Dr. Ron Sumners
February 8, 2009
A children’s book, which is probably more meaningful to adults than children, has the descriptive title, Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day. It tells of a day in the life of a boy, no more than 7 or 8, who has one of those days where nothing goes right. It all began when he woke up in the morning.
“I went to sleep with gum in my mouth and now there’s gum in my hair and when I got out of bed this morning I tripped on the skateboard and by mistake I dropped my sweater in the sink while the water was running and I could tell that it was going to be a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day.”
After a terrible day at school, a horrible visit with the dentist, and a no good stop at the shoe store, Alexander slumped into his chair at the supper table. A boy should be safe there, but he wasn’t. His terrible, horrible day continued. Alexander complained.
“There was lima beans for dinner and I hate limas. There was kissing on TV and I hate kissing. My bath was too hot, I got soap in my eyes, my marble went down the drain, and I had to wear my railroad pajamas. When I went to bed Nick took back the pillow he said I could keep and the Mickey Mouse night-light burned out and I bit my tongue. The cat wants to sleep with Anthony, not with me. It has been a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day.”
Throughout the story, Alexander had a solution for all his problems. “I think I’ll move to Australia!” Can you identify with Alexander? Did you have a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day last week?
Frustrations and trials are a part of life. Try as you might, you can’t avoid having a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day once in a while. But when you have a week or even a month of them, you may be overcome with stress. A certain amount of stress is good, but an overload can harm you emotionally, physically, and even spiritually.
Some of you may feel that you are nearing stress overload right now. You have job stress, traffic stress, family stress, financial stress, illness stress, and we all have Internal Revenue stress.
Being a Christian doesn’t exempt us from stress, so we must learn to deal with it. Alexander wanted to escape his bad day by running away to a different country. Maybe some of you would like to run away too!
Before you buy your plane ticket, let me warn you, stress is in other countries as well. Alexander’s mom was wise. She said, “Some days are like that. Even in Australia.”
If running away isn’t the answer, what is? Consider Psalm 46. It gives a realistic outlook as well as some practical help.
You could make a long list of things that cause you stress. The Psalmist could have as well, but he chose to mention only two: natural disasters and national disasters.
First, he noted the great stress natural disasters can cause. Verse 2 seems to describe an earthquake and a volcanic eruption. “Therefore, we will not fear, even though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea.”
When I read that verse, I am reminded of Mount Vesuvius on the southwestern coast of Italy, which erupted in 79 A.D. The ash went in one direction, covering the city of Pompeii in ash, 25 feet deep. Boiling mud erupted in another direction, encasing the city of Herculaneum in mud, 60 feet deep.
The mountain had originally been 10,000 feet high. After the eruption, it was 6,000 feet high. It literally blew its top. The mountain was “carried into the sea”, creating an entirely new shoreline.
Verse 3 describes a storm at sea. “Though its waters roar and be troubled, though the mountains shake with its swelling. Selah” I think of the Nor’easters that sweep across the Great Lakes and cause much damage. Or I am reminded of the hurricanes that form in the Atlantic Ocean and boil into the coastal United States.
Perhaps the Psalmist had experienced such natural disasters. He used them as metaphors for the stress that comes into our lives.
The second thing is national disasters.
The background of Psalm 46 is believed to be the invasion of Sennacherib, King of Assyria, during the reign of Hezekiah (2 Kings 18:13-19:37). The Assyrian army had defeated all the fortified cities of Judah. Finally, they came to Jerusalem.
This was certainly a national disaster. Verses 4-6 describe Jerusalem being besieged by the Assyrians, but protected by God.
A siege was an ancient warfare tactic. An enemy army surrounded a walled city and simply waited. Often, they built a siege mound, which was a wall of rock and dirt piled up all the way around a city. No supplies could be brought in, no one could go out. The enemy simply waited for the people inside to either surrender or starve to death.
Jeremiah 19:9 tells how severe things could become inside a city under siege. “And I will cause them to eat the flesh of their sons and the flesh of their daughters, and everyone shall eat the flesh of his friend in the siege and in the desperation with which their enemies and those who seek their lives shall drive them to despair.”
Hezekiah and the people of Judah certainly understood the meaning of national disaster at the time this Psalm was written. Though invaders do not threaten us, we too could make a list of problems in our nation that tighten the screws of stress on us.
Our Psalm was written by one who had made it through the natural and national disasters. General Sennacherib and the Assyrian army were gone, and he praised God for the victory.
The praise is given in three stanzas, each ending with the word “Selah” (vv. 3, 7, 11). The word means, “to pause and lift up.” Perhaps it was a musical instruction. More likely, it was a call to pause and meditate on what had just been said. Something like saying, “Now what do you think about that?”
Stanza one is verses 1-3 and tells us that stressed people need a refuge. A refuge is a shelter to go to for safety. In ancient days they thought of a fortified, walled city. During the “cold war” people might have thought of a bomb shelter. In the South, we might think of a storm shelter against the threat of tornadoes. Most of you here today are more concerned with a tax shelter than you are a physical shelter.
The good news is that “God is our refuge.” He is our place of shelter and safety. All believers can enjoy this confidence. He is a personal refuge for each of us when the stress of life becomes overwhelming.
He is a present refuge. “A very present help in times of trouble” (v.1). The word “trouble” means, “to be restricted, to be tied up in a narrow, cramped place.” We could paraphrase this part of the verse to read, “God is our instant help when we are in a tight squeeze.” Aren’t you glad that God isn’t somewhere else when you are stressed? He is a very present help!
He is a pacifying refuge. “Therefore, we will not fear . . .” (vv. 2-3). His presence, strength, and safety calm our fears, even when there are natural disasters. Do you panic when a storm threatens?
I’m not saying that we shouldn’t be concerned or take proper precautions. I am saying that as you prepare, don’t panic. God is with you. You have no need to fear.
Are you facing some stressful situation? If that is true; you need a refuge. God is your personal, present and pacifying refuge.
Stanza 2 tells us that stressed people need a river. (v. 4-6)
One of the most precious commodities when a city was under siege was a steady supply of fresh water. Without it there was no hope for survival. That’s why verse 4 says, “There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God.”
Even though Hezekiah trusted in the Lord, he prepared for a siege. In fact, he constructed what is known as “Hezekiah’s Tunnel.” A tunnel was cut through granite to carry water from the spring of Gihon, outside the city wall, into the pool of Siloam inside the wall. The spring was then capped so the enemy would not know that it was there. The tunnel is 1777 feet long and was cut by hand.
The people were glad because of the river, but they had hope of deliverance because God was with them. Now get the picture. The people knew Assyria was coming. The city was locked up tight, prepared for a siege. Sennacherib’s chief of staff was the first to arrive. He stood outside the city wall and shouted to the people, “Give up. You don’t have a chance. Don’t let Hezekiah lead you to expect help from your God! Did the gods of any other nations protect them from us? Of course, not and neither will yours. Surrender now and we will confiscate your property and send you into captivity, but at least you will be alive.”
The elders reported the message to Hezekiah. The King tore his clothes and went to the Temple to pray. God sent a word to him by the prophet Isaiah.
“Do not be afraid of the words which you have heard, with which the servants to the King of Assyria have blasphemed Me. Surely, I will send a spirit upon him, and he shall hear a rumor and return to his own land; and I will cause him to fall by the sword in his own land” (2 Kings 19:6-7).
The enemy said, “It’s hopeless.” God said, “Don’t be afraid.” Who were they to believe: the enemy on the outside, or God on the inside?
Sound familiar? Are you facing a problem that seems far bigger than you can handle? You have STRESS as never before. Human reason says, “Panic, Run!” Faith says, “Trust in the Lord.”
That’s what Hezekiah did. Which will you do? Trust or fear?
In times of stress you need a refuge and you need a river. Through faith in Jesus Christ and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, you have a river!
In the Bible, God the Father sets before us a fountain of living water. God identified Himself as “the fountain of living waters” in Jeremiah 2:13.
Jesus said to the Samaritan woman at the well, “Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I give will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life” (John 4:13-14).
The Holy Spirit is set before us as a river of living water. Jesus said, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water. But this He spoke concerning the Spirit, whom those believing in Him would receive.” (John 7:37-39).
We have a refuge and a river, for God is with us.
Stanza 3 tells us that stressed people need a rescuer. (Vv. 8-11).
The city of Jerusalem in Hezekiah’s day certainly needed a refuge, river and rescuer. God said, “Do not fear. Sennacherib will hear a rumor and go away.” And that is exactly what happened.
Sennacherib heard that the King of Ethiopia was coming to attack him. As he was leaving, he sent a letter of warning to Hezekiah, “Don’t be fooled into thinking your God is protecting you. My departure is only temporary. I’ll be back.”
He was true to his word and soon he returned with 185,000 troops. What chance did Jerusalem have? Humanly speaking, none. But God had promised that they would be delivered. 2 Kings 19:32-34 tells us: “Therefore, thus says the Lord concerning the king of Assyria: ‘He shall not come into the city, nor shoot an arrow there, nor come before it with shield, nor build a siege mound against it. By the way that he came, by the same he shall return; and he shall not come into the city,’ says the Lord. ‘For I will defend this city, to save it for My own sake and for My servant David’s sake.’”
One night the angel of the Lord went through the camp and killed 185,000 soldiers. When the king got up the next morning, he discovered he was the commander of a camp of corpses.
With that in mind, listen to verses 8-11 of our Psalm. “Come, behold the works of the Lord, Who has made desolation in the earth. He makes wars cease to the end of the earth; He breaks the bow and cuts the spear in two; He burns the chariot in the 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 refuge. Selah!”
The “hosts” are the millions of angels in God’s army. Just one of them took out the entire Assyrian army in one night. The text says that the God of “hosts” is with us. What more could we want? Do you really believe that you will face a problem that God cannot defeat?
God is with you in your kitchen. . . with you in rush-hour traffic. . . with you on the job as you struggle with the tedious details and perhaps a horrible boss. . . with you in your family problems. . . with you in your lonely hours. . . with you despite your faults and failures. . . with you!
God is our refuge, our river, and our rescuer! Selah! What do you think about that?
Do you know the Savior? He gives victory to the stressed. He promises to be with you and protect you, not from but in every terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day!
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