FRIDAY, AUGUST 17
Psalm 46:1-11
Proverbs 1:27-28

“Give unto the LORD the glory
due unto his name …”

LUTHER’S FORTRESS PSALM

This Psalm instructs us to find shelter and protection in God, our instant help, should disaster come suddenly upon us. This reminder is much needed when we are living in peace and prosperity, and we seem to have lost touch with Him. Those who seldom pray may not know how or what to pray when calamity strikes. Read what Solomon says in Proverbs 1:27-28.

The Psalmist, perhaps from experience, mentions first of all the natural disasters (earthquake, tidal wave, flood, storm and tempest). There was the earthquake in the time of King Uzziah recorded in Amos 1:1. Surely every Israelite knew of the Flood of Noah and more vividly the crossing of the Red Sea. They lived in a land affected also by thunder and tempests (Ps 29). Have you experienced flood or typhoon or other forms of natural disasters?

The Psalmist then reminds us of the ravages of war, which had raged across the land of Israel from generation to generation. Those of us who had gone through the terrors of World War II know vividly what war is like. How the atrocities of war are prolonged by a see-saw battle of human wickedness and vengeance! It is God who can bring a war to an end, so that when armistice is arrived at by warring nations, God is to be acknowledged the Divine Arbitrator. The United Nations is totally helpless to bring warring nations or even warring factions in a nation to the Peace Conference Table.

What occurs in the physical realms takes place also in the religious. Martin Luther found shelter in this Psalm. He says, “We sing this Psalm to the praise of God, because God is with us, and powerfully and miraculously preserves and defends his church and his word, against all fanatical spirits, against the gates of hell, against the implacable hatred of the devil, and against all the assaults of the world, the flesh and sin.” Luther would call Melancthon to sing the hymn he composed out of Psalm 46: If God is our refuge and fortress, the river is the Son of God, the fountain of salvation.

THOUGHT: (Read Zechariah 13:1.)
PRAYER: May I truly appreciate Thy power over all, O Lord!