READ Psalm 46:1–5. 1 God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. 2 Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea, 3 though its waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with their surging. 4 There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy place where the Most High dwells. 5 God is within her, she will not fall; God will help her at break of day.
THE ULTIMATE STRONGHOLD. Until recently no one imagined the possibility of the world itself being destroyed, but today our films are filled with ways it could happen. But if you have this God as your God, you can face even such cataclysms without any fear. It doesn’t say here that God will help you if you get into a strong refuge. It says he is that refuge. God is a stronghold or city that cannot be bombed or destroyed. Though earthquakes and tidal waves dissolve the solid world and civilizations melt, his rule is unshaken. If God is with you, even the worst thing that happens to you—death—only makes you infinitely happier and greater.
Prayer: Lord, I feel so vulnerable—to disease and injury, to financial loss, to political betrayal, to professional failure. But in this psalm you say that even earthquakes and mountains melting can’t take away my inheritance of infinite love, resurrection, new heavens, and new earth. As I praise you for this, my anxiety ebbs. Thank you. Amen.