Psalm 46:1 God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.
Very Present Help
The difference between the help that God can be in your life and the help that anyone else can be is not how much God can help you, but how God can help you. There is no doubt that God is omnipotent and no one else you know is, but it’s not just that. The Bible says in Psalm 46:1, “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.” So, He’s a help in trouble, but He’s a present help. All the help in the world does you no good if it’s only theoretical, distant, or not available, but our God is a present help and He’s a very present help.
Now God is not “your little helper.” God’s help requires His presence because what God wishes to do is not to help you accomplish what you have in mind, but to accomplish through you what He has in mind. He wants to say what He would say through you. He wants to think what He would think through you. He wants to do what He would do through you. Those things that He wishes are impossible apart from His own power to do what He wishes to do.
In Psalm 46 the obvious truth is that God is not just our all-powerful help, He is our all-present help in time of trouble. You find that throughout this psalm. Verse 7 says, “The LORD of hosts is with us.” Verse 11 says, “The LORD of hosts is with us.” Verse 5 is even more interesting because it says, “God is in the midst of her [His people]; she shall not be moved: God shall help her, and that right early.”
How is God present? He is present “in the midst;” that means here. And He is present “early;” that means now. This encompasses both time and space. I’m thankful that God was, but I’m even more thankful that God is. Psalm 44:1 says, “We have heard with our ears, O God, our fathers have told us, what work thou didst in their days, in time of old.” Thank God for what He did, but the past should not convince us that God won’t, but that God can. God is not diminished in His power or in His care for us.
There are a lot of things that are very present that do not comfort me. If you have a smart phone, more is known of you than you probably realize. The world seems to be very present with us, and yet that is not comforting because that is not of help. The One Who is help is the One Who is God. He knows you. He made you. And He is not just a help. He is a present help. And He is not just a present help, but a very present help in trouble.