Psalm 46 Commentary

Many of us are old enough to remember that whatever preachers around the world and particularly in the United States had planned to preach on for Sunday September 16, 2001, all that changed after that fateful Tuesday now referred to by the shorthand of 9/11.  And so very many of us who preach switched to Psalm 46 for the Sunday that followed that cataclysmic day.  The mountains may not have fallen into the heart of the sea but the Twin Towers did.  But along with the planes that fell out of the sky and the buildings that fell to the ground, many people had their confidence deeply shaken.  Their hearts had fallen into the heart of the sea.  Some years after 9/11 I was in New York City talking to a bar tender who told me that ordinarily New Yorkers are so sure footed, so confident.  But that day and in the weeks and months that followed, this man said that you could just see disorientation in the eyes of friends and strangers alike.

But, of course, though some of the opening imagery of Psalm 46 describes that kind of fear and uncertainty, this is by no means the center of this song.  The center is the God of Israel who is not shaken and disoriented by tragic events.  This is the God who endures in faithfulness, who is the rock-solid fortress in whom the people of God take their refuge when all around them is rattling apart.  As things fall apart, God holds his people together.

What’s more, this is a God who is so sovereign that at the sound of his voice the nations that are at any given moment in an uproar melt into silence.  If God so desires, he can stop the wars that rage, shattering the bow and the spear, defusing the missile and thwarting the drone.  And in an often noisy, cacophonous world, God is the one who says “Be silent! Be still!  Know that I am God.”  And then this faithful God is known and is exalted in all the earth, is praised throughout all of creation.  And at the very end, Israel is assured that this is the God who is truly with them.

The events of 9/11 were quite the beginning for the 21^st century.  But if anyone had hoped that the 21^st century would be better than the war-pocked and violence-soaked 20^th century, the twenty-four years since 9/11 have shown us that so far, hopes for a calmer or more peaceful century have proven hollow.  9/11 itself sparked two wars that went on and on.  An economic downturn and a huge bust of the housing bubble left millions of people homeless or destitute or both.  Partisan divisions have grown steadily deeper.  A pandemic burst out into the open the subterranean fissures that ran through society and that ran straight down the center aisle of many churches too.  An attempted coup nearly toppled the American democratic process and now military and paramilitary troops walk the streets of the nation.  Meanwhile war broke out in Europe and then in the Middle East, shattering global peace and taking the lives of untold thousands of innocent men, women, and children.  Ukraine, Gaza, Sudan, Somalia: the list of troubled places goes on and on.

The world is noisy.  The daily news is quite consistently depressing and deeply unsettling.  If ever the human race has endured periods of tumult, chaos, death, and uncertainty, we seem to be living in just such a moment.  And so if ever people were hungry to hear a message such as delivered by Psalm 46, this is also just that moment.

But precisely for that reason, as preachers maybe we find it difficult to help people locate that divine center that holds in place despite all the booming, buzzing confusion that surrounds us.  We don’t want to preach false hope or optimism.  We don’t want to seem pollyannish.  But we know people need hope.  They need a center.  They need God.

Thus, without minimizing the disorientation or denying the chaos, we bear witness to the grandeur and faithfulness of our covenant God in Christ Jesus the Lord.  We believe it every time we confess the Apostles’ Creed that Christ Jesus is “seated at the right hand of God the Father Almighty.”  The world may not look like it’s being ruled by King Jesus but somehow it is.  Seeing even glimmers of that from time to time can be challenging but it does happen.  Instances of grace are all around us.  It is our privilege as preachers to name them for our people when we can.  To be reminded of the faithful volunteers who run soup kitchens and clothing banks and food banks, especially at a time when food insecurity has grown alarmingly in even some of the wealthiest nations.  Jesus is nearer a lot of the times than we may think.

Some while back at a prison that itself has seen a transformation through the living presence of Jesus, someone asked an inmate how he could have hope in such a dim place as a state penitentiary.  “Well,” he replied, “you see we believe hope is a person named Jesus and he’s right in here with us.”  Yes he is.  Though the mountains fall into the heart of the sea and nations are in uproar, Jesus is here.

Proclaim that.

[Note: In addition to our weekly Lectionary-based commentaries we now have a special Year A 2025 section of additional Advent and Christmas resources that we are pleased to provide.   Please check them out!]

Illustration Idea

New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof is well known to be a bit of a religious skeptic, particularly when it comes to miracles.  Nearly every December he publishes an interview with a leading Christian pastor or teacher, claiming as Kristof always does that he cannot believe in the Virgin Birth of Jesus yet he invites his interviewee to share why they can and do believe in that miracle and many others.  Kristof is also often put off by the actions and the political power grabs of which too many Christians in the United States are guilty.  Yet he has consistently testified to how often he has encountered the work of Christ through Christians who do yeoman’s work in some of the most war-torn and destitute places on earth far from America.  Precisely in places of chaos with nations in uproar and at war and committing genocidal atrocities, Kristof runs across Christians who show him the presence of Christ Jesus the Lord and King.  Kristof finds this inspiring.  So can we all.