Psalms 46
ButlerInstead of thy fathers shall be thy children. Instead of the Old Testament Church, the fathers that are going off, there shall be a New Testament Church, a Gentile Church, that shall be grafted into the same olive and partake of its root and fatness (Rom. 11:17); more and more eminent shall be the children of the desolate, than the children of the married wife (Isa. 54:1). This promise to Christ is of the same import with that (Isa. 53:10), He shall see his seed; and these shall be made princes in all the earth, there shall be some of all nations brought into subjection to Christ, and so made princes, made to our God kings and priests (Rev. 1:6). H.
17. I will make Thy name to be remembered. The final address of the Psalmist is to the King. The work of all Christ’s messengers, whether prophets or evangelists, is simply to make His name known. Forever and ever. The last words leave no doubt as to the Messianic character of the Psalm. The people, literally, the peoples, i.e., the Gentiles, accepting Christ as their King, praise Him “as God over all, blessed forevermore” (Rom. 9:5). Cock.
Israel, which the Psalmist represents, is called upon first of all to proclaim in praises the name of the Messiah from generation to generation. But in doing so it does not remain alone. The peoples are thereby stirred up to do the same. The end of the history of redemption is this, that Israel and the peoples together praise this lovely, heroic, Divine King. D.—Christ’s espousing unto Himself a church, and gathering more and more from age to age by His Word and Spirit unto it, His converting souls and bringing them into the fellowship of His family, and giving unto them princely minds and affections wherever they live, is a large matter of growing and everlasting glory unto His majesty. Dickson.
“Thy name remembered in all generations;” the name of Jesus known in all the earth, held in honor and love by all the nations; one Lord and His name one; the idols utterly perished; Jesus, the pure, the lovely and glorious One, the sole object of worship and praise thenceforth and onward forever—such is the consummation of this wonderful prophecy! Will there not be joy above and joy below, joy among the holy in heaven and joy among the living of earth, when this “consummation so devoutly to be wished” shall become too real to be any longer doubted—shall be truly the glory of earth as well as the glory of heaven! C.
1. God is our refuge and strength, A very present help in trouble. 2 Therefore will we not fear, though the earth do change, And though the mountains be moved in the heart of the seas; 3 Though the waters thereof roar and be troubled, Though the mountains shake with the swelling thereof [Selah 4 There is a river, the streams whereof make glad the city of God, The holy place of the tabernacles of the Most High. 5 God is in the midst of her; she shall not be moved: God shall help her, and that right early.
6. The nations raged, the kingdoms were moved: He uttered his voice, the earth melted. 7 The LORD of hosts is with us; The God of Jacob is our refuge. [Selah 8 Come, behold the works of the LORD, What desolations he hath made in the earth. 9 He maketh wars to cease unto the end of the earth; He breaketh the bow, and cutteth the spear in sunder; He burneth the chariots in the fire. 10 Be still, and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth. 11 The LORD of hosts is with us: The God of Jacob is our refuge [Selah
THIS and the two following Psalms are hymns of triumph, composed on the occasion of some great deliverance. I am inclined to think that they all celebrated the same event, the sudden and miraculous destruction of the army of Sennacherib under the walls of Jerusalem. That proud host had swept the land. City after city had fallen into the power of the conqueror. The career of Sennacherib and his captains had been one uninterrupted success. The capital itself alone held out, and even there the enfeebled garrison seemed little likely to make a successful resistance. The swollen river had, in the language of the prophet, overflowed all its channels, and risen even to the neck. It was at this crisis that deliverance came. When there were no succors to be expected, when neither king nor army could help the city, God helped her. He, the Lord of hosts, was in the midst of her, keeping watch over her walls and defending her towers. His angel went forth at dead of night and smote the host of the Assyrians, and when men awoke in the morning, there reigned in that vast camp the silence and the stillness of death. Such a deliverance must have filled the whole nation with wonder and joy. The old days of Moses and David would seem to have returned. The hopes of prophets, so great and so glowing, yet so often apparently defeated, seemed now nearer to their accomplishment. The times were at hand when Jerusalem should be indeed the joy of the whole earth, when all nations should acknowledge Jehovah as their king. Her towers, her palaces, the temple of her God, stood in all their beauty, saved by a miracle from the spoiler’s hand. God had made Himself known there as a sure refuge, and henceforth His name would be acknowledged in the earth. We should expect to find such a deliverance celebrated by songs of thanksgiving and triumph. We should expect to find in these songs some indications of the particular events which they were intended to commemorate. Accordingly we do find, especially in this Psalm, and in the forty-eighth, certain expressions which are most natural and most intelligible, on the supposition that they were written at this time. In this Psalm there occur, moreover, very remarkable coincidences, both in thought and expression, with those prophecies of Isaiah which were uttered in prospect of the Assyrian invasion. P.
The Church is safe under Divine protection. This theme is amplified in three strophes, the close of which is indicated by the Selahs. If the Psalm owed its origin to any particular hishistorical occasion, of which there seem to be some traces in the last part, there is none to which it would be more appropriate than the miraculous destruction of the Assyrian host in the reign of Hezekiah (2 Kings 19 : 35 ; Isa. 37 : 36), as this was a signal instance of Divine interposition for the deliverance of the chosen people, and peculiarly adapted to exalt the God of Israel among the nations. A.
All the points in this Psalm accord admirably with the times of Hezekiah, when God interposed for His people as their refuge and strength in times of deepest trouble, and when the proud Assyrian whose tramp shook the nations was suddenly smitten, and the daughters of Zion rejoiced in the God of their salvation. Nothing forbids that date and occasion ; every point is finely adapted to the circumstances of that time ; and we get a more vivid and life-like sense of the Psalm if we connect it with those historic events. We may think of it as the national song of victory, or rather of triumph in God, celebrating not so much the prowess of arms, the courage of heroes, the terrible execution of the enquiry of war, as the might of Israel’s God. C.
The first strophe (vs. 1-3) brings out the general truth of the safety of those in whose behalf Divine power is enlisted, even in the midst of the wildest commotions, when the earth is shaken to its centre, and all things seem falling into ruin. The second strophe (vs. 4-7) exhibits more particularly the safety of Zion, the place chosen by God for His abode among men, from which all gracious influences descend in living streams, and which He will maintain in beauty and strength, while under His judgments opposing kingdoms shall tumble into ruin, and in the heat of His wrath the solid earth shall be dissolved. In the third strophe (vs. 8-11) the completed result of the recent Divine interposition is celebrated in joyful song. The uproar has ceased. The enemy before the pride of whose power the chosen people had so lately trembled in deadly fear is put to silence, the instruments of war are destroyed, and peace is restored to the wearied and exhausted earth. It would seem as if the poet had idealized recent historic events, as connected with the great Divine forces that are ever working in defence of truth and right against the evil and wrong that have so long been defiant and dominant in the world. This wonderful deliverance is before his mind as suggestive of the final deliverance of the Church from oppression and suffering, of a time under the reign of the Messiah when evil shall be forever vanquished, righteousness covering the earth like a river, and peace like the waves of the sea. In this aspect this song of praise is of permanent value. It will be recognized as the inspired basis of Luther’s magnificent choral, “Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott.” De Witt.
We sing this Psalm to the praise of God because God is with us, and powerfully and miraculously preserves and defends His Church and His Word against all fanatical spirits, against the gates of hell, against the implacable hatred of the devil, and against all the assaults of the world, the flesh and sin. Luther.
1-3. First strophe. The safety and security of the people of God, even when the earth itself and the strong foundations of the earth are shaken. The revolutions and commotions of the political world are here described by images borrowed from the convulsions of the natural world, the earthquake which makes the mountains to tremble, the roaring of the seas, etc. See v. 6, where the figure is dropped. P.—The first words strike the key-note of this thrilling song—God, the refuge and the strength of His prayerful, trusting people. It was in times of deepest trouble that He was found their help, exceedingly—this being the precise expression in the song. C.
He who walks humbly with his God, communes with Him and enjoys Him, as the daily tenor of his life, sees the night of adversity darkening around him without consternation. When skies grow dark, when friends are few, when health fails, when losses and bereavements and old age come on, and misfortunes thicken every hour, he can feel that all is safe—that the real portion has not been touched—that God is still the same. His apprehensions of God’s nature and providence, his relation to Christ as his covenant head and ever present advocate, and his certainty that no jot or tittle of promise shall remain unfulfilled, avail to lift his head when the waves run highest. In these shakings of the earth and sea he does not behold the tokens of a departing God. On the contrary, he can sing with the Psalmist, “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.” J. W. A.
Bruised reeds, smoking flax, broken hearts, dumb sufferers, the slow of speech, timid believers, tempted spirits—weakness in all its varieties—find a refuge in that thought of God, which nothing else reveals so affectingly as the gift of prayer, that He is a very present help in every time of trouble. He whom the heaven of heavens cannot contain “has come down and placed Himself in the centre of the little circle of human ideas and affections,” as if for the purpose of making our “religion always the homestead of common feelings.” Phelps.
2. Therefore we will not fear in the changing of the earth, and in the moving of mountains in the heart of seas. The simple idea expressed by these strong figures is, in the midst of the most violent changes and commotions. By the changing or exchanging of the earth we may understand either its change of place, violent removal, or more probably a change of face and aspect or condition, as the effect of mighty revolutions. In its changing, i.e., when it changes and because it changes. The mountains, as appears from v. 6, are emblems of great kingdoms and powerful states. The sea may be mentioned only as the place to which the mountains are transplanted, or in which they are shaken; but it may also be a specific emblem of the world, continually moved and agitated by the strife of human passions. This description is peculiarly appropriate to the commotions necessarily produced by the extensive conquests of the great empires of the ancient world, perhaps with special reference in this case to Assyria. A.
2,3. The earth thrown into a state of wild confusion, the mountains hurled into the mighty deep, the sea tossed into a tempest, and the everlasting hills drifting on its foaming billows, are the vivid images by which the Divine judgments on wicked and persecuting nations are described in the language of the prophets. J. Morison.—“Selah;” pause and contemplate the scene! Think how safe we were in God our refuge, and how safe we shall be through all the future ages with such a refuge ever at hand in our deepest need! C.
4. A river.** This figure is expressly chosen to represent the contrast between the serene and tranquil influence of God’s presence among His people, and the convulsions described in the preceding verses. Cook.—What is meant is the river of grace, which is compared in 36:9 also with a river of Paradise. When the city of God is threatened and invested by enemies, it will neither hunger nor thirst, tremble nor despair, for the river of grace and of its ordinances and promises flows with its joy-bringing waves through the holy place, where the dwelling-place of the Most High has been erected. D.
One of the boasts of Assyria’s king was this: “With the sole of my foot have I dried up all the rivers of the besieged places” (Isa. 37: 25); implying, it would seem, that he expected to subdue Jerusalem by cutting off its supply of water. But the resources of the Almighty withstood him at this point, providing a river whose streams should forever gladden the city of God. Water being one of the necessities of life, a river becomes a fit symbol of rich and unfailing supply. Eden was not complete without one; the heavenly paradise rejoices in its “river of the water of life, clear as crystal.” C.
Thus, says our Psalm, not with noise, not with tumult, not with conspicuous and destructive energy, but in silent, secret, underground communication, God’s grace, God’s love, His peace, His power, His almighty and gentle self flow into men’s souls. Quietness and confidence on our sides correspond to the quietness and serenity with which He glides into the heart. Instead of all the noise of the sea you have within the quiet impartations of the voice that is still and small, wherein God dwells. The extremest power is silent. The mightiest force in all the universe is the force which has neither speech nor language. The parent of all physical force, as astronomists seem to be more and more teaching us, is the great central sun which moveth all things, which operates all physical changes, whose beams are all but omnipotent, and yet fall so quietly that they do not disturb the motes that dance in the rays. Thunder and lightning are child’s play compared with the energy that goes to make the falling dews and quiet rains. The power of the sunshine is the root power of all force which works in material things. And so we turn, with the symbol in our hands, to the throne of God, and when He says, “Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,” we are aware of an energy, the signature of whose might is its quietness, which is omnipotent because it is gentle and silent. The seas may roar and be troubled, the tiny thread of the river is mightier than they all. A. M.
5. God (is) in the midst of her, she shall not be moved; God will help her at the turning of the morning. This last idiomatic phrase seems to mean, at the point when the day turns to come back, after reaching its greatest distance. The idea is that of a critical transition from grief to joy. The terms of this verse become still more significant and striking, if we suppose a specific reference to the night in which Sennacherib’s host was smitten, and the sight which was disclosed at break of day. A.
“The history of the world is the judgment of the world.” When He wills the plains are covered and mountains disappear, but one rock stands fast—“The mountain of the Lord’s house is exalted above the top of the mountains;” and when everything is rocking and swaying in the tempests, here is fixity and tranquillity. She shall not be moved. Why? Because of her citizens? No! Because of her guards and gates? No! Because of her orthodoxy? No! But because God is in her, and she is safe, and where He dwells no evil can come. “Thou carriest Cæsar and his fortunes.” The ship of Christ carries the Lord and His fortune; and, therefore, whatsoever becomes of the other little ships in the wild dash of the tempest, this with the Lord on board arrives at its desired haven—“God is in the midst of her, she shall not be moved.” A. M.
When Melanchthon began sometimes to fear lest the infant Reformation should be stifled in the birth, Luther was wont to comfort him with these words: “If we perish, Christ must fall too (He is in the midst of us), and if it must be so, be it so; I had rather perish with Christ, that great Ruler of the world, than prosper with Cæsar.” J. Collings.
6,7. The song recurs again to the scenes of terror—the formidable powers combined against the holy city—to bring to view once more the effect of God’s glorious interposition. Just then the awful voice of God was heard; the earth melted; all hostile forces quailed before Him. This proves that the Lord of Hosts, God of the armies of heaven, Monarch of the heavenly worlds, is on our side—at once the God of heaven and the God of Jacob; He is our refuge! Why should we fear? “Selah!” Think of this wonder-working God, the unfailing strength and succor of His people! C.
The condensed narrative moves to its end by a series of short crashing sentences like the ring of the destructive axe at the roots of trees. We see the whole sequence of events as by lightning flashes, which give brief glimpses and are quenched. The grand graphic words seem to pant with haste, as they record Israel’s deliverance. That deliverance comes from the Conquering Voice. “The heathen raged” (the same word, we may note, as is found a verse or two back, “Though the waters thereof roar”), “the kingdoms were moved; He uttered His voice, the earth melted.” With what vigor these hurried sentences describe, first, the wild wrath and formidable movements of the foe, and then the One Sovereign Word which quells them all, as well as the instantaneous weakness that dissolves the seeming solid substance when the breath of His lips smiles it! And where will you find a grander or loftier thought than this, that the simple word, the utterance of the pure will of God, conquers all opposition, and tells at once in the sphere of material things? He speaks, and it is done. “He uttered His voice, the earth melted.” How grandly, too, these last words give the impression of immediate and utter dissolution of all opposition! All the Titanic brute forces are, at His voice, disintegrated, and lose their organization and solidity. “The hills melted like wax;” “The mountains flowed down at Thy presence.” A. M.
7. Jehovah (God of) hosts.** The name first occurs in the mouth of Hannah (1 Sam. 1:11), and is applied to God as the Great King whom all created powers, the armies both in heaven and in earth, obey. To this name the Psalmist immediately subjoins another, “the God of Jacob,” the covenant God of His people. Thus we are reminded, as Calvin remarks, of the double prop on which our faith rests; the infinite power whereby He can subdue the universe unto Himself, and the fatherly love which He has revealed in His Word. Where these two are joined together, our faith may trample on all enemies. P.
8. All the operations of providence must be considered as the works of the Lord, and His attributes and purposes must be taken notice of in them. Particularly take notice of the desolations He has made in the earth, among the enemies of His Church, who thought to have laid the land of Israel desolate. The destruction they designed to bring upon the Church has been turned upon themselves. Cities were burned, countries laid waste, armies of men cut off and laid in heaps upon heaps. Come and see the effects of desolating judgments, and stand in awe of God; say, How terrible art Thou in Thy works! (66:3.) Let all that oppose Him see this with terror, and expect the same cup of trembling to be put into their hands; let all that fear Him and trust in Him see it with pleasure, and not be afraid of the most formidable powers armed against the Church. Let them gird themselves, but they shall be broken to pieces. H.
In war death reigns without a rival and without control. War is the work, the element, or rather the sport and triumph of death, who glories, not only in the extent of his conquest, but in the richness of his spoil. In the other methods of attack, in the other forms which death assumes, the feeble and the aged, who at the best can live but a short time, are usually the victims; here it is the vigorous and the strong. It is remarked by an ancient historian that in peace children bury their parents, in war parents bury their children; nor is the difference small. R. Hall.
9. When He pleases to sheathe His sword, He puts an end to the wars of the nations, and crowns them with peace. War and peace depend on His word and will as much as storms and calms at sea do (107:25, 29). He makes wars to cease unto the end of the earth.
10. Be still and know.** Men will set up themselves, will have their own way and do their own will; but let them know that God will be exalted, He will have His way, will do His own will, will glorify His own name, and wherein they deal proudly, He will be above them, and make them know that He is so. Let His own people be still; let them be calm and tremble no more, but know to their comfort that the Lord is God, He is God alone and will be exalted above the heathen; let Him alone to maintain His honor, to fulfil His own counsels, and to support His own interest in the world. Though we be depressed, yet let us not be dejected, for we are sure that God will be exalted, and that may satisfy us; He will work for His great name, and then no matter what becomes of our little names. H.
“Be still, and know.” We cannot know this deep and eternal truth unless we are still. But, on the other hand, this knowledge will make us still. If we have it not, or are not seeking to have it, we must be restless and impatient; just so far as it is granted to us it must bring tranquillity. Maurice.—We need this deeper and stiller element in our piety. We want not only to work, but to believe that God in Christ works, and with mightier forces than we; works through and by us, or without us, as He will; and that we are at best but inapt and incompetent instruments in His hands. F. D. H.
The two clauses which compose this sentence are so interwoven that each may be the cause and each may be the effect of the other. The way to know God is to be still, and the way to be still is to know God. It is one of these beautiful reciprocities which we often find between a duty and a privilege. The way to do the duty is to accept the privilege, and the way to enjoy the privilege is to do the duty. In the stillness you will learn that God is from all eternity the same; that God elects His own; that the whole scheme of man’s salvation revolves within himself; that all God’s attributes harmonize in Christ. This is stillness: The Lord is; the Lord liveth; the Lord reigneth. J. V.
11. The Lord of hosts is with us.**
This is the pervading idea of the Psalm. He is not coming down among us, like some heathen god, to help us in an emergency; He is with us, not visible to our eyes, but really present, the strength and refuge of our hearts. Maurice.—God’s presence means God’s sympathy, God’s knowledge, God’s actual help, and these are ours if we will. Instead of staggering at the apparent impossibility that so transcendent and mighty a Being should stoop from His throne, where He lords it over the universe, and enter into the narrow room of our hearts, let us rather try to rise to the rapture of the astonished Psalmist when, looking upon the deliverance that had been wrought, this was the leading conviction that was written in flame upon his heart, “The Lord of hosts is with us!” A. M.
The joyous refrain of the song brings it fitly to its close. This glorious Lord of hosts dwells among us, the God of His own people (“Jacob”) and their everlasting refuge. C.—The Lord of hosts, the God of Jacob, has been, is, and will be with us; has been, is, and will be our refuge; the original includes all; and well may Selah be added to it. Mark this and take the comfort of it, and say, If God be for us, who can be against us? H.
“The Lord of hosts is with us.” That majestic name includes all the deepest and most blessed thoughts of God which the earlier revelation imparted. That name of “Jehovah” proclaims at once His Eternal Being and His covenant relation—manifesting Him by its mysterious meaning as He who dwells above time; the tideless sea of absolute, unchanging existence, from whom all the stream of creatural life flows forth many colored and transient, to whom it all returns; who, Himself unchanging, changeth all things; and declaring Him, by the historical associations connected with it, as having unveiled His purposes in firm words to which men may trust, and as having entered into that solemn league with Israel which underlay their whole national life. He is the Lord the Eternal—the covenant name. He is the Lord of hosts, the “imperator,” absolute master and commander, captain and king of all the combined forces of the universe, whether they be personal or impersonal, spiritual or material, who, in serried ranks, wait on Him, and move harmonious, obedient to His will. And this Eternal Master of the legions of the universe is with us, weak and poor, and troubled and sinful as we are.
But we have a fuller revelation of that mighty name, and a more wondrous and closer Divine presence by our sides. The Psalm rejoices in that “the Lord of hosts is with us;” and the choral answer of the Gospel swells into loftier music, as it tells of the fulfilment of Psalmists’ hopes and prophets’ visions in Him who is called “Immanuel,” which is, being interpreted, “God with us.” The Psalm is confident in that God dwelt in Zion. And our confidence has the more wondrous fact to lay hold of, that even now the Word who dwelt among us makes His abode in every believing heart, and gathers them all together at last in that great city, round whose flashing foundations no tumult of ocean beats, whose gates of pearl need not be closed against any foes, with whose happy citizens “God will dwell, and they shall be His people, and God Himself shall be with them, and be their God.” A. M.
Well, let the world have its course, I am content to bear it; God’s will be done; let the sea be troubled; let the waves thereof roar; let the winds of affliction blow; let the waters of sorrows rush upon me; let the darkness of grief and heaviness compass me about; yet will I not be afraid; these storms will blow over; these winds will be laid; these waves will fall; this tempest cannot last long; and these clouds shall be dispelled; whatsoever I suffer here shall shortly have an end. I shall not suffer eternally; come the worst that can come, death will put an end to all my sorrows and miseries. Lord, grant me patience here and ease hereafter! I will suffer patiently whatsoever can happen, and shall endeavor to do nothing against my conscience and displeasing unto Thee; for all is safe and sure with him who is certain and sure of a blessed eternity. Bishop Taylor.