The last few
months have been, to say the least, a little bit stressful! Not just personally, but on every level of
life. We have all been assaulted in our
personal, professional and church lives.
I think it would be safe to say we have been shaken to the core of all
the things that we believe and that we hold dear. Never would I have imagined a time that I
would be concerned to go to the store, concerned about finding toilet paper (of
all things), or concerned about going to church. It is an unprecedented time we find ourselves
in. To be honest it has caused me to dig
in to the Word of God more, to remind myself of the things that I hold dear,
and to ask myself if I really believe these things. There’s a difference between believing them
and believing them! When you are on a
boat and they give you a life jacket you believe that the life jacket will hold
you up in the water and keep you safe.
When they tell you to put that life jacket on because the boat is
sinking and you will soon be in the water – well – it takes on a whole new level
of believing. Suddenly your very life
rests in the ability of that life jacket to hold you up and protect you from
drowning. That’s kind of how I have felt
since March. Suddenly my very life
depends on the ability of the Word to keep me safe. While I have spent many years learning to trust
God and His word, it’s not been tested very often. Yes, on missions trips I have had to flex my
faith muscle. Not because we were ever
really in any danger, but because there were some uncomfortable things for me
to overcome. I’m not a fan of flying, so
I have to really flex that muscle and put action to my faith in order to
fly. But – when you are at home, living
your normal life, everything is good, you’re not really exercising your faith
daily. You are just kind of floating
along on the manifested goodness of God.
And there’s nothing wrong with that, we all do it pretty much every
day. God loves us, we are His children,
and He does want us to have those times of rest and living the blessed
life. However, we are in the world and
we do have to go through some of the garbage the enemy throws out upon
mankind. It is the result of living in a
fallen world. Praise God that we can
have the victory through Christ Jesus!!
As all of this
pandemic began to unfold I found myself saying that God is “a very present help
in time of need.” When I looked it up I
found that it is based on Psalm 46:1 that says: God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in
trouble. As I thought on that phrase more, the song “Made Me Glad” written by
Hillsong, started running through my mind.
This line is in the chorus – it actually says my very present help in
time of need. The more I said it and
thought on it, the more I wanted to know what “very present” meant. It seemed to me that there was something that
I needed to understand about that phrase, so I looked it up in Strong’s
Concordance and read some commentaries on it.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges commentary states “a very present help
in trouble]
Lit., a help in distresses hath he let himself be found exceedingly. The words are not merely a general
statement, but an appeal to recent experience. For ‘let himself be found’
cp. 2
Chronicles 15:2; 2
Chronicles 15:4; 2
Chronicles 15:15; Jeremiah
29:14. When we seek the
Lord – He is found by us.” Notice the
words – He hath let himself be found exceedingly. Exceedingly means extremely, immensely,
tremendously. Not just “Oh, God is here”
but “OH! GOD IS HERE RIGHT NOW!” Jamieson-Fausset-Brown
Bible Commentary echoes the same thought - present
help—literally, "a help He has been found exceedingly."
The Treasury of David says: “A very present help in trouble, or in
distresses He has so been found, He has been tried and proved by His people. He
never withdraws Himself from His afflicted. He is their help, truly,
effectually, constantly; He is present or near them, close at their side and
ready for their succor, and this is emphasized by the word "very" in
our version, He is more present than friend or relative can be, yea, more
nearly present than even the trouble itself. To all this comfortable truth is
added the consideration that His assistance comes at the needed time. He is not
as the swallows that leave us in the winter; He is a friend in need and a
friend indeed. When it is very dark with us, let brave spirits say, "Come,
let us sing the Psalm 46:1-11."
As we face these very different times, this
passage of scripture should bring us much comfort. It is very apparent that man does not have
the answer to these problems. It’s not a
political party, a leader or medicine that is going to fix these things. We have seen through this pandemic that all
of these avenues of man have failed. The
only true and sure help comes through God.
I have determined that I am going to make this scripture one of the
foundational truths I stand on: God IS
my refuge, my strength, and He is my VERY PRESENT HELP in time of trouble. If you are struggling right now, feeling that
there is no hope, no end in sight, seek the Lord. He promises you that He will be found when
you seek Him and He will come to your aid immediately. He has a history of doing just that and He
won’t fail you now!
