The Message, August 25, 2024: "Feel the Spirit," Psalm 46

Author: Rev. Scott W. Cousineau
August 27, 2024

 

“Feel the Spirit”
A Message by Rev. Scott W. Cousineau
Psalm 46

            Over the course of my ministry, I have concluded many Vacation Bible School sessions, youth group meetings, and church retreats by asking that participants to share their “God Sightings” … the ways that they saw or experienced God that day.

            The younger children would often share things like: “I saw God in a bird,” or “I saw God in a flower,” or “I saw God in the blue sky.” Perfect … perfect … perfect.

            Older children and youth might say things like: “I saw God when Suzie let me go ahead of her in the snack line.” Or, “I saw God when Johnny helped me with my craft project.” Or, “I saw God when the nurse put a band-aid on my cut.” Again, those responses are … perfect … perfect … and perfect.

            And older youth or adult participants might share: “I saw God in the children’s smiling faces.” Or, “I heard God in the singing and the laughing.” Or, “I experienced God just being together in this place.” And as was the case before … perfect … perfect … perfect.

            Of course, every response is perfect because we all experience God in unique and personal ways. It is so very good and nice to end our time together in that manner; by sharing the many blessings that we had received that day.

            For a number of years, I was involved with the Christian Youth Conference that gathered right down the street at Oceanwood, in Ocean Park. I was a camper in my youth, then I served as a counselor, a member of the faculty, and I also served as the chaplain on two occasions. (Actually, one and a half. One year I was co-chaplain with my mother.) The Christian Youth Conference is a two-week long camp experience during which the youth took classes, went to chapel, and explored their relationships with God, with Jesus Christ, and with one another.

            Every year, on the final night of the conference, the youth, counselors and faculty members gather around a campfire. There is always some singing, as well as some storytelling and some laughing. But the main activity around that campfire is prayer and reflection. The youth and adults alike spend time thinking about their experiences of God those two weeks. What did they see? What did they feel? What did they learn? What difference might it have in their lives when they return home? It was … and is … a moving and powerful experience.

            Psalm 46 is not a passage in which the psalmist shares his “God Sighting.” Rather, it is a psalm … a song … about God Presence. It is not about sharing glimpses of God that they noticed here or there. It is about the steadfast Presence of God at all times and in all places.

            Psalm 46 is called one of the “Songs of Zion,” because it sings of the Holy City of God … Zion … Jerusalem. But the song really is not about Jerusalem. It is really about the sure Presence of God; it is about the dwelling place of God. Yes, Jerusalem was celebrated as the dwelling place of God, but the People of God knew that God was with them wherever they were. God traveled with them in the tabernacle. God was with them in their captivity in Egypt. God was with them in the exile in Babylon.

            The psalm was not about Jerusalem being impregnable or indestructible. After all, the city was destroyed by the Babylonians. The psalm does not invite faith in a place. Instead, it is about faith in God’s Presence no matter where we may be.

            “God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble.”    

            God is our refuge. The word in Hebrew is mahseh. It is one of the most important words in the Book of Psalms. It occurs twenty-four times. It means “to place our trust in.”  God is our refuge. God is our trust. God is trustworthy; we can place our trust in God.

            Even when everything seems to be in absolute turmoil, we can trust God.

            The psalmist used the metaphor that we heard just a few moments ago about the earth trembling, and the mountains tottering, and the sea surging. This was the worst case scenario … a cataclysmic disaster … but even then God is our strength and our refuge.

            The ancient Children of God knew very well about the raging and warring nature of the nations and the people around them. Their history tells the story of conquest and captivity. Their “Promised Land” is on the crossroads of trade routes and was therefore very desirable. And because of that their cities were conquered and destroyed time and time again. Archeological digs have revealed that some of the ancient cities had as many as seventeen layers of city built upon the ruins of conquered and destroyed city. The Children of God knew very well about raging nations.

            But this psalm, this song of their faith, was a communal confession that God was with them. That God’s Presence was their strength even in their midst of their darkest days … especially in the midst of their darkest days.

            Just like the psalm does not promise that Jerusalem is indestructible or impregnable, it does not promise that we will not know pain or struggle in our lives. In fact, the psalm is all about the trembling earth … the tottering ground beneath our feet. The psalm is all about the nations, the people who seek to cause us pain and harm. The psalm is about the truth that in the midst of all of that shaking and quaking and raging and roaring there is one constant … God.

            In the midst of cosmic chaos, God can be trusted. God is our strength. God is our stronghold, our fortress, our protection. God’s Presence is steadfast and true.

            The cosmic and human forces that attack and assault the people in the psalm are metaphors for the struggles that we face. Trauma and loss, pain and suffering can feel as though everything around us is uncertain. It can seem as though the ground beneath our feet is trembling and crumbling. But Psalm 46 reminds us that we are both in the desert … the wilderness … and in the Promised Land at the same time.

            Yes … we struggle, mightily at times. Yes … it may seem as though the world around is trying to destroy us. Yes … it can seem as though we cannot seem to catch a break, that everything and everyone in the world is out to get us, to do us harm. But we are not alone. God is with us. God’s love is with us. God’s people are with us. In the midst of the most troublesome and difficult and painful and seemingly hopeless circumstances, God is with us and we are with God.

            As I was reading articles and commentaries about this psalm in preparation for this morning I came across this interesting point. Old Testament scholar John Goldingay pointed out that nowhere in the psalms does it say that God is found in the silence. Instead, God is found in the noise. God is found in the chaos. (John Goldingay, “Psalm 46,” in Psalms, Volume 2, Baker Commentary on the Old Testament and Psalms, Baker Academic, Grand Rapids, MI)

            God is found in the noise. God is found in the chaos.

            As I contemplated that those words, my thoughts travelled to my trip to Israel and the time that I spent at the Temple Mount complex. I was standing at the Western Wall, what we now know as the “Wailing Wall.” There were hundreds of people there. There were some quietly, prayerfully placing prayer requests into the cracks and crevices of the wall. There were tourists … lots and lots of tourists. There were congregations there blessing their Torah scrolls, and there were bar mitzvahs taking place and the cacophony of joyful celebration. It was crowded and noisy.

            But as I stood there taking it all in, I felt a sense of calm come over me. I cannot put into words the feeling that I experienced other than an impossibly powerful sense of peace. I wish that I could describe it to you. Even more, I wish that there was a way that I could have you feel it. In the midst of all of that noise, and all of that chaos … I felt an incredible sense of peace.

            The psalmist describes God as being a warrior. But God is a warrior that brings peace. Yes, God breaks the bow and smashes the shield, but God does that to bring peace. The line of the psalm that says, “Be still, and know that I am God,” is not a call for us to slow down and spend more time in prayer. (That is the way that line is often utilized.) Rather, it is God saying, “STOP! Stop your warring! Stop your fighting! STOP! For I am God, and this is not my way. And your warring ways will not prevail.”

            Stop … be still … and know that I am God, and my way is peace.

            God’s desire for us and for the world is peace … not chaos.
            God’s desire for us is peace … not war.
            God’s desire for us is peace … not turmoil.
            God’s desire for us is peace … not fear.

            And when it does seem as though everything around us is noise, and chaos, and violence, and turmoil, and fear … God is around us too. God’s Spirit surrounds us, and comforts us, and leads us, and inspires us. God’s Spirit fills us.

            So, I ask you now to consider that which I asked those Vacation Bible School participants, and those youth group members, and those folks on those all-church retreats … Where have you seen God today? Where have you experienced God? How have you felt God’s wonderful Spirit?

            And then, take this thought with you … no matter where we go, God is there. Amen.

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