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Singing Psalm 46 you have who you need

magnificent sky over ocean

How do you know if you have who you need? We come hardwired to attach ourselves to someone but who?


Families, friends, and marriage give us clues. They, and our seeking after them, point us to the one who created us for himself and is all in to make us holy and blameless before him. Because he is committed to completing the good work he began in you, you have who you need.


The Lord prefaced each one of the 10 Commandments with, “I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.” It is only when you perceive what you have been brought out of that you know you have who you need.


The master metal worker knows that the gold is pure the moment he can see his reflection in it and immediately cuts the fire lest the gold be destroyed. Once he has made you pure, he will not hold you under the fire a second longer. He is that attentive to you.


“Therefore thus says the Lord GOD: Because you have forgotten me and cast me behind your back, you yourself must bear the consequences of your lewdness and whoring.” ~ Ezekiel 23:35


Understanding that these are the consequences Jesus bore and saved us from makes reading Ezekiel a cause for great joy and gratitude. You read Ezekiel keeping Christ and the redemption he bought for you in mind:


“For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps. He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth. When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly. He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed. For you were straying like sheep, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.” ~ 1 Peter 2:21-25


“Know I am God.” ~ Psalm 46:10


You continually have the Giver who provides the gifts you need every time you need one. He gives gifts the way your autonomic nervous system keeps your heart beating and your breath flowing without your being conscious of how they are working. We are utterly unconscious of so many of God‘s gifts. Taking a pause to inventory your gifts is one thing you can do to motivate yourself to get to know who it is that so generously supplies them.


“When Jesus had spoken these words, he lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, “Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you, since you have given him authority over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him. And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.” ~ John 17:1-3


Singing Psalm 46 you have who you need today


“And God raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.” ~ Ephesians 2:6


Every moment of today your mind can sit still with the Lord in the heavenly realms and bring calm to your body moving through a world full of distress. If there’s one lesson I would have liked to have learned as a young person, this would be it.


“For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.” ~ Ephesians 6:12


You have who you need today. You just might not know him yet as you could.


So Jesus proclaimed, as he taught in the temple, “You know me, and you know where I come from. But I have not come of my own accord. He who sent me is true, and him you do not know. I know him, for I come from him, and he sent me.” ~ John 7:28-29


Once you know him, you know you don’t have to look for anyone else. Finding your place in relationships can sometimes feel like navigating your vehicle in traffic. You’re trying not to bump the cars in front of you while feeling like you’re in the way of the cars beside and behind you. The spiritual forces of evil seem especially alive on the road. Yet you are safe in your place with the Lord since he chose you for that place that he prepared for you before the foundation of the world with the greatest of care. He isn’t about to allow you to be boxed out of it.


Even more wonderful than that is the synchrony with which he places his adopted children so that none are in the way. Each one belongs. We work together using the gifts God gave us for the building of his kingdom to the glory of his grace. Watching and participating in this will be even more beautiful than synchronized dancers in water. You might feel beautiful when you express yourself using your individual gifts. You stand in awe exalting the director when your sonata is perfectly timed and sequenced to be a part of God’s orchestral suite, his sanctified church.


“God is our refuge and our strength,

    A present help in our distress.” ~ Psalm 46:1


When today you hear bad news or are under great distress, do what Martin Luther did. Sing Psalm 46. As you reflect on what you are singing you find that the Lord seeks you. Does he know your heart? Not just because he knows all things but because you are open and vulnerable with him? Does he know you? He created you to honestly and openly share your deepest desires, fears, and most intimate thoughts and emotions with him. He gave you his word to learn of Jesus and walk humbly with him acknowledging your sins and your need for a Savior and Lord over your life.


    ”As for you, O LORD, you will not restrain

        your mercy from me;

    your steadfast love and your faithfulness will

        ever preserve me! 

    For evils have encompassed me

        beyond number;

    my iniquities have overtaken me,

        and I cannot see;

    they are more than the hairs of my head;

        my heart fails me.

    “Be pleased, O LORD, to deliver me!

        O LORD, make haste to help me!” ~ Psalm 40:11-13


How does the Lord know you? Does he determine who you are by your handsome/pretty features or your height?


But the LORD said to Samuel, “Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For the LORD sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the LORD looks on the heart.” ~ 1 Samuel 16:7


You have who you need though he’s unseen. The unseen one sees you.


What might intensely crying out to the Lord for help look like today while your heart is under great distress?


Imagine you had a thickly padded room where you could fling yourself against the walls as you cry out to God to mortify your sin. You are grieved over your heart that so easily strays from the Lord in thought and in practice. But you eventually realize that Jesus took every blow that you deserve without any padding in order to pay the penalty for our sins. Therefore you stop coveting the padded room. Instead you never stop looking for ways to honor the one who suffered for you in every way to redeem you, who is powerful enough to save you and give you peace. You never stop asking, seeking, and knocking for him to help you, trusting him to save you knowing you can’t save yourself.


“Thus says the LORD: ‘Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches, but let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands, and knows me, that I am the LORD, who practices, steadfast, love, justice, and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight, declares the Lord.’“ ~ Jeremiah 9:23-24


O Lord, let us know you, know you are there for us, that you are right there, whether or not we feel that you are there. Please expose deceiving feelings for what they are. Following errant feelings leads us to distort the things you give us rather than accept them as good from your hand. Please help us to be thankful to you, the great Giver of all good gifts. Though he is perfect, the Lord Jesus suffered for us so that we would be made perfect.


Singing Psalm 46 you have who you need tomorrow


Those who were fraught with worry can be calm and still. You have who you need to combat all of your fears for tomorrow. The Lord is patient in the process of making you holy and blameless.


“We will not therefore be afraid

    Though all the earth should be removed,

Though mountains great be hurled

    Into the ocean’s depths,

Those seas may roar and foam

    And billows shake the shore,

Though mountains tremble at their pow’r. Selah” ~ Psalm 46:2-3


Selah…a patient pause


Billows, like hurricanes and tornadoes, combine with and multiply the movement of air and mist in such a way that seems ethereal, and not nearly as powerful as oceans or mountains, yet both the shore and mountains shake and tremble before them. They also seem to appear out of nowhere, do their thing, and then leave without a trace.


As you sing Psalm 46 with the breath God has given you, you have ample opportunity to stop and think about the things you see that you tend to view as more real than the things you can’t see. 


You can’t see the mitochondria nor the cells within which they reside in your body, and yet all your energy is sourced from them.


You cannot see the one who made you. Yet he is the source of your very life and breath, more real than anything you can see.


All scripture is God-breathed like billows that shake the shore and make mountains tremble. That’s the power that God’s word contains. That Word who became flesh navigated the sea that he created with ease. He walked on it like it was nothing while his disciples were called to be patient through their fear. All power in heaven and on earth has been given to Jesus by the Father. Yet, combined with an equal measure of his care, the disciples were not afraid to take him into the boat, but glad. Jesus then became their instantaneous transport ticket to their destination to Capernaum and ultimately to the Father. He is so for all who trust him. He secures our arrival to our final destination in the blink of an eye.


Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you had known me, you would have known my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him.” ~ John 14:6-7


Satan, the unrepentant deceiver, was pretty bold to take and twist God’s very words to paint a picture that portrayed God to Adam and Eve in such a way that they would not know God. This subsequently led them to hide in fear in hopes that God would not know them.


How gracious and glorious that God, in Christ, washes away that brazen move along with the bold ways that we have taken and twisted what the Lord has given. His rainbow covenant sign to Noah promising to never destroy the earth again by flood is now used to signify not remorse but pride in straying from God’s commands. We have invented ways of distorting the marriage covenant as God instituted it.


We sever and confuse relationships between human beings, male and female, whom he made in his image to be one with him. We exhaust ourselves attempting to manufacture an identity rather than embrace the only true identity that God gives to us. Jesus came to restore a people who would turn to God in trust like Jacob, never again to turn away after lies.


“A river brings refreshing streams

    To cheer the city of our God,

The Most High’s holy dwelling place.

    God is in her; she won’t be moved;

At dawn will God help her.

    The nation’s rage; realms quake;

He lifts His voice; earth melts.” ~ Psalm 46:4-6


A side benefit of knowing God and letting him know you truly is that you come to know yourself. You begin to fathom that you are who God says you are and not what you do for work, what you feel, or what other people think you are.


“But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith—that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.” ~ Philippians 3:7-11


Over time, you learn to be still on the inside and trust God to get you where you need to go. You have who you need as you learn like Jacob did that He is the Lord over your life who cares for you. That trust in God’s care for you is your righteousness!


    “The LORD of hosts with us!

Our fortress strong is Jacob’s God. Selah” ~ Psalm 46:7


Nations rage. Realms quake. Earth melts.


“Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.“ ~ Romans 5:1-5


Selah…a peaceful pause


“And God raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.” ~ Ephesians 2:6


Every moment of tomorrow your mind can sit still with the Lord in the heavenly realms and bring calm to your body moving through a world full of distress.


Be still!


Those opposing God will be still before him in terror while his people are calm and still.


“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’ ~ Matthew 7:21-23


“I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep. And I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd. For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from my Father.” ~ John 10:14-18


The Lord puts an end to wars by winning them. Your eyes are on him alone. He protects you from the crossfire as your strong fortress and in so doing, he combats all your fears. How glorious that he changes anxious,  impulsive hearts with or without our aid to bring about a pause that stops abortions from happening. Even more glorious will be those abortions that were not stopped, how the Lord will raise those children up to rule over those, now repentant, who had murdered them before birth and who would now love them and appreciate them. Since this we can imagine, the reality will be even more glorious than that. What God does without our aid is more wonderful than anything we could ask or imagine. Words or human effort can’t do it justice. 


The body they may kill.

    God’s truth abideth still. 

His kingdom is forever.” ~ Martin Luther


The Samaritan woman who had come to the well to draw water, instead had a conversation with Jesus who was resting there. When Jesus put an end to the unrest within her, she left her jar and beckoned the townspeople to come and see what the Lord has done. He brings desolations to our sinful state of affairs. He isolates us from our sins, setting us free from them. We become whole in Christ while our sins are destroyed.


“O come, see what the LORD has done:

    He desolations brought on earth;

On earth He puts an end to wars,

    Breaks bow and spear,

        And chariots burns.” ~ Psalm 46:8-9


Singing Psalm 46 you have who you need forever


“For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.“ ~ John 6:40


Picture you are in a boat that is anchored firmly but rests on troubled waters. This is how you can feel moved and yet not be moved at the same time. Jesus is your anchor in a world full of trouble. Singing Psalm 46, you make it your aim to know him and to make certain that he knows you.


My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world. And by this we know that we have come to know him, if we keep his commandments. Whoever says “I know him” but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him, but whoever keeps his word, in him truly the love of God is perfected. By this we may know that we are in him: whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked. ~ 1 John 2:1-6


When you suffer, you are sharing in the suffering of Jesus. Your allegiance to him in your suffering is a point of connection in your friendship with him. This is surpassed only by your overflowing gratitude and joy that the repentant deceiver’s God would not only die to save you from but also to himself in order that you would get to live with him forever in glory!


“My God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus.“ ~ Philippians 4:19


The greatest need I have and the greatest need you have is to know that Jesus will always be with you and will never leave you. We weren’t created to go it alone. Yet that is what our society rewards. Jesus supplies himself to meet our greatest need but how many of us deeply perceive how much we need him right here with us? The prince of this world has hidden our greatest need from right before our very eyes.


Jacob finally noticed:


“Then let us arise and go up to Bethel, so that I may make there an altar to the God who answers me in the day of my distress and has been with me wherever I have gone.” ~ Genesis 35:3


Without Jesus with us, we alternate between ever escalating anxiety and ever deepening depression. When you trace back to the origin of this temptation, it’s simply forgetting that God is with you. The source of knowing that you have who you need is the One who prompts you to remember that Jesus is with you all day, every day. Singing the psalms readies your mind for such prompts from the Holy Spirit.


“And God raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.” ~ Ephesians 2:6


Every moment your mind can sit still with the Lord in the heavenly realms and bring calm to your body moving through a world full of distress into the new world of peace forever.


When you pray for the Lord to be with someone, it’s not a meaningless, trite, throwaway prayer. It’s everything. The greatest prayer you can pray for those you love is that the Lord would be with them and that they would know it—that they would know Him and that He would know them.


”If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!” ~ Luke 11:13


Jesus tells us to come to him and learn of him for he is gentle and lowly in heart. Yet how often have we refused to come to him in our pride?


Please, Lord Jesus, help your people to come to you. Heavenly Father, please give us your Holy Spirit. Be with us, Lord. We wait for you expectantly to give us the greatest gift: yourself. We await abundant, rich eternal life with you.


Praise the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit that what he has left you with is this: without a doubt, God will never, ever leave you.


”It is the LORD who goes before you. He will be with you; he will not leave you or forsake you. Do not fear or be dismayed.” ~ Deuteronomy 31:8


God will never, ever stop caring for you.


    “When you pass through the waters, I will be with you…And behold, I am with you always...” ~ Isaiah 43:2; Matthew 28:20


No difficulty can separate you from his love.


Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have, for he has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” So we can confidently say, 

    “The Lord is my helper;

        I will not fear;

    what can man do to me?” ~ Hebrews 13:5-6


No person can hinder you from God’s help. No past sin can hinder you from praising God for the culmination of his glorious grace in blessing us with redemption in Christ. “The LORD of hosts with us!” We are reconciled with our God and wait expectantly for his present help in our distress.


“And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.” ~ John 17:3


“…when God works for us, the goal of his work is to fit us for enjoying God himself. That’s what the Physician does — not like any earthly physician. This heavenly Physician is trying to get our disease healed that makes us find substitutes for God so that in our wellness, we will see him, know him, love him, be satisfied in him. God himself is the all-satisfying treasure.” ~ John Piper


Do you know who it is that you have at your disposal, that, wonder of wonders, you have who you need? When you do, you find that you also know and accept yourself as one made in God's image, and more importantly, you find that you can’t know enough of the God who knows you.


“Be still! Know I am God.

    Exalted o’er all men,

Exalted o’er all earth.

    The LORD of hosts with us!

Our fortress strong is Jacob’s God. Selah” ~ Psalm 46:10-11


Selah…a pregnant pause



April 13, 2022 - October 31, 2024


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