Psalm 46 was the favorite Psalm of Martin Luther, -- the psalm that inspired him to write "A Mighty Fortress Is Our God." God is a stronghold and a tower, a bulwark never failing! I must say that one of the most exciting experiences I ever had was to worship in a German Church when they sang "Ein Feste Burg." They sing it about a third of the speed that we sing it here with great solemnity and power, great authority and great thought on every word. When I sing that song, I always think of what Luther was going through when he wrote it. I can understand what a great thrill and great joy
Psalm 46 was to him. It's a psalm that tells you what to do when trouble comes.
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Some people seem to lead charmed lives ... trouble rarely comes their way. When it does come, they're the kind of people who can check it off quite easily. But one thing that every human being needs to beware of is that real trouble will come one day! There is no way that a human being living in a troubled world, in troublesome times can avoid real trouble. It's very important that we be prepared when trouble comes.
It may be that as I preach on the subject When Trouble Comes you will say to yourself, "I don't have any trouble, everything is fine by me." Don't be so sure that what I say won't be worth remembering one day.
On the other hand, some of you are going through times of real stress and difficulty.
Psalm 46 will be a blessing to you. In poetic language, the psalmist describes the way trouble can come. He talks about the earth being removed, and the mountains being carried into the midst of the sea. That is a picture of an earthquake. Sometimes trouble comes with the sheer finality of an earthquake. All of a sudden it's there, and there's nothing you can do.
People who have gone through earthquakes say they don't know of anything else that makes a human being feel quite so helpless. When we were bombed during the war, we figured if we could get into a deep enough hole, we would be all right. We hurriedly got there, and we got our head down. We took a book along and read until the thing was over.
With an earthquake, you can't even go into a hole because you have a nasty feeling that the hole might be shaking, too. You run out of a building because the building might collapse on top of you. There's no place to go!
Sometimes trouble comes to people like that -- without any warning, with no way of resisting it, with total finality, and suddenly they find that every thing has dropped right out of the bottom of their life.
I talked to a lady like that just this past week. She was very gracious, probably in her middle 50s. There was a special look on her face as she listened to the messages we brought. She was there every time we had a meeting. Someone introduced me to her at the end. I enjoyed talking with her. She seemed to have a very mature Christian attitude and faith.