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`A very present help in trouble' (Psa. 46:1).
Most readers could provide examples from their own personal
experience of the attitude so often adopted by people of `letting
things slide'. While no danger seems imminent these people
give the superficial appearance of an enviable sang froid, but in
many cases these are the very people who show the greatest
evidence of fear when the crisis breaks. One can find many
examples today which illustrate the parable of the wise and
foolish virgins. And so we come to another blessed aspect of
the teaching of Scripture concerning our `refuge'.
`God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in
trouble' (Psa. 46:1).
However fully the Government may have provided for the
people, all such provision is rendered useless if it is not available
when wanted.
Steel shelters, guaranteed to withstand
concussion, to protect from flying splinters, and to resist falling
masonry, are so much mockery in a day of calamity, if they have
never been erected. Respirators, proved by test to provide
adequate protection against poison gas, are so much lumber if
they are not at hand when wanted. And so we read that God is
not only our refuge, but He is `a very present help in trouble'
(Psa. 46:1). There is no actual reference here to the `presence'
of God, although, of course, it is implied. This majestic A.V.
translation was not altered in the R.V. advisedly, but the reader
should know that the words translated `A very present help' are
literally `A much found help'. This same word, when used of
the wicked in Psalm 37:36, is translated `could not be found'.