Psalm 46:8-11(ESV) declares, “Come, behold the works of the Lord, how he has brought desolations on the earth. He makes wars cease to the end of the earth; he breaks the bow and shatters the spear; he burns the chariots with fire. ‘Be still, and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth!’ The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress.”
These verses alone show the power of God and how mighty He is. If you would go back to the beginning of this Psalm in your Bible, you will see that it lets the reader know that God is our refuge, our help and our protection, and we can go to Him when we need Him.
However, when it gets down to the eighth verse, we are clearly shown that God is so powerful that He can rebuke disobedience and unbelief in ways that can bring us down to our knees. He goes on to let us know that He will be exalted.
In other words, God will be recognized above all else, honored, praised, and uplifted, no matter what! This psalm was written during a time of trouble and war, so God was letting the people know what they had to do in order for Him “to spring into action” on their behalf.
That brings me to my point in this message. Look at this “war” that we are going through right now: the Coronavirus! No man has the power to stop it. Only God can do that. The sad part about this is that even with our going through such a world disaster, there are still those who are not paying attention to what’s going on. In spite of this horrific “war” that we are up against, there is still hate, arrogance, selfishness, racism, greed, disobedience, disrespect and the list grows on. There are those who still cannot fathom that God is tired of the wicked and evil nature of this world.
Don’t misunderstand me; there is a lot of goodness going on, and God is pleased with that. However, God is tired of the disobedience and willful sin! Those who continue to refuse to heed His warnings will perish. When He said “Be still,” He wants us to stop, listen and worship Him, not rest and relax. The Lord did not say, “I want to be exalted;” He said, “I will be exalted!” That is a command, not a wish! God is waiting on the world to do His will and follow Him completely in our daily living.
Not only did God say that He will be exalted, but He also said, “For it is written, As I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God” (Romans 14:11 KJV).
The Lord is telling us within this chapter of Romans that we are no better than our brothers, we should not judge them, and we will one day have to give an account of ourselves. We will bow down and worship Him! God will heal our land in this devastation that is plaguing the world right now, but we must do our part by Him.
If this pandemic hasn’t shown us that we are living in perilous times and that God is on His way back, then some of us are “fast asleep.” The Lord is mighty and powerful and to be feared.
I received this illustration on Facebook from a friend who is formerly from Walterboro, and now lives in New York, where this virus has taken a monumental toll. It sums up much of what I am trying to say in this week’s message. Read, ponder, and share, please. It will show that God’s Word must be spread and that He will be exalted!
“In three short months, just like He did with the plagues of Egypt, God has taken away everything we worship. God said, ‘You want to worship athletes; I will shut down the stadiums. You want to worship musicians; I will shut down civic centers. You want to worship actors; I will shut down theaters. You want to worship money; I will shut down the economy and collapse the stock market. You don’t want to go to church and worship Me; I will make it where you can’t go to church.’
