My grandson, still a toddler, had picked this line up – “What are we gonna’ do now?” Something bad, something troubling, another emergency. . .What are we going to do now?
And that thought over the last two days has been turning into my latest song, What Are We Going to Do Now? And Psalm 46 came to mind.
God is our refuge and strength,
a very present help in trouble.
Therefore we will not fear though the earth gives way,
though the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea,
though its waters roar and foam,
though the mountains tremble at its swelling. Selah
Psalm 46.1-3
So how does that connect to Chicken Little?
Many (maybe most) of us are familiar with the story of Chicken Little or The Sky Is Falling. I have included the following from Wikipedia to refresh our memory.
The Sky Is Falling, better known as Chicken Licken, Henny Penny or Chicken Little is an old fable about a chicken (or a hare in early versions) who believes the sky is falling. The phrase, “The sky is falling,” has passed into the English language as a common idiom indicating a hysterical or mistaken belief that disaster is imminent.
There are many versions of the story, but the basic premise is that a chicken eats lunch one day, and believes the sky is falling down because an acorn falls on her head. She decides to tell the King, and on her journey meets other animals who join her in the quest. In most retellings, the animals all have rhyming names such as Henny Penny, Cocky Lockey and Goosey Loosey. Finally, they come across Foxy Loxy, a fox who offers the chicken and her friends his help.
(Credit: The Sky Is Falling (fable) from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)
HERE IS THE CONNECTION: Psalm 46 is the anti-Chicken Little promise from God, the silver bullet answer for What are we going to do if the sky is falling? What am I going to do if my world threatens to fall apart?
In the story, Chicken Little, Henny Penny, Cocky Lockey and Goosey Loosey all became caught up in a swirling current of fear and hysteria that began with an acorn falling on Chicken Little’s head.
SEE: Chicken Little Story Link
It was just an acorn falling, but they were hysterical, mistakenly believing that disaster was imminent.
In Psalm 46 the Sons of Korah, generous with their hyperbole, say “So what, even if the earth shakes and changes, even if the mountains fall deep into the sea, even if the sky is falling, God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in our trouble.”
If then in the worst case scenario in which the earth gives way from beneath us and mountains are falling, the ocean is writhing in fear and the mountains tremble, and God is there, strong for us, then what about when our personal “worlds” implode or explode? Can we still believe God?
He really is what he says he is and more, but we don’t learn the more until we trust him even when it seems the sky is falling. The overwhelming, praise the Lord, hallelujah, God is great, safety and protection of God is not truly known until it is tested and tasted. Intellectual assent gives a mere hint of God’s tremendous protective care. Believing God during the storm replaces that courteous appreciation with resounding worship and praise.
I don’t think I am alone in sometimes allowing fear of the plunging economy or fear of losing someone I love pounce on me and start to pound me. You know. . .the “gut shots” in life, the “What if’s” that try to rip us apart. What if I lose my job? What if her health fails? What if he doesn’t change the course of his life? What if this person rejects me?
It is because God is God that, in the midst of fear, I can choose to not be afraid, not because I am so brave or spiritual or strong. I defeat fear by firmly choosing to believe what God says above the sound of panic.
And I honor him in choosing his words of truth over the hysteria. I honor him in listening to his voice above the jarring, discordant, dissonance sounds of this world. Forget it, Chicken Little and Henny Penny. I’m not buying what you’re selling, Cockey Lockey or Goosey Loosey.
God is who he is or he isn’t. Which is it? And if he is who he says he is, and he is, then let the earth shake, let the mountains tremble, let the ocean foam, I will not be afraid.
I will run. I will run, run, run to God my refuge.
