Psalms 46:1-11: a reflection

1God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. 2Therefore we won’t be afraid, though the earth changes, though the mountains are shaken into the heart of the seas; 3though its waters roar and are troubled, though the mountains tremble with their swelling. Selah. 4There is a river, the streams of which make the city of God glad, the holy place of the tents of the Most High. 5God is within her. She shall not be moved. God will help her at dawn. 6The nations raged. The kingdoms were moved. He lifted his voice and the earth melted. 7The LORD of Armies is with us. The God of Jacob is our refuge. Selah. 8Come, see the LORD’s works, what desolations he has made on the earth. 9He makes wars cease to the end of the earth. He breaks the bow, and shatters the spear. He burns the chariots in the fire. 10“Be still, and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations. I will be exalted on the earth.” 11The LORD of Armies is with us. The God of Jacob is our refuge. Selah.

Psalm 46 opens with a bold declaration: God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore, it goes on, we will not fear, though the earth gives way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea, though the waters roar and the mountains tremble. It pictures the most total upheaval imaginable, the very ground and mountains collapsing, and answers it with fearlessness, because God is our refuge. And at its climax comes God's own voice: Be still, and know that I am God.

Notice both the upheaval and the stillness. The psalm does not imagine a calm, untroubled world; it imagines everything shaking, the solid ground itself giving way, and still it does not fear, because God is a very present help, a refuge that does not collapse when everything else does. And into the roar and trembling, God speaks a command that sounds almost paradoxical: Be still. Cease the frantic striving, the anxious scrambling. Stop, and know that I am God.

That word is for our own shaking seasons, when the ground seems to give way, when the world or our own life is in upheaval. The instinct is to panic, to scramble, to be consumed by fear. The psalm calls us instead to be still, and to know, to rest in the settled knowledge that God is God, our refuge, present, unshaken, in control even of the shaking. When everything around you trembles, hear his voice: Be still, and know that I am God. Cease striving, take refuge in him, and let the knowledge that he reigns steady your heart amid the upheaval.

Lord, you are my refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble, and even when the ground gives way you call me to be still and know that you are God. When my world shakes and my instinct is to panic and scramble, quiet me with that command. Help me cease striving, take refuge in you, and rest in the settled knowledge that you reign, unshaken, even over what is shaking. Be still, my soul; he is God.