Key scripture – “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear though the earth gives way, though the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam, though the mountains tremble at its swelling. Selah” (Psalm 46:1-3),
Is your life unstable and uncertain? Does it feel like the ground is shaking underneath you?

That is the situation that the Psalmist is describing in Psalm 46:1-3.

In Psalm 46:1, the psalmist wants everyone to know that when your world is turned upside down and everything has gotten very chaotic, God is a stable secure never failing refuge. God is always a very present help in times of trouble.

Verses 2 and 3 show us the instability and insecurity we will experience when we have an earthly refuge instead of God being our refuge. The natural disasters that these verses are describing, cause chaos and catastrophic and upheaval of the natural order. The point the psalmist is trying to make is, there are things on earth that we think are stable and secure but we come to find out they are not stable and secure at all. Nothing on this earth, including the earth itself, is secure. Everything is unstable and uncertain. Everything on earth can and will change, it will give way, and it will be moved.

We all come to a point in our life where we understand that the things that we thought were secure and enduring are not, and we realize that the only thing that is secure and enduring and unchanging is the Lord God Almighty. Only God is unshakable. The earth is shakable, people are shakable, but God is not. Only God is completely reliable, faithful, and trustworthy.

God knows that if we didn’t have trouble in our lives, we would put our tent stakes down and look on the earth and the people here as our stability and security. By allowing trouble He stirs our hearts so that we want Him, His Word and heaven. So when trouble comes, and it will, we already know that the only stability is God and His Word.

God knows that when the waves start hitting our lives and the storm stirs up and the ground beneath us starts shaking, we start seeing where we are actually putting our trust. We may think we’re not putting our trust in someone or something on earth, like a spouse, relationship, job, money, but when God shakes it up, and it’s removed from us, then we see that we are putting our trust in some or all of these things and not in Him.

When all things seem to be shaking and crumbling around you, you can always stand on the fact that God does not shake. “Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe.” (Hebrews 12: 28). The things that can be shaken will be shaken so that the things that can never be shaken will stand and will remain firm and strong.

Psalm 46 also tells us when all this chaos is going on around us, “we will not fear”, however, our lack of fear is only based on the fact that we have God it is not because what is going on around us is not scary.

“The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?” (Psalm 27:1).

If your life is anchored in God there is no reason to fear no matter what is going on around you, because God is your stronghold He is your refuge. The antidote to fear is not trying to arrange our lives so that we have no fearful situations in our life. The antidote is to anchor our lives on God and His word so that we can face the fearful situations.

This does not mean we will not have fearful feelings. It means we will not be paralyzed and overwhelmed by fear. We will have the strength and courage to overcome the fear because we know who is in control of it all. God wants to be our safe place. A refuge in the midst of the storm that we can run to.

When things are stable and calm it is easy to feel very peaceful. But when the storm is blowing hard on us, and the waves increase and we are battered about by our circumstances, and we become fretful and fearful, our default reaction needs to be, we find our refuge in the Lord.

God uses events that turn our world upside down to drive us Him, and so that we cling to Him. He wants us to experience just raw naked faith. That is, when we do not know what to do or how all this will end or how God will fix it, we run to Him, give it to Him, and wait patiently for Him to act. That is the type of raw faith God wants us to have.

If you have only placed your hope in the things of this earth you should be fearful because they will be swept away. But if you have placed your hope in God you have no reason to fear. When all else falls away, you will still have the most important thing and that is your Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

Our solid rock, Jesus, who we stand on will never ever ever be shaken nor will he ever disappoint us, never leave us, and never forsake us.

Pray this – Our Precious Heavenly Father, Your Word is so powerful, so comforting, so good, and something we can depend on, trust, and put all our weight on . That is why Jesus told us, “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.” (Matthew 24:35). Father, I thank You for the trials and trouble that I have had in my life because without it I would not have realized that the only thing that is stable is, Jesus, the living Word of God. All the tsunamis and earthquakes in my life were blessings because they drove me to You and they remind me that You are my only true hope. I cling to You because You are my refuge, my help, my stronghold, and my strength in times of trouble. On Jesus, the solid rock I stand all other ground is sinking sand. In the Name of Jesus, my Savior, my Rock and my Redeemer, I pray, Amen.

Laura Ingle