A Very Present Help

Sometimes our Prayers Feel Like a Message in a Bottle.

Imagine being in a desperate situation and calling out for help but having no confidence that anyone is able to hear your call.

Sometimes our prayers feel like a message in a bottle: we make a passionate plea for help, but we have no idea if the message will ever reach anyone, and even then, how can we be sure the person who picks up the bottle will care about our situation or be able to do anything to help?

Mercifully, prayer is not like this. God hears. And he cares. And he is able. Read through Psalm 46 to gain assurance of each of these truths.

Our God is a refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. The wording is interesting. What does it mean that he is VERY present?

“Very” is an intensifier, but we don’t usually intensify the word “present.” You’re either there or you’re not. But the Psalmist does not want us to undervalue God’s presence: He is VERY PRESENT when we are in trouble.

Read through the rest of the Psalm.

Everything in the world around you can fall apart, but God is there. And he is all that matters. When the world is crumbling all around—even if it literally crumbles but certainly if it does so metaphorically—we don’t need to be worried.

The end of the Psalm has given comfort to God’s people for thousands of years: Be still and know that he is God.

As long as we are desperately fighting to rectify our situation, we may miss the unmistakable reality that God is right there with us.

But if we can pause in prayer and be mindful of his presence, then we will know the only thing that matters: he is God.

God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.

Therefore, will not we fear, though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea;

Though the waters thereof roar and be troubled, though the mountains shake with the swelling thereof. Selah.

There is a river, the streams whereof shall make glad the city of God, the holy place of the tabernacles of the most High.

God is in the midst of her; she shall not be moved: God shall help her, and that right early.

The heathen raged, the kingdoms were moved: he uttered his voice, the earth melted.

The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge. Selah.

Come, behold the works of the Lord, what desolations he hath made in the earth. He maketh wars to cease unto the end of the earth; he breaketh the bow, and cutteth the spear in sunder; he burneth the chariot in the fire.

Be still and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth.

The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge. Selah.
Psalm 46:1-11 KJV