Stronger Than Us

Stronger Than Us

A Sermon on Psalm 93:4–5 — Yahweh Reigns Over the Waters

By A Disciple of Jesus Christ · Pleasant Springs Church · August 9, 2026

Key Texts: Psalm 93:4–5 • Genesis 1:2 • James 1:14–15 • Deuteronomy 32:8–9 • Mark 1:40–42 • Mark 4:39–41

Stand on a balcony in Florida and look at the ocean long enough and it will tell you the truth about yourself. It is bigger than you. It is stronger than you. And there is no end of it in sight. Scripture knows that sea — it uses it, again and again, as the picture of chaos, of death, of the rebel nations, of everything that will not be tamed. This sermon walks from the surf line to Achan’s tent to a leper’s knees to a boat on the Sea of Galilee, and finds the same answer waiting at every stop: whatever is stronger than us has already been put beneath the feet of Jesus Christ.

The waters here are not merely an illustration. All through the Old Testament the sea carries a settled set of meanings, and every one of them matters this morning:

Last week we were on vacation in Florida. One morning I was sitting on the balcony by myself, looking out at the ocean and the waves, admiring the beauty of God’s creation — and then it hit me. Its size. And then I looked at myself, and how small I am beside it.

As I looked at the clarity of the water, and watched the waves, and felt the wind, I understood again why so many of us are drawn back to it every year.

But then it was as though the Lord began speaking to my spirit, showing me that sin — my own sinful heart and my own human weakness — reminded me of that sea. Apart from the grace of God, both of them are stronger than I am.

Later I walked on the beach, enjoying the warm foam rushing over my feet, tempting me to wade a little deeper. A couple of days later I did. I waded out about waist deep, and then about chest high — and the current of the rip was so strong that I felt like Jim Cantore on the Weather Channel leaning into the wind, except I was in water, and its strength was holding me up and pushing me back.

I realized very quickly that it was stronger than I was.

That is exactly how the Scriptures use the sea: chaos, death, rebellious nations, and forces beyond human control. Those images point us to every power that stands against God’s good order — including sin, including suffering, and including the spiritual forces of evil.

Sitting there again, I looked out to the horizon where the water met the sky, and there was no end in sight. And at that point my mind went back to Genesis, and to creation, when the waters were chaos and the Spirit of God hovered above them.

As I kept gazing at that horizon my heart began to melt, thinking how big, how strong, and how mighty God really is — for He is outside of time and space. So what does that mean for me and for you?

Take another look at the sea, because like sin it conceals its dangers. You know that out there are sharks, and jellyfish, and crabs, and barracudas, and riptides. All of them are present. Almost none of them are visible until it is too late.

Many of us visit the beach without ever once thinking that a tragedy could reach us or our family. We turn a blind eye and a deaf ear to the drownings and the stings and the bites that happen every year — not to mention the shoreline the water is quietly eroding the whole time. And we do the very same thing with sin. We think: I can handle it.

Just as the sea draws people down to its shores, we are all lured and enticed by our own desire.

If we go back to where we left off with Achan, hiding the spoils for himself, we will see that there was a deeper problem underneath than the things he took.

His desire for material possessions had become greater than his desire to obey. And what we think we possess very often ends up possessing us.

Whether it is materialism, money, success, recognition, pleasure, pride, control, or fear, any of these can become a foothold by which our hearts are drawn toward idolatry — just as the rebellious spiritual powers drew the nations away from the true God.

When mankind rejected God at Babel, God gave the nations over to the sons of God.

This does not mean God lost control of the nations. It means He gave them over in judgment, while keeping Israel as His own inheritance. Those spiritual rulers then accepted worship that belonged to the Lord. Instead of leading people to God, they enslaved them through idolatry. Behind idols stand real spiritual powers that want our allegiance.

Thinking about Achan trying to hide those spoils reminds me of the leper who came to Jesus in Mark 1.

Leprosy in that day was incurable. It often showed up as a small spot — something easily unnoticed, easily ignored, easily covered. But given time it spread, and it consumed the person who had it, and it was contagious. Those who contracted it were isolated and abandoned and left to die. Sin is exactly like that.

This man realized that he needed Someone bigger than his problem, and that without a Savior he was under a death sentence. We have to come to the same place. Our vices are bigger than we are. We are under the same sentence. And Christ Jesus is the only answer.

Notice what he came confessing. He believed Christ was able — he simply did not know whether He was willing. “If you will, you can make me clean.” And Jesus did more than grant the request. He reached out and touched the untouchable man, and said, “I will; be clean.”

Psalm 93 declares that the Lord is mightier than the mighty waters. The Gospels then show us that Lord standing up in a boat and speaking to the sea itself.

The One who rules the sea is the same One who conquered sin, death, and the rebellious powers through His cross and His resurrection. The empty tomb is God’s own declaration that there is nothing stronger than Jesus Christ. Whatever is stronger than us has already been placed beneath His feet.

Psalm 93 belongs to a small group of psalms (93; 95–99) that Old Testament scholars call the enthronement psalms — songs that open by announcing, in effect, “The LORD has become king.” They were sung by a people surrounded by neighbours whose own stories said the world was won in a fight against the sea. The following background is offered for deeper study — the same Author-and-Audience approach we use across the Discipleship School, with the Septuagint (LXX) and ESV set beside the preached text.

If you look this psalm up in a Septuagint, you will not find it at 93. Because the Greek tradition joins Psalms 9 and 10 into one, the LXX runs a number behind the Hebrew from that point through Psalm 147 — so our Psalm 93 is Psalm 92 in the LXX. That is the numbering the early church read and the Fathers quoted.

The threads in this sermon — the hidden sin under Achan’s tent, the rebel powers behind the idols, the heart that must be made new, and the King who reigns over the unseen realm — each open into a fuller study. Keep growing: