“Unperturbable.” I heard the Lord speak this strange word (It’s not in the dictionary!) to my heart a few years ago at year’s end. It is not in the Bible, so a concordance search will not help, but the many facets of its meaning are, and in the months after, I jotted down many Scriptures that convey what it has come to mean to me. I know if the Lord spoke it to my heart, He intended that I should not only study it, pursue it, but share it with you, His people. And I assure you, if there was ever a time to be “unperturbable” – it is NOW!

It describes an ability to be unable or not susceptible to being PERTURBED—which means “to disquiet thoroughly, to disturb greatly, to be agitated.” Note the adverbs “thoroughly” and “greatly”, because they denote the extreme degree of the state of being anxious, upset, fretful, worried, fearful, riled up, falling apart, ticked off. It is the “TURBS” on steroids: Disturbed, turbulent, in turmoil!

When one is in a state of “perturbance”, the quiet place of his soul is in turmoil, and it affects his whole life. David said, “Why art thou cast down, O my soul, and why art thou disquieted in me? Hope thou in God, for I shall yet praise Him for the help of His countenance” (Psalm 42:5). Two things David stated about perturbance: It’s located in the soul, and the remedy is to hope in God! The Hebrew word for soul is NEPHESH and its root verb form means “to relax, to rest.” God intends for us to have rest in our souls—not to be restless, fretful, distressed, disturbed, and perturbed!

David said in Psalm 23:5, “He restoreth my soul.” Notice that REST is a part of RESTORE. God wants your soul to abide in a state of restfulness—not fretfulness! This state of inner calm is unaffected and unchanged by outer turmoil. Its quiet is not disturbed by any outward circumstances: Political upheaval, economic uncertainties, especially those that hit home in job losses, pay cuts, investment losses, etc. Instead, when these troubles come, you talk to your soul: “O Soul, why are you disquieted? Look up! Hope in God! Trust in the Lord!”

The Soul is Directional
David also knew the secret of starting off every day looking up to God. Psalm 5:3: “My voice shalt thou hear in the morning, O Lord, in the morning will I direct my prayer unto thee and look up.” There was a time, recorded in Psalm 40, when David had allowed his heart to become overwhelmed with condemnation over his iniquities. This is one of Satan's favorite tools; to remind us of our failures and mistakes. David said, “Mine iniquities have taken hold upon me, so that I am not able to look up.” He had allowed himself to dwell on the sins of the past, and he committed some serious ones, but once they are acknowledged and repented of, they are forgiven by God and cast away “as far as the east is from the west!" Do not allow the enemy to harass, accuses, and condemn you for sins that are under the blood! Look up! For you are accepted in the Beloved! (Eph. 1:6). Do not allow yourself to be perturbed by false whispers of the enemy.

Another way the enemy generates perturbance in our hearts is through unsettling circumstances that surround us that may bring on a spirit of fear. Jesus said in Luke 21:26 that in these last days, “Men's hearts shall fail them for fear for looking at those things which are coming on the earth.”

He Shall Deliver You in Seven Troubles
Consider Job 5:19: “He shall deliver thee in six troubles; yea, in seven there shall no evil touch thee.” Why seven? Seven always connotes the entirety of something. Thus it means, “in ALL your troubles”! In verses 20-22 he specified some of these troubles, and they’re not trivial: “In famine he shall redeem thee from death: and in war from the power of the sword.” These refer to severe economic loss and war—like what we face today, including terrorism.

“Thou shalt be hid from the scourge of the tongue; neither shalt thou be afraid of destruction when it cometh.” (He did not say if—but when!) “At destruction and famine thou shalt laugh…” Talk about being unperturbable! This is a picture of someone who is not shook up even by disasters, because he is fixed on God. He knows God is his source in every season: Good times, hard times, youth, middle age and old age!

I am reminded of David at Ziklag. This was the lowest point of his life, when his men were so distraught over the loss of their families, they were ready to stone him! The situation could not have been more desperate. These rough, tough men had cried until they could cry no more, but David was able to maintain his inner calm and not fall apart. “He encouraged himself in the Lord”, and was able to get a word from the Lord to go on the attack against the enemy and win a great victory! (1Samuel 30:6). Had he allowed himself to fall apart with the rest of them, they would not have had the courage to rise up and take back what the enemy stole from them!

A Good Word Study:
The following synonyms from the Bible will give you a treasure of Scriptures that you can look up: Quiet, rest, trusting, hopeful, confident, committed, fully persuaded, unwavering, peaceful, steadfast, unmoveable, rooted, grounded, settled, established, stability, stayed upon the Lord. Here’s one of my favorites: “He shall not be afraid of evil tidings: his heart is fixed, trusting in the Lord. His heart is established, he shall not be afraid…” (Psalm 112:7-8). The old-time Saints always testified: “My heart is fixed and my mind is stayed on Jesus!” It was the prophet Habakkuk who had experienced such times in his day, and he was the first to declare these powerful words: “…But the just shall live by his faith” (Hab. 2:4). He lived in a season of economic failure too, but he was not frightened nor perturbed by the great losses the nation faced. He spoke with utmost confidence: “Although the fig tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines; the labor of the olive shall fail, and the fields shall yield no meat; the flock shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no herd in the stalls. YET I will rejoice in the LORD. I will joy in the God of my salvation” (Hab. 3: 17-18). “It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the Lord” (Lam. 3:26). This is the Biblical condition of being unperturbable!