Very Present
Life is full of its troubles. If you are alive and not currently dealing with troubles, just wait … Ah, there it is.
The fact is troubles are so common as life is lived out that they become past, present and future troubles. The troubles in the past may be resolved, or they may not be resolved. The present troubles are the ones that cause us the greatest concern because they are the one we are concentrated on right now. Of course, the future troubles are most often unknown but still take up a good portion of our mental capacity as we try to imagine working through them. Troubles here. Troubles there. Troubles everywhere!
Side note - troubles may come from outside or from the inside. Not all troubles originate from the outside world. Some of them we like to add on ourselves.
With so many troubles around, it becomes hard to deal. Just take it from a man that ran a country - King David of Israel. He had some troubles - enemies attacking, people angry at him, conspirators against his rule as king and even his own sin that created havoc in his life and family. But David had something else. David had an understanding about God that helped him through these troubles. He understood that God is a “very present help in trouble.” (Psalms 46:1)
Let’s break that statement down starting with the last word and going to the first:
“Trouble” - Refer to the above discussion for definition. The world has a lot of it and we create our own as well. It is that which keeps us up at night, makes us do irrational things, ruins our days and feels like weight carried around on our backs.
“In” - This word refers to position. In means inside of, surrounded by, going through, actively dealing with or under the pressure of. Note that the statement does not refer to God as a help out of trouble. God does not take you out of trouble. He delivers you through it. If you are a parent that relieves your child of all their troubles, you are doing them a great disservice. Try walking with them and applying your parental wisdom and presence through the trouble rather than just removing the trouble all together. Individual growth and appreciation occurs in the last instance.
“Help” - This word refers to providing assistance or making one’s resources available. When help is given, the helper applies his resources for the assistance of the helped.
“Present” - This is to exist or occur now. Something or someone who is present is at this moment in a particular place and in the context of the statement we are reflecting on present means with you.
“Very” - Oh boy! I love times when the Word of God adds these types of words. We often read right through them. After all, very is very. There is nothing necessarily important about this commonly used word. But when you are talking about the application of help from an Almighty God within the particular situation of your trouble, very is a very important word! It is used to apply emphasis to the verb following it.
What David understood and informed us of through his Psalm was that, while we may have troubles and they certainly abound in the world we live in, we have a God who is applying His wisdom, His power and His presence currently, right now to our present situation of trouble. Furthermore, our God is applying His omnipotence in our trouble in a Very Present way. You may be in trouble, but as a child of God, your Heavenly Father is Very Much existing with you right now in that trouble and He is there to apply Himself for the benefit of you! I love a Very Present God!