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![TARY
Written and edited by Glenn Pease
PREFACE
I quote many authors both old and new, and if any I quote do not want their wisdom shared in
this way they can let me know and I will remove it. My e-mail is glenn_p86@yahoo.com
Sometimes I add an entire sermon because it gives more meaning to the text than can be found in
any other source.
For the director of music. Of the Sons of Korah.
According to alamoth.[b] A song.
I](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/52248798-psalm-46-commentary-141006075805-conversion-gate02/75/52248798-psalm-46-commentary-2-2048.jpg)
![the son of Mattaniah, a Levite of the sons of Asaph, came the Spirit of the LORD in the midst of
the congregation;
15 And he said, Hearken ye, all Judah, and ye inhabitants of Jerusalem, and thou king
Jehoshaphat, Thus saith the LORD unto you, Be not afraid nor dismayed by reason of this great
multitude; for the battle is not yours, but God's.
16 To morrow go ye down against them: behold, they come up by the cliff of Ziz; and ye shall find
them at the end of the brook, before the wilderness of Jeruel.
17 Ye shall not need to fight in this battle: set yourselves, stand ye still, and see the salvation of
the LORD with you, O Judah and Jerusalem: fear not, nor be dismayed; to morrow go out
against them: for the LORD will be with you.
3. though its waters roar and foam
and the mountains quake with their surging.[c]
1. David is describing things like earthquakes and tsunamis with a confidence that sounds like he
feels invincible and unable to be touched by natural disasters. This is not how most of us would
face such things.
Barnes, “Though the waters thereof roar and be troubled - The waters of the sea. The idea is, that
they would not be afraid though everything should be in commotion, and be as unsettled as the
restless waves of the ocean. The earth might be changed, the mountains removed, the agitated sea
roar and dash against the shore, but their minds would be calm. The word rendered “be
troubled” means to boil; to ferment; to foam; and here it refers to the ocean as agitated and
lashed into foam.](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/52248798-psalm-46-commentary-141006075805-conversion-gate02/75/52248798-psalm-46-commentary-31-2048.jpg)
![ahash, the Ammonite; so Joshua, when he went up to succour Gibeon; so Samson, when he
carried off in triumph the gates of Gaza; so also the associate kings, under the guidance of Elisha,
in their expedition against the Moabites, when they, according to God's command, filled the
wilderness with ditches, and then beheld their enemies drawn to their destruction, by the
reflection of the rising sun upon the water. Michael Ayguan.
Verse 5. Right early. Rather, with the margin, when the morning appeareth. The restoration of the
Jews will be one of the first things at the season of the second advent. It will be accomplished in
the very dawning of that day, "when the Sun of Righteousness will rise with healing on his
wings." Samuel Horsley.
3. Gill, “God is in the midst of her,.... The church and people of God; not merely by his essence,
power, and providence, as he is in the midst of the world; but by his gracious presence, and which
always continues, though not always perceived; and is a sufficient antidote against all fear of men
and devils;
she shall not be moved; though the earth may; and when it is, Psa_46:2, neither from the heart of
God, on which his people are set as a seal; nor from the hands of Christ, from whence they can
never be plucked; nor from the covenant of grace, which is immovable; nor off of the rock Christ,
on which they are built; nor from the state of grace, of justification, adoption, and sanctification,
in which they stand; nor out of the world, by all the cunning and power of antichrist;
God shall help her, and that right early: or "when the morning looks out" (x). When it is night
with the church, it is the hour and power of darkness with the enemies of it; and this is the time
of the reign of antichrist, whose kingdom is a kingdom of darkness: but the "morning cometh,
and also the night"; the former being about to break forth, and the latter to be at an end; yea, at
eventide it shall be light: and the Lord will be a suitable, seasonable, and timely help to his
people; for though weeping endures the night, joy comes in the morning.
4. Henry, “Though heaven and earth are shaken, yet God is in the midst of her, she shall not be
moved, Psa_46:5. God has assured his church of his special presence with her and concern for
her; his honour is embarked in her, he has set up his tabernacle in her and has undertaken the
protection of it, and therefore she shall not be moved, that is, [1.]](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/52248798-psalm-46-commentary-141006075805-conversion-gate02/75/52248798-psalm-46-commentary-52-2048.jpg)
![ot destroyed, not removed, as
the earth may be Psa_46:2. The church shall survive the world, and be in bliss when that is in
ruins. It is built upon a rock, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. [2.]](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/52248798-psalm-46-commentary-141006075805-conversion-gate02/75/52248798-psalm-46-commentary-53-2048.jpg)
![5. Calvin, “God is in the midst of her; she shall not be moved. The Psalmist now shows that the
great security of the Church consists in this, that God dwells in the midst of her; for the verb
which we translate, shall be moved, is of the feminine gender, nor can it be referred to God, as if it
were designed to teach that God is immovable. The sentence must be explained in this way, The
holy city shall not be moved or shaken, because God dwells there, and is always ready to help her.
The expression, the dawn of the morning “At the looking forth of the morning; that is, as the
Greek explaineth it, ‘very early;’ when the morning peereth or showeth the face.” — Ainsworth.
“As soon as the morning appears [or shows] its face; i.e., God will come very early to her succor,
before any enemy is awakened to annoy her.” — Mudge. “Before the dawn of the morning; i.e.,
with the utmost readiness and alacrity. The expression is borrowed from the conduct of a person
who, in his anxiety to accomplish a favorite object, engages in it earlier than men ordinarily
would. Jeremiah 7:13; and 7:25.” — French and Skinner. denotes daily, as soon as the sun rises
upon the earth. The sum of the whole is, If we desire to be protected by the hand of God, we must
be concerned above all things that he may dwell amongst us; for all hope of safety depends upon
his presence alone. And he dwells amongst us for no other purpose than to preserve us uninjured.
Moreover, although God does not always hasten immediately to our aid, according to the
importunity of our desires, yet he will always come to us seasonably, so as to make apparent the
truth of what is elsewhere said, “Behold, he that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep,”
(Psalm 121:4.)
6.](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/52248798-psalm-46-commentary-141006075805-conversion-gate02/75/52248798-psalm-46-commentary-55-2048.jpg)
Uploaded byGLENN PEASE
52248798 psalm-46-commentary
This document provides commentary on Psalm 46 from multiple sources. It includes summaries of the psalm's themes of God protecting his people during times of trouble. The commentary discusses the psalm's historical context, musical notation, and importance to Martin Luther. It also analyzes themes of finding refuge and strength in God during difficulties.
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52248798 psalm-46-commentary
- 1.
- 2. TARY Written andedited by Glenn Pease PREFACE I quote many authors both old and new, and if any I quote do not want their wisdom shared in this way they can let me know and I will remove it. My e-mail is [email protected] Sometimes I add an entire sermon because it gives more meaning to the text than can be found in any other source. For the director of music. Of the Sons of Korah. According to alamoth.[b] A song. I
- 3.
- 4. 1. Treasury ofDavid, “Title. To the Chief Musician. He who could sing other Psalms so well was fitly entrusted with this noble ode. Trifles may be left to commoner songsters, but the most skilful musician in Israel must be charged with the due performance of this song, with the most harmonious voices and choicest music. For the Sons of Korah. One alone cannot fulfil the praise, there must be picked choristers under him, whose joyful privilege it shall be to celebrate the service of song in the house of the Lord. As to why the sons of Korah were selected, see our remarks at the head of Psalm 42. It may be well to add that they were a division of the Levites who took their turn in serving at the temple. All the works of holy service ought not to be monopolised by one order of talent, each company of believers should in due course enjoy the privilege.
- 5. one ought tobe without a share in the service of God. A Song upon Alamoth. Which may denote that the music was to be pitched high for the treble or soprano voices of the Hebrew virgins. They went forth in their dances to sing the praises of David when he smote the Philistine, it was meet that they should make merry and be glad when the victories of Jehovah became their theme. We need to praise God upon virgin hearts, with souls chaste towards his fear, with lively and exalted expressions, and happy strains. Or the word Alamoth may refer to shrill sounding instruments, as in 1 Chronicles 15:20 , where we read that Zechariah, and Eliab, and Benaiah were to praise the Lord "with psalteries on Alamoth." We are not always, in a slovenly manner, to fall into one key, but with intelligence are to modulate our praises and make them fittingly expressive of the occasion and the joy it creates in our souls. These old musical terms cannot be interpreted with certainty, but they are still useful because they show that care and skill should be used in our sacred music. Subject. Happen what may, the Lord's people are happy and secure, this is the doctrine of the Psalm, and it might, to help our memories, be called THE SO
- 6.
- 7.
- 8. CE, were itnot that from the great reformer's love to this soul-stirring hymn it will probably be best remembered as LUTHER'S PSALM.
- 9. Division. It isdivided by inspired authority into three parts, each of which ends with Selah. Title. The LXX referring to the notion of the theme (~lc), occultavit, render it uper twn krufiwn, for the hidden; and the Latin, pro arcanis; and the rest of the ancient interpreters take the same course; the Chaldee referring it to Coreh, and those that were hidden, i.e., swallowed up, by the earth with him, whilst these sons of Coreh escaped; as if the mention of the sons of Coreh in the title, by whom this song was to be sung, referred the whole Psalm to that story. Accordingly, verse 2, when the Hebrew reads, "Though the earth be removed," the paraphrase is, "When our fathers were changed from the earth." Henry Hammond. Title. The title is peculiar, "Upon Alamoth," suggesting "a choir of virgins," as if this virgin choir were selected to sing a Psalm that tells of perils and fears and alarms abounding, in order to show that even the feeble virgins may in that day sing without dread, because of "The Mighty One" on their side. Andrew A. Bonar. Title. -- "Upon Alamoth." (To be sung) en soprano. Armand de Mestral, quoted by Perowne. Whole Psalm. 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. Martin Luther. Whole Psalm. Luther and his companions, with all their bold readiness for danger and death in the cause of truth, had times when their feelings were akin to those of a divine singer, who said, "Why art thou cast down, O my soul?" But in such hours the unflinching Reformer would cheerily say to his friend Melancthon, "Come, Philip, let us sing the forty-sixth Psalm; and they could sing it in Luther's own characteristic version": -- A sure stronghold our God is He, A timely shield and weapon; Our help he will be, and set us free From every ill can happen. And were the world with devils filled, All eager to devour us, Our souls to fear shall little yield, They cannot overpower us. S. W. Christophers, in "Hymn Writers and their Hymns," 1866 2. Calvin, “This psalm seems to be an expression of thanksgiving rather for some particular deliverance, than for the constant aid by which God has always protected and preserved his Church. It may be inferred from it that the city of Jerusalem. when stricken with great terror, and placed in extreme danger, was preserved, contrary to all expectation, by the unlooked for and miraculous power of God. The prophet, therefore, whoever composed the psalm, commending a deliverance so singularly vouchsafed by God, exhorts the faithful to commit themselves confidently to his protection, and not to doubt that, relying fearlessly upon him as their guardian and the protector of their welfare, they shall be continually preserved in safety from all the assaults of their enemies, because it is his peculiar office to quell all commotions. To the chief musician of the sons of Korah, a song upon Alamoth.
- 10. Interpreters are notagreed as to the alamoth; but without noticing all , עלמות meaning of the word the different opinions, I shall mention only two of them, namely, that it was either an instrument of music, or else the commencement of some common and well known song. The latter conjecture appears to me the most probable. As to the time when this psalm was written it is also uncertain, unless, perhaps, we might suppose that it was written when the siege of the city was suddenly raised by the terrible and sore destruction which God brought upon the army of Sennacherib, Others refer it, as Rosenmüller, to the victory of Jehoshaphat, which was celebrated with great rejoicing, 2 Chronicles 20:26-30. It is, however, difficult or impossible to ascertain with certainty the occasion on which it was composed. It seems rather the language of faith under threatened difficulties, than of triumph over vanquished foes. Thus, in the midst of threatened danger, it may be employed by Christians to support their faith, hope, and peace. This was Luther’s favorite psalm. He composed a famous version of it on his journey to the Diet at Worms, where he went boldly to defend the Reformation at the risk of his life; and he was wont to say when threatened with any fresh trouble, “Come, let us sing the 46th Psalm.” (2 Kings 19:35.) This opinion I readily admit, because it accords most with the whole scope of the psalm. It is abundantly manifest that .some favor of God, worthy of being held in remembrance, such as that was, is here commended 3. F. B. Meyer, “The historical occasion of this Psalm cannot be certainly determined. But it is very probable that it was composed when Jerusalem was beleaguered by Sennacherib's hosts (Isa. 37). It fits every era in which the Church is in danger from her foes. It foretell the final destruction of Antichrist. It was Luther's favorite and is rendered into verse in his memorable hymn, Ein feste Burg. During the sitting of the Diet of Augsburg, he sang it every day to his lute, at the window, looking up to heaven. The security of God's people amid storms is elaborated in three divisions, each concluding with Selah. 1. God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. 1. There are two things we need in this troubled world. We need a place to hide when we cannot face the attack of the enemy, and we need the strength to face that enemy when we are forced by circumstances to face them. Both of these resources are found in God, to whom we run, and with whose help we stand. Sometimes trouble is overwhelming even for great warriors like David, and he needed a place to hide in escaping from the battle. At many other times he was in the heart of the battle, and was strengthened to come out a winner every time. The best of God's people need times of escape, for no warrior can fight all the time. We get battle weary, and have a desperate need to flee from the battle field and enjoy a time of peace and quiet in the presence of the Lord. God welcomes us to that retreat, and also wages war with us as he is ever present in our time of trouble. There are some superficial optimist who think that Christians never need to have trouble. They are children of the King, and they should be protected from all the troubles of life. That is not what we read in the Bible or history. Believers have never been free of trouble. Much of it is due
- 11. to our ignorance,and much is due to a world of people whose goal in life is to not obey God's laws of life. The result is Christians bring trouble on themselves, and the world through plenty their way. This little note suggests that we should give more thought to the decisions we make, for bad decisions are a key factor in trouble coming our way. Someone wrote, “A colleague of mine at
- 12. ASA was assignedto prepare a presentation on lessons learned from our bad experiences with the Hubble Space Telescope. On his chart at the briefing, lesson
- 13. o. 1 read:"In naming your mission, never us a word that rhymes with trouble." Reader's Digest, March, 1993, Page 128. It is not likely that the name led to the problems, but there is no need to encourage it. Famous example of a major mistake in naming is this: “General Motors had a very famous fiasco in trying to market the
- 14. ova car inCentral and South America. "
- 15. o va" inSpanish means, "It Doesn't Go". They brought trouble on themselves by this mistake, and so do all of us by opening out mouths at the wrong time, and then saying what out not to be said. Words are trouble makers, and none of us escape this reality. 1B. When you blow it, run to the Lord, and let him be your refuge, for he is the God of all comfort, and he can forgive you, and assure you that being stupid and foolish does not rob you of his love, and of the hope that you can learn to be a more loving person yourself and cut down on the level of trouble you bring on yourself. We could go on an on about trouble for there are 172 verses in the Bible that deal with the word trouble. That would be an enormous study in itself, and so face the reality that trouble is not one of the things we will escape by being God's children. Let me just share a few of these texts from the Psalms.Psalm 9:9 The LORD is a refuge for the oppressed, a stronghold in times of trouble. Psalm 10:14 But you, God, see the trouble of the afflicted; you consider their grief and take it in hand. The victims commit themselves to you; you are the helper of the fatherless. Psalm 22:11 Do not be far from me, for trouble is near and there is no one to help. Psalm 25:17 Relieve the troubles of my heart and free me from my anguish. Psalm 25:22 Deliver Israel, O God, from all their troubles! Psalm 27:5 For in the day of trouble he will keep me safe in his dwelling; he will hide me in the shelter of his sacred tent and set me high upon a rock. Psalm 32:7 You are my hiding place; you will protect me from trouble and surround me with songs of deliverance. Psalm 88:3 I am overwhelmed with troubles and my life draws near to death. Psalm 90:10 Our days may come to seventy years, or eighty, if our strength endures; yet the best of them are but trouble and sorrow, for they quickly pass, and we fly away. Psalm 90:15 Make us glad for as many days as you have afflicted us, for as many years as we have seen trouble. 1C. These kinds of texts go on an on through the Psalms making it clear that trouble is a part of every life, even one so loved by God as David, a man after God's own heart. But let me share just
- 16. a couple morethat reveals again the reality that we are often the chief cause of our troubles. Psalm 38:18 I confess my iniquity; I am troubled by my sin. Psalm 40:12 For troubles without number surround me; my sins have overtaken me, and I cannot see. They are more than the hairs of my head, and my heart fails within me. Psalm 55:2 hear me and answer me. My thoughts trouble me and I am distraught 1D. Warren Wiersbe, “"God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble" (v. 1). This assurance from the Lord ought to take care of all of our fears and problems. God is our refuge--He hides us. God is our strength--He helps us. These two go together. At times in our lives we need a refuge. The storm is blowing and the battle is raging, and we have to run somewhere to hide. It's not a sin to hide, but it is a sin to stay hidden. God hides us so that He can help us. Then we can return to the battle and face the storm. This is not escape but rejuvenation. The Old Testament contains 21 different Hebrew words for trouble. Here the word trouble means "in tight places." If you are in a tight place today, let me suggest that you run by faith to Jesus. But don't go to Him to escape. Go there and tell Him, "Lord, I want to go back to the battle. I want to go back to my work. I want to carry the burdens of life, but you have to give me the strength." Then you can claim this marvelous promise of verse 1.
- 17. otice the conclusion:"Therefore we will not fear" (v. 2). When God is available as your refuge and your strength, you have nothing to fear. Take time to run to the Lord. Are circumstances overwhelming you? Take refuge in the Lord. He will enable you to continue with renewed strength and confidence. Back to the Bible Copyright © 1996-2011 The Good
- 18. ews Broadcasting Association,Inc. All rights reserved. 2. Barnes, “God is our refuge and strength - God is for us as a place to which we may flee for safety; a source of strength to us in danger. The first word, “refuge,” from a verb meaning to “flee,” and then “to flee to” - הסה châsâh - or to take shelter in - denotes a place to which one would flee in time of danger - as a lofty wall; a high tower; a fort; a fortress. See the notes at Psa_18:2. The idea here is, that the people of God, in time of danger, may find him to be what such a place of refuge would be. Compare Pro_18:10. The word “strength” implies that God is the source of strength to those who are weak and defenseless; or that we may rely on his strength “as if” it were our own; or that we may feel as safe in his strength as though we had that strength ourselves. We may make it the basis of our confidence as really as though the strength resided in our own arm. See the notes at Psa_18:2. A very present help - The word “help” here means aid, assistance. The word “trouble” would cover all that can come upon us which would give us anxiety or sorrow. The word rendered “present” - נמצא nimetsâ' - means rather, “is found,” or “has been found;” that is, he has “proved” himself to be a help in trouble. The word “present,” as if he were near to us, or close by us, does not accurately express the idea, which is rather, that “he has been found” to be such, or that he has always “proved” himself to be such a help, and that, therefore, we may now confide in him. The word “very,” or “exceedingly,” is added to qualify the whole proposition, as if this were
- 19. “emphatically true.” Itwas true in the most eminent sense that God had always been found to be such a helper, and, “therefore,” there was nothing to fear in the present distress. Psa_46:2. 2B. Clarke, “God is our refuge - It begins abruptly, but nobly; ye may trust in whom and in what ye please: but God (Elohim) is our refuge and strength. A very present help - A help found to be very powerful and effectual in straits and difficulties. The words are very emphatic: עזרה בצרות נמצא מאד ezerah betsaroth nimtsa meod, “He is found an exceeding, or superlative help in difficulties.” Such we have found him, and therefore celebrate his praise. 2C. Spurgeon, “God is our refuge and strength.
- 20. ot our armies,or our fortresses. Israel's boast is in Jehovah, the only living and true God. Others vaunt their impregnable castles, placed on inaccessible rocks, and secured with gates of iron, but God is a far better refuge from distress than all these: and when the time comes to carry the war into the enemy's territories, the Lord stands his people in better stead than all the valour of legions or the boasted strength of chariot and horse. Soldiers of the cross, remember this, and count yourselves safe, and make yourselves strong in God. Forget not the personal possessive word our; make sure each one of your portion in God, that you may say, "He is my refuge and strength."
- 21. either forget thefact that God is our refuge just now, in the immediate present, as truly as when David penned the word. God alone is our all in all. All other refuges are refuges of lies, all other strength is weakness, for power belongeth unto God: but as God is all sufficient, our defence and might are equal to all emergencies. A very present help in trouble, or in distress he has so been found, he has been tried and proved by his people. He never withdraws himself from his afflicted. He is their help, truly, effectually, constantly; he is present or near them, close at their side and ready for their succour, and this is emphasized by the word very in our version, he is more present than friend or relative can be, yea, more nearly present than even the trouble itself. To all this comfortable truth is added the consideration that his assistance comes at the needed time. He is not as the swallows that leave us in the winter; he is a friend in need and a friend indeed. When it is very dark with us, let brave spirits say, "Come, let us sing the forty-sixth Psalm." "A fortress firm, and steadfast rock, Is God in time of danger; A shield and sword in every shock, From foe well known or stranger." 3. Gill, “God is our refuge and strength,.... That is, Christ, who is God as well as man, is the "refuge" for souls to fly unto for safety; as for sensible sinners, in a view of danger, wrath, and misery, so for saints, in every time of distress; typified by the cities of refuge, under the legal dispensation; See Gill on Psa_9:9; and he it is from whom they have all their spiritual strength, and every renewal and supply of it, to exercise grace, perform duties, withstand enemies, bear the cross patiently, show a fortitude of mind under the sorest distresses, and hold on and out unto the end: in short, he is the strength of their hearts, under the greatest trials, of their lives, amidst the greatest dangers; and of their salvation, notwithstanding all their enemies; a very present help in trouble; whether inward or outward, of soul or body; the Lord helps his people under it to bear it, and he helps them out of it in the most proper and seasonable time: they are poor helpless creatures in themselves; nor can any other help them but the Lord, who
- 22. made heaven andearth; and he helps presently, speedily, and effectually: in the Hebrew text it is, "he is found an exceeding help in trouble" (t); in all kind of trouble that the saints come into, the Lord has been found, by experience, to be an exceeding great helper of them; moreover, he is easily and always to be come at, and found by them for their help. 4. Henry, “The psalmist here teaches us by his own example. I. To triumph in God, and his relation to us and presence with us, especially when we have had some fresh experiences of his appearing in our behalf (Psa_46:1): God is our refuge and strength; we have found him so, he has engaged to be so, and he ever will be so. Are we pursued? God is our refuge to whom we may flee, and in whom we may be safe and think ourselves so; secure upon good grounds, Pro_18:10. Are we oppressed by troubles? Have we work to do and enemies to grapple with? God is our strength, to bear us up under our burdens, to fit us for all our services and sufferings; he will by his grace put strength into us, and on him we may stay ourselves. Are we in distress? He is a help, to do all that for us which we need, a present help, a help found (so the word is), one whom we have found to be so, a help on which we may write Probatum est - It is tried, as Christ is called a tried stone, Isa_28:16. Or, a help at hand, one that never is to seek for, but that is always near. Or, a help sufficient, a help accommodated to every case and exigence; whatever it is, he is a very present help; we cannot desire a better help, nor shall ever find the like in any creature. II. To triumph over the greatest dangers: God is our strength and our help, a God all-sufficient to us; therefore will not we fear. Those that with a holy reverence fear God need not with any amazement to be afraid of the power of hell or earth. If God be for us, who can be against us; to do us any harm? It is our duty, it is our privilege, to be thus fearless; it is an evidence of a clear conscience, of an honest heart, and of a lively faith in God and his providence and promise: “We will not fear, though the earth be removed, though all our creature-confidences fail us and sink us; nay, though that which should support us threaten to swallow us up, as the earth did Korah,” for whose sons this psalm was penned, and, some think, by them; yet while we keep close to God, and have him for us, we will not fear, for we have no cause to fear; - Si fractus illabatur orbis, Impavidum ferient ruinae - Hor. - Let Jove's dread arm With thunder rend the spheres, Beneath the crush of worlds undaunted he appears. 5. K&D, “The congregation begins with a general declaration of that which God is to them. This declaration is the result of their experience. Luther, after the lxx and Vulg., renders it, “in the great distresses which have come upon us.” As though נִמְצָא could stand for הַנִּמְצָעוֹת , and that this again could mean anything else but “at present existing,” to which מְאדֹ is not at all appropriate. God Himself is called נמצא מאד as being one who allows Himself to be found in times of distress (2Ch_15:4, and frequently) exceedingly; i.e., to those who then seek Him He reveals Himself and verifies His word beyond all measure. Because God is such a God to them, the congregation or church does not fear though a still greater distress than that which they have just withstood, should break in upon them: if the earth should change, i.e., effect, enter upon, undergo or suffer a change (an inwardly transitive Hiphil, Ges. §53, 2); and if the mountains should sink down into the heart ( בְּלֵ ב exactly as in Eze_27:27; Jon_2:4) of the sea (ocean), i.e., even if these should sink
- 23. back again intothe waters out of which they appeared on the third day of the creation, so that consequently the old chaos should return. The church supposes the most extreme case, viz., the falling in of the universe which has been creatively set in order. We are no more to regard the language as being allegorical here (as Hengstenberg interprets it, the mountains being = the kingdoms of the world), than we would the language of Horace: si fractus illabatur orbis (Carm. iii. 3, 7). Since יַמִּים is not a numerical but amplificative plural, the singular suffixes in Psa_46:4 may the more readily refer back to it. גַּֽאֲוָ ה , pride, self-exaltation, used of the sea as in Psa_89:10 גֵּאוּת , and in Job_38:11 גָּאוֹן are used. The futures in Psa_46:4 do not continue the infinitive construction: if the waters thereof roar, foam, etc.; but they are, as their position and repetition indicate, intended to have a concessive sense. And this favours the supposition of Hupfeld and Ewald that the refrain, Psa_46:8, 12, which ought to form the apodosis of this concessive clause (cf. Psa_139:8-10; Job_20:24; Isa_40:30.) has accidentally fallen out here. In the text as it lies before us Psa_46:4 attaches itself to א־נִירָא v: (we do not fear), let its waters (i.e., the waters of the ocean) rage and foam continually; and, inasmuch as the sea rises high, towering beyond its shores, let the mountains threaten to topple in. The music, which here becomes forte, strengthens the believing confidence of the congregation, despite this wild excitement of the elements. 6. The Scottish Psalter 1 God is our refuge and our strength, in straits a present aid; Therefore, although the earth remove, we will not be afraid: 2 Though hills amidst the seas be cast; Though waters roaring make, And troubled be; yea, though the hills, by swelling seas do shake. 3 A river is, whose streams make glad the city of our God; The holy place, wherein the Lord most high hath his abode. 5 God in the midst of her doth dwell; and nothing shall her move: The Lord to her an helper will, and that right early, prove. 7. Spurgeon, “Covenant blessings are not meant to be looked at only, but to be appropriated. Even our Lord Jesus is given to us for our present use. Believer, thou dost not make use of Christ as thou oughtest to do. When thou art in trouble, why dost thou not tell him all thy grief? Has he not a sympathizing heart, and can he not comfort and relieve thee?
- 24. o, thou artgoing about to all thy friends, save thy best Friend, and telling thy tale everywhere except into the bosom of thy Lord. Art thou burdened with this day’s sins? Here is a fountain filled with blood: use it, saint,
- 25. use it. Hasa sense of guilt returned upon thee? The pardoning grace of Jesus may be proved again and again. Come to him at once for cleansing. Dost thou deplore thy weakness? He is thy strength: why not lean upon him? Dost thou feel naked? Come hither, soul; put on the robe of Jesus’ righteousness. Stand not looking at it, but wear it. Strip off thine own righteousness, and thine own fears too: put on the fair white linen, for it was meant to wear. Dost thou feel thyself sick? Pull the night-bell of prayer, and call up the Beloved Physician! He will give the cordial that will revive thee. Thou art poor, but then thou hast “a kinsman, a mighty man of wealth.” What! wilt thou not go to him, and ask him to give thee of his abundance, when he has given thee this promise, that thou shalt be joint heir with him, and has made over all that he is and all that he has to be thine? There is nothing Christ dislikes more than for his people to make a show-thing of him, and not to use him. He loves to be employed by us. The more burdens we put on his shoulders, the more precious will he be to us. “Let us be simple with him, then,
- 26. ot backward, stiff,or cold, As though our Bethlehem could be What Sinai was of old.” 7B. Spurgeon, “A help that is not present when we need it is of small value. The anchor which is left at home is of no use to the seaman in the hour of storm; the money which he used to have is of no worth to the debtor when a writ is out against him. Very few earthly helps could be called "very present": they are usually far in the seeking, far in the using, and farther still when once used. But as for the LORD our God, He is present when we seek Him, present when we need Him, and present when we have already enjoyed His aid. He is more than "present," He is very present. More present than the nearest friend can be, for He is in us in our trouble; more present than we are to ourselves, for sometimes we lack presence of mind. He is always present, effectually present, sympathetically present, altogether present. He is present now if this is a gloomy season. Let us rest ourselves upon Him. He is our refuge, let us hide in Him; He is our strength, let us array ourselves with Him; He is our help, let us lean upon Him; He is our very present help, let us repose in Him now. We need not have a moment's care or an instant's fear. "The LORD of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge." 8. Calvin, “God is our refuge and strength Here the Psalmist begins with a general expression or sentiment, before he comes to speak of the more particular deliverance. He begins by premising that God is sufficiently able to protect his own people, and that he gives them sufficient ground to expect it; for this the word מחסה , machaseh, properly signifies. In the second clause of the verse the verb he is found, which we translate in the present, is in the past tense, he has been found; and, indeed, there would be no impropriety in limiting the language to some particular deliverance which had already been experienced, just as others also have rendered it in the past tense. But as the prophet adds the term tribulations in the plural number, I prefer explaining it of a continued act, That God comes seasonably to our aid, and is never wanting in the time of need, as often as any afflictions press upon his people. If the prophet were speaking of the experience of God’s favor, it would answer much better to render the verb in the past tense. It is, however, obvious that his design is to extol the power of God and his goodness towards his people, and to show how ready God is to afford them assistance, that they may not in the time of their adversities gaze around them on every side, but rest satisfied with his protection alone. He therefore says expressly that God acts in such a manner towards them, to let the Church know
- 27. that he exercisesa special care in preserving and defending her. There can be no doubt that by this expression he means to draw a distinction between the chosen people of God and other heathen nations, and in this way to commend the privilege of adoption which God of his goodness had vouchsafed to the posterity of Abraham. Accordingly, when I said before that it was a general expression, my intention was not to extend it to all manner of persons, but only to all times; for the object of the prophet is to teach us after what manner God is wont to act towards those who are his people. He next concludes, by way of inference, that the faithful nave no reason to be afraid, since God is always ready to deliver them, nay, is also armed with invincible power. He shows in this that the true and proper proof of our hope consists in this, that, when things are so confused, that the heavens seem as it were to fall with great violence, the earth to remove out of its place, and the mountains to be torn up from their very foundations, we nevertheless continue to preserve and maintain calmness and tranquillity of heart. It is an easy matter to manifest the appearance of great confidence, so long as we are not placed in imminent danger: but if, in the midst of a general crash of the whole world, our minds continue undisturbed and free of trouble, this is an evident proof that we attribute to the power of God the honor which belongs to him. When, however, the sacred poet says, We will not fear, he is not to be understood as meaning that the minds of the godly are exempt from all solicitude or fear, as if they were destitute of feeling, for there is a great difference between insensibility and the confidence of faith. He only shows that whatever may happen they are never overwhelmed with terror, but rather gather strength and courage sufficient to allay all fear. Though the earth be moved, and the mountains fall into the midst of the sea, are hyperbolical modes of expression, but they nevertheless denote a revolution, and turning upside down of the whole world. Some have explained the expression, the midst of the sea, as referring to the earth. I do not, however, approve of it. But in order more fully to understand the doctrine of the psalm, let us proceed to consider what follows. 2. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea, 1. This is quite a statement of confidence and faith in God, but most of us would have to be honest and confess that we cannot live up to this standard of faith. If the mountains were falling into the sea as the earth was crumbling because of 9.7 earthquake, we would not be fearless, but scared out of our wits. But here is a calm in the midst of calamity. The sky is not falling, but the ground beneath him is falling apart, and yet he is fearless. David is painting an extreme situation of danger to communicate his extreme assurance that he is always safe in the arms of God, for even if he perishes in the earthquake, he has no need to fear, for he will still have the security of being with his Lord. He is the perfect example of fearless faith. Even cataclysmic catastrophic calamity cannot crush his confidence. It is possible to experience tranquility in turbulent tumultuous times. Carlyle said, “We cannot stand firm in time until we have gained a foothold somewhere beyond time.” This is the security we have in Christ. An unknown poet put it- Should storms of sevenfold thunder roll, And shake the globe from pole to pole,
- 28. o flaming boltshall daunt my face,
- 29. For Jesus ismy hiding place. 1B. Barnes, “Therefore will not we fear - Our confidence in God shall be unshaken and abiding. Having Him for our refuge and strength Psa_46:1, we can have nothing to fear. Compare Psa_56:3. Though the earth be removed - literally, “in the changing of the earth;” that is, though the earth should be changed. This may either mean, Though the earth should change its place or its very structure in these convulsions; or, though it should perish altogether. Compare Psa_102:26. The idea is, that they would not be afraid, though the convulsions then occurring in the world should be continued, and should be extended so far as to destroy the very earth itself. God would remain their friend and protector, and they would have nothing to fear. And though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea - Margin, as in Hebrew, “into the heart of the seas.” This may either be understood literally, as implying that they would “not” be afraid though the mountains, the most fixed and firm things of earth, should be uprooted and sunk in the ocean - implying that nothing earthly was stable; or, the mountains here may be referred to as emblems of that which seemed to be most settled and established on earth - the kingdoms of the world. The idea is, that in any convulsion - any change - any threatened danger - they would place confidence in God, who ruled over all, and who could not change. It will be seen at once that this entire description of trust and confidence in God is applicable to the time of Hezekiah, and to the feelings which he manifested when the land was invaded by the hosts of Sennacherib, and when wars and commotions were abroad among the kingdoms of the earth. See the introduction to the psalm. It was, also, eminently suited to console the mind in the circumstances to which Luther so often applied the psalm - the agitations, convulsions, wars, dangers in Europe, in the time of the Reformation. It is suited to any time of trouble, when commotions and revolutions are occurring in the earth, and when everything sacred, true, and valuable seems to be in danger. 2. Clarke, “Therefore will not we fear - Let what commotions will take place in the earth, we will trust in the all-powerful arm of God. Probably the earthquake referred to, here means political commotions, such as those mentioned under the title; and by mountains, kings or secular states may be intended. 2B. Spurgeon, “Therefore. How fond the psalmist is of therefores! his poetry is no poetic rapture without reason, it is as logical as a mathematical demonstration. The next words are a necessary inference from these. Will not we fear. With God on our side, how irrational would fear be! Where he is all power is, and all love, why therefore should we quail? Though the earth be removed, though the basis of all visible things should be so convulsed as to be entirely changed. And though the mountains be carried into the middle of the sea; though the firmest of created objects should fall to headlong ruin, and be submerged in utter destruction. The two phrases set forth the most terrible commotions within the range of imagination, and include the overthrow of dynasties, the destruction of nations, the ruin of families, the persecutions of the church, the reign of heresy, and whatever else may at any time try the faith of believers. Let the worst come to the worst, the child of God should never give way to mistrust; since God remaineth faithful there can be no danger to his cause or people. When the elements shall melt with fervent heat, and the heavens and the earth shall pass away in the last general conflagration, we shall serenely behold "the wreck of matter, and the crash of worlds," for even then our refuge shall preserve us from all evil, our strength shall prepare us for all good.
- 30. 2C. Treasury ofDavid, “Verse 2. Though the earth be removed. John Wesley preached in Hyde park, on the occasion of the earthquake felt in London, March 8, 1750, and repeated these words. Charles Wesley composed Hymn 67, Wesley's Collection, the following lines of which illustrate this verse: -- How happy then are we, Who build, O Lord, on thee! What can our foundation shock? Though the shattered earth remove, Stands our city on a rock, On the rock of heavenly love. Verse 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. John Morison. Verse 2-3,5. Palestine was frequently subject to earthquakes, as might have been expected from its physical character and situation; and it is a remarkable circumstance, that although all other parts of the land seem to have been occasionally the scene of those terrible convulsions, the capital was almost wholly free from them. Mount Moriah, or the hill of vision, was so called from its towering height, which made it a conspicuous object in the distance. It stands in the centre of a group of hills, which surround it in the form of an amphitheatre, and it was chiefly to this position, under the special blessing of God, that it stood firm and immoveable amid the frequent earthquakes that agitated and ravaged the Holy Land. Paxton's Illustrations of Scripture. 3. Gill, “Therefore will not we fear,...., The consideration of the Lord's being the refuge, strength, and help of his people, in all times of trouble and distress, has a great influence on their faith and confidence, and makes them intrepid and fearless in the midst of the greatest dangers: nor indeed have they any reason to be afraid of men or devils, since the Lord is on their side; nor should they indulge a slavish fear on any account whatever; though the earth be removed; or "changed" (u), as to its position or fruitfulness; or whatever changes, vicissitudes, and revolutions may be in the kingdoms, nations, and among the inhabitants of the earth, through wars and desolations made thereby; and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea; so the destruction of kingdoms, empires, and cities, is expressed by a like phrase; as of Babylon, Jer_51:25; and of the Roman and Pagan empire, Rev_6:12, and of the city of Rome, Rev_8:8. 4. Biblical examples of a fearless trust in God. Exodus 14:13 And Moses said unto the people, Fear ye not, stand still, and see the salvation of the LORD, which he will shew to you to day: for the Egyptians whom ye have seen to day, ye shall see them again no more for ever. 14 The LORD shall fight for you, and ye shall hold your peace. 2 Chronicles 20:14 Then upon Jahaziel the son of Zechariah, the son of Benaiah, the son of Jeiel,
- 31. the son ofMattaniah, a Levite of the sons of Asaph, came the Spirit of the LORD in the midst of the congregation; 15 And he said, Hearken ye, all Judah, and ye inhabitants of Jerusalem, and thou king Jehoshaphat, Thus saith the LORD unto you, Be not afraid nor dismayed by reason of this great multitude; for the battle is not yours, but God's. 16 To morrow go ye down against them: behold, they come up by the cliff of Ziz; and ye shall find them at the end of the brook, before the wilderness of Jeruel. 17 Ye shall not need to fight in this battle: set yourselves, stand ye still, and see the salvation of the LORD with you, O Judah and Jerusalem: fear not, nor be dismayed; to morrow go out against them: for the LORD will be with you. 3. though its waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with their surging.[c] 1. David is describing things like earthquakes and tsunamis with a confidence that sounds like he feels invincible and unable to be touched by natural disasters. This is not how most of us would face such things. Barnes, “Though the waters thereof roar and be troubled - The waters of the sea. The idea is, that they would not be afraid though everything should be in commotion, and be as unsettled as the restless waves of the ocean. The earth might be changed, the mountains removed, the agitated sea roar and dash against the shore, but their minds would be calm. The word rendered “be troubled” means to boil; to ferment; to foam; and here it refers to the ocean as agitated and lashed into foam.
- 32. othing is moresublime and fearful than the ocean in a storm; nothing furnishes a better illustration of the peace produced by confidence in God amid the agitations which occur in the world, than the mind of a seaman that is calm when the ocean is heaved in wild commotion. Though the mountains shake with the swelling thereof - The rolling ocean breaking against; the sides of the mountains on its shore, and seeming to shake them to their foundation. The word rendered “swelling” means properly majesty, glory; then pride, haughtiness, insolence. Literally, “though the mountains tremble through their pride.” Compare Psa_124:5. On the word “Selah,” see the notes at Psa_3:2. 2. Clarke, “Though the waters thereof roar - Waters, in prophetic language, signify people; and, generally, people in a state of political commotion, here signified by the term roar. And by these strong agitations of the people, the mountains - the secular rulers, shake with the swelling thereof - tremble, for fear that these popular tumults should terminate in the subversion of the state. This very people had seen all Asia in a state of war. The Persians had overturned Asia Minor, and destroyed the Babylonian empire: they had seen Babylon itself sacked and entered by the Persians; and Cyrus, its conqueror, had behaved to them as a father and deliverer. While their
- 33. oppressors were destroyed,themselves were preserved, and permitted to return to their own land. 2B. Spurgeon, “Though the waters thereof roar and be troubled. When all things are excited to fury, and reveal their utmost power to disturb, faith smiles serenely. She is not afraid of noise, nor even of real force, she knows that the Lord stilleth the raging of the sea, and holdeth the waves in the hollow of his hand. Though the mountains shake with the swelling thereof. Alps and Andes may tremble, but faith rests on a firmer basis, and is not to be moved by swelling seas. Evil may ferment, wrath may boil, and pride may foam, but the brave heart of holy confidence trembles not. Great men who are like mountains may quake for fear in times of great calamity, but the man whose trust is in God needs never to be dismayed. Selah. In the midst of such a hurly burly the music may well come to a pause, both to give the singers breath, and ourselves time for meditation. We are in no hurry, but can sit us down and wait while earth dissolves, and mountains rock, and oceans roar. Ours is not the headlong rashness which passes for courage, we can calmly confront the danger, and meditate upon terror, dwelling on its separate items and united forces. The pause is not an exclamation of dismay, but merely a rest in music; we do not suspend our song in alarm, but tune our harps again with deliberation amidst the tumult of the storm. It were well if all of us could say, Selah, under tempestuous trials, but alas! too often we speak in our haste, lay our trembling hands bewildered among the strings, strike the lyre with a rude crash, and mar the melody of our life song. 3. Gill, “Though the waters thereof roar and be troubled,.... The noise of which causes men's hearts to fail them for fear, Luk_21:25; though the mountains shake with the swelling thereof. All these figurative expressions denote the hurlyburlies, confusions, and disorders that have been or will be in the world; amidst all which the people of God have no reason to fear; for it is always well with the righteous, let it go how it will with others. The passage may be applied to the destruction of Jerusalem, and the wars preceding it, and the dispersion of the Jews upon it; when true believers in Christ found him to be their refuge, strength, and help in that time of trouble, such as never was the like, and were safe and without fear; and Aben Ezra, a Jewish commentator, thinks it is right to interpret this psalm concerning the wars of Jerusalem: moreover, these words may be applied to any other time of calamity, through war or persecution, that has been since; as also to any that is to come; as to the slaying of the witnesses, the hour of temptation that will try all that are upon the earth; and even to the day of judgment, when heaven and earth shall flee away from the face of the Judge; when the heavens shall be folded up as a garment, and the earth, and all that is therein, shall be burnt up, and the whole world of the ungodly shall be thrown into the utmost panic, the saints will be safe with Christ, and ever happy with him; and, in the worst of times in this world, God is always their covenant God, their shield, portion, and exceeding great reward; Christ is their Redeemer and Saviour, their city of refuge, and strong hold; and though they may be plundered of their goods and property, they have a better and a more enduring substance in heaven; an estate, an inheritance there, that can never be taken away; and even should their enemies kill the body, that is the utmost they can do; their souls are safe in the hands of Christ; their life is hid with him; and when he shall appear, they shall appear with him in glory; and therefore they may well say, "we will not fear" (w). Selah; on this word; see Gill on Psa_3:2. 4. Henry, “Observe here, 1. How threatening the danger is. We will suppose the earth to be removed, and thrown into the sea, even the mountains, the strongest and firmest parts of the
- 34. earth, to lieburied in the unfathomed ocean; we will suppose the sea to roar and rage, and make a dreadful noise, and its foaming billows to insult the shore with so much violence as even to shake the mountains, Psa_46:3. Though kingdoms and states be in confusion, embroiled in wars, tossed with tumults, and their governments in continual revolution - though their powers combine against the church and people of God, aim at no less than their ruin, and go very near to gain their point - yet will not we fear, knowing that all these troubles will end well for the church. See Psa_93:4. If the earth be removed, those have reason to fear who have laid up their treasures on earth, and set their hearts upon it; but not those who have laid up for themselves treasures in heaven, and who expect to be most happy when the earth and all the works that are therein shall be burnt up. Let those be troubled at the troubling of the waters who build their confidence on such a floating foundation, but not those who are led to the rock that is higher than they, and find firm footing upon that rock.” 5. Calvin, “Though the waters thereof roar, etc This verse ought to be read in connection with the verse which follows, because it is necessary to complete the sense, as if it had been said: Though the waters of the sea roar and swell, and by their fierce impetuosity shake the very mountains — even in the midst of these dreadful tumults, the holy city of God will continue to enjoy comfort and peace, satisfied with her small streams. The relative pronoun her, according to the common usage of the Hebrew language, is superfluous in this place. The prophet intended simply to say, that the small streams of a river would afford to the holy city abundant cause of rejoicing, though the whole world should be moved and destroyed. I have already mentioned shortly before how profitable is the doctrine taught us in this place, that our faith is really and truly tested only when we are brought into very severe conflicts, and when even hell itself seems opened to swallow us up. In like manner, we have portrayed to us the victory of faith over the whole world, when, in the midst of the utmost confusion, it unfolds itself, and begins to raise its head in such a manner as that although the whole creation seem to be banded together, and to have conspired for the destruction of the faithful, it nevertheless triumphs over all fear.
- 35. ot that thechildren of God, when placed in peril, indulge in jesting or make a sport of death, but the help which God has promised them more than overbalances, in their estimation, all the evils which inspire them with fear. The sentiment of Horace is very beautiful, when, speaking of the righteous man and the man who feels conscious of no guilt, he says, (Car., Lib. iii., Od. 3,) “Dux inquieti turbidus Adriae,
- 36. ec fulminantis magnaJovis manus, Si fractus illabitur orbis, Impavidum ferient ruinae.” “Let the wild winds that rule the seas, Tempestuous, all their horrors raise; Let Jove’s dread arm with thunders rend the spheres; Beneath the crush of worlds undaunted he appears.” 176 176 Francis’ Translation of Horace. But as no such person as he imagines could ever be found, he only trifles in speaking as he does. Their fortitude, therefore, has its foundation in the assurance of the divine protection alone, so that they who rely upon God, and put their trust in him, may truly boast, not only that they shall be undismayed, but also that they shall be preserved in security and safety amidst the ruins of a falling world. The prophet says expressly, that the city of God shall be glad, although it had no raging sea, but only a gently flowing stream, to set for its defense against those waves of which he has made mention. By this mode of expression he alludes to the stream which flowed from Shiloah, and
- 37. passed through thecity of Jerusalem. Further, the prophet, I have no doubt, here indirectly rebukes the vain confidence of those who, fortified by earthly assistance, imagine that they are well protected, and beyond the reach of all danger. Those who anxiously seek to strengthen themselves on all sides with the invincible helps of the world, seem, indeed, to imagine that they are able to prevent their enemies from approaching them, just as if they were environed on all sides with the sea; but it often happens that the very defenses which they had reared turn to their own destruction, even as when a tempest lays waste and destroys an island by overflowing it. But they who commit themselves to the protection of God, although in the estimation of the world they are exposed to every kind of injury, and are not sufficiently able to repel the assaults made upon them, nevertheless repose in security. On this account, Isaiah (Isaiah 8:6) reproves the Jews because they despised the gently flowing waters of Shiloah, and longed for deep and rapid rivers. In that passage, there is an elegant antithesis between the little brook Shiloah on the one hand, and the
- 38. ile and Euphrateson the other; as if he had said, They defraud God of his honor by the unworthy reflection, that when he made choice of the city of Jerusalem, he had not made the necessary provision in respect of strength and fortifications for its defense and preservation. And certainly, if this psalm was written after the slaughter and flight of the army of Sennacherib, it is probable that the inspired writer purposely made use of the same metaphor, to teach the faithful in all ages, that the grace of God alone would be to them a sufficient protection, independent of the assistance of the world. In like manner, the Holy Spirit still exhorts and encourages us to cherish the same confidence, that, despising all the resources of those who proudly magnify themselves against us, we may preserve our tranquillity in the midst of disquietude and trouble, and not be grieved or ashamed on account of our defenseless condition, so long as the hand of God is stretched out to save us. Thus, although the help of God comes to our aid in a secret and gentle manner, like the still flowing streams, yet it imparts to us more tranquillity of mind than if the whole power of the world were gathered together for our help. In speaking of Jerusalem as the sanctuary of the tabernacles of the Most High, the prophet makes a beautiful allusion to the circumstances or condition of that time: for although God exercised authority over all the tribes of the people, yet he made choice of that city as the seat of royalty, from which he might govern the whole nation of Israel. The tabernacles of the Most High were scattered throughout all Judea, but still it was necessary that they should be gathered together and united in one sanctuary, that they might be under the dominion of God. 4. There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy place where the Most High dwells. 1. Barnes, “There is a river - There is no allusion here to any particular stream or river, but the image is designed to represent a state of peace and calm security in contrast with the rough and troubled ocean. While the ocean rages, and foams, and dashes against the mountains as if it would overturn them, the state of Jerusalem, the city of God, was well represented by a calm and
- 39. gently-flowing river; ariver of full banks, diffusing joy and fertility and beauty wherever it flowed. This image, to represent happiness, abundance, peace, joy, is one that is often employed in the Scriptures. Compare Isa_32:2; Isa_33:21; Isa_41:18; Psa_1:3; Rev_22:1; Psa_36:8. The “idea” here is simply that Jerusalem would be calm and serene amidst all the external agitations in the world - calm as a gently-flowing stream. The streams - the canals - the water-courses of such a river flowing around each dwelling and along each garden, would diffuse happiness and beauty everywhere. The streams whereof - The allusion here is undoubtedly to the canals, watercourses, or rivulets that were led off from the main stream for the purpose of supplying fountains and watering gardens. Thus the city of Damascus is watered by streams or canals cut from the river Barrady, that flows down from the regions of Anti-Libanus. The greenness - the beauty - the fertility - of Damascus is owing wholly to the waters of the river thus conducted to every house and garden in the city. Compare introduction to Isa_17:1-14. So here, the flowing river of divine mercy and goodness is conveyed, as in smaller canals or streams, to each home and heart, producing peace, calmness, joy - while the world around is full of commotion and trouble. Shall make glad the city of God - Jerusalem, considered as the place where God was worshipped, and where he was supposed especially to dwell: Psa_48:1. The holy place of the tabernacles of the Most High - Of the “tent” where the Most High is supposed to abide. The word is applicable to any habitation or dwelling-place; but in the Scriptures it is applied especially to the sacred tent erected by Moses in the wilderness, and ultimately removed to Mount Zion by David, as the divine abode on earth. It is sometimes, also, applied to the temple; and if this psalm was written, as I have supposed, in the time of Hezekiah, it would be applicable to that. Compare Psa_84:2; Psa_132:5. The tabernacle and the temple were alike divided into two parts - the holy and the most holy place - and hence the “plural” term is sometimes applied to them. Compare the notes at Heb_9:2-3. 2. Clarke, “There is a river, the streams whereof - The Chaldee understands the river, and its streams or divisions, as pointing out various peoples who should be converted to the faith and thus make glad the city of God, Jerusalem by their flowing together to the worship of the true God. But the river may refer to the vast Medo-Persian army and its divisions: those branches which took Babylon; and, instead of ruining and destroying the poor Jews, preserved them alive, and gave them their liberty; and thus the city of God, and the tabernacle of the Most High, were gladdened. 2B. Spurgeon, “There is a river. Divine grace like a smoothly flowing, fertilising, full, and never failing river, yields refreshment and consolation to believers. This is the river of the water of life, of which the church above as well as the church below partakes evermore. It is no boisterous ocean, but a placid stream, it is not stayed in its course by earthquakes or crumbling mountains, it follows its serene course without disturbance. Happy are they who know from their own experience that there is such a river of God. The streams whereof in their various influences, for they are many, shall make glad the city of God, by assuring the citizens that Zion's Lord will unfailingly supply all their needs. The streams are not transient like Cherith, nor muddy like the
- 40. ile, nor furiouslike Kishon, nor treacherous like Job's deceitful brooks, neither are their waters "naught" like those of Jericho, they are clear, cool, fresh, abundant, and gladdening. The great fear of an Eastern city in time of war was lest the water supply should be cut off during a siege; if
- 41. that were securedthe city could hold out against attacks for an indefinite period. In this verse, Jerusalem, which represents the church of God, is described as well supplied with water, to set forth the fact that in seasons of trial all sufficient grace will be given to enable us to endure unto the end. The church is like a well ordered city, surrounded with mighty walls of truth and justice, garrisoned by omnipotence, fairly built and adorned by infinite wisdom: its burgesses the saints enjoy high privileges; they trade with far off lands, they live in the smile of the King; and as a great river is the very making and mainstay of a town, so is the broad river of everlasting love, and grace their joy and bliss. The church is peculiarly the City of God, of his designing, building, election, purchasing and indwelling. It is dedicated to his praise, and glorified by his presence. The holy place of the tabernacle of the Most High. This was the peculiar glory of Jerusalem, that the Lord within her walls had a place where he peculiarly revealed himself, and this is the choice privilege of the saints, concerning which we may cry with wonder, "Lord, how is it that thou wilt manifest thyself unto us, and not unto the world?" To be a temple for the Holy Ghost is the delightful portion of each saint, to be the living temple for the Lord our God is also the high honour of the church in her corporate capacity. Our God is here called by a worthy title, indicating his power, majesty, sublimity, and excellency; and it is worthy of note that under this character he dwells in the church. We have not a great God in nature, and a little God in grace; no, the church contains as clear and convincing a revelation of God as the works of nature, and even more amazing in the excellent glory which shines between the cherubim overshadowing that mercy seat which is the centre and gathering place of the people of the living God. To have the Most High dwelling within her members, is to make the church on earth like the church in heaven. 2C. Treasury of David, “Verse 4. There is a river, the streams whereof shall make glad the city of God. What is the river that makes glad the city of God? I answer, God himself is the river, as in the following verse, "God is in the midst of her." 1. God the Father is the river: "For my people have committed two evils; they have forsaken me the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water." Jeremiah 2:13. 2. God the Son is the river, the fountain of salvation: "In that day there shall be a fountain opened to the house of David, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem for sin and for uncleanness." Zechariah 13:1. 3. God the Spirit is the river: "He that believeth on me, as the Scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water." "Whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be a well of water springing up into everlasting life." John 7:38 4:14. What are the streams of this river? Answer -- the perfections of God, the fulness of Christ, the operations of the Spirit, and these running in the channel of the covenant of promise. Ralph Erskine. Verse 4. There is a river, etc. This is that flood which Ezekiel beheld in vision, the waters that came down from the right side of the house, and rising first to the ankles -- then as the prophet passed onward, to the knees -- then to the loins -- became afterwards a river that he could not pass over; for the waters were risen, waters to swim in, a river that could not be passed over. Shall we see in this, with the angelic doctor, the river of grace which burst forth from Mount Calvary? streams branching off hither and thither, the pelagim of the Hebrew -- "to satisfy the desolate and waste ground, and to cause the bud of the tender herb to spring forth." Job 38:1-41. O "fountain of gardens," "well of living waters," "streams from Lebanon," how do you, the "nether springs" of this world, bring to us something of the everlasting loveliness and peace of those "upper springs," by which the beautiful flock now feed and lie down, none making them
- 42. afraid! Or withS. Ambrose and S. Bernard, understand the verse of the "river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding from the throne of God and of the Lamb." And then the rivers of that flood shall indeed make glad the city of God, the house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens, where is the tree of life, that beareth twelve manner of fruits, and yieldeth her fruit every month; that country and that river of which the old liturgies say, "They who rest in the bosom of Abraham are in the tabernacle of joy and rest, in the dwellings of light, in the world of pleasure, in the church of the true Jerusalem, where there is no place for affliction, nor way of sadness, where there are no wars with the flesh, and no resistance to temptation, where sin is forgotten, and past danger is only remembered as a present pleasure." Thomas Aquinas, Ambrose, and Bernard, in
- 43. eale's Commentary. Verse4. There is a river. The river of God that flows from his throne.
- 44. o enemy cancut off this stream from the church of Christ. Observe the reference to Isaiah 36:2 37:25, compared with 2 Chronicles 32:2-4 . These gently flowing, but full streams, are contrasted with the roaring waves of the sea. T. C. Barth. Verse 4. There is a river, etc. The allusion is either to the river Kidron, which ran by Jerusalem, or to the waters of Shiloah, which by different courses and branches ran through the city of Jerusalem, and supplied the several parts of it with water, to the joy and comfort of its inhabitants. But the words are to be understood in a figurative sense, as applicable to gospel times; and this river either designs the gospel, the streams of which are its doctrines, which are living waters, that went out from Jerusalem, and which publish glad tidings of great joy to all sensible sinners; or the Spirit and his graces, which are compared to a well and rivers of living water, in the exercises of which the saints have much joy and peace; or else the Lord himself, who is the place of broad rivers and streams to his people, and is both their refreshment and protection; or rather his everlasting love to them is here intended. John Gill. Verse 4. Compared with the waterless deserts around, Judaea and Jerusalem were well watered, and drought pressed more severely on the besiegers than the besieged. The allusion here is to the well known rill and pool of Siloam. So in Isaiah 8:6, the blessing of God's protection is represented by the waters of Shiloah, which go softly. From "The psalms Chronologically arranged. By Four Friends," 1867. Verse 4. The city. The church of God is like a city, 1. Because a city is a place of security. 2. A place of society: what one wants another supplies; they have mutual fellowship. 3. A place of unity, that people may therein live in peace and concord. 4. A place of trade and traffic. Here is the market of free grace: "Ho, every one that thirsteth," etc. Here is the pearl of great price exposed for sale. 5. A place of freedom and liberty, freedom from the guilt of sin, wrath of God, curse of the law, present evil world, bondage to Satan, etc., etc. 6. A place of order and regularity; it hath its constitutions and ordinances. 7. A place of rest, and commodious to live in, and thus it is opposed to the wilderness. 8. A place of privileges. 9. A place of pomp and splendour; there is the king, the court, the throne. 10.A place of pleasure and beauty; Psalms 48:2. Ralph Erskine. 3. Gill, “There is a river,.... The allusion is either to the river Kidron, which ran by Jerusalem; or to the waters of Shiloah, which by different courses and branches, ran through the city of
- 45. Jerusalem, and suppliedthe several parts of it with water, to the joy and comfort of its inhabitants: but the words are to be understood in a figurative sense, as applicable to Gospel times; and this river either designs the Gospel, the streams of which are its doctrines, which are living waters that went out from Jerusalem, and which publish glad tidings of great joy to all sensible sinners; or the Spirit and his graces, which are compared to a well, and rivers of living water, in the exercise of which the saints have much joy and peace; or else the Lord himself, who is a place of broad rivers and streams to his people, and is both their refreshment and protection; or rather his everlasting love to them is here intended; see Psa_36:8; The head of this river is the heart of God, his sovereign goodwill and pleasure; the channel through which it runs is Christ Jesus; the rise of it was in eternity, when, like a river that runs underground, it flowed secretly, as it does before the effectual calling; when it breaks up, and appears in large streams, and flows, and so it proceeds running on to all eternity. It is a river that is unfathomable, and cannot be passed over; it has heights and depths, and lengths and breadths, which cannot be fully comprehended: as for the quality of it, it is a pure river, clear as crystal; free of all dissimulation in the heart of God, and clear of all motives and conditions in the creature. Its water is living water; which quickens dead sinners, revives drooping saints, secures from the second death, and gives eternal life; it makes all fruitful about it, or that are planted by it; the streams whereof shall make glad the city of God; the "streams" of this river are eternal election; the covenant of grace its blessings and promises; the provision and mission of Christ as a Saviour, and redemption by him; justification, pardon, adoption, regeneration, perseverance in grace, and eternal life; called "streams", because they flow from the fountain of divine love; and because of the rapidity, force, and power of the grace of God, in the application of them in conversion, which carries all before it; and because of the abundance, continuance, and freeness of them, and the gratefulness and acceptableness of them to those who see the worth of them, and their interest in them; see Son_4:15; and these, when made known and applied, "make glad" the hearts of God's people under a sense of sin and guilt, under divine desertions, the temptations of Satan, and the various afflictions they meet with; for these are intended by "the city of God", as the church is often called, because of his building, and where he dwells, and where the saints are fellow citizens. And the same are signified by the holy place; being an holy temple to God, consisting of holy persons, such who are sanctified by the Spirit of God, and live holy lives and conversations: and of the tabernacles of the most High; being the dwelling places of God, Father, Son, and Spirit. All which is a reason why the saints should not fear in the worst of times. 4. Henry, “Here is, (1.) Joy to the church, even in the most melancholy and sorrowful times (Psa_46:4): There is a river the streams whereof shall make it glad, even then when the waters of the sea roar and threaten it. It alludes to the waters of Siloam, which went softly by Jerusalem (Isa_8:6, Isa_8:7): though of no great depth or breadth, yet the waters of it were made serviceable to the defence of Jerusalem in Hezekiah's time, Isa_22:10, Isa_22:11. But this must be understood spiritually; the covenant of grace is the river, the promises of which are the streams; or the Spirit of grace is the river (Joh_7:38, Joh_7:39), the comforts of which are the streams, that make glad the city of our God. God's word and ordinances are rivers and streams with which God makes his saints glad in cloudy and dark days. God himself is to his church a place of broad rivers and streams, Isa_33:21. The streams that make glad the city of God are not rapid, but gentle, like those of Siloam.
- 46. ote, The spiritualcomforts which are conveyed to the saints by soft and silent whispers, and which come not with observation, are sufficient to counterbalance the most loud
- 47. and noisy threateningsof an angry and malicious world. 5. Jamison, “God’s favor is denoted by a river (compare Psa_36:8; Zec_14:8; Rev_22:1). city of God, the holy place — His earthly residence, Jerusalem and the temple (compare Psa_2:6; Psa_3:4; Psa_20:2; Psa_48:2, etc.). God’s favor, like a river whose waters are conducted in channels, is distributed to all parts of His Church. most High — denoting His supremacy (Psa_17:2). 5B. Warren Wiersbe, “God is our Refuge, so we need not fear. But He is also our River, so we need not faint. "There is a river whose streams shall make glad the city of God, the holy place of the tabernacle of the Most High" (v. 4). Until I visited the Holy Land, I had no idea how critical water is there. Without water almost nothing can exist there. Jerusalem is one of the great ancient cities that was not founded on a river. It wasn't until Hezekiah dug his famous tunnel that Jerusalem had a water source within the city walls. The psalmist says here that though Jerusalem is not situated beside a river, it has a River. And it comes from the Holy Place, from the throne of God. "God is in the midst of her, she shall not be moved; God shall help her, just at the break of dawn" (v. 5). Our Lord said, "If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink" John 7:37). The rivers of Living Water, the rivers of joy, flow out from His throne. In the Bible, water for washing is a picture of the Word of God. But water for drinking is a picture of the Spirit of God. We may drink from this hidden River. And because we drink at this River, we have the joy, the refreshment and the empowerment of the Lord. The psalmist continues, "The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge" (v. 7). He is the Lord of the armies. All the armies of heaven and earth belong to the Lord Jesus Christ because He has all authority. He is with us, not against us. He is Immanuel, "God with us." Take time to drink at the River. Let God refresh you and restore you and strengthen you for the day. Hidden resources are as critical to spiritual well-being as they are to physical well-being. If you want to work and not faint, you must depend on God's provisions. His people have the Holy Spirit within them to refresh and strengthen them. When you drink from the rivers of water He provides, you find strength and the joy of the Lord. Back to the Bible Copyright © 1996-2011 The Good
- 48. ews Broadcasting Association,Inc. All rights reserved. 6. K&D 4-7, “Just as, according to Gen_2:10, a stream issued from Eden, to water the whole garden, so a stream makes Jerusalem as it were into another paradise: a river - whose streams make glad the city of Elohim (Psa_87:3; Psa_48:9, cf. Psa_101:8); פְּלָגָיו (used of the windings and branches of the main-stream) is a second permutative subject (Psa_44:3). What is intended is the river of grace, which is also likened to a river of paradise in Psa_36:9. When the city of God is threatened and encompassed by foes, still she shall not hunger and thirst, nor fear and despair; for the river of grace and of her ordinances and promises flows with its rippling waves through the holy place, where the dwelling-place or tabernacle of the Most High is pitched. קְדשֹׁ , Sanctum (cf. el-Ḳuds as a name of Jerusalem), as in Psa_65:5, Isa_57:15; גְּדלֹ , Exo_15:16. מִשְׁכְּנֵ י , dwellings, like מִשְׁכְּנוֹ ת , Psa_43:3; Psa_84:2; Psa_132:5, Psa_132:7, equivalent to “a glorious dwelling.” In Psa_46:6 in the place of the river we find Him from whom the river issues forth. Elohim helps her
- 49. לִפְנוֹתבּקֶֹר - thereis only a night of trouble, the return of the morning is also the sunrise of speedy help. The preterites in Psa_46:7 are hypothetical: if peoples and kingdoms become enraged with enmity and totter, so that the church is in danger of being involved in this overthrow - all that God need to is to make a rumbling with His almighty voice of thunder ( וv נָתַן בְּקוֹ , as in Psa_68:34; Jer_12:8, cf. הֵרִים בַּמַּטֶּה , to make a lifting with the rod, Exo_7:20), and forthwith the earth melts (muwg, as in Amo_9:5, +iph. Isa_14:31, and frequently), i.e., their titanic defiance becomes cowardice, the bonds of their confederation slacken, and the strength they have put forth is destroyed - it is manifest that Jahve Tsebaoth is with His people. This name of God is, so to speak, indigenous to the Korahitic Psalms, for it is the proper name of God belonging to the time of the kings (vid., on Psa_24:10; Psa_59:6), on the very verge of which it occurs first of all in the mouth of Hannah (1Sa_1:11), and the Korahitic Psalms have a royal impress upon them. In the God, at whose summons all created powers are obliged to marshal themselves like the hosts of war, Israel has a steep stronghold, מִשְׂגָּ ב , which cannot be scaled by any foe - the army of the confederate peoples and kingdoms, ere it has reached Jerusalem, is become a field of the dead. 5. God is within her, she will not fall; God will help her at break of day. 1. Barnes, “God is in the midst of her - God is in the midst of the “city” referred to above - the “city of God.” That is, (a) he dwelt there by the visible symbol of his presence, the Shekinah; (b) he was there “actually” as a help and a protector. It was his chosen abode, and as long as such a Being dwelt in the city, they had nothing to fear. God shall help her - That is, in her danger, he will interpose to save her. This is language such as would be used in reference to a place that was besieged, and would well apply to the state of things when Jerusalem was besieged by the armies of Assyria under Sennacherib. The language expresses the confidence of the people in the time of the impending danger. And that right early - Margin, “when the morning appeareth.” Literally, “in the faces of the morning,” as the word is commonly used; or, more literally, in the “turning” of the morning - for the verb from which the word is derived means properly “to turn,” and then “to turn to or from any one.” The noun is applied to the face or countenance, because the person is “turned” to us when we see his countenance. The poetic idea here seems to refer to the day as having turned away “from” us at night, and then as turning about “toward” us in the morning, after having gone, as it were, to the greatest distance from us. “Possibly” there may be an allusion here to what occurred in the camp of the Assyrians, when the discovery that the angel of the Lord had smitten them was made early in the morning, or when men arose in the morning: “The angel of the Lord went forth, and smote in the camp of the Assyrians an hundred and fourscore and five thousand: and when they arose in the morning” (that is, when men arose in the morning), “behold, they were all dead corpses,” Isa_37:36.
- 50. 2. Clarke, “Godis in the midst of her - God will not abandon them that trust in him; he will maintain his own cause; and, if his Church should at any time be attacked, he will help her and that right early - with the utmost speed. As soon as the onset is made, God is there to resist. As by the day-break the shadows and darkness are dissipated; so by the bright rising of Jehovah, the darkness of adversity shall be scattered. 2B. Spurgeon, “God is in the midst of her. His help is therefore sure and near. Is she besieged, then he is himself besieged within her, and we may be certain that he will break forth upon his adversaries. How near is the Lord to the distresses of his saints, since he sojourns in their midst! Let us take heed that we do not grieve him; let us have such respect to him as Moses had when he felt the sand of Horeb's desert to be holy, and put off his shoes from off his feet when the Lord spake from the burning bush. She shall not be moved. How can she be moved unless her enemies move her Lord also? His presence renders all hope of capturing and demolishing the city utterly ridiculous. The Lord is in the vessel, and she cannot, therefore, be wrecked. God shall help her. Within her he will furnish rich supplies, and outside her walls he will lay her foes in heaps like the armies of Sennacherib, when the angel went forth and smote them. And that right early. As soon as the first ray of light proclaims the coming day, at the turning of the morning God's right arm shall be outstretched for his people. The Lord is up betimes. We are slow to meet him, but he is never tardy in helping us. Impatience complains of divine delays, but in very deed the Lord is not slack concerning his promise. Man's haste is often folly, but God's apparent delays are ever wise; and when rightly viewed, are no delays at all. Today the bands of evil may environ the church of God, and threaten her with destruction; but ere long they shall pass away like the foam on the waters, and the noise of their tumult shall be silent in the grave. The darkest hour of the night is just before the turning of the morning; and then, even then, shall the Lord appear as the great ally of his church. 2C. Treasury of David, “Verse 5. God is in the midst of her. It is the real presence of Christ, and the supernatural power of his Spirit, which makes the church mighty to the conquest of souls. The church spreads because her God is in the midst of her. When at any time she has forgotten her dependence on the invisible intercession of her Head, and the gracious energy of his Spirit, she has found herself shorn of the locks of her great strength, and has become the laughing stock of the Philistines. William Binnie, D.D. Verse 5. God is in the midst of her, etc. The enemies of the church may toss her as waves, but they shall not split her as rocks. She may be dipped in water as a feather, but shall not sink therein as lead. He that is a well of water within her to keep her from fainting, will also prove a wall of fire about her to preserve her from falling. Tried she may be, but destroyed she cannot be. Her foundation is the Rock of Ages, and her defence the everlasting Arms. It is only such fabrics as are bottomed upon the sand, that are overthrown by the wind. The adversaries of God's people will push at them as far as their horns will go, but when they have scoured them by persecution, as tarnished vessels, then God will throw such wisps into the fire. William Secker. Verse 5. When the Papists were in their ruff, and Melancthon began sometimes to fear lest the infant Reformation should be stifled in the birth, Luther was wont to comfort him with these words: "Si nos ruemus, ruet Christus und, scilicet ille regnator mundi, esto ruat, malo ego cum Christo rures, quam cum Caesare stare;" that is, 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 Caesar. John Collings. Verse 5. And that right early. Therefore, notice that all the great deliverances wrought in Holy
- 51. Scripture, were wroughtso early, as to have been brought to pass in the middle of the night. So Gideon, with his pitchers and lamps against the Midianites; so Saul, when he went forth against
- 52. ahash, the Ammonite;so Joshua, when he went up to succour Gibeon; so Samson, when he carried off in triumph the gates of Gaza; so also the associate kings, under the guidance of Elisha, in their expedition against the Moabites, when they, according to God's command, filled the wilderness with ditches, and then beheld their enemies drawn to their destruction, by the reflection of the rising sun upon the water. Michael Ayguan. Verse 5. Right early. Rather, with the margin, when the morning appeareth. The restoration of the Jews will be one of the first things at the season of the second advent. It will be accomplished in the very dawning of that day, "when the Sun of Righteousness will rise with healing on his wings." Samuel Horsley. 3. Gill, “God is in the midst of her,.... The church and people of God; not merely by his essence, power, and providence, as he is in the midst of the world; but by his gracious presence, and which always continues, though not always perceived; and is a sufficient antidote against all fear of men and devils; she shall not be moved; though the earth may; and when it is, Psa_46:2, neither from the heart of God, on which his people are set as a seal; nor from the hands of Christ, from whence they can never be plucked; nor from the covenant of grace, which is immovable; nor off of the rock Christ, on which they are built; nor from the state of grace, of justification, adoption, and sanctification, in which they stand; nor out of the world, by all the cunning and power of antichrist; God shall help her, and that right early: or "when the morning looks out" (x). When it is night with the church, it is the hour and power of darkness with the enemies of it; and this is the time of the reign of antichrist, whose kingdom is a kingdom of darkness: but the "morning cometh, and also the night"; the former being about to break forth, and the latter to be at an end; yea, at eventide it shall be light: and the Lord will be a suitable, seasonable, and timely help to his people; for though weeping endures the night, joy comes in the morning. 4. Henry, “Though heaven and earth are shaken, yet God is in the midst of her, she shall not be moved, Psa_46:5. God has assured his church of his special presence with her and concern for her; his honour is embarked in her, he has set up his tabernacle in her and has undertaken the protection of it, and therefore she shall not be moved, that is, [1.]
- 53. ot destroyed, notremoved, as the earth may be Psa_46:2. The church shall survive the world, and be in bliss when that is in ruins. It is built upon a rock, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. [2.]
- 54. ot disturbed, notmuch moved, with fears of the issue. If God be for us, if God be with us, we need not be moved at the most violent attempts made against us. (3.) Deliverance to the church, though her dangers be very great: God shall help her; and who then can hurt her? He shall help her under her troubles, that she shall not sink; nay, that the more she is afflicted the more she shall multiply. God shall help her out of her troubles, and that right early - when the morning appears; that is, very speedily, for he is a present help (Psa_46:1), and very seasonably, when things are brought to the last extremity and when the relief will be most welcome. This may be applied by particular believers to themselves; if God be in our hearts, in the midst of us, by his word dwelling richly in us, we shall be established, we shall be helped; let us therefore trust and not be afraid; all is well, and will end well.
- 55. 5. Calvin, “Godis in the midst of her; she shall not be moved. The Psalmist now shows that the great security of the Church consists in this, that God dwells in the midst of her; for the verb which we translate, shall be moved, is of the feminine gender, nor can it be referred to God, as if it were designed to teach that God is immovable. The sentence must be explained in this way, The holy city shall not be moved or shaken, because God dwells there, and is always ready to help her. The expression, the dawn of the morning “At the looking forth of the morning; that is, as the Greek explaineth it, ‘very early;’ when the morning peereth or showeth the face.” — Ainsworth. “As soon as the morning appears [or shows] its face; i.e., God will come very early to her succor, before any enemy is awakened to annoy her.” — Mudge. “Before the dawn of the morning; i.e., with the utmost readiness and alacrity. The expression is borrowed from the conduct of a person who, in his anxiety to accomplish a favorite object, engages in it earlier than men ordinarily would. Jeremiah 7:13; and 7:25.” — French and Skinner. denotes daily, as soon as the sun rises upon the earth. The sum of the whole is, If we desire to be protected by the hand of God, we must be concerned above all things that he may dwell amongst us; for all hope of safety depends upon his presence alone. And he dwells amongst us for no other purpose than to preserve us uninjured. Moreover, although God does not always hasten immediately to our aid, according to the importunity of our desires, yet he will always come to us seasonably, so as to make apparent the truth of what is elsewhere said, “Behold, he that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep,” (Psalm 121:4.) 6.
- 56. ations are inuproar, kingdoms fall; he lifts his voice, the earth melts. 1. Barnes, “The heathen raged - The nations were in commotion, or were agitated like the waves of the sea. This language would well describe the consternation of the nations when the Assyrians went forth to conquest, and when, having subdued so many other kingdoms, they made war on Jerusalem. Compare Isa_36:18-20. The kingdoms were moved - That is, those who were invaded, as well as those that made the invasion. There was a general convulsion or shaking among the nations of the earth. He uttered his voice - God spoke; he gave command; he expressed his will. Compare Gen_1:3; Hab_3:6. The earth melted - The very earth seemed to melt or dissolve before him. Everything became still. The danger passed away at his command, and the raging world became calm. The Bible abounds in language of this kind, showing the absolute power of God, or his power to control all the raging elements on land and ocean by a word. Compare the notes at Psa_33:9. See also Psa_107:25, Psa_107:29; Mat_8:26. 2. Clarke, “The heathen raged - There had been terrible wars on all hands, and mighty states
- 57. were crushed, whenthe poor Jews were, by the especial favor of God, kept in peace and safety. Kingdoms were moved while they were preserved. He uttered his voice - These words seem to refer to thunder, lightning, and earthquake. The expressions, however, may be figurative, and refer to the wars and desolations already mentioned. God gave the command; and one empire was cast down, and another was raised up. 2B. Spurgeon, “The heathen raged. The nations were in a furious uproar, they gathered against the city of the Lord like wolves ravenous for their prey; they foamed, and roared, and swelled like a tempestuous sea. The kingdoms were moved. A general confusion seized upon society; the fierce invaders convulsed their own dominions by draining the population to urge on the war, and they desolated other territories by their devastating march to Jerusalem. Crowns fell from royal heads, ancient thrones rocked like trees driven of the tempest, powerful empires fell like pines uprooted by the blast: everything was in disorder, and dismay seized on all who knew not the Lord. He uttered his voice, the earth melted. With no other instrumentality than a word the Lord ruled the storm. He gave forth a voice and stout hearts were dissolved, proud armies were annihilated, conquering powers were enfeebled. At first the confusion appeared to be worse confounded, when the element of divine power came into view; the very earth seemed turned to wax, the most solid and substantial of human things melted like the fat of rams upon the altar; but anon peace followed, the rage of man subsided, hearts capable of repentance relented, and the implacable were silenced. How mighty is a word from God! How mighty the Incarnate Word. O that such a word would come from the excellent glory even now to melt all hearts in love to Jesus, and to end for ever all the persecutions, wars, and rebellions of men! 3. Gill, “The Heathen raged,.... As they did at Christ's first coming, against him, his Gospel, and people; and which continued during the three first centuries; and then the Pagan kingdoms belonging to the Roman empire were removed; since then another sort of Heathens, the Papists, have raged, in violent persecutions and bloodshed of the saints and martyrs of Jesus, and will rage again, about and at the downfall of Babylon; see Rev_11:18; the kingdoms were moved; either from their Pagan or Papal religion, and became subject to Christ. So it was at the downfall of Rome Pagan; and so it will be at the downfall of Rome Papal; when the kings of the earth shall hate the whore, make her desolate, and burn her flesh with fire. Or they shall be destroyed; that is, those that shall be gathered together in Armageddon, to make war with the Lamb; see Rev_16:14; he uttered his voice, the earth melted; like wax, as the inhabitants of the earth do at the voice of his thunder, and as antichrist will at the breath of his mouth; and all within the Romish jurisdiction, signified by "the earth", as it often is in the book of the Revelation, when the voice of the mighty angel shall be heard, "Babylon is fallen, is fallen", Rev_18:1. 4. Henry, “These verses give glory to God both as King of nations and as King of saints. I. As King of nations, ruling the world by his power and providence, and overruling all the affairs of the children of men to his own glory; he does according to his will among the inhabitants of the earth, and none may say, What doest thou? 1. He checks the rage and breaks the power of the nations that oppose him and his interests in the world (Psa_46:6): The heathen raged at David's coming to the throne, and at the setting up of the kingdom of the Son of David; compare Psa_2:1, Psa_2:2. The kingdoms were moved with indignation, and rose in a tumultuous
- 58. furious manner tooppose it; but God uttered his voice, spoke to them in his wrath, and they were moved in another sense, they were struck into confusion and consternation, put into disorder, and all their measures broken; the earth itself melted under them, so that they found no firm footing; their earthly hearts failed them for fear, and dissolved like snow before the sun. Such a melting of the spirits of the enemies is described, Jdg_5:4, Jdg_5:5; and see Luk_21:25, Luk_21:26. 5. Calvin, “The peoples raged Since the Church of God is never without enemies, and these very powerful, and such as consequently fight against her with cruel and unbridled fury, the prophet now confirms from experience the doctrine which he had advanced concerning the impregnable character of the divine protection. He then deduces from it this general ground of consolation, That it belongs continually to God to restrain and quell all commotions, and that his arm is strong enough to break all the efforts of the enemy. This passage, I admit, might be understood in a more general sense, as meaning that the city of God is liable to be assailed by many storms and tempests; but that by the favor of God she is, nevertheless, always preserved in safety. It is, however, more probable, as I have already said at the beginning, that the Psalmist is here speaking of some notable deliverance, in which God had given a striking proof of the power and favor which he exercises in the constant preservation of the Church. Accordingly, he relates what had taken place, namely, that the enemies of the Church came with a dreadful host to waste and destroy it; but that immediately, by the voice of God, they, as it were, melted and vanished away. From this we derive an invaluable ground of consolation, when it is said, That although the whole world rise up against us, and confound all things by their increased madness, they can be brought to nought in a moment, as soon as God shows himself favorable towards us. The voice of God, no doubt, signifies his will or command; but the prophet, by this expression, seems to have an eye to the promises of God, by which he has declared, that he will be the guardian and defender of the Church. At the same time, let us observe the contrast which is here stated between the voice of God and the turbulent commotions of the kingdoms of this world. 7. Jehovah of armies is with us. In this verse we are taught how we shall be able to apply to our own use the things which the Scriptures everywhere record concerning the infinite power of God. We shall be able to do this when we believe ourselves to be of the number of those whom God has embraced with his fatherly love, and whom he will cherish. The Psalmist again alludes, in terms of commendation, to the adoption by which Israel was separated from the common condition of all the other nations of the earth. And, indeed, apart from this, the description of the power of God would only inspire us with dread. Confident boasting, then, arises from this, that God has chosen us for his peculiar people, to show forth his power in preserving and defending us. On this account, the prophet, after having celebrated the power of God by calling him the God of armies, immediately adds another epithet, the God of Jacob, by which he confirms the covenant made of old time with Abraham, that his posterity, to whom the inheritance of the promised grace belongs, should not doubt that God was favorable to them also. That our faith may rest truly and firmly in God, we must take into consideration at the same time these two parts of his character — his immeasurable power, by which he is able to subdue the whole world under him; and his fatherly love which he has manifested in his word. When these two things are joined together, there is nothing which can hinder our faith from defying all the enemies which may rise up against us, nor must we doubt that God will succor us, since he has promised to do it; and as to power, he is sufficiently able also to fulfill his promise, for he is the God of armies. From this we learn, that those persons err egregiously in the interpretation of Scripture, who leave in entire suspense the application of all that is said concerning the power of God, and do not rest assured that he will be a Father to them, inasmuch as they are of his flock, and partakers of the adoption.
- 59. 8 Come ye,consider the works of Jehovah The Psalmist seems still to continue in this verse the history of a deliverance by which God had given abundant evidence that he is the most efficient and faithful protector of his Church, that the godly might derive from it both courage and strength to enable them to overcome whatever temptations might afterwards arise. The manifestations which God has given of his favor towards us in preserving us, ought to be kept continually before our eyes as a means of establishing in our hearts a persuasion of the stability of his promises. By this exhortation we have tacitly rebuked the indifference and stupidity of those who do not make so great account of the power of God as they ought to do; or rather, the whole world is charged with ingratitude, because there is scarcely one in a hundred who acknowledges that he has abundant help and security in God, so that they are all blinded to the works of God, or rather wilfully shut their eyes at that which would, nevertheless, prove the best means of strengthening their faith. We see how many ascribe to fortune that which ought to be traced to the providence of God. Others imagine that they obtain, by their own industry, whatever God has bestowed upon them, or ascribe to second causes what proceeds from him alone; while others are utterly lost to all sense. The Psalmist, therefore, justly calls upon all men, and exhorts them to consider the works of God; as if he had said, The reason why men repose not the hope of their welfare in God is, that they are indifferent to the consideration of his works, or so ungrateful, that they make not half the account of them which they ought to do. As he addresses himself in general to all men, we learn, that even the godly themselves are drowsy and unconcerned in this respect until they are awakened. He extols very highly the power of God in preserving his chosen people, which is commonly despised or not estimated as it ought to be, when it is exercised after an ordinary manner. He therefore sets before them the desolations of countries, and marvellous devastations, and other miraculous things, which more powerfully move the minds of men. If any one would prefer to understand what follows — He maketh battles to cease — of some special help vouchsafed by God, yet still it must be considered as intended to lead the faithful to expect as much help from him in future as they had already experienced. The prophet, it appears, from one particular instance, designs to show in general how mightily God is wont to defend his Church. At the same time, it happened more than once, that God quelled throughout the land of Judea all the dangerous tumults by which it was distracted, and drove away wars far from it, by depriving the enemies of their courage, breaking their bows, and burning their chariots; and it is very probable that the prophet, froth a particular instance, here takes occasion to remind the Jews how often God had disappointed the greatest efforts of their enemies. One thing, however, is quite certain, that God is here set forth as adorned with these titles, that we should look for peace from him, even when the whole world is in uproar, and agitated in a dreadful manner. 6. Alexander Maclaren, “THE CITY A
- 60. D RIVER OFGOD ‘There is a river, the streams whereof shall 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 heathen 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.’—PSALM xlvi 4-7. There are two remarkable events in the history of Israel, one or other of which most probably supplied the historical basis upon which this psalm rests. One is that wonderful deliverance of the armies of Jehoshaphat from the attacking forces of the bordering nations, which is recorded in the twentieth chapter of the Book of Chronicles. There you will find that, by a singular arrangement, the sons of Korah, members of the priestly order, were not only in the van of the battle, but celebrated the victory by hymns of gladness. It is possible that this may be one of those
- 61. hymns; but Ithink rather that the more ordinary reference is the correct one, which sees in this psalm and in the two succeeding ones, echoes of that supernatural deliverance of Israel in the time of Hezekiah, when ‘The Assyrian came down like a wolf on the fold,’ and Sennacherib and all his army were, by the blast of the breath of His nostrils, swept into swift destruction. The reasons for that historical reference may be briefly stated. We find, for instance, a number of remarkable correspondences between these three psalms and portions of the Book of the prophet Isaiah, who, as we know, lived in the period of that deliverance. The comparison, for example, which is here drawn with such lofty, poetic force between the quiet river which ‘makes glad the city of God,’ and the tumultuous billows of the troubled sea, which shakes the mountain and moves the earth, is drawn by Isaiah in regard to the Assyrian invasion, when he speaks of Israel refusing ‘the waters of Shiloah, which go softly,’ and, therefore, having brought upon them the waters of the river—the power of Assyria—‘which shall fill the breadth of Thy land, O Immanuel!’
- 62. otice, too, thatthe very same consolation which was given to Isaiah, by the revelation of that significant appellation, ‘Immanuel, God with us,’ appears in this psalm as a kind of refrain, and is the foundation of all its confident gladness, ‘The Lord of Hosts is with us.’ Besides these obvious parallelisms, there are others to which I need not refer, which, taken together, seem to render it at least probable that we have in this psalm the devotional echo of the great deliverance of Israel from Assyria in the time of Hezekiah.
- 63. ow, these versesare the cardinal central portion of the song. We may call them The Hymn of the Defence and Deliverance of the City of God. We cannot expect to find in poetry the same kind of logical accuracy in the process of thought which we require in treatises; but the lofty emotion of devout song obeys laws of its own: and it is well to surrender ourselves to the flow, and to try to see with the Psalmist’s eyes for a moment his sources of consolation and strength. I take the four points which seem to be the main turning-points of these verses—first, the gladdening river; second, the indwelling Helper; third, the conquering voice; and fourth, the alliance of ourselves by faith with the safe dwellers in the city of God. I. First, we have the gladdening river—an emblem of many great and joyous truths. The figure is occasioned by, or at all events derives much of its significance from, a geographical peculiarity of Jerusalem. Alone among the great cities and historical centres of the world, it stood upon no broad river. One little perennial stream, or rather rill of living water, was all which it had; but Siloam was mightier and more blessed for the dwellers in the rocky fortress of the Jebusites than the Euphrates,
- 64. ile, or Tiberfor the historical cities which stood upon their banks. One can see the Psalmist looking over the plain eastward, and beholding in vision the mighty forces which came against them, symbolised and expressed by the breadth and depth and swiftness of the great river upon which
- 65. ineveh sat asa queen, and then thinking upon the little tiny thread of living water that flowed past the base of the rock upon which the temple was perched. It seems small and unconspicuous—nothing compared to the dash of the waves and the rise of the floods of those mighty secular empires, still, ‘There is a river the streams whereof shall make glad the city of God.’ Its waters shall never fail, and thirst shall flee whithersoever this river comes. It is also to be remembered that the psalm is running in the track of a certain constant symbolism that pervades all Scripture. From the first book of Genesis down to the last chapter of Revelation, you can hear the dashing of the waters of the river. ‘It went out from the garden and parted into
- 66. four heads.’ ‘Thoumakest them drink of the river of Thy pleasures.’ ‘Behold, waters issued out from under the threshold of the house eastward,’ and ‘everything shall live whithersoever the river cometh.’ ‘He that believeth on me, out of His belly shall flow rivers of living water.’ ‘And he shewed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb.’ Isaiah, who has already afforded some remarkable parallels to the words of our psalm, gives another very striking one to the image now under consideration, when he says, ‘The glorious Lord will be unto us a place of broad rivers and streams, wherein shall go no galley with oars.’ The picture in that metaphor is of a stream lying round Jerusalem, like the moated rivers which girdle some of the cities in the plains of Italy, and are the defence of those who dwell enclosed in their flashing links. Guided, then, by the physical peculiarity of situation which I have referred to, and by the constant meaning of Scriptural symbolism, I think we must conclude that this river, ‘the streams whereof make glad the city of God,’ is God Himself in the outflow and self-communication of His own grace to the soul. The stream is the fountain in flow. The gift of God, which is living water, is God Himself, considered as the ever-imparting Source of all refreshment, of all strength, of all blessedness. ‘This spake He of the Spirit, which they that believe should receive.’ We must dwell for a moment or two still further upon these words, and mark how this metaphor, in a most simple and natural way, sets forth very grand and blessed spiritual truths with regard to this communication of God’s grace to them that love Him and trust Him. First, I think we may see here a very beautiful suggestion of the manner, and then of the variety, and then of the effects of that communication of the divine love and grace. We have only to read the previous verses to see what I mean. ‘God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore will not we fear, though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea; though the waters thereof roar and be troubled, though the mountains shake with the swelling thereof.’ There you can hear the wild waves dashing round the base of the firm hills, sapping their strength, and toppling their crests down in the bubbling, yeasty foam. Remember how, not only in Scripture but in all poetry, the sea has been the emblem of endless unrest. Its waters, those barren, wandering fields of foam, going moaning round the world with unprofitable labour, how they have been the emblem of unbridled power, of tumult and strife, and anarchy and rebellion! Then mark how our text brings into sharpest contrast with all that hurly-burly of the tempest, and the dash and roar of the troubled waters, the gentle, quiet flow of the river, ‘the streams whereof make glad the city of God’; the translucent little ripples purling along beds of golden pebbles, and the enamelled meadows drinking the pure stream as it steals by them. 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 astronomers 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 their path. 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, ‘
- 67. ot by might,nor by power, but by My Spirit,’ we are aware of an energy, the signature
- 68. of whose mightis 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 them all. And then, still further, in this first part of our text there is also set forth very distinctly the number and the variety of the gifts of God. ‘The streams whereof,’ literally, ‘the divisions whereof,’—that is to say, going back to Eastern ideas, the broad river is broken up into canals that are led off into every man’s little bit of garden ground; coming down to modern ideas, the water is carried by pipes into every man’s household and chamber. The stream has its divisions; listen to words that are a commentary upon the meaning of this verse, ‘All these worketh that one and the selfsame Spirit, dividing unto every man severally as He will’—an infinite variety, an endless diversity, according to all the petty wants of each that is supplied thereby. As you can divide water all but infinitely, and it will take the shape of every containing vessel, so into every soul according to its capacities, according to its shape, according to its needs, this great gift, this blessed presence of the God of our strength, will come. The varieties of His gifts are as much the mark of His omnipotence as the gentleness and stillness of them. And then I need only touch upon the last thought, the effects of this communicated God. ‘The streams make glad’—with the gladness which comes from refreshment, with the gladness which comes from the satisfying of all thirsty desires, with the gladness which comes from the contact of the spirit with absolute completeness; of the will, with perfect authority; of the heart, with changeless love; of the understanding, with pure incarnate truth; of the conscience, with infinite peace; of the child, with the Father; of my emptiness, with His fulness; of my changeableness, with His immutability; of my incompleteness, with His perfectness. They to whom this stream passes shall know no thirst; they who possess it from them it shall come. Out of him ‘shall flow rivers of living water.’ That all-sufficient Spirit not only becomes to its possessor the source of individual refreshment, and slakes his own thirst, but flows out from him for the gladdening of others. ‘The least flower with a brimming cup may stand, And share its dew-drop with another near.’ The city thus supplied may laugh at besieging hosts. With the deep reservoir in its central fortress, the foe may do as they list to all surface streams, its water shall be sure, and no raging thirst shall ever drive it to surrender. The river breaks from the threshold of the Temple, within its walls, and when all beyond that safe enclosure is cracked and parched in the fierce heat, and no green thing can be seen in the dry and thirsty land, that stream shall ‘make glad the city of our God,’ and ‘everything shall live whithersoever the river cometh.’ ‘Thou shalt be as a well-watered garden, and as a river whose streams fail not.’ II. Then notice, secondly, substantially the same general thought, but modified and put in plain words—the indwelling Helper. ‘God is in the midst of her, she shall not be moved: God shall help her, and that right early,’ or, as the latter clause had better be translated, as it is given in the margin of some of our Bibles, ‘God shall help her at the appearance of the morning.’ There are two promises here: first of all, the constant presence; and second, help at the right time. Whether there be actual help or no, there is always with us the potential help of God, and it flashes into energy at the moment that He knows to be the right one. The ‘appearing of the morning’ He determines; not you or I. Therefore, we
- 69. may be confidentthat we have God ever by our sides.
- 70. ot that thatPresence is meant to avert outward or inward trouble and trial, and painfulness and weariness; but in the midst of these, and while they last, here is the assurance, ‘She shall not be moved’; and that it will not always last, here is the ground of the confidence, ‘God shall help her when the morning dawns.’ I need not point out to you the contrast here between the tranquillity of the city which has for its central Inhabitant and Governor the omnipotent God, and the tumult of all that turbulent earth. The waves of the troubled waters break everywhere,—they run over the flat plains and sweep over the mountains of secular strength and outward might, and worldly kingdoms, and human polities and earthly institutions, acting on them all either by slow corrosive action at the base, or by the tossing floods swirling against them, until they shall be lost in the ocean of time. For ‘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?
- 71. o. Because ofher guards and gates?
- 72. o! Because ofher polity?
- 73. o! Because ofher orthodoxy?
- 74. o! But becauseGod is in her, and she is safe, and where He dwells no evil can come. ‘Thou carriest Caesar and his fortunes.’ The ship of Christ carries the Lord and His fortunes; 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.’ Then, still further, that Presence which is always the pledge of stability, and unmoved calm, even while causes of agitation are storming around, will, as I said, flash into energy, and be a Helper and a Deliverer at the right moment. And when will that right moment be? At the appearing of the morning. ‘And when they arose early in the morning, they were all dead corpses’; in the hour of greatest extremity, but ere the foe has executed his purposes; not too soon for fear and faith, not too late for hope and help; when the morning dawns, when the appointed hour of deliverance, which He alone determines, has struck. ‘It is not for you to know the times and seasons’; but this we may know, that He who is the Lord of time will ever save at the best possible moment. He will not come so quickly as to prevent us from feeling our need; He will not tarry so long as to make us sick with hope deferred, or so long as to let the enemy fulfil his purposes of destruction. ‘Lord, behold! he whom Thou lovest is sick.
- 75. ow Jesus lovedMartha, and her sister, and Lazarus. When He had heard therefore that he was sick, He abode two days still in the same place where He was. . . . Lord, if Thou hadst been here, my brother had not died. Jesus saith unto her, Thy brother shall rise again. . . . And he that was dead came forth.’ The Lord may seem to sleep on His hard wooden pillow in the stern of the little fishing boat, and even while the frail craft begins to fill may show no sign of help. But ere the waves have rolled over her, the cry of fear that yet trusts, and of trust that yet fears, wakes Him who knew the need, even while He seemed to slumber, and one mighty word, as of a master to some petulant slave, ‘Peace! be still,’ hushes the confusion, and rebukes the fear, and rewards the faith. ‘The Lord is in the midst of her’—that is the perennial fact. ‘The Lord shall help her, and that right early’—that is the ‘grace for seasonable help.’ III. The psalm having set forth these broad grounds of confidence, goes on to tell the story of actual deliverance which confirms them, and of which they are indeed but the generalised expression. 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
- 76. haste, as theyrecord 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 vigour 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 smites 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. At the sound of that thunder-voice, hushed stillness and a pause of dread fall upon all the wide earth, deeper and more awe-struck than the silence of the woods with their huddling leaves, when the feebler peals roll through the sky. ‘The depths are congealed in the heart of the sea’—as if you were to lay hold of
- 77. iagara in itswildest plunge, and were with a word to freeze all its descending waters and stiffen them into immovableness in fetters of eternal ice. So He utters His voice, and all meaner noises are hushed. ‘The lion hath roared, who shall not fear?’ He speaks—no weapon, no material vehicle is needed. The point of contact between the pure divine will and the material creatures which obey its behests is ever wrapped in darkness, whether these be the settled ordinances which men call nature, or the less common which the Bible calls miracle. In all alike there is, to every believer in a God at all, an incomprehensible action of the spiritual upon the material, which allows of no explanations to bridge over the gulf recognised in the broken utterances of our psalm, ‘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 organisation and solidity. ‘The hills melted like wax’; ‘The mountains flowed down at Thy presence.’ The hardness and obstinacy is all liquefied and enfeebled, and parts with its consistency and is lost in a fluid mass. As two carbon points when the electric stream is poured upon them are gnawed to nothingness by the fierce heat, and you can see them wasting before your eyes, so the concentrated ardour of His breath falls upon the hostile evil, and lo! it is not. The Psalmist is generalising the historical fact of the sudden and utter destruction of Sennacherib’s host into a universal law. And it is a universal law—true for us as for Hezekiah and the sons of Korah, true for all generations. Martin Luther might well make this psalm the battle cry of the Reformation, and we may well make our own the rugged music and dauntless hope of his rendering of these words:— ‘And let the Prince of Ill Look grim as e’er he will, He harms us not a whit. For why? His doom is writ. A word shall quickly slay him.’ IV. Then note, finally, how the psalm shows us the act by which we enter the City of God.
- 78. ‘The Lord ofHosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge.’ It is not enough to lay down general truths, however true and however blessed, about the safe and sacred city of God—not enough to be theoretically convinced of the truth of the supreme governance and ever-present aid of God. We must take a further step that will lead us far beyond the regions of barren intellectual apprehension of the great truths of God’s love and care. These truths are nothing to us, brethren! unless, like the Psalmist here, we make them our own, and losing the burden of self in the very act of grasping them by faith, unite ourselves with the great multitude who are joined together in Him, and say, ‘He is my God: He is our refuge.’ That living act of ‘appropriating faith’ presupposes, indeed, the presence of these truths in our understandings, but in the very act they are changed into powers in our lives. They pass into the affections and the will. They are no more empty generalities. Bread nourishes, not when it is looked at, but when it is eaten. ‘He that eateth Me, even he shall live by Me.’ We feed on Christ when we make Him ours by faith, and each of us is sustained and blessed by Him when we can say, ‘My Lord and my God!’ Mark, too, how there is here set forth the twofold ground for our calmest confidence in these two mighty names of God. ‘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-coloured 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. Therefore, we will not fear: what can man do unto us? Again, when we say, ‘The God of Jacob is our refuge,’ we reach back into the past, and lay hold of the mercies promised to, and received by, the long vanished generations who trusted in Him and were lightened. As, by the one name, we appeal to His own Being and uttered pledge, so, by the other, we appeal to His ancient deeds—past as we call them, but present with Him, who lives and loves in the undivided eternity above the low fences of time. All that He has been, He is; all that He has done, He is doing. We on whom the ends of the earth are come have the same Helper, the same Friend that ‘the world’s grey fathers’ had. They that go before do not prevent them that come after. The river is full still. The van of the pilgrim host did, indeed, long, long ago drink and were satisfied, but the bright waters are still as pellucid, still as near, still as refreshing, still as abundant as they ever were.
- 79. ay, rather, theyare fuller and more accessible to us than to patriarch and Psalmist, ‘God having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect.’ For we, brethren! 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
- 80. flashing foundations notumult 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.’ 7. The LORD Almighty is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress. 1. Barnes, “The Lord of hosts - The God commanding, ordering, marshalling the hosts of heaven - the angels, and the starry worlds. See the notes at Isa_1:9. Compare Psa_24:10. The reference here is to God considered as having control over all “armies,” or all that can be regarded and described as a marshalled host, in earth and in heaven. Having such a Being, therefore, for a protector, they had nothing to fear. See Psa_46:11. Is with us - Is on our side; is our defender. The Hebrew phrase used here is employed in Isa_7:14 (notes); Isa_8:8 (notes), to describe the Messiah. See the notes at those passages. The God of Jacob - See the notes at Psa_24:6. The meaning is, The God whom Jacob acknowedged, and whom he found to be his friend, is with us. Is our refuge - literally, a high place, as a tower, far above the reach of enemies. See Psa_9:9, note; Psa_18:2, note. So the margin, “an high place for us.” 2. Clarke, “The Lord of hosts is with us - We, feeble Jesvs, were but a handful of men; but the Lord of hosts - the God of armies, was on our side. Him none could attack with hope of success, and his legions could not be over-thrown. The God of Jacob - The God who appeared to Jacob in his distress, and saved him out of all his troubles, appeared also for us his descendants, and has amply proved to us that he has not forgotten his covenant. 2B. Spurgeon, “The Lord of hosts is with us. This is the reason for all Zion's security, and for the overthrow of her foes. The Lord rules the angels, the stars, the elements, and all the hosts of heaven; and the heaven of heavens are under his sway. The armies of men though they know it not are made to subserve his will. This Generalissimo of the forces of the land, and the Lord High Admiral of the seas, is on our side -- our august ally; woe unto those who fight against him, for they shall fly like smoke before the wind when he gives the word to scatter them. The God of Jacob is our refuge, Immanuel is Jehovah of Hosts, and Jacob's God is our high place of defence. When this glad verse is sung to music worthy of such a jubilate, well may the singers pause and the players wait awhile to tune their instruments again; here, therefore, fitly stands that solemn, stately, peaceful note of rest, SELAH. 2C. Treasury of David, “Verse 7. The Lord of hosts is with us. There be three sorts of God's special presence, all which may be justly accounted the church's privilege. First, his glorious presence, or his presence testified by eminent glory, and the residence thereof. Thus God is said to be in heaven differentially, so as he is not anywhere else; and heaven is therefore called his throne or dwelling place 1 Kings 8:39 ; as a king is nowhere so majestically as upon his throne, or in his
- 81. chair of state;and this is so great a privilege of the church as that she comes not to enjoy it, unless she be triumphant in heaven, and therefore is not the presence here intended. Secondly, his gracious presence, or his presence testified by tokens of his grace and favour toward a people, whether visible as in the temple where he chose to place his name, and wherein above all places he would be worshipped, in which respect he is said to dwell between the cherubim 2Sa 6:2; or spiritual tokens of his grace, as assistance and acceptance in the duties of his worship, together with enjoyment and benefit of his ordinances. Thus he is present with his church and people in times of the gospel: "Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them." Matthew 18:20. This kind of presence is a privilege of the church militant, that he will be with her in holy and spiritual administrations and ordinances; yet this is not the presence principally intended here. Thirdly, the providential presence, or his presence testified by acts of special providence, wherein the power, wisdom or any other of God's attributes are eminently put forth, either by way of assistance or defence fro a people. Thus the Lord was present with Israel in the wilderness by the pillar of fore and of a cloud Exodus 13:21; "And the Lord went before them by day in a pillar of cloud, to lead them the way; and by night in a pillar of fire, to give them light." And as this presence was intended for a guide, so was it also for a defence to his people against their enemies, and at which their enemies the Egyptians were troubled. Exodus 15:20. By this kind of presence the Lord is with his church militant, in reference to her external regiment, and more especially in her warfare, standing up for her and with her against her enemies; and this is the church's privilege in these words, The Lord of hosts is with us. John Strickland, B.D. (1601-1670), in a Sermon, entitled, "Immanuel," 1644. Verse 7. The God of Jacob. If any shall ask me, Why then the God of Jacob more than the God of Isaac? Though it might suffice that the Spirit of God is pleased so to speak, yet Mr. Calvin gives this reason, the covenant of grace was more solemnly made and publicly ratified with Abraham and Jacob, than it was with Isaac, and therefore when he will be looked upon as a God in covenant with his people, he holds forth himself more frequently by the name of the God of Abraham, and the God of Jacob, than of the God of Isaac; albeit sometimes he is pleased to take upon him that style also. John Strickland. Verse 7. Our refuge. Our refuge, or stronghold, where the church, as a ship in quiet haven, amy anchor and ride safe; or it may be a metaphor from the dens or burrows, where weaponless creatures find shelter, when they are hunted and pursued by their enemies, as Proverbs 30:26, "The conies are but a feeble folk, yet make they their houses in the rocks." They are safe in the rock if they can get thither, though never so weak in themselves. So the church, though pursued by bloody enemies, and though weak in herself, if yet she get under the wing of the God of Jacob, she may be fearless, for she is safe there. He is our refuge. It were to undervalue God, if we should fear the creatures, when he is with us. Antigonus, when he overheard his soldiers reckoning how many their enemies were, he steps in unto them suddenly, demanding, "And how many do you reckon me for?" John Strickland. 3. Gill, “The Lord of hosts is with us,.... The Targum is, "the Word of the Lord of hosts". He whose name is Immanuel, which is, by interpretation, "God with us", Mat_1:23; who is King of kings, and Lord of lords; who has all creatures in heaven and earth at his command, whom all the hosts of angels obey; he is on the side of his people, and therefore they have nothing to fear from all the hosts and armies of men; seeing more are they that are for them than they that are against them; the God of Jacob is our refuge. As, in the former clause, the argument against fear of men is
- 82. taken from thepower of God, and the extent of his dominion, here it is taken from the grace of God, and his people's covenant interest in him: for by Jacob is meant the church of God, and all true believers, who are Israelites indeed; the Lord is the refuge and shelter of such in all times of distress and trouble, and therefore they need not fear; See Gill on Psa_46:1. 4. Calvin, “ 8. Come and see what the LORD has done, the desolations he has brought on the earth. 1. Barnes, “Come, behold the works of the Lord - Go forth and see what the Lord has done. See, in what his hand has accomplished, how secure we are if we put our trust in him. What desolations he hath made in the earth - Or, in the land. The word “desolations” might refer to any “ruin” or “overthrow,” which he had brought upon the land of Israel, or on the nations abroad - the destruction of cities, towns, or armies, as proof of his power, and of his ability to save those who put their trust in him. But if this be supposed to refer to the invasion of the land of Israel by Sennacherib, it may point to what occurred to his armies when the angel of the Lord went forth and smote them in their camp Isa_37:36, and to the consequent deliverance of Jerusalem from danger. Without impropriety, perhaps, this may be regarded as all appeal to the inhabitants of Jerusalem to go forth and see for themselves how complete was the deliverance; how utter the ruin of their foes; how abundant the proof that God was able to protect his people in times of danger. It adds great beauty to this psalm to suppose that it “was” composed on that occasion, or in view of that invasion, for every part of the psalm may receive a beautiful, and an ample illustration from what occurred at that memorable period.
- 83. othing “could” furnisha clearer proof of the power of God to save, and of the propriety of putting confidence in him in times of national danger, than a survey of the camp of the Assyrians, where an hundred and eighty-five thousand men had been smitten down in one night by the angel of God. Compare 2Ki_19:35; 2Ch_32:21; Isa_37:36. 2. Clarke, “Come, behold the works of the Lord - See empires destroyed and regenerated; and in such a way as to show that a supernatural agency has been at work. By the hand of God alone could these great changes be effected. 2B. Spurgeon, “Come, behold the works of the Lord. The joyful citizens of Jerusalem are invited to go forth and view the remains of their enemies, that they may mark the prowess of Jehovah and the spoil which his right hand hath won for his people. It were well if we also carefully noted the providential dealings of our covenant God, and were quick to perceive his hand in the battles of his church. Whenever we read history is should be with this verse sounding in our ears. We should read the newspaper in the same spirit, to see how the Head of the Church rules the nations
- 84. for his people'sgood, as Joseph governed Egypt for the sake of Israel. What desolations he hath made in the earth. The destroyers he destroys, the desolators he desolates. How forcible is the verse at this date! The ruined cities of Assyria, Babylon, Petra, Bashan, Canaan, are our instructors, and in tables of stone record the doings of the Lord. In every place where his cause and crown have been disregarded ruin has surely followed: sin has been a blight on nations, and left their palaces to lie in heaps. In the days of the writer of this Psalm, there had probably occurred some memorable interpositions of God against his Israel's foes; and as he saw their overthrow, he called on his fellow citizens to come forth and attentively consider the terrible things in righteousness which had been wrought on their behalf. Dismantled castles and ruined abbeys in our own land stand as memorials of the Lord's victories over oppression and superstition. May there soon be more of such desolations. "Ye gloomy piles, ye tombs of living men, Ye sepulchres of womanhood, or worse; Ye refuges of lies, soon may ye fall, And amid your ruins may the owl, and bat, And dragon find congenial resting place." 2C. Treasury of David, “Verse 8. Come, behold the works of the Lord. Venito, videto. God looks that his works should be well observed, and especially when he hath wrought any great deliverance for his people. Of all things, he cannot abide to be forgotten. John Trapp. Verse 8. What desolations he hath made in the earth. We are here first invited to a tragical sight. We are carried into the camera di morte, to see the ghastly visage of deaths and desolations all the world over; than which nothing can be more horrible and dreadful. You are called out to see piles of dead carcasses; to see whole basketfuls of heads, as was presented to Jehu: a woeful spectacle, but a necessary one. See, therefore, what desolation the Lord hath wrought in all the earth. Desolations by wars: how many fields have been drenched with blood, and composted with carcasses; how many millions of men have been cut off in all ages by the edge of the sword! Desolations by famine; wherein men have been forced to make their bodies one another's sepulchres, and mothers to devour their children of a span long. Desolations by plagues and pestilence; which have swept away, as our story tells us, eight hundred thousand in one city. Desolations by inundations of waters; which have covered the faces of many regions, and rinsed the earth of her unclean inhabitants. Desolations by earthquakes, which have swallowed up whole cities; and those great and populous. Desolations wrought by the hand of his angels; as in Egypt; in the tents of the Assyrians, one hundred and eighty five thousand in one night; in the camp of Israel, in David's pestilence. Desolations wrought by the hand of men, in battles and massacres. Desolations by wild beasts; as in the colonies of Ashur planted in Samaria. Desolations by the swarms of obnoxious and noisome creatures; as in Egypt, and since in Africa: "He spoke the word, and the grasshoppers came, and caterpillars innumerable," Psalms 105:34. In so much as, in the consulship of M. Fulvius Flaccus, after the bloody wars of Africa, followed infinite numbers of locusts; which, after devouring of all herbs and fruit, were, by a sudden wind, hoised into the African sea: infection followed upon their putrefaction, and thereupon a general mortality: in number, four score thousand died: upon the sea coast betwixt Carthage and Utica, above two hundred thousand. Desolations every way, and by what variety of means soever; yet all wrought by the divine hand; What desolations he hath wrought. Whoever be the instrument, he is the Author. Joseph Hall (Bishop.) Verse 8. Doth not God make great desolations, when he makes that man that counted himself a most religious man, to confess himself not sufficient for one good thought? As it was with Paul, does he not make wars to cease when he turns the heart of a persecutor, earnestly to seek peace
- 85. with God andman, yea, with his very enemies? Doth he not break the bow and all weapons of war asunder, and that in all the earth, when he proclaims peace to all that are far off and near, professor and profane, Jews and Gentiles? Richard Coore. Verse 8-10. Come, behold the works of the Lord. What works? ruining works. What desolations he hath made in the earth. God made strange work in the world at that time. Those countries which before were as the garden of God, became like a desolate wilderness: who was able to bear this with patience? Yet the Spirit of God saith in the next words, it must be patiently borne. When God lets men strive and war with one another to a common confusion, yet no man may strive with God about it: and the reason given why no man may, is only this (which is indeed all the reason in the world), He is God. So it follows in the Psalm; Be still, and know that I am God; as if the Lord had said,
- 86. ot a word,do not strive nor reply; whatever you see, hold your peace; know that I, being God, give no account of any of my matters. Joseph Caryl. 3. Gill, “ Come, behold the works of the Lord,.... Of nature and grace, especially those of Providence; both in a way of judgment, as in this verse; and of mercy, as in Psa_46:9. These words are an address of the psalmist to his friends, as Apollinarius supplies it; or of the church to the fearful among them, who were dismayed at the commotions and disturbances that were in the world, Psa_46:2; and who are encouraged to trust in the Lord, from the consideration of his works, particularly his providential dispensations; what desolations he hath made in the earth; in the land of Judea, at the time of the destruction of the city and temple of Jerusalem, foretold by Moses, Deu_32:22; by Daniel, Dan_9:26; and by our Lord Jesus Christ, Mat_23:38; and which desolations being the fulfilling of prophecy, may serve to strengthen the faith of God's people, that whatsoever he has said shall come to pass; and that seeing he made such desolations among the Jews, for their rejection of the Messiah, what may not be expected will be made in the antichristian states, for their opposition to him? and, besides, are a confirmation of the truth of his being come; since after his coming these desolations, according to Daniel, were to be made; nor was the sceptre to depart from Judah till he came, nor the second temple to be destroyed before he was in it. Moreover, these desolations may refer to those that have been made in the Roman empire, upon the blowing of the trumpets; the first "four" of which brought in the Goths, Huns, and Vandals, into the western part of it, which made sad ravages and devastations in it; see Rev_8:7; and the "fifth" and "sixth" brought in the Saracens and Turks into the eastern part of it, which seized and demolished it, and made dreadful havoc among men; see Rev_9:1. Likewise the desolations that will be made in the antichristian states may be here intended; when the seven vials of God's wrath will be poured out upon them, Rev_16:1 when the kings of the earth will hate the whore, and make her desolate, Rev_17:16; and all her plagues shall come upon her in one day, Rev_18:8. And a view of these desolations, even in prophecy, may serve to cheer the hearts of God's people under the present reign of antichrist, and under all the rage, fury, and oppression of antichristian powers, since they will all in a little time become desolate. This will be the Lord's doing, and it will be wondrous in our eyes. 4. Henry, “ When he pleases to draw his sword, and give it commission, he can make great havoc among the nations and lay all waste (Psa_46:8): Come, behold the works of the Lord; they are to be observed (Psa_66:5), and to be sought out, Psa_111:2. 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 lay the land of Israel desolate. The destruction they designed to bring
- 87. upon the churchhas been turned upon themselves. War is a tragedy which commonly destroys the stage it is acted on; David carried the war into the enemies' country; and O what desolations did it make there! Cities were burnt, countries laid waste, and 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! Psa_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. 5. K&D 8-11, “The mighty deeds of Jahve still lie visibly before them in their results, and those who are without the pale of the church are to see for themselves and be convinced. In a passage founded upon this, Psa_66:5, stands מפעלות אלהים ; here, according to Targum and Masora (vid., Psalter, ii. 472), .מפעלות יהוה (
- 88.
- 89. evertheless הִים vמפעלות אֱ is also found here as a various reading that goes back to the time of the Talmud. The oldest Hebrew Psalter of 1477 reads thus, vide Repertorium für Bibl. und Morgenländ. Liter. v. (1779), 148.
- 90. orzi decides infavour of it, and Biesenthal has also adopted it in his edition of the Psalter (1837), which in other respects is a reproduction of Heidenheim's text.) Even an Elohimic Psalm gives to the God of Israel in opposition to all the world no other name than יהוה. שַׁמּוֹת does not here signify stupenda (Jer_8:21), but in accordance with the phrase שׂוּם לְשַׁמָּה , Isa_13:9, and frequently: devastations, viz., among the enemies who have kept the field against the city of God. The participle מַשְׁבִּית is designedly used in carrying forward the description. The annihilation of the worldly power which the church has just now experienced for its rescue, is a prelude to the ceasing of all war, Mic_4:3 (Isa_2:4). Unto the ends of the earth will Jahve make an end of waging war; and since He has no pleasure in war in general, much less in war waged against His own people, all the implements of war He in part breaks to pieces and in part consigns to the flames (cf. Isa_54:16.). Cease, cries He (Psa_46:10) to the nations, from making war upon my people, and know that I am God, the invincible One, - invincible both in Myself and in My people, - who will be acknowledged in My exaltation by all the world. A similar inferential admonition closes Psa_2:1-12. With this admonition, which is both warning and threatening at the same time, the nations are dismissed; but the church yet once more boasts that Jahve Tsebaoth is its God and its stronghold. . Calvin, “ 9. He makes wars cease to the ends of the earth. He breaks the bow and shatters the spear; he burns the shields[d] with fire.
- 91. 1. Barnes, “Hemaketh wars to cease unto the end of the earth - Either in all the land, or in all the world. The overthrow of the Assyrian army would probably put an end to all the wars then raging in the world. The Assyrian empire was then the most mighty on the globe; it was engaged in wide schemes of conquest; it had already overrun many of the smaller kingdoms of the world Isa_37:18-20; and it hoped to complete its conquests, and to secure the ascendancy over the entire earth, by the subjugation of India and Egypt. When the vast army of that empire, engaged in such a purpose, was overthrown, the consequence would be that the nations would be at rest, or that there would be universal peace. Compare the notes at Isa_14:6-7. He breaketh the bow, and cutteth the spear in sunder - That is, he makes them useless, as a bow that is broken is of no value, or a spear that is cut into parts. He burneth the chariot in the fire - The war-chariot, that which was employed in battle. See the notes at Isa_2:7; notes at Psa_20:7. The expression here may refer to a custom of collecting the spoils of war into a heap, and setting them on fire. This was particularly done when the victors were unable to remove them, or so to secure them as to preclude all danger of their being taken again and used against themselves. Tiffs custom is alluded to by Virgil, AEn. viii. 561, 562, “Qualis cram, cum primam aciem Prseneste sub ipsa Stravi, scutorumque iucendi victor acervos.” The idea here is, that God had wholly overthrown the foe, and had prevented all danger of his returning again for purposes of conquest. 2. Clarke, “He maketh wars to cease - By the death of Cambyses, and setting Darius, son of Hystaspes, upon the Persian throne, he has tranquillized the whole empire. That same God who for our unfaithfulness has delivered us into the hands of our enemies, and subjected us to a long and grievous captivity and affliction, has now turned our captivity, and raised us up the most powerful friends and protectors in the very place in which we have been enduring so great a fight of afflictions. He breaketh the bow - He has rendered useless all the implements of war; and so profound and secure is the general tranquillity, that the bow may be safely broken, the spear snapped asunder, and the chariot burnt in the fire. 2B. He maketh wars to cease unto the end of the earth. His voice quiets the tumult of war, and calls for the silence of peace. However remote and barbarous the tribe, he awes the people into rest. He crushes the great powers till they cannot provoke strife again; he gives his people profound repose. He breaketh the bow, the sender of swift winged death he renders useless. And cutteth the spear in sunder -- the lance of the mighty man he shivers. He burneth the chariot in the fire -- the proud war chariot with its death dealing scythes he commits to the flames. All sorts of weapons he piles heaps on heaps, and utterly destroys them. So was it in Judea in the days of yore, so shall it be in all lands in eras yet to come. Blessed deed of the Prince of Peace! when shall it be literally performed? Already the spiritual foes of his people are despoiled of their power to destroy; but when shall the universal victory of peace be celebrated, and instruments of wholesale murder be consigned to ignominious destruction? How glorious will the ultimate victory of Jesus be in the day of his appearing, when every enemy shall lick the dust!
- 92. 2C. Treasury ofDavid, “Verse 9. He that destroyeth all the instruments of war doth surely make peace; and that he maketh war to cease, doth certainly make peace begin. Peace is made two ways; first, by taking up the differences and reconciling the spirits of men; secondly, by breaking the power and taking away all provisions of war from men. The Lord maketh peace by both these ways, or by either of them. Joseph Caryl. Verse 9. He breaketh the bow, and cutteth the spear in sunder; he burneth the chariot in the fire. When the Romans had, in their way of speaking, given peace to a nation, by extirpating the greatest part of the miserable inhabitants, they collected the arms of the vanquished, and setting them on fire, reduced them to ashes. A medal, struck by Vespasian, the Roman emperor, on finishing his wars in Italy, and other parts of the world, represents the goddess of peace holding an olive branch in on hand, and with a lighted torch in the other, setting fire to a heap of armour. The custom is thus alluded to by Virgil: -- "O mihi praeteritos referat si Jupiter annos! Qualis eram, cum primam Praeneste sub ipsa Stravi, scutorumque incendi victor acervos." An, lib. 3 v. "O that Jupiter would restore to me the years that are past! Such as I was, when under Praeneste itself, I routed the foremost rank of the enemy, and victorious set fire to heaps of armour." The same practice, by the command of Jehovah, prevailed among the Jews; the first instance of it occurs in the book of Joshua 11:6. It is also celebrated in the songs of Zion, as the attendant of peace, and the proof of its continuance "He maketh war to cease," etc. Paxton's Illustrations of Scripture. Verse 9. He burneth the chariot in the fire. By degrees, the chariot came to be one of the recognised forces in war, and we find it mentioned throughout the books of Scriptures, not only in its literal sense, but as a metaphor which every one could understand. In the Psalms, for example, are several allusions to the war chariot. He maketh wars to cease unto the end of the earth; he breaketh the bow, and cutteth the spear in sunder; he burneth the chariot in the fire. Psalms 46:9. Again: "At thy rebuke, O God of Jacob, both the chariot and horse are cast into a deep sleep," Psalms 76:6. And: "Some trust in chariots, and some in horses: but we will remember the name of the Lord our God." Psalms 20:7.
- 93. ow, the forceof these passages cannot be properly appreciated unless we realise to ourselves the dread in which the war chariot was held by the foot soldiers. Even calvary were much feared; but the chariots were objects of almost superstitious fear, and the rushing sound of their wheels, the noise of the horses' hoofs, and the shaking of the ground as the "prancing horses and jumping chariots"
- 94. ahum 3:2, thundered along, are repeatedly mentioned. J. G. Wood. 3. Gill, “He maketh wars to cease unto the ends of the earth,.... As at the birth of Christ, the Prince of peace, in the times of Augustus Caesar, when there was a general peace in the world, though it did not last long; and in the times of Constantine, signified by silence in heaven for half an hour, Rev_8:1; when for a while there was a cessation from wars and persecution; and as will be in the latter day, and which is here chiefly designed; when nations shall learn war no more, and Christ's kingdom will take place; of which and its peace there shall be no end, Isa_2:4. The consideration of which may serve to relieve distressed minds under terrible apprehensions of present troubles and public calamities;
- 95. he breaketh thebow, and cutteth the spear in sunder; he burneth the chariot in the fire; that is, "chariots", or "carts" (y) or "wagons", in which, as Aben Ezra observes, arms and provision were carried for the use of soldiers; the Targum renders it "round shields" (z): and the destroying of all these military weapons and carriages is a token of peace, and of war's being caused to cease, there being no more use for them; with this compare Eze_39:8. It was usual to burn the arms of enemies taken in war (a). 4. Henry, “ When he pleases to sheathe his sword, he puts an end to the wars of the nations and crowns them with peace, Psa_46:9. War and peace depend on his word and will, as much as storms and calms at sea do, Psa_107:25, Psa_107:29. He makes wars to cease unto the end of the earth, sometimes in pity to the nations, that they may have a breathing-time, when, by long wars with each other, they have run themselves out of breadth. Both sides perhaps are weary of the war, and willing to let it fall; expedients are found out for accommodation; martial princes are removed, and peace-makers set in their room; and then the bow is broken by consent, the spear cut asunder and turned into a pruning-hook, the sword beaten into a ploughshare, and the chariots of war are burned, there being no more occasion for them; or, rather, it may be meant of what he does, at other times, in favour of his own people. He makes those wars to cease that were waged against them and designed for their ruin. He breaks the enemies' bow that was drawn against them. +o weapon formed against Zion shall prosper, Isa_54:17. The total destruction of Gog and Magog is prophetically described by the burning of their weapons of war (Eze_39:9, Eze_39:10), which intimates likewise the church's perfect security and assurance of lasting peace, which made it needless to lay up those weapons of war for their own service. The bringing of a long war to a good issue is a work of the Lord, which we ought to behold with wonder and thankfulness. 5. Calvin, “ 10. He says, “Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.” 1. Barnes, “Be still - The word used here - from רפה râphâh - means properly to cast down; to let fall; to let hang down; then, to be relaxed, slackened, especially the hands: It is also employed in the sense of not making an effort; not putting forth exertion; and then would express the idea of leaving matters with God, or of being without anxiety about the issue. Compare Exo_14:13, “Stand still, and see the salvation of God.” In this place the word seems to be used as meaning that there was to be no anxiety; that there was to be a calm, confiding, trustful state of mind in view of the displays of the divine presence and power. The mind was to be calm, in view of the fact that God had interposed, and had shown that he was able to defend his people when surrounded by dangers. If this the divine interposition when Jerusalem was threatened by the armies of the Assyrians under Sennacherib, the force and beauty of the expression will be most clearly seen.
- 96. And know thatI am God - See, in what I have done, the evidence that I am God. See a work accomplished which none “but” God could effect. Compare Isa_37:36. I will be exalted among the heathen - That is, among the nations. The nations abroad that do not worship me, but worship idols, shall see in these deeds full proof that I am the true God, and that I am worthy of universal adoration. Compare the notes at Dan_3:28-29; notes at Dan_4:1-3, notes at Dan_4:37. See also Exo_9:16; Rom_9:17. I will be exalted in the earth - In the lands abroad; all over the world. The defeat and destruction of the armies of Sennacherib were eminently suited to make a deep impression on the world that the God of the Hebrew people was the true God. 2. Clarke, “Be still, and know that I am God - הרפו harpu, Cease from your provocations of the Divine justice; cease from murmuring against the dispensations of his providence; cease from your labor for a season, that ye may deeply reflect on the severity and goodness of God - severity to those who are brought down and destroyed; goodness to you who are raised up and exalted: - cease from sin and rebellion against your God; let that disgrace you no more, that we may no more be brought into distress and desolation. Know that I am God - Understand that I am the Fountain of power, wisdom, justice, goodness, and truth. I will be exalted among the heathen - By the dispensation of punishments, the heathen shall know me to be the God of justice; by the publication of my Gospel among them, they shall know me to be the God of goodness. I will be exalted in the earth - I will have my salvation proclaimed in every nation, among every people, and in every tongue. 2B. Spurgeon, “Be still, and know that I am God. Hold off your hands, ye enemies! Sit down and wait in patience, ye believers! Acknowledge that Jehovah is God, ye who feel the terrors of his wrath! Adore him, and him only, ye who partake in the protection of his grace. Since none can worthily proclaim his nature, let "expressive silence muse his praise." The boasts of the ungodly and the timorous forebodings of the saints should certainly be hushed by a sight of what the Lord has done in past ages. I will be exalted among the heathen. They forget God, they worship idols, but Jehovah will yet be honoured by them. Reader, the prospects of missions are bright, bright as the promises of God. Let no man's heart fail him; the solemn declarations of this verse must be fulfilled. I will be exalted in the earth, among all people, whatever may have been their wickedness or their degradation. Either by terror or love God will subdue all hearts to himself. The whole round earth shall yet reflect the light of his majesty. All the more because of the sin, and obstinacy, and pride of man shall God be glorified when grace reigns unto eternal life in all corners of the world. 2C. Treasury of David, “Verse 10. Be still, and know that I am God. The great works of God, wherein his sovereignty appeared, had been described in the foregoing verses. In the awful desolations that he made, and by delivering his people by terrible things, he showed his greatness and dominion. Herein he manifested his power and sovereignty, and so commands all to be still, and know that he is God. For says he, I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth. In the words may be observed, 1. A duty described, to be still before God, and under the dispensations of his providence; which implies that we must be still as to words; not speaking against the sovereign
- 97. dispensations of Providence,or complaining of them; not darkening counsel by words without knowledge, or justifying ourselves and speaking great swelling words of vanity. We must be still as to actions and outward behaviour, so as not to oppose God in his dispensations; and as to the inward frame of our hearts, cultivating a calm and quiet submission of soul to the sovereign pleasure of God, whatever it may be. 2. We may observe the ground of this duty, namely, the divinity of God. His being God is a sufficient reason why we should be still before him, in no wise murmuring, or objecting, or opposing, but calmly and humbly submitting to him. 3. How we must fulfil this duty of being still before God, namely, with a sense of his divinity, as seeing the ground of this duty, in that we know him to be God. Our submission is to be such as becomes rational creatures. God doth not require us to submit contrary to reason, but to submit as seeing the reason and ground of submission. Hence, the bare consideration that God is God may well be sufficient to still all objections and oppositions against the divine sovereign dispensations. Jonathan Edwards. Verse 10. Be still, and know that I am God. This text of Scripture forbids quarrelling and murmuring against God.
- 98. ow let meapply as I go along. There are very few, and these very well circumstanced, that find themselves in no hazard of quarrelling with God. I think almost that if angels were on earth, they would be in hazard of it. I will assure you, there are none that have corruption, but they have need to be afraid of this. But many give way to this quarrelling, and consider not the hazard thereof. Beware of it, for it is a dreadful thing to quarrel with God: who may say unto him, "What doest thou?" It is a good account of Aaron, that when God made fire to destroy his sons, he held his peace. Let us then, while we bear the yoke, "sit alone and keep silence, and put our mouths in the dust, if so be there may be hope." Lamentations 3:28-29. Ye know, the murmuring of the children of Israel cost them very dear. Be still, that is, beware of murmuring against me, saith the Lord. God gives not an account of his matters to any; because there may be many things ye cannot see through; and therefore ye may think it better to have wanted them, and much more, for the credit of God and the church. I say, God gives not an account of his matters to any. Beware, then, of drawing rash conclusions. Richard Cameron's Sermon, preached July 18th, 1680, three days before he was killed at Airsmoss. Verse 10. Be still and know that I am God. Faith gives the soul a view of the Great God. It teacheth the soul to set his almightiness against sin's magnitude, and his infinitude against sin's multitude; and so quenches the temptation. The reason why the presumptuous sinner fears so little, and the despairing soul so much, is for want of knowing God as great; therefore, to cure them both, the serious consideration of God, under this notion, is propounded: Be still, and know that I am God; as if he had said, Know, O ye wicked, that I am God, who can avenge myself when I please upon you, and cease to provoke me by your sins to your own confusion; and again, know, ye trembling souls, that I am God; and therefore able to pardon the greatest sins, and cease to dishonour me by your unbelieving thoughts of me. William Gurnall. Verse 10. Be still, and know that I am the Lord.
- 99. ot everyone isa fit scholar for God's school, but such as are purified according to the purification of the sanctuary. Carnal men are drowned in fleshly and worldly cares, and neither purged nor lifted up to receive the light of God, or else indisposed by prejudice or passion, that they cannot learn at all. We will never savingly know him, till our souls be free of these indispositions. Among all the elements the earth is fitted to receive seed of the sower; if he cast it into the fire, it burneth; if in the air, it withereth; if in the waters, it rots, the instability of that body is for producing monsters, because it closes not straitly the seeds of fishes. Spirits of a fiery temper, or light in inconstancy, or moving as waters, are not for God's lessons, but such as in stayed humility do rest under his hand. If waters be mixed with
- 100. clay in theirsubstance, or their surface be troubled with wind, they can neither receive nor render any image; such unstable spirits in the school of God lose their time and endanger themselves. William Struther. Verse 10. Be still, and know, etc. As you must come and see Psalms 46:8, so come and hear what the Lord saith to those enemies of yours. John Trapp. 3. Gill, “ Be still, and know that I am God,.... These words are thought by some to be spoken by the Lord to the nations of the world, to "cease from war", as the Targum renders the words; or from going up any more against Jerusalem, as Jarchi interprets them; and that they were spoken to them before the breaking of their bows, &c. as Aben Ezra observes; or that they are an exhortation to them to cease from their evil works, and know that the Lord is God, and has power to raise up and to make low; which, is Kimchi's sense of the words: but they are rather a continuation of the church's address to the fearful among them, as before to behold the works of the Lord, so here to hearken to what he says, as follows, "be still"; not that they should be like sticks and stones, stupid, indolent, and unconcerned at the commotions that were in the earth, and be unaffected with the judgments of God, and be wholly silent and inactive; but that they should not be fearful, nor fretful and impatient, or restless and tumultuous; but be quiet and easy, resigned to the will of God, and live in an assured expectation of the appearance of divine Providence in their layout. And "know"; own and acknowledge that he is God, a sovereign Being that does whatsoever he pleases; that he is unchangeable in his nature, purposes, promises, and covenant; that he is omnipotent, able to help them and deliver them at the last extremity; that he is omniscient, knows their persons, cases, and troubles, and how and where to hide them till the storm is over; that he is the all wise God, and does all things after the counsel of his own will, and makes all things work together for good to them; and that he is faithful to his word and promise, and will not suffer them to be overpressed and bore down with troubles. Who further says for their encouragement, and is to be hearkened to in it, I will be exalted among the Heathen; with or in the conversion of the Gentiles; when the kingdoms of this world shall become Christ's, and all nations shall come and worship before him, Rev_11:15. Or in the destruction of the Gentiles; the Papists, the antichristian states; which will cause great rejoicings, hallelujahs, and attributions of honour and glory to him, Rev_16:5; so Jarchi interprets the words, "I will be exalted", בצקמתי , "in my vengeance"; that I will take upon the Heathen; I will be exalted in the earth; now Christ is exalted in heaven at the right hand of God, before long he will be exalted in the earth, where he was despised and rejected, crucified and slain; he will be King over all the earth; his dominion will be from one end of it to the other; his tabernacle will be among men; and his people, as kings and priests, will reign with him on earth; by whom he, and he alone, will be exalted in the dignity of his person and offices, and, especially in his kingly office, Zec_14:9. The consideration of which may serve to remove fears and dismayings of mind under present troubles. 4. Henry, “As King of saints, and as such we must own that great and marvellous are his works, Rev_15:3. He does and will do great things, 1. For his own glory (Psa_46:10): Be still, and know that I am God. (1.) Let his enemies be still, and threaten no more, but know it, to their terror, that he is God, one infinitely above them, and
- 101. that will certainlybe too hard for them; let them rage no more, for it is all in vain: he that sits in heaven, laughs at them; and, in spite of all their impotent malice against his name and honour, he will be exalted among the heathen and not merely among his own people, he will be exalted in the earth and not merely in the church. 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. (2.) Let his own people be still; let them be calm and sedate, 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 honour, 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. When we pray, Father, glorify thy name, we ought to exercise faith upon the answer given to that prayer when Christ himself prayed it, I have both glorified it and I will glorify it yet again. Amen, Lord, so be it. 5. Calvin, “Be still, and know that I am God The Psalmist seems now to turn his discourse to the enemies of the people of God, who indulge their lust of mischief and revenge upon them: for in doing injury to the saints they do not consider that they are making war against God. Imagining that they have only to do with men, they presumptuously assail them, and therefore the prophet here represses their insolence; and that his address may have the more weight, he introduces God himself as speaking to them. In the first place, he bids them be still, that they may know that he is God; for we see that when men are carried away without consideration, they go beyond all bounds and measure. Accordingly, the prophet justly requires the enemies of the Church to be still and hold their peace, so that when their anger is appeased they may perceive that they are fighting against God. We have in the fourth Psalm, at the fourth verse, a sentiment somewhat similar, “Stand in awe, and sin not: commune with your own heart upon your bed, and be still.” In short, the Psalmist exhorts the world to subdue and restrain their turbulent affections, and to yield to the God of Israel the glory which he deserves; and he warns them, that if they proceed to act like madmen, his power is not enclosed within the narrow limits of Judea, and that it will be no difficult matter for him to stretch forth his arm afar to the Gentiles and heathen nations, that he may glorify himself in every land. In conclusion, he repeats what he had already said, that God has more than enough, both of weapons and of strength, to preserve and defend his Church which he has adopted. 6. Oswald Chambers, “Tenacity is more than endurance, it is endurance combined with the absolute certainty that what we are looking for is going to transpire. Tenacity is more than hanging on, which may be but the weakness of being too afraid to fall off. Tenacity is the supreme effort of a man refusing to believe that his hero is going to be conquered. The greatest fear a man has is not that he will be damned, but that Jesus Christ will be worsted, that the things He stood for - love and justice and forgiveness and kindness among men - will not win out in the end; the things He stands for look like will-o'-the-wisps. Then comes the call to spiritual tenacity, not to hang on and do nothing, but to work deliberately on the certainty that God is not going to be worsted. If our hopes are being disappointed just now, it means that they are being purified. There is nothing noble the human mind has ever hoped for or dreamed of that will not be fulfilled. One of the greatest strains in life is the strain of waiting for God. "Because thou hast kept the word of my patience." Remain spiritually tenacious.
- 102. 6B. Warren Wiersbe,“"Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth!" (v. 10). The Hebrew word translated "be still" actually means "take your hands off." God is saying to us, "Take your hands off, and let Me be God in your life." So often we want to manipulate and control. We talk about those who are "hands on" people. In the Christian life, God uses our hands. He used
- 103. oah's hands tobuild the ark. He used David's hands to kill a giant. He used the apostles' hands to feed 5000 people. But sometimes only God's hand can do the job. Sometimes our hands get in the way because we are manipulating, plotting or scheming. A friend of mine used to remind me, "Faith is living without scheming." Whenever I discover myself pushing and prodding, God says to me, "Take your hands off. Be still, and know that I am God." The difference is simply this. If we play God in our lives, everything is going to fall apart. But if we let Him truly be God in our lives, He will be exalted, He will be with us, and He will get the job done. Are you facing a problem or a challenge today? Are you wondering what you will do? Give it to the Lord. A time will come when He will say, "All right, I will use your hands." But until then, keep your hands off. Know that He is God. He does not expect us to do what only He can do. We can roll the stone away from the tomb of Lazarus, but only He can raise the dead. We can hand out the bread, but only He can multiply it. Let Him be God in your life. To remain still seems to go against human nature. You want control. But as a believer, you need to remain yielded to God's will and give your burdens to Him. What problem are you facing? Are you keeping your hands off and allowing Him to work in your life? Back to the Bible Copyright © 1996-2011 The Good
- 104. ews Broadcasting Association,Inc. All rights reserved. 7. Jason Jackson, “This command — “be still” — forces us to think on two things: that we are finite, and that God is infinite. That being the case, we need to drop our hands, go limp, relax, and “chill out.” Christian people ought to “come, behold the works of Jehovah,” (v. 8) that we may enjoy a calm confidence in him who gave us his Son. “Shall he not also with him freely give us all things?” Paul reasoned (Romans 8:32). Psalm 46:10 encourages us to reflect on what God can do in the face of what we are unable to do. Spiritual serenity, the psalmist admits, ought to be cultivated in spite of the shaking mountains and agitated waters (vv. 2-3; i.e., figures for the difficulties we face in life). This spiritual calm, that God commands, does not come from a lack of troubles; it derives from a steady, deep reflection on the ways God has intervened in history on behalf of his people (cf. Romans 15:4). So as your world crumbles around you, the call from Scripture is: don’t flinch in faith in God. Stand still — not because of a self-made confidence, not because you are the most composed person in the face of disaster, not because “you’ve seen it all.” Be still because of what you know about God. It is “God’s past” that provides calm for “our future.” Know that he is God! Know it, not merely intellectually, but practically, spiritually, and emotionally. He is your God. He is the ruler of kingdoms of this earth and the all-powerful Creator of the Universe. If you are the last man or woman standing, be still. “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth do change” (Psalm 46:1-2a). Hallelujah!
- 105. Unparalleled stability resultsfrom the abiding presence of God. Therefore, gladness characterizes God’s city, even though nations topple around her because of foreign aggression. If she trusts in him, if she is faithful to him, she shall not be moved. What can he do? “He uttered his voice, the earth melted” (v. 6). The psalmist’s confidence may stem from recent manifestations of God’s awesome presence and intervention. A. F. Kirkpatrick was convinced that Psalm 46 celebrates the delivery of Jerusalem when 185,000 Assyrian corpses littered the environs of Jerusalem—thanks to the Angel of Jehovah. He wrote, “The miraculous deliverance of Jerusalem from the army of Sennacherib in the reign of Hezekiah (B.C. 701) may be assigned as the occasion of these Psalms [i.e., 46, 47, 48], with a probability which approaches certainty” (1906, 253). 8. John J. Parsons, “The command to "be still" comes from the Hiphil stem of the verb ( (רפה rapha (meaning to be weak, to let go, to release), which might better be translated as, "cause yourselves to let go" or "let yourselves become weak" (in poetic contexts, the noun form rephai'im was sometimes used as a synonym for "the place of the dead"). But to what end are we to "be still," "let go," "surrender," and even to "die to ourselves"? In Hebrew grammar, the emphasis of coordinate imperatives ("be still!" and "know!") is on the second imperative. In other words, we surrender in order to know that God is in control as Ribbono Shel Olam – the Master of the Universe. We "let go" in order to objectively know the saving power of God in our lives. We give up trusting in ourselves and our own designs in order to experience the glory of God's all-sufficiency (Ex 14:14). When we surrender to the sure truth that the LORD God of Israel is in complete control of this world, we will find peace and be delivered from our temporal fears. Indeed, even though the present world be shaken (v 2), with the nations raging and the kingdoms of men tottering (v 6), we will not fear, since we know that God is our present help in time of trouble (v 1). 9. Bob Beckett wrote, “Some months ago, someone gave me these words: "Slow me down, Lord. • Ease the pounding of my heart by the quieting of my mind. • Give me amid the confusion of my day the calendar of the everlasting hills. • Break the tension of my nerves and muscles with the soothing music of the streams that live in my memory. • Help me to know the magical restorative powers of sleep. • Give me the art of taking minute vacations, of slowing down to look at a flower, to chat with a friend, to pat a dog, to read a few lines of a good book. • Remind me each day of the fable of the hare and the tortoise, that the race is not always to the swift, that there is more to life than increasing its speed. • Let me look upward into the towering oak and know that it grew slowly and well. • Slow me down, Lord, and inspire me to send my roots deep into the soil of life's eternal value that I may grow toward the stars of my greater destiny." 10. God is determined to be exalted among the nations. That was his plan in the Old Testament, and that was the plan of Jesus in the
- 106. ew Testament. Hecommanded the church to go into all the world and preach the gospel that people of every race might be a part of his eternal kingdom.
- 107. That is thetask of every believer to support this plan and goal. A. C. Townsend wrote a beautiful prayer poem that ought to be the prayer of every believer. O Lamb of God, I silent stand Before thy mystery. Thou gavest thanks with cup in hand For thine own agony. O love unmeasured, love unknown! How couldst thou thankful be To yield the glory of a throne To drink that cup for me! O blood of Christ, transform in me This selfish heart of mine, Till I shall wish my blood might be A lost world's saving wine! 11. The LORD Almighty is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress. 1. Barnes, “The Lord of hosts is with us ... - See Psa_46:7. This is the conclusion, or the result of the whole. As applied to the invasion of Sennacherib, this would be clearly seen, for all that occurred in that invasion was adapted to leave the impression that Jehovah, God of hosts, was with the Hebrew people. He had interposed in time of danger; he had saved his city and nation; he had overthrown one of the most mighty armies that had ever been assembled; he had caused the boasting conqueror himself to retrace his steps to his capita; he had wholly delivered the nation from all danger; and he had shown how easy it was, in ways which they could not have anticipated, to bring deliverance. The truth thus conveyed was adapted to the people of God in all lands and at all times, as showing that God has power to defend his people against the most formidable enemies, and that all their interests are safe in his hands. 2. Clarke, “The Lord of hosts is with us - Having heard these declarations of God, the people cry out with joy and exultation, The Lord of hosts, the God of armies, is with us; we will not fear what man can do unto us. The God of Jacob is our refuge - He who saved our fathers will save us, and will never abandon his people in distress. Selah - This is a firm, lasting, unshaken, well-tried truth.
- 108. 2B. Spurgeon, “TheLord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge. It was meet to sing this twice over. It is a truth of which no believer wearies, it is a fact too often forgotten, it is a precious privilege which cannot be too often considered. Reader, is the Lord on thy side? Is Emmanuel, God with us, thy Redeemer? Is there a covenant between thee and God as between God and Jacob? If so, thrice happy art thou. Show thy joy in holy song, and in times of trouble play the man by still making music for thy God. SELAH. Here as before, lift up the heart. Rest in contemplation after praise. Still keep the soul in tune. It is easier to sing a hymn of praise than to continue in the spirit of praise, but let it be our aim to maintain the uprising devotion of our grateful hearts, and so end our song as if we intended it to be continued. SELAH bids the music rest. Pause in silence soft and blest; SELAH bids uplift the strain, Harps and voices tune again; SELAH ends the vocal praise, Still your hearts to God upraise. 2C. Treasury of David, “Verse 11. The Lord of hosts is with us. On Tuesday Mr. Wesley could with difficulty be understood, though he often attempted to speak. At last, with all the strength he had, he cried out, "The best of all is, God is with us." Again, raising his hand, and waving it in triumph, he exclaimed with thrilling effect, "The best of all is, God is with us." These words seem to express the leading feature of his whole life, God had been with him from early childhood; his providence had guided him through all the devious wanderings of human life; and now, when he was entering the "valley of the shadow of death," the same hand sustained him. From "Wesley and his Coadjutors. By Rev. W. C. Larrabee, A.M. Edited by Rev. B. F. Tefft, D.D. Cincinnati. 1851." 3. Gill, “The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge. See Gill on Psa_46:7. The Targum paraphrases it, "the Word of the Lord of hosts", as in Psa_46:7; and the same words are here repeated, to comfort those that were fearful and unbelieving, with which the church then comforted herself. 4. Henry, “For his people's safety and protection. He triumphs in the former: I will be exalted; they triumph in this, Psa_46:7 and again Psa_46:11. It is the burden of the song, “The Lord of hosts is with us; he is on our side, he takes our part, is present with us and president over us; the God of Jacob is our refuge, to whom we may flee, and in whom we may confide and be sure of safety.” Let all believers triumph in this. (1.) They have the presence of a God of power, of all power: The Lord of hosts is with us. God is the Lord of hosts, for he has all the creatures which are called the hosts of heaven and earth at his beck and command, and he makes what use he pleases of them, as the instruments either of his justice or of his mercy. This sovereign Lord is with us, sides with us, acts with us, and has promised he will never leave us. Hosts may be against us, but we need not fear them if the Lord of hosts be with us. (2.) They are under the protection of a God in covenant, who not only is able to help them, but is engaged in honour and faithfulness to help them. He is the God of Jacob, not only Jacob the person, but Jacob the people; nay, and of all praying people, the spiritual seed of wrestling Jacob; and he is our refuge, by whom we are sheltered and in whom we are satisfied, who by his providence secures our welfare when without are fightings, and who by his grace quiets our minds, and establishes them, when within are fears. The Lord of hosts, the God of Jacob, has been, is, and will be with us - has been, is and will
- 109. 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? 5. Maclaren, “THE LORD OF HOSTS, THE GOD OF JACOB ‘The Lord of Hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our Refuge.’ —PSALM xlvi. 11. Some great deliverance, the details of which we do not know, had been wrought for Israel, and this psalmist comes forth, like Miriam with her choir of maidens, to hymn the victory. The psalm throbs with exultation, but no human victor’s name degrades the singer’s lips. There is only one Conqueror whom he celebrates. The deliverance has been ‘the work of the Lord’; the ‘desolations’ that have been made on the ‘earth’ ‘He has made.’ This great refrain of the song, which I have chosen for my text, takes the experience of deliverance as a proof in act of an astounding truth, and as a hope for the future. ‘The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our Refuge.’ There is in these words a significant duplication of idea, both in regard to the names which are given to God, and to that which He is conceived as being to us; and I desire now simply to try to bring out the force of the consolation and strength which lie in these two epithets of His, and in the double wonder of His relation to us men. I. First, then, I ask you to look at the twin thoughts of God that are here. ‘The Lord of hosts . . . The God of Jacob.’
- 110. ow, with regardto the former of these grand names, it may be observed that it does not occur in the earliest stages of Revelation as recorded in the Old Testament. The first instance in which we find it is in the song of Hannah in the beginning of the first Book of Samuel; and it re-appears in the Davidic psalms and in psalms and prophecies of later date. What ‘hosts’ are they of which God is the Lord? Is that great title a mere synonym for the half-heathenish idea of the ‘God of battles’? By no means. True! He is the Lord of the armies of Israel, but the hosts which the Psalmist sees ranged in embattled array, and obedient to the command of the great Captain, are far other and grander than any earthly armies. If we would understand the whole depth and magnificent sweep of the idea enshrined in this name, we cannot do better than recall one or two other Scripture phrases. For instance, the account of the Creation in the Book of Genesis is ended by, ‘Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them.’ Then, remember that, throughout the Old Testament, we meet constantly with the idea of the celestial bodies as being ‘the hosts of heaven.’ And, still further, remember how, in one of the psalms, we hear the invocation to ‘all ye His hosts, ye ministers of His that do His pleasure,’ ‘the angels that excel in strength,’ to praise and bless Him. If we take account of all these and a number of similar passages, I think we shall come to this conclusion, that by that title, ‘the Lord of hosts,’ the prophets and psalmists meant to express the universal dominion of God over the whole universe in all its battalions and sections, which they conceived of as one ranked army, obedient to the voice of the great General and Ruler of them all. So the idea contained in the name is precisely parallel with that to which the heathen centurion in the Gospels had come, by reflecting upon the teaching of the legion in which he himself commanded, when he said, ‘I am a man under authority, having servants under me; and I say to this one, Go, and he goeth; to another, Come, and he cometh; to another, Do this, and he doeth it —speak Thou the word!’ To him Jesus Christ was Captain of the Lord’s hosts, and Ruler of all the ordered forces of the universe. The Old Testament name enshrines the same idea. The universe is an ordered whole. Science tells us that. Modern thought emphasises it. But how cruel,
- 111. relentless, crushing, thatconception may be unless we grasp the further thought which is presented in this great
- 112. ame, and see,behind all the play of phenomena, the one Will which is the only power in the universe, and sways and orders all besides! The armies of heaven and every creature in the great Cosmos are the servants of this Lord. Then we can stand before the dreadful mysteries and the all but infinite complications of this mighty Whole, and say, ‘These are His soldiers, and He is their Captain, the Lord of hosts.’
- 113. ext we turn,by one quick bound, from the wide sweep of that mighty
- 114. ame to theother, ‘The God of Jacob.’ The one carries us out among the glories of the universe, and shows us, behind them all, the personal Will of which they are the servants, and the Character of which they are the expressions. The other brings us down to the tent of the solitary wanderer, and shows us that that mighty Commander and Emperor enters into close, living, tender, personal relations with one poor soul, and binds Himself by that great covenant, which is rooted in His love alone, to be the God who cares for and keeps and blesses the man in all his wanderings.
- 115. either does the command of the mighty Whole hinder the closest relation to the individual, nor does the care of the individual interfere with the direction of the Whole. The single soul stands out clear and isolated, as if there were none in the universe but God and himself; and the whole fulness of the divine power, and all the tenderness of the God-heart, are lavished upon the individual, even though the armies of the skies wait upon His nod. So, if we put the two names together, we get the completion of the great idea; and whilst the one speaks to us of infinite power, of absolute supremacy, of universal rule, and so delivers us from the fear of nature, and from the blindness which sees only the material operations and not the working Hand that underlies them, the other speaks to us of gentle and loving and specific care, and holds out the hope that, between man and God, there may be a bond of friendship and of mutual possession so sweet and sacred that nothing else can compare with it. The God of Jacob is the Lord of hosts. More wondrous still, the Lord of hosts is the God of Jacob. II.
- 116. ote, secondly, thedouble wonder of our relation to this great God. There is almost a tone of glad surprise, as well as of triumphant confidence, in this refrain of our psalm, which comes twice in it, and possibly ought to have come three times—at the end of each of its sections. The emphasis is to be laid on the ‘us’ and the ‘our,’ as if that was the miracle, and the fact which startled the Psalmist into the highest rapture of astonished thankfulness. ‘The Lord of hosts is with us.’ What does that say? It proclaims that wondrous truth that no gulf between the mighty Ruler of all and us, the insignificant little creatures that creep upon the face of this tiny planet, has any power of separating us from Him. It is always hard to believe that. It is harder to-day than it was when our Psalmist’s heart beat high at the thought. It is hard by reason of our sense-bound blindness, by reason of our superficial way of looking at things, which only shows us the nearest, and veils with their insignificances the magnitude of the furthest. Jupiter is blazing in our skies every night now; he is not one-thousandth part as great or bright as any one of the little needle-points of light, the fixed stars, that are so much further away; but he is nearer, and the intrusive brightness of the planet hides the modest glories of the distant and shrouded suns. Just so it is hard for us ever to realise, and to walk in the light of the realisation of, the fact that the Lord of hosts, the Emperor of all things, is of a truth with each of us. It is harder to-day than ever it was; for we have learned to think rightly—or at least more rightly and approximately rightly—of the position and age of man upon this earth. The Psalmist’s ancient question of devout thankfulness is too often travestied to-day into a question of scoffing or of melancholy unbelief: ‘When I consider the heavens, the work of Thy hands; what is man? Art Thou mindful of him?’ This psalm comes to answer that. ‘The Lord of hosts is with us.’ True,
- 117. we are butof yesterday, and know nothing. True, earth is but a pin-point amidst the universe’s glories. True, we are crushed down by sorrow and by care; and in some moods it seems supremely incredible that we should be of such worth in the scale of Creation as that the Lord of all things should, in a deeper sense than the Psalmist knew, have dwelt with us and be with us still. But bigness is not greatness, and there is nothing incredible in the belief that men, lower than the angels, and needing God more because of their sin, do receive His visitations in an altogether special sense, and that, passing by the lofty and the great that may inhabit His universe, His chariot wheels stoop to us, and that, because we are sinners, God is with us. Let me remind you, dear brethren! of how this great thought of my text is heightened and transcended by the
- 118. ew Testament teaching.We believe in One whose name is ‘Immanuel, God with us.’ Jesus Christ has come to be with men, not only during the brief years of His earthly ministry, in corporeal reality, but to be with all who love Him and trust Him, in a far closer, more real, more deep, more precious, more operative Presence than when He dwelt here. Through all the ages Christ Himself is with every soul that loves Him; and He will dwell beside us and bless us and keep us. 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 improbability 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.’ And then the second of the wonders that are here set forth in regard to our relations to Him is, ‘the God of Jacob is our Refuge.’ That carries for us the great truth that, just as the distance between us and God makes no separation, and the gulf is one that is bridged over by His love, so distance in time leads to no exhaustion of the divine faithfulness and care, nor any diminution of the resources of His grace. ‘The God of Jacob is our Refuge.’ The story of the past is the prophecy of the future. What God has been to any man He will be to every man, if the man will let Him. There is nothing in any of these grand narratives of ancient days which is not capable of being reproduced in our lives. God drew near to Jacob when he was lying on the stony ground, and showed him the ladder set upon earth, with its top in the heavens, and the bright-winged soldiers and messengers of His will ascending and descending upon it, and His own face at the top. God shows you and me that vision to-day. It was no vanishing splendour, no transient illumination, no hallucination of the man’s own thoughts seeking after a helper, and the wish being father to the vision. But it was the unveiling for a moment, in supernatural fashion, of the abiding reality. ‘The God of Jacob is our Refuge’; and whatever He was to His servant of old He is to-day to you and me. We say that miracle has ceased. Yes. But that which the miracle effected has not ceased; and that from which the miracle came has not ceased. The realities of a divine protection, of a divine supply, of a divine guidance, of a divine deliverance, of a divine discipline, and of a divine reward at the last, are as real to-day as when they were mediated by signs and wonders, by an open heaven and by an outstretched hand. They who went before have not emptied the treasures of the Father’s house, nor eaten all the bread that He spreads upon the table. God has no stepchildren, and no favourite and spoiled ones. All that the elder brethren have had, we, on whom the ends of the dispensation are come, may have just as really; and whatever God has been to the patriarch He is to us to-day. Remember the experience of the man of whom our text speaks. The God of Jacob manifested Himself to him as being a God who would draw near to, and care for, and help, a very unworthy and poor creature. Jacob was no saint at the beginning. Selfishness and cunning and many a vice
- 119. clung very closeto his character; but for all that, God drew near to him and cared for him and guided him, and promised that He would not leave him till He had done that which He had spoken to him of. And He will do the same for us—blessed be His name!—with all our faults and weaknesses and craftiness and worldliness and sins. If He cared for that huckstering Jew, as He did, even in his earlier days, He will not put us away because He finds faults in us. ‘The God of Jacob,’ the supplanter, the trickster, ‘is our Refuge.’ But remember how the divine Presence with that man had to be, because of his faults, a Presence that wrought him sorrows and forced him to undergo discipline. So it will be with us. He will not suffer sin upon us; He will pass us through the fire and the water; and do anything with us short of destroying us, in order to destroy the sin that is in us. He does not spare His rod for His child’s crying, but smites with judgment, and sends us sorrows ‘for our profit, that we should be partakers of His holiness.’ We may write this as the explanation over most of our griefs—‘the God of Jacob is our Refuge,’ and He is disciplining us as He did him. And remember what the end of the man was. ‘Thy name shall no more be called Jacob, but Israel; for as a prince thou hast power with God, and hast prevailed.’ So if we have God, who out of such a sow’s ear made a silk purse, out of such a stone raised up a servant for Himself, we may be sure that His purpose in all discipline will be effected on us submissive, and we shall end where His ancient servant ended, and shall be in our turn princes with God. Let me recall to you also the meaning which Jesus Christ found in this name. He quoted ‘the God of Abraham and of Isaac and of Jacob’ as being the great guarantee and proof to us of immortality. ‘The God of Jacob is our Refuge.’ If so, what can the grim and ghastly phantom of death do to us? He may smite upon the gate, but he cannot enter the fortress. The man who has knit himself to God by saying to God, ‘Lo! I am Thine, and Thou art mine,’ in that communion has a proof and a pledge that nothing shall ever break it, and that death is powerless. The fact of religion—true, heartfelt religion, with its communion, its prayer, its consciousness of possessing and of being possessed, makes the idea that death ends a man’s conscious existence an absurdity and an impossibility. ‘The God of Jacob is our Refuge,’ and so we may say to the storms of life, and after them to the last howling tornado of death—Blow winds and crack your cheeks, and do your worst, you cannot touch me in the fortress where I dwell. The wind will hurtle around the stronghold, but within there shall be calm. Dear brethren! make sure that you are in the refuge. Make sure that you have fled for ‘Refuge to the hope set before you in the Gospel.’ The Lord of hosts is with us,’ but you may be parted from Him. He is our Refuge, but you may be standing outside the sanctuary, and so be exposed to all the storms. Flee thither, cast yourselves on Him, trust in that great Saviour who has given Himself for us, and who says to us, ‘Lo! I am with you always.’ Take Christ for your hiding-place by simple faith in Him and loving obedience born of faith, and then the experience of our Psalmist will be yours. Your life will not want for deliverances which will thrill your heart with thankfulness, and turn the truth of faith into a truth of experience. So you may set to your seals the great saying of our psalm, which is fresh to-day, though centuries have passed since it came glowing fiery from the lips of the ancient seer, and may take up as yours the great words in which Luther has translated it for our times, the ‘Marseillaise’ of the Reformation— ‘A safe stronghold our God is still;
- 120. A trusty shieldand weapon; He’ll help us clear from all the ill That hath us now o’ertaken.’ Footnotes: 1. Psalm 46:1 In Hebrew texts 46:1-11 is numbered 46:2-12. 2. Psalm 46:1 Title: Probably a musical term 3. Psalm 46:3 The Hebrew has Selah (a word of uncertain meaning) here and at the end of verses 7 and 11. 4. Psalm 46:9 Or chariots ALL OF MY BOOKS, COMME
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