(P)Review Bible Study: Psalm 46...What a Mass!

    Everyone knows what a Tuned Mass Dampener is, right? No, for some of you? OK. For those of you who skipped school the day they covered advanced architecture in super tall buildings let me break the concept down for you a bit.  In tall buildings there are always shimmies and shakes happening as a result of wind, the earth turning, trains running nearby, small earthquakes, etc.  Most of the time we don't feel those little shimmies and shakes because they are far too small to notice. But, there exists the possibility that those little shimmies and shakes might harmonize with each other like two ripples on a pond meeting up to become one big ripple.  In a tall building the ripple can meet up with other ripples, who meet up with other ripples, who meet up with others...until the ripple literally will cause the building to shake itself apart....Unless you have a Tuned Mass Dampener.

There are any number of ways to make a tuned mass dampener but the most common is to simply suspend an immensely heavy object somewhere near the top portion of the super tall building in a central position.  The famous, one hundred and one story, Taipei Building in Taiwan uses a single weight suspended in the center of the building that weighs 730 tons (that is the huge sphere pictured above).  There are any number of ways to build a tuned mass dampener, or TMD, from giant suspended weights, to huge tubes filled with water, to giant concrete blocks on springs but the principle is the same:  A free moving weight acts as a counter balance to the mechanical vibration of the building.  In short, when the building sways right, the mass, as a result of being freely suspended, sways left. If you have a big enough, freely moving, weight your building can stand up to even the shock of an earth quake.  The building gets jerked right by the earthquake and the TMD jerks it back left.  

Three things a TMD must be:  Massive, Freely Moving, and Strongly Tethered to the most central part of the top of a structure.  If you have all three then your TMD will keep your building sway free. 

 The Comcast Center in Philly uses an enormous concrete tank of water to achieve the dampening, but the concept is the same: huge mass,  freely moves, centered at the most central part of the top of the structure. How about in the structure of your life? Are you having any troubles with little shimmies or shakes? Are there any little, or not so little, earthquakes causing you to find yourself fearing that you may shake apart? If so, don't feel bad, it happens to us all from time to time.  One of the writers of the Psalms had something interesting to say about it:

Psalm 46God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.Therefore we will not fear, though the earth should change, though the mountains shake in the heart of the sea;though its waters roar and foam, though the mountains tremble with its tumult. There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy habitation of the Most High. God is in the midst of the city; it shall not be moved; God will help it when the morning dawns.The nations are in an uproar, the kingdoms totter; he utters his voice, the earth melts. The LORD of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge. Come, behold the works of the LORD; see what desolations he has brought on the earth.He makes wars cease to the end of the earth; he breaks the bow, and shatters the spear; he burns the shields with fire. "Be still, and know that I am God! I am exalted among the nations, I am exalted in the earth."The LORD of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge. 

As I read the words, "Be still and know that I am God!" and "God is in the midst of the city; it shall not be moved."  I realized that God is humanity's Tuned Mass Dampener. God is the enormous mass at the center of our lives that is firmly tethered to us. God moves independent of us, drawing us away from the dangerous leanings of sin. It is God's presence that keeps us still in the midst of this life's constant motion;  when life swings right, God swings left. Like a TMD if you try to put God in your life anywhere but at

the very top, in the very center, you can't expect God to keep you still when "nations are in an uproar" and "kingdoms totter". If you want to bury your faith in the basement of your life where you only visit from time to time when you need something it isn't going to help you when the vulnerable parts of your life are in peril.  Likewise if you don't let God take hold of your life and be firmly anchored in you then you will not be able to be kept still by His un-moving peace as you simply pull away from his grace and fall on your own.  

    If your life is shaking and swaying, if life's earthquakes are threatening to tear you apart, lean on the strength of God.  But remember, the time to install a TMD is when you build a building, not when it is in danger of falling over, so think carefully about what you build your life around.  Can it really promise to be your refuge? If it is wealth, remember wealth is vulnerable to this world's unpredictable forces.  If it is health, remember we all falter and fail.  If it is youth, remember we all age.  If it is fame, power, or position, remember that this is a fickle world.  If it is another person or people, remember that their worlds can shake and sway too. Only God, and God alone, can reliably bear the weight of our problems.  Fortunately God is willing and ready to take on our burdens. "The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge."