Revive Our Hearts

Veronica: One reason I'm a partner is because of Revive Our Hearts' faithfulness to God's word, faithfulness to the ministry, faithfulness to just women all over the country, and that you love the word of God. I am so grateful that you are here and doing the work that you do. Thank you so much.

Dannah Gresh: Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth was studying a passage about a violent storm when she was struck by major news.

Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth: I can still remember the morning while I was actually memorizing and meditating on Psalm 46 early in my own journey through that psalm. In the middle of that quiet time, as I received the news, heard the news of the massive earthquake that had struck off the coast of Japan. Magnitude 9.0.

The most powerful earthquake known to ever have hit Japan, and one of the five most powerful earthquakes in the world since modern record keeping began in 1900. Of course, as you remember, that massive earthquake was followed by more than 50 aftershocks, some of them as large as 6.0 magnitude. And then the earthquake, you remember, triggered the giant tsunami with waves of up to 128 feet that battered the coast of Japan, traveled as far inland as six miles, and just swallowing everything in its path. The images of that surging water were apocalyptic. And it made this passage come even more alive to me as we'll be looking at Psalm chapter 46, verses 2 and 3 today.

Dannah Gresh: This is the Revive Our Hearts podcast with Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth, author of Heaven Rules, for June 10th, 2026. I'm Dannah Gresh. Nancy's been preparing us for the storms of life. While we were recording this Psalm 46 series, a line of literal storms rolled in.

If you're hearing noise, that is thunder, and it's going to go real well with the passage we're going to be talking about today. I don't know how it'll sound on the air, but... You may hear some of those storms in the recording. More importantly, you'll hear wise counsel on how to handle the emotional, spiritual, and circumstantial storms that come your way. Here's Nancy.

Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth: But just to reset where we are, let's look at verse one. We saw here that God is a stable, secure, never-failing refuge. God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Now in verses two and three, we're going to see a contrast. We're going to see the instability and the insecurity of every earthly refuge. Let me read those two verses, and then we'll talk about them.

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. Now we see here a description of unusual, violent natural disasters. Chaos. Catastrophic upheaval of the natural order. Surging waves beating furiously up against the mountains. And we see these mountains being uprooted and hurled into the sea. I mean, this is not something that happens every day.

But the point here is that there are things we think are stable and secure that at points we find out were not stable and secure at all. Now as we come to verses two and three in Psalm 46, we see this devastation caused by turbulent waters. And those waters, that devastation, it's a metaphor for fierce opponents who are seeking to destroy God's people. And we'll see that as we move further into the psalm. And many commentators think, as we've said earlier, that this is a description of the disturbances caused by the Assyrian army advancing like a tidal wave against Jerusalem.

And so in these surging waters that cause mountains to be hurled into the sea, we see a description of turmoil, revolutions, political revolutions, nations coming against nations, geopolitical turmoil, turmoil on every level, on every front, at every scale imaginable. Verse two talks about the earth giving way. This is a picture of extreme upheaval. I mean, we think of the earth as being as solid as it gets usually.

Until it starts shaking. But that's not an everyday occurrence. Usually you think if there's anything solid in the world, it's the ground, terra firma, right? Firm ground, the ground you're standing on. The point is nothing on this earth, including the earth itself, is secure. Everything is unstable and uncertain. Everything.

There will be earthquakes. There will be trouble, troubles—we saw that's a plural word in the first verse. Things we thought were steady, unshakeable, and secure can and will change. They will give way. They will be moved. If the earth can give way, then anything can give way, right? Everything can and will change. And we all come to points in our lives where the things we thought were most sure and enduring prove not to be so sure or enduring.

And it's a reminder that we will never find security in any earthly refuge. Any person, anything that we trust in is subject to change. Mountains, earth—we think of these things as being solid and unshakeable. The fact is, only God is unshakeable. Only He is completely reliable, faithful, and trustworthy.

You see, troubles cause our hearts to become detached from this earth. When we realize that there is nothing stable here. Our hearts are attached to things of this earth until troubles come and shake us up, right? And when they shake us up, our hearts get detached from this earth and more attached to God and heaven and eternal unshakeable realities.

And that's part of the point of troubles. Because God knows that if we didn't have troubles, we would put our tent stakes down really deep here. And we would just want to park and stay here forever. And this is not what God intends for us forever, not even close. So He wants our hearts to be moving toward heaven. And how does He do that? He stirs up trouble. He makes mountains move and waters churn and storms and tempests, literal or metaphorical. So that we realize, I can't put my trust in this stuff.

A husband is a great gift, but if your trust is in your husband ultimately, you're going to be disappointed. Children are a great gift, but if your trust is ultimately in how they turn out, you're going to be disappointed. You're going to be let down. There's nothing, no one that is reliable. And I've learned that in recent months. I received a piece of news several months ago that something that I thought was so sure, so reliable in my life, and then I found out, poof, it's gone. It's gone.

And if you'd asked me before, were you putting your trust in that thing? I would have said, I don't think so. Well, I didn't know until it shifted. And then you find out whether you're really secure. Because if you've been putting your trust in things and people that can be taken away from you, that can be moved, then you're insecure. You're not going to be secure.

Elisabeth Elliot wrote a book called Facing the Death of Someone You Love, which was written out of her own journey. You remember that her first husband, Jim, was martyred by the Auca Indians in the jungles of Ecuador. Her second husband, Add Leitch, died of cancer. And in this book, she talks about facing the shocking news that your loved one is gone. She said, "Everything that has seemed most dependable has given way. Mountains are falling. Earth is reeling. In such a time, it is a profound comfort to know that although all things seem to be shaken, one thing is not. God is not shaken."

I love that verse in Hebrews chapter 12, verse 27. Let me paraphrase it for you. We could take time and read it in the whole context, but let me just give you the gist of what that verse says. It essentially says the things that can be shaken will be shaken, so that the things that can never be shaken may remain. The things that can be shaken will be shaken, so that the things that can never be shaken may remain.

Now the psalm goes on to say, because God is our refuge, our strength, a very present help in trouble, therefore we will not fear. Because we have a certain, sure, unshakeable reality even when everything else around us is going nuts, therefore we will not fear. Now our lack of fear is not based on what's going on around us, because the things going on around us can be dreadfully fearful. It's based on that unshakeable, sure foundation of who God is. Psalm 27:1 says it this way, "The Lord is the stronghold or the strength of my life; of whom or what shall I be afraid?"

If your life is anchored in Him, there's no reason for fear. Even with the violent, well-armed Assyrian army threatening Jerusalem. And the Assyrians had the power, in an earthly manner of thinking. But even with that army besieging, surrounding, threatening Jerusalem, God's people in that city could remain secure, calm, and free from fear. Why? Because they thought, "Oh, we can overcome the Assyrians." No way. But because God was their refuge and their protector.

You see, the antidote to fear in a terrifying world is not trying to arrange our lives to be free from trauma and trouble. The antidote to fear is anchoring our lives on the character of God. Now, when it says we will not fear, that doesn't mean we won't ever have fearful feelings. I think what it means is that we will not be overwhelmed or paralyzed by fear. We'll have the strength, the courage to overcome the fear.

I don't want us to think that it's abnormal if you've got a tornado barreling down the road toward your house, there're going to be some natural adrenaline reactions of fear. But I believe what it's talking about here is we won't have this paralyzing fear that keeps you from being able to press on and move on and do what you need to do. You'll have the courage to overcome the fear because you know who's in control of it all.

I've been reading over the last several months, just a little bit at a time, a biography of Hudson Taylor, the founder of the China Inland Mission. And there's a neat account in that book about how as Taylor and his family and fellow missionaries were traveling by ship to China on one of their voyages, they encountered a 15-day storm in the China Sea where they were faced with one typhoon after another. The description is sails were gone, masts gone, everything gone, but their steadfast hope in God.

And then a Mr. Rudland, who was on that ship and was writing this account, he noted that all through the storm, Mr. Taylor was perfectly calm. I love that description. And I go, Lord, could that be me someday? You know, sails gone, masts gone, everything gone, but their steadfast hope in God. And all through the storm, Mr. Taylor, whose life was anchored in God, was perfectly calm.

It's storming outside as we're talking right now. And what a reminder that we have a safe place. We're safe in this room, we're not getting wet. We're hearing some rumbling and some noise. We don't—the clouds are dark out there, but we can't see them because we are in this room. We've got a safe place. And what a picture of how God wants to be our safe place, our refuge in the midst of the storm. It doesn't mean the storms don't come. They're coming right now and you can hear that thunder rattling around up there. But we can remain calm in the midst of storms because we have a refuge.

You know, when things are stable around us and in our world, it's easy to thank the Lord and feel all is well with my soul, right? But when things are not so stable, we tend to feel that all is not well. That's because we are addicted to peace, comfort, and feelings of security. And when the waves increase and we're battered about by circumstances, we often become fretful and fearful.

I'm sad to tell you that in some of the storms I've faced in the last few years, my default reaction has not been to find refuge in the Lord. My default reaction has been in numerous situations to become fearful and anxious. And that's why I am pressing into this psalm and asking God to press it into me. You see, God uses events that turn our world upside down to drive us to cling to Him. And sometimes it's just raw, naked faith.

I can't see, I can't sense, I don't know how this will end, how He will solve it or fix it. I'm in some troubles right now that I don't know how God is going to resolve. And so what do you do? You cling. You cling to God who is our refuge, our strength, and our help. And so those tsunamis, those floods, those typhoons, those storms—they remind us, they drive us to Him and they remind us that our only true security is found in Him.

If you have placed your hope in the things or people of this world, which all of us have to greater or lesser degrees, then you have reason to be fearful. Because when your world gives way, all you have hoped in and trusted in and found refuge in will be lost. It's going to be swept away. But if you have placed your hope in the eternal God, though all else around you gives way, then when it's all said and done, you will still have intact your most precious and necessary possession: Capital P.

Those who have built their lives on the foundation of this present world will one day suffer irreparable loss, as they discover that all they have lived for was temporary, shifting, and vulnerable. But those who have placed their confidence in Christ, the solid rock, have nothing to fear. For that rock will never be moved, but will support them surely, steadfastly forever.

Don't you love that hymn, "The Solid Rock"? By the way, I learned recently that it was written in 1834 by a British pastor and first sung for a dying woman. Now think about that scene as you ponder these words: "My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness. I dare not trust the sweetest frame, but wholly lean on Jesus' name. When darkness seems to hide His face, I rest on His unchanging grace. In every high and stormy gale, my anchor holds within the veil. His oath, His covenant, His blood, support me in the whelming flood. When all around my soul gives way, He then is all my hope and stay. On Christ, the solid rock, I stand; all other ground is sinking sand."

I want to remind us that the storms, the shaking, the quakes that we experience in our day give us a faint glimpse of a coming day when the entire earth will be shaken and dissolved. Of cataclysmic judgment that is coming to this world. I've been reading in my quiet time over the last little bit here through the book of Revelation, just finishing another journey through the Bible. Let me just read to you a description in Revelation chapter 6, a picture of this coming cataclysmic judgment. Talk about natural disasters.

When he opened the sixth seal, I looked and behold, there was a great earthquake. And the sun became black as sackcloth, the full moon became like blood, and the stars of the sky fell to the earth as the fig tree sheds its winter fruit when shaken by a gale. The sky vanished like a scroll that is being rolled up, and every mountain and island was removed from its place. Then the kings of the earth and the great ones and the generals and the rich and the powerful and everyone, slave and free, hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains, calling to the mountains and rocks, "Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who is seated on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb, for the great day of their wrath has come and who can stand?"

Reminds me of those pictures in Japan of people just trying in vain to outrun those surging waves and get to higher ground. Scripture describes the ultimate undoing of this earth as we know it. It will disintegrate. It will be no more. And then, praise God, it will be replaced by a new heaven and a new earth centered around that one unchanging reality of God. Of old, you laid the foundation of the earth, Psalm 102 says, and the heavens are the work of your hands. They will perish, but you remain. They will all wear out like a garment. You will change them like a robe and they will pass away. But you are the same and your years have no end.

Those who put their trust in Him for their eternal salvation are secure. They need not fear. They will have an eternal refuge. But only those who trust in Him. Listen, it makes all the difference for time and eternity where you place your trust. Can you say that Christ is your only hope? And when the day comes where that cataclysmic judgment of God destroys this old sinful earth, will you be overwhelmed in that flood or will you be safe and secure because you have taken refuge in Christ, the solid rock?

Lord, I pray that you would do a deep work in hearts and that those who need to be terrified would be terrified. Those who should be fearful because they're placing their trust in things and people of this world—maybe in themselves, maybe in religion, maybe in church—but they don't have any sure foundation. May their terror press them to find safety and refuge in you. And Lord, for those who have run to you for refuge, who are trusting in Christ and His righteousness, may we exhibit that freedom from fear, that calm, untroubled spirit that knows whatever around us may go awry, whatever may be out of kilter, whatever may be vulnerable and shaking and quaking, our lives are anchored to Christ, the solid rock.

Dannah Gresh: We've been focusing our hearts on the truth of God's word, something we desperately need, not just when we're walking through trials, but every day of our lives. Maybe your heart has been tempted to fear because of scary circumstances in your life today. If that's true, I hope you'll cling to the comfort you just heard. Nancy's teaching from Psalm 46 and you can hear the whole series at ReviveOurHearts.com. It's called A Mighty Fortress Is Our God. Again, you can listen, read the transcript, or share it with a friend. Just visit ReviveOurHearts.com.

And don't forget, you can continue meditating on the psalms with Nancy's recently updated devotional, Dwell: 30 Days with God in the Psalms. This book is the perfect addition to your nightstand to read when you first wake up or just before you fall asleep. We hope it'll help you quiet your heart, no matter what your circumstances look like right now. We'd love to send it to you when you make a donation of any amount to support Revive Our Hearts. To give and request your copy, visit ReviveOurHearts.com or call us at 1-800-569-5959. Tomorrow, we'll continue looking at Psalm 46 together. I hope the words of this passage are beginning to sink deep down into your heart and to dispel whatever fear resides there.

Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth: Verse 4: "There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy habitation of the Most High." Let's stop there and think about that for these next moments. In verses 2 and 3, we saw the waters that were menacing and destructive and threatening. They swept the mountains away. Now in verse 4, by contrast, we have a river—water, but this is water with a very different impact. It fertilizes the land. It brings life and vitality and refreshing and joy and gladness. You could almost hear in verses 2 and 3 the shrieks of people who were terrified by these tsunami-like waters. And now here you have a river that makes people glad, that brings joy. Well, it's the river of God, a metaphor for the presence of God, the grace of God, the favor of God that blesses and gladdens His people's hearts.

"There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God." The people of God here are likened to a city. And the city of God is being surrounded and threatened by adversaries. And like the roaring waters of a tsunami, the forces of evil are threatening to overwhelm and swallow up God's people and His holy city. But the inhabitants of that city, in the Old Testament context, Jerusalem, the inhabitants are calm. With all that turmoil going on around them, why, how can they be calm at a time like this? Because God is their refuge. He is their strength, He is their help, and they are trusting Him for protection. These people with the encroaching Assyrian army that we've talked about over the last few days, they have every reason to feel fearful, disheartened, and sad. Maybe even mad. But not glad. But the river of God's presence and His grace flowing in and among His people makes them glad. We'll talk more about that next time. Please be back for Revive Our Hearts.

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