Thursday, September 10, 2015

Who is God? A reflection on Psalm 46

Psalm 46:10 says
"Be still and know that I am God"

One of my biggest pet-peeves and especially as a Theology major and student at University is when people pick and choose verses. And this is why, because truthfully I believe these kind of verse are chosen and stuck on shirts, mugs, wall decals, fb walls, twitter tweets, etc, to inspire you to further your reading, to turn to the scripture and read it all. But that's not what it becomes, it becomes a "nice" mug to stick in your cupboard, a t-shirt to through in your closet, or a post to get scrolled past.
The Spirit is inspiring the Psalmist in Psalm 46 to say something, when I hear or see or read this verse I am compelled to see the rest of the chapter. I ask myself, "Why does the Psalmist want me to be still and know God in this specific writing? why here, when then, why now?"
Look at the Pslam, it is about how YHWH God is a refuge (vs.1), how He is present (vs.1), a mountain mover (vs.2), a king (vs.4), a helper (vs.5), He is always present (vs.7), a fortress (vs.7&11), and warrior (vs.8&9). After all this the Spirit then says "Be still and know that I am God, I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in all the earth! The LORD (YHWH) of Hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress"
So I challenge you to do this, we are called to this. To stop and reflect on who God is, who He is in our issues, our struggles, our problems, our anxiety, our worries, our good times, our exciting times, our scary times, our stressful times, our disappointing times, our sad times, our depressing times. And who is He? YHWH, refuge, present, mountain mover, king, helper, fortress, and warrior. Be still and know who I am!

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