Refuge

After all the news of the past few weeks, I needed the words of the 46th Psalm. They reminded me that “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.” As I think about the multitudes of people facing disasters of all sorts this week, I acknowledge that many of those people will only have God’s presence to see them through the next hours and days. Whether in Myanmar with flooded fields and destroyed homes and destroyed roads and stores and schools…only the very present help of God will meet the needs of those desperately seeking the basic needs of life. In the streets of China where buildings fell and thousands died, there is the great hope alone in God’s presence that can sustain.

The Psalmist said. “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.” An invitation to “fear not” has always been the message of God to us. But our fears always stir in the shortsightedness of our pain, in the brief, momentary afflictions that garner our full attention to the neglect of greater truths. Fears stalk our memories and yield only slowly to the power of a truth beyond all others…the love of God for us.

Some may face an earthquake, and others the torrents of storms from the sea, and others may be moved by the floods and troubles of days that may be described in a hundred different ways…cancer, business collapse, war, fire, economic ruin, broken relationships, prison sentences, accidents, disease, death…and the Psalmist still reminds us…” The nations are in an uproar, the kingdoms totter; he utters his voice, the earth melts.”

The affirmation, the promise, the hope lies in what we must remember in times like these: “The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge.”

God brings to all of our circumstances, the capacities to change the way things are at any moment, by reminding us to “Be still, and know that I am God!”

In those moments …when we exalt the name of the Lord our God…when we and the earth seem most unlikely to survive, God brings us hope…”The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge.”