“Therefore, We Will Not Fear”

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

Being calm in the midst of crisis is ridiculous. When somebody is in the middle of something awful or life changing, a ridiculous calmness and lack of fear or anxiety will usually prompt someone to start treating or testing you for shock. To be utterly calm when every bit of your life, every nerve in your body is telling you to panic is utter madness.

Yet, this is where the Psalmist was at in life.

To look at this passage with the absence of God would have us sending the Psalmist to a psych ward. If the world is literally crashing down around you and you aren’t afraid, there’s something very, very wrong with you. If he was lacking fear in the midst of this all on his own, we would typically think he had mental problems or was in shock.

However, this is not the Psalmist’s situation.

Instead of being calm and resolute all on his own, he noted down some crucial thoughts. First, God is our refuge and strength, our calm and persistence in the storm. Second, he is ever-present when we are in the midst of trouble.

Therefore, he was not afraid.

Folks, to say ‘we will not fear’ without God is madness, but to be fearful when you know the God of the universe is not only your refuge and strength but ever-present in your worries and problems…that’s a whole different level of madness.

Fear is a normal human reaction; if we lack it, people usually worry about us. Yet, when we come to Christ, not only are we saved and sanctified, but we also come to know the truth that because our souls are anchored in HIM, the only thing we have left to fear is God Himself. When we know that the God who breathed out the stars, who holds the earth at the perfect, unexplainable angle to sustain life is for us and holds us firmly in place, what is there on earth that could possibly shake us from His grip?

Yes, there will be hard, awful things to go through; some may even cost us our lives. Yet, we have such firm assurance in Christ that the world could come crashing down around us (literally and figuratively), and we can still say that it is well with our souls. We can still say ‘we will not fear’.

To some, that may look like madness still, but we know that God is always with us; therefore we will not fear.