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READ Psalm 46.

INTRODUCTION TO PSALM 46. Psalm 46 invites us to take refuge and shelter. As an Oklahoman, those words mean something very specific to me. When a tornado warning is issued and there is a debris cloud at my intersection, I don’t want to be sitting in a lawn chair on my front porch watching the storm. I want to be in an interior room, safe room, or underground shelter.

Now, friends, I tell you that because when we come to Psalm 46, we're invited to take refuge and shelter in the Lord. Not just when the weather begins to get rough, but when the strongest storms of life have rolled in. And really, there's a challenge here. The challenge is this: Do we have a lawn chair kind of faith? Is our religion only good when there's a tornado watch? Does our religion get folded up and thrown about when there's a tornado warning? Well, what we see in Psalm 46 is that we can trust in the Lord to be our shelter and our refuge when the real storms come. When the medical diagnosis hits, when divorce papers are served, when our life begins to fall apart, when the storms intensify, we can find shelter in the Lord.

And we see that in Psalm 46. Before we look at the verses, I want to point out a little superscript. If you look in an English translation of Psalm 46, it says it is to the choirmaster, of the Sons of Korah, according to Alamoth, a song. Although King David wrote a number of the Psalms, he didn't write all of them. Some were written by others, and Psalm 46 was written by one of those others. Korah led a rebellion against Moses in the days of Moses. His sons survived that rebellion, righted the ship with God, and, a generation later, are some of those whom God uses to write psalms.

“According to Alamoth” is most likely a reference to the musical style or tune. “Alamoth” literally means young women, so it’s possible this song was intended to be sung by women in the nation of Israel. And this song is “for the choir master.” It's not just for a soloist. Psalm 46 is a song for us to worship God together.

Prayer: Lord, thank You for inviting us to take refuge in You when the storms of life come. Amen.