When the earth gives way
In February 2011, we were in New Zealand. After time spent in
the lovely little town of Akaroa, we returned to Christchurch for the last days
of our holiday before flying home. It was only a week after our return, before
we’d even had time to sort our photos, that disaster struck that city. An
earthquake devastated the city, killing 185 people. The beautiful cathedral
where we’d attended a service was in ruins, the carpark under a cliff where
we’d gone to look at the sea was strewn with car-crushing boulders. Our hearts
ached, but we were safe and sound. How much worse was it for the people who
lived there?
Natural disasters are a horrible reality in this world –
earthquakes, fires, floods, tsunamis, cyclones – the list goes on. But there
are other kinds of disasters that rip our world apart as well – famines, wars,
plagues, droughts etc. And then there are the personal disasters that can upend
our lives – bereavement, sickness, accidents, financial loss, chronic pain,
broken relationships, and so many others. We are delusional if we think we can
be totally secure in this world, in fact Jesus told a story to that effect (in
Luke 12) about a man whose harvest was so large that he decided all he had to
do was build bigger barns to hold it and sit back and enjoy it. Jesus, you may
remember, called him a fool!
So, where can we find security?
Psalm 46 addresses this very thing:
46 God is our refuge and strength, a very present help
in trouble.
2 Therefore we will not fear though the earth gives
way,
though the mountains be moved into the heart of
the sea,
3 though its waters roar and foam, though the
mountains tremble at its swelling. Selah
4 There is a river whose streams make glad the
city of God,
the holy habitation of the Most High.
5 God is in the midst of her; she shall not be
moved; God will help her when morning dawns.
6 The nations rage, the kingdoms
totter; he utters his voice, the earth melts.
7 The Lord of hosts is with us; the God
of Jacob is our fortress. Selah
8 Come, behold the works of the Lord, how he
has brought desolations on the earth.
9 He makes wars cease to the end of the earth;
he breaks the bow and shatters the spear; he
burns the chariots with fire.
10 “Be still, and know that I am God.
I will be exalted among the
nations, I will be exalted in the earth!”
11 The Lord of hosts is with us; the God
of Jacob is our fortress. Selah
As a matter of interest, this was Martin Luther’s favourite
Psalm, and the inspiration for his famous hymn Ein Feste Burg (“A Mighty
Fortress is our God”). You can see why. It’s a Psalm for hard times, and for
battling through situations we wouldn’t have chosen to face.
Unlike some Psalms, which start with a lament for the
Psalmist’s problem, this one starts from a position of confident faith. God IS
our strength and refuge, for all time and in all situations. He is the one who
will uphold us with his righteous right hand (Isaiah 41:10). He is the one who
gives strength to the weary (Isaiah 40:29). His name is our strong tower (Prov
18:10), which we can run to and be safe. Therefore, even in times of absolute
calamity, we do not need to cower in fear.
Most of the time, in most of our lives, we manage our
problems ourselves. We have processes, we have techniques, we know (or think we
know) how to cope. This is part of our difficulty, some of us can be so good at
“coping”, that we have very little practice in being truly dependent on God.
But there are no coping skills that will carry you through when the earth gives
way, and the mountains are moved into the heart of the sea (v2). We need a
refuge then, and God has given us one. Himself. He is the one who has told us
to come to him when we are weary and heavy laden, and he will give us rest. It
is his everlasting arms which are underneath us. We have an eternal security in
Christ which is beyond our understanding.
But more, God is a very present help. He is not far away from
us. We do not need fancy rituals to reach him, he is as close as the breath of
a prayer. We do not need to make ourselves perfect to come to him, we cannot;
but we stand in the righteousness of Christ, and we are fully accepted. We do
not need to go on arduous pilgrimages to find him, he is here already, and what
is even more wonderful, his Spirit dwells within us. There is nowhere we can go
where he is not already present.
The Psalmist then goes on to talk about the city of God,
which is immovable, with a river running through it. This, at first glance,
might seem like a change of subject, but it isn’t. Two New Testament scriptures
illuminate this. The first is Revelation 22, which speaks of the glorious city
of God which is to come. There is river in the midst of it, named as the River
of the Water of Life, and it waters the Tree of Life whose leaves are for the
healing of the nations. It is a beautiful picture of God’s healing and renewing
presence giving life to his people.
The second one is from John 7: 38 “Whoever believes in
me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow
rivers of living water.’” 39 Now this he
said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to
receive, for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus
was not yet glorified.
This makes it personal, and here-and-now. Every Christian is
indwelt by the Holy Spirit, every Christian has access to that sustaining and
empowering river.
The world is a scary place at times. The nations rage, and
sometimes the baddies win. The kingdoms totter and the earth melts. Our hearts
cry out in horror, fear, and pity. The Psalmist enumerates these things (verse
6), there is no pretence that horrors will not happen. But there is a larger
perspective, a bigger picture, when we put God back in the frame, because none
of these things can defeat him. No virus, no natural disaster, no wicked army
has the final say. God does; and he is in charge, and he loves us. Evil may
flourish for a season, but don’t be deceived, its time is short.
This is the context of verse 10, one of those “famous” verses
that everyone knows. “Be still, and know that I am God”, and note that
it continues “I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in
the earth!”. But what does it mean to be still? It isn’t referring to some
sort of meditative pose. The Hebrew word means to be weak, or to surrender;
some translators put it as “stop striving” or “stop fighting”. It is the same
word as Jesus used when he stilled the storm. It is not a passive mental state,
it is an active choice, by faith, to entrust ourselves to God and let him deal
with the things that are beyond our power. It means giving up the myth that we
are in control, it means laying down the pride that says we must be
self-sufficient. It means letting God be God and being in awe of who he is and
what he does. The victory already belongs to him, we just haven’t seen it yet.
But while we wait, we are safe in his hands. He truly is our refuge and
strength.
No comments:
Post a Comment