“God is our refuge and strength, a helper in afflictions that have come heavily upon us. Therefore shall we not fear when the earth is shaken, and when the mountains are removed into the heart of the seas. …Be still and know (Σχολάσατε καὶ γνῶτε / Упразднитеся и разумейте) that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth. The Lord of hosts is with us, our helper is the God of Jacob.” (Ps 45/46: 1-2, 10-11)
How reassuring and faith-inspiring is this Psalm, no matter what is going on in our own lives or in the world around us. “Therefore” we will not fear, we say, as so many generations of faithful have said before us, in the ancient words of the Psalm, because God is our “refuge” and “strength” and “helper.”
It’s easy to lose sight of the unchanging fact that God “is,” particularly when we are faced with unwelcome or unforeseen change. So God reminds us in this Psalm to take pause; to “be still and know” that He is unchangeably God, Who is “with us” whenever we let Him be, and act as God of our lives. “Our Father, Who art in heaven,” I say to Him this morning, I choose to “know,” once again, that You are “with us.” As I choose faith over fear, I also choose to be present to You, as You always are to us. “Thy will be done” with me and all of us, on (the changeable) earth as it is in (the unchangeable) heaven. Amen!
