Brexit shows us that we long for prosperity and security.
The problem is, we disagree on how those two things are best achieved.
So, as people weighed up how to vote in the referendum, some thought security would be delivered by control of our borders and prosperity would be achieved by having more money to spend on the NHS and so on. Others were equally convinced that the free market was the path to economic stability and growth, and that the EU guaranteed ongoing peace and security in Europe.
Of course, there are a host of other arguments, and we will all have views on how accurate the predictions and promises about security and prosperity were (on both sides—let’s not be one-eyed about it). But I think Brexit shows that we are all chasing after security and prosperity: for ourselves, our families, our neighbours and communities, even as Brexit also shows that we’re finding it very hard to work out how to find them.
Wouldn’t it be great to live in a land of complete security, and sufficient prosperity, and in which everyone happily agreed how they were secured and maintained?
Well, there is a place where you can enjoy great prosperity and belonging. But you won’t find it by staying in the EU, or by leaving it.
Psalm 46 v 4 contains a spectacular change of tonal key. Watch what happens to the water…
“… waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with their surging” (v 3)
Then…
“There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy place where the Most High dwells. God is within her, she will not fall; God will help her at break of day.” (v 4)
In the time it takes for verse 3 to become verse 4, the chaos of raging seas becomes the calm of the river flowing. What causes it?
The city of God.
In ancient times, you basically needed two things in a city. One, a secure water supply. Two, a defensible position. And this city—the city of God—has both.
For the very first hearers of Psalm 46, of course, the city of God meant the city of Jerusalem in the middle east—their city. That was the city where God had chosen to dwell, among the people who knew him and were loved by him. Jerusalem was—still is, actually—perched high on a mountain, virtually impregnable strategically, and defended spiritually by God himself. God is within our city, the people who lived there could say if an enemy army approached. We’re going to be fine. She won’t fall.
If you’d been an original hearer of this psalm, you’d have thought of Jerusalem as soon as you heard ‘city of God’ in verse 4.
Except then you’d have been confused. Because there wasn’t a river in Jerusalem. There aren’t any streams.
And plus, if you just heard verse 2, about mountains falling into the sea, then trusting in your city because it’s built on the side of a mountain suddenly seems a bit foolish. So you’d think, “Well, it sounds like we’re talking about Jerusalem, but are we really talking about this Jerusalem?”
And the answer would be: Yes, and No.
That’s because, of course, throughout the Old Testament God is always pointing his people forwards to a city of God that the earthly Jerusalem was just a foretaste of—to a city, a place, beyond creation.
The poet is saying there is a city of God that is described by, in fact defines, the word ‘glad’.
It has everything it needs. A river giving prosperity and a certain sense of security—she will not fall. That’s the city of God.
The Jerusalem in this world fell, eventually, but the psalm kept being sung, because it had never just been speaking about a place in this world, but a place beyond it.
The perfect, eternal place of peace and unity, of security and prosperity.
The place that we dream of.
The place that those who voted Leave thought leaving would bring us closer to.
The place that those who voted Remain thought remaining would bring us closer to.
The place that politicians on their better days, and we on our better days, are striving to build in our households, in our communities, in our country.
If you voted Leave or you voted Remain based on a desire to see greater fairness, and security, and justice, and freedom, then God understands your desire. And he’s so committed to that kind of place existing that he’s built it, himself.
The Bible, in its last two chapters, finishes with that wonderful picture of the New Jerusalem, the holy city, coming down out of heaven, into this world as this world is renewed and perfected (Revelation 21-22). Its arrival is not dependent on whether we leave or whether we remain. It is dependent only on God—and God always delivers, always finishes what he starts.
The earthly Jerusalem was not the highpoint of history, nor was the Babylonian Empire that captured it.
The EU is not the highpoint of history, nor was Britain and nor will be Britain.
The truth is that nations are always in uproar, one way or another, and the truth is that kingdoms fall (Psalm 46 v 6). The EU will not be around forever. Neither will Britain. But there is and always will be a city of God, that enjoys plenty and enjoys security, that will not fall.
When we forget that God is doing something bigger, something greater than anything we’ll achieve or break here, we inevitably get fixated on here and now.
If this is all there is, then we must build heaven here and we must fear hell arriving here.
But there is a city of God, where gladness is the experience of all who live there. And if you know that you’re headed there, you really can treat the ups and downs of this life and of the place you live in with a sense of perspective.
Yes, it matters whether we leave or not, and how we leave. But it doesn’t matter ultimately, and it certainly doesn’t matter eternally, God says.
And if you get this, then the reality of the city of God influences how you feel and how you spend your time and what you say and how you say it—on social media and in person—far more than Brexit does. (And I would guess that not a few readers of this might want to look at their social media feeds and see if there’s more Christ, and more Christlikeness, than there is Brexit, and Brexit-angst. And if there isn’t, maybe it’s time to repent. Really.)
If you get this, you know Brexit matters, and is worth thinking and talking about, but you know that it was never going to bring about the city of God, and you know that it can never prevent God bringing to earth the city of God.
You know there’s security and prosperity to be found; and it’s to be found not in looking to leave, or looking to remain, but in looking forward to that city… God’s city… and, by faith in his Son, your city.
This blog is one of a four-part series (read the first part here), and is an adapted extract from a sermon given at Grace Church Worcester Park, sw London, on 10th March 2019.
Carl is Editorial Director at The Good Book Company and is a member of Grace Church Worcester Park, London. He is the best-selling author of The Garden, the Curtain and the Cross and God's Big Promises Bible Storybook, and also serves as series editor of the God's Word for You series. Before joining TGBC, he worked as a journalist and then as a teacher, and pastored a congregation in Hull. Carl is married to Lizzie, and they have two children. He studied history at Oxford University.