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. (Psalm 46:1-3)
The writer of Psalm 46 paints a scene like one out of a disaster movie. An asteroid has just hit the earth. The whole planet has been shaken. The mountains have crumbled into the ocean. All the things in this world that should be the most firm, permanent, reliable — they’ve suddenly disappeared. Things that have stood for thousands of years are gone.
Then even more chaos comes. “The waters roar and foam, and the mountains tremble at its swelling.” This massive earthquake has unleashed a monstrous tsunami. It’s so huge that there’s nowhere you can go to escape it. When there’s a tsunami warning on Oahu I usually feel pretty safe in my house up on a hill, but there’s no place safe from the kind of raging torrent of water pictured in this psalm. Even the mountains tremble and fear as it approaches. And when it hits, you’ll be picked up and tossed around like a Beanie Baby in a washing machine. Your world will be turned completely upside down.
Many people have felt like that before. Maybe you lost a house, or a job. Maybe you had to declare bankruptcy. Maybe you lost someone you really loved. And it seemed like your world got turned upside down.
When things like that happen, it’s easy to think God was powerless to stop it. Maybe he didn’t even see it coming. We wonder if he’s just as surprised by crisis and tragedy as we are. We know he’ll do the best he can to help us, but down deep we believe that ultimately we’re on our own. We say to ourselves, “I need to figure out for myself how to deal with this mess.”
But that’s not the picture this psalm paints for us. It says God is “our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.” He’s never caught off guard. He’s not running around, trying to fix things as best as he knows how. He’s strong. He’s protective. He’s a very present help. He’s stronger than our circumstances, so we don’t need to be worried and controlling.
When we’re faced with loss, chaos, frustration, or tragedy, what we see in front of us isn’t the whole story. Our present circumstances aren’t everything. God is working behind them, under them, and through them. And that frees us from trying to be in control of everything.
This is a lesson our family has learned the hard way over the past few days, with both parents sick in bed at the same time. That’s something that hasn’t happened in nearly 20 years of marriage. As much as we like to think we’re strong and in control, all it takes is a little flu bug for God to turn our world upside down.
When the whole world is turned upside down, it doesn’t matter how strong we are — there’s not much we can do to turn it right side up again. All we can do is trust the God who is stronger than our circumstances.