Thought for the day – Wednesday 27th May 2020
Psalm 46: 1-3 Day 1
Let’s meditate on the first few verses of this psalm. It begins with a statement of faith, always a good place to start:
“God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.”
These words are very reassuring and comforting. When we take refuge in God, it’s not so that we can avoid trouble or run away from it, but when we take refuge in Him He makes us strong in the trouble, strong enough to face it. We don’t have to call on Him to come and help, as if He’s far away – He’s very present with us already. We just have to recognise that fact. And trouble comes to us all, it’s part of being human. Finding ourselves in a troublesome situation doesn’t mean that God has abandoned us or failed us. In fact, God can become more real to us and we can discover how dependable He is in those times.
An earthly Father expects a child to become more independent, so that eventually he or she can make their own way in the world. But God is not like that, He doesn’t expect us to become mature enough to handle our own troubles – in fact, spiritual maturity is the opposite, it’s learning to depend completely on Him.
“Therefore we will not fear”.
‘Therefore‘ means that because of those truths about God we can decide that we will not fear. We can make a choice to focus on truth so that it makes our fears shrink. When we are fearful, we need to speak out the truth of the first two lines – declaring scriptural truth is the way to live in the light of it and to renew our minds.
The Psalmist then lists the worst catastrophes he can imagine:
“Even though the earth be removed,
And though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea;
Though its waters roar and be troubled,
Though the mountains shake with its swelling.”
The earth and the mountains are parts of nature that are supposed to be stable. The waters, which God restrained at creation, may threaten to become chaotic again.
The Psalmist knows that none of those things could possibly happen, and he says we don’t need to fear, even if they should, because God is still present with us even then, in real catastrophe. What he implies is that whatever troubles we do have, they’re less catastrophic in the scheme of things.
In the current circumstances, we could add to the list, ‘even though we’re in the midst of a global pandemic’. When we’re fearful that we will catch the virus and perhaps become very ill, we have to hang onto what is true about God being a very present help in trouble. Some of us may be isolating ourselves, we may be alone and feeling lonely – we can take comfort in these words in Psalm 46 because they’re true wherever we are and however we’re feeling. The current situation will pass. Perhaps we need to limit the endless news about the virus, and all the speculation about the future, and focus on these words, “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear…”