Psalm 46 fills us with a sense of awe; one cannot avoid concluding it is a prophecy that has its ultimate application to the climax of the era in which we live, an age when God is ignored and is thought not to exist. We live in a time when people are saying, as Peter put, “all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation” (3:4) – a time when they deliberately ignore the records of God’s actions in the past, discounting them as fiction.

Our Psalm tells us, “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear though the earth gives way, though the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam, though the mountains tremble … The nations rage, the kingdoms totter; he utters his voice, the earth melts. The LORD of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress.” (verses 1-3,6,7).

Those blessed of the LORD to live in that time will be told, “Come, behold the works of the LORD, how he has brought desolations on the earth” (verse 8). Then the wonderful news, “He makes wars cease to the end of the earth” (verse 9). This vision concludes by saying, “‘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”. Imagine how urgently we are going to seek shelter in that fortress as, in some sense “the earth gives way”! Our LORD and Saviour will truly be, more than ever “our refuge and strength” at that time.

And the final chapter of the Gospel of Matthew concludes with the words of our Lord, “behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age”. Let us believe, with all our heart, the word that God has written and preserved.