Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - Withstanding the Waves | The Writings | Psalm 93

Episode Date: August 14, 2024

Do you have faith that can withstand the waves of life? Do you have peace in the midst of chaos? Are you a non-anxious presence for those around you? In today's episode, Jensen shares how Psalm 93 reminds us that behind our chaotic lives is a God who is in control. Read the Bible with us in 2024! This year, we’re tackling a group of Old Testament books traditionally known as “The Writings”— Psalms, Chronicles, Proverbs, Daniel, Ruth and more! Download your reading plan now. Your support makes TMBT possible. Ten Minute Bible Talks is a crowd-funded project. Join the TMBTeam to reach more people with the Bible. Give now. Like this content? Make sure to leave us a rating and share it so that others can find it, too. Use #asktmbt to connect with us, ask questions, and suggest topics. We'd love to hear from you! To learn more, visit our website and follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter @TenMinuteBibleTalks. Don't forget to subscribe to the TMBT Newsletter here. Passages: Psalm 93

Welcome to 10-minute Bible Talks, where we connect the Bible to your life. And the time it takes to get to work. I'm Jensen Holt McNair. Have you ever been in a wave pool before? The giant swimming pool that gets deeper and deeper on a gradual slope as you go in. It's usually out of six flags or your favorite water park of choice. It's always filled with about a million humans. Now, some of those humans are on inner tubes.

Some are just risking everything and fighting for their lives. because every five minutes or so, the pool, it comes alive and chaos ensues. If you've been in one, you know, the waves start rolling in one at a time, bigger and bigger. If you're lucky enough to be on an inner tube, you're basically on a roller coaster, floating up and down, having a blast. But if you're unfortunate enough to actually be in the water, let me tell you, it's absolute madness. You are kicking, rocking up and down, taking breaths, trying not to go under, all the while, dodging a million inner tubes enthroned with carefree riders, threatening to crash into you,

left and right, and take you under for good. Truly, madness. Now, the people who run the wave pools, they know, they know just how disorienting and wild it can get. So every few minutes, the waves will calm down and they give everyone a chance to catch their breath or get the heck out of that pool and never come back. Now, my feelings about wave pools are clearly negative. I'd much prefer to be in a calm, mostly uninhabited infinity pool by the beach. Call me crazy, but the calm, still serenity is unmatched. Wave pools, they can't compare. There is no peace, only the feeling of being tossed around out of control in a turbulent environment fighting for your life. That's the experience of a wave pool. But I think for many of us, we find ourselves feeling

and experiencing all of those same things in our lives. Just take a second or a few, and answer, honestly, when you look around at your environment, does it look like a calm and affinity pool by the beach? Or is it chaotic, packed, hurried, and turbulent? Do you often find yourself at peace, rested, stable, or frantic, anxious, fighting for your life, never in control. Now zoom out a little from your individual environment and think about the world as a whole, the geopolitical stage, news headlines, and major events. What's it looking like to you? If you're connected at all to the internet, then you have access to a constant stream of chaos. Wars, natural disasters, terrorism, bombings, starvation, political upheaval, protest.

boycotts, people yelling, name-calling, condemning, slandering, lying, hating over and over and over again. Cruelty abounds. Anger abounds, opinions abound. Nothing is certain. Nothing is stable. It feels like we all got thrown into one giant wave pool at full blast and said, good luck. Some of you get intertubes. Some of you are just stuck in the deep end of the chaos fighting for air while the waves crash down. Our world is turbulent. There's no denying it. I think that's why Psalm 93 really struck me today, because it stands in stark contrast to the way that so often I feel both in my immediate life and when I look at the world around me. Its assurance gives me hope, something we so often desperately need when we're thrust into the waves. Let's read it now, Psalm 93. The Lord reigns. He is robed in

majesty. The Lord is robed in majesty and armed with strength. Indeed, the world is established, firm, and secure. Your throne was established long ago. You are from all eternity. Okay, so here, in the first two verses, we are reminded that the Lord, Yahweh, he reigns. Our God is king. He is majestic and strong. The psalmist tells us something that feels so opposite to our world right now. He says the world is established, firm, and secure. See, the psalmist is telling us the reality of the world with God on the throne. His throne was established long ago. He is eternal. And with God on the throne, with God as king, the world is established, firm, secure. He continues. Verse three, the seas have lifted up, Lord, the seas have lifted up their voice. The seas have lifted up their pounding

waves. This sounds familiar, doesn't it? The seas are rising. The waves are pounding. It's noisy, chaotic. It feels like we might be overtaken. And yet, verse four, mightier than the thunder of the great waters, mightier than the breakers of the sea. The Lord on high is mighty. Remember, the Lord on High is mighty. He is mightier than the sea, stronger than the waves. He is king, Lord over at all. When everything feels chaotic, when the world feels like it is crashing in upon us, when it feels out of control, remember who is on the throne. He is mightier. He is stable. Verse 5. Your statutes, Lord, stand firm. Holiness adorns your house for endless days.

Nothing can overtake the Lord. His statutes are firm. He is holy. He is good. He is strong. He is mighty. forever. The psalmist knows these things are true about Yahweh. God created the seas. He caused the red seed apart. He produced water in the desert for his people. And that same God, who was with his people in the Old Testament, came to live as a human in the New Testament. Jesus, fully God, fully human, lived a full and perfect, holy life on this earth. And I can't help but think about the time when he was in a boat with his disciples. Mark tells us that the waves were crashing over the boat. It was swamped with water. The disciples, they were frantic. Jesus, he was sleeping. Let's read what happens next. Mark 4, 3841. And so they woke him up, that's Jesus, and said to him, teacher, don't you care if we drown?

He got up, rebuked the wind, and said to the waves, quiet, be still. Then the wind died down. and he was completely calm. He said to his disciples, why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith? They were terrified and asked each other, who is this? Even the wind and the waves obey him.

You see, the disciples still haven't realized yet that the one the psalmist writes about is standing directly before them. They have no need to fear the crashing waves and turbulent seas. They have the one who is mightier than the sea in the boat with them. See, Jesus, he was unbothered by the chaos, not because he didn't care for the disciples or for their safety, but because he knew that while the waves seemed big, while the chaos

seemed overwhelming, while everything looked out of control, they were no match for the power and might and goodness of God. God was in control. Jesus knew that the waves would not overtake them unless he allowed it. So with one word, his power outstripped the wind and the waves, and he looks and he asks the disciples, why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith? Sometimes I wonder if Jesus would ask you and me the same thing if he saw us in the midst of our chaos. While I worry about bedtimes and nap schedules and getting out the door and grocery shopping and meal planning and playdates and work deadlines. While the world debates and slanders and yells and murders and steals and our hearts become

fearful, defensive, and filled with the same hate and frantic scramble to fight for our place in the world, I wonder, I wonder if Jesus is looking at us asking, why are you so afraid? Why are you overwhelmed by the what-ifs? Why are you fighting with hatred that isn't of me to defend yourselves? Do you still not have faith? Do you still not see? Do you still not understand that I am king? I am on the throne. I am in control. I always have been. I always will be. The chaos around you has an end. Evil's days are numbered as stillness is coming. I will bring it. I have promised it. I have the power to bring it to completion. Have faith in me. Your king. have faith? Or do you feel the crashing waves, the lack of control, the instability of the world, and try to fight for your life? Falling into fear, anxiety, anger, and hatred? Do you have faith? Can you see the waves, the chaos, the constant attacks, and instead put your faith, your hope,

your trust in something stable? The statutes of the Lord are firm, his holiness has no end, his throne is established forever, he is mightier than the waves. He is king. When the waves threaten to overcome you, look to Jesus. Instead of diving into the chaos and fighting back, use the tools he has given you. Be alight. Instead of frantically scrambling, put your faith in the king of all creation and live in the way that he has called you. Choosing to repay evil with love, turning the other cheek, fighting for justice with humility and compassion, facing uncertainty with surrender and assurance that your hope is not in this world, but in the promises of God.

The waves may not stop for a long time, and when they do calm down, they may start right back up again. Nothing is certain, but God is stable. He is firm, his statutes are good and eternal. He has given us a way to live in the midst of chaos that brings life. Have faith in Jesus. He is king. Cling to him.