Revive Our Hearts

Pam: Hi, I've been listening to Revive Our Hearts since its beginning. I'm very thankful for Nancy's love for Jesus and His word. God has used Revive Our Hearts to challenge and encourage me. Thank you, Nancy, and the Revive Our Hearts team.

Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth: Are catastrophes random? Or are they purposeful tools in the hand of a mighty God? On February 8th, 1750, London was hit by a significant though not catastrophic earthquake. John Wesley was in London at the time and recorded the event in his journal. He followed his account with this comment. He said, "How gently does God deal with this nation. Oh, that our repentance may prevent heavier marks of His displeasure."

You see, Wesley believed that earthquakes, major storms, epidemics, and other such events were not just accidents of nature. They were providential acts, if nothing else intended to serve as warnings to awaken people out of their complacency and to cause them to seriously consider their spiritual condition and their standing before a holy God.

Dannah Gresh: This is the Revive Our Hearts podcast with Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth, co-author of *You Can Trust God to Write Your Story*. For June 17, 2026, I'm Dannah Gresh. Hey there, we've been walking through Psalm 46 for the last week and a half now, and it's been such a comfort series. Today, Nancy's going to share more about preparing our hearts for hard circumstances like that earthquake that shook London in February 1750.

Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth: Exactly one month later, on March 8th, John's brother, Charles Wesley, was in London when a second earthquake hit. It was a stronger shock, but still not catastrophic. Within a matter of weeks, Charles had published a sermon called *The Cause and Cure of Earthquakes*. I've read much of that sermon over the last couple of days, and it's really interesting to see how he explained all this. Then he also published a collection of hymns called *Hymns Occasioned by the Earthquake, March 8th, 1750*.

Charles Wesley wrote hundreds and hundreds of hymns, and did you know that he wrote a series of earthquake hymns? These hymns called for the British people to acknowledge God's gracious warning and to repent of their sins. The collection ends with a hymn that's based on Psalm 46. It's a hymn of reassurance that affirms God's power to protect His people. I'd like to read the first stanza and then the last two stanzas. If you can find that hymn online, you'll see that it follows through the progression of Psalm 46 as we've been studying it over these last days. Here's the first stanza:

God, the omnipresent God,

Our strength and refuge stands,

Ready to support our load,

And bear us in His hands;

Readiest when we need Him most,

When to Him distressed we cry,

All who on His mercy trust

Shall find deliverance nigh.

Then the last two stanzas, and these relate to the verses of Psalm 46 that we're going to look at in this final session. Wesley said:

Sons of men, be still, and know

That I am God alone!

I my saving power will show,

And make my goodness known;

All shall with my will comply,

Fear the name to sinners given,

Bow before the Lord Most High,

The Lord of earth and heaven.

For His people in distress

The God of Jacob stands,

Bears us till our troubles cease

In His almighty hands;

He for us His power hath shown,

He doth still our refuge prove,

Loves the Lord of hosts His own,

And shall forever love.

Now, that's kind of quaint mid-18th-century language, so you may not have caught all that. But go to ReviveOurHearts.com and we have posted for you there all 12 stanzas of this hymn, and you can look at them and hold them up next to Psalm 46 and see how Psalm 46 is expressed in this poetic hymn setting.

As we come to these final verses today of Psalm 46, I want to read through the entire Psalm. I hope you've been reading it yourself, perhaps memorizing at least portions of it. But let's read the Psalm in its entirety and then look at the last two verses.

God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. 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. Selah. 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; she shall not be moved; God will help her when morning dawns.

The nations rage, the kingdoms totter; He utters His voice, the earth melts. The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress. Selah. Come, behold the works of the Lord, how He has brought desolations on the earth. He makes wars cease to the end of the earth; He breaks the bow and shatters the spear; He burns the chariots with fire.

Be still, 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 fortress. I hope you'll find yourself saying that refrain over and over again in the days ahead as perhaps you may be facing storms or thinking about some of the desolations taking place in this earth.

Let's go back to that very familiar phrase: "Be still, and know that I am God." You see that phrase everywhere in the Christian world. You see it on framed pieces in Christian bookstores. You see it on note cards. Sometimes you'll see it on a sign in the church, maybe to suggest that we should be reverent in our worship. We sing it sometimes in choruses, and the one that I'm most familiar with just repeats that phrase over and over again, and it's slow, meditative, contemplative music.

It's just this real simple, worshipful, reflective refrain. At first hearing, "Be still, and know that I am God" sounds like it is encouraging us to lead a quiet, contemplative life. We think of it as a peaceful, calming, reassuring word of comfort for hassled, harried moments. And it is. But as I've been studying this passage, I've come to realize it's a lot more than that.

In this context, I believe that this phrase is actually a command. It's a command to those who have been resisting God and threatening His people. Remember this Psalm was written on the occasion of some attempted attack on Jerusalem. And God has been giving His people reasons to have courage and faith, to be free from fear because God is their refuge. They can run to Him and be safe. He is their strength when they are weak and outnumbered by the enemy. He is their helper when they are helpless.

So He's been encouraging His people, but He also has a word now to speak to those who oppose Him, to the enemies. He says, "Be still! Know that I am God." It's the equivalent of "Hush! Stop fighting! Surrender! Drop your weapons!" It's a word to the enemy. Know that I am God. That word "know" is to recognize, to admit, to confess, to acknowledge that I am the God of the universe. You are not God. I am God. Stop arguing about it. Give in. Surrender. You see how you read it that way to these enemies, these forces of evil and adversity. Be still. Stop fighting.

Derek Kidner, who's written a wonderful commentary on the Psalms, says this way: "The injunction 'be still' is not in the first place comfort for the harassed, but a rebuke to a restless and turbulent world. Quiet! In fact, leave off!" It resembles the command to another raging sea: "Peace, be still!" And the end in view is stated in terms not of man's hopes, but of God's glory.

The goal is that God will be exalted, that His name will be reverenced, that He will be worshipped, that every knee will bow, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. So He speaks to the waves. Jesus does from that boat with His terrified disciples. "Lord Jesus, do something!" Jesus, "Okay, I'll do something. Hush! Peace, be still."

He speaks to the waves. And here in a parallel passage in Psalm 46, God speaks to these raging nations, these tottering kingdoms. Be still. Stop fighting. To this warring, threatening, unbelieving world, He says, "Be still, and know that I am God." But He doesn't just speak it to the enemy. He speaks those words to our own hearts. Because in our hearts, there so frequently is lodged unbelief, resistance, warring that's going on within.

So God says to us, "Be still. Stop fighting. Stop wrestling. Stop doubting. Stop being unbelieving. Stop cowering to the enemy. Stop wrestling about who's in charge of this world. Be still. Stop striving and resisting, and know that I am God." So He speaks it to the warring, wrestling world. He speaks it to our own warring, restless hearts. Be still, and know that I am God.

He goes on to say, "I will be exalted among the nations. I will be exalted in the earth." Earlier on in this passage, the nations and the earth both posed a threat. Remember the nations raged in verse 6, and in verse 2, the earth gave way. But now those nations and that earth have become a stage on which the power and glory of God are displayed. I will be exalted among the nations, those raging nations. I will be exalted among the nations. I will be exalted in the earth.

That earth that had mountains that were being hurled into the sea, that raging sea—I will be exalted over all of that. Those mountains, that earth, those nations have now been brought under the control of the sovereign Lord of the universe, and they are serving His purposes. Could I go back one more time to my friend Matthew Henry? I love what he said. He said, "Let His enemies be still and threaten no more, but know it to their terror that He is God, one infinitely above them."

"And let His own people be still. Let them be calm and sedate and tremble no more, but know to their comfort that the Lord is God. He is God alone and will be exalted above the heathen." God says, "I will be exalted." The outcome is not in question. It's not a matter of let's wait and see what the last chapter looks like. The last chapter has been written, and we know who wins.

And by the way, this is not any kind of battle where God and Satan are equally fighting against each other. I read recently that it's more like a picture of God being the heavyweight champion of the world and fighting against some pathetic, quivering three-year-old. I mean, Satan is no match for God. God says, "I will be exalted." Your problems are no match for God. Your husband is no match for God. Your prodigal teen is no match for God.

You are no match for God. The complacency in your church is no match for God. The contention in your family is no match for God. The frustrations and evils in your workplace are no match for God. Your addicted friend who can't seem to get free from sinful bondage, that's no match for God. There's no bondage, no power, no force, no evil, no pressure, no problem that is any match for God. God says, "I will be exalted. I'll be exalted in the nations. I'll be exalted on the earth."

Now, you may not see God being exalted quite yet. You may not be able to see the outcome except by faith, but you can be confident that it will be true. In the meantime, what do you do? Well, you sing. Remember we said Psalm 46 is a song to be sung by female voices or instruments pitched at a female voice level.

It's interesting that in a psalm that has so much about nations raging and mountains crumbling and seas churning and you have tsunami, earthquake, tornado, hurricane-like circumstances being described, this is a song to be sung by voices at a female level. I like that. It says as women, and I don't want to overstate this application, but I think we can take away and say that God loves to hear our voice in the midst of tumult and turmoil.

He wants to hear us sing. God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. The only way you can sing when you're in trouble is to sing through faith. You can't see the outcome. You don't see how it ends. You don't see how God's going to resolve the difficulty. I've shared with you in this series that over these recent months, I've been walking through some deep waters, hard times.

Don't try and guess what's going on because you don't know and it's not appropriate for me to share publicly. But around me, there are some circumstances that are just inexplicable, unfathomable, hard. I don't know what to do. I don't know how to respond. I don't know quite how to be who God wants me to be in that situation. I can be frustrated and fearful, and at moments, I have been. I can be resentful, and at moments, I've headed that direction.

Or I can put on faith, trust that God is who He says He is, and sing. Sing. I don't mean just literally sing, although that's not a bad thing to do either. But I mean from your heart, sing to the Lord. And so we come to the last verse of this Psalm, the refrain that's repeated in verses 7 and 11. We see that this is a response we are to have to these wonderful promises we've been given.

God is our refuge, God is our strength, God is our helper. He will be exalted in the earth, among the nations. Those are great and precious promises. So what's our response? Those who have trusted in Him as their refuge, those who have cried out to Him for help, and those who have experienced His deliverance, by faith if nothing else, triumphantly, joyfully sing out once again the refrain.

The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress. There may be a gazillion hosts against you. Your world or the whole world may be in a state of upheaval, but we don't have to fear them because the sovereign Lord of hosts is on our side. And as Romans 8:31 says, "If God is for us, who can be against us?" He is with us. He is with you. He has promised never to leave you, never to forsake you.

You may flee to Him and find in Him a refuge, a strong and mighty fortress for your soul now and for all eternity. It strikes me that if Old Testament believers could sing this song, and did, how much more can we who understand that in Christ and in what He did for us on the cross, we have a sure eternal refuge for our souls. And so let me close this series with that familiar hymn that was inspired by Psalm 46.

We said at the beginning that this Psalm is thought of as Martin Luther's Psalm. Remember when he was discouraged or distressed or fearful in the wake of what was going on in the Reformation? He would turn to his friend and co-worker, Philip Melanchthon, and he would say, "Philip, let us sing the 46th Psalm." And then they would sing their translation, which has now been translated from the German into the hymn that we know as *A Mighty Fortress Is Our God*.

And I want to just read the words and ask you to bask in them, to rejoice in them, by faith to believe them, and to thank God for being that fortress for your soul.

A mighty fortress is our God, a bulwark never failing;

Our helper He, amid the flood of mortal ills prevailing:

For still our ancient foe doth seek to work us woe;

His craft and power are great, and, armed with cruel hate,

On earth is not his equal.

Did we in our own strength confide, our striving would be losing;

Were not the right man on our side, the man of God’s own choosing:

Dost ask who that may be? Christ Jesus, it is He;

Lord Sabaoth, His name, from age to age the same,

And He must win the battle.

And though this world, with devils filled, should threaten to undo us,

We will not fear, for God hath willed His truth to triumph through us:

The Prince of Darkness grim, we tremble not for him;

His rage we can endure, for lo, his doom is sure,

One little word shall fell him.

That word above all earthly powers, no thanks to them, abideth;

The Spirit and the gifts are ours through Him who with us sideth:

Let goods and kindred go, this mortal life also;

The body they may kill: God’s truth abideth still,

His kingdom is forever. Amen.

Dannah Gresh: Amen. That is Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth quoting a hymn, a hymn that's encouraged the church for centuries: *A Mighty Fortress Is Our God*. That hymn was inspired by Psalm 46, and we've had the joy of studying that passage together over the last couple of weeks. Now, if you've missed any of our Psalm 46 episodes, remember you can catch them at ReviveOurHearts.com or on the Revive Our Hearts app. Just look for the series, *A Mighty Fortress Is Our God*.

Now, all month long, we have been celebrating our Revive Partners. These friends of the ministry give monthly, they pray consistently, and they share the message of Revive Our Hearts. Could you do those three things? Give monthly, pray consistently, and share the message you've heard. If you answered yes, then you have a chance to make a big difference. Revive Our Hearts depends on the monthly partner team to keep the ministry going.

General donations to the ministry go up and down based on a lot of factors, but the monthly Revive Partner team provides a solid base of support that helps us weather those ups and downs. When we're in shakier seasons, we know those Revive Partners are standing with us. When you become a Revive Partner, we're going to give you a free registration to the upcoming True Woman conference.

And by the way, registration will be opening for True Woman 27 in just a couple of weeks. We'll also send our Revive Partners one of Nancy's books when you sign up. Those are just a few of the benefits you'll experience. I hope you'll get all the details on becoming a monthly partner at ReviveOurHearts.com/partner.

Now, if you can't commit to monthly support but you'd still like to help, you can make a one-time donation at ReviveOurHearts.com/donate. When you do that, we'll send you Nancy's classic devotional, *Dwell: 30 Days with God in the Psalms*. That's our way of saying thank you. Well, tomorrow we'll hear how this week's message is affecting women where they live. What did their storms look like? How has God proved to be a mighty fortress for them?

Guest (Female): I've had an affliction where I feel like I constantly can't get my breath, and so doctors have been really trying to figure this out and what is causing it. But I was reading in the scripture one time, and it says that my sighing is not hidden from you. And God's presence has just been a theme in my life, that He is at my right hand, I will not be shaken. And so this was just another reminder of His presence and He is with us, and that is the encouragement. In His presence is fullness of joy.

Dannah Gresh: Please be back for Revive Our Hearts.