Be Still… God Is With You

Psalm 46

Be still? Is God kidding? Does he know what’s going on in the world? Does he know what’s going on in this country, in this city? Does he know what’s going on in my life? My family? Be still. These words kind of, I don’t know, took on just a slightly nuanced meaning for me this last week. Alex, we got those pictures. Do you want me to handle that? Perfect. These are some pictures from a couple of pastor friends of mine in Northeast Tennessee. As you may remember, the hurricane, Helene, roared through the Carolinas and hit Northeast Tennessee very hard. Those are the people I served for 22 years. It was my home for 22 years. I couldn’t help but think about the words of our text. Even though the mountains fall into the heart of the sea, East Tennessee is very mountainous. It’s hard to build there. This is a picture of one of the lakes. It looks like a floating hardware store. There’s just so much stuff floating on the top of it. It’s just, just wow. It’s hard to describe it. That’s an interstate that Beth and I regularly took to go south over the mountain to go to Asheville. Just trees destroyed. Just, it’s just hard to describe. And the whole situation on there is just a mess. Boiling water because nobody’s got drinking water. Electricity is out for a whole lot of people. Roads, bridges, washed away, impassable. Yes, some of those mountains slipped into the heart of the sea. The pastors told me stories about how some people, not only did they lose their house, but the land on which the house was set was washed away too. What happened? The mountains were slipping into the sea. The mountains were slipping into the waters. Be still? Are you kidding? My house is gone. My car is destroyed. All the food in my fridge and freezer is spoiled and gone. My house is going to have to be gutted. Be still. Be still. Be still. Why? It’s because of verses 7 and 11 and it gets referenced a couple other places too. Because God is with you. You can’t see it in the English translation, but the Hebrew translation book ends the verse with God. The Lord Almighty with us. Our fortress? The God of Jacob. In other words, the verse begins and ends with God. And where is God? He’s with you. He’s with you. And when will He be with you? In every single phase and minute of life. Whether it’s good times or challenging, whether it’s health or sickness, whether the checkbook has got a nice balance in it, or is bleeding red ink. With you. With you is the Lord Almighty. And most importantly, on that end of lifetime when we walk through the valley of the shadow of death, who will be with you? The Lord. The Almighty One. The God of Jacob. God is within her. She will not fall. And so you and I can be still. Amen?