Psalm 54 - The One Who Sustains

Read: Psalm 54 vs 1-7

My parents grew up during the years of the Second World War. Recently I came across a ‘Child’s National Identity Card’ and a ‘Children’s Ration Book’, both issued in 1941, that belonged to my dad and my mum. Handling those, now historic, items takes me back to a moment in history, before I was born, and yet a moment that was real and experienced by many. 

1941 marked some of the darkest days of the Second World War, and it marked the year when the war came with full force to the shores of this island. I have spoken to people in Ballyhenry with vivid memories of the events of Easter Tuesday 1941 when 150 Luftwaffe Bombers flew low over the city of Belfast bringing death and destruction to many, leaving 100,000 people homeless and costing over 900 lives.

Where do you turn times of national turmoil and in days of global distress?  There’s a fascinating, largely untold, story from the days of the Second World War of the place that prayer had in these dark times.

A number of ‘National Days of Prayer’ had been held since the outbreak of war. The following year in 1942 with the threat of Nazi invasion growing increasingly stronger two further national days of prayer were held. These events were discussed and planned around the Cabinet Table. The government took the decision to arrange for factories, offices, schools and military camps to cease work for at least 15 minutes at 11am in order to allow the whole nation to take part in an act of worship broadcast by the BBC. 

Today in Ballyhenry we are reading Psalm 54. It’s a Psalm written in a time of great turmoil, written against a backdrop of ‘attack’ (vs 3) and many troubles in the face of an unnamed foe (vs 7).

On this anniversary of VE Day we remember how at a time of national distress many called ‘Save me, O God!’ (vs 1). What can we learn from those days? An editorial in the Daily Mirror of September 1941, commenting on the national peril and speaking of God, simply said this: ‘We ought to offer everything to Him.’

In days of trouble, God wants our hearts and our trust. The Psalms encourage us to ask for all that we need and at the same time to offer everything to Him.

Prayer: Lord help us to humbly seek you in troubled times and to offer all that we are to You. In Jesus' Name. Amen.