Bible Passage: Psalm 46
Pastor: Joel Jenswold
Sermon Date: June 23, 2024

Bulletin June 23, 2024

In the name of, and to the eternal glory of, Jesus,

I remember preaching on this text, Psalm 46, back on Sunday, September 16, 2001.  That was the first Sunday after 9/11.  Many of you here today remember that week well.  For some of you, 9/11 is only a history lesson.  We were a nation that had been attacked.  We were reeling.  We had seen something never before seen.  Skyscrapers collapse upon themselves!  It seemed surreal, like we were living a dream.  Psalm 46 seemed like the perfect text for the moment.  It is a psalm that describes calamity and catastrophe and chaos, and then calm.  It is a psalm in which we hear our God say those words we were desperate to hear, Be still. (v. 10)

We don’t have to be living in the aftermath of 9/11 to find comfort in this text.  We can be living day-to-day just working a job, trying to pay the bills.  We can be raising a family and trying to figure out how much screen time and social media we should allow our children.  We can be people watching the geo-political events in our world, wondering if regional conflicts might escalate into something bigger.  We can be people nervously waiting for that appointment with the “specialist.”  They are booked solid so you’ve got two months to think about all the things you might have.  In all of these circumstances, and in many others, Psalm 46 seems the perfect text for the moment.  For what can bring the child of God more comfort than two words from the mouth of our God?  “Be Still.”

Psalm 46 masterfully puts before us two scenes.  Verses 1-3 put before us a world that is coming undone.    Verse two speaks of the earth dissolving and mountains tumbling into the heart of the sea.  You can picture the entire side of a mountain sloughing off in a huge landslide and crashing into the ocean.  The ocean itself is described as wild, roaring and foaming.  An earthquake is shaking the mountains.  That sounds like a scary world!

It can be a scary world.  And here I want to talk to our younger brothers and sisters in Jesus.  Maybe Psalm 46 describes what scares you.  Maybe “Severe Thunderstorm Watches” and “Warnings” are scary to you.  Maybe hearing a tornado siren makes you super-scared.  When I was a child that was one of the scariest things to me!  It terrified me when it went off!

Sadly, we live in a world where hype and hysteria make good copy.  Sue and I were talking about that the other morning as we watched the national weather.  Years ago the weather person would have said, “And it’s going to be hot in the central plains this week.”  Not anymore!  Now it’s, “And 16 million people are in for deadly heat this week!”  News reports must be churned up so that the waters roar and foam and the mountains quake.  Regrettably, we may have unleashed the whirlwinds, because anxiety among people is now skyrocketing.  And anxiety is especially skyrocketing among adolescents and young people.  We are a people that are afraid.

But we don’t need to be.  Let’s look again at our psalm.  After describing the crumbling mountains and the roaring oceans, the writer redirects us.  There is a river – its streams bring joy to the city of God, to the holy dwelling of the Most High.  God is in her.  She will not fall.  (v.  4-5)  All of a sudden we are looking at a river lazily, peacefully meandering through a city.  God’s city.  God is here.  It is a place of perfect peace.  He makes wars cease to the ends of the earth.  He shatters the bow.  He cuts up the spear.  He burns the [supply] cart with fire. (v. 9)  All the instruments and paraphernalia of war are done away with in the city of God.  And God speaks.  Be still, and know that I am God. (v. 10)

Who is this God who says, “Be still”?  Let’s look at the ways he is described in this psalm.  In verse 1 he is called our “refuge.”  A refuge is a safe place you run to when you are threatened or scared.  He is called our “strength.”  Makes me think of the words of “Jesus Loves Me This I Know.”  “We are weak but he is strong!”  He is a “helper who can always be found in times of trouble.”  Remember Mr. Rogers?  Mr. Rogers said that when he was little his mother told him that whenever he saw something scary on TV like an accident or hurricane or flood, he should always look for the “helpers.”  Police, first responders, firemen.  She said there would always be helpers.  God is our “helper” who can “always” be found.  Not occasionally.  Not just sometimes.  But always!  In every circumstance.  Jesus said, I am with you always. (Matthew 28:20) In v. 7 this God is called the LORD of armies.  This means he is the commander of the angel battalions in heaven!   There are earthly super-powers that might seem scary;  but on our side is the hyper-power of the angel army!  God is called a “fortress.”  A fortress protects you from enemy attacks.  We Lutherans like to say, and sing, “A mighty Fortress is our God!”

How can we know?  How can we know two little prepositional phrases in this psalm are true?  In v. 7 these two little phrases appear:  with us and for us.  It all holds together or collapses with these two phrases.  If God is “with us” and “for us,” everything will be fine.  If God is not with us and for us, then this world truly is a scary place.  A virgin will give birth to a son and you are to give him the name Immanuel, which means, “God with us.” (Isaiah 7:14)  God is so “with us” that his only Son wrapped himself up in ligaments and muscle and skin to be like us, with us, to save us!  And we are told, Christ loved us and gave himself up for us.  (Ephesians 5:2)  There it is!  In Jesus, God is “with” and “for” us!  In Jesus the scariest thing of all has been calmed – the thunder and lightning of God’s wrath over sin.  In Jesus, God has spoken his greatest, Be still.  “Be still!  Your sins are forgiven!”

There is something peculiar about the city in Psalm 46.  Some think it is Jerusalem.  But  Jerusalem has no river running through it.  So what is this city?  The book of Revelation describes our eternal home as the New Jerusalem with the river of the water of life running through it.  The fullness of our stillness will come when we are finally in that Eternal City of our God, home and safe forever, all for the sake of the one who was “with us” and “for us.”

Amen.