We have all been there and done that.  We have all been tested and tried—not necessarily as hard at the beginning or end but smack dab in the middle of it all.  We respond with either giving up and quitting the battle or we deal with it and merely endured it.  What is “it”?  Our daily skirmishes, small to large battles, living life in an imperfect world where the Enemy works overtime to distract us from God, deceive us about God, deconstruct our faith in God with the ultimate goal to disengage us from God so He can destroy our faith in God.  It seems it is the hardest right in the middle of the battle then our strength is weakening and our resolve is waning.  We grow faint and weary in the war with our Enemy until we realize the war has already been won!  These daily skirmishes are mere distractions the enemy uses so we will look at him and all he throws at us instead of looking up to our Almighty God who as said repeatedly, “You need only to be still, I will fight this battle for you”.  And God’s people respond; “Oh yes, I forgot—faith over fear wins every time!”

“Being still” has to be repeatedly explained in our world of hurry to complete our self-made lists of “to dos”.  We are obsessive at times with accomplishing what we think will make us feel better as we try to make our family and friends feel better, thinking we will make our world better. “It’s all up to us, or the world will come apart at the seams!” we think.  What a lie! That is the talk of the evil one who consistently whispers in our ear that we must push, pull, and drag our way into a world where others are doing the same thing.  We demand our own way so we can “have it all” because we “deserve it all”. (Yes, another lie!) If we are slow to doing what evil suggests then he increases the heat of battle with invading our thought life with how inadequate we are along with getting su to believe we are nothing of value in this world.  How sad when we fall for these repeated lies of evil.

But God says, “Be still and know that I AM God”. These wordscome from the very heart of God to David’s heart in a beautiful song of praise for God.  Be still in the language used in Psalm 46:10 translates to “let go”.  Let go of you and what you want. Be still long enough in my Presence, says God to stop thinking about all that is on your plate because of all that is on your mind and then you can concentrate on knowing who I really am. God desires a forever relationship with His beloved.  We who believe are His beloved, who are cherished, and loved without conditions!

But in the middle of the battle, do we remember who God is and who we are to God?

Psalm 60, The Message

For the director of music. To the tune of “The Lily of the Covenant.” A miktam of David. For teaching. When he fought Aram Naharaim and Aram Zobah, and when Joab returned and struck down twelve thousand Edomites in the Valley of Salt.

^1-2 God! you walked off and left us,
    kicked our defenses to bits
And stomped off angry.
    Come back. Oh please, come back!

You shook earth to the foundations,
    ripped open huge crevasses.
Heal the breaks! Everything’s
    coming apart at the seams.

^3-5 You made your people look doom in the face,
    then gave us cheap wine to drown our troubles.
Then you planted a flag to rally your people,
    an unfurled flag to look to for courage.
Now do something quickly, answer right now,
    so the one you love best is saved.

^6-8 That’s when God spoke in holy splendor,
    “Bursting with joy,
I make a present of Shechem,
    I hand out Succoth Valley as a gift.
Gilead’s in my pocket,
    to say nothing of Manasseh.
Ephraim’s my hard hat,
    Judah my hammer;
Moab’s a scrub bucket,
    I mop the floor with Moab,
Spit on Edom,
    rain fireworks all over Philistia.”

^9-10 Who will take me to the thick of the fight?
    Who’ll show me the road to Edom?
You aren’t giving up on us, are you, God?
    refusing to go out with our troops?

^11-12 Give us help for the hard task;
    human help is worthless.
In God we’ll do our very best;
    he’ll flatten the opposition for good.

WHAT DO WE LEARN—HOW DO WE RESPOND?

BACKGROUND:  The plural pronouns indicate that David was speaking to the Lord for the Israelites who felt themselves abandoned by God in the middle of the battle against unbelieving nations.

In the middle of the battle who is conquering who? 

Being a man of faith, David didn’t give up but rallied God’s people around the Lord’s banner (v. 4). When the enemy is close to conquering; we read throughout His word, how God sends “cheerleaders” and “coaches” to His people to teach them to remember that God is as One who keeps His promises.  Israel’s God is Jehovah-nissi—which means “the LORD is my banner” (see Exodus 17:15).

David knew that Israel was God’s own people, His beloved people (the name “David” means “beloved”) who feared Him, and that God had covenanted to give them success against their enemies (2 Samuel 7:9–11). In David’s heart, faith was conquering fear.

“Be still and know that I am God” is the best response to have and to hold for when we read the rest of Psalm 46, we are taught that God also says, “I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.” David, man after the heart of God then adds in Psalm 46:11, “The Lord Almighty is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress.”  The battle with evil, our real Enemy, belongs to the Lord. And He will settle it in victory once and for all! —And he did!

Jesus is the reason we live today with faith over fear for He is Life!  Be the one who is God’s blessing to someone today with Truth.

“The one who blesses others is abundantly blessed; those who help others are helped.” Proverbs 11:25, MSG

Lord,

Thank you for your words of wisdom with reminders once again of who you are with who we are in You.  Cleanse our hearts and remove all that does not belong there. Deliver us from evil in our battles with evil.  Renew our minds with your higher thoughts of Truth. Refresh our souls with your new tender, fresh mercies. Restore the joy and peace of your salvation at work within us as we grow our intimate, loving relationship with you.  To You be all glory, honor, and praise! Forever and ever, Amen!

In Jesus Name, Amen