God is our refuge and strength, therefore we will not fear – Psalm 46. Over the last few years, this Psalm has been a particularly great source of comfort to me – so much so that I often read it aloud and with gusto.
Life can often throw unexpected trials at us. Or we suddenly find ourselves walking in the Valley of Shadow yet can’t pin point how and why it happened. We may be caught in such worries where our faith in God’s providence can be tested and found wanting. At one such point in my life, I’m convinced the Lord led me into reading the Psalms every morning during my devotions.
In the midst of current global, national and personal concerns (COVID-19, social-civil unrest etc), Dr. Steven Lawson wrote an encouraging blog based on Psalm 46. It strikes a familiar chord for me:
In times of great difficulty, we often feel like the ground is shaking beneath our feet. It may seem like the world is collapsing around us. Nevertheless, there is one sure foundation that will never be moved—found in God Himself.
In Psalm 46, the author found himself in such an earthshaking time of upheaval. He wrote, “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 (verses 2-3)…keep reading
A hymn based on Psalm 46 from Spurgeon’s Own Hymn Book:
God is our refuge, tried and proved,
Amid a stormy world:
We will not fear though the earth be moved
And hills in ocean hurled.
The waves may roar, the mountains shake,
Our comfort shall not cease;
The Lord His saints will not forsake;
The Lord will give us peace.
A gentle stream of hope and love
To us shall ever flow;
It issues from His throne above,
It cheers His church below.
When earth and hell against us came,
He spake and quelled their powers;
The Lord of hosts is still the same;
The God of grace is ours.
Henry Francis Lyte, 1834
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