Psalm 46:1
"God is our refuge and strength,
an ever-present help in trouble."
I love to study the original Hebrew and Greek words used in the Bible. They always provide greater context to what is being communicated about who God is.
The original word used here for "God" in verse 1 is Elohim - meaning The Strong One or The Mighty One. So literally The Strong One/The Mighty One is our refuge (safe place, hiding place) and our strength...the OG creator and source of strength is our strength!
And He is "ever-present", always there, always aware and caring about us and what's going on. He never leaves us out to dry, and He always wants us to turn to Him as our safe place. Not our phones, not our homes, not our food or favorite television shows...Him first.
One of the main places that God has been my safe place and strength is in my struggle with anxiety. This verse in Psalm 46 was an anchor for me for several months in 2019 as I wrestled with and dealt with so much of this debilitating fight. Each morning I would turn to this verse, and bring my burdens and anxieties to God in prayer (see more about this in the Bible at Philippians 4:6-7 and 1 Peter 5:7). On my knees, I would literally hold my hands out, physically and mentally laying down my worries and fears and doubts, handing them over to Him one by one, and trying to learn how to replace fear with faith...learn being a key word here, as so many things about trusting God don't happen overnight, and I am still learning what this looks like. Through the daily choice of going to God first, I was trading my anxieties for strength, and filling my heart and mind with His Word and peace in the process.
"The Mighty One" was the first song I wrote after a very long break and block from songwriting. It took me several months of fighting with melody and meaning, trying to decide what to call it and how to communicate this idea that's found in the beginning lines of Psalm 46. I would spend hours of my evenings and early mornings searching scripture, the dictionary, and commentary, and pulling from my own experiences of God being my strength to try and craft and create the flow of the lyrics and the musicality that I was trying to get out. After many revisions, I finally got it to the place it is today.
I pray "The Mighty One" gets stuck in your head as a reminder of THE Mighty One, and how He is caring for you and fighting for you even as you read this!