Where Is God In This Crisis?

Psalm 46

1 God is our refuge and strength,

always ready to help in times of trouble.

2 So we will not fear, even if earthquakes come

and the mountains crumble into the sea.

3 Let the oceans roar and foam.

Let the mountains tremble as the waters surge!

4 A river brings joy to the city of our God,

the sacred home of the Most High.

5 God himself lives in that city; it cannot be destroyed.

God will protect it at the break of day.

6 The nations are in an uproar,

and kingdoms crumble!

God thunders,

and the earth melts!

7 The LORD Almighty is here among us;

the God of Israel is our fortress.

8 Come, see the glorious works of the LORD:

See how he brings destruction upon the world

9 and causes wars to end throughout the earth.

He breaks the bow and snaps the spear in two;

he burns the shields with fire.

10 ¡§Be silent, and know that I am God!

I will be honored by every nation.

I will be honored throughout the world.¡¨

11 The LORD Almighty is here among us;

the God of Israel is our fortress.

Hebrews 12:25-29

25See to it that you obey God, the one who is speaking to you. For if the people of Israel did not escape when they refused to listen to Moses, the earthly messenger, how terrible our danger if we reject the One who speaks to us from heaven! 26When God spoke from Mount Sinai his voice shook the earth, but now he makes another promise: ¡§Once again I will shake not only the earth but the heavens also.¡¨„T 27This means that the things on earth will be shaken, so that only eternal things will be left.

28Since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be destroyed, let us be thankful and please God by worshiping him with holy fear and awe. 29For our God is a consuming fire.

A lot more than buildings of mortar and steel were shaken up by the events of this past Tuesday. America experienced a shaking that reached into it’s very roots. The assumption that "it can’t happen here" has been jolted out of us. The belief that even when a terrorist attack succeeds, its damage will be limited and isolated has been demolished. "Airport security" has become an oxymoron. Confidence in our intelligence services and national defenses has fallen. And any lingering notion that being on the side of fairness and freedom and justice for all was any kind of insulation against massive tragedy is now banished forever. Gone are the days when all we had to fear was fear itself. To use FDR¡¦s words, this day will go down in infamy. This is the Pearl Harbor of this generation.

Michael Elliot, writing for Time, was not exaggerating when he wrote, "For Americans, September 11, 2001, will go down in history as a day the world changed."1 We have been shaken to the core.

We preachers like to think we can draw "lessons" from the events of life, and this horrific event, being so dramatic and traumatic, seems to offer an obvious one: No human defense is certain, and no human life can be guaranteed by any agency of earth. Only God is unshakeable and the only unshakeable place is the kingdom of God itself. The writer of Hebrews says as much: "Therefore we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken."2

But the problem is, while we who are people of faith can assent to that on a "spiritual" level, in the nitty-gritty of our lives--that place where we reside most of the time--that affirmation doesn’t connect very well. Yes, we who follow Christ are citizens of both an eternal kingdom and an earthly nation, but what, in any terms that help us now, does that dual citizenship really mean?

The people of the Old Testament had to struggle to understand that as well, and one place we see it is in Psalm 46. The psalm sings about the city as though it were absolutely untouchable: 2 So we will not fear, even if earthquakes come

and the mountains crumble into the sea.

3 Let the oceans roar and foam.

Let the mountains tremble as the waters surge!

5 God himself lives in that city; it cannot be destroyed.

God will protect it at the break of day.

[ "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 ... God is in the midst of the city; it shall not be moved." ]

With the bringing of the Ark of the Covenant there, and the subsequent establishment of the temple in that city, the people came to understand Jerusalem as the place God had chosen to reside. For them, it was "the city of God," and thus unshakeable.