GOD: OUR PRESENT HELP - Understanding The God Of The Three Tenses (Past, Present & Future) While Affirming The Present Tense And Now God
I was in devotion this morning when I heard, "God, a present help..." I knew its in the Psalms. However, with it came the remembrance of a hymn we have sang for years. It was only its first stanza that came and appealed to me but I'll sure post all for your encouragement.
Lyrics - O God Our Help In Ages Past
1. O God, our help in ages past,
Our hope for years to come,
Our shelter from the stormy blast,
And our eternal home.
2. Within the shadow of thy throne,
Still may we dwell secure.
Sufficient is thine arm alone,
And our defense is sure.
3. Before the hills in order stood,
Or earth received her frame,
From everlasting thou art God,
To endless years the same.
4. O God, our help in ages past,
Our hope for years to come,
Be thou our guide while life shall last
And our eternal home".
This hymn is not ordinary and was not ordinary when it was written or ministered to me. Not that I was gagged or pressed on all sides at the time of receiving but I perceived the Lord gave it to me this morning (as I was doing my own thing) just to encourage many whose hands will find it so.
"O God, our help in ages past" forever brings to my consciousness that David says, "moreover, The LORD that delivered me out of the paw of the lion, and out of the paw of the bear, he will deliver me out of the hand of this Philistine" (I Sam. 17:37, KJV).
Can you come to a place in life where when new serial challenges confront you, your default reply would be, "moreover, The LORD that delivered me out of the paw of the lion, and out of the paw of the bear, he will (yet) deliver me out of the hand of this Philistine?" If you're yet not here, it's either you don't know God at all, knows Him but intentionally denies Him (so He might not receive the glory) or you're simply an ingrate. Then, you need an entrance into understanding.
David being confronted with Goliath seems to be assuring King Saul and the entire army to be at rest because, "He has known a God of last year who's as well the God of this year and who of course will be God of years to come". It doesn't matter what day or what year we're in. That God shall be God over all of them. He's the God of the seasons and times of our lives. The Psalmist knows this and so he confesses in full trust of God and His act, saying, "my times are in God's hands" (Psalm 31:15). Is yours in His hands? Is your yesterday, today and tomorrow reputed to be His to administer and see to? Are you sure of that? Are you born again for it to be His to administer?
The Lord our help in ages past is not only our help in the yesteryears that has passed. That hymn also says, "our hope for years to come". It tells me something. God takes thought for us. He has gone ahead us to put plans in place. He doesn't want us to suffer and so like a child, He bore and delivered us yesterday. But this His work of delivering us (which He did yesterday) did not end there, it extends to the today we are in and the tomorrow we shall be in.
On this note, God is fit to be called, "our very present help in trouble". Many people have cried and He heard them. He's not only a God whose usefulness strides the yesteryears we've experienced and left; the tomorrow and future we anticipate which we have not seen but that same God qualifies as "our very present help in trouble". That is, "our help today and for today". Hallelujah!
Psalms 46:1, says, "God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble". What do you think that mean? A refuge is a stronghold - a place you run to and into for safety. Simply put, it is a fort or a safety house. God is a refuge. It means, God is your shelter. In Him, no harm can and will come to you. In Him, your security is assured even if you're in a tattered war zone where arrows in stray bullets fly around to harm and pestilence contagiously ruins. Remember, God is all in all your keeper (from it all). If God is your refuge then, it means you can't be shaken, scared and put to flight. Do you know why? A refuge is a place, thing or person that's impregnable. You can't take, capture or defeat it. It always stands tall, still and ever remaining to continue in existence. Refuge is not only security, it is secured itself! Since it can't be shivered, shifted or moved therefore, (and you're in such refuge which is God), it consequently means you won't be moved, removed, relocated or put to flight at the sight of fear and upturning (Psalm 46:2-3). Look, you've become the planting of the Lord therefore. Who will root you up?
But, He's also your strength. God is reputed to supply strength to the weary and give strength to the faint (Isa. 40:29, 31). Those'll be made up of the depressed and downtrodden by Satan, people, national economy and life's events etc. Irrespective of your status which has resulted in lack of strength (joy), God is saying, "I am your strength". Wherever you have lost ability and have been dsyfunctioned, God is saying, "I take interest. It's in such lowliness and weakness I do reveal my strength for your perfection". It means your enabler over life and its events is God. People, God is a strengthener indeed. If you've found strength when you were discouraged, tired and confused before (even at just a simple call on God), you'll know that though God is invisible yet He's interested in human affairs and lives up to all His names (called Him) and revelations (that explains Him). He is not called, "refuge, strength or present help in trouble" in vain. All these reveal God's characteristics. His very essence; tangibility; the smoke he smokes and the fire he can fire. Strength is to pact you together. That's why what lacks strength is what always falls off, away and scatters. Strength is what holds things together. Strength can be invisible yet it will welds you together to keep holding in the face of challenges. Strength will ensure you still hold together and believe (in continuance) when situation that could cause the natural man to end or run away occurs. It is strength which is God's nature impacted to you that makes you trivializes what crushes others. When you're strengthened, you'll suddenly arrive at faith and have faith in the face of fierce turbulence. Let me affirm that with a passage. Just read and see.
Genesis 49:23-24, KJV
"23 The archers have sorely grieved him, and shot at him, and hated him: 24 But his bow abode in strength, and the arms of his hands were made strong by the hands of the mighty God of Jacob; (from thence is the shepherd, the stone of Israel:).
How many of you read that place? Did you read how, "Joseph's bow abode in strength and how the arms of his hands were made strong by the hands of the mighty God of Jacob?" They were butchering him but he was not butchered. They want him to give way and succumb to all they're doing to him but he excels them in strength by giving off the opposite of their intention. May your bow today abide in strength. May you always say, "what could Satan, men or situations do to me? I shall remain unafraid" (Psalm 118:6, 56:11). What do robbers do? They break doors. Imagine five people hitting, beating and clubbing a door (with the intention of pulling it down and gaining entrance through it) but which to their amazement and refusal, the door abides in strength. Strength when impacted to you will make you stand without eroding, melted or ever intimidated. You'll be pact and compacted together. You'll just be and remain like a surrounded city that cannot be taken. I'm hearing, "like the hills surrounds Jerusalem", so are you! Yes, so have you become (Psalm 125:1-2).
But more importantly, Psalm 46 says, "God is our present help in trouble". Good! Very good! If you're in trouble, don't be embarassed. Being in trouble (though the kind might differ) is uniform to all humans that still breathe. None of us is spared of one trouble or the other. That includes all ministers of God or vessels God do use to evacuate problems in people's lives. That includes me. I have my trouble and will still have my troubles (that's not a curse) but in all, "God is said to be our/my very present help in trouble".
"...very present help in trouble" means, "rapid response squad; as soon as possible help or deliveries". All of us know how America is portrayed (even in movies). As a country that gives present help to her citizens in trouble. A house ablaze would promptly receive the service of fire fighters and things would be salvaged. A kidnapped citizen by terrorists would immediately receive a commanded troop of operational combat soldiers to quickly rescue her and she'll be rescued. And as such, they praise America. They're not negligent. They're always available. They could be reached. You could call them and they'll pick your call (on time). If you dial their number when it's happening, in that emergency, you can trust their availability and rescue mission. However, let's ask, could America's impeccable services (though not always surviving) tangles God's? So, when the Word of God establishes the fact that, "God is our present help in trouble", it means He's always "at hand". It means, "He's our standby". It means He's constant, sure, reliable and dependable. If you're in trouble at midnight, night, dawn, morning, noon, midday afternoon, evening, summer, winter, dry, rainy seasons etc and you'll acknowledge Him, He'll always come riding on the wings of the cloud to bring you out. Summarily, God doesn't forsake individuals in their trouble and forsaken condition. He spared Joseph in the dry well, collected him from there and set his feet on the road to destiny. He saved Daniel in/from the lion's den and the Hebrew boys even in/from literal fire. In all conditions, He has not failed and will not fail being our present help in trouble. He sounds and answers for us always.
This idea of, "we run 24 Hours Service" and could be reached is God's idea, identity and life but which was made man's reality in order for us to have an immediate answer and responses to/for all human endeavours of concern. That is what becomes the action of the health sector for which they have helicopters for critical emergencies in order to have a speedy means and edge of saving endangered ruptured lives. If you've been to Lagos, Nigeria before; you'll see the heart of a Government that doesn't want a single life to be lost even when they fall victims of road accidents. On that note, the Government built a facility (a Quick Response Emergency Hospital) by the express road to collect injured victims of road accidents, salvage and put them in the zone of life until total and proper treatment could further be given them. They even have emergency numbers and a transport system that works. You see, all these human innovations are derivations, deductions and acts garnered from the reality of who God is and what He does. That's why America would be stupid to kick God out. The resemblance of anything that works in their system comes from the perfect nature of God that their early founders deducted and took after. If they're now collapsing the stones on which they've been raised, I wonder how long they'll last and how far they could go protecting against things falling apart, the centre not holding and anarchy not reigning?
God is our very present help in trouble. He's not only the God of years past or of ages to come. He's our very present help in trouble - the today God, the now care and deliverance giver. That "very" means He's the immediate deliverer, healer, minder, comforter, encourager, enlarger, strengthener, insurer, inspirer, helper, advocate, intercessor, provider, shield, cover and anything that may be your own need in trouble.
"In trouble" means at the time of need. You see, all of us will have our darkest moments but the unshakeable reliable truth is that in it, God is our immediate present help. He will deliver us and none of our bones shall be known to have been broken. He'll rescue you and the hurt of the fire will not be seen on you. He'll cleanse you and your flesh shall be reputed to have come alive like that of a newborn from all dieseases (that is having passed through the fire and the waters (but which He disallowed from consuming and overflowing you). What a salvation! What a deliverance! What a rescue and what a Rescuer!
Hmmmm! I give Him kudos! I sound the alarm to celebrate Him. I give an offering just to adore Him. I prostrate fall at His feet! He's overwhelming. One man testifies that, 'He [God] sent from above, he [God] took me; he [God] drew me out of many waters" ( 2 Samuel 22:17, Psalms 18:16).
That's the type of salvation God is reputed for and for which I'm teaching on His behalf. As soon as people calls or as soon as He notices them there, there's a prompt that soonest. He always come to rescue them out of their many waters. That reminds me of how a water once took me away in my dream and how at the invoking of the name of Jesus, I was brought back. God is with you! Ever with you! Presently with you! Immediately present with you! Very close to you! Always moving things for you, meeting your needs and ploughing ahead for your sake. You may not see Him but He's present and active. He's interested in you (and what you're passing through). He is your very, now and immediate present help in trouble.
On this note, may He hears you and be for you! If God be for you, who can be...?
Olusola ADEJUMO,
M'Wings.
Morning Wings Ministry, Nigeria.
+234 81 3704 6812
morningwingministry@gmail.com
15/08/2023
