Once in a while I like to get out The Message version of the Bible and just enjoy the creative translation. This morning I spent some time there in Psalm 46. What a meaningful Psalm for our time! Let these words wrap around your heart and speak to your anxious soul:Psalm 46 (The Message)
God is a safe place to hide, ready to help when we need him.
We stand fearless at the cliff-edge of doom, courageous in seastorm and earthquake,
Before the rush and roar of oceans,
the tremors that shift mountains.
Jacob-wrestling God fights for us,
God-of-Angel-Armies protects us.
River fountains splash joy, cooling God's city,
this sacred haunt of the Most High.
God lives here, the streets are safe,
God at your service from crack of dawn.
Godless nations rant and rave, kings and kingdoms threaten,
but Earth does anything he says.
Jacob-wrestling God fights for us,
God-of-Angel-Armies protects us.
Attention, all! See the marvels of God!
He plants flowers and trees all over the earth,
Bans war from pole to pole,
breaks all the weapons across his knee.
"Step out of the traffic!
Take a long, loving look at me, your High God,
above politics, above everything."
Jacob-wrestling God fights for us,
God-of-Angel-Armies protects us.
Loved one, have you been wrestling with God? Have you been wondering where he is in the midst of earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, tornadoes and oil spills? Have you wondered if He's asleep while our nation seems to be crumbling?
Jacob wrestled with Him too, all night long - and what Jacob learned from that experience is that God fights FOR us - not against us. He wrestles us out of our flesh and our self-preservation and into that place of quiet Trust. He may not stop that flood or tornado, but He is in the midst of it. He is there to help us pick up the pieces, to learn the lessons of what matters in this life, to let go of possessions and things, and grab hold of His marvelous shalom, His unending love.
"Step out of the traffic," He says, "and take a long, loving look at Me, your High God - above politics, above everything!" Oh, Father, how good it is to remember that You are sovereign and above all the corrupted politics of our world and above all the failed economies and currencies. We can take a deep breath and calmly say to others as Peter and John said, "Gold and silver have I none, but I will give you what I do have: come and meet Yeshua, the One who gives Life and sustains it, the One who sleeps in the boat in perfect peace, in the middle of a great storm, the One who commands the Angel armies, the One who wrestles with us in the night and then puts His great, loving arms around us in the morning and dries our tears.
Step out of the traffic and the TV. Take a long, loving look at Him, your High God.
Be still and know that He is God.
Be still and know.
Be still.
Be.
