Be Weak and Know that I am God

Dont’ think the world is scary?  Just turn on the news.  Invasions.  Wars.  Landslides.  A huge airplane full of people

Sign at the top of the Wilderness of Zin.
Sign at the top of the Wilderness of Zin.

just…disappeared.  Sometimes if feels as if the very earth is falling apart all around us.

It sounds a lot like Psalm 46.

God is our refuge and strength,
    an ever-present help in trouble.
Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way
    and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea,
though its waters roar and foam
    and the mountains quake with their surging.  (Psalm 46:1-3)

Nations are in uproar, kingdoms fall…(Psalm 46:6)

What are we to do when nothing seems certain anymore?  Where is shelter to be found when our lives are crumbling around us like mighty mountains disintegrating to crash into the heart of the sea?

Psalm 46 tells us over and again to take shelter in The Almighty, but I found the greatest comfort in verse 10.

He says, “Be still, and know that I am God.

The Hebrew for the word “still” here means “to slacken, abate, cease, draw toward evening, be faint, be weak, to fail...”

When we are faced with far more than we can bear, God is literally extending an invitation to us to go ahead and be weak.  He is saying to us…

“It is ok.  Just let go and know, know, know that I, the Lord Almighty am with you.  I, the God of Jacob, am your very strong shelter.  Be still child.  Just be still and know that I am your God.”

Amen.

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