(Psalm 125:1)
What is the secret of remaining calm under stress? How do they do it, those who appear to be unaffected under trial, unmoved by tempest, or unbroken during tragedy?
It isn't a secret, really. It's a security. It's a confidence in the eternal God of Scripture:
"They that trust in the LORD shall be as Mount Zion, which cannot be removed, but remaineth forever." (Psalm 125:1)
Despite the threats of foes physical and spiritual, the child of God "cannot be removed." As a member of God's family, he lives in an eternally-established city, one well-fortified, one which protects us all through life and even through death (see Psalm 48).
The New Testament speaks of the Church as the present Mount Zion (see Hebrews 12:22-24, for example). More secure than the Hebrew city where the people lived under the Old Covenant, the heavenly Jerusalem is the dwelling place of the people of Christ.
Christian, draw strength from these truths. The Bible says you dwell in a fortified city atop the foundation of Mount Zion. Though you pitch your earthly tent in the wilderness, the Bible says you live in a city with firm foundations, whose builder and maker is God (Hebrews 11:10). Your faithful and covenant-keeping God loves you, the apple of his eye, claims you for his own, and delights to be your God (Hebrews 11:16).
Several incidents from everyday life illustrate your security. You were delivered from sin and its destruction, rescued from miry clay, and planted upon a rock (Psalm 40:2-3). You will be safe despite the instability and snares of sin.
You will be safe in the storms of life. You are built upon the rock, not the sand. When the winds blow and floods come, the Bible says you will not tilt, sink, and collapse (Luke 6:46-49).
You will be safe during the quakes and tremors of disaster which so often cause shifting, shaking, and even removing. You will not be overthrown or destroyed. You need not fear the myths of chance, bad luck, losing odds, or misfortune. Your Savior doesn't place bets. He rules the future (Isaiah 46:10).
You will also be safe when under attack. You will not be defeated, captured, or deported. Christ proclaims liberty even to the captive (Isaiah 61:1-4).
This security is not promised to everyone. It is only for "they that trust in the LORD," those who have taken seriously the warnings, threats, and promises of the Bible and have come to the Lord Jesus Christ in repentance by faith, depending upon God's everlasting love and sovereign grace for forgiveness of sin and restoration of soul. These alone can rest in confidence in the eternal plan, purpose, and power of the Almighty on their behalf.
This does not encourage license to disobey and sin. Those who go astray after wickedness, our Psalm says, can neither claim nor expect God's blessing but, rather, judgment and bondage.
This also doesn't mean the Christian will never experience bewilderment, heartache, or terror. None of us can see through the dark clouds surrounding our God's throne. We often are forced to admit we can only see dimly.
But this is meant to calm our fears and give us reassurance on our daily walk. As one of our Scottish fathers once declared, "I may tremble on the Rock, but the Rock beneath me does not tremble!"
May this reality -- that is, the certainty of these truths -- be your underlying bedrock in an under-mined world. With these facts in mind and heart, despite the tremors of this temporary world about us or our faltering courage, in the words of the secular jingle, "Don't get shook!"
Copyright 1997, 2003 Roger D. Adams
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