The most wonderful word that can cross human lips is the name of GOD. It is said that when Jewish scribes wrote manuscripts of the Holy Scriptures, whenever the name of God had to be written, they were in the habit of cleaning their pens, and praying at the same time for a clean heart.
The writer once was addressing a women’s meeting. He asked his audience what was the most wonderful word that could be spoken. One woman answered “LOVE.” He replied it could not be “LOVE,” for where did love originate? The Source must be more wonderful than the supply. Another woman answered “MOTHER.” It could not be “MOTHER”. A good mother was the greatest earthly gift any man could have, but then again the Giver must be greater than the gift.
The reply surely was GOD. Everything that is good, either in the material world or the spiritual realm, comes from Him. We have nothing that He has not planned, originated and created. The word GOD is at once the most feared and the most blessed word human lips can breathe—the most feared, if we stand in wrong relations to God, the most blessed, if our relations with Him are right.
Where would our planet be, if it were in wrong relation to the centre of the system of which it plays a part, viz., the sun? The slightest lack of adjustment would mean in a moment the destruction, utter and irreparable, of our world in which we live. Let it continue in right adjustment then day and night, and summer and winter, seed time and harvest, heat and cold will not cease.
Man’s sin has put him out of true relation to God and therefore we live in a world of flux, of change, of decay, of death—a world sodden with tears and soaked in blood. Changes come that are catastrophic, bewildering, staggering, upsetting. It is no mere platitude to say in the words of Scripture that men’s hearts are failing them because of fear. It is a grim and dreadful reality. Fear is in most hearts today. It is common talk that the present war will annihilate civilization, and let loose terrible forces of disruption and utter disaster, the like of which the most vivid imagination cannot exaggerate.
There is one verse—Psalm 46:2—which gives us in very few words the most vivid and appalling picture of what will happen in the future, and that, we believe, at no distant date. “The earth removed … the mountains … carried into the midst of the sea.” The mountains are emblematic of stability, of strength, of immovability. The sea is restless. It cannot rest. Its waters cast up mire and dirt.
The sea can be terrible and remorseless when it is lashed to fury. When the sea swallows the mountains where can the terrified fly for safety? When the devouring waters sweep in their strength over the highest mountains where can escape be found?
This then is the striking imagery of Scripture setting forth the terror of the last days. The mountains set forth ordered authority, government, the power to control lawless men and movements. The sea sets forth uncontrolled masses of men, who rise against ordered government, who overturn all that is stable. The condition resulting from this will beggar description.
We ask now, Where can poor distracted man find help and safety? The answer is GOD. How does Psalm 46 begin, whose verse two we have just quoted. It begins with the word, GOD. “GOD is our Refuge and Strength, a very present help in trouble, therefore will we not fear, though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be cast into the midst of the sea.” This will be the confidence of the sorely tried remnant of Israel in a future day when circumstances will be sufficient to make the stoutest heart quail. GOD will be their Refuge. What angry wave of the sea can reach that Refuge? GOD will be their Strength. What power on earth or in hell can overwhelm that Strength? GOD will be their Strength.
“Therefore will we not fear”! What a magnificent declaration! What a testimony to the grace of God, able, not only to sustain, but to cause those who received it to be more than conquerors through Him who loved them.
We are living in very, very difficult days. The storms may roar, the waves may threaten, and they do, but the anchor will hold, “GOD is our Refuge and Strength.” Things may change overnight, the bottom of everything may seem to fall out, but “GOD is our Refuge and Strength.” Is this not sufficient? Is this not enough? Surely ten thousand times over it is.