Praise, Power and Peace in the Psalms #9 God’s Refuge
Part 1 Troubled Waters - Psalms 46:1-3
God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore will not we fear, though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea; Though the waters thereof roar and be troubled, though the mountains shake with the swelling thereof. Selah.
God Our Refuge
The Psalms begins with this statement of faith, God is our refuge and strength. In Him we find a place of safety, of hope and ultimately of victory.
From this declaration of complete trust comes the conclusion of faith, “therefore we will not fear.”
The Psalmist describes the troubles as terrible earthquakes and overwhelming, apocalyptic floods. He is like a drowning man being swept away. In this deluge, the psalmist is powerless to save himself, but in the midst of the catastrophe, in the full power of storm, he reaches out his hand and God plucks him from the flood. In God he has found a place of refuge from the flood.
Our Troubled Waters
We may not face what Hezekiah and the people of Jerusalem faced but we cannot be in this world and not know our own “troubled waters.” Sometimes it is our family caught up in the flood of illness or sorrow. Sometimes it is our church being swept away in a flood of turmoil, sin or even division. In these days of social upheaval, it seems our nation is being swept away by civil strife, immorality, perversion and ungodliness.
Like Hezekiah we can hear the enemies outside the gate of our family, our church, mocking us, ridiculing our faith, and telling us to quit believing because there is no God that can deliver us from what is coming.
At those when I am overwhelmed, it is then that I need to hear the voice of God’s word, the surety of God’s promise. “God is our refuge and strength.”
The flood may still be raging around us, but we have found our place of protection, shelter, and hope. That place is there, in the promise of God Himself. He is our refuge, He is our strength, He is with us. He is that “very present help in time of trouble”
I must state and stake my faith in God as my place of refuge. It matters not what circumstances are sweeping me away or what forces are shaking the very ground we stand on, we will not fear. God is our refuge and strength!
