"God is our refuge and strength." These opening words of Psalm 46 are virtually the signature words of this hymnbook we call The Psalms.
“God is our refuge and strength … an ever-present help in trouble. Therefore, we will not fear, though the earth should quake and the mountains shake in the heart of the sea.”
Here is a hymn that celebrates one fact, one foundation upon which we can build our life:
God is with us. No matter that the earth shakes, and the mountains move, the sea rages and the nations are in an uproar . . . God is with us. The psalm does not say those who love God will avoid the troubles of this world. Both the Scripture and our experience tell us this is not true. And so did Jesus.
Just before his crucifixion, Jesus told his disciples: “I have told you [all] these things, so that in me, you may have peace. In this world, you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” As the psalmist says, God is “an ever-present help” to us when we are “in trouble.”
We can build our future on this confidence: God is with us.
- We can be secure in our relationship with a God who loves us and promises to be our refuge, our strength and our help.
- We can move forward with a gratitude that constantly breaks forth . . . for material blessings as well as for spiritual blessings in the midst of good times and even in bad times.
Sometimes, the rivers of our lives are full of water and the valleys are full of food. But at other times, the rivers of our lives are dry and the valleys barren.
One person’s life for whom this was true was Rostropovich, one of the great cellists of the 20th century. He was also internationally recognized as a staunch advocate of human rights, and was awarded the 1974 Award of the International League of Human Rights. During the height of the then-Cold War, Rostropovich and his wife (soprano Galina Vishneyskaya) spoke out on behalf of human rights and artistic freedoms in the face of a Soviet Union that was trying to keep quiet physicists like Andrei Sakharov and writers like Alexander Solzhenitsyn. In fact, Rostropovich sheltered the banned novelist Solzhenitsyn at their home outside Moscow. He also wrote an open letter to then Soviet President Brezhnev protesting Soviet human rights violations.
The reprisals Rostropovich and his wife faced were significant.
- Their concerts were cancelled.
- Their foreign tours were cancelled.
- Their recording projects were cancelled.
- The State-run media imposed a blackout of their names and activities.
Finally, the State gave them an exit visa to perform in Paris. But then the Soviets refused to let them back into Russia, stripping them of their citizenship and informing Rostropovich that he could never again return to Russia.
They were without a home. All their friends, belongings, musical compositions, instruments -- all they had was left behind. They lived in exile until 1989.
Until November 9th, 1989, to be exact. The day the Berlin Wall came tumbling down! When Rostropovich heard the Berlin Wall was coming down, and the communist regime in East Germany was coming apart, his heart was full of gratitude. He knew that the whole Eastern bloc was coming unglued, and his exile from his native homeland would soon be over.
So how would he express his gratitude and thanksgiving?
Rostropovich took the first plane to Berlin, caught a cab and told the driver to take him to the wall. When he arrived, he realized he had to worry about something he never had to worry about before: a chair!
- You cannot play a cello without a chair!
- The chair was always ready for him.
- Never before did he have to worry about the chair.
But now he had to find a chair!
He began knocking on the doors of homes close to the Wall. One German family gave him a small kitchen chair. So to offer his joy and gratitude to God for the gift of freedom and his homecoming, he sat down in his chair in front of the crumbling wall and played his cello unaccompanied!
He decided to play a Bach cello suite because, as he said, it was his way "to say thank-you to the great God” who provided for his freedom.
Rostropovich knew what it meant to have the earth shake, and the mountains move, and the sea roar, and the nations tumble. But he also knew, in the midst of it all, "God is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge."
(I have asked my colleague Dr. David McMaster to put a chair at the top of the steps.)
This has not been an easy year in the world.
- A sea of terrorism has been roaring. Just think about the Middle East, Belgium, France, Orlando, Istanbul, Bangladesh, Saudi Arabia.
- An unprecedented flow of refugees has also been moving across the world from one country to another. Incredible human turmoil, suffering and upheaval.
- In the United States, we are witnessing life shattering events of murder upon murder.
A Facebook friend, (and seminary president) commented on his page: “I listen to news commentators and experts struggle to articulate a sense of hopefulness. I know that faith is unpopular these days, perhaps because the object of our faith is usually so poorly placed. Faith in ourselves will always and eventually disappoint. Faith needs to focus on something outside of us. Hope has to come from above us and beyond us.”
- In Canada, Alberta especially, we have experienced devastating forest fires that have caused havoc and great personal loss.
- People we know and love are suffering great loss by events out of their control.
Many other people (perhaps you as well) have faced various circumstances this past year that none could have predicted or anticipated.
Yet this morning, we have come to this sanctuary to worship the living God,
- to thank our life-giving God,
- to celebrate that God is our refuge and strength,
- to realize once more that no tumult of nations, no fear of terrorism, no earth-shattering disaster can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus and from compassionate fellowship with one another.
In Psalm 46 this morning, we read the familiar words “Be still and know that I am God.” I resonate with how Eugene Peterson in The Message Bible paraphrases this statement:
“Step out of the traffic! Take a long, loving look at me, your High God, above politics, above everything.”
This morning, you and I have an opportunity “to step out of the traffic of daily life” that is all around us whether it is bad or good. We can take this time to step out of the busyness of our lives long enough to take a loving look at our God who is our refuge, strength and help!
You might think you are too busy in your work or too involved in your family or your life in general to “step out of that traffic” for very long. But pastor and medical doctor Miguel Núñez believes differently. He calls reflection or meditation on God “a missing jewel” in the growth of young Christians today.
Núñez is a bivocational pastor in the city of Santa Domingo in the Dominican Republic. He works as a Christian minister and a medical doctor. So in between his weekly pastoral duties, he also visits sick patients.
With such a workload, you would think it was difficult for him to step back and find time to step out the traffic of his life. For Núñez, though, meditation is essential for growing as a disciple of Jesus. In a recent Christianity Today magazine interview, he said:
To intentionally cultivate character], you need to reflect and meditate. You need to take time to think. And you can’t think doing three or four tasks at the same time. . . . You know, it’s hard if you think, “Okay, let me go out to the mountains to meditate for an hour”—I don’t think it works that way. I think you reflect continuously on what’s going on every day…. Life is like a reflective exercise. It’s a meditative exercise that we should be used to all the time.
But I can’t do that [Nunez said] if I listen to a sermon, and it’s finished, and I’m never thinking about that sermon again. Maybe I take one or two true points of that sermon, and I continue to chew on it for two, three days—even [longer] -- as I continue to apply [it to my life]. That’s the way meditation—reflection—has worked for me. I’m always rethinking.
So friends, this is what I am going to ask you to do:
- I want you to be like Rostropovich this morning.
- I want you to imagine that this chair at the front of the sanctuary is your chair.
In your mind and heart, I invite you to sit in your chair.
Rostropovich used his chair to play a thank-you with instrumental music to God for his freedom and his homecoming to his homeland.
- How will you use your chair today to take a long, loving and thoughtful look at God?
- What words (perhaps of Scripture) would you speak out of your deep gratitude for God who IS your refuge and strength, a very present help in your times of trouble?
But I want to encourage you further by extending the time and by taking other opportunities this summer to sit in your chair.
- This week, for instance, how might you be still to take that long, loving look at the God who loves you and who is your refuge and strength?
- Where is your chair located where you can take the opportunity and the time to sit with this life-giving God?
- Is it at your kitchen table in the early morning with a cup of coffee as you tend to your soul with God?
- Is your chair the lounge on your patio or deck or in your garden or at the cottage?
- Or is your chair that oh-so comfortable one in the corner of your den where you can just be with God?
- Wherever your chair is, allow the Holy Spirit to encourage your heart and mind, to teach you more about the reality of the living God in you, to let this remarkable God love you more dearly every day!
There are many biblical passages and stories upon which you can read and reflect. For example, you could start by taking considerably more time this week to ponder today's Scripture from Psalm 46. Let me help you with one way you could read it and to think and pray more deeply about its meaning.
- Try reading the psalm in a translation that might be new to you, such as The Message Bible or the New Living Translation.
- Read it as a personal conversation between you and God. (Say what you want to say. And listen to what God’s mind and heart is for you in that moment.)
- Allow yourself to feel the emotions behind the words on the page – the tumult, the roar, the shaking of worlds. And also the boldness, the confidence, the hope and the praise the psalmist felt. Because this is now your psalm, this is now your hymn!
As you read, observe the sections and outline the psalm. Give a title to each section. Let me suggest one outline. But you may come up with a different outline.
Verses 1-3 is section one.
1 God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.
2 Therefore we will not fear, though the earth should change, though the mountains shake in the heart of the sea; 3 though its waters roar and foam, though the mountains tremble with its tumult.
My title for section one is “God is our refuge and strength.” Or, maybe, “God is my refuge and strength.” Although the immediate focus of this psalm is the nation or people of Israel, other psalmists also reflected on God being their refuge, their strength and their help personally.
As you read and reread this section,
• take the time to feel
• the trouble,
• the changing earth beneath the writer’s feet – and perhaps your feet,
• the roar of the ocean almost swallowing you up in its foam,
• the shaking of supposedly rock-solid mountains.
But also allow yourself to feel the boldness and the hope: “We will not fear.” “I will not fear!” Even when the whole world around me seems to be falling apart, “I will not fear! God is my refuge and strength and very present help.”
(Or as someone reminds me, if you do find yourself afraid, remember what another psalmist declared in Psalm 56: “When I am afraid, I put my trust in you, [God].”)
Verses 4-7 is section two.
4 There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy habitation of the Most High.
5 God is in the midst of the city; it shall not be moved; God will help it when the morning dawns.
6 The nations are in an uproar, the kingdoms totter; he utters his voice, the earth melts.
7 The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge.
I titled this section, “God is our river of joy!” Or, maybe, “God is my river of joy!”
There are many times – far too many times -- in our city neighborhoods – in our lives – when life shifts from peace to conflict, from calm to violence.
- Again, let yourself feel the confusion and uncertainty in these verses but also feel the presence, the help and the confidence in these verses as you read and meditate.
- Allow your spirit to absorb the hope that there is no catastrophe anywhere that (ultimately) threatens God's rule in this world.
- And through any catastrophe that may happen to me, I remember and hold onto “God is my river of joy!” I take hope that God will help me. Maybe I won't see that help right away but, as the psalmist says, “when the morning dawns!”
Verses 8-11 is section three.
8 Come, behold the works of the Lord; see what desolations he has brought on the earth.
9 He makes wars cease to the end of the earth; he breaks the bow, and shatters the spear;
he burns the shields with fire.
10 “Be still, and know that I am God! I am exalted among the nations, I am exalted in the earth.” 11 The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge.
I titled this third section “Be still and know God!”
There is more than silence here, although silence is significant. As you pause and step back from the traffic in your life and the world around you, allow your spirit to breathe in God’s presence, power and love. Take a look around you and see God’s great works. In The Message Bible, we hear the psalmist calling us to see what is evident now and to anticipate a day of reckoning still to come: “See the marvels of GOD! God plants flowers and trees all over the earth. [God also] bans war from pole to pole, and breaks all the weapons across his knee.” I think Rostropovich’s spirit saw some of the marvels of God and he “played praise” from his heart.
So, take your chair this week and step out of the traffic of your busyness into your quiet place. Whatever Scripture you use, be still and allow your soul to absorb its words, its thinking, its emotions. For it was written by real people like us who loved God but went through troubles and catastrophes like us. Sit quietly. Breathe deeply. Express your fears and your frustrations as the psalmists freely did. And be open to experience God’s help, love and peace that is offered to you.
Be thankful, yes! Be personal, absolutely! And for sure, take a long, loving look at the most high God!
Friends, may this summer be a remarkable “God is our refuge and strength” time -- for you and for me. Amen.