What Trouble Taught Me About Who God Is (Psalm 45-48)

A Few Thoughts to Consider

Who do you turn to when you’re in trouble?

The answer to this question makes or breaks what a person becomes, and there might be no better passage in Scripture to turn to than Psalm 46. As the NIV Application commentary notes, “Psalm 45’s celebration of a royal marriage is followed by three psalms that focus on God’s reign over the earth from the city of Jerusalem.^[1] In Psalm 46, we read the following:

¹ God is our refuge and strength,
a helper who is always found
in times of trouble.
² Therefore we will not be afraid,
though the earth trembles
and the mountains topple
into the depths of the seas,
³ though its water roars and foams
and the mountains quake with its turmoil.

In the Old Testament, God is referred to as our refuge nearly a hundred times. He is the place we are to run to when we are afraid, and this idea of refuge is baked into the creation narrative. Gerald Wilson notes, “Yahweh established the stable environment for human existence—the earth—at creation by an act of sovereign control and limitation of chaotic waters. He established an orderly universe by creating and enforcing boundaries for these waters so that dry land appeared as a place where humans and land animals could live.”^[2] But as Wilson goes on to say,

The Flood (Gen. 6–9) threatened to dissolve creation order into precreation chaos by allowing these restricted waters to exceed and ultimately erase their established boundaries. Similarly here in Psalm 46, human existence would be threatened with dissolution if the roaring, surging seas and waters were able to topple the mountains into the sea so that the earth would “give way.” In the Mesopotamia account of the Flood, the gods cower in fear behind the walls of their heavenly abode as the chaotic waters—unleashed in a fit of pique against humans—threaten to destroy the gods as well. In Psalm 46, however, the psalmist claims a confident trust in Yahweh that allows contemplation of the ultimate destruction of creation without fear.^[3]

Thus, the reason this psalmist can be confident is because he trusts in a God who has always been a refuge for his people. He stands strong when the flood waters of life rage. As Peter Craigie says, “The language of confidence here is rooted in creation, for God’s order emerged from primeval chaos (Gen 1:1–2).”^[4] This is some captivating imagery, and as Craigie points out, “God’s creation (Exod 15:17) of Israel had also been a consequence of his control of the chaotic waters, by which he conquered Pharaoh and redeemed his people (Exod 15:1–10); hence the psalmist now turns from confidence in the face of natural chaotic forces, to confidence in the face of national threats.”^[5]

In short, God has been and will always be a God of refuge. When our body is broken, we’re rejected by people, and life feels out of control, we can come to him.