…Psalm 46 continues!
Psalm 46:3 “Though
its waters roar and be troubled, though the mountains shake with its swelling.”
Our writer goes on here to describe even more woes in the
life of this scene. When I think of waters roaring and being troubled, I
immediately picture a deep churning of the sea. Violent undertows mixed with
heaving waves crashing against a shoreline. I’m being pulled this way then
pushed that way, only to return to the start to go around and around again,
without having any control over the situation. Is there anything going on
inside of you that feels like that? Maybe it has been there for a while, and it
just keeps repeating itself, over and over again. Trusting God can be a lot
like that. Everything in our area seems to be pressuring us to make a decision,
or choose a direction and go, but we don’t have peace, and we are trying our
best to wait for God. And there is an abiding anxiousness, and we bite the lip,
grind the teeth, and wring the hands.
If that wasn’t enough, people remind us what our gut is
telling us, “Trust God!” But it’s not bringing us comfort like it usually does
because the devil is haranguing us to no end in our minds. Let me pause for a
moment in my horrific description of this passage and remind us, it’s probably
not just your gut telling you to, “Trust God!” It is, in fact, the Holy Spirit
trying to break you free from your troublesome worry. He is in you. A promise
given to us by Jesus, sent by the Father, to guide us in our time of need. A
real Person, who has unlimited understanding, and who loves us dearly. It is
His job to lead us into green pastures, and beside still waters, and to
restore, refresh our souls. The Holy Spirit knows the mind of the Father and
will impress upon us His will if we will do the hard part of asking, listening,
and waiting for His counsel.
As we get back to our verse, the picture is now of the
mountains swelling, ready to burst open with a huge release of pressure. It’s
like there is red hot, molten lava just brimming below the edge of the mouth
ready to explode upon the nearest unsuspecting victim. These things are so
unpredictable. Are you ever walking around on a low boil, ready to blow your
top at any moment? All it takes is just one more disappointment, unwanted
surprise, or one of life’s many letdowns, and pop-goes-the-weasel. A violent
storm hurls forth from a tiny opening in our faith walk and we vomit
uncontrollably all over anyone or thing in our path. If so, it’s our fault for
not trusting in the Lord. My Bible teaches me that two are better of than one,
and a three-fold cord is not easily broken. I should be trusting God and
talking to someone in my life who has my trust, and I have permission to talk
to them about anything going on inside me. In Recovery we call this a Sponsor.
If I am walking around on a low boil it’s because I’m
stuffing my feelings, and not sharing them with someone who cares about me.
This makes me that swelling mountain, and it’s my fault. When these kinds of
things are going on inside of us we have to have an outlet. We have to, on
purpose, seek out someone who will be there to help us navigate our way back to
Jesus, who is our refuge and strength and our ever-present help in the time of
trouble. The Bible teaches us to confess our sins (faults, mistakes,
insensitivities, resentments, etc…) to one another so that we may be healed
(healthy). And to quickly make amends for harm I’ve done to others, and to
quickly forgive others for harm they’ve done to me. This enables me to keep a
pure heart. Blessed are the pure in heart! This enables me to not be that
swelling mountain, walking around all the time on a low boil ready to explode.
These area the kinds of things we learn and live by in Celebrate Recovery.
These are the commands given us by the Lord Jesus Himself, to love one another,
and to help carry one another’s burdens.
Hang in there for my next installment on the next verse in
Psalm 46. The writer’s heart is about to remember God in a beautifully descriptive
way, and I don’t want you to miss it.
Psalm 46 to be
continued…
