“God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.” What comforting words in Psalm 46! They assure us that God is there for us -- whenever we are in need, whenever we are in trouble. Throughout the centuries, people have turned to the psalms for comfort. When we are troubled or worried, the psalms give us encouragement and reassurance to get on with the task of living our lives.
Psalm 46 reads: God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth should change, though the mountains shake in the heart of the sea; though its waters roar and foam, though the mountains tremble with its tumult.” These are supposed to be words of assurance. The Psalmist is saying that God is with us. We have nothing to fear. Even when our world seems to be crumbling down around us, God will be present to sustain us.
These words are reassuring when we feel the Divine presence strongly in our lives. We can take comfort in the fact that God will always be there for us, even in times of trouble. . . . Yet what about those times in our lives when God does not seem present, when our world is falling apart and it feels as if we are all alone? What about those moments of deep despair when we call out in agony and God seemingly ignores our cries? Why is it that we feel God’s presence keenly when things are going well and we’re content with our lives, but when a tragedy occurs and we desperately cry out, God seems silent?
When author Frederick Buechner was a child, his father committed suicide. In the book Listening to Your Life: Daily Meditations with Frederick Buechner, Buechner tells about the impact this had on him, and with the story of his father’s suicide as a backdrop, he describes how he understands God’s presence in our lives. He writes:
As I understand it, to say that God is mightily present even in such private events as these does not mean that [God] makes events happen to us which move us in certain directions like chess[pieces]. Instead, events happen under their own steam as random as rain, which means that God is present in them, not as their cause, but as the one who even in the hardest and most hair-raising of them offers the possibility of that new life and healing which I believe is what salvation is.
For instance, I cannot believe that a God of love and mercy in any sense willed my father’s suicide; it was my father himself who willed it as the only way out available to him from a life that for various reasons he had come to find unbearable. God did not will what happened that early morning in Essex Falls, New Jersey, but I believe that God was present in what happened. I cannot guess how God was present with my father -- I can guess much better how utterly abandoned by God my father must have felt if he thought about God at all -- but my faith as well as my prayer is that God was and continues to be with him in ways beyond my guessing.
God continues to be present with us as well -- in ways that we will never know or be able to guess. Scripture does give us some clues, however
The Psalmist has written, “The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge.” Why does the Psalmist mention the God of Jacob? And how is the God of Jacob our refuge? God promised Jacob protection and companionship. The promises made to Jacob have also been made to us. Listen to the promise God made to Jacob, which is recorded in the 28th chapter of Genesis: “Know that I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land; for I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.” The Psalmist tells us that just as God promised to be with Jacob and to keep him wherever he went, God has also promised to be with us.
Believing in God can be sustaining in and of itself. Our faith can help to carry us through even the darkest of times.
Listen again to the words of the Psalm: “God is in the midst of the city; it shall not be moved; God will help the city when the morning comes.” The morning will come and when it does, God will help the faithful. Psalm 46 ends with the words: “Be still and know that I am God!”
God is found in the stillness. God does not leave us when the going gets tough. God does not abandon us. He is our refuge in times of trouble.
No comments:
Post a Comment