Good Morning Facebook Family: here is a Food for Thought...Friday Edition. 1 God is our refuge and strength, A very present help in trouble. 2 Therefore we will not fear, though the earth should change And though the mountains slip into the heart of the sea; 3 Though its waters roar and foam, Though the mountains quake at its swelling pride. Selah. Psalm 46:1-3 When my oldest son Andrew was in the 3rd or 4th grade (I can’t remember the grade exactly, the details start getting a little fuzzy at my age), his teacher entered him into a Language Arts Festival in Bakersfield. He was in the division for oral presentations and she encouraged him to use the children’s story called “Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day.” I’ll never forget how much I enjoyed watching Andrew give the presentation and how much I appreciated the humor and point of the story. In the story, the little kid named Alexander has what we would refer to as “one of those days.” Nothing goes right for him. He has back-to-back disappointments and the poor little guy could not win for losing. It was one continuous downer. Take for example, when he awakes in the morning. Alexander shares: “I went to sleep with gum in my mouth and now there is gum in my hair and when I got out of bed this morning I tripped on the skateboard and by mistake I dropped my sweater in the sink while the water was running and I could tell it was going to be a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day.” After a terrible day at school, a horrible visit to the dentist, and a no-good stop at the shoe store, Alexander slumps in his chair at the dinner table. Unfortunately, his troubles continue. “There was lima beans for dinner, I hate limas. There was kissing on TV and I hate kissing. My bath was too hot, I got soap in my eyes, my marble went down the drain, and I had to wear my railroad-train pajamas. I hate my railroad-train pajamas. When I went to bed Nick took back the pillow he said I could keep and the Mickey Mouse night light burned out and I bit my tongue. The cat wants to sleep with Anthony, not with me. It has been a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day.” Finally, Alexander responds at the end of the story by saying: “I think I will move to Australia!” All of us have had days when nothing seems to go right, haven’t we? Sometimes, days like that seem to stretch into weeks and months and years! We are all susceptible, as human beings to the very real stresses of life. Sometimes it is not that the days are so bad, but it just seems like they are so llloooonngggg! Too many times we find ourselves caught up in the hustle and bustle of the rat race, just trying to survive. Our lives become so busy, eventful and hectic that we can’t find the time to catch our breath. As someone has said, our lives become characterized by the three words: “hurry, worry and bury.” There is no doubt we live in stress-ridden times. We are busy around the clock and held hostage to the “tyranny of over-scheduled families with kids,” or, as one person referred to it as, “scheduled hyperactivity.” Additionally, we are constantly faced with stress-producing situations such as, the death of a loved one, a divorce in the family, loss of employment, the heartache of love lost, and poor health, to name but just a few. Whatever the event or events are, they create a certain level of stress and anxiety in our lives. The question that most of us ask and the one I want to try answer is this: How do we respond to the stresses of life? What can we do to minimize their impact on us? We know that we cannot run away to Australia like Alexander thought about doing. We know we cannot request sick-leave from everyday life. We know we cannot, as the song says, “Stop the world because we want to get-off.” We can and should practically speaking, reestablish priorities, reclaim our time and reduce those things that cause us stress, but we will never be able to be entirely free from stressful events, stressful people and stressful circumstances, as they are all a part of the human experience. What then should we do? I am going to share with you what I TRY to do when I find myself facing the stresses of life and Psalm 46 is a good place to start. This great Psalm was born out of stressful times. There is no way to know for sure the exact nature of the circumstances that spurred the writing (see 2 Kings 18 for the possible circumstances surrounding its composition), but it is obvious that the writer had experienced recent stressful circumstances and he was going to express his solution so that others could learn from his experiences. One great man who knew what it was like to face great stress and opposition loved this Psalm so much that he that he was inspired to pen one of the great Hymns of the faith: “A mighty fortress is our God, a bulwark never failing; Our helper He, amid the flood of mortal ills prevailing:” Martin Luther So to me, and others, this is a Psalm for the stress-ridden and it has a great deal to teach us about how we should respond when we are having a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day. The main thing that I take away from this Psalm is that there is one resource to turn to who can truly help us in our time of greatest stress. “God is our refuge and strength; a very present help in trouble.” As the Psalmist expresses his heartfelt solution to his stressful experiences he reminds us of some very important truths about God. It is in these truths about God that we find for ourselves the secret to handling our stress. When I read the Psalm I see at least five truths about God that help me to survive those terrible, horrible no good, very bad days, events, people and circumstances. I am only going to share the first three in this post and I hope to share the other two in another post. Truth #1 – God is our Shelter – “God is our refuge” The word “refuge” could easily be translated as “shelter.” It speaks of a place to go to quietly, for protection. It has in it the idea of hiding place or retreat. Notice that our shelter is not a place but a person, it is not a something but a someone. “God” is our refuge. If you know anything about Scripture you know that there are various Hebrew words/names used that are translated God. The word/name here is Elohim. It is the general Hebrew word for God, but it carries with it the idea of God as a personal God. In other words, it reminds us that He is “your God,” or “my God.” It also speaks of that fact that He is the mighty God. Think about this. God almighty is our shelter, our place to run to when we need a retreat from the storms of life. When all around us the busyness of life is raging, HE is OUR/YOUR/MY refuge. Why retreat to any place else? Why seek shelter from someone or something other than God? Truth #2 – God is our Strength – “God is our refuge and strength” As our shelter God is able to protect us, but as our strength He is able to empower and energize us. When we think we cannot take another step, breathe another breath, or do another thing. He is our strength. When all around us is a raging storm of stress, He is able to hold us up and to help us stand. He is able to sustain us in any and every situation. “Do not fear, for I am with you; Do not anxiously look about you, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, surely I will help you, Surely I will uphold you with My righteous right hand.” Isaiah 41:10 Truth #3 – God is our Sufficient and Available Help – “A very present help in trouble” The word translated “trouble” literally means “in tight places.” It has the idea of being restricted, squeezed and pressed. Isn’t that a great description of stress? It gives new meaning to the term, “caught between and rock and hard place!” In times of stress we feel like we are being squeezed and pressed from every direction, but the Psalmist says that in those times God is a “very present help.” The Hebrew indicates that God is ready to provide an exceeding, superlative kind of help. One commentator put it this way: “The term very present is important because it has in it implications of His readiness to be found and of His being enough for any situation.” Hence He is ready and sufficient to help in any “tight spot.” This is not to say that we can presumptuously place ourselves in danger and then expect God to bail us out, but that when the regular events of human experience overtake us, God is ready and available to help. 2 Therefore we will not fear, though the earth should change And though the mountains slip into the heart of the sea; 3 Though its waters roar and foam, Though the mountains quake at its swelling pride. Selah. I was taught in one of my classes at Bible College that whenever you see the word “therefore” in Scripture, you should ask yourself, “what is it there for?” Here in verse 2 we do not want to miss the significance of the word “therefore.” The word “therefore” here is a linking word and it links us back to what the Psalmist just said, it could just as well have been translated “for that reason” or “because of that.” Because of that which we know about God in verse 1, that He is a shelter, a source of strength, and sufficient help, we should not be afraid. Stress taken to its ultimate end creates in us fear. Fear we cannot go on. Fear we cannot survive. Fear we will not be able to continue. Fear we will fail. But courage and confidence from God can create in us success, stability and soundness. The Psalmist says, “Therefore we will not fear…” Though the earth should change And though the mountains slip into the heart of the sea; Though its waters roar and foam, Though the mountains quake at its swelling pride. No matter how severe the tumult, no matter how catastrophic the circumstances, and no matter how tight a spot we find ourselves in…we will not fear because God is our refuge and strength. A very present help in trouble. And by the way…I truly believe that all other refuges that we tend to turn to will prove to be less than adequate, less than what they have promised because God and God alone is the all-sufficient help and God and God alone is equal to any storm that might come our way. We can hide in our man-made refuges but they will not help us, but rather ultimately let us down. Selah. The word “selah” is used over 70 times in Scripture, but primarily in the Psalms. Not everyone agrees as to the exact meaning of the word, but most agree that it was a musical term used to indicate a pause in the music to allow for meditation on what was just sung. The Amplified Bible translates it: “Pause and think calmly on that.” Someone else has defined it as, “rest in contemplation after praise.” I have a poem in my notes and I am not sure where it came from but it goes like this: Selah bids the music rest, Pause in silence soft and blest; Selah bids uplift the strain, Harps and voices tune again; Selah ends in vocal praise, Still your hearts to God upraise. So are you stressed? Are you having a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day, week, month, year or life? Pause and think on this: 1 God is our refuge and strength, A very present help in trouble. 2 Therefore we will not fear, though the earth should change And though the mountains slip into the heart of the sea; 3 Though its waters roar and foam, Though the mountains quake at its swelling pride Thank you for letting me share!
Posted on: Fri, 13 Sep 2013 17:38:57 +0000
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