Morning Munch - Sept. 24

“A Mighty Fortress is Our God”

There are times when we are going through life and we feel like we are hopelessly in trouble. What’s more, there are no decisions that we could have made that could have impacted our current situation.

We were in a car accident and got hooked on pain medication

There was a fire and the house was lost

My company was restructuring and a job was lost

We have been struck with a debilitating disease

Whatever the situation, we oftentimes find ourselves in positions, where our life is out of control & we have had nothing to contribute to the factors that led up to the situation, but we are affected anyways.

Let me take you to a text that discusses this.

Psalm 46:1–3 ESV

1 God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. 2 Therefore we will not fear though the earth gives way, though the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea, 3 though its waters roar and foam, though the mountains tremble at its swelling. Selah

Observation

None of us can control the landscape or how it is shaped

It seems from the viewpoint of the Psalmist that mountains are crumbling around him

This could mean that things that seemed trustworthy are failing

The 20 yr job is gone

A vehicle is smashed in an accident

The Psalmist is being overrun by the waves

Maybe slanderous claims are coming at you

Is your integrity being questioned

Things are happening that are completely out of your control. How do you handle this?

Application

So what does all of this mean? Am I saying that all of life is just doom & gloom? We can’t control anything. Yes, kind of.

There are natural consequences to some of our actions, but that is not what the Psalmist is talking about here

The Psalmist is talking about circumstances that may surround us that are completely out of our control

Take comfort in the very first verse of

Psalm 46:1 ESV

1 God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.

God is our refuge, and He is our strength. We need to be grounded in this, if we are to have any hope of making it through situations like this. The reality is, because of our faith in God, our salvation faith that is found in Jesus, we have a target on our backs, so the reality is, we should expect trouble like this to come. But there is a promise here in the second part of verse 1: “A very present help in trouble”. God is present in our situations.

Jesus puts it this way at the very end of His High Priestly prayer right before His arrest according to the narrative in

John 15:24

John 17:24–26 ESV

24 Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world. 25 O righteous Father, even though the world does not know you, I know you, and these know that you have sent me. 26 I made known to them your name, and I will continue to make it known, that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.”

John 15:24–26 ESV

24 If I had not done among them the works that no one else did, they would not be guilty of sin, but now they have seen and hated both me and my Father. 25 But the word that is written in their Law must be fulfilled: ‘They hated me without a cause.’ 26 “But when the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness about me.

Jesus is very present in our worst situations. As Martin Luther says in his famous hymn on :

Logos Hymnal A Mighty Fortress is Our God

A mighty fortress is our God,

A bulwark never failing;

Our helper He amid the flood

Of mortal ills prevailing;

Once we see how mighty our God is, takes on a new meaning.

Psalm 46:10 ESV

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

These fights are beyond us, so that means, only God can fight them for us, so let’s let God be God in our situations.