Psalm 46: A reading for Remembrance and Lockdown 2020
1 God is our refuge and strength,
a very present help in trouble.
2 Therefore we will not fear, though the earth should change,
though the mountains shake in the heart of the sea;
3 though its waters roar and foam,
though the mountains tremble with its tumult.
4 There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God,
the holy habitation of the Most High.
5 God is in the midst of the city; it shall not be moved;
God will help it when the morning dawns.
6 The nations are in an uproar, the kingdoms totter;
he utters his voice, the earth melts.
7 The Lord of hosts is with us;
the God of Jacob is our refuge.
8 Come, behold the works of the Lord;
see what desolations he has brought on the earth.
9 He makes wars cease to the end of the earth;
he breaks the bow, and shatters the spear;
he burns the shields with fire.
10 ‘Be still, and know that I am God!
I am exalted among the nations,
I am exalted in the earth.’
11 The Lord of hosts is with us;
the God of Jacob is our refuge.
At this time we remember the men and women who have left the community of Brentor, some never to return, to serve in the armed forces to defend our freedoms and to protect and help others – men and women like Robert Arthur French-Smith, a son of the first vicar of the enlarged parish of Brentor. Arthur’s journey to the Western Front in France was via Canada as he had emigrated there in about 1911. Like many men in the Commonwealth he volunteered to return in the defence of his home country. He was awarded the Military Medal for bravery, but was killed on 8th June 1917, three days after his 33rd birthday. Though serving in a Canadian regiment he is fittingly remembered on the War Memorial of the village where he was born and where he grew up. See the excellent Brentor Village website, and particularly this page.
As I was beginning to prepare for our Remembrance Day Service at Brentor (now cancelled due to lockdown – although we still held the Act of Remembrance), a friend, with another matter in mind, reminded me of the often quoted words from Psalm 46: Be still, and know that I am God! As I read the rest of the Psalm it struck me as a very appropriate reading as we remember these men and women. They lived in tumultuous times when the nations were in uproar and kingdoms were tottering. I am sure that they did not welcome war and longed, like we do today, that wars will cease to the end of the earth and that the paraphernalia of war will be destroyed – and, to quote another Bible passage, that they shall beat their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into pruning-hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more (Isaiah 2:4).
It is right that we remember with pride, give thanks for and pray for these men and women and those who continue to serve us today in our armed forces. But as we do that we, as they surely did, long and pray for peace.
However, this year, in addition to their normal and worldwide duties, many in our armed forces have been deployed in the fight against the COVID-19 virus. To quote one website: British military personnel are continuing their key role in the country’s response to the coronavirus pandemic. The Prime Minister … confirmed that British Army personnel are involved in the rollout of “rapid turnaround” COVID-19 tests, while announcing a new lockdown in England. That has been followed by the creation of a “Winter Support Force”, made up of 7,500 military personnel, to help authorities deal with COVID-19 in the coming months. During the peak of the military’s response, 20,000 troops were at readiness as part of the COVID Support Force, with more than 4,000 of them deployed at any one time. Two thousand military personnel are being deployed to Liverpool to support a pilot of mass coronavirus testing in the city … A major focus of the military’s work has been on assisting the NHS … helping to set up many of the Nightingale Hospitals. In this they continue to have our gratitude and our prayers, as they will do when a few of us gather at the village War Memorial at 10.55am on Remembrance Sunday to remember!
Psalm 46 is also a reading apt for this present time as we face a war of a different kind and need to discover light in the darkness; to know that help will come; and to be reassured that we will come through these difficult days: God is our refuge and strength, a very present (or well proved) help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth should change, though the mountains shake in the heart of the sea; though its waters roar and foam, though the mountains tremble with its tumult … God is in the midst of the city; it shall not be moved; God will help it when the morning dawns … Be still, and know that I am God!
Tony Vigars
Our God, our help in ages past,
Our hope for years to come,
Our shelter from the stormy blast,
And our eternal home.
Beneath the shadow of Thy throne
Still may we dwell secure;
Sufficient is Thine arm alone,
And our defence is sure.
Before the hills in order stood,
Or earth received her frame,
From everlasting Thou art God,
To endless years the same.
A thousand ages in Thy sight
Are like an evening gone;
Short as the watch that ends the night
Before the rising sun.
Time, like an ever rolling stream,
Bears all its sons away;
They fly, forgotten, as a dream
Dies at the opening day.
Our God, our help in ages past,
Our hope for years to come,
Be Thou our guard while troubles last,
And our eternal home.