‘God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear though the earth gives way, though the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam, though the mountains tremble at its swelling. There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy habitation of the Most High. God is in the midst of her; she shall not be moved; God will help her when morning dawns. The nations rage, the kingdoms totter; he utters his voice, the earth melts. The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress.  Come, behold the works of the Lord, how he has brought desolations on the earth. He makes wars cease to the end of the earth; he breaks the bow and shatters the spear; he burns the chariots with fire. “Be still, and know 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; the God of Jacob is our fortress.’ Ps. 46

As I read through this passage this morning, I thought of all the chaos in the world around us right now and how the nations, their leaders and their little kingdoms are all in uproar. I thought of all the wars being fought right now, the big and small, the widely covered by mainstream media and the overlooked, the ones fought on the ground and the ones fought in political arenas, the righteous wars against injustice and the wars fought in the name of greed…

It’s easy to feel overwhelmed by it all, like the language used here around a swelling and foaming sea that causes the very mountains to tremble.

Yet, there is hope in the midst of it and we are encouraged not to fear. Because God is our refuge, our strength, our fortress in the midst of the raging sea and chaos. David goes on to elaborate on the might and sovereignty of God that gives us reason to hope and to take courage. And God breaks in and says to “Be still.” I find it interesting that He doesn’t tell the sea to be still like Jesus did in the boat with His disciples but he tells us to be still. I also find it interesting that in the midst of talking about angry seas and raging nations, David mentions that “there is a river whose streams make glad the city of God.” It makes me think of Psalm 23 and God spreading a feast out before David in the very midst of his enemies.

So I wonder, how do we tap into this river whose streams will make us glad? How do we run into the refuge that is God? How do we still ourselves and know God for who He is? Is it by attempting to ignore the media coverage of fleeing refugees, evil and oppression resulting in wars and merciless killing all over the globe, senseless shootings in Orlando, of greed and power hunger that reduces the value of human life to zero? Is it through focusing only on what keeps us happy and feeling secure, on what we can have immediate control over?

I think we tap into this river, into this sense of refuge found in God, through the exact opposite of disengagement. I think we will experience all that David speaks of here that is a beacon of hope when we turn to God in prayer. Prayer especially for those being directly effected by the chaos and storms and those having to make the hard decisions in the midst of it all.

Too often when I read the news, see something on the telly, hear it on the radio, read something posted by one of my friends working on the frontlines in areas of the greatest chaos, my instinctive response is to not finish reading/listening, to put it out of my mind, to separate myself from the discomfort of it, the way it touches my heart, either with compassion or fear or both.

Yet what if every time, every one of us as followers of Christ turned it into prayer? Tonight, on the bus on route to church, I read for the first time about the tragedy in Orlando. My heart broke. All I could think of was that quite possibly those were 50 people God loved dearly and they never knew Him and now their oppotunity to know Him has been stolen from them. God lost 50 of His kids at one time. My heart went from broken to angry – angry with America’s gun laws. I’m not going into that here but the fact remains I was angry. And then I began to pray. And then I arrived at church and in worship, I began to turn the songs into prayers. And like David in this Psalm, I moved from a place of anger and despair and fear to a place of hope, confidence in who God is and a renewed resolve to make it hard for more of God’s kids to die without first knowing Him.

The sea may be roaring around us, politicians may be raging against one another, but we have a refuge, a fortress and a river whose streams give us life. And in that place of refuge, as we still ourselves before a God who is no less sovereign than He was thousands of years ago, we can pray. We can partner with God in causing wars to cease and bringing peace to the chaos. And in that place of refuge, of stillness, we can call others in to join us by how we speak, how we act, how we live.

And through us, God ‘will be exalted among the nations.’