“Though the mountains be shaken and the hills be removed…
Heavenly Father, we live in a vulnerable world as a vulnerable people. Nothing really seems to be steady and stable; fewer things last long enough to become vintage. The environment and weather patterns are predictably unpredictable—even as you affirm in this Scripture. Floods wreak havoc in one area, droughts in the next.
World news is increasingly bad news; health crises abound and financial pressures mount; church messes and messy relationships seem to be the new norm, not the painful exception. BUT… there is one magnificent exclusion—one glorious heart-centering, peace-generating exception.
yet my unfailing love for you will not be shaken
Father, thank you that there is one thing we can absolutely count on—one reality beyond all shaking and shifting; all atrophy and aging, all diminishment and decay, all failure and forfeiture, all violation and termination… and that is your inexhaustible, irrepressible love for us in Jesus. We praise, bless, and adore you for the gospel of your grace.
nor my covenant of peace be removed,”
Once and for all, you made your peace with us through the finished work of Jesus. We can rest in your sovereign rule and perfect peace, even as we wrestle with many other things. The New Covenant is the lavish and lasting covenant. You have hidden our lives in the Prince of Peace—the ruler of the kings of the earth and the lord of political conventions, the bottler of our tears and the number-er of our days. We will not fear; we will not despair; we will not be shaken.
says the Lord, who has compassion on you.
Father, thank you for maintaining a constant disposition of compassion towards us—not one of annoyance, impatience, or “when-will-they-get-it-ness.” When things are shaky and shaking, you are in control and you love us; and that is enough. So very Amen we pray, with peace and gratitude, in Jesus’ name.