“Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth” (Psalm 46:10).
Two prospectors entered into a remote stretch of desert in search for gold. As they traveled, they carefully noted every landmark, such as a tree or gully, because to be lost could mean certain death. One night a great storm drove them into a cave, and from there they watched the lightning flash. Soon the rain began to pour, until it became one of those desert gushers which leaves everything in a state of turmoil. Lightning felled trees, and boulders were split asunder. Flood waters gushed across the desert ripping up cacti and completely changing the terrain.
One of the prospectors cried out in panic, “All the landmarks are swept away and we are lost.” But the other man calmly said, “Wait! Soon the storm clouds will be gone, and we will see the sky.” Sure enough, the clouds rolled back and when the two old prospectors saw the stars, they found their bearings.
The prospectors have faded into history, but the panic that the one felt when the landmarks were swept away is still in the hearts of many people today. People see the landscape of humanity destroyed and are quick to panic. As the prospectors had to wait and look up, so, my friend, the solution to your concern lies in the “upward look.”
Two things give me a peace amidst the storms of life‑‑one is to look at the stars in the heavens, realizing that the God who placed them above, eons of years ago, is just the same today. Then it speaks peace to my heart to remember the ruins of ancient civilizations, realizing that the problems confronting me are not here to stay. They are merely part of the challenge of life, and they, like the civilizations of the past, are not with me forever. Some way the ruins of bygone days tell me, “Relax, what you are worrying about just is not worth it.”
It is the upward look that gives us our bearings when the circumstances of life are in a state of chaos. First, there is the anchor of a loving God who never changes. God speaks to my heart as He did to the heart of the Psalmist, and His message is just the same. He says, “Be still and know that I am God.” To the prophet Habakkuk God said, “The Lord is in His holy temple; let all the earth keep still before Him.” Those words speak to our hearts today amidst the thunder and roar of life. “Be still‑‑be quiet,” says God, “and discover that I AM.”
So often, we are so busy with our nose to the trail of a better position or a little more money, that we never discover the presence of God. I am thinking of a businessman who lay dying in the intensive care unit of a hospital. I was called to his bedside in the early hours of the morning. Since I had never met the man, I turned to relatives standing outside the room to inquire of the man’s condition and the circumstances of his life.
One of the relatives made a telling statement. She said, “He’s a good man, but he never learned how to live because he was so busy making a living.” That man never regained consciousness; he died as a wealthy man, but he died poverty‑ stricken in his soul. With all his getting, he never got the peace that comes through a personal knowledge of Jesus Christ. Jesus said, “What shall it profit a man if he shall gain the whole world but lose his soul, or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?” (Matthew 16:26).
When the circumstances are grave, lift your eyes off the mud to the stars above and hear God say, “Be still and know that I am God” (Psalm 46:10).
Resource reading: Psalm 46.
