Ps 46: Our world! Our times! Our Help!

Psalm 46 covers three persistent realities. Natural

disasters. Wars and Destruction. And so it is a psalm that speaks into our times.

Everyone’s talking about climate change, climate change, climate change.

And War is upon us. Putin making war in Europe. In the

Middle East, Jews and Arabs are at war. China and North

Korea threaten war. And all across the world the Church

spiritual war attacks Christians - though this is never so fully reported as the others, which says something about our media, our values, and our society.

And many ask how long O Lord?

What is the Psalmist’s advice, to Christians? It's very simple: Trust God.

Why? Because He is our refuge and strength,

He is our sanctuary. He is our dynamic power.

He is not an here today gone tomorrow God.

He is an ever-present help. _

He is the God who is always with us and there for us

in our times of trouble He is ever ready to help us.

He can be the same security for others. And some make Him promises of

responding love if He would but first save them, which once provided for them

often slip out of a hole in their hearts. C'est la vie et la mort!

Trouble covers a multitude of possibilities, which are

reflected in Jesus calling us in His prayer to ask for our

daily bread and for deliverance from evil. Therefore don’t be afraid.

Fear is our enemy’s weapon. Fear stops up our action.

We wont do this or that for we fear what might happen to us if we

do. Some people even refuse to trust in God because

they fear He might challenge their lifestyle, even ask them to

give up doing what they like doing.

Fear tempts us to trust in what is not God.

Thus Jeremiah warned lsrael against placing its trust in the Temple. C7v2ff:

“‘Hear the word of the LORD, all you people of Judah who

come through these gates to worship the LORD. This is

what the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, says: Reform

your ways and your actions, and I will let you live in this

place. Do not trust in deceptive words and say, “This is

the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD, the

temple of the LORD!”

Verses 4 to 6 tell us that:

"There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God,

the holy place where the Most High dwells. God is within her,

she will not fall; God will help her at break of day.

Nations are in uproar, kingdoms fall; He lifts His voice, the earth melts."

The life and the future of the Earth is in God’s hands.

As His appointed stewards of creation we are called to care for it,

protect it and develop it. In so reflecting let us never forget that the

landscape we love today may be the result of actions we deplore today.

The Earth is a beautiful home, crafted for by the Lord Jesus Christ, but it is not

the City Of God. There will be a day when we inhabit that Home.

The day of the New Creation, in which neither nor creation will ever know disasters,

wars, and destruction.

Until then why do the nations conspire and the peoples plot in vain? asks Psalm

Two. The Lord scoffs at them. His voice, that in the past spoke the words

that brought creation into being, will in the future speak to bring this creation

to its end. Not by the Sun going supernova, but by the sovereign decision of the Lord Almighty. Until then the God of Jacob is our fortress; God is the fortress of His people.

The God of Jacob is a shorthand reference to the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. The God of the people of Jacob, the Jews in OT terms.

"Come and see what the LORD has done,"

We are invited into the future to look back to the End Days are behind us.

God has overpowered His enemies.

War is over. And how is that victory achieved’?

God has done what we cannot.

We fight our Wars to End War and still we start next one.

The phrase "Be still” is said to literally mean “Take your hands off”.

lt’s like having the trust to float, in water or to freewheel on a bicycle or to let another

push you along in your wheel chair or guide you if you are

blind or need help sitting down.

The nations will know that God is God.

As Jesus said to the High Priest at His trial

“you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the

Mighty One and coming on the clouds of heaven."

And as Isaiah wrote in c45v23 and Paul writes in Philippians 2

God has exalted Jesus to the highest place

and given Him the name that is above every name,

that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,

in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every

tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory

of God the Father.

Does this emphasis on trust mean we don’t have to do anything?

Trust is a verb. Paul prays in Ephesians for God to fill us with knowledge of

His will through all spiritual wisdom and understanding

so that we may live a life worthy of the Lord

and please Him in every way, bearing fruit in every good

work, growing in the knowledge of God,

being strengthened with all power according to His glorious might

so that we may have great endurance and patience

and joyfully give thanks to the Father who has qualified

us to share in the inheritance of the saints in the kingdom of light.

Now that is a workload.

Be still. Take your hands off.

Live by grace. Act in the Spirit; become like Jesus; be holy. Remember

For God is our refuge and strength, our ever-present help in trouble.

and He works in us to achieve His purposes. Amen.