Summer in the Psalms: Refuge & Strength
Summer in the Psalms: Refuge & Strength by Rev. L. John Gable
August 1, 2021
We are a people prone to action, aren’t we, hard wired to do something? When we see a need we try to meet it. When we see a problem we try to solve it. When we see a gap we try to fill it.
I believe God has made us this way: to be active workers in His Kingdom purposes, not passive observers; to be co-creators, participants and partners with Him using the minds and talents and resources He has given us. In these ways when we see the hungry we feed them, the naked we clothe them, the sick and imprisoned we visit them. When disasters strike we go in to action mode to meet the need. When pandemics attack we mobilize to eradicate them. We wear masks. We social distance. We get vaccinated. As people of faith we are ready and willing to fasten on the belt of truth to counter falsehood and the breastplate of righteousness to combat injustice; to strap shoes on our feet to carry the Gospel to an unreached people, pick up the shield of faith, put on the helmet of salvation and lift up the sword of the Spirit.
We are by nature and nurture a people prone to action, and that, by and large, is a very good thing. There are countless stories, even here, of how we collectively as a church, as well as individuals in our church family, have seen a need and stepped up to meet it. We have nearly 170 years of Tab stories of need meeting in this community and around the globe, including our move nearly 100 years ago to this outlying corner of 34th and Central in order to meet the needs of families, particularly children, in this fast growing section of the city called Mapleton-Fall Creek who were in need of Christian Education, and the list of the things and programs and activities and ministries we have done and continue to do goes on and on. And that is all good because there is much good that need to be done and we are the ones to do it. God has so called and empowered us to identify with the needs of the people around us, be they spiritual or social, and work to address them in His name. Our faith is biased toward our getting involved in those very worldly issues and doing something about them.
But maybe doing something should not always be our first response or our our knee-jerk reaction when a need arises. This morning we look at Psalm 46. Despite the turmoil going on around him, which the Psalmist will eventually explain, he begins by focusing our attention on God, reminding us that “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.” Through this lens he begins reciting exactly what that “trouble” might be – the earth is changing, the mountains are shaking, the waters are roaring, the nations are in an uproar as kingdoms totter and the earth melts at the sound of His voice. As I mentioned last week the Psalms are wonderfully useful as they help give language and expression to our worship and prayer life. Without going in to any detail, we know what those kinds of “troubles” are, don’t we, because we have experienced them as well, perhaps some of us are experiencing them even now as the ground beneath us shakes and our world is being turned up-side-down when we hear: ”You’re fired! Your cancer has spread! I want a divorce! You’re being evicted! There’s nothing more we can do! He didn’t make it! You didn’t get in! You’re not welcome here!” In those cataclysmic moments we may not know what to do, but we know we need to do something…or do we?
Counter-intuitive as it may sound, maybe the Rabbit in Lewis Carroll’s classic Alice in Wonderland was right when he said to a panicked Alice, “Don’t just do something, stand there!” Of course there is something that needs to be done, but perhaps it is not a something that is given for us to do, but for God to do.
In the midst of the changes of our lives the Psalmist reminds us of this promise of our faith that “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in times of trouble”. With that foundational reminder he opens the Psalm and then he closes it by saying, so, “be still and know that I am God (be still and know that God is God!) I am exalted among the nations. I am exalted in the earth. The Lord of hosts is with us. The God of Jacob is our refuge.” Another good couple of verses to commit to memory, a promise that holds on to us as we hold on to it. In that instant when we feel like we have to do something that something might just be to stand still!
This lesson is so important for us to hear and so difficult for us to learn and to put in to practice. When we see or think that something needs to be done our default reaction is to think that we are the ones who have to do it, and often that response is correct. There are things which need doing which only we can do, so we better be about the business of doing them: feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, visiting the sick and imprisoned, addressing issues of injustice and inequality. But even in our doing we must also be mindful that our impulse toward activity may also be a sign of our hubris, our selfishness, our sinfulness, our pride, our need to be needed or our need to be in control which leaves God largely out of the equation or worse still it is an indication that we don’t really think we need God at all, that we can handle this one ourselves!
So, when we are called upon to act or to react while our first instinct may be to do something, perhaps our better response, our more faithful response would be to first “be still and wait”, to just stand there and do nothing. But that pause of waiting is not a sign of inactivity or neglect or indifference on our part, as some might assume, rather it is the recognition that the thing that needs doing is greater than our ability to do it. It is the non-action which readies us for the action we are about to take. I don’t know how many of you are staying up way too late watching the Olympics, but have you noticed that every athlete, regardless of the event, assume a resting/waiting/readying position before they begin? This is the non-action before the action they are about to take. Our waiting is a sign that we are trusting God to act and then depending on His prompting and guidance as to how we should act. So instead of just doing something we willingly stand there and wait and watch and pray, trusting God’s timing and empowering rather than our own. And then, when we finally feel the call to act, our action arises not out of reflex or impulse, but out of our having waited for God to lead us. When we choose to be still we are acting out the confession of our faith that “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in times of trouble” and that He is in fact acting, even when we are not, in ways beyond our vision or understanding. When we wait and watch and pray we are living out of the conviction that God is God and the acknowledgement that we are not.
Think with me for a moment, or better for a lifetime: how would it change your life, your relationships, your mental attitude, your perspective toward world events and the people around you if you were to live out of this confidence of faith that God really is our comfort and strength and very present help in times of trouble regardless of what that trouble may be? How would it change your approach to life, your response to the unexpected events when the mountains tremble and the earth shakes beneath your feet, your response to others anger or offense against you, were you to openly admit to yourself, as well as to them, that you can’t fix their problems, you can’t answer all their questions, you can’t be their God, but God can and is? What would it do to your thought patterns, your sleep patterns, your response patterns if, in the confidence of faith, you could say, “This problem I am facing is a big one and a real one, but God I know that You are bigger and more real still, so I am going to trust You on this and I will be more than interested to see what You are going to do with it and how I can be a part.” That very intentional act of inactivity is borne not of passivity or indifference, but of confidence and faith.
In September of 2006 Hurricane Katrina devastated the city of New Orleans and communities along the Gulf Coast. I recall an interview Larry King had with Pastor Rick Warren who spoke of his being most concerned for the children who were traumatized by that horrific event. He said, “The adults are going to get through this, so as a parent I would tell the parents… you must reassure your children. We’re here. God’s here. You’re here and we’re going to make it together. I would not focus on what is lost, but on what is left. And if you’re going to help people get over their insecurity, then you must teach them, whether children or adults, that they have to put their confidence, their trust, in something that can never be taken from them. Now if you put your trust in your career, it can be taken from you. If you put your trust in material possessions, they can be taken from you. If you put your trust in your husband or your wife or even your children, they can be taken from you as we’ve seen this week. The only thing that cannot be taken from you is a personal relationship with God as I know Him through Jesus Christ. He gives me strength…so I would teach my children that ultimately they have to put their trust in something that cannot be taken from them.”
When the earth moves and the mountains quake and the waters of life roar and foam, God alone is our refuge and strength, so be still and let God be God! Friends, this is a promise which takes hold of us as we take hold of it!
I’ll close with this story because I think it illustrates so well this delicate balance between our impulse to do something coupled with the counter-intuitive command to be still.
A number of years ago I read a news story about an autistic child who was lost in the woods near his home. Family members and people from their community spent hours desperately searching for him; all to no avail. That evening the story ran on the news and a man several hundred miles away heard the story and felt compelled to act. He got in to his car and drove through the night in order to join in the search. Within an hour he found the little boy who was returned safely to his parents.
Reporters surrounded him and asked him how he had done it, how he had found the boy so quickly. He said, “Somehow I just knew that others were searching in the wrong way. They were calling and shouting and waiting for a response. I knew he would never come out because I have an autistic child myself. So I walked through the woods in silence, waiting to hear him, hoping to hear the nearly inaudible clicking sound that he would make. And I was lucky enough to hear him.”
Friends, admittedly when we become aware of a need, and even when we read Scripture, we hear a call to action, the call to do something, and well we should; but before we act or react on our impulse we would also do well to learn the lesson to just stand there. Not out of neglect or indifference, but out of the awareness and conviction of faith that there are things which need doing in our world that are beyond our ability to accomplish solely by our own efforts and activity; some other empowerment is needed, so we need to learn to wait and watch and pray (Willimon). We need to learn to be still and know that God is God…because we know all too well that we are not.
Rev. L. John Gable
Tabernacle Presbyterian Church
Indianapolis, IN