I Shall Not be Shaken
Meditating on God's immanence
There are countless verses in the Psalms that stir the soul, perhaps none greater than Psalm 23. But recently I read Psalm 16, and most of the time I remember that passage because of verse 11, which speaks to the utter joy and abounding pleasures we have in Jesus. That is a wonderful verse as we fight sin on a daily basis. But have we considered a different verse in that Psalm?
“I have set the Lord always before me; because he is at my right hand, I shall not be shaken” (v. 8). The latter part of this verse should cause every Christian to breathe a sigh of relief, to ease their anxious heart, to calm their weary mind. Why shall we not be shaken? Why should we not be anxious or stressed or confused? Because God is right here with us!
There are two things in relation to who God is that we must taken into consideration. God is transcendent and immanent. What do these mean? God’s transcendence speaks to his being above us, exalted over his creation. And that’s vital; God must be transcendent over his creation; he is not like us. He is holy; completely other from us. And that is good.
But what’s even more astonishing is, while he is transcendent, he is also immanent. For God to be immanent means he is near to us, with us, coming alongside us. We know this to be true because he made it known to us in the person of Jesus Christ. Jesus is called Immanuel, which literally means “God with us” (Matt. 1:23).
God’s transcendence should bring believers comfort because we know God is in control; we know we’re not serving a God who needs us or is lacking in anything. We are serving a God—the one, true God, to be exact—that is completely sovereign over his creation and is exalted about the heavens and the earth. But that same God who is exalted above all things also condescended to us in Jesus Christ to make himself known, to live a perfectly holy life, to die in the place of sinners, to resurrect three days later to complete his substitutionary work.
So when life becomes treacherous, when the days are wearisome and the nights are agonizing—when things just feel dreadful—we look to Psalm 16:8 (and other passages) and can know that our Lord is with us. He is with us in our pain, our confusion, our discomfort, our distress. He is with us in our triumphs, our mountaintops, our peaks, our victories. We can firmly say, “I shall not be shaken,” not because we have it all together—we certainly don’t—but because God is with us. He’s not just looking from afar, but is walking close to us, with us every step of the way. We need not ever fear the Lord has abandoned us. God will never get tired of us; he will never get fed up, throw his hands up and say, “That’s it—I’ve had it! That was the last straw!” No, believer, take heart—God is with us always. He is with us in the screw ups, the failures, the sins. He’s with us in the tough decisions, the wrong choices, the right calls. He’s with us in every aspect of our lives—even when, in the moment, we perhaps don’t want him to be because of our stubborn hearts.
Believer, what are you going through? What is it that is grabbing ahold of your heart and not letting go? Read Psalm 16:8. Ponder the Lord’s immanence; meditate on the fact that God is near to the brokenhearted. And not only is he near to us, but he understands us. He sympathizes with us in his immanence. We can always turn to him; we can always run into his loving, outstretched arms. So run, Christian—run as fast as you can. You will not be shaken—not because of you, but because of God.
