‘Our Refuge and Strength’: A message for a new year

Hi everyone

I wasn’t planning on writing another blog post this month, but after my quiet time with God this morning, I felt that I had to share what He showed me.

In the dying embers of this year, where around the world, there has been a spate of bad news: lives lost in the ‘cyclone bomb’ of a snow storm wreaking havoc across the USA. The conflict in Ukraine shows no signs of abating, protests, persecutions and public executions in Iran, no education for females in Afghanistan, figures in the public eye dying such as Pele and closer to home: precious lives lost due to senseless violence.

All these tragedies and so much more are enough to make anyone feel despair, discouraged and downcast. Wondering that if this is how 2022 is ending, what hope is there for better in 2023?

However, as I read Psalms 46 this morning, a passage I have read countless times before, God opened my eyes to a new way of looking at these well-known verses.

 First, let me give the context of this Psalm. According to my woman’s study Bible, it is a psalm which tells of ‘God the refuge of His people and conqueror of the nations’. Additionally, it is ‘A psalm of the sons of Korah. A song for Alamoth.’ Inferred is that the writer showed his faith in God with this penned psalm.

The opening verse is an oft quoted one, usually when a person needs reassurance of God’s help in times of difficulty and distress. ‘God is our refuge and strength, A very present help in time of trouble.’  Examining the words closely, God is portrayed as someone who the writer has personal  past experience with and can state in a declarative sentence that God is – present tense – a God in whom they can put their trust and they know that He will be to them, ‘ a very present help’ meaning that He is not absent, but is right there with them in their situation being a source of help ‘refuge’ (a place of safety) and ‘strength’.

As I continued reading, marvelling that I was only noticing what I will share next, for the first time. Out of the 11 verses, 10 of them are written in third person. The only one which is written in first person is verse 10: ‘Be still and know that I am God;…’

Study notes accompanying this verse explained, ‘Be still (lit. to “sink” or “to relax” encourages the hearer to stop all struggle and find the peace of faith.’ Reading this explanation caused me to look anew at this verse which I have quoted so often before. To those who believe, God is and will be present in your predicaments and a hope in a seemingly hopeless situation. He is a place of strength so when you feel weak, you can draw strength from Him. Important to note, that this does not only mean physical strength, but emotional, mental, and of course spiritual strength also. Furthermore, God also emphasises, ‘I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth!’ Why can He state this with all certainty? God is God: He alone is omnipotent, omniscient and omnipresent!

 Moreover, I realised that the writer is reminding God of who He has been to the writer as though in a conversation and God answers back using the imperative, ‘Be still and know that I am God.’ It is as if God is commanding the writer to relax into the faith that he has, knowing with all certainty that God will come through for the writer: be his place of safety and strength once again.

Also noted was the impactful use of repetition. ‘The Lord of hosts is with us; The God of Jacob is our refuge.’ Both times this phrase is stated, it is followed by ‘Selah’ which means pause. The writer built into this psalm of encouragement places to pause, ponder and consider that God was, is, is to come and thus is presently powerful in all our problems.

This should be encouraging to each of us as we ring out an old year and welcome a new one.

Looking around us we may not see anything to uplift us amid all the turmoil both foreign and domestic, but if we can remember to look up, look unto our Heavenly Father, God, He can be, as He was for the writer of Psalm 46, ‘our refuge and strength, A very present help in trouble.’ We just need to breathe and ‘be still ‘and know that He is God

I don’t know your circumstances or what situation you are in, but my prayer for you as we move into a new year is that you will be encouraged as you seek to make God your help.

Until next time.

Love & Blessings

xxx

References: The Woman’s Study Bible NKJV Second Edition (1995,2006) Thomas Nelson

Read the full passage below.

Psalms 46

God is our refuge and strength,
A very present help in trouble.
2 Therefore we will not fear,
Even though the earth be removed,
And though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea;
3 Though its waters roar and be troubled,
Though the mountains shake with its swelling. Selah

4 There is a river whose streams shall make glad the city of God,
The holy place of the tabernacle of the Most High.
5 God is in the midst of her, she shall not be moved;
God shall help her, just at the break of dawn.
6 The nations raged, the kingdoms were moved;
He uttered His voice, the earth melted.

7 The Lord of hosts is with us;
The God of Jacob is our refuge. Selah

8 Come, behold the works of the Lord,
Who has made desolations in the earth.
9 He makes wars cease to the end of the earth;
He breaks the bow and cuts the spear in two;
He burns the chariot in the fire.

10 Be still, and know that I am God;
I will be exalted among the nations,
I will be exalted in the earth!

11 The Lord of hosts is with us;
The God of Jacob is our refuge. Selah