When Life Shakes you Up

When Life Shakes You Up

Text:Psalm 46

ByJoel Gregory, professor of preaching at Truett Seminary and author of Too Great A TemptationIntroduction

Seismic times shake us all. Internationally and personally we live in a quak-ing world. So did the psalmist. In his public life as a leader and his private life as a person, events shook him. This psalm that gave Luther A Mighty Fortresssuggests how not to get shook up when your world shakes down. IWhen your world shakes down, God is your refuge.The Psalmist watches as the ground cracks open under his feet, the hills totter over into the sea, and the sea eats the dry land. It is the ultimate catastrophe. Yet in the middle of it, he finds God as a mighty rock tower, a refuge that is acces-sible in time of trouble. IIWhen your world shakes down, God is your resource.There is a river! (v.4). Suddenly in the midst of a crumbling outer and inner world, the psalmist is alongside a quiet river. Whether the river’s in Eden or the river that waters the New Jerusalem, God’s river reflects His resources for life. Jesus spoke of an ultimate resource, an inner river that flows from the deepest wellsprings of life (John 7:38).IIIWhen your world shakes down, you can rest.God speaks for the first time in verse 10; “be still.” Literally, let your hands hang down. We throw our hands up, wring out hands and proclaim that the situation is out of hand. With God’s refuge and resource, we can relax.