Today is the remembrance of the 9/11/01 attacks in New York and DC, and the crashing of Flight 93 in Pennsylvania. Not only were so many lives lost, but on that day the United States was awakened to the reality of terrorism. Surely, we were aware of terrorism around the world, and up to that point we had a few home-grown terrorists, but on 9/11 we came face to face with our own vulnerability to outside terrorism. No longer were the oceans on our east and west borders able to keep us safe.
We are vulnerable. The word means susceptible, weak, exposed, helpless, defenseless. And when we are any one of those things, we are often fearful. Being at the mercy of others can easily give birth to fear.
Whenever I remember 9/11, I hear the words of Psalm 46: “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.” [v1-3 NIV]
The psalmist long before 9/11 painted a picture with words of what we saw. The mountainous buildings falling, the dust clouds looking like waters roaring and foaming over everything and everyone, the earth shaking. But the psalmist also included that little word “therefore.” We do see all the devastation and we are reminded of our vulnerability, but we must always view that considering the “therefore.” Because “God is our refuse and strength,” because He is our “ever-present help in trouble,” therefore, “we will not fear.”
The psalmist ended with a gentle reminder, “The LORD Almighty is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress” – even as the mountains tumble around us. [v11 NIV]