Revive Our Hearts

Announcer: Revive Our Hearts is brought to you in part by members of our Revive Partner Team. Here's one of those sweet members right now.

Sarah Werkin: Hi, I'm Sarah Werkin and I've been a supporter for Revive Our Hearts for a little while now. I'm a supporter of Revive Our Hearts because I've been listening since I was in my teens. I remember listening to it on the radio with my mom. It's been with me through some very difficult seasons. Like, the time when I would listen to it on my way to work when I was working six days a week, and was having friendship troubles, navigating hard church situations, and my years of singleness.

I listened to it as I was in my 20s and struggled with being friends walk away from the Lord. Then getting married and me still being single. I know especially for me during that time, Nancy's example of faithfulness to God from her early years and in her singleness were just such a blessing. I got married when I was 31 years old to a godly man, and Revive Our Hearts has helped me walk through growing as a wife, walking through three miscarriages with trusting God.

Now has helped me keep focused in a season of new motherhood. I look forward to sharing Revive Our Hearts with my daughter someday. And of all the ministries, my husband and I could support, Revive Our Hearts was an easy choice. It's a place that has given to me spiritually through the years, and it's just such a privilege to support them.

Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth: Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth points out that throughout scripture, people struggling through the night are often delivered in the morning. It's not that God is not working during the night. It's not that God is sleeping during the night. It's just that in the light of dawn, we can see what we couldn't see during the night. And that is how He was helping us.

Announcer: This is the Revive Our Hearts podcast with Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth, co-author of You Can Trust God to Write Your Story, for June 12th, 2026. I'm Danna Grash. If you're struggling with confusion or discouragement, you're about to hear a message of real hope. Here's Nancy to continue our current series, A Mighty Fortress is our God.

Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth: Well, we're on day five of our series on Psalm 46, and today we're coming to verse 5. So we're taking a leisurely pace, but hasn't this been rich, just to see how every word of God matters and means something and speaks to our hearts. I'm actually skipping over stuff too. But this has just been so rich to me, and as you've heard, if you were part of the series earlier, this series has been being birthed, is being birthed out of a crucible that I'm walking through as we are recording.

Now, by the time we air this, I don't know where I'll be on all that, but God knows. And in the meantime, I am anchoring my heart, my mind. We will lose our minds if we don't tether them to God's word and His ways. This world is bizarre and you can't look at what's going on in the news and think about what's going on in your own world without, you know, just wanting to throw your hands up.

A woman said earlier today, as a result of circumstances in her life, she was in a deep depression. There's so much in this world that could make you live in deep depression if you don't know God, who is our refuge and strength and a very present help in trouble. So I'm kind of preaching to myself, counseling my own heart as we're walking through this series, but it's encouraging to me to be hearing how it's ministering grace to many of your hearts as well.

Let me just read through the first portion of the Psalm and then we'll park today on verse 5, which has become one of my favorite verses in this Psalm. God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. There is trouble, but there's always God. Therefore, we will not fear, though the earth gives way, though the mountains be moved or hurled into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam, though the mountains tremble at its swelling.

Then big contrast here, verse 4. There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy habitation of the Most High. And we said that that river is the presence of God, the grace of God. It's a gently flowing river, it's the river of His Spirit, the river of His Word. We traced that river in the last session from Genesis to Revelation and lots of other verses we could have added. But it's a river that contrasts with the surging, roaring, destructive waters of God's enemies.

It's the river of God's blessing that flows into the city of God, the people of God. Those who know God, those whose lives are the habitation, the dwelling place of the Most High God. Now, verse 5, God is in the midst of her. Who is her there? The city of God, the people of God. Jerusalem, the earthly Jerusalem, the heavenly Jerusalem, the spiritual Jerusalem, God's people.

God is in the midst of her. She shall not be moved. And then I love this phrase, 5B, God will help her when morning dawns. God is in the midst of her. This is one of the most precious promises of God to His people. To dwell not only with His people, but in His people. God is in the midst of her. You see it in the Old Testament, you see it in the New Testament.

It's a thread, another thread. And by the way, some of you are Bible teachers, or you love studying the scripture. This is the way to study God's Word, as far as I'm concerned. People ask me for like secrets of my study methods, I have none. I just find something like the river of God, or the city of God, or God in the midst of her. And then I start looking for it all the way through scripture.

As you cross-reference these things, you put them together, a picture emerges of God's ways, God's redemptive plan. It's just why it's so important to be reading through the scripture. To not just camp in the Psalms, wonderful as they are. I'm in the Psalms in this whole series, but can you see how I'm pulling in Old and New Testament to tell us what these things mean, to shed light and to give us understanding.

So God is in the midst of her. Go back to, think about that passage in Leviticus 26. I will make my dwelling among you, God says. And I will walk among you, and will be your God, and you shall be my people. God is interested in relationship. God is interested in being near to His people. Proximity matters to God. He doesn't want to be just some God out there that we hear about and we talk about or we give, you know, mental assent to.

He wants to be in us, to dwell in us, to be related to us, to make His dwelling place in us. That is the picture that we have in the Old Testament temple, the Tabernacle. What was the point? Not just a building or a tent where people go to have religious services, but God says, I will dwell with you. I will be in you. I will be among you.

And we have even that sense of that being God's goal in the Old Testament. Zechariah chapter 2 verse 10, Sing and rejoice, O daughter of Zion, for behold, I come and I will dwell in your midst, declares the Lord. Some of you are looking at me like, what's the big deal? Well, you're not thinking. What is the big deal? God, the God of the universe, the Lord of hosts, Yahweh, Elohim, the God, the transcendent God, the creator, the preserver.

He says, I will dwell in you. I will dwell in your midst. I will dwell in your church, in your family, in your life. The presence of God. Everything in our lives that's good and holy and valuable and wonderful flows out of God dwelling in our midst. God says, I will dwell in your midst. John chapter 1, this comes to the New Testament. The Word became flesh.

God put on human flesh and dwelt among us. He tabernacled among us, and we have seen His glory. We know Him as Immanuel, God with us. That's what Psalm 46 looks forward to. God is in the midst of her. And when Jesus returned to heaven, He promised that He would send the Holy Spirit. John 14, Jesus said, he dwells with you and he will be in you.

Christ in you, the Holy Spirit in you, your hope of glory. See, this isn't just a Psalm, a phrase you can just pass over, Psalm 46. God is in the midst of her. So what? There's a huge so what to all of that. God is in the midst of you makes all the difference in the world. And then we have that new heaven and the new earth, the city of God in Revelation 21.

I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. Is that awesome? That the holy God would make His dwelling place with poor, sinful, wicked, fallen, prodigal man. Of course, He can only do that because He has sent His son to redeem us from our sin. The dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be His people, and God himself will be with them as their God.

In his commentary on Psalm 46, John Calvin said, if we desire to be protected by the hand of God, we must be concerned above all things that he may dwell amongst us. For all hope of safety depends upon his presence alone. God is in the midst of her. The presence of God is our highest hope, our ultimate hope and blessing. And you saw in verse 4, there's a river whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy habitation of the Most High.

You saw that the place where God's presence dwells is happy and it's holy. Now in verse 5, God is in the midst of her. She shall not be moved. God will help her when morning dawns. We see that the place where God's presence dwells is safe and it's secure. Happy and holy, safe and secure. It doesn't get any better than that, ladies. That's what happens when God's presence dwells in and among us.

So God is in the midst of her, she shall not be moved. That is, she will not be destroyed. She will not be defeated. It doesn't mean you won't have problems, but it means that when God is in the midst of His city, His people, your life, you will not be defeated, you will not be destroyed by the enemies of God. Now, that's such a contrast to what we've already looked at in verse 2, where we saw the mountains being hurled into the sea.

Mountains being moved into the sea. And yet God says His holy ones will not be moved. The mountains will be moved, but you're not going to get overthrown. How amazing is that? Verse 6 tells us, we haven't got there yet, we will in the next program, but that the kingdoms totter. The kingdoms of the earth are not secure. From an earthly point of view, mountains and kingdoms seem much more mighty and enduring and impressive than the city of God, the church, the people of God.

We feel weak and frail and overrun so many times by this world and its system. But if God is in the midst of His people, they have a stability that will outlive and outlast all other forces and powers in the universe. And God's people will be standing firm when kingdoms and mountains crumble and are no more. That's what happens when God is in the midst of us.

Because God is in the midst of her, the city of God, the people of God, are more secure than the mighty mountains of verse 3. Psalm 112 says, The righteous will never be moved. He will be remembered forever. That gives your life, that gives your emotions, that gives your mind stability and anchor for your soul. Here's how my friend, Matthew Henry, says it. The church shall survive the world, and be in bliss when that is in ruins.

The church is built upon a rock, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. If God be for us, if God be with us, we need not be moved at the most violent attempts made against us. You see, we're so used to thinking in this feeble, weak, frail, overcome, you know, Islam, it's taking over the world, the forces of evil, the forces of materialism and consumerism and socialism and bad government.

We just end up in this little, you know, puny little mindset that leaves you depressed. That's why we need to counsel our hearts, renew our hearts in the ways of God. When God is in the midst of her, she shall not be moved. We need a whole different perspective, God's perspective. And the verse goes on to say, not only will we not be moved, defeated, destroyed, but God will help her when morning dawns.

He is the only sure help and hope for His people. And scripture reminds us over and over again of the futility, the foolishness of looking to anyone or anything else for help. Psalm 60, O grant us help against the foe, for vain is the salvation of man. With God we shall do valiantly. It is He who will tread down our foes. Psalm 146, verse 3, Put not your trust in princes, in a son of man, in whom there is no salvation.

Princes can seem, you know, your prince charming, they can seem wealthy and handsome and secure, but God says, don't put your hope there. Verse 5, Blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the Lord his God. The great hymn writer and co-founder of the Methodist movement, Charles Wesley, was preaching once in the fields of Ireland when he was attacked and pursued by a mob who disapproved of his doctrine.

So he sought refuge in the house of a local farmer, and the farmer's wife sent him out to hide in the milk shed. But shortly, the angry mob arrived at the house and demanded to know where Wesley was. Well, the farmer's wife offered the opponents, the pursuers something to eat, and while they were snacking, she went out to the milk shed and told Mr. Wesley to go out through the window and to hide under a nearby hedge that was located next to a brook.

It was in that place, hiding from his pursuers, with their cries echoing all around him, that Charles Wesley wrote what some have called the greatest hymn in the English language, Jesus, Lover of My Soul. Let me read the second stanza to you, and just picture him under that hedge next to the brook. Other refuge have I none, hangs my helpless soul on Thee. Leave, oh, leave me not alone, still support and comfort me.

All my trust on Thee is stayed, all my help from Thee I bring. Cover my defenseless head with the shadow of Thy wing. I don't know that there's any line in hymnody that is more precious to me than that one. I've cried that out so many times, O Lord, cover my defenseless head with the shadow of your wing. And though we may be defenseless, what safer place is there to be than under the shadow of the wing of our helper God.

God will help her when morning dawns. Literally, at the turning of the morning, at the break of day. It's so often true in scripture that dawn, the breaking of the day, is seen to be the time of God's help. Let me give you three examples. I'll just mention them and you can go back and look at them more carefully. But in Exodus 14, you remember the story of how the Israelites had just been delivered out of Egypt and were being pursued by the Egyptian army.

They were hemmed in at the Red Sea. The people were terrified. And Moses said, don't be afraid. Seems crazy, doesn't it? Don't be afraid. Stand firm and see the salvation of the Lord which he will work for you today. The Lord will fight for you, and you have only to be silent. Then verse 24, And in the morning watch, the Lord in the pillar of fire and of cloud looked down on the Egyptian forces and threw the Egyptian forces into a panic, clogging their chariot wheels so that they drove heavily.

And the Egyptians said, let us flee from before Israel, for the Lord fights for them against the Egyptians. Then the Lord said to Moses, stretch out your hand over the sea that the water may come back upon the Egyptians, upon their chariots and upon their horsemen. So Moses stretched out his hand over the sea and the sea returned to its normal course when the morning appeared. And as the Egyptians fled into it, the Lord threw the Egyptians into the midst of the sea.

The waters returned and covered the chariots and the horsemen of all the host of Pharaoh that had followed them into the sea, not one of them remained. But the people of Israel walked on dry ground through the sea. The waters being a wall to them on their right hand and on their left. God saves his people, helps them at the turn of day, the break of day, the dawning of the day, and at the same time brings judgment on his enemies.

Second Kings 19 is a passage we've looked at in this series because we said that Psalm 46 may have been written on the occasion of God sending a great deliverance to his people when King Sennacherib and the Assyrian army were terrifying and terrorizing Jerusalem and the inhabitants of Judah. And King Hezekiah cried out to the Lord. And then we read, therefore, thus says the Lord concerning the king of Assyria.

He shall not come into this city or shoot an arrow there or come before it with a shield or cast up a siege mound against it. By the way that he came, by the same he shall return, and he shall not come into this city, declares the Lord. Now, we believe it because we've read the story. But if you were there in that moment, would you have believed it with that army breathing down your neck?

God says, for I will defend this city to save it for my own sake and for the sake of my servant David. And that night the angel of the Lord went out and struck down 185,000 in the camp of the Assyrians. And when people arose early in the morning, behold, these were all dead bodies. Supernatural deliverance, supernatural help, no human explanation.

Then Sennacherib, king of Assyria, departed and went home and lived at Nineveh. God fulfills his promises at the break of day, God will come and help her. Well, he may not come immediately. It may not seem that he is coming to our aid immediately, but he will come. And sometimes we have to go through the night first before we get to the break of day.

The night may seem long, it may seem endless. But we need to remind ourselves and remind each other that dawn is ahead. And with the dawn of the day will come His supernatural, right on time, help. Weeping may endure for the night, Psalm 30 says. But joy comes when? In the morning. Now, something that just struck me as I was thinking about this last night, it's not that God is not working during the night.

It's not that God is sleeping during the night. And then he wakes up when the sun comes up and he goes, oh, I think I better go down and help those people. It's just that in the light of dawn, we can see what we couldn't see during the night. And that is how He was helping us. As the morning light dissipates the shadows of night, so the rising of the Son of Righteousness signals the dispersing of the darkness, of evil and adversity.

God is working all through the night. He was in that Red Sea situation, he was during the night with the Assyrians. He was working, but when it's dark, we can't see what God's doing. And that's why I love that quote by Pastor John Piper, in every situation, God is doing a thousand different things that we cannot see and we do not know. It may be night where you live right now.

And you think nothing's happening. Nothing's changing. Is God really working? Well, the scripture says God will help at dawn, and what I think that's really saying is at dawn, you will see how God has been helping. God is a helper and He will disperse and dissipate the night. Let me just remind us that His help is not just for extreme emergency situations, much as we need it then, but it's for every day.

Because every hour I need Thee, right? The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases. His mercies never come to an end. They are new every morning. Great is Your faithfulness. And if I could quote my friend Matthew Henry again, he says, this may be applied by particular believers to themselves. That means you can apply it. If God be in our hearts, in the midst of us by His Word dwelling richly in us, we shall be established.

We shall be helped. Let us therefore trust and not be afraid. All is well and will end well. As I meditated on this verse in Psalm 46, verse 5, God is in the midst of her, she shall not be moved. God will help her when morning dawns. I couldn't help but think of a hymn that is familiar perhaps to most of you. Let me just read the words and let's affirm them in our hearts.

How firm a foundation, ye saints of the Lord, is laid for your faith in His excellent Word. What more can He say than to you He has said, to you who for refuge to Jesus have fled. Fear not, I am with Thee, oh, be not dismayed. For I am thy God and will still give thee aid. I'll strengthen and help thee, and cause thee to stand, upheld by my righteous omnipotent hand.

When through fiery trials thy pathway shall lie, my grace, all-sufficient, shall be thy supply. The flame shall not hurt thee. I only design thy dross to consume and thy gold to refine.

Announcer: Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth will be right back to pray. I know that teaching from Psalm 46 has encouraged many listeners. It's part of a podcast series called A Mighty Fortress Is Our God. You can hear any of the programs you missed at ReviveOurHearts.com or on the Revive Our Hearts app. At Revive Our Hearts, we're committed to bringing you this type of teaching.

Nancy searches the scripture carefully. She wants every word to count. She wants to be truthful, practical, and to be living out what she's teaching. This kind of approach had a big effect on one listener who emailed us. She said, I don't know how trivially I would have lived my life if not for God's word and His Holy Spirit working in my life, especially through your program. Your life and calling has impacted my life, and I hope to leave this legacy to the next generation.

Thank you for dividing the word well. So many people have a part to play in this type of deep life change. Nancy studies and teaches. A whole team of people work behind the scenes, and a dedicated group of listeners support the program financially. Would you stand with us and keep the program on the air for women like this one, who's challenged by God's word because of this ministry?

You can visit ReviveOurHearts.com to make a donation. When you do that during the month of June, we'll show our appreciation by sending you Nancy's book, Dwelling, 30 days with God in the Psalms. This devotional helps you slow down and savor His word one passage at a time, so your heart can rest in who He is. Does it ever seem like enemies of the Gospel have so much strength that they've become invincible?

On Monday, Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth will give you some new perspective. Please be back with us then. Now, she's here to pray, based on a promise from Psalm 46.

Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth: Lord, how we praise you for your wonderful, wonderful promises, and for this one in particular, which we take to our own hearts this day. God is in the midst of her. She shall not be moved. God will help her when morning dawns.

Lord, thank you that soon this long night on this sinful planet will be ended, and the great eternal, cloudless morning will dawn. And forever, we will be in your presence. So help us to remember that when it seems really dark around us and to cling to you with eyes of faith that one day will be sight. In Jesus' name, we pray. Amen.

Announcer: This program is a listener-supported production of Revive Our Hearts in Niles, Michigan, calling women to freedom, fullness, and fruitfulness in Christ.