Psalm 46:10 Be still, and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth.

When I first entered the Air Force I thought I was going to be a “Dental Technician”. That was what my recruiter told me I could be, and so he had me sign paperwork that gave me a “Guaranteed Field”. I found out later that this was actually double talk, a government lie created to fool new recruits. My “Guaranteed Field” was the “General Field”, of which there were about 100 menials jobs. I was not given a “Guaranteed Job” but a “Guaranteed Field”. Because of that, after Basic Training I was made a “Food Service Technician” (a Cook) inside of the “Guaranteed General Field”. When I protested, I was told that I could go be a “Food Service Technician” or I could go to Leavenworth and make rocks into gravel for the next 4 years. I became a Cook.

That was a very good learning experience for me. I found out that people can lie like a rug on the floor without even batting an eye. The recruiter knew he was lying to me. The commander of that recruiter knew he was lying to me. I suspect the government knew it was lying to me. But I was and am still a Christian, and I know that GOD DOES NOT LIE TO ME. God has never lied to me. God has said,

Romans 8:28 All things work together FOR GOOD to those who LOVE THE LORD, to those WHO ARE CALLED ACCORDING TO HIS PURPOSE.

God is in control of all things, and God is good. God sent His Only Beloved Son to this earth to give Himself for my sins.

God gave His best to save the worst.

The Bible says:

1 Corinthians 1:9 God is FAITHFUL, by whom you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

Adrian Rogers: As God is faithful, and has given His best and noblest for us, He deserves our worship. I was listening to Adrian Rogers this morning who noted that the word “worship” is formed of two words: “WORTHY” and “SHIP”. The word “SHIP” means to “transport or convey something, from one place to another”. Since our God is WORTHY we speak His worth. Worship is speaking the worth of our God to others, and to Heaven itself.

We WORSHIP because our God is WORTHY.

What you worship says a lot about you. The Pharisees worshiped RELIGION. They were not concerned about a relationship with God. They were concerned about how good they looked, and made the Law of God into a game of one-upmanship. The Pharisees worshiped themselves, declaring themselves worthy because of their works. The Herodians and Sadducees worshiped POWER and HUMANTY. Again, the center of their worship was themselves. They basked in the infamy they had, their popularity, their status as being above the common man. Yet among humanity God has said:

Psalm 14:3 … there is none who does good, not even one.

Romans 3:23 … all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God

Humans are not worthy of worship. Money is not worthy of worship. Things are not worthy of worship. Only God is worthy of worship.

Only Jesus Christ is worthy of glory, and honor, and exaltation.

God declares …

Psalm 46:10 … I will be EXALTED among the heathen, I will be EXALTED in the earth.

Word Study: Once a Christian is saved, it is our calling, our purpose, to EXALT the Lord. The word “EXALTED” is the Hebrew rûm (pro. Room). The word means to “lift up above all else, to glorify, to extol, to magnify”. God is to be put above all else in our lives.

The Church exists to exalt the Lord.
To be a LIGHTHOUSE magnifying Christ.
The Christian should give God his best, not his leftovers.
The Christian and the Church must not cease to lift up God.
Our God is worth it all!

Word Study: God says “I will be EXALTED among the HEATHEN”. The word “HEATHEN” is an Old English word for “those who are NOT God’s people”. This is the Hebrew gôy (pro. go’-ee), a word that was used by Israel in the Old Testament for the Gentiles. Under the Old Covenant, the descendants of Abraham, the Israelites, were God’s people, and all others were gôy (pro. go’-ee). Rather than spread the Gospel of God that He calls all to salvation, the Israelites became self focused. The Bible prophesied that the Lord Jesus would be the:

Luke 2:32 A light to lighten the Gentiles, and the glory of thy people Israel.

Preaching Here: The Gentiles were never to be rejected as gôy (pro. go’-ee), but God told Israel repeatedly that it was His desire that “My Salvation may reach the end of the earth (ESV)” (Isaiah 49:6). Israel was to be the LIGHTHOUSE that promoted by exaltation the Son of God, the One to Whom “The Nations (gôy (pro. go’-ee)) shall come to Your Light, and the kings to the brightness of Your Rising (ESV)”. Israel was to exalt God among the gôy (pro. go’-ee), to speak of the Coming Messiah. When Christ was manifested by God, Israel was supposed to exalt Him as the One Who “open(s) the eyes that are blind, (Who) bring(s) out the prisoners from the dungeon, from the prison those who sit in darkness (ESV)”.

Israel would not listen to God. Oh, many were saved. But like many Churches today, Israel made God second place, and gave Him only the leftovers. They forgot that God said:

Psalm 46:10 … I will be EXALTED among the heathen, I will be EXALTED in the earth.

God will be glorified. The Gospel will go out.

When Jesus rose from the Grave, He commissioned His Apostles, saying:

Matthew 28:18-20 (ESV) “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

God WILL BE EXALTED. The message of the Gospel MUST go out. Israel forgot that. Jesus told His Apostles before ascending into Heaven:

Acts 1:8 (ESV) … you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.

The Apostles were to start in Jerusalem and Judea. God wants to save Israel. But God does not want His Church to imitate Israel. The Gospel is to go to “Samaria, and to the end of the earth”. The Church must exalt God among the heathen. The Church must exalt God among those who are not children of God. The Church must continue to spread the Word of God by whatever means necessary.

Did the early Church do this?

No, but the Apostles sent a great deal of time in Jerusalem in Solomon’s Porch – at the Temple – preaching Christ. That is not a bad thing, for God wanted to reach Israel. God wants to save Israel by exalting Christ, by sharing the Gospel to that deceived and largely unsaved nation. But God also wants the Church to reach out to all people, to share the Word of God, the glorious Gospel of Salvation.

It is the sharing of the Gospel that brings “those were once far off from God into the Presence of God” (Ephesians 2:13). God will be exalted among the worldly. Christ will be magnified among those who are yet to be born again.

The Only Thing That Endangers The Church Is To Go Against The Exaltation Of God, The Spreading Of The Gospel!

Again we read:

Psalm 46:10 Be still, and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth.

We are to rest in the Gospel that saved us. We are to “BE STILL”. We are not to tremble in fear at that which is coming. We are told:

Psalm 46:1-3 God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. 2 Therefore will not we fear, though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea; 3 Though the waters thereof roar and be troubled, though the mountains shake with the swelling thereof. Selah.

God is where we hide ourselves. He is the “REFUGE” for His people. “I will say of the LORD, He is my REFUGE and FORTRESS: My God; in Him will I trust.” (Psalm 91:2). God is our “STRENGTH”. He fights our battles for us, as we exalt Him in the earth.

Psalm 46:5 God is in the midst of her; she shall not be moved: God shall help her, and that right early.

When we exalt our God, when we put Him first, He is in our midst. God is our Help, our Protector, our Comforter. I end this devotion with a repeated text. We see this in:

Psalm 26:7 The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge. Selah.

Psalm 46:11 The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge. Selah.

God is the “LORD OF HOSTS”. He rules all the armies of Heaven and earth. Our God is in control. The same God Who made this planet and all that is on it, the sun and the moon, the stars without number. This God is our God. This God sent His Only Begotten Son to secure our salvation, that “whosoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16). This God, the “GOD OF JACOB”, He is the One we hide ourselves in. We exalt Him. We glorify Him while we can.

There will be a day when we all shall stand before Him, and our works shall be judged. For the unbeliever, they will stand before Him at a Great White Throne, and their works will not help them ascend into Heaven. Jesus will say to them, “I never knew you – depart from Me, You workers of lawlessness” (Matthew 7:23, ESV). Rather than come to Christ in humility and receive Him as Lord and Savior, they exalted themselves. Because they exalted themselves, glorifying themselves rather than God, they will spend an eternity in a Lake of Fire, a place of torment (Revelation 19:20; 20:10, 14, 15).

The lost will enter the Lake of Fire because their name was NOT found in the Book of Life (Revelation 20:15).

The saved also will be judged. This judgment, called the “Judgment Seat of Christ” (1 Corinthians 3:10-15; 2 Corinthians 5:10). The Bible says:

2 Corinthians 5:10 (ESV) For we MUST all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil.

God says “I will be exalted among the nations. I will be exalted in the earth.” Our works will be judged as to whether we exalted God or not, as to whether we helped spread the glorious Gospel of Christ or not. May God the Holy Spirit work in our hearts to encourage us to go and grow for Christ, to exalt the One Who gave so much for us.

May God touch your hearts with his Word. Amen.

A devotional preached in our October 9, 2024 Business Meeting. DEB.