Thank you to Mark R for this week’s MWB
Henri Nouwen tells the story of his visit to a circus in Paris, and an encounter with the trapeze artists called “The flying Rodleighs”.
He was invited to one of their practice sessions and ended up speaking to the leader of the troupe.
When asked how they performed their amazing flying skills, the leader replied:
“As a flyer, I must have complete trust in my catcher. You and the public might think that I am the great star of the trapeze, but the real star is Joe, my catcher. He has to be there for me with split second precision and grab me out of the air as I come to him…the flyer does nothing and the catcher everything…the flyer has to trust, with outstretched arms, that the catcher will be there for him!”
I remember sharing this story with my mother when she was dying, and I think it summarises the essence of the Psalm we’re looking at today, Psalm 46.
The opening verse of this Psalm says this:
“God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble.
Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with their surging.”
Psalms 46:1-3
Whatever situation we may be facing today, we can remind ourselves from God’s Word that He is “an ever present help in trouble”. Even if the mountains were to collapse He is there to catch us when we fall. Like the flyer in the trapeze troupe, all we have to do is let go and trust ourselves to Him as “our catcher”
Perhaps some of the best known words of the Psalms come at the end of Psalm 46:10,11:
“Be still, and know that I am God”
“The Lord Almighty is with us,
The God of Jacob is our fortress “