Be Still My Soul

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Introduction: Bible Unmolested – During the American Civil War, one of the Baptist church buildings in northeast Tennessee, Mossy Creek, was “irreparably damaged. Troops were quartered near this church at different times during the war. A soldier in the Eleventh New Hampshire Regiment, who was at Mossy Creek during February, 1864, recorded the treatment that had been given the church’s facilities by the invading armies. He wrote:

At this place there was a low, one-story brick church, of the Baptist faith, and upon the desk there lay a large old-fashioned Bible, upon the fly leaf of which was written, ‘The Property of the Mossy Creek Baptist Church.’ Although the building had been deprived of everything combustible, yet within its walls were that desk and that Bible. The doors and windows were gone, but the Bible remained unmolested by both the armies which had passed through the little village. It was kept in a little box with a cover to it.”

--from Bi-Centennial Holston: Tennessee’s First Baptist Association by Glenn A. Toomey (p.100-101)

Much in this world comes and goes, but God gives us strength in the things that remain. Our challenge is to wait on the Lord.

I.           WAIT UPON GOD (62:1-4) 

Stillness – “Be still, and know that I am God” (Psalm 46:10). “Our fathers had much to say about stillness, and by stillness they meant the absence of motion or the absence of noise or both. They felt that they must be still for at least a part of the day, or that day would be wasted. God can be known in the tumult of the world if His providence has for the time placed us there, but He is known best in the silence. So they held, and so the Sacred Scriptures declare. Inward assurance comes out of the stillness. We must be still to know. There has hardly been another time in the history of the world when stillness was needed more than it is today, and there has surely not been another time when there was so little of it or when it was so hard to find.” –from God Tells the Man Who Cares by A. W. Tozer (p.16).

A.        He is our Salvation (62:1-2)

1.         The source of our salvation (v.1)

2.         The essence of our salvation (v.2)

B.        He is our Security (62:2)

1.         His is our defense

2.         “I shall not be greatly moved” (2Timothy 2:13) – our practice  

C.        He is our Stability (62:3-4)

1.         Among those who shall fall (v.3)

2.         Among those who are frauds (v.4)

II.          WAIT ONLY UPON GOD (62:5-7)

A.        His our Only Relief (62:5)

1.         He is the only God (Isaiah 44:6, 8)

2.         He is our only expectation (Romans 8:19-23)

B.        He is our Only Rock (62:6)

1.         “He only is my rock” (Deuteronomy 32:3-4, 31)

2.         “I shall not be moved” (Psalm 16:8)

C.        He is our Only Refuge (62:7)

1.         Our glory (Psalm 3:3)

2.         Our strength

3.         Our refuge (Psalm 91:1-2, 9-10)

III.        TRUST IN HIM AT ALL TIMES (62:8-12)

Faith and Appearances – “Do not be discouraged by present appearances. The sunshine is behind the cloud. ‘For the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak, and not lie: though it tarry, wait for it” (Habakkuk 2:3). ‘The Lord is not slack concerning his promise,’ but we are hasty in looking for it. (Compare 2Peter 3:9 with Isaiah 5:19; 28:16) The failing of our eyes is the impatience of the will, ‘limiting God’ (Psalm 78:41) to our own time, ways, and means. Faith may be exercised in not seeing his reasons—not being able to harmonize his promises with his providences, or his outward dispensations with his Divine perfections. (Jeremiah 12:1) But let us leave this to him, and be ‘still, and know that he is God.’ (Psalm 46:10) We shall find in the end , that perseverance in waiting has turned to double advantage.” –from Psalm 119 by Charles Bridges (p.216).  

A.        In Times of Despair (62:8)

1.         When your heart is broken

2.         When you need a hiding place (Psalm 32:7; Isaiah 32:2)  

B.        In Times of High Degree (62:9; Philippians 4:12)

1.         Remember the vanity of all men

2.         They are altogether lighter than vanity

C.        In Times of Desire (62:10)

1.         When tempted to oppress

2.         When tempted to steal

3.         When blessed with honest increase (Proverbs 23:4-5; 1Timothy 6:17-19)

D.        In Times of Doubt (62:11)

1.         The proclamation of God’s word

2.         The power of God’s might (Romans 13:1)

E.        In Times of Discouragement (62:12)

1.         God’s mercy toward our sins

2.         God’s reward toward our obedience

Conclusion: A Drunkard Brought to God – A. W. Tozer told this story: “I knew a godly, praying woman whose husband, God bless him, was a drunkard. His stomach wouldn’t hold down his food, so he used to come home with his clothes dirty clear to his feet. I’m afraid I know what I would have done to him, but she didn’t. She prayed, cleaned him off and put him to bed. When he woke up the next morning with a hangover, he’d promise her anything, but then he’d go out again with the boys and come home swaying from side to side, covered with filth. And she’d go through the same thing all over again. She prayed for years for that man. I don’t know how the poor woman ever endured it. But she prayed on. She was one of those happy Christians, a little wisp of a woman.

“One day her drunken husband came to church, came down front, got down on his knees and bawled like a drunkard bawls—half self-pity, half something else. But God saved him. He became a model Christian and lived for God for some years afterward. And she walked around just as proud of him as an eagle that had hatched another. She’d brought him to God—hatched that fellow out by prayer and patience.

“I suppose there were times when she heard him snoring in the corner in his drunken sleep and wished she’d never met him. And I suppose there were times when she used to pity herself and say, ‘God, how do You expect me to hang on?’ But God whispered in her heart, Temptations are common to all, but I’m faithful, I won’t let you down. [1Corinthians 10:13] The result was that not only did he get converted, but also a lot of the members of the family. And they’ll be in heaven with their parents one of these days. It just shows that when God says that He is faithful and will not suffer you to be tempted beyond what you can bear, He means exactly that.”  --from The Attributes of God: Volume Two by A. W. Tozer (p. 176-177).