Find your stability in God

The LORD is exalted, for he dwells on high; he will fill Zion with justice and righteousness, and he will be the stability of your times, abundance of salvation, wisdom, and knowledge; the fear of the LORD is Zion’s treasure. Isaiah 33:5-6 (ESV)

"He will be the stability of your times." The "he" is of course the Lord, who is Zion's treasure, the one who is exalted, who dwells on high, and who fills Zion with justice and righteousness. You will not find stability anywhere else. In Isaiah's day, the world market was crowded with empires seeking to gobble up as much of the surrounding geography as they could: Egypt, Assyria, Babylon. Tiny Judah often found itself trapped in the gaping jaws of a hungry predator. With all that came incredible upheaval, war, death, economic breakdown and uncertainty. If Isaiah's times were characterized by anything, it would have been instability.

We can look around us today, and see the same thing. Who knows what will happen in our world next? Who knows when and where the next war will be? What about the next covid outbreak or some other virus? We live in a fallen world, a world that groans with us, awaiting the coming redemption (Rom. 8:19-26).

And yet, with all the uncertainty and instability, there is one on whom our souls can rest. God is unchanging. His promises never fail. His purposes will be brought to pass. And even though things look uncertain to us, nothing is so to God, who works all things after the counsel of his own will (Eph. 1:11). The chaos all around us will eventually sort itself out in God's time and in God's way so that he is glorified and his elect are saved. Are the times unstable? Yes. But God is not. Let us therefore put our trust in him!