Psalm 46 - The Calm Defiance of Fear - November 1, 2020

Are you looking forward to Wednesday? I am. Because I’m hopeful that on Wednesday nearly half of the mail I receive, countless voices on the radio, commercials on TV and social media, dozens of text messages and phone calls – will finally stop trying to tell me what to do. You know what they’ve been telling you what to do: make a plan, tell your family and friends, fill out your mail-in ballot, go down to your clerk’s office, go on November 3rd – but whatever you do and however you do it, above all: VOTE! I don’t know about you, but I’m tired political parties telling me what to do. Even more, I’m even more tired of being told how to feel. It would probably be overstating it to suggest that this is the most “emotional” election ever, but hasn’t it seemed like both candidates based their appeals not on reason or record but emotions? And what emotion have both campaigns tried to trigger? Fear! You’re told to be afraid that your taxes will go up, your healthcare will be taken away, your police will be defunded, your liberties will be taken away, you won’t be allowed to worship, your planet will be destroyed – and, most potent of all: you will die if one or the other is elected. How does a Christian respond to these incessant calls to be afraid? With calm defiance.  

How can we stand in calm defiance when so many voices out there are telling us we ought to be paralyzed with fear? The psalmist gets right to the point: God is our refuge and strength, a helper who can always be found in times of trouble. The psalmist seems pretty confident that God is in control and that God is on his side, doesn’t he? I think we sometimes find that level of confidence unnerving, don’t we? How can I be as sure as the psalm writer that God is on my side? Where can I always find him in my times of trouble? What is the basis for his bold declaration that we will not fear when the earth dissolves and when the mountains tumble into the heart of the sea? What about his even bolder challenge in verse 3, which could be translated: let its waters roar and foam. Let the mountains quake when it rises. (In other words: “Go ahead, let the world fall apart about around me. I’m not worried.”) Who does he think he is to be so defiant in the face of trouble? While we certainly could understand these words to be describing the literal destruction of creation, the very personal tenor of this psalm leads to a figurative interpretation…that from the perspective of the psalmist, his personal world was falling apart around him. That he was experiencing a time of severe personal distress. You know what you often get when you’re suffering times of personal distress, right? Bumper sticker theology. It varies from the vague “my prayers are with you” (prayers to whom, for what?) to “God doesn’t gives us any more than we can handle” (even though he obviously does, quite regularly) to “this too shall pass” (oh really, how do you know that? Try telling that to someone with a chronic condition). Bumper sticker theology is not what you need in times of severe personal distress.

What do you need? Something sure, something certain, something concrete and objective. That’s where the psalmist turns next. There is a river – its streams bring joy to the city of God, to the holy dwelling of the Most High. God is in her. She will not fall. God will help her at daybreak. Rather than a vague wish, the psalmist describes a concrete place of comfort. The question is: where is this place? In the greater context of Scripture, it appears the poet is describing two places: places where God was, indeed, a helper who could always be found. In Eden, a garden watered by four rivers (Genesis 2:10-14), not only was there perfect tranquility, but Adam and Eve walked and talked with God, he was easily found. The second would be the temple in Jerusalem, where God had made his dwelling place among people, where they could always come to him for mercy and help (2 Chronicles 6:1-2). Ok, but we’re not in Eden and the temple today is rubble underneath a mosque – what good does this do us? Where is God to help us here and now?

The answer is found when you understand that in the New Testament, the dwelling of the Most High is no longer a place but a person. In John 2, Jesus cleared the temple of the sleazy salesmen. When the Jewish leaders demanded to know who he thought he was to rage through their temple like a bull in a china shop he said destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up again (John 2:19). But he wasn’t talking about the physical temple, he was speaking about the temple of his body (John 2:21). So the fullness of God can always be found in Jesus (Colossians 2:9). And where can Jesus be found? What is the city of God? Not Jerusalem. You are. This is. Just as in the OT the temple in Jerusalem was the place where God dwelled and where God’s people found his help – so now you are the people of God and the church is where you come to find his help in your times of trouble. Here is where the river of God’s grace flows to us, bringing us joy, even when our world is falling apart. Here is where you are reminded that you have been sealed in the faith and the family of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Here is where you come to be assured that whatever troubles you face are not God’s punishment for your sins because your sins have been removed in the Absolution. Here is where you receive your Savior’s body and blood with your mouth, the tangible guarantee that God the Holy Spirit is in [you] (Acts 2:38; 1 Corinthians 6:19), that no matter what happens [you] will not fall. This isn’t vague, wishful, “bumper sticker” theology. These are the unshakeable and unbreakable promises of God. God is in Jesus and Jesus is easily found here in Word and Sacrament. Let your world fall apart around you – grounded in Jesus, you will not fall! Let the earth dissolve and the mountains tumble: God is our refuge and strength – we will not fear!

In verse 6, the psalmist shifts his focus to a second potential source of fear in this world: nations are in turmoil. Kingdoms fall. God raises his voice. The earth melts. This is a pretty accurate description of our nation this week, isn’t it? Both candidates claim that if they aren’t elected president we will lose our nation, our democracy, our safety, our liberty. Both candidates claim that they are the only one who can keep us safe from Covid-19 and bring our economy back from the resulting recession. Both candidates claim that only they can heal the racial and social tensions that have divided our country and destroyed our cities. And there is the general fear that no matter who wins there may be a new round of violence and anarchy in our nation. No matter who you have or will vote for, I will give you the same Biblical election advice this year that I gave you four years ago: do not trust in human helpers, in a mortal man who cannot save you. His spirit departs. He returns to the ground he came from. On that day, his plans have perished (Psalm 146:3-4). Because if there’s anything that we know for sure, it’s that no matter who wins this election, our nation will continue to face turmoil and our nation will always appear ready to fall.

“But, pastor, we’re really, genuinely scared that one or the other will take away our liberties, our freedom to worship, to own guns, to send our kids to school, to go where we want when we want, to have personal privacy, to be safe from viruses, etc.” When you feel that fear welling up inside, stop, turn the TV off, set your phone aside, open up your Bible to Psalm 46 and read: the LORD of Armies is with us. The God of Jacob is a fortress for us. Let’s not deny the truth that the earth is melting around us (which is clearly one of the signs of the end (Matthew 24)) and that it is the voice of God that delivers this melting down of society and science and politics as a warning to an impenitent and unbelieving world. And Scripture makes it clear that Christians are not immune to the effects of this meltdown. And yet, in the midst of the chaos and turmoil, what do we see? God as our good and gracious LORD. God as the commander of armies beyond number. God as a fortress. God as a fortress for us. That is why – even as millions of Americans will spend the next four years either depressed or ecstatic, bent on revolution or rebellion, hiding in their homes or rioting in the streets – we believers will stand calmly defiant of it all. Let them lock us down again – the gospel cannot be chained (2 Timothy 2:9). Let them defund the police – our God has vowed to protect us with legion after legion of his angelic armies (Psalm 91:11; Matthew 26:53). Let Covid rage through the population – for if this past year has proven anything, it’s that it’s far better to be with Christ (Philippians 1:23). Let them keep our kids out of school – they can’t keep Christian mothers and fathers from bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord (Ephesians 6:4). Let the nations roil and kingdoms fall – the God of Jacob is our fortress – we will not fear!

The psalmist paints one final, fearful portrait: come, look at the works of the LORD. What a wasteland he has made of the earth! He makes wars to cease to the end of the earth. He shatters the bow. He cuts up the spear. He burns the carts with fire. The Psalmist invites us to take a look at the only track record that really counts: the LORD’s record of simultaneous deliverance and destruction. Take your pick: Noah and his family floating safely in the ark while the Lord destroys the world in a flood (Genesis 7-9); Pharaoh and his army washing up like seaweed on the shore of the Red Sea as the children of Israel march on to the Promised Land (Exodus 14:30); Hezekiah laying down to sleep while the Assyrian king Sennacherib – who had Jerusalem surrounded – “melted like snow in the glance of the Lord!” [1] - as his army of 185,000 was struck down by the angel of the LORD (2 Kings 19:35). Or today, as you see all of the signs of the end Jesus warned about (Matthew 24) being fulfilled right before your eyes hear the calm, quiet voice through the storm: be still, and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations. I will be exalted on the earth. For the unbelieving world around us, this is both a stern warning and an awful prediction. Against the idolatry and arrogance of our culture, God will have the final say. He alone controls this world – past, present and future. And the natural and political disasters we see are just a taste of the judgment that is to come for them. But for us, this is a guarantee, a guarantee that no matter what happens – even as the holy Judgment of God rains down on the earth in natural and societal and political disasters – God, our God, our Savior, remains in control, he will deliver us out of this great tribulation to the perfect peace and safety of heaven (Revelation 7:14).

Whichever one of these three sources of fear is troubling you most right now; whether it’s personal distress or anxiety about the election or the signs of imminent Judgment – the question is not “Where is God in all of this?” (we’ve already established that he’s always there) but rather, “how will you respond?” We have the response of the inspired writer of Psalm 46 – who may well have written this psalm from Jerusalem while the Assyrian army was poised to wipe it off the face of the earth – before us. Today we also commemorate the response of our namesake: Martin Luther. Just over 500 years ago, Luther posted his 95 theses on the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg which called into question the heretical teachings of the Roman Catholic Church. Years later, in April of 1521, in the town of Worms, Luther refused to retract his writings and his teachings and declared – in direct defiance of the two most powerful men in the world: pope Leo X and emperor Charles V (men who had the power to have him excommunicated and executed) – “Unless I can be instructed and convinced with evidence from the Holy Scriptures or with open, clear, and distinct grounds and reasoning – and my conscience is captive to the Word of God – then I cannot and will not recant, because it is neither safe nor wise to act against conscience…Here I stand. I can do no other. God help me! Amen.” [2] That, dear friends, is what the calm defiance of fear looks and sounds like – grounded firmly on the words and promises of God.

There will be times in future days, weeks and months when we will witness the three scenes of Psalm 46 playing out not only on our TVs but in our lives. The question is not if but when. The bigger question is: how will we respond? In a world and culture led by the devil which tries to convince us that we should live in abject fear, we will stand firm and calmly defiant: we will not fear because God is our refuge and strength a helper who can always be found in times of trouble. Here we stand. God help us. Amen.    

[1] Lord Byron, The Destruction of Sennacherib. https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/43827/the-destruction-of-sennacherib

[2] Kittelson, James M. Luther the Reformer, p. 161