Last Sunday afternoon, when many churches were beginning the celebration of the birth of Jesus, at least fifteen Jewish people were killed by gunmen and some twenty-nine injured at a Hanukkah event at Bondi Beach, Sydney. A great anti-Semitic evil was perpetrated. How much we need to pray for all who lost loved ones and for the Jewish people. How important it is that we support and care for Jewish people we know.
It is also important that we pray that God will direct the leaders of the nations, enabling them to administer justice impartially, uphold integrity and truth, restrain wickedness and vice, and maintain true freedom.
Yet in a world that is divided, where anger and hatred can dominate, and where the notions of serious public conversation and forgiveness are often dismissed, is there anywhere we can we find hope?
The Book of Psalms consistently speaks of the injustices, the sinfulness and suffering of the world. The psalms constantly remind us that the wisdom and strength we need are found in the creator God alone.
For example, in the opening lines of Psalm 46 we read: 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).
Psalm 46 encourages us that God is the sovereign lord over every aspect of life – over nature in the opening verses and, as it continues, over enemies of God’s people and over the world with all its tensions and conflicts. Written in a time of crisis, the Psalm-writer’s confident faith in God’s ultimate control is so encouraging.
Furthermore, while we might fear the instability in nature and are concerned with the tensions and conflicts of the world and the all-too-often lack of quality leadership needed to promote justice and peace, we can be assured that God not only knows what is happening, but is in the midst working out his greater purposes: The nations rage, the kingdoms totter;…But we are assured of God’s final word: he utters his voice, in judgment on the nations.
It’s clear that the Bible knows about suffering and evil, especially human evil and its devastating effects on the world. We see that God ‘s presence is neither disconnected nor dislocated from such evils. Rather, in speaking of God being in the midst of them, the psalm tells us that God is not the cause of evil, but neither is he removed from it.
In verse 4 we read: There is a river, whose streams make glad the city of God…. Under God the waters no longer rage but are found as life-giving streams for his people under siege.
It is not surprising then that the Psalm moves to a climax with a command, Be still, and know that I am God (verse 10). This is not so much a word to God’s people, but rather God’s word to the turbulent seas and rebellious world. It is a command that foreshadows the words of Jesus of Nazareth to the stormy seas: ‘Peace! Be still (Mark 4:39). It is the same powerful voice of authority of Jesus when he commanded the deceased Lazarus: ‘Lazarus, come forth!’ (John 11:43).
Verse 10 continues: God will be exalted among the nations; he will be exalted in the earth.
If such a God is with us, we can have every confidence that when we turn to him he will hear us and sustain us. Despite the awfulness of our experiences at times, God is our refuge and strength.
The Psalm concludes: The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress.
Prayer. Almighty Father, we commend to your goodness all who are in any way afflicted or distressed, especially those who are known to us. May it please you to comfort and relieve them according to their needs, giving them patience in their sufferings, and a happy issue out of all their afflictions. All this we ask for the sake of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Almighty God, the protector of all who put their trust in you, without whom nothing is strong, nothing is holy: increase and multiply your mercy upon us, so that with you as our ruler and guide, we may so pass through things temporal that we finally lose not the things eternal: grant this, heavenly Father, for the sake of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
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