The Promise is Relational
“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."
“The LORD Almighty is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress.”
“He makes wars cease to the ends of the earth. He breaks the bow and shatters the spear; He burns the shields with fire. He says, ‘Be still and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.’”
-Psalm 46
Photo from our family trip to a nearby state park last weekend.
Like many people on planet earth today, I am shaken by current events. I hate war, and I am so incredibly powerless to do anything to stop it.
I don’t like how familiar the feeling of impending doom has become, but here it is again. Something new, something potentially badder than before. And once again, I am reminded of how small I am under the weight of it. Powerless. Frightfully aware of the fact that I am unable to stop bad things from happening.
God is our refuge and strength.
An ever-present help in trouble.
He makes wars cease.
The LORD Almighty is with us.
I can’t expound on these words from Psalm 46 in any way that feels valuable. The best thing I can do is read them over and over, and so the best value I can bring to you is suggest you do the same.
I will add one thing, though; and it is something that I heard at church last Sunday, and have been calling to mind ever since: “The promise is relational”. In context, the pastor who shared it was talking about the ultimate promise of the gospel is to restore our relationship with God, and he was contrasting this with different moralistic ways that we try to get to God.
I have spent this week with that thought in the back of my mind — the promise is relational — so when I went to read Psalm 46 today, it made verse 7 hit a little bit differently: “The LORD Almighty is with us”.
I have spent a lot of my life trying to figure out what is right: what is the right way to think about [this], who is right about [that]. These conversations have value. But they should not trump the promise that God has made to us through the gospel: that He will be with us always until the end of the age. This means that He is with us even when we are wrong about some things. He is with us even when we misunderstand things. He is with us even if we misread a situation. He is with us even when we made a bad choice. “He is with us” doesn’t mean that He’s on our side necessarily, but it does mean that He is here with us relationally. He won’t leave or forsake us.
I am not going to pretend to know more about geopolitics than I do. I am not someone you should look to for insight on decisions about war. The more I try to find the “right” answer to life’s various questions, the more I realize how little I actually understand. But I am finding comfort in the words of Psalm 46 today, and I am finding peace in the principle that the ultimate promise God makes to us is relational. And I’m sharing this today, because I hope that you might too.