Psalm 46 | Cam Stephens | September 6, 2026

Now speaking of political and economic power, if you're being honest, have you felt a little more anxious lately as the political and economic landscape shifts around us? It's no secret that things have been difficult in the geopolitical realm, as nations war against one another, whether militarily, as seen in Ukraine and the Middle East, or through economic turmoil like Canada is currently experiencing.

And with the advent of social media, in addition to polarizing mainstream media, which keeps everything right in front of our faces all the time, presenting unbalanced, polemical judgments, majoring in fear and minoring in truth, it has become nearly impossible to remain unaffected.

In fact, according to Mental Health Research Canada, Roughly half of Canadians in 2025 reported an increase in anxiety explicitly tied to current political and economic tensions and uncertainty.

And that number is estimated to have increased significantly even over the past number of weeks and months.

Church, that means that at least every second one of us although I would anticipate that number to be higher, every second one of us at least is currently struggling with some level of stress and anxiety because of our current political reality.

Beyond the statistics, and maybe you've noticed it too, anecdotally, I have witnessed many within this community, as well as in my circles of influence, being affected in many ways by political anxieties, including lack of sleep, feelings of dread, increased anger, depression, and relational turbulence, among other things.

And I even see this tendency within myself.

Now, while we don't normally teach topically, we typically teach through books of the Bible, which we will start again in two weeks.

As I pondered what to do this morning, on an in-between Sunday, I couldn't get it out of my head that the Lord wanted me to speak to this issue.

Not the political issues themselves, but rather how we as God's children ought to orient ourselves in times of political and economic uncertainty, both now and as further issues are sure to arise in the future.

You see, Christians should walk through trials of any and every kind differently than the rest of the world.

However, what I have seen and what concerns me is that lately many believers have traded their peace in Christ and their joy in the Lord for fear and anger over things that are out of their control.

Now please know right off the top that this is not a political message.

This is a Christian message.

I will not be sharing my political opinions which I do have or nudge anyone in any particular direction regarding how you ought to act in light of our present circumstances.

If you have personal convictions, where to travel, what to buy, who to support, you have the autonomy to exercise those convictions.

I'm not actually all that concerned about that.

What I am concerned about is that the people in this congregation don't sacrifice their joy, their peace, or their sanctification as the result of our present circumstances.

Or that we don't mistakenly place our hope in something other than Christ, giving ourselves to lesser causes and that which will not last.

For those who have been following with us, we just finished eight months of walking through a series that asked us how we are to live in light of the fact that this world is not our home.

And nowhere along the way did Peter mention anything about living lives of fear and politically charged anger.

And so this morning, we're going to discuss how the Bible invites God's people to orient themselves in times like this, where chaos and uncertainty seem to abound.

And to do so, we're going to read a psalm together, written in a time of significant political conflict for God's people.

And so I invite you to turn with me in your copy of the scriptures to Psalm 46.

Now some of you are holding up your Scripture Journal Bible for 2 Peter and Jude going, what's going on? We're past that now, and no, we're not covering Jude.