BE STILL AND KNOW
It is impossible to determine for certain the occasion for which the 46th Psalm was written. Some commentators believe that it was written after God delivered King Jehoshaphat from a great army of Moabites and Ammonites. Others believe that it was written during King Hezekiah’s reign when the Assyrians under King Sennacherib besieged Jerusalem. This we do know: this Psalm was written to encourage Israel to trust in the LORD Jehovah during difficult and frightening times, and Israel certainly had an abundance of those!
It is said that
Psalms 46 gave Martin Luther much comfort and encouragement during the times that
he faced fierce opposition to his preaching and ministry. It is said that it was one of the portions of
scripture that inspired the words to his hymn A Mighty Fortress Is Our God.
The psalm opens
with these words of comfort and encouragement: “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.” (Psalm
46:1). This could be said to be the
theme for the entire psalm. God is not
only our hiding place, but our source of power when our strength fails. He is always with us. He will never leave us nor forsake us. Even when it appears like He is “asleep in the boat,” He is still aware
of our struggles and ready to speak peace to the storm when our faith grows
weak.
“Therefore will not we fear,
though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst
of the sea; though the waters thereof roar and be troubled, though the
mountains shake with the swelling thereof.
Selah.” (Psalms 46:2,
3). These verses assure us that no
matter how bad things may look or how violent the storms of life may get, there
is no need for us to fear because the LORD is with us. Fear can cripple us and make it difficult to
hear what God is speaking to us. It
causes us to become anxious and frantic, and, therefore, make bad
decisions. Scripture says, “…God hath not given us the spirit of fear;
but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.” (2 Timothy 1:7). This is the time for us to pray and seek the
Lord for a Word that will give us clear direction when things appear to be
crumbling around us. Fear is a natural,
human response to things that are outside of our control. Courage isn’t the absence of fear, but acting
and believing despite the fear we may feel.
The way to combat fear is to trust that God is “a very present help in trouble.”
“There is a river, the
streams whereof shall make glad the city of God, the holy place of the
tabernacles of the most High. God is in
the midst of her; she shall not be moved: God shall help her, and that right
early.” (Verses 4, 5). The City of God is an allusion to the General
Assembly and Church of the Firstborn, the Body of Christ, and the Bride of
Jesus (see Hebrews 12:22). There is a
river that waters and sustains God’s people with its life-giving properties. Jesus spoke of this river when He said, “He that believeth on Me, as the scripture
hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers
of living water. (But this spake
He of the Spirit, which they that believe on Him should receive.” (John
7:38, 39). As a flowing river brings
life and nourishment to the trees and plants that grow beside it, the Holy
Spirit brings life and maturity to every soul who believes in Jesus
Christ. We don’t have to fear being
moved by circumstances around us; God will help us! He dwells in the very midst of His children,
and He will respond quickly to our every need.
In his day, the Prophet Ezekiel saw a vision of the heavenly tabernacle.
Out of the midst of that tabernacle he
saw a river flowing, growing as it went, and giving life and abundance
everywhere that it flowed. St. John also
saw this River of Life and said, “…he
shewed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the
throne of God and of the Lamb. In the
midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river, was there the Tree
of Life, which bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month:
and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.”
(Revelations 22:1, 2).
“The heathen raged, the
kingdoms were moved: He uttered His voice, the earth melted. The LORD of hosts is with us; the God of
Jacob is our refuge. Selah.” (Verses 6, 7).
We will face a time of great turmoil in some future day. Indications are that it may not be far
off. Those who do not know Christ will
rage against those who do. Kingdoms will
be moved, wars will be fought, and ultimately the earth will melt with fervent
heat. Even so, the Lord of hosts is with
us! God will be our refuge.
“Come, behold the works of
the LORD, what desolations He hath made in the earth. He maketh wars to cease unto the end of the
earth; He breaketh the bow, and cutteth the spear in sunder; He burneth the
chariot in the fire.” (Verses
8, 9). Just as surely as there will be a
time when men will beat their plowshares into swords and their pruning hooks
into spears (Joel 3:10), there will come a time when they will do the exact
opposite (Micah 4:3). The point is, whatever
is going on around us, we can be sure that the Lord is near, and He will
shelter us. God will be our refuge!
“Be still, and know that I am God: I will be exalted among
the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth.
The LORD of hosts is with us; the
God of Jacob is our refuge.
Selah.” (Verses 10,
11). The Hebrew word translated “still”
also means “to relax, let drop, abandon,
refrain, and forsake.” We need to
abandon our anxieties, refrain from our worries, forsake our fears, and learn
to relax in God. We need to learn to
drop the illusion of control that we think we have over our circumstances! Only then can we see God for Who He is,
understand what He does, and why He does it.
Every child of God needs to learn to quiet themselves before God. It’s easier to pour out all of the things
that are on our minds in prayer than it is to quietly listen to what our Father
has to say to us. Have you ever tried to
get your point across to someone who wouldn’t let you get a word in edgewise? When you finally did get to speak, you knew
that they weren’t hearing you because they were too busy framing their next
comment. That’s how the Lord must
sometimes feel about us. The Apostle
Paul tells us that faith comes from hearing
- not speaking - and hearing comes
from the Word of God. It’s only when God
can reveal Himself to me through His Word that I can truly see myself and be
changed into His likeness. Then it is
that I relinquish the control of my life to Him and begin to perceive that He
is God.
As I was praying before church one Sunday morning I became aware of a
stinging sensation in my finger. Looking
closely at it, I found that I had driven a wooden splinter into the flesh of my
right index finger. I was amazed at how
much it hurt, and yet I had not noticed it before that moment. Thinking back, I realized that I had probably
done it days before while working on a project. I had been carrying it with me since then without
even being aware of it. As I became
quiet before the Lord, however, the presence of this little thorn in my flesh
became very evident and commanded my attention.
That’s when God spoke to me. He
made me realize that the splinter wasn’t the only hurt that I carried around
with me but was too busy to recognize. I
was carrying frustrations, hurt feelings, stress, disappointments, and a myriad
of other wounds. I wasn’t even aware
that I was hurt. In that quiet time
before the Lord, I was able to see these “wounds” in my life that, with the
Lord’s help, I could bring to Him to heal.
Tenderly, He removed each "thorn" and restored peace and
assurance to me as I relinquished each hurt to Him.
Needless to say, I left that prayer session feeling refreshed and
renewed. I also came away with a better
understanding of who God is and of how dependant I am on Him for my spiritual
health. I could see that in my busy life
I need to be still before God and listen to what He has to say rather than
always presenting MY demands and then missing where my true needs - and His
will - really lie. This is the only way that
I can really know Who He is, and how He wants to move in my life.
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