“Be still and know that I am God.
I will be exalted among the nations.
I will be exalted in the earth.”
PS 46:10

It’s amazing what a difference a week can make. Last weekend, my daughter woke up to tremors and snow-like ash falling outside her window in the Philippines from a nearby volcano. Meanwhile, the coronavirus has erupted too, spewing panic like poisonous ash on unsuspecting populations. Masks have dawned overnight like sandbags amassed to keep back swollen rivers. Sadly, these masks may be more effective in hiding their fears than keeping nanometer-sized bugs away. Once teeming cities of millions in China have become like ghost towns. Young and old, rich and poor now huddle behind feeble defenses hoping the flu won’t pompeii its way towards them.

The “be still and know” psalm begins with a fear-filled description of waters roaring, of mountains shaking and being carried into the seas. It reads like yesterday’s newspaper, and yet breathes hope into these chaotic events. I found myself yearning to enter a time machine, propelled back to the feet of David. I have a few questions I’d like to pepper at him:
     * How could you be confident when a whole army is encamped around you? (PS 27:2,3)
     * How could you sleep when 10,000 enemies were ready to attack you? (PS 3:5,6)
     * Did you really worship the Lord when “the pangs of death surrounded you? (PS 18:4)
     * What was it like when angels chased your persecutors? (PS 35:5,6)
     * Did you actually hear God laugh when evil plots were being made against you? (PS 2:4)
In times like these, we need to rediscover, if not encounter, the God of David!

PS 46 provides us with some rich insights into David’s mindset. Verses 1-2 says we need not fear because God is both our REFUGE and our STRENGTH, and a VERY present help in times of trouble. That He is our refuge addresses God’s commitment to harbor us, which means sheltering us from all harm as well as consoling us at the same time. As my refuge, I can run into him and escape from impending danger and close the doors to stalking terrors. That He becomes our strength speaks to the work that He does not only for and around us, but deep inside, a work of grace that fortifies and dignifies the inner sanctum of heart and soul. He is both Architect and Interior Designer, making sure outside and inside reflect his might and glory. Beloved, let us press in to discover He is both, our refuge and our strength.

Then he says something that defies language. We know God is omnipresent. That means He is always here; in fact, He’s always there too. He’s always present, but apparently He is more present at some times than He is at others! There are occasions when He is not just here, he is VERY here, and not just there, but VERY there. I’ve heard it described as the “manifest presence” of God. Words frankly don’t do justice to this reality. The important thing to grasp is that when times get really, really messy and impossible, God just shows up in some really, really powerful and personal ways. Knowing this, you might find yourself praying something like this: God, I know you’re present, but this is one of those times where I need you to be VERY present. HELP! He won’t disappoint.

Then David shares a secret to his success. Anyone who has been there knows that unlike many of the great cities of the world, Jerusalem has no Seine, or Thames, or Yangtze running through it. And yet it never lacks for water because there is a boundless supply bubbling up through springs from the ground. David’s declaration is that in the same way rivers run unseen in abundance to make the city of God joyful, rivers of the Holy Spirit are also surging through us as His people, enabling us to experience rapturous joy at all times. Beloved, every believer has access to this fountain, even as Jesus so beautifully illustrated when he stood and cried out in Jerusalem on the great day of one of her feasts:
“If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.” John 7: 37-38
If only we could grasp the richness of the resource we have by the Holy Spirit who dwells within us! Fill us Lord! Fill my spouse! Fill my pastor, my friends, my neighbors! Spring up O well!

The final key to overcoming paralysis in the face of catastrophe is found in the well-known verse, “Be still and know that I am God”. In confusing times, it can be a real struggle to get “still” (this of the irony of the exhortation in Hebrews 4:11 “strive to enter that rest”) . Quieting the voices of doubt and anxiety is hard work. Tuning out the loudspeakers of tension and trepidation is a battle. Rising above the atmosphere that permeates the scene of a disaster is akin to walking through teargas riddled streets unaffected. And yet the Word calls us to stillness. It can be done! We have the stories of those who have done it as proof. Despite the raging forces of man, nature, or the Devil around us, we can be still, and in that quiet place we can see and know that God has us in His hands, and that He will not forsake us. It is in stillness we hear His voice above the clatter. In quietness and trust, we not only enter a fortress, we become one for those around us.

So one of the greatest weapons we have in our arsenal to strike shock into the hearts of our enemies is peace. I call it the “calm bomb”. When the heathen rock and reel in disastrous times, we are securely planted on the Rock that’s real. It’s the ultimate magnet, a gold-star witness to the fact that not only our faith, but our God is trustworthy and true. The results are extraordinary. When the world is shaking, when sky-scratching mountains begin to crumble, and with them the mountains of government and entertainment, finance and commerce in which man have trusted, when the world stumbles, we who were once reproached find ourselves standing in the shadow of the Daniels and the Stephens, indeed of the Cross itself, with the Spirit of glory and of God resting on us (1 PT 4:14). When the darkness seems deepest, He manifests His glory and presence on and in us. And in ways we cannot imagine, our stillness causes our God and King to be “exalted among the nations”.

“Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe.” Heb 12:28 (NIV)