Good afternoon.
I’ll ask you to turn again, please, to Romans 8. We’ll begin there.
As we come to the study of God’s Word, there’s a principle of Bible study that is absolutely indispensable—a principle that we cannot take for granted, that we cannot live without. I’m referring to that great truth: total reliance upon God’s Holy Spirit as we come to this precious Book.
There are many, many helpful things, all kinds of academic aids. But at the end of the day, we must come as little children, and we must ask the Lord to dawn Christ upon us.
I was thinking, in terms of our theme, of that marvelous verse in Luke 24. Remember when our Lord appeared on the road to Emmaus, and then later to His disciples in the room? In Luke 24, after He appeared, verse 45 says:
Then He opened their mind to understand the Scriptures.
I’m sure we’re going to hear a lot about spiritual mindedness, but there you have it. He opened their minds that they might understand the Scriptures.
When we came in last evening, that last verse in Mark 1 came to my heart. The last verse in Mark 1 says:
They came from every direction to Him.
Not to Harvey Cedars. They came from every direction, from every quarter, to Him. That’s why we’re here: to see the Lord.
And so I’m going to ask you to bow with me, please, and we’ll commit our time to the Lord. Let’s pray.
Our Father, once again, how thankful we are that You have not left us on our own to understand Your precious Book, Your heart, Your ways; but You have put the Holy Spirit in our hearts, Who searches the depths of God and reveals the things of our Lord Jesus unto us.
We wait upon You now, once again. We ask You to minister in a living way to our hearts. Show us the Lord Jesus, we ask in Jesus’ name. Amen.
Now, just for clarity, you notice I put my Bible down over here. My eyes are getting worse and worse, you know, and so I have enlarged the text and it’s in front of me. I promise you it came out of there. I’m not setting the Bible aside. We’re looking into that precious Word of God.
Well, it is a delight to be with you and to share with you on this great theme. God worked in my heart early to convince me to arrive here not so much as a speaker, but as a seeker. And so I’m with you as a seeker.
I long to know His heart on this great topic. I’ve seen a couple of things, but I know He’s going to use His servants to open up His heart to all of us. So let’s pray that God would keep us open.
I want to begin by giving you some good news. And the good news is this: God is far more interested that you be spiritually minded than you are.
God is far more interested that I be spiritually minded than I am. And the reason that’s good news is God will not only teach us what it means, but He will engineer circumstances in our lives to bring us into the place where we will learn what it means.
You’re not on your own to learn what it means to be spiritually minded. God has set Himself to teach us that, and we will learn that.
If you’re in Romans 8, please glance again at verse 6. The New American Standard says:
The mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace.
How important is the topic that God guided the brothers into choosing for this year’s conference? How important is this idea of spiritual mindedness?
I noticed in the brochure, in the program, you had that same verse quoted from the New King James:
To be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.
Kenneth Wuest, in his expanded translation, words it this way:
To have the mind dominated by the sinful nature is death, but to have the mind dominated by the Spirit is life and peace.
Godet translates it:
For the mind of the flesh is death; the mind of the Spirit, life and peace.
And so, whatever translation you decide to use, I ask the question: How important is this thing? That verse teaches us it’s a matter of life and death. That’s how important it is.
There are two possibilities. One means life, and one means death.
Now, those possibilities the Bible expresses in many different ways. We read in Romans 1 about the reprobate mind. We read in Galatians 2 about the fleshly mind. We read in 1 Timothy 3 about the corrupted mind; Titus 1, the defiled mind; Matthew, the mind set on man’s interests.
Proverbs and James talk about a double-minded man. Proverbs talks about a simple-minded man. Isaiah talks about a stubborn-minded man. Romans: the carnally minded, worldly minded, otherwise minded. Many expressions, but it all ends in death.
And just so, we have in Matthew the mind set on God’s interests; in Colossians, the mind set on things above; in Acts, those who were noble-minded; in Corinthians, sober-minded; in 2 Corinthians, like-minded; in Romans 8, spiritually minded.
We read about having the mind of Christ, the renewed mind. And however you express it, it ends in life.
I don’t know if you considered that when you decided to come this year to the conference. Why are you going to the conference? Why, it’s a matter of life and death. That’s why you’re here.
You might have said, “I’m going to the conference because I want to renew the fellowship. Such sweet fellowship there. God’s people are there. The saints are there. I enjoy hearing the ministry of the Word. I love corporate worship.” Maybe a combination of all those things.
But God has this reason in mind. He wants to teach us things about life, things about death, and enable us to choose life over death.
There’s a danger to come to a topic like this in just a technical way, just a mechanical way, and become very theological about it. May God deliver us from that.
Let me set before your hearts the direction that I believe the Lord has guided me on this great topic.
I’ll confess to you, as I began to study this, I realized the poverty in my own heart concerning this topic. I’m excited to be here, and I’m open. I can’t wait to learn about it.
You say, “Well, then what are you doing up there?” Well, I can’t tell you everything, but I can tell you the little I know. And so I want to share just a little bit, and it might sort of set us up for what I’m convinced God is going to give as a banquet through our other brothers.
We’ve got to have a starting point. God has begun to acquaint me with this starting point.
Romans 8:5 says, “The mind on the things of the Spirit.” But Romans 8:6 doesn’t say, “the things of the Spirit.” The very next verse says, “your mind on the Spirit”—on the Person.
God tells us through His servant Paul in Colossians, “Keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, where He is seated at the right hand of God.” We’re to set our mind on the things above.
Let me ask you this: Are heavenly things things? Are heavenly things things—things above? Romans 15 talks about things pertaining to God. Are things pertaining to God things?
God tells us in Philippians that we’re to approve the things that are excellent. Are excellent things things?
We’re told in 1 Corinthians 2, “The Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God.” The Book of Acts ends with these words:
Preaching the kingdom of God, and teaching those things concerning the Lord Jesus.
What are the things concerning the Lord Jesus? We read in 1 Corinthians 2:12:
We have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit Who is from God, that we may know the things freely given to us from God.
I think there’s a possible danger that we get involved with things—heavenly things, spiritual things, invisible things, unshakable things, eternal things, the very things of God—and lose sight of Him.
That’s where my heart is. If we’re going to be spiritually minded, go to Isaiah 26:
Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on Thee.
Whatever else spiritual mindedness is, it’s got to include that, would you agree? Whose mind is stayed on Thee. Because if I’m going to be conformed to Him, if I’m going to have my mind renewed, I’ve got to begin by looking unto Him. I’ve got to see Him. Then He can change me. Then He can renew me. Then I can be conformed to His image.
Does God give His dear Son over here and things over here? I want us to see Jesus. And I promise, if we see Him, you won’t miss the things of the Spirit, the heavenly things, the things that are excellent and need to be approved, the things of God, the things concerning the Lord Jesus, and the things that are freely given unto us in Christ.
I’ve asked God to give us a foretaste of Ephesians 1:9-10:
He made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His kind intention which He purposed in Him, with a view to an administration suitable to the fullness of times, that is, the summing up of all things in Christ, things in the heavens and things on the earth.
I want us to look at the truth of spiritual mindedness in terms of what it means to have our minds stayed on Him. And then I think we’ll be able, from there, to move into those other things.
We’re going to pass over, in my approach to this, spiritual mindedness as seeing things from His viewpoint. There’s a lot to be learned in seeing things as God sees them. I hope you see yourself as God sees you.
The Lord dealt with me recently. I couldn’t see Christ in a brother. And God taught me to see that brother in Christ. Oh, I tell you, that makes a difference—to see things as God sees things.
I’m not even going to touch on the wonderful truths of Philippians 2: having this mind, this disposition, this self-emptying, this humility, this childlikeness, this giving yourself away. If we see Christ, God can work that in us. But that’s not my direction.
My direction is: I want to see Him. I’m not going to miss anything if my eyes are on Him. You familiar with that great hymn, “More About Jesus”? Well, that’s where I’ll be:
More about Jesus, more, more about Jesus,
More of His saving fullness see,
More of His love Who died for me.
Here’s one verse in that hymn:
More about Jesus let me learn,
More of His holy will discern;
Spirit of God, my Teacher be,
Showing the things of Christ to me.
One more verse by way of introduction, and then we’ll begin what I want to show you. Psalm 25:14-15 says:
The secret of the Lord is for those who fear Him;
He will make them know His covenant.
My eyes are continually toward the Lord,
For He will pluck my feet out of the net.
Just that expression: “My eyes are continually toward the Lord.” I promise you, if your eyes are continually toward the Lord, you’ll be spiritually minded.
Not sometimes. Not now and then. Not most of the time. Not pretty nearly all the time. My eyes are continually toward the Lord.
And so here’s the little outline of what I’d like to share with you. I’d like to try to show you a little bit what it means for my eyes to be continually toward the Lord in everyday living. That’s what I’d like to look at this afternoon.
And then, a great burden on my heart: my eyes are continually toward the Lord in the study of Scripture. How to see Jesus in the Bible—that’s what we’ll look at, God gracing us, tomorrow.
How to behold Him in life; how to behold Him in the Bible. Because I know if we start beholding Him, then He can begin to renew our minds and conform us into the image of His adorable Son.
So, in order to meditate on that, that’s where we are now. I’m going to ask you to open your Bibles, please, to the noisiest Psalm in the Bible.
I said that in Rhode Island, and a young couple opened up—well, they’re not very young—a couple opened up their Bibles to Psalm 150. They said, “That’s got to be the noisiest Psalm in the Bible because of the trumpets and the pipe instruments and all of the singing and dancing and cymbals and all.”
Psalm 150 is a loud psalm, but it’s not as loud as the psalm I’m inviting you to turn to. The noisiest—I got that from G. Campbell Morgan. He’s the one that called it the noisiest psalm in the Bible.
Maybe you’re familiar with it as Luther’s psalm. You know, “A Mighty Fortress Is Our God” was built on this psalm: Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott. He wrote that wonderful song based on this.
He had a close relationship with Philip Melanchthon, his friend, and he was given sometimes to anxiety. Of course, later on there was a little split; there always seems to be something like that. But in the early years they were so close, and Luther would say, “Come, Philip, let us sing the forty-sixth psalm together, and then let the devil do his work.”
So let’s turn, brothers and sisters, to Psalm 46.
God is our refuge and strength,
A very present help in trouble.
Therefore we will not fear, though the earth should change,
Though the mountains slip into the heart of the sea;
Though its waters roar and foam,
Though the mountains quake at its swelling pride. Selah.There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God,
The holy dwelling places of the Most High.
God is in the midst of her, she will not be moved;
God will help her when morning dawns.
The nations made an uproar, the kingdoms tottered;
He raised His voice, the earth melted.
The Lord of hosts is with us;
The God of Jacob is our stronghold. Selah.Come, behold the works of the Lord,
Who has wrought desolations in the earth.
He makes wars to cease to the end of the earth;
He breaks the bow and cuts the spear in two;
He burns the chariots with fire.
Cease striving and know that I am God;
I will be exalted among the nations,
I will be exalted in the earth.
The Lord of hosts is with us;
The God of Jacob is our stronghold. Selah.
You notice I read the word “Selah” in the psalm. When you read the Psalms, read that word. It’s used seventy-one times in Psalms and then three times in one of the Minor Prophets.
There are many divergent views as to what that word means. Some say it means forever. Some say it means the end. Some say it means, “Stop, look, listen.” Some say it means raising a note higher.
Literally, the word means “to raise the hand.” And some say, “Well, that means to raise the hands and pray.” Possibly. But some think that it probably means to raise the hands from the instruments.
In other words, in our music, it’s a rest. You come to the song, and there’s a rest. And a rest is part of the music. It’s written in. It’s measured. There’s a beat to the rest. You’ve got a half rest, a whole rest; you count it out.
And by the way, when God brings a rest into your life and He sets you aside, that’s part of the composition. That’s part of the music. It’s measured. It’s counted out. Don’t be afraid of those rests.
It answers to the double “verily” in the New Testament, with this difference. The double “verily” is saying, “Pay attention. I’m about to say something wonderful.” The Selah says, “Pay attention. I just said something wonderful.”
You see the difference? The double verily gets you to look forward to something wonderful. The Selah says, “Now stop and reflect on what you’ve already heard.”
And you notice in this wonderful psalm that there are three Selahs. In verses 1 through 3, God says something wonderful, and He says, “Now stop and think about that. That is tremendous.” Then in verses 4 through 7, He says something wonderful again, and then He says, “Stop and think about that.” And then through the end of the psalm, He says it again, and He says, “Stop and think about it.”
Let me tell you why G. Campbell Morgan called this the noisiest psalm in the Bible. Look again at verses 2 and 3:
Therefore we will not fear, though the earth should change,
Though the mountains slip into the heart of the sea;
Though its waters roar and foam,
Though the mountains quake at its swelling pride.
And then glance at verse 6, please:
The nations made an uproar,
The kingdoms tottered;
He raised His voice, the earth melted.
Those are very noisy things going on in this psalm. The earth is going through changes. Most believe that verse 2 is a reference to an earthquake.
I’ve never been in an earthquake. Just for interest, has anyone here been in an earthquake? We have quite a few. Well, we don’t have time to give your testimony, but I’ve met two brothers who have been in an earthquake.
One, in 1964, was up in Anchorage on that Good Friday, during that great earthquake up there. Oh, he was in the middle of it, and what devastation he described. Another brother thought he was having a heart attack in California during one of those earthquakes.
But an earthquake shakes the foundation. It leaves you stunned and amazed. Everything begins to shake—buildings, bridges, trees, and all that kind of thing.
Let me ask you this: That’s just nature’s picture. Is it possible to be spiritually minded during an earthquake?
Hold that for a moment, because verse 2 talks about the mountains slipping into the sea. Mountains picture stability and security and strength and support. And now these mountains are just giving way. They’re dissolving. They’re crumbling into the sea. It’s dramatic.
The sea is ever that emblem of instability and restlessness. In Psalm 30, David said:
Thou, Lord, by Thy favor hast made my mountain to stand strong.
But then God hid His face, and what happened to the mountain? He said, “I was dismayed.” Let me ask you this question: Is it possible to be spiritually minded in a landslide?
Add to the violence and commotion of the earthquake, and add to the devastation of the landslide, verse 3: the roaring of the sea.
Commentators believe what’s being described here is an undersea earthquake resulting in a tidal wave. This tidal wave is coming toward the shore, and the mountains are going, “No, I don’t want this tidal wave.” It’s very graphic.
And so the mountains are quaking in fear because the tidal wave threatens to engulf and inundate and sweep everything away.
I’ll tell you, those things are awesome in nature: the earthquake, the landslide, the tidal wave. They’re more awesome as a life principle.
Ever have an earthquake in your life? A landslide in your life? Some tremendous tidal wave coming, threatening to sweep everything away?
Then look at verse 6:
The nations made an uproar, the kingdoms tottered.
That’s the noise of war. The whole world here is at war. War was a noisy thing back then: sounds of horses and chariots and war cries. War is noisy today, with explosions and planes and smart bombs and gunfire and all that kind of thing.
See why it’s a noisy psalm? Earthquakes, landslides, tidal waves—everything’s falling apart. Everything’s coming to pieces, and every place you look, there’s war.
Some have attempted to take this beautiful psalm and tie it into some historical occasion. They say David wrote this, and he’s talking about the wars he had with Ammon and Moab. Someone else says, “No, no, no, no. This is Isaiah. He’s celebrating the victory over Sennacherib and Assyria.” Someone says, “You don’t read it right. This is Jehoshaphat, and this is his great victory.”
Well, let me tell you right now: nobody knows who wrote it, and nobody knows what the historical occasion is. It’s like the thorn in the flesh, and God has left it blank so that you can fill it in.
The earthquake, landslide, tidal wave, war on every hand—that’s general enough to be able to apply in any situation.
And if we’re going to understand this psalm, you’ve got to see the background of this psalm. Things are caving in. Things are falling apart. Secure things are becoming insecure. Things are being threatened to be swept away.
Brothers and sisters in Christ, do me a favor. Don’t give this psalm to David, and don’t give it to Isaiah, and don’t give it to Jehoshaphat. It’s for you. It’s for me.
My guess is—only a guess, because I haven’t been in your shoes—my guess is you’ve never seen as much noise in your life as there is in this psalm.
I know I have not seen as much noise, heard as much noise, in my life as there is in this psalm. Some of you might be in a situation where you say, “It’s close. It’s close. I’ve had a lot of noise in my life.”
This psalm is not a sermon. I’m giving it like a sermon. It’s a song. It’s a song.
Can God give a song when everything’s shaking, and everything’s sliding, and everything’s falling apart, and the rest is being threatened by some great calamity that’s going to come in and sweep it all away?
What’s the revelation of God’s heart in this psalm? Start in verse 10:
Cease striving and know that I am God.
John Calvin thinks this refers to the wicked nations, that they’re to be still because God’s about to judge them. I have a hard time with that. I don’t know. I don’t want to stand up against John Calvin, but the margin in my Bible says, “Let go. Relax.”
I can’t imagine God saying to the nations, “Relax. I’m about to judge you.” I think this belongs to the one who’s singing the song.
Psalm 46:10. What a verse. I like the King James translation—not the translation necessarily, but I memorized it in the King James. There’s something about it:
Be still, and know that I am God.
Brothers and sisters in Christ, that would be a great verse anywhere in the Bible. That would be a great verse in Deuteronomy. That would be a great verse in Isaiah. That would be a great verse in the Gospel of John.
But God didn’t put it there. He put it in the noisiest psalm in the Bible.
Is it possible to be still and know that He’s God when everything’s being shaken up, everything’s falling down, everything’s being threatened to be wiped away, and every place you turn, on every hand, there’s no help? There’s only war all around and disunity.
It’s not only possible. It’s God’s provision. It’s God’s promise.
What’s the secret of this abiding rest? What’s the secret of a panic-free life? Let me get to the marrow of it.
Did you ever notice that when there’s some kind of a noise, your head turns in the direction of that noise? If there’s a crash, you turn. If there’s a siren, “What is that?” If there’s a bell, if there’s a scream—we’re so easily diverted. We’re so easily turning to those things.
And so, when there’s an earthquake, sometimes we get all involved with our little earthquake, or with our little landslide, or with our little tidal wave, or not getting along with brother and sister, and so on.
Verse 4:
There is a river,
The streams of which make glad the city of God,
The holy dwelling places of the Most High.
God is in the midst of her, she will not be moved;
God will help her when morning dawns.
There is a river. I don’t know if you’re familiar with Brother T. Austin-Sparks’ book, Rivers of Living Water, but he followed that river through the Scriptures. All through the Bible, you have that river—God’s answer to barrenness and fruitlessness and thirst.
Psalm 65 says, “The stream of God is full of water”—full of water. And right from Genesis, all the way to when it flows out from under the throne and under the Lamb, we have this wonderful river.
And we’re not left to guess what it is. I’m amazed at how many guesses. Some say, “Well, the river is the church. The river is the grace of God. The river is the blessing of God. The river is the fullness of the Spirit.”
I think Jesus settled it in John 7:
He that believeth on Me, as the Scripture hath said,
From within him shall flow rivers of living water.
This He spoke of the Spirit, Whom those who believed in Him were to receive.
I’ll tell you what the river is. It’s a Person. It’s the Lord. Verse 5: God is in the midst of her.
A river always there, always at hand, always cheering, always refreshing, always flowing, no matter what happens—it’s Him.
According to this psalm—and I’m not telling you I’ve been here; I just read it, and my heart cries out for it—but according to this psalm, when I’m focused on the Lord, it’s irrational to fear or fret.
And when you’re focused on the Lord, it’s irrational to fear or to fret. Verse 2 begins with the word therefore. What’s the secret of not fearing?
Look at verse 1, please:
God is our refuge and strength,
A very present help in trouble.
You glance at that verse, and I don’t want to be irreverent, but I would tear it apart. Then I’m going to put it back together one modifier at a time, in order that we might see the heart of the Lord.
It begins, “God is.” Not “God gives” or “God does.” It doesn’t tell us what He does; it tells us Who He is. God is our refuge.
When I think of refuge, I always think of the cities of refuge in the Old Testament. And two things have got to be true about the cities of refuge. Number one: somebody’s chasing you. And number two: you’re scared.
Take the principle. I don’t know what’s chasing you. Maybe your past. Maybe your conscience. Maybe some guilt. I don’t know what’s chasing you. But He presents Himself as a refuge. God is your refuge.
Now, the verse should stop there. I speak as a fool. That should be enough. God is your refuge. When the earth shakes underneath you, and God allows that which is shakable to be shaken, and you learn that God is your refuge, that should be enough.
But you’re as weak as I am, and it’s not enough. And so God said, “All right, I’m your refuge and your strength.”
Not that He gives strength. He is your strength.
You see, He gives strength when He provides for you. If He provides your financial need, if He heals your body, if He works out some solution to a problem, if He opens some door, if He blesses your ministry—then it’s God giving, God blessing, God giving you strength.
But when the bills pile up high and He doesn’t provide, when your body gets worse and worse and He doesn’t heal, when you don’t have a solution to the problem, every door is closed, and your ministry falls flat—
—and you come running helpless to the Lord, and I speak again as a fool, and all you have is Him, and you go on when you can’t go on—then He is your strength.
Wow. That should be enough. But it’s not. We’re weak. Oh, we are so frail.
And so He said, “All right. I am your refuge. I’m your strength, and I’m your help.”
It’s one thing to know someone is strong. It’s another thing to know he is strong for you. Somebody can have money—have money—but if he’s not going to give it to you to meet your needs, it doesn’t help that he’s rich.
God says, “I’m your help. I’m strong on your behalf.”
So when the earthquake comes, and the landslide comes, and the tidal wave comes, and there’s war on every side, God says, “There’s a river. God is in the midst. I’m your refuge. I’m your strength. I’m your help.”
Should be enough. It’s not enough. We’re so weak. So He said, “All right, I’m your help in trouble.”
In other words, when all these things happen—when your health is gone, death is knocking at the door, all your rotten props give way, and all creature resources are exhausted—in the day of trouble, I’m your help.
That should be enough. It’s not enough. He says, “Okay, I’m your present help. I’m your refuge. I’m your strength. I’m your help. I’m your help in trouble. I’m your present help in trouble.”
I heard a story about a little child. It tells me how old I’m starting to get to be. A child comes to his father and says, “Tell me about the old days, when a person had to get up from the chair and walk all the way to the television to turn it on or to change the channel.”
They don’t have to do that anymore. Those were the old days. Now they sit there with a button and a remote control, and they do it from a distance.
Is God in control? Yes or no? Is He in remote control? Not sitting back there pushing buttons. He’s not remote. You have a God Who is a present help.
And so you say, “That should be enough.” It ain’t.
You see how He piles on in this first verse? “I’m your refuge”—not enough. “I’m your refuge and strength”—not enough. “I’m your refuge, your strength, your help”—not enough. “I’m your refuge, your strength, your help in trouble”—not enough. “I’m your refuge, your strength, your help, your present help in trouble”—not enough.
He said, “All right, very present help.” You see what He’s doing? What a God that we have. He’s a very present help in the time of trouble.
Like verse 5: “God will help when morning dawns.” I think one translation says, “right early.” Another one says, “at the appointed time.”
Brothers and sisters, I don’t know when it’s going to happen, but you’re going to face an earthquake. There’s going to be some noise in your life. That which is stable is going to become unstable and slide into the sea. Something’s going to rise up and build up and threaten to sweep everything away. No matter where you turn, there’ll be war on every hand.
You may lose your job. You may lose your health. You may lose a family member. But you don’t have to lose your peace. You don’t have to lose your peace.
Therefore—see how the therefore comes in? “I’m your refuge. I’m your strength. I’m your help. I’m your help in trouble. I’m your present help, your very present help in trouble. Therefore, we will not fear though these things happen.”
That’s how it fits in.
Look at verse 8. It seems so out of place:
Come, behold the works of the Lord,
Who has wrought desolations in the earth.
Put that in context. That earthquake that came—come, behold the works of the Lord, Who has wrought desolations in the earth. That landslide didn’t just happen.
Don’t be afraid to say, pull out all the stops: there are no second causes to the Christian. It’s the Lord. He’s the One Who allowed that earthquake, allowed that landslide, and allowed that tidal wave to come and sweep everything away. It’s the Lord.
You say, “Why would He do that?” I tell you, we’re touching something: life and death, spiritual mindedness.
And you’re not going to study yourself into spiritual mindedness. You’re not going to get it that way. Sometimes God has to shake you into it. Sometimes God has to shake me into it.
You know why God does all these things? Because He knows in the day of the quake, in the day of the slide, in the day of the tidal wave, in the day of war, you’re going to be crowded to Christ. You’re going to turn to Him. You’re going to look to the Lord. You’re going to come to the end of yourself. You’re going to look and cry out and say, “Help!”
That’s the starting point of spiritual mindedness. That’s where it begins: seeing the Lord in life.
And once our eyes are on the Lord in life, and then once we’re seeing Him in the Scripture, then He can begin to work with us, to change us and conform us to His image.
This psalm has been called a Christmas psalm because of verses 7 and 11. Some say some copyists dropped it from verse 3, but it used to be there too:
The Lord of hosts is with us;
The God of Jacob is our stronghold.
Emmanuel: God with us. The God of Jacob is our stronghold.
“The Lord of hosts is with us.” We read that, la, la, la. Do you know Who the Lord of hosts is?
Host is used three ways in the Bible. One time it’s talking about the heavens—the host, the heavenly host, all the stars in the galaxy. That’s the host.
Another time it’s talking about the angels: the heavenly host, the unnumbered billions of angels of God. Sometimes Israel, the army of Israel, is called the host of the Lord.
The Lord of hosts—the Lord of heaven and earth, and the armies of heaven and earth—are with you.
I was amazed when I saw, “The Lord of hosts is with you.” But I got more amazed when I saw the next part: “The God of Jacob is your stronghold.”
That’s one of my favorite titles of the Lord in the Old Testament. Jacob was a conniver. He was a maneuverer. He manipulated. He was a schemer and a wire-puller. He was a heel-puller: Jacob.
You know why I love that title? Because if He’s the God of Jacob, He’s the God of Ed Miller. He’s your God. He’s my God.
I’ll tell you why that’s so precious to me. When I come to share, I am always prepared. I’m not always ready. I’m hardly ever ready. But I’m always prepared. That wasn’t always the case.
Some years ago, I had an opportunity to speak at a missionary conference. And I wasn’t prepared because I could wing it. They didn’t know that much, and I figured I’d just wing it.
I was sitting on a fancy chair, waiting to speak. I didn’t even have a text. I had no verse. I didn’t know. And I was starting to sweat. I’m saying, “Lord, You’ve got to help me. I don’t even—if I could think of something, maybe I could get on a roll and say something.”
And the missionary, she was up there singing, and I knew when she was done, I was done.
And I remember to this day what she was singing: “Is it nothing to you, all ye that pass by?” And I was praying that if He wouldn’t give me a text, He’d give her a thousand more verses to that song.
Now, this is going to sound like something I made up, but Lillian was there, and she’s my witness. I remembered, “God of Jacob.” And I said, “Lord, I’m Jacob. You’re the God of Jacob. You’ve got to help me.”
This is one of those times, you know, when you flip the Bible open and dive-bomb your index finger down and hope that God’s going to meet you. He did, honey.
I opened to Isaiah 41:14. And it says:
I will help thee, O Jacob, My servant.
You see, I can laugh now too. But that day I wept.
That became my text for that morning as I confessed my sin. I’ve never been unprepared again.
He’s the God of Jacob. He’s your God. The Lord of hosts is with you.
So He engineers a shaking in your life, and a sliding in your life, and threats. It’s only because He wants you to know that He’s your refuge and He’s your strength.
He doesn’t want you to trust other refuges. He doesn’t want you to trust other strengths. He doesn’t want you to run to other resources. He’s your refuge. He’s your strength. He’s your help. He’s your help in trouble. He’s your present help in trouble. He’s your very present help in trouble.
The Lord of hosts is with you. The God of Jacob is your stronghold.
Want to be spiritually minded?
Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace,
Whose mind is stayed on Thee.
Actually, the Hebrew doesn’t say “perfect peace.” It says, “peace, peace.” When the Hebrew wanted to show the fullness of an idea, they’d repeat the word.
“I will keep him in peace, peace.” What follows peace? Peace. And what follows peace, peace? That’s what you have from strength to strength. What follows strength? Strength. And what follows that? Strength.
And that’s why you have from faith to faith. What follows faith? Faith. What follows that? More faith. And that’s why you have from glory to glory. What follows glory? Glory. And what follows that? More glory.
From glory to glory, glory to glory; strength and strength; and Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on Thee.
I want you to look one final time at verse 10, and I’m going to show you two things that it means.
Be still.
Be quiet. Relax. Let go. What it means is: be still in your heart. No fear. No fretting. No anxiety.
There is a river. You have the Lord. He’s always there. Look to Him. He engineers those things to drive you to Him. We need to look to Christ. He’s there. He’ll be there.
But it also means something else. I was amazed that I did a word study on this “be still,” because I thought it meant, “Be still in my heart.” Here’s the other meaning:
Be still. Shut up.
It’s what it means. No complaining. No questioning. No arguing. No repining. No grumbling. No murmuring.
God, again, has a higher interest in you than you do. God has a higher interest in me than I do. He desires more that we know what spiritual mindedness is than we could ever believe.
And He will engineer your life. He will shake what needs to be shaken. He will dissolve what needs to be dissolved. He’ll sweep away what needs to be swept away.
Until finally we come to the river. There is a river. God is in the midst.
Until we let go of all our own resources and turn to Him Who is our refuge, is our strength, is our present help, is our very present help.
The Lord of hosts is with you. The God of Jacob is your stronghold.
So, think about it.
Let’s pray.
Father, we praise You for this psalm—not what we think it might mean, but everything You know it means. Will You work that in our hearts so that we can begin to be spiritually minded by focusing our hearts on the Lord Jesus, Who is all in all, and everything and all things are summed up in Him?
How we praise You for that river that’s always there, and the grace You give to bring us to that river.
Now, even this weekend, enable us to drink deeply from that river. We ask in the all-prevailing name of our Lord Jesus. Amen.
Thank you.