Psalm 46:1 | Two Tall Pines

God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. 

Psalm 46:1

Two tall mountain pines
Seen standing on a rock
Broken and battered
Shaken by the strong winds

The tallest of trees
With its thick grounding-roots
Weaves its way through the dirt
Wrapping around the least

Resolute to stand
Through the powerful gusts
The taller, more wounded
Keeps the lesser tall

It's the Blessed One
Seen standing through darkness
Rooting to the rock
The torn and ragged pine

So will be the Called
On the mountain of life
Found steadfast and strong
Fixed and never alone

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my inspiration

I have seen a picture of two stone-pines, on the rocky face of a mountain, so torn and ragged from the powerful gusts of wind and yet so resolutely rooted. A broken tree is not beautiful, but it shows us – God’s “children in the dark storm” – which man or woman will stand, unshaken, in the morning…

It is the Blessed One, and no other, who stands by us on the lonely mountain when the dark storm descends. (O my Lord, if you had not suffered, how could you help me in suffering now?) And He who suffered and overcame will grant us also to overcome.

I can think of no truer picture of what we want to be when the wind beats on us for the last time: like that lone, mountain pine, broken and battered perhaps, but not uprooted! We can stand, today and always, steadfast, undefeated. And never alone.

Amy Carmichael, Gold by Moonlight, pp. 175-176.