Brown's Daily Word 4-6-09

Good Morning,
Praise the Lord for this Holy Week. Praise the Lord for Palm Sunday, when we commemorate the Triumphant Entry of our Lord into Jerusalem. He comes in triumph. He is in control. He is in charge. He still comes to us, to our churches, to our homes, and to our cities as the King of Peace. He comes in meekness and in majesty.
Binghamton became the focus of national and international media as we witnessed the massacre of 13 people by a gun man last Friday at the American Civic Association Building on Front Street. I have been to the building several times, and I had met both of the receptionists. Two years ago we were exploring the possibility of holding Sunita's wedding reception there, so I had met the director of the organization and toured the entire building. One of my brothers-in-law had worked with the gun man. It was a such senseless tragedy.
I spent Friday afternoon and evening in Binghamton, just being there in the midst tragedy and grief and I attended prayer service in the evening. I also attended the ecumenical prayer service, that was held at the West Middle High Auditorium last evening. The auditorium was filled with people of all ages. Over 1500 people attended the service. It was an amazing service. Psalm 121 was sung by a Rabbi in Hebrew. The hymn "Amazing Grace" was sung, accompanied by a gifted pianist. The service concluded with a candlelight procession as a flautist played "Amazing Grace". May Jesus be praised. May He continue to comfort those who mourn and grant them His amazing peace.
We read in Psalm 46, "God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.” What comforting words! They assure us that God is there for us whenever we are in need, whenever we are in trouble. Throughout the centuries, people have turned to the psalms for comfort. When we are troubled or worried, the psalms give us encouragement and reassurance to get on with the task of living our lives. Yet, occasionally we encounter a worry so deep or a grief so heavy that the solace we seek cannot be found, even in the words of Scripture. C. S. Lewis had been married only four years when his wife, Joy, died of cancer. The couple were very much in love and Joy’s death was almost too much for C. S. to bear. He plunged into a deep depression and did the only thing he knew to do: he wrote. During that time he filled up several journals, which were later compiled and published under the title, "A Grief Observed".
With the untimely death of his wife, C. S. Lewis’ unwavering faith was called into question. It seemed to him as though God had been present in his life until catastrophe struck. Soon after Joy’s death, Lewis wrote these words:
. . . Where is God? When you are happy, so happy that you have no sense of needing Him, so happy that you are tempted to feel His claims upon you as an interruption, if you remember yourself and turn to Him with gratitude and praise, you will be -- or so it feels -- welcomed with open arms. But to go to Him when your need is desperate, when all other help is vain, and what do you find? A door slammed in your face, and a sound of bolting and double bolting on the inside. After that, silence. You may as well turn away. The longer you wait, the more emphatic the silence will become. . . . What can this mean? Why is God so present a commander in our time of prosperity and so very absent a help in times of trouble?
(A Grief Observed, pp. 4-5)
These may sound like harsh words, but Lewis was in the deepest despair imaginable. He cried out for some reassurance that God was there, but the heard nothing -- only silence. Just when Lewis needed God most, he felt like God had abandoned him.
Psalm 46: 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.” These are the words of assurance. The Psalmist is saying that God is with us. We have nothing to fear. Even when our world seems to be crumbling down around us, God will be present to sustain us.
These words are reassuring when we feel the Divine presence strongly in our lives. We can take comfort in the fact that God will always be there for us, even in times of trouble. . The Psalmist has written, “The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge.” Why does the Psalmist mention the God of Jacob? And how is the God of Jacob our refuge? God promised Jacob protection and companionship. The promises made to Jacob have also been made to us. We have the promises of God made to Jacob, which is recorded in the 28th chapter of Genesis: “Know that I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land; for I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.” The Psalmist tells us that just as God promised to be with Jacob and to keep him wherever he went, God has also promised to be with us.
C. S. Lewis began to come out of his grief after his wife’s death, he wrote these words in his journal:
I have gradually been coming to feel that the door is no longer shut and bolted. Was it my own frantic need that slammed it in my face? The time when nothing at all in your soul except a cry for help may be just the time when God cant give it; you are like the drowning man who cant be helped because he clutches and grabs. Perhaps your own reiterated cries deafen you to the voice you hoped to hear.
(A Grief Observed, pp. 53-54)
Lewis is right, perhaps, that when we are fraught with anxiety or grief, our own inner voices are making so much noise that they drown God out. Or perhaps we cannot hear God because we don't recognize His voice. The Apostle Paul expressed this in the beloved Chapter 8 of Romans when he talked about nothing being able to separate us from the love of God no matter what – that nothing in all of creation, nothing past or present, principalities or powers will be able to separate us from God’s love.
Psalm 46: “God is in the midst of the city; it shall not be moved; God will help the city when the morning comes.” The morning will come and when it does, God will help the faithful. Psalm 46 ends with the words: “Be still and know that I am God!” “The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge.”
In Christ,
Brown
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sR8rlTIU8_Y