Focus on God
“Be still, and know that I am God, I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.” Ps 46:10
In 1517, an obscure Catholic priest named Martin Luther placed his life in God’s hands when he nailed his 95 theses, his 95 arguments against the Catholic church, on the door of the Wittenberg Church. There was nothing wrong with nailing pages to the door. Everything was posted there for everyone to read. It was the community bulletin board. But Martin Luther had been studying the Bible personally and realized that Catholic ceremonies did nothing to dispense grace and the church had no right to sell indulgences. Salvation is received through faith in Jesus. His 95 theses specified errors of the Catholic church in the light of personal Bible study.
At that time, Catholicism was the most powerful institution in the western world. The Pope not only coronated kings, he could order them to abdicate if he so chose. The power to excommunicate did not so much inspire the fear of God as the fear of eternal hell. Opposition to the church meant a charge of heresy, possible torture, possible death, and certain excommunication.
After ten years of leading the Reformation, a series of health problems assaulted Martin Luther. In April, 1527, a dizzy spell struck him while preaching. Things got worse. By July he wondered if he had long to live. He regained some strength, then was assaulted with depression, heart problems, and severe intestinal complications. In those days, some treatments were as bad as the ailments.
At one point he wrote, “I spent more than a week in death and hell. My entire body was in pain.” Some of you may know how that feels. He continued, “I labored under the vacillations and storms of desperation and blasphemy against God.”
That sounds like Job, who was tempted to “curse God and die.”
Then the black plague struck Germany. His home became a hospital where he watched his friends experience the blessed relief of death. Then his year old son became seriously ill.
The 46th Psalm became his favorite. It inspired Martin Luther to write, “A Mighty Fortress Is Our God.” The hymn is so compelling that, ironically, it became a suggested hymn for Catholic Masses, appearing in the second edition of the Catholic Book of Worship, published by the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops.
Psalm 46 is not as familiar to many of us as other passages we have studied, so I want to review the context of 46:10.
One commentator described this as a psalm of radical trust in the face of overwhelming threat. That’s a good description. Verses 1-3 describe that radical trust when nature is in an uproar, 4-7 describe God’s protective presence when nations are in an uproar, and 8-11 call us to trust God who will cause all war to cease.
“God is our refuge and strength, an ever present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with their surging,” Ps 46:1-3.
There are two pictures here of nature in an uproar, of the world falling apart. First, the earth gives way and the mountains fall into the sea, possibly describing an earthquake.
After striking an iceberg the size of a large hill, but not a mountain by any means, the Titanic took on waters for hours before it finally sank. Survivors described the moment when the mass of steel and water below the surface became great enough to lift the exposed portion of the ship up from the ocean surface. The Titanic stood on end before completely diving into the water. As it disappeared, the suction pulled some short term survivors who were still too close down with it. Then the waters churned and foamed as more short term survivors who were still too close were overturned and drowned.
Now imagine an earthquake that shatters mountains into Titanic sized boulders. Imagine the air being filled with these Titanic sized boulders as they fall into the sea. Imagine how that water would churn and foam. There is no safe place on the land, in the air, or on the sea.
The second picture goes in the opposite direction. This time, the waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with their surging.
Do you remember the tsunami that struck Japan recently, knocking out the cooling system to a nuclear power plant? That surge was small compared to the one that struck Indonesia a few years ago. Some of us saw video taken from high ground of a forty foot wall of water sweeping onto the beach. Suddenly, the people who were there seconds ago were gone. Now imagine a wall of water not just forty feet tall, but tall enough and fast enough to make mountains tremble.
When the nature is in an uproar, “God is our refuge and strength, an ever present help in trouble. Therefore, we will not fear.”
“There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy place where the Most High dwells. God is within her, she will not fall; God will help her at break of day. Nations are in uproar, kingdoms fall; he lifts his voice, the earth melts. The Lord Almighty is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress,” Ps 46:4-7.
Verses 1-3 describe nature in uproar, but God is our refuge and strength, an ever present help in trouble. Verses 6-7 describe nations in uproar, but the Lord almighty is with us. I am particularly interested in verses 4-5.
One evidence that the Genesis flood was a real event is the prevalence of flood stories in other ancient cultures, remnants of the story passed on by Noah’s descendants, stories corrupted as his descendants forgot the one true God.
The Mesopotamian flood story describes their gods becoming angry with men and unleashing a flood that the gods themselves could not control. They “cower like dogs inside the wall,” (Gilgamish Epic, Book 11) hoping the wall will not give way to the crashing waves. By contrast, when the true God is within the city, “she will not fall.” The mythological Mesopotamian gods need a fortress. The true God is a fortress.
“Come and see the works of the Lord, the desolations he has brought on the earth. He makes wars cease to the ends of the earth; he breaks the bow and shatters the spear, he burns the shields with fire,” Ps 46:8-9
We don’t know the exact context for Ps 46. One suggestion is the Assyrian invasion, Isaiah 36-37. The Assyrians are going to fight Egypt. They warm up for the fight by destroying, killing, pillaging, and raping every insignificant kingdom on their way. They have captured all the fortified cities of Judah. Jerusalem is next.
While the Assyrian army is distracted, King Hezekiah prays.
“It is true, O Lord, that the Assyrian kings have laid waste all these peoples and their lands. They have thrown their gods into the fire and destroyed them, for they were not gods but only wood and stone, fashioned by human hands. Now, O Lord our God, deliver us from his hand, so that all kingdoms on earth may know that you alone, O Lord, are God,” Is 37:18-20.
That night, the Lord of hosts sent an angel, just one out of his hosts, just one of his multitude of angels, to the Assyrian camp. That angel killed 185,000 enemy soldiers while they slept. When the army awoke the next day, there were the bodies. The survivors packed up and left.
“Come and see the works of the Lord, the desolations he has brought on the earth. He makes wars cease…” Hezekiah would say, “Amen.”
Now we reach our focus for this study.
“Be still…” Ps 46:10.
“Be still? But, Lord, you put me in a fast-paced world. I can’t slow down without falling behind. I have schedules and deadlines. ASAP isn’t fast enough, the boss wants it all yesterday. I can’t be still right now. You understand, don’t you, Lord?”
“Be still…”
“But, Lord, you put me in a world of troubles. The economy is bad. We don’t know when there will be another terrorist attack. I’m afraid of what may be going on at my child’s school. This isn’t the same world I grew up in. My nerves are frayed. If I take the time to be still, I may have to think about these things, and I may lose my mind. You understand, don’t you, Lord?”
“Be still, and know that I am God…” Ps 46:10.
“But, Lord, you put me in a world filled with constant noise. TVs, crying babies, phones, cell phones, sirens, alarms, lawn mowers, barking dogs, chain saws, planes, trains, & automobiles. There is no end of clamor. Its so hard to concentrate. I know I need to be still, to focus, and learn to listen to You, but I can’t escape the noise or concentrate. You understand, don’t you, Lord?”
“Be still, and know that I am God…”
“Oh, God, I am so tired! I know I need time with you, but I also need rest. After I have rested, I will spend time alone with You. You do understand, don’t you, Lord?”
“Be still, and know that I am God, I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth,” Ps 46:10.
Jesus certainly had work to do, work more important than anything we will ever do. Jesus regularly took time to be alone with his Father. For example, “In the morning, having risen a long while before daylight, He went out and departed to a solitary place; and there He prayed,” Mk 1:35.
When we are so busy that our strength is gone but the demands keep coming, we need to remember Isaiah 40:31. “But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.”
The promise of renewed strength to fly, run, and walk is to those who wait on the Lord.
Isaiah 30:15 says, “…in quietness and trust is your strength…” then it describes too many of us, “…but you would have none of it.”
When the world has gone wild, when nations are in an uproar, with all the fears and distractions of the age, in quietness and trust is our strength. We need to be still and know that He is God.
Ps 46:10 is one of several “life keys” for Christians, which we are considering specifically as “prayer keys.” If we don’t take time to be still and know that He is God, our prayer life will suffer. We know that prayer is not just talking to God, it is talking with God, it includes taking time to listen. God spoke to Elijah in a still small voice. We need to be still to listen because God still speaks that way.
When we have our group prayer time at First Baptist, Everman, someone may pray aloud immediately or we may go thirty seconds, forty seconds, maybe a minute before someone prays aloud. That time passes silently. That is not long, but younger groups seem to be nervous with silence. Someone almost always coughs or sniffles or clears their throat or something every few seconds. I am glad that we do not feel pressured by silence, that we are willing to spend some time in silent prayer or simply listening to what God may say to each of us. I hope when we do pray aloud, whether immediately or after a period of silence, it is because the Spirit moves us to pray and not because we feel pressured by silence. I know I am sometimes guilty of the latter.
“The Lord is in his holy temple; let all the earth be silent before him,” Habakkuk 2:20.
In both public and private prayer, there is a time to speak and a time to listen, a time to be silent before him. If we want to pray as God leads, we need to remember to take time to be still and know that He is God.
