Much of what I read in the word this week seemed to focus on having the Lord on your side, on having the Lord as your fortress and on having the Lord as a sure help in times of trouble. The word of God is a well of knowledge which provides understanding to the simple. Irrespective of what I am feeling in a week, having the word of God by my side and meditating on it sustains me. I felt particularly encouraged this week by Psalm 46 and Philippians 4 verse 4. I found these two passages sufficient to carry me through this week’s troubles. It was great! Psalm 46 is the psalm from which the famous verse “be still and know that I am God” is taken. I have memorized this verse and read it several times but I have never quite understood its meaning. Philippians 4:4 says to “rejoice in the Lord always”. While one passage tells me to be still, the other one commands me to rejoice. Throughout this post, my goal is to shed the light on what I understood this week and how these passages have encouraged me.
Psalm 46 is written in the context of a battle. It is not a psalm composed by David but it is composed by the sons of Korah who were of the Levites tribe. In this psalm, there are powerful declarations that are made by the psalmists although they are going through a very difficult time. It seems, the situation the psalmists are in requires them to seek refuge, to have an assurance of things being ok, or to look for peace. Through this psalm, the sons of Korah teach us that when we are in a battle, or when we are going through a difficult situation, our first instinct must be to declare God’s truth to us, to cry out to God and to wait on Him for salvation. In this psalm, the sons of Korah made the following declarations: “God is their refuge”, “an ever-present help in trouble”, “the Lord Almighty is with them”, and “God is their fortress”. Speaking these truths to themselves allowed the sons of Korah to not give in to fear. Another declaration that the sons of Korah made is one that God himself says to His people in the midst of trouble and that is to “be still and know that He is God”. The NASB translation provides a more accurate rendition of this passage with “Stop striving and know that I am God”. As the Korahites encourage us to do, in the middle of battle or while you are going through a difficult time, the first thing you must do is to stop striving, to stop trying to do things in your own strength, to stop trying to fix the issue first, to stop trying and instead to surrender to God. The first thing to do is to recognize your inability to fight, your incompetency, your limit and cry out to the Lord who can help and who is willing to help you during trouble. As it says, “he is an ever-present help in trouble” (verse 1).
Philippians 4:4 on the other hand is a command to always be rejoicing. I found the French translation (bible du semeur) of this text to be even richer as it translates to “Rejoice at all times for all that the Lord is to you”. In other words, think about who the Lord is to you, think about all that He is to you and rejoice in that. This allows you to think about all of God’s characters you have seen displayed in your life and thank Him for them all. So then how do you obey such a command? How do you rejoice when you are going through difficulties? Is the ability to rejoice like a switch button that you turn on and off? I don’t believe that it is but I also do know that if it is a command, it means, it is possible for a child of God to obey it because God’s grace makes it possible to do so in every circumstance. Paul who wrote these words was in prison and I believe he was rejoicing very much in all that the Lord was to him. I am sure, rehashing all that the Lord had done in his missionary journey until the time he wrote to the Philippians was enough to cause him to rejoice. Therefore, if Paul did it in the least desirable circumstances, we can do it too. Moreover, I believe that there is power in rejoicing because it leads your heart to praising God. The more you think about what the Lord has done in your life, the more it causes your heart to rejoice and praise Him. And this is where the Lord resides, in the midst of praise (Psalm 22:3). This also shifts the focus away from yourself and your circumstance to God. In acting in such a manner, what you end up doing is bringing to God your thanksgiving sacrifice which is a sacrifice that the Lord loves more than the sacrifice of animals (Psalm 50:14). In every circumstance, we ought to give thanks to the Lord for we only see in part, we do not have the full picture yet of what is going on behind the scene but our heavenly Father does and He has our best interests at heart. He died on the cross and displayed the greatest love that could ever exist to restore our communion with Him and to give us abundant life. God is good! Oh so very good! It is a true statement that you can always tell yourself whether you see it, feel it or don’t. We are called to live by faith and part of that life of faith means living according to what you do not see or feel. A life of faith exalts the Lord against all odds. May the Lord grant us the faith to honour and please Him in every situation. Amen.
A Word Aptly Spoken 