from the Lord, which made heaven and earth. Psalm 124, verse 8. Our help is in the name of the Lord, who made heaven and earth. Psalm 146, verse 5. Happy is he that hath the God of Jacob for his help, whose hope is in the Lord. There's no doubt about it. And those are only a number. That is not an exhaustive list, but God is the help of his people, so let me apply it. Firstly, is it not the case that many of us have found that earthly helps have been nowhere to be found when we needed them? Such were certainly not present helps to us in times of trouble. And yet there has never been a time when we have sought God's help and He has not been found to be a very present help in trouble. And so it is then for you and I to seek His help at the expense of all other helps and helpers, to seek His help. And troubles arise in our families. and calamities crash into our lives. But I want you to point out something else to you, His child today. God never withdraws Himself from His afflicted child when they find themselves in trouble. He does not forsake us, nor does He abandon us, but He is a very present help after trouble, After it's gone, in trouble. In the midst of it all, he's there. Though you may not be able to trace his hand, you can still trust his heart, in the trouble, because he's in trouble, a very present help. With God being these things to his people, their refuge, their strength, their help in trouble, what then ought to be the response of his people? Well, the therefore at the beginning of verse two gives us the answer. Therefore will not we fear. Now fear is the natural response to times of trouble. And so this fearlessness must be seen as the supernatural response. Where does this fearlessness arise? It comes from faith in God. It comes from faith in the God of this Psalm. You don't need to go any further than Psalm 46 for your faith to be bolstered. to be increased. You see, the faith that we have in our God, this is the God of verse 1, we've already delved into it. This is the God who is our refuge, our strength, our very present help in trouble. It is the God of verse 5 who is in the midst of His people in order that He might help them. It is the God of verse 6 who uttereth His voice and the earth melts at His command. It is the God of verse 9 who makes wars to cease, who breaketh the bow, who cutteth the spear and sunder, who burneth the child in fire. It is the God of verse 10 who is exalted among the heathen, who is exalted in all the earth. This is the God. This is my God. This is your God, child of God. This is the God who will be your refuge, your strength, and your help. And thus, as we come to know him, and as we come to have faith in him, our fears give way to faith. As each of us make our way through 2020, May we find the truths of this verse to be so, that God is my refuge, that God is my strength, and that God is my very present help in trouble. May this day we trust in Him and therefore, will not we fear, because this God is for us and with us and upholding us in all days of trouble. God be pleased to bless the preaching of his precious word. Well, let's end our time around the word by the singing of the psalm. We'll sing the verses 1 to 7 and then 10 to 11. We'll take time to do it. God is our refuge and our strength. You'll find it on the page 42. The first version, in Straits a present deed. Therefore, although the earth remove, we will not be Let's sing it therefore now with knowledge, as we have met around the Word, as we have thought about the truth within it, and may our hearts be lifted heavenward. We'll stand at the close of the singing of the psalm for our closing prayer. Psalm 46, verses 1 to 7, and then 10 to 11, please. and sing heartily. God is our refuge and our strength. His praise the present day. Therefore, O Lord, Oh, say does that star-spangled banner yet wave ♪ The vict'ries we've had ♪ ♪ The water's roaring bay ♪ ♪ And trouble we've yet overheld ♪ ♪ By swelling sea to shay ♪ ♪ Whose streams may plant the city of our God ♪ ♪ The holy place wherein the Lord most high abides alone ♪ But on to her a helper will, And that right early prove. The Lord God uttered His voice, the earth it belled for fear. ♪ Hope is on our side ♪ ♪ Our strength is true and fair ♪ ♪ The God of Jacob called for us ♪ ♪ A refuge I remain ♪ ♪ Come and behold the Congress' birth ♪ ♪ By the Lord be brought ♪ ♪ Come see what exaltations He ♪ ♪ Upon the earth hath brought ♪ of all the earth. Lord, send to pity thirst the lowly praise, the spirit blasts in fire the charred earth. Be still, And know that I am Lord of all the heathen, I will be exalted high on earth, will be exalted high. It's on our side, our safety to maintain. The God of Jacob, God for us, our refuge I remain. Our loving Father, we rejoice in our God today. A help, a refuge, a strength for thy people. O God, that which is, and he who is suited for every need, is found in our God. May we leave this house glad and rejoicing. Of whom, O God, we are united to. And for those who are outside the refuge, who are found without strength, yes and have no help oh god we pray that today they may flee to thee and fly to christ who alone is all of these things for his believing people my part is with thy blessing and may the grace of our lord jesus christ the fellowship and communion of the Holy Spirit, and the blessing of the Father, rest and remain and abide upon us until we gather again for public worship. We offer these our petitions in and through Jesus' precious name. Amen and amen.