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2007-08-21 issue:

Lessons from Psalm 46

How can we keep from singing?

by Gayle Gerber Koontz

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The music of the Psalms has spoken to many over the centuries in the midst of uncertainty, confusion, transition and change. Psalm 46 (a later Zion Psalm) is a hymn that combines song, faith and prayer, and it had a place in public worship.

Psalm 46, like other psalms, refers to the forces of chaos and disorder (often represented by the pounding waters, here also by the shaking of the earth) and reaffirms that Yahweh reigns. This psalm is spoken to those who fear their enemies may attack Jerusalem, the city of God, and asserts that human confidence is grounded in God, whose cosmic rule is known and celebrated in Zion-Jerusalem.

Through the city runs a marvelous river, welling up from subterranean depths. God is in the midst of the river, signifying the psalmist’s faith that God is with the people; therefore people may trust that, even when threatened by conflict and catastrophe, divine help will come with the break of dawn.

The psalm praises Yahweh, who reigns over the nations and the cosmos. Disorder in the world seems to challenge the rule of God: economic or military powers out of control, environmental or nuclear catastrophe, disease, untimely deaths, demonically complex bureaucracies, betrayals of trust. The psalmist sings that God the Creator rules over meaningless disorder and chaos. As the poet puts it in Psalm 93: “Mightier than the thunder of great waters, / Mighty on high is Yahweh.” The tumult is in vain.

How do the psalmists speak to us? What kind of spiritual guidance do they offer?

“Yield and acknowledge that I am God.” As far as we are concerned, we don’t know what decisions are best. We may not see clearly into the future. We may get our priorities wrong. We may use the wrong educational or development strategies. We do not fully know what God is doing and what it means for us to be faithful as North American Mennonites now.
Don’t be anxious, Yahweh says. Yield. Acknowledge that I am God. I am working my purposes out. The direction of your ship is not yours alone to determine. For the wind of my Spirit blows.

“Be still and know” is not a summons to quiet meditation or a momentary spiritual pause. The Hebrew imperative indicates a strong meaning of “desist,” “give in” or, “let be”—like, shut up. Cease and desist. Admit God is in ultimate control of human history. In faith we assent, “God the Creator reigns; God’s rule stands firm.” We do not reign; we cling to the Rock, against which the pounding waters break. As Christians we trust that through Jesus Christ God speaks the divine word “above all earthly powers.” Love is lord of heaven and earth. “Be quiet. Acknowledge that I am God.” The future is in the hands of the Most High. We do not control the outcome. “Be quiet. Relax. Yield.” Gelassenheit.

Come, think of Yahweh’s marvels. Look beyond immediate anxieties and preoccupations and, like the psalmist, contemplate the awesome things Yahweh has done. The psalmist thought about God’s protecting Zion from military attack. Seen under the aspect of God’s rule, nations who suppose their military power is decisive are foolish. Think, the psalmist reminds his people, of what God has done in Israel’s history.

Remembering Yahweh’s marvels—God’s power—throughout biblical and church history can keep our creativity alive; it does not permit us to get into a spiral of discouragement as we face the future. Look, the psalmist reminds us, at where God has transformed and is transforming things.

Israel’s faith is that in spite of current appearances God reigns. That God’s rule is coming more fully was transposed into the “good news in Jesus’ preaching” (Mark 1:15). God reigns and is creating “a new heaven and a new earth.”

A faith that nothing can subvert God’s purposes gives us courage to make judgments and take action when the outcomes of these actions are not crystal clear. And remembering God’s astounding power as we see it through the lens of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus renews our hope.

We have a much longer past and a broader story than the psalmist had. What astounding things has God done since the second temple period, when Psalm 46 was written? With Israel? With Jesus the Messiah? With the Christian church after the death and resurrection of Jesus? In our Mennonite history?

Appropriating the Psalms: What are the specific changes, elements of disorder or reorder, the potential chaos that presses most urgently on you in your life and work? What is the “sound of the sea,” “the roaring of the waters,” “the trembling of the mountains” for you? What are the specific marvels God has done that you have witnessed?

The psalmist who wrote Psalm 46 and those who have sung and read and prayed these psalms over the centuries, call us to sing with them. If Love is lord of heaven and earth, how can we keep from singing?

Gayle Gerber Koontz teaches theology and ethics at Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary, Elkhart, Ind.

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