He’s Greater Than Roaring Floods

Dannah Gresh: Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth reminds us, sometimes we feel completely overwhelmed.

Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth: The floods do exist. They’re real, and we shouldn’t be surprised when they threaten us.

Dannah: This is the Revive Our Hearts podcast with Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth, coauthor of You Can Trust God to Write Your Story, for December 8, 2021. I’m Dannah Gresh.

You know, being a believer in Christ doesn’t mean that life is always easy. Sin still exists in the world, and we still go through trials and troubles. However, we can face those challenges with hope when we have our eyes fixed on Christ and our hearts grounded in the truth of God’s Word. Nancy’s going to talk about that today. She continues in this series titled, “The Lord Is King.” Let’s listen.

Nancy: For a few days here, we’re looking into a short passage of Scripture, Psalm 93. It has been such an encouragement to my own heart in recent days, and I know it is going to be to yours as well.

Here at the outset, I want to mention a booklet that we’re making available through Revive Our Hearts; it’s the only place you can get it. It’s called, 50 Promises to Live By. As you listen to this series on Psalm 93, you’re going to be reminded of how important it is for us to cling tightly to the promises of God when it looks like the whole world is in chaos and going crazy. These are 50 of my favorite promises that we’ve compiled in this little booklet. The subtitle is, Finding Encouragement, Peace, and Hope in the Promises of God. Is there anybody here who doesn’t need encouragement, peace, or hope? We all do . . . every day.

Where we get that most readily is from the promises of God. I have a friend who told me recently that she keeps a pack of these booklets (which we have those packs available at ReviveOurHearts.com). She hands them out to people. She said, “Everybody needs these.” So, she gives them out just to provide encouragement for people who need to cling to the promises of God, which is all of us. I’d love for you to have one. Keep it close, because every day in every way we need those promises of God. That’s what keeps our heart secure and steady and stable in unstable times.

Speaking of unstable times, I shared a quote in the last session. I want to share it again. I’ve said this quote, I don’t know, probably hundreds of times throughout my life. I want you to hear it so many times at Revive Our Hearts that it becomes part of your thinking too. G. Campbell Morgan was a pastor, a British pastor and Bible teacher, in the first part of the twentieth century. Here’s what he said.

The supreme need in every hour of difficulty and distress is for a fresh vision of God. Seeing Him, all else takes on proper perspective and proportion. 

Let me say that again, the supreme need, the thing we most need in every hour of difficulty and distress. He was talking in the early twentieth century. That was an hour of a lot of difficulty and distress in our world. But how much more true is that today? This is an hour of difficulty and distress. What is our supreme need? It’s to have a fresh vision of God. He said, “Seeing Him all else takes on proper perspective and proportion.” 

Here’s the thing, when you spend your time focused on what’s going on around you in this world, in your life, the problems, the trials, the tribulations, the storms. (We’re going to talk about those today.) But when you put your focus on those things, God is going to seem to be very small to you. You’re going to end up perpetually disturbed, fearful, angry, anxious, depressed. You’re not going to have peace if you’re just looking primarily at the circumstances around you. But when you turn your eyes upon Jesus and you look full in His wonderful face, all the things of earth will grow strangely dim in the light of His glory and His grace.

Now, we’re not saying you pretend like the problems don’t exist. You just stick your head in the sand and say, “There’s no problems; there’s no problems; there’s no problems.” No. When you look at God for who He is, as we’re going to see in Psalm 93, you’re going to see the rest of this world in proper perspective and proportion. You’re going to see it as it compares to God. God is bigger and greater and more real and more powerful than any difficult, stressful circumstance you may be facing today.

Let’s get to Psalm 93. I hope you have your Bible open there, or scroll to it on your phone. Yesterday, we looked at Psalm 93, the first two verses. The theme of those two verses is summarized in one phrase. Do you remember what it is? The Lord reigns. The Lord reigns. Say it with me. “The Lord reigns.” If you’re listening to the podcast, to the broadcast, say it with me. “The Lord reigns.” That’s what we saw in verse one:

The LORD reigns!He is robed in majesty;
the LORD is robed, enveloped in strength.
The world is firmly established;
it cannot be shaken.
Your throne has been established
from the beginning;
you are from eternity.

In those two verses we saw the sovereign rule of God over all of creation, for all of eternity. Isn’t that wonderful? Yes, it is.

Here’s the problem. That doesn’t mean that we have a pressure free, problem free life here on earth. The fact that the Lord reigns, that His throne is established, that He is strong and majestic doesn’t mean we don’t have problems here on earth. So, when we get to verse 3, we see in this text a sudden turn. It’s jolting if you’re thinking about it as you’re reading. We saw in verses 1 and 2, the Lord reigns. Now we’re going to see in verse 3, yes, but the floods roar. The Lord reigns, but the floods roar. Look at verse 3.

The floods have lifted up, LORD,
the floods have lifted up their voice;
the floods lift up their pounding waves.

Now, water can be beautiful. Robert and I live on a river. We love the water. We live near Lake Michigan. We love Lake Michigan. We recently spent two weeks in a condo overlooking Lake Michigan. We never get tired of the view. We love the sunsets. We love when the lake is placid and calm, and we love when the storms come through. It stirs up, and you have some whitecaps on that lake. It starts to look almost like an ocean. It’s stunning. It’s beautiful. 

But in recent years, Lake Michigan water levels have been rising. Those of you who live in Michigan are familiar with this. The rising water has caused a lot of damage. It’s caused a lot of erosion. You’ve seen pictures in the news of entire homes perched on the bluff that ended up careening into the water below, or down onto the bluff. They’re just gone because of problems with the water. There have been millions and millions of dollars spent on the coastline of Lake Michigan and revetment efforts to protect the shoreline.

It’s not just here. Not long ago we were watching on the news these horrific images of catastrophic flooding in Germany and Belgium. My understanding is that nearly 200 people died in those floods. So, the psalmist says, the floods have lifted up their voice. Yes, God reigns, but also the floods roar. 

Floods are real. They’re powerful; they can bring devastation. The floods in Scripture symbolize chaos. Nature and nations out of control, or so it seems from our human vantage point. What are those floods? 

Those floods may be extremely difficult circumstances that threaten to take us under. I have a couple of close friends (probably more than two if I stop to think about it, but two in particular) whose lives are being inundated right now with waves of huge unrelenting problems crashing in on them. Physical problems, financial problems, family problems, it just keeps coming. The floods roar. 

But floods are everywhere, and they take many different forms—these extreme or difficult circumstances. I read this morning about a devastating plague of mice that is destroying crops and overwhelming farmers in Australia. My first thought when I saw that headline was, is this for real? We can’t make this stuff up. Floods. 

Floods can also be this world’s system that opposes God and is seeking to wipe Him out. Those are floods of wrong thinking, of deception, of opposition to God. The floods can be world powers that set themselves against God and against humanity. We’ve been grieved as we’ve been watching what’s taking place with the Taliban in Afghanistan. This is a flood. It’s a flood of evil. There is a flood of evil in many places and parts of our world. 

The Psalmist says, the floods lift up their pounding waves. You just picture wave upon wave upon wave. They keep crashing in. Now as I read this psalm, I think these are not the words of someone who is standing at a safe distance away, maybe on a mountaintop just looking down over the sea below. This seems to be the perspective of someone who is in the storm with waves crashing around him, struggling to keep his head above water. He feels like he is just about to go under. Can you picture it? 

The floods lift up their pounding waves. This reminds me of Psalm 42, verse 7, where the Psalmist talks about the roar of your waterfalls. He says, “all your breakers and your billows have swept over me.” You can’t breathe. It’s going to take you under. It’s overwhelming.

The apostle Paul talks about these kinds of storms, waves, floods. In 2 Corinthians chapter 1 (where I’ve been meditating and journaling in recent weeks), he says in the first chapter, verse 8 of 2 Corinthians, “We don’t want you to be unaware brothers and sisters of our affliction that took place in Asia.” 

That word “affliction” is a word that means “something that beats you.” It’s painful, it’s dangerous, it’s a flogging, it’s horrific affliction. Paul says, we don’t want you to be unaware that that’s what we faced. We were completely overwhelmed beyond our strength so that we even despaired of life itself. Indeed, we felt that we have received the sentence of death. Can you feel the waves crashing in over Paul and the other apostles as they served the Lord? They were being persecuted. They were being thrown out of town. They were despairing of life itself.

Psalm 93 says that the floods have lifted up. Now, notice that the Psalmist doesn’t pretend that the floods don’t exist. It’s not, “Oh, if you’re a good Christian, you wouldn’t talk about the floods.” The floods do exist. They’re real, and we shouldn’t be surprised when they threaten us. The Psalmist also doesn’t try to overcome those floods with sheer human effort and his own strength. He knows that he will lose if he tries to overcome these floods. So, what does he do? The same thing you and I need to do. He tells God about the floods. 

He tells God. What does he say, verse 3, “The floods have lifted up. Lord!” This is a prayer. He’s telling God. He turns from the floods to a power that is stronger and mightier than the waves and the floods. He looks up to the One who reigns. The One who is King. The One who controls the mighty waters. Look at verse 4. 

Greater than the roar of a huge torrent—
the mighty breakers of the sea—
the Lord on high is majestic. 

So, verses 1 and 2, the Lord reigns. Verse 3, the floods roar. Verse 4, the Lord is greater. The Lord is greater. He is greater than the waves, and He is sovereign over the floods. Our majestic, exalted God is greater. He is greater than the mighty, massive flood waters. He is more powerful than the most threatening waves of the sea. They are no match for Him. Our God is greater. He reigns.

Now, this is a statement of faith when you’re in the midst of the floods, right? When we look around and the floods are threatening to overwhelm us, what we do is declare by faith the Lord reigns. The Lord is greater than the floods. The Lord is greater than everything I can see or everything I am experiencing right now. “Lord, You are greater. You are more majestic. You are more mighty. You are more powerful. You are more real than anything I am experiencing.” 

So my question is, Are you looking around at the floods in your life, the floods in your world, the floods in our world, or are you looking up to God who is greater than the floods? Sometimes I think (and I thought of this as I was preparing this series) that I must sound like a broken record. Some of you don’t even know what records are, which dates me. But it’s like this is all this woman ever talks about. Heaven rules. Heaven rules. Heaven rules. The Lord reigns. The Lord is greater. The Lord is . . . You know why I keep talking about it? Because I keep needing it. You know why I keep talking about it? Because you keep needing it. This is what we need. We need to keep recalibrating our hearts to remind ourselves of what we forget so easily when we’re in the midst of the floods, and that is, the Lord reigns. The Lord is greater.

I’ve shared this with you numerous times here. 2020 was a year of COVID and pandemic for our whole world and that kind of chaos and craziness. And in the midst of that, as I’ve shared the story of Robert walking through not one but two different unrelated cancers, we were in floods. We’re in a sweet place right now as far as we know. He’s doing well. We’re not in quite the flood waters we were in 2020. But there were times when we felt we might go under. You’ve felt that. Maybe you feel that right now. 

We kept reminding ourselves again and again and again the Lord reigns, Heaven rules. It’s just a different way of saying the same thing. We need to hear that. We need to say it. We need to remind each other, the Lord reigns. Not only is God greater and more powerful than the floods, but He controls and rules over the floods. He’s greater, He’s bigger, but He’s also more powerful. He rules over the floods.

Flip over ahead a few pages to Psalm 107. I want to show you something. I want you to see it with your own eyes. Beginning in verse 25, I want you to see that God controls and rules over the floods. Look at verse 25. “God spoke and raised up a stormy wind that stirred up the waves of the sea.” 

Who stirs up the waves of the sea? Who does? God does. You sound a little timid about that. Is it kind of hard to say it? We don’t think about God that way, right? God speaks and raises up the stormy wind. He stirs up the waves of the sea. 

Look at verse 29. “He stilled the storm to a whisper and the waves of the sea were hushed.” Who tells the storms to be quiet? The Lord does. Who stirs them up? The Lord does. Who tells them to hush? The Lord does. The Lord controls. He sovereignly rules over the floods. 

Now, don’t leave Psalm 107 yet, because I want to show you one more sweet thing in-between those two verses. I want you to see that the storms in our lives are designed to make us desperate for God and to put us in a place where we can experience His supernatural rescuing power. So, verse 25 we saw this, He spoke and raised up the stormy wind that stirred up the waves of the sea. 

Well look at verse 28. “Then” . . . when? When they were in the middle of the storm. When the waves were crashing over them. “Then they cried out to the LORD [where?] in their trouble.” There’s something about us that when we don’t have any trouble, we don’t tend to cry out to the Lord. We think we can manage. 

You had one precious little baby, sweet little thing, slept through the night from five days old or whatever. You say, “This is precious. I love being a mom. I can handle this.” But God wanted you to know you can’t handle anything without Him. So, God gave you child number two or three or four or five or whatever it is, and this one is colicky, doesn’t sleep through the night. And not only a baby but a toddler for whom no text book was ever written. And you’re going, “I can’t handle this, help Lord!” Those are words God loves to hear. 

When we’re in the storm, we cry out to the Lord in our trouble. What does verse 28 say, “And He brought them out of their distress.” Our storms are an opportunity to be desperate for God and to experience His supernatural rescuing power. Then what does God do?

Verse 29, “He still the storm to a whisper.” When? When He was ready. In His way, in His time. You say, “This storm’s been going on for an awful long time.” It may go on for decades. When we’re in eternity with the Lord, it will all seem like it was just a moment. Paul says these are momentary and light afflictions, but they are preparing us for a far more exceeding eternal weight of glory. He says that in 2 Corinthians 4:17. So, the storms are to make us need Him.

I get a weekly email devotional from Paul Tripp, an author that you may be familiar with. They come out on Wednesdays. This past Wednesday he had an email about the storms. I want to read you a portion of what he said in that email. It’s kind of in poetry form.

Into my comfortable world,
where pleasures were many,
comfort was frequent,
and smiles came easy,
you sent a raging storm.

Broken things,
uprooted things,
lost things,
left in its wake.

Tears flowed,
hurt followed,
anger rushed in,
confusion enveloped,
questions haunted,
answers evaded,
peace crumbled.

Ruins of hope piled up,
faith’s foundations weakened.
Broken buildings,
a metaphor of the heart.

You didn’t send the storm
to judge,
to punish,
to condemn,
to forsake.

The wind and the waves
didn’t pound me with your anger,
but surrounded me with your love.
The tumult was your rescue,
a deeper storm had blown me
away from you.

A storm of the heart,
broken things,
uprooted things,
lost things.

Then you stormed in.
Powerful grace restored me to you.
May your holy storm of mercy
blow again.

I love that. He’s saying there was a storm in my heart that was blowing me away from You, so in Your mercy You sent storms into our world, into my life, into my circumstances, through which You restored me with Your powerful grace. So, we pray, may Your holy storm of mercy blow again. That’s a hard thing to pray unless you really trust that the God who speaks the storms is doing it for our good and for His glory and that He will hush the storm when His eternal purposes have been fulfilled.

Well back to Psalm 93 verse 4, “Greater than the roar of a huge torrent—the mighty breakers of the sea—the Lord on high is majestic.” The waves are great. Those phrases are so picturesque. Huge torrent. Mighty breakers. But Yahweh, the Lord, is high. He’s exalted in heaven far above all earthly storms. He is greater. He is more powerful than all the storms and floods that threaten this world. He controls the storms with a word of His mouth. Now that’s an Old Testament passage. It’s a beautiful one. It’s a powerful one.

We’re going to pick up with that last verse in that passage tomorrow, but first I want to just remind us that in the New Testament that mighty God who sits enthroned on high, that mighty God who’s high and exalted and lifted up, powerful, majestic, the One who controls the storms; in the New Testament we see that that mighty God descends to earth as a man. We see that Jesus, who is God in the flesh, is mightier than the storm. We see Him take control of the storm. We see Him still the storm with the power of His word. Do you remember that passage in Mark chapter 4?

When evening had come, he told them, “Let’s cross over to the other side of the sea.” So they left the crowd and took him along since he was in the boat. And other boats were with him. A great windstorm arose, and the waves were breaking over the boat, so that the boat was already being swamped. He was in the stern, sleeping on the cushion. So they woke him up and said to him, “Teacher! Don’t you care that we’re going to die?” He got up, rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, “Silence! Be still!”

Who speaks and hushes the storm? God does. Who was speaking in that boat and hushing the storm? God was. Jesus is that God come down to our boat, to our storm.

The wind ceased, and there was a great calm. Then he said to them, “Why are you afraid? Do you still have no faith?” And they were terrified and asked one another, “Who then is this? Even the wind and the sea obey him!” (vv. 35–41)

God rules over all of creation, sovereign and supreme. Jesus rules over all of creation, sovereign and supreme. He is powerful to save, and He is powerful to rescue. On the cross, that same Jesus triumphed over all the chaos and storms caused by sin and death. When He cried out, “It is finished!” He silenced forever the ultimate storm and threat of God’s judgment. 

So those of us who are in Christ, we are secure even in the storm. The storms of life, they are temporary. We’ve escaped the eternal storm of God’s wrath. We’re safe from the power of sin and death. So, Jesus asks us, those of us who are in Christ, why are you afraid? Why are you afraid? If the Lord reigns, why are you afraid? If He controls the storm, why are you afraid? 

Now, if you’re not in Christ, you should be afraid. Because you are yet to face the ultimate storm of God’s wrath and judgment. Let that fear, let that terror of the wrath of God drive you to the cross. Drive you to the heart of Jesus, so that you will no longer have anything to fear. 

Yes, the floods roar, but the Lord is King, and He is greater. He’s greater than the waves. He is sovereign over the flood. Thank you, Lord, for the wonder of Your Word, the beauty, the wisdom, the perspective, the proportion that we get. So, we fix our eyes on You. You are greater. You reign. Help us to trust what we cannot see. I pray in Jesus’ name, amen.

Dannah: Yes, even when you cannot see how the Lord is working, you can trust Him and the promises of His Word. Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth has been showing us that God is king over every situation, over every stormy sea. 

I hope this message has given you the encouragement you need for whatever you may be experiencing in this season of your life. As Nancy mentioned earlier, we want to share a resource with you to remind you of God’s abundant faithfulness. It’s called 50 Promises to Live By. It’s available to you right now as a free PDF download. You’ll find that in a link in today’s transcript on the website. 

We’re able to provide you with these free resources and truth-filled messages like the one you heard today, thanks to friends like you who support the ministry. So, if you’ve ever given to Revive Our Hearts, let me just say “thank you.” You are helping us bring the hope of Christ to women all around the world. 

A woman recently shared a beautiful, hope-filled story with us at the Revive ‘21 conference. Now, this woman had a good friend who was discipled by Revive Our Hearts. After she came to Christ, she would listen to the podcast in Spanish from Aviva Nuestros Corazones, our Spanish ministry.

Woman: It was so beautiful to see what God was doing in her life. She was so hungry for the Word of God. I would send her the podcast, and she would be so incredibly grateful for the ministry and everything that she was learning.

Dannah: Shortly after this woman came to Christ she received a diagnosis. The doctors only gave her two weeks to live. However, God had other plans.

Woman: God graciously gave her a year and a half. She was growing in the Lord very fast. It was maybe just like her last love, and she took advantage of it. She grew closer and closer to God.

Dannah: This dear woman passed away at thirty-four years old, just a few months before our conference this fall.

Woman: She would have loved to be here. Actually, she had her ticket to be here. But she’s in a better place. Her daughter is here with me. She’s sixteen years old. I know God is not done writing her story. It is not how I wanted it to be. It is not how many of us wanted it to be, but it is how God chose it.

Nancy: Wow. What a poignant reminder of the importance of this message, and that this message is urgent in many women’s lives. What we just did, teach through Psalm 93 for 20 minutes or so, it really matters. Women are being discipled through God’s Word as they return day by day to Revive Our Hearts or the Spanish sister ministry Aviva Nuestros Corazones. 

You know, by God’s grace, the Spanish ministry is booming. In fact, this past year the number of listens and downloads from our Spanish program has surpassed the numbers in English. I believe that’s because there’s been a vacuum of this kind of teaching and ministry to women in the Spanish-speaking world. Women are hungry. They’re receiving this message, and they’re multiplying and sharing it with others around the world. God is at work, and it’s such a beautiful thing to watch. 

Even though the Spanish ministry is growing exponentially, Aviva Nuestros Corazones is still not able to fully support itself. It’s still a relatively young outreach, and it hasn’t developed enough givers in Latin America to respond to the hunger that there is for this content. So, it’s our joy as Revive Our Hearts to help fund the Spanish ministry as much as we are able. That means we need listeners like you who can share in that joy. Listeners who say, I’ve benefited from the teaching on Revive Our Hearts, and I want to share it with our Spanish-speaking sisters.

Dannah: That is right. And some generous friends of the ministry have come forward to partner with us and be a part of what God is doing in Revive Our Hearts and our Spanish ministry Aviva Nuestros Corazones. They’ve so graciously chosen to match every gift given this month. So, when you support Revive Our Hearts here in December, you’re allowing us to continue investing in Latin America and in other languages around the world. We’re so grateful for their support and for every donation you give to help us reach our goal this month of 2.8 million dollars.

Nancy: Humanly speaking, that’s a huge need. If we didn’t have such a great, big, faithful God, it would be overwhelming to me. But our part is just to share what the need is and then to trust that God will provide through His people as He directs. 

So, would you ask the Lord how He would want you to get involved? Maybe He’s provided for you in an unusual way, and you have a heart to meet a major part of this need this year. Or maybe you’re thinking, After I give to the needs of my local church, there’s nothing more that I can give this year, but I can pray. I want to say those prayers mean more than you can imagine. Wherever you are, whether you’re able to do something large or something that seems relatively little, whatever your circumstance, would you ask the Lord how He wants you to be a part of supporting Revive Our Hearts during this critical time.

Dannah: You can make your donation at ReviveOurHearts.com, or give us a call at 1–800–569–5959. I just want to say thank you so much for your support during this time. 

Do you believe the Word of God is reliable? How does that change the way you live? We’ll talk about that tomorrow. Please be back for Revive Our Hearts. 

Revive Our Hearts with Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth is calling you to freedom, fullness, and fruitfulness in Christ.

All Scripture is taken from the CSB.

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