Churchill Beneath the Clouds of War

In the autumn of 1940, London burned. German bombers pounded the city night after night during the Blitz, and thick clouds of smoke hung over the capital like a funeral shroud. Citizens huddled in Underground stations, wondering if anything solid remained above them. Winston Churchill walked the rubble-strewn streets after each raid, surveying the destruction, and reportedly told his War Cabinet, "We shall not fail or falter. We shall not weaken or tire."

Churchill's resolve steadied a nation, but he was only a man. His confidence rested on the belief that tyranny could not ultimately prevail against justice. He was right about the outcome, but even he could not guarantee it.

The psalmist points us to a far greater certainty. When Psalm 97 declares that the Most High reigns, it does not pretend the world looks orderly. Clouds and thick darkness surround His throne. Mountains melt like wax. The earth itself trembles. This is not a domesticated deity presiding over calm skies — this is the Almighty, whose very presence reshapes the landscape of history.

And yet righteousness and justice are the foundation of that throne. The smoke clears. The rubble gets rebuilt. Every empire that sets itself up as supreme eventually crumbles, because there is One exalted far above all the earth.

No mortal leader, however courageous, can make that claim. Only the Lord reigns with a throne that nothing — not fire, not darkness, not the shaking of mountains — can overturn. Let the earth be glad.