People rightly associate the name Martin Luther with the Protestant Reformation. Martin Luther lived from 1483 to 1546. And during these years, the Lord used Luther's ministry and teaching mightily for the cause of the gospel. All these centuries later, we still speak of the impact that Luther and others had in the 16th century forward. Historians have confirmed that Luther was deeply impacted and changed by things that he read in the New Testament. Among his beloved books that had such an impact on him, you think of Romans and you think of Galatians and rightly so in his own autobiographical words. These books played a massive influence in his coming to know the saving Christ in the good news of the mercy of God, salvation by grace through faith and not by works. But before the impact of those New Testament books on Luther's life, he was also impacted by the Old Testament, specifically the book of Psalms. As a professor at a university, Luther expounded the Psalms in a class in approximately 1513. He loved the book of Psalms, and one of my favorite descriptions of the book of Psalms comes from Luther. He calls the Book of Psalms a Bible in miniature. Calling it a mini Bible is Luther's way of saying, I think everything the Bible teaches outside of Psalms, the greatness of God, the promise of a redeemer, the depravity and sinfulness of man and their need for redemption, all of these things you find in Psalms as well. The Book of Psalms is a gigantic plethora of the doctrines of the Christian faith, some in seed form and others expounded in greater detail in Psalms. So Luther says Psalms is like a mini Bible. And one of the reasons Luther loved the book of Psalms was his own love of music. He loved to sing and he loved to write songs. He composed, from what we can tell, over 30 different hymns during his life. In times of great trial for Luther, the book of Psalms was a major source of encouragement and solace and peace. In 1527, Luther faced an excruciating trial. He was physically exhausted from all sorts of circumstances and health matters. But in 1527, the Black Plague was sweeping across Europe and Germany in particular. In the winter of 1527, Luther's son contracted the bubonic plague and nearly died from it. He lived, but Luther's excruciating trial of his own health crises and then nearly losing his son. was so overwhelming in that season of exhaustion, it's difficult to put words to it. During this personal conflict, the promises of the Psalms again and again comforted Luther. And after 1527, Luther once again put pen to paper, and one of the hymns that was the fruit of this season of his life is called A Mighty Fortress. A Mighty Fortress. We'll sing this hymn as the response hymn this morning. And A mighty fortress is taken from the message of Psalm 46, Psalm 46, which declares that God is the fortress and strength and great help for his people. the A Mighty Fortress, has been called the battle hymn of the Reformation. Of all the dozens of hymns Luther wrote, A Mighty Fortress to this day remains his most famous hymn, and it is the impact of Psalm 46 upon Luther's life. It is said that he would speak to others, including his friend Philip Melanchthon. Philip, when he was facing that as all manner of opposition from others, he would say, Philip, let's sing together Psalm 46, and then let them do their worst. So first, for Luther, Psalm 46 became over and over again this abiding place of great comfort. What stood out to Luther? What should stand out to us in a psalm that had such great impact on a giant of theology and church history such as Luther? We're going to look at Psalm 46 in three sections here. And in verses 1 to 3, we're going to notice first God's help. In verses 4 to 7, God's presence. And in verses 8 to 11, God's works. God's help, God's presence, and God's works. And we will see, going through these sections of the psalm, what stands out to Luther and what should captivate our minds on this Lord's Day morning. We're told in the superscription that it's to the choir master, reminding us that it's for use of corporate worship, that the people of God would sing and confess together what this psalm teaches, because what it's teaching is true. It's from the Sons of Korah, a group we're familiar with by now from Psalm 42 forward. They are Levitical musicians. Musicians and singers and songwriters appointed first by David's monarchy. And then in the years that followed David, the descendants from Levi known as the Sons of Korah continued work in the musical ministry of the tabernacle and the temple. According to Alamot, as likely what it was the case in the superscription of last week, it's the name of a familiar melody. So that when the choir master and the Levitical singers lead in the celebration of this psalm, they're doing it to a melody they're familiar with. I don't know what the melody of the Alamot is, but it's a song that was said according to that, and it would have been a lot clearer to them all those centuries ago. But we turn to God's help in verses one to three, and right in the opening language of the verse, it is an announcement. God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Later on in the Psalm, it will also call God our fortress. So you see an accumulation in this psalm of language about God being a stronghold for his people. Refuge is that. A refuge is something you take so that whatever is threatening you below is not gonna be able to prevail. God is a refuge. It's this image of security, isn't it? This image even of something like a cliff high and lifted up above the terrifying floodwaters that threaten. God is our refuge and strength. a very present help in trouble. He doesn't view God as remote. He doesn't view God as distant. He views God as absolutely near with him, a very present help in the midst of the trouble around. Who can he count on? God is the great help. God is the great strength. God is the great refuge. One way that we treat God as our refuge is we call on Him in prayer. This psalm is inviting us, like the other psalms, to look to God with trust and confidence, to turn our hope and orient our hearts to God. Treating God as our refuge will involve prayer to God. We will call on Him in prayer. And calling God our refuge means we don't turn from Him in great trouble. In great trouble, God remains the very present help, and so therefore we approach the throne of grace. We come to God in prayer because help is very present. It's an excessive description, isn't it? This help is not somewhat there. It's not misty and vague. It is very present. And that language is meant to describe the magnificence of God's help that is right there available for us. The trouble and other ways we could describe these distressful circumstances are unpacked in verses two and three. God is a strength in situations like this. Verses two and three gives us some disturbing imagery. Can you imagine this? Therefore, we will not fear though the earth gives way, though the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam, Though the mountains tremble at its swelling, this language is about cosmic upheaval and it is disturbing. There's nothing about this that in being in the middle of this, you would look around and say, everything looks fine to me. You wouldn't think that. You wouldn't think that because this gives every indication of alarm and outrage and fear. Therefore is the word that opens verse two, and he's drawing a conclusion about verse one. God being this for us, our great refuge and our great strength, it can be something that in the midst of our great trial, in the midst of our world coming apart, is a comfort and a solace for us. In verses two and three, it looks like the world is coming apart at the seams. the earth, the mountains, the heart of the sea, the waters, the mountains trembling at its swelling, you're imagining in your mind's eye something absolutely beyond our control. If you saw this happening, you wouldn't step to the front of a group and say, I've got this, let me solve what's going on here. These waters are getting out of control, these mountains are shaking, just give me a minute. No, you would look at this and you would understand that imaginatively, this is a terribly fearful situation. So the psalmist has taken this very fearsome situation so that we would imagine the peril that's unfolding and he ties that to who God is in verse 1. He says God is our refuge and strength and therefore we won't fear though these other things are taking place. There's all sorts of bending and moving, all sorts of changing and upheaval that can take place in our lives and in the lives of others. But there is an unchanging thing that verse 1 announces. The unchanging thing is who God is. Though all else may seem to melt away and come undone, there is a refuge for the people of God, our great God. We don't have to think about part of the sea and waters and mountains as the specifics of what our day-to-day lives face. You might face the realities and examples of injustice around the world, health crises for your own physical well-being, thinking about financial uncertainty in your life or the lives of those you care about. You might sense political instability. You might face the threat of personal humiliation, a whole series of things in a growing list of what you might fear. And from an earthly perspective, all of those things with that growing list can easily cause someone inside to tremble. So replace the idea of the earth giving way and the mountains being moved with the kind of things that you might face regularly that make you afraid. And the psalmist wants you to think about what seems fearsome and perilous so that you can then remember who God is and to remind yourself that is an unchanging good reality. That is an unchanging thing though everything else seemed to threaten around me to undo me. In verses 4 through 7, we move from God's help to God's presence. With this very graphic picture of creation coming undone, there is another use of water that the writer uses. In verses 1 to 3, we talked about water with the heart of the sea, or the waters in verse 3, roaring and foaming. There's a different kind of stream or water that he brings up in verse 4, and it denotes something very different. It does not denote peril. It is not a kind of watery reality that makes you tremble. It says in verse four, there is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy habitation of the most high. Now, when you think about the city of God, and as an Old Testament reader, the most likely city that should come to mind is the city of Jerusalem. The city of Jerusalem was imported during the days of David. David's successor, Solomon, would build the temple to replace the tabernacle, and that temple sat in Jerusalem. The city of God is the thing that they're bringing to mind here, and Jerusalem, the most likely equivalent. You need to know something that's ironic, though, about the city. You can look on a Bible map. You know what you will not find on a Bible map is a river coming out of Jerusalem. You're not gonna find that. You're gonna find the Jordan River to the east of the city, but you're not gonna find a river going into Jerusalem or coming out of Jerusalem, which might make a reader wonder, does this guy not know the lay of the land? Is he geographically confused? As someone who suffers occasionally from geographical confusion, I would understand. But here in Psalm 46, I think something different is at play. There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy habitation of the Most High. God is in the midst of her. This is a figurative river. It's not meant to bring to our mind an actual geographical river that's going to be doing something to the people. Instead, it's a river whose streams have a spiritual sense to it of life-giving power. And not just that it brings life, it brings gladness. This is a river that brings life and gladness. It makes glad the city of God. It would be really good in the ancient world if your city had access immediately to a body of water. It would especially help you if great military trouble surrounded you, because if someone besieged your city and you still had an access to a water source beneath the ground, well, your city could still remain heartened and glad to persevere through conflict. But if you had no source to give you life, if you had no watery tributaries and streams to make your city glad and courageous, then your well-being was threatened indeed. The river here is meant to signify the well-being of the people of God beyond and above the threatening swells and circumstances of verses 2 and 3. There is a river and it's not like the threatening rivers or waters spoken about in verses 2 and 3. This river makes glad, it doesn't make afraid. This is a river that makes glad, and it makes glad the city of God. It represents there the people. The people who belong to God, His covenant people, experience the life-giving power of God Himself. God's goodness, power, and life are represented with the language here of this river. The holy habitation of the Most High, it reminds us of that region of the Promised Land being used figuratively here for the presence of God with his people. We can think about how later Old Testament literature such as Ezekiel 47, envisions a future day when a mighty stream or a mighty river will flow under Jerusalem and become a great river going out of the temple. It's this vision of the presence of God and a relationship with God and His covenant people that did not seem to have come to pass yet when these words were written so many centuries ago. It envisions something grand, it envisions something epic, even something in time related, which is why in Revelation chapter 22, when you think of the city of God, you don't think of an old Jerusalem. The writer wants you to think of a new Jerusalem. And in the new Jerusalem, there's not a physical temple. The Lord is the temple and the lamb is the lamp and gives it light. And the glory of God shines in that place. such that there's no need for sun or moon, so great and brilliant is the glory of God. And there is a mighty river running through the middle of it all. So what I want you to know is that Psalm 46 is looking ahead. Psalm 46 is anticipating the reality of the presence of God causing the flourishing of His people. It may even remind us of Psalm chapter one, where the blessed one is planted like a tree in streams of water so that there would be fruitfulness in flourishing. This river, whose streams make glad, represent the goodness and words of God to invigorate and sustain His people. So if you open to a Bible map and you say, I don't see a river going in and out of Jerusalem, that's because this language is pointing to the New Jerusalem. It's pointing forward to a grander reality, which we would experience in Christ. There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God. I think in the fullness of God's Word, we would want to speak not only of God's promises and His words sustaining and life-giving courage to His people. We would want to specifically talk about Christ Himself, who says, if anyone is thirsty, let them come to me and drink. And He says to the Samaritan woman, the water I have to give you is living water. In the Old Testament, it would be desiring to have this kind of experience, this kind of access, this kind of stream. The New Testament links this reality to the Lord Jesus Christ and who he is for his people. In this sense, my friends, we are the people of God, citizens of his great city. Are we not citizens of the heavenly Jerusalem? Do we not belong as people of God according to Philippians 3 and Hebrews 12? We do not come to that older mountain, Mount Sinai. We come to Mount Zion, where the presence of God and the glory of God in Christ have brought us near through reconciling work through a cross. So there is a river and it is a gospel river. It's announcement of reconciliation and it's about power to cleanse. This is a river that washes saints white as snow as sinners come to Christ for forgiveness. This is a river that makes glad because it's a river that has to do with the power and redemptive work of God. the people of God are gladdened because what God has for them brings them forgiveness and eternal life. That is what is in this stream. That is why people are gladdened because of it. And we see this kind of language reaching back perhaps even to Genesis, where in that garden of Eden, There were a series of rivers that in the Garden of Eden would replenish and invigorate the life that God had bestowed there. So looking backward and looking forward in the biblical story, we see that yes, there is a river that makes glad the city of God, and it has to do with the presence of God, his words, his power, and ultimately his gift of eternal life in the water that Jesus Christ is for the thirsty. So we say to sinners, there's a river. Are you thirsty? His name is Jesus. Come to him and drink. There is a river. There is gospel news for salvation and life. Trust Christ. Hope in Christ. Come be glad with us in this river. Amen. We're told in verse five, God is in the midst of her. There is no lasting joy if God were not there. This is telling us that the power of this river is not something separate from God's presence. God is in the midst of this city and she shall not be moved. God will help her when morning dawns. We're told in verse five, she shall not be moved, and that's quite a promise. Life seems very unstable. And if you live long enough and you experience enough of the challenges of life, you will come clear in your own sober thinking that you can control very little of what goes on around you. You can bring great influence upon very little of what's taking place with choices people are making and directions that people's feet are facing. To promise that she shall not be moved is a grand promise that in a world of widespread instability, there is something that doesn't suffer from the changing times and seasons, and that is the security of the people of God with their God. This is a city. Represented here, representing here the people that shall not be moved. The city here is spoken of in a feminine sense. God is in the midst of her, that city, she, this city shall not be moved. It's similar to how the people of God in the New Testament are talked about as the bride of Christ. And that the Lord Jesus is returning from his bride, the people of his great city. She shall not be moved can be spoken of in Matthew's gospel where Jesus says that Christ will build his church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. It's a language of final victory. that in the end, though the forces and principalities around us might be determined to destroy the church, the church of Jesus Christ shall not be destroyed. Even though we may die, we shall be raised. Death is not the final word for his people. And therefore, the security of the presence of God and the gospel life of God stabilizes our souls. We sing songs that remind us of this. We think about though Satan should buffet us and trial should come. We think about how it is well with our souls. We sing this because Psalm 46 reminds us that the people of God are stable in who their God is, not because the circumstances are staying the same. God will help her when morning dawns. This shift to a morning period is no doubt to contrast with the suffering darkness, the uncertain valley of the shadow of death implied by the opening verses of the psalm. Though God is our great refuge, it does not take away the difficulty of the darkness and the challenge sometimes of seeing one foot right in front of the other, being able to wake up in the morning and think to yourself, how am I going to get through this day with what I'm facing? It tells us here that God will help her when morning dawns because there's something bright and crisp about the start of a new day. You might have felt this way when you had just a terrible day, and you might think to yourself, I need to go to sleep. I need to wake up to a new day tomorrow. I just got to restart. Whatever was going on, it was not going the way it needed to go. And so I'm going to wake up, and it's going to be a brand new day. The book of Lamentations celebrates the new mercies of God that are new every morning. So the imagery of dawn is imagery of the intrusion of sunshine and the crisp newness of things that's arrived when the darkness was all we saw beforehand. So should the people of God feel overwhelmed and pressured on every side, the language here is the morning of rescue shall arrive. God will help her when morning dawns. Christopher Ashe, in his commentary on Psalms, says we await our bodily resurrection. as we look forward to waking up on that brightest of all bright mornings. I love that imagery here of celebrating the help of God like the dawn of the day coming to bring light in the darkness. And that will not end with our death. The brightest of all bright dawns awaits us on that glorious day when the Lord Jesus raises the dead and calls for that bodily resurrection unto glory. Ash is right. We look forward to waking on that brightest of bright mornings. While the people of God are secure in Christ, and while the rescuing grace of God is our comfort and hope, even beyond death, the power of God to lift us from the cords of corruption, the raging nations are not in such a secure position. In verse 6 and 7, we're told that the nations rage. The kingdoms totter. He, God, utters his voice, the earth melts. The Lord of hosts is with us. The God of Jacob is our fortress. The raging nations, according to Psalm 2, have gathered together against the anointed one and they rage against him. They gather together to oppose God and the people of God. These raging nations are not aimless. They hate God. They're like the raging dragon that animates them in Revelation 12 and in Revelation 20. This is the raging dragon who knows his time is short, but seeks to persecute the people of God and the raging nations have adopted his posture. They rage toward God and against the people of God like the dragon they serve. The kingdoms totter. It's a picture of instability. Maybe you've seen this, especially with strong winds. Something seems secure. And you look out your window and you think any second there, any second now that's going over. It's not as secure as we thought. And the kingdoms in their presumed earthly might can self-exalt all they want. but they're as unstable as a flower in a thunderstorm. They are unable to withstand the might and greatness of God. It says in verse six, he utters his voice, the earth melts. It's a scary image. Scary image that the earth would simply be pictured as melting. He does but utter His voice, it says. The God who said, let there be light, and there was light. You think the nations can rage successfully against the God who calls things into being which were not? This God whose sovereignty exists over every atom and molecule in the universe? These nations are foolish. They should do as Psalm 2 instructs them to do. They should bow to the sun. They should bow to the Messiah, the anointed one, the rightful king. These kingdoms taught her because God and his great sovereignty shall bring them to an end, and they are not nearly as stable as they seem. But are the people of God caught up in this? In verse seven, we're reminded that the Lord of hosts is with us. The voice of God thunders and melts, but the people of God are secure in God. I want you to know, my friends, there is no refuge from God, but in God. That is the only place of hope. There is no refuge from God, but in God. We must turn to him with trust. We must hope in Christ, the Savior of sinners. There is a river that makes glad the city of God. May that be our river from which we drink and are sustained spiritually and in our very souls and ultimately with the risenness of our bodies. God is our fortress. In verse 7, this is a confession. They are saying what they believe. I wonder if you would be able to add your voice to what the psalmist is saying here in verse 7. If this would be your confession, the psalmist says, the Lord of hosts is with us. That sounds like Immanuel language, doesn't it? Isaiah 7, there would be a young woman who would give birth and that sign of the presence of God would be Immanuel, God with us. In the New Testament, we know where this goes. Christ is the gift of God for sinners, God with us. So the God of Jacob is our fortress. Christ Jesus is the Lord of hosts who is with his people. God is always Emmanuel with his people. He's with us as comfort and power, as solace and strength. Though we are frail, though we are vulnerable, though we are mortal, God is a very present help in time of trouble. You might say, okay, how very present? Like today, he's help for today. And then tomorrow, the very presentness and nearness of God's help does not expire. He is as much help and strength tomorrow as he is today. And so we have a very present help nearer than our very breath. Our great God who is with us. The God of Jacob who is our fortress. We've seen God's help, we've seen God's presence. And in verses eight to 11, God's works. The psalmist is commanding us here, and with no longer a profession, a confession, he's giving an imperative. Come, behold. Back to back there, two commands. Come see or come behold. He's saying, I want you to come and behold something. There might be from time to time, an occasion, something you've noticed you want others to come and watch. And you're saying, you gotta come in here. Or you gotta go out here with me. You gotta come see this. You gotta stop what you're doing. You gotta come and, you might even use the language behold, I don't know, maybe that's on your lips. Come behold this. And the writer is drawing attention to the greatness of God. He wants you to stop what you're doing. Nobody would say, well yeah, I got this going on, sons of Korah. I said, no, no, no. Whatever it is you think is more important, first of all, it's not. You need to come and behold this so that you will have upon your heart and mind what is beheld in this song. Come behold the works of the Lord. Well, there's just nothing greater than that, is there? There's just nothing greater than anything God does. The works of the Lord reign supreme over all the works of man. All our works and all our striving are but nothing compared to the great works of the Lord. Think of the act of creation and the skies proclaiming his handiwork, the heavens writing the glory of God in the firmament. You think about the promises to Abraham and the sustaining of a covenant line, the greatness of God's promises and his keeping of those promises. The people of Israel enslaved in Egypt and God pouring plagues upon the enemies of the Israelites and bringing them out in the mighty exodus, sustaining them for many years and decades of wilderness travel, overcoming the Canaanites and the conquest of the land. Oh, behold, the works of the Lord. Indeed, the Psalms sing about the greatness of God, because you can look at these mighty deeds and were to look at the mighty works of God and conclude how great must be our God. If his works are this great, then he is greater than anything we've been able to see. His greatness is inexhaustible. His greatness is boundless. So come behold the works of the Lord and the works here. seem to be works that bring an end to the raging of his enemies. So we're told in verse 8 how he has brought desolations on the earth. Now remember he utters his voice and the earth melts. So he's uttering his voice, the earth melts, and he is bringing desolations on the earth. These are not just works that the people of God are benefiting from, like redemption. This is also acts of judgment and the subduing of God's enemies. The judgment of the wicked is also a work of the Lord. The subduing of his raging enemies is also a work of his greatness. So he is establishing justice. He is demonstrating his righteousness. It says in verse nine, he makes wars cease to the end of the earth. Oh, yes, indeed. In verse six, we see that the nation's rage and the kingdom's totter, and he brings their raging to an end. Their weaponry is invoked in verse nine, isn't it? The bow, the spear, such classic examples of warriors on their chariots or off their chariots, or just riding horses alone. You've got bows, you've got spears, representing the might and vigor and threats of these armies. They are as nothing compared to the greatness of God. He breaks their bow. He shatters their spear. He makes their great formidable weapons useless. What can you do with a broken spear? I'm going to shoot arrows with a shattered bow. When it says he breaks these and shatters them at the end of verse nine, he even burns the chariots with fire. He melts the earth in an earlier verse with his voice and melting, we might think of something of great heat, something of fire, burning the chariots with fire. It's all imagery of saying in the earth, people rage against the Lord. Will all of their clever conspiracy and plotting succeed against our great God? It shall not. He will bring all of them to an end. In verse 10, Perhaps we're hearing now what his voice would say to this raging earth. Be still and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations. I will be exalted in the earth. Many a believer has been rightly encouraged by the promise of God calling his people to attention, to recognize his greatness and his strength and his help, because we are constantly finding ourselves in short supply of those very things. needing more strength and needing more help and needing more peace to sustain us in the weariness of life. And it could be a comfort to the people of God for God to declare to them who he is and for them to be still before him. I want you to know that the believers are probably not the primary audience of these words. Though these words comfort the believer, it seems that the raging nations are the primary audience receiving these, because in their tottering state, as they have raged with their bow and spear, God says, Be still and know that I am God. And it is a call for them to lay down their arms. He's already broken their spears. He's already shattered their bows. He's already burned their chariots with fire. The best thing they can do is confess him as Lord and bow the knee before the greatness of God, because the nations which have raged against him, he says, I will be exalted among the nations. And I will be exalted in the earth. These words, in other words, are not just comforting words for the believer to hear. They are words of command for those who have turned with their hateful posture of mind and heart against the Lord. They should be still. And that's part of an image in the original language of dropping your hands, which seem to be upraised either with weapons or clenched fist. And to be still is to stop what you are doing and to know that I am God. They should worship him. They should worship him because he says, I will be exalted among the nations. So though they're tottering and though they rage, the goal of all that God does is the exaltation of his name in the earth. There's no greater goal. There is no higher aim in anything God does than what he says in verse 10, that he might be exalted over all, that he might be exalted throughout the earth. That is the aim for which God does all that he does. Creation exists for the glory of God. The plan of salvation and redemption is for the glory of God. The victory over all of God's enemies and the establishment of justice in the earth is for the glory of God. The deliverance of his people, the resurrection of the body, the dwelling of God in a new creation is all for the exaltation of his great name. The nations don't need to fight against that. They need to come to grips with that. And they need to let that truth influence what they do next. They should be still. They should know that He is God. Not these idols. Not their own thirst for human glory. It is the glory of God that is the aim of all that He does. In verse 11, a refrain. I'm calling it a refrain because we saw it in verse 7, didn't we? In verse 7, the Lord of hosts is with us. The God of Jacob is our fortress. Says it again in verse 11. The Lord of hosts is with us. The God of Jacob is our fortress. My friends, this Psalm is an assurance of the presence of God with us in Christ Jesus because we read Psalm 46 as Christians. We read Psalm 46 not as an old covenant people who are carrying forward commands and promises from Sinai that are to govern us in that Sinai covenant. We're in a new covenant. We are a new covenant people. And as a new covenant people, we sing this song knowing, and we remember this Psalm, knowing that Christ is with us. Christ is our fortress. The river that makes glad the city of God is a gospel river that has everything to do with the person and work of Christ with us. He is Emmanuel. And we say to the world, be still and know that he is God. Cease your raging against him. The message for the nations is come behold the works of the Lord. not just his judgments, though his judgments should fill them with a rightful fear before the God against whom they have raged like the dragon they serve. Come behold the works of the Lord includes the message of a cross. Come behold this work nations, come see the cross where wrath is poured upon the son of God and mercy flows to all who come to him. There is a river whose stream makes glad the city of God that stream flowed from the side of Jesus. That's the river. It is the work of Christ, the person of Christ, the sacrifice of Christ. Not just His cross. His empty tomb. Come behold. This is what the disciples had to deal with on the first day of the week. They had to go and rush to see what was there. Or more importantly, see what was not there. So come behold the works of the Lord. It's like there's nothing here. Well, that's actually the point. That's actually the point. In this tomb, there ought to have been a body. But the body has been raised in victory. So you come and behold the cross. And you behold an empty tomb. The greatness of God and His salvation. Think of Christ, his message to the nations, his teaching of the kingdom to repent and to believe, to follow him, to take up your cross, to hope in his words of eternal life, to drink of the water and eat of the bread that he is, that he would say to his disciples, this is my body and this is my blood taking the bread and the cup. I think of him also on the sea. I think of him on that sea with his disciples where they were afraid at the swelling, foaming waves. Reading Psalm 46, two and three makes me think about the scene when Jesus is asleep in the bottom of the boat and the disciples are terrified. And Jesus stands and he rises before this raging sea. And he says, be still. It ceases because the rest of the Psalm 46 would have been completely true on his lips. Be still and know that I am God. Let's pray.