From: Caitlin Lubinski
He is. He will. He has.
“Therefore we will not fear, even though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea.” (verse 2)
Inevitably, the geography of our life—the things we have subconsciously come to count on as immovable—will move. Our mountains will be carried into our seas. But in our confusion and disorientation, God reminds us of an unaltered geography, the city of God, where we will one day live. He reminds us that even though we can’t live in that immovable home yet, we have full access to him and his immovability now.
One of the ways I think God tells us this, is through the Psalmist’s many tense shifts. At first I couldn’t figure out why the Psalm kept moving between past, present and future verb tenses, but then I realized that maybe he was revealing God’s sovereignty over and apart from time.
Verse 1 (present tense): “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.”
Verse 5: God is (present tense) in the midst of her, she shall not be moved (future); God shall help (future tense) her, just at the break of dawn.”
Verse 6 (past tense): The nations raged, the kingdoms were moved; he uttered His voice, the earth melted.
The Lord acts in the past, present and future. He is unbound by time and geography. When our mountains fall into our seas, the God of permanence comes to us in our world of impermanence.
I live on the North Shore with my husband and two children.