March 21/Fourth Tuesday of Lent
God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.
Therefore we will not fear, though the earth should change,
Though the mountains shake in the heart of the sea;
Though its waters roar and foam, though the mountains tremble with its tumult. ~ Ps 46.1-3
Sometimes the expressions and sentiments of the psalms seem to come to us from a distant, unreachable time – verses about “the cords of Sheol [that] entangled me” (Psalm 18.5) or this query from Psalm 108: “Who will bring me to the fortified city?/Who will lead me to Edom?” And then there are other verses, like today’s ineffably comforting ones from Psalm 46, that could have been written yesterday. For our world, like the psalmist’s, feels engulfed in tumult. International tensions in Europe and Asia, a shifting climate, economic uncertainty and even panic, and social and political unease populate the news, while in our personal lives we may be dealing with individual turmoil, whether it is a frayed relationship, work pressures, economic anxiety, or health concerns. It does feel, at times, that the mountains are shaking in the heart of the sea, that the sea’s waters are roaring and foaming, that the mountains (usually thought of as places of safety) are truly trembling with the tumult. The psalmist conveys the churn and boil with a vivid verbal onomatopoeia, yéhému and yékḥəməru in the Hebrew, that underscores those feelings of engulfment. But as we thrash about to keep our heads above water, we have an anchor, and that anchor is God. In his opening assurances that God will shelter and protect us, the singer of Psalm 46 assembles a chain of sturdy nouns to make his point: God is our refuge, our strength, a very present help (the Hebrew adverb is emphatic, leaving no doubt). Are there more reassuring words we could hear in this time of unsettling change and re-alignment? Let us hang onto that anchor with all our might, trusting that in God we will find the peace and safety we seek.
O God our Anchor, Be in our midst, we pray, and quiet the tumult of life’s wild, restless sea. Amen.
To hear the Choir of King’s College, Cambridge, sing Martin Luther’s “A Mighty Fortress Is Our God,” click here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T0132OxXRdA
For today’s readings, click here: https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/032123.cfm
