Jesu Juva
Psalm 46
October 31, 2021
Reformation
Day
Dear saints of our Savior~
God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. So begins the appointed Psalm for Reformation Day—Psalm 46. I don’t know if you have a favorite Psalm or not. It’s admittedly hard to choose a favorite out of one hundred fifty. But if you’re like me—or, better yet, if you’re like Martin Luther—then Psalm 46 is your top pick. This Psalm was Luther’s inspiration for his most famous hymn, A Mighty Fortress Is Our God. Both Psalm 46 and Luther’s hymn boldly declare that the Church of Jesus Christ will endure forever—that the gates of hell will not prevail against her—that the Kingdom ours remaineth—despite threats, persecutions, and assaults on all sides.
Psalm 46 has great theology; but it gets the geology all wrong. The Psalm speaks of mountains—moving mountains, shaking and quaking mountains, mountains falling into the sea. Those aren’t the mountains I know. Most mountains are quite immovable. They’re not going anywhere fast. They are lasting landmarks. So, it makes you wonder whether the Psalmist knew anything at all about geology.
But then again, this Psalm, like all the others, is poetry. And Psalm 46 is very good poetry—divinely inspired poetry. It is poetry with power and purpose. It is poetry in service of the gospel. And what counts in this poem isn’t the literal, geological detail. No, these mountains are metaphors. They stand for something else. Mountains stand for strength and stability. So when mountains are moving and shaking and quaking, something’s not right. It’s just like in real life when all that we look to for stability and security fails—when our whole world gets turned upside down, and our carefully crafted normalcy devolves into chaos.
When the sturdy mountains in your life start moving, well, then you’ve got trouble with a capital T. When a loved one dies, when the job is terminated, when family members wander from the faith or reject it altogether, when you have to move away and leave behind what you love the most—or, when you come face to face with the depth of your own depravity—this is chaos. This is heartache. This is when the earth gives way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea.
But precisely then (when all supports are washed away) we learn, “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.” Precisely then we learn that our real source of strength and support is not the people or the things or the money. It’s not the “goods, fame, child, and wife,” as we sang earlier. “Though these all be gone, Our victory has been won. The Kingdom ours remaineth.” God Himself is our refuge and our strength—our mighty fortress, our trusty shield and weapon.
Do you believe it? Is this the God in whom you trust when your world caves in? Is this the God you turn to when an ocean of evil and a sea of sin threaten to sweep you away? Or is there some other god—some idol that you cling to like a life preserver? In this Psalm God calls us to repent of our idolatry. He calls us to let go of whatever prevents us from fearing, loving and trusting Him above all things. He says, “Be still and know that I am God.”
Be still and know that I am God. That’s one of the most valuable sentences in all the Scripture. Because what usually happens when calamity strikes and our world gets turned upside down? Well, we think that we have to fix it. We think we have to call the shots. We think it all depends on us to make things better—our works, our words, our strength, our intelligence. We think that our clever calculations can do the trick and make the difference. But God says, “Stop. Be still. Know that I am God.”
We need to put away our idols and let God be God. What does that mean? It means be still and stop telling God what to do. If you need help, pray for help. If you need rescue, then pray for rescue. If you need healing, then pray for healing. But don’t limit your petitions by dictating the details of the help and healing you need. Trust Him. Trust that He knows best how to help—and believe that He wants to help.
Let God be God; and let you . . . be still. Be still and stop trying to be god in the place of God. Stop trying to control everyone and everything. Be still and know that the results are in God’s hands—not yours. Your job is simply to be faithful—to hear His Word and keep His Word—and then to sit back and watch the wonders God can do.
It reminds me of that scene in Exodus where the Israelites have hightailed it out of Egypt only to find themselves in a situation of absolute peril and calamity. Pharaoh and his chariots were closing in from behind, and the Red Sea waters loomed ahead. Their options were a return to slavery or a watery grave. What were they to do? Moses told them what to do—and what not to do: “Fear not, stand firm, and see the salvation of the Lord, which He will work for you today. . . .The Lord will fight for you, and you have only to be silent” (Ex. 14:13-14). And so the Israelites went their way in silence and awe; and watched the Lord’s deliverance unfold. The Lord triumphed gloriously, the horse and rider thrown into the sea.
In the same way, we stand at the cross of Jesus and witness our own rescue. We witness the nails and the thorns in silence and awe, knowing that by His wounds we are healed—by His blood we are saved. We are rescued and delivered. All of us have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. All of us have tried our hand at being god in the place of God. And for that there is hell to pay. So be still, and see what Jesus has done. He has carried your sin and guilt to the cross. Jesus is your refuge because He knew no refuge on Good Friday. Jesus is your strength today because on Good Friday He used up every last ounce of His strength to deliver you and rescue you.
Psalm 46 tells us that the Lord is “a very present help in trouble.” Those words tell us two things. First of all, there will be trouble. You can expect it—mountain-moving, earth-shaking, heart-pounding trouble. But you do not face it alone. Your God is a very present help in times of trouble. And just what is this help? His good gifts and Spirit: In the preaching and proclamation of His Word, in the cleansing sentence of holy absolution, in the new birth of Baptism, and in the bread that is His body and the wine that is His blood. These are the good gifts through which God is pleased to work in you—to support you and deliver you in time of trouble, and to give you eternal life even as death draws near. This is the river of Psalm 46—the “river whose streams make glad the city of God.” It’s not a literal river, as we think of rivers. It’s a metaphor. It’s something better. It’s a river of blessings—a river of forgiveness—a river of living water welling up to eternal life. And it flows from the cross of Jesus Christ, right through this altar and this pulpit, right into your ears and your mouth and your heart.
Reformation Sunday is all about the Savior and His good Gospel gifts—the help He provides in time of trouble. There was a time in human history when the Savior and His gifts were all but lost—when satanic lies had all but erased the truth of God. Christians lived in fear of Jesus the judge. Forgiveness was bought and sold in the church. Heaven was something you worked for and earned—and you could never be sure if you were good enough to get it. When it came to salvation, the church’s message wasn’t “be still,” but “good luck!”
But today we remember a miracle—the miracle that God worked in those dark days—how a man named Martin Luther was made to see, “the just shall live
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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