You will take your Bibles and turn to Psalm 46. Psalm 46, as we continue our series of expositions, not from every psalm, but from many of them.
Before we begin Psalm 46, I want to make a remark or two about Psalm 45 that we looked at last week. After the service last week, my son pointed out to me that the ESV Study Bible—you’ll remember that I understand this psalm as foreshadowing the Messiah, the King foreshadows the greater King who will come, and we looked through the psalm in that way. Well, after church last week, Jimmy pointed out to me that the ESV Study Bible makes a remark that says some misunderstand that this prophecy is directly messianic.
A couple of things there. One, at times like that you, of course, have to remember that neither the preacher nor the commentator writing the notes are inspired. You need to make your decisions on that. But more specifically, I think in this case, you need to be careful to understand exactly what the commentator is saying in those notes. If you have an ESV Study Bible, you’ll notice it there in Psalm 45. I think the expression he uses is that some think, mistakenly, that Psalm 45 is directly messianic.
I would actually agree with that. And this gets us back to the discussion of what we saw many times in our Sunday evening lessons on the Messiah and the Psalms, or the Messianic Psalms. And we made the point that the Psalms foreshadow the Messiah, but they do it in a variety of ways. Some of them are directly messianic, like Psalm 110. That is the outstanding example of it. “The Lord said to my Lord, sit at my right hand till I make your enemies my footstool.” There’s an oracle that is given where the psalmist hears God the Father saying to the Messiah, “Sit here,” as he’s been exalted to the throne. This is a direct prophecy of the Messiah. It can hardly be understood in any other kind of way. Psalm 2 is pretty much like that as well, where we have another enthronement psalm.
We saw that there’s a variety of ways, though, that the psalms foreshadow Jesus. Sometimes it’s a mere typology where the king foreshadows the King. Sometimes the language is so exuberant that it just simply has to go beyond that. And that’s the way the New Testament writers take it often as well. Actually, there has been some discussion about this in the contemporary literature. The older commentators in the Psalms almost unanimously understood Psalm 45 as a prophecy of Jesus. Almost unanimously, they took it that way. In more contemporary studies, the commentators tend not to think so. They’ll look at Psalm 45, as I mentioned last week, and see in that a reflection of a wedding ceremony that’s going on in ancient Israel with one of the kings. So this is a royal wedding that’s going on. And so they take that view of the wedding, of the psalm, that it’s reflective of an ancient king.
And one commentator—in fact, this is the most recent commentator to have published on it; in fact, they’re not all out yet, volume one is out, but I have seen the manuscripts to all the others—he makes the comment in Psalm 45, which I think was wonderfully perceptive, that the older commentators understood the prophecy, that Psalm 45 is speaking of a prophecy of Jesus, the Messiah. The newer commentators tend not to think it. They think it’s simply a reflection of a royal wedding in ancient Israel. And his remark was this—and this is a paraphrase of it—but he said, “In my view, the older commentators were on a better track, but forcing us to decide between the two views is the mistake.”
And that’s the view I took last week, that in Psalm 45, you see here a picture of a royal wedding where the king is being married and it describes his bride and the procession and all of that; you can’t deny that. But the language is so exuberant beyond that, particularly when you get to verses six and seven, and then all through you see allusions as well, that this is clearly speaking of Messiah. So it is that, but it is also that to come. And you’ll remember that we saw many examples of that kind of thing in the Messianic Psalms series that we did some time back.
So anyway, I thought I’d mention that in case some of you saw that note. I do think that remark is correct. It is not directly messianic. I’m not sure—in fact, I don’t think I agree with his take on how the New Testament writers get to Jesus from verses 6 and 7. But at least we see that, I think, together, and that’s right. So anyway, keep that in mind. That’s just an interpretive note for when we go through the Psalms. That’s what you’ve been seeing me do with the Psalms, and that kind of is the background. I don’t like to get into that in our expositions. That’s more of the preparation type. But I thought I’d just give you a heads up with that, especially in case any of you had seen that.
All right, Psalm 46 today. God is our fortress. The superscript tells us this is a psalm of the sons of Korah. According to Alamoth, some kind of musical note, it is a song.
God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore, we will not fear, though the earth gives way, though the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam, though the mountains tremble at its swelling. Selah.
There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy habitation of the Most High. God is in the midst of her. She shall not be moved. God will help her when morning dawns. The nations rage, the kingdoms totter. He utters his voice, the earth melts. The Lord of hosts is with us. The God of Jacob is our refuge, our fortress. Selah.
Come behold the works of the Lord, how he has brought desolations in the earth. He makes wars to cease to the end of the earth. He breaks the bow and shatters the spear. He burns the chariots with fire. Be still and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations. I will be exalted in the earth. The Lord of hosts is with us. The God of Jacob is our refuge. Selah.
Then you’ll notice the postscript: “To the choirmaster.” Let’s bow for prayer.
Our Father, we are grateful for this marvelous psalm that has been such a wonderful encouragement to your people throughout the centuries. We’re grateful for your word, and we’re grateful for this time that you have appointed for us each week to come together that our hearts collectively may be refreshed in your word. We pray that would be the case today. Lord, we pray, send your Spirit to attend your word. We pray that you would lift up the hearts of your people and make us better worshipers, more faithful followers and servants. We pray in Jesus’ name, amen.
The Apostle Paul directs, of course, that the Psalms are to be sung in the church. For centuries, the Psalms were all that were sung in the church, particularly through the early centuries, and usually that was just choirs that were singing. There was not a lot of congregational singing in the post-apostolic church; that fell out of use rather early, and it was mostly choirs that did the singing. It was one of the great triumphs of the Reformation that restored congregational singing. After the Reformation, there was more singing, and the singing was almost exclusively psalm singing.
Martin Luther himself wrote some hymns, what came to be known as hymns of human composure. He wrote some, but in the Reformed tradition—that is where we find ourselves and most of American non-Catholic or Protestant Christianity in the United States, also in the UK as well—dominantly, it’s been the Reformed tradition, not the Lutheran, but the Reformed tradition that we have followed. And in that Reformed tradition, psalm singing was exclusive for a long time after the Reformation. There were some hymns of human composure. Isaac Watts was the big figure. He was not the first one, but he was, depending on your view of things at that time, either the champion or the villain who made the big change, and so we could now sing hymns of human composure as well.
But today, hymns of human composure are the norm almost exclusively, and singing Psalms has fallen almost completely out of use in the churches generally. Now we don’t—it hasn’t fallen out of use here with the Trinity Hymnal in particular. We make some use of the Psalms in our singing as well. And in fact, even more than that, some of the Psalms remain prominent in our congregational singing widely in the churches. Psalm 23 is still enjoyed, enjoys a lot of attention. Psalm 100 is another. I love singing Psalm 117 that we sing here occasionally. I think number three in our hymnal, something like that: “From all that dwell below the skies, let the Creator’s praise arise.” I’d love to sing that every week. There are some Psalms that continue to receive use in our singing. Of course, Psalm 72, through Isaac Watts, we sing without knowing it’s Psalm 72: “Jesus shall reign where’er the sun.” Psalm 98 is another that is sung every Christmas season: “Joy to the world.”
But psalms are not as prominent, but there is one psalm probably—I’m not certain of this, but probably—that stands out as more in use in the churches generally than any other, and that is Psalm 46. It comes to us from Martin Luther, and we sing that version in our churches widely: “A Mighty Fortress Is Our God.” He wrote this during the uncertain days—very uncertain days—of the Reformation. He was heading to the Diet in Augsburg, that is the meeting of the legislative body of the Holy Roman Empire. The outcome of that was not at all certain, and it’s in that atmosphere that he wrote Psalm 46 in the hymn, “A Mighty Fortress Is Our God.” He gives us his rendering of it: “Our helper he amid the floods of mortal ills prevailing.” And there are many references to the psalm throughout that hymn. We will sing that at the close of the service today, Lord willing.
Often during the Reformation, it is said that Martin Luther would say to Philip Melanchthon, his associate, “Come, let us sing the 46th Psalm.” He would say to others that were with him during the times of the Reformation, “Come, let us sing the 46th Psalm.” About a century later, Oliver Cromwell continued the tradition. He was trying to establish the rule of God in England during that time, and he again would call people together around him and say, “Let us sing Luther’s hymn, Psalm 46.” Another century later, and I think John Wesley took it in a more personal vein, and I think he got it right as well. On his deathbed, the very night before he died, he recited Psalm 46 over and over again: “God is our refuge and strength, my very present help in trouble.”
Throughout the centuries, Psalm 46 has been quoted and sung in times of danger in particular, whether it’s Wesley on his deathbed, or if it’s Luther or Cromwell in physical danger as well. It’s been sung in the context or the setting of danger, and that’s the atmosphere of the psalm itself, although Psalm 46 seems to be just after that problem of danger has been resolved. There’s no historical background specifically that’s provided for Psalm 46, but throughout the psalm there’s this ring of recent danger—danger, in fact, that God has just delivered them from, and there’s a hint of that in verse 8: “Come and see the works of the Lord, the desolations he had made in the earth.”
Evidently, this is written in the wake of some great working of God on behalf of Israel, and this son of Korah, this prophet of the musical guild in Israel, is commemorating that event in this psalm. Now, what that event was exactly is not given to us. There have been a couple of prominent guesses. One very prominent guess is that the background to this is to be found in 2 Chronicles 20, and that is the event with King Jehoshaphat in Judah. And they were up against overwhelming odds. The Ammonites and the Moabites and the Meunites had all confederated together to come down against Judah. And the odds were just ridiculous. There’s no way that Judah could ever survive an attack like that. And so Jehoshaphat receives the word, and the text tells us he was afraid, and he set his face to the Lord and proclaimed a fast throughout Judah.
It’s a marvelous, marvelous story. All the men and women of Judah from all of the cities in Judah came down to Jerusalem, and they came and worshiped the Lord and fasted and prayed, seeking God’s help. And when all of them were gathered at the temple, the king then—a dramatic moment—the king leads in prayer. And he says, when all of them are gathered, praying, “Lord, you are God. Lord, you are Lord over all history. You’re Lord over all the armies. No one can withstand you. You have covenanted with us. You have made us your people. If these people defeat us, it won’t look good on you. Will you not destroy our enemies?”
And another dramatic moment then in that event, in 2 Chronicles 20, while all of Judah was gathered together, the Spirit of the Lord came upon a man named Jahaziel, and he prophesied—another son of Asaph. He prophesied to the congregation, and he said, in essence, “Listen up, all of you. Tomorrow you go on out against this enemy. Don’t be afraid. Go out and face them, and the salvation is of the Lord. The battle will not be yours; the battle will be God’s. You go against them, but don’t be afraid; the Lord is with you.”
And so we read then that Jehoshaphat bowed his head with his face to the ground, and all of the people of Judah as well fell before the Lord, worshiping him. They rose early in the morning, went out to face the enemy, and Jehoshaphat then tells the people, “Hear what the prophet has said. Trust the Lord. Believe his prophets. Do not be afraid.” And for his battle plan, Jehoshaphat appointed a choir. Great battle plan, right? He appoints a choir. “We want you to be singing: Give thanks to the Lord, for his steadfast love endures forever.”
Well, as they began to sing, the text tells us that the Lord set an ambush. That’s the expression that’s given to us. The Lord set an ambush against the various camps of the enemies. And what happened was the Lord evidently moved in the hearts of this confederacy that was coming down against Judah in such a way that now instead of coming against Judah, they turn on each other and there’s this infighting between them and they basically wipe each other out, and all of the dead bodies were lying there on the ground while Judah just looks on to see what happened. It says in verse 24, and so Judah’s enemies were completely routed. And Judah then went out to the battlefield, in which they took no part—not a shot was fired from Judah—and they collected all the booty and made quite a haul.
Well, many have suggested that that’s verse 8: “Come, behold the works of the Lord, how he has brought desolations in the earth. Look out at the battlefield, see what he has done.”
The more common guess—and it is just that, as to what the specific background of this psalm is—is that it is found in 2 Kings 19, also Isaiah 36 and 37, and that is not King Jehoshaphat, but King Hezekiah and his deliverance from Sennacherib, the Assyrian army that came down against them in 705 BC. We have bumped into this recently several times in some of the messianic prophecy that we have been looking at on Sunday evenings. You remember the setting: there was this northern Syro-Ephraimite alliance that had formed against Judah. Judah allies with Assyria to protect them. Assyria is glad to do that. They wipe out the northern alliance. The northern kingdom of Israel is to be heard from no more; they’re destroyed. But Isaiah prophesies that it’s not going to go well with you either in Judah.
Assyria turns and comes on down and pretty much has its way with so much of Judah, but it’s stopped at the gates of Jerusalem, and there they are, waiting, and Jerusalem is held under siege. Sennacherib records in his journal that he had Judah and the king, Hezekiah, captive like a bird in a cage. In fact, we read that some from the Assyrian army, the mightiest force on earth at the time, standing outside the gates of Jerusalem, taunting the people of Judah: “Don’t you believe your God? Don’t you believe your king? They can’t help you this time. We’re here.”
And then we read, Hezekiah prayed before the Lord. And then in verse 35, we read, that night the angel of the Lord went down and struck 185,000 in the camp of the Assyrians. When the people arose early in the morning, behold, these were all dead bodies. So without one sword drawn and without one arrow shot from inside Jerusalem, the great Assyrian army had been desolated. And many suggest then that is the point of reference in verse 8 of Psalm 46: “Come, behold, look out there at the battlefield. Behold the works of the Lord, how he has brought desolations on the earth.” Sennacherib and all those others with him who have survived made their way back to Nineveh, and that was that.
Well, one of those two, or something like that, is evidently the historical setting of Psalm 46. “God is our refuge and strength,” verse one. “A very present help in trouble.” Verse eight, “Come behold the works of the Lord.” There’s visible evidence that God has worked on our behalf.
By way of overview, we have three stanzas in the psalm: verses one to three, verses 4 to 7, and then verses 8 to 10. Each of those stanzas, you’ll notice, is marked or signaled by the Selah at the end. It’s a musical note of some kind. We don’t know exactly what that means. There’s been a lot of discussion about that. But it’s at least, in this case, marking the end of each of these stanzas. And then stanzas 2 and 3, you’ll notice, each conclude with the same refrain. Verse 7 and verse 11: “The Lord of hosts is with us. The God of Jacob is our refuge, our fortress.”
So these are the three stanzas that we’ll look through as we make our way through the psalm. The theme running through the psalm is the safety of God’s people who live under his protective care. We have that at the outset, verse 1: “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.” And then we have the refrains, verses 7 and 11: “The Lord of hosts is with us, the God of Jacob is our fortress.” And then verse 8, giving the tangible evidence of it that people can go look at and see that God has been gracious in defending his people. Now the superscript tells us that it’s a song by one of the sons of Korah. I think I mentioned this last time, there’s a collection of the Korahite Psalms here. Psalms 42 through 49 are all from the sons of Korah. There’s a collection of the Korahite Psalms also in the 80s. But here he’s memorializing the wonderful works of God on behalf of his people.
Stanza One
All right, stanza one, verses one to three:
God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth gives way, though the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam, though the mountains tremble at its swelling.
“God is our refuge and strength.” That’s the two aspects of divine help, both defensive and offensive as well. God is like a fortress, a refuge into which we can run and hide and be safe in the face of danger. But he’s also our strength as well, a source of strength against the enemy that comes. And the end of verse 1, “He’s a very present help in trouble,” speaks to the immediacy of his presence. He is always there with his people; he is not far away. He is both our refuge and our strength.
Now behind all of that, of course, points to God’s covenanting love to his people Israel. He had covenanted with them back at Mount Sinai: “I will be your God, you’ll be my people.” There were conditions attached to that covenant: “You will obey me, you’ll keep my law, and I will protect you, and I’ll make you prosper,” and so on. And all the people said, “What the Lord has said, we will do.” And here the people under this godly king have been faithful, and they’re experiencing this oppression, and now they feel that it’s being under threat, that God’s promise has come under question as well.
But to answer that, verse one then serves as kind of a title to the psalm. It states at the outset the basic proposition of the psalm, the theme: the Lord is our mighty fortress, the one to whom we can run for refuge, for strength. He’s our unfailing source of strength in the face of any danger.
And then verses 2 and 3 expand on that, sort of to stress the point. And it imagines here the most awful calamities possible. “Though the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea, its waters roar and foam, though the mountains tremble at its swelling.” So we have severe earthquakes; perhaps a tsunami is envisioned here—a cataclysmic upheaval of some kind. The mountains, which seem to be so permanent, they’re crumbling, they’re being tossed out into the sea. All of this is poetic imagery, of course, but this is just the most awful kind of calamities imaginable. Tidal waves sweeping over the land. If there should come, he is saying, the complete destruction of all that seems permanent—even if the earth itself should cease to exist—we will not be afraid, because God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.
And notice the reasoning now in verses one and two. Verse one: “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.” Verse two: “Therefore… Therefore, we will not fear, though the earth gives way.” That is to say, God has made us his. He has sided with us. He has made us his people, and because he has, we will not be afraid. So this is the psalmist’s testimony, his confession of trust. No matter what danger, no matter how severe, we will not fear. God is our refuge, our fortress, and he is our strength.
Stanza Two
Now when we get to stanza two in verse four, the mood changes. In verses two, you have the earth giving way, the mountains moved, thrown into the heart of the sea, the waters of the ocean swirling, and mountains trembling—there’s danger of some kind. And now verse four:
There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God.
So in stanza one, the waters there are of turbulence, turmoil, danger of some kind, but now the waters of the second stanza reflect a calm blessing. In other words then, the thought is advancing. Because God is our refuge, verses one to three, now verses four and five, we have peace in the midst of any catastrophe.
Verse four: there’s a river whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy habitation of the Most High. God is in the midst of her, she shall not be moved. God will help her when morning dawns.
Now the river symbolism in verse four is a bit surprising, but it’s very important. It’s surprising—read it again. “There’s a river whose streams make glad the city of God.” The city of God is Jerusalem. What’s surprising about this is there’s no major river going through Jerusalem. There’s a little thread of water from the Pool of Siloam. There’s no river of any kind. And that’s significant because the lack of a river—lack of a water supply—left a city in the ancient world particularly, left it rather vulnerable. In the ancient world, when a city would come under attack, the attacking army often would put the city under siege and hold them there. And if there’s no water supply, there’s an added element of danger. The army’s on the outside. All they have to do is wait, and the people on the inside will starve.
But a river running through, there’s a degree of security. There’s refreshment, there’s water for crops. But the significant thing here is that Jerusalem had no river. And yet the psalmist speaks as though it does. “There’s a river,” verse four, “whose streams make glad the people of the city of God.” Now it’s clearly not a river that he’s speaking of. It’s more poetic imagery.
Remember we’ve studied in our early studies in the Psalms on Sunday nights to look at the symbolism, and not only the symbolism and the imagery, but the parallelism and how the second line will often inform something about the first line? See that here in verse four. “There’s a river whose streams make glad the city of God.” What is that river? “The holy habitation of the Most High.” He’s speaking of the temple, the place of the presence of God, the holy place where God dwells. In other words, he is saying here that the presence of God is to the people of Jerusalem the security of a river. When Jerusalem comes under attack, they are not depending on the water supply of a river to protect them. What they are relying on is the Lord God himself. He’s here. This is the place of his temple. This is his residence. And so what makes us secure is not the river. It is the presence of God.
And he continues that in verse five: “God is in the midst of her. She shall not be moved.” Well, how is it then that God will be this kind of help? He answers that question in the next verse.
Verse 6: the nations rage, the kingdoms totter. He utters his voice and the earth melts.
So what is said earlier about the oceans and the mountains, now he speaks about the nations. The nations come in like a flood. The kingdoms make their way on their march to Egypt or wherever Sennacherib may be going. The kingdoms seem like a great mountain. But when God speaks, it all just crumbles. And it’s over.
This is a marvelous biblical theme that we find running from Genesis chapter 1 onwards through to the end: the great power of the spoken word of God. We find it at the very outset. God speaks and the world appears. And God said, “Let it be this way.” And God said, “Let it be this way.” And it was that way. And just by the mere spoken word of God, things happen. Amazing things happen.
We find this in the prophets as well. We often find that refrain in the prophets. He’ll say this and this will happen and this will happen, “for the mouth of the Lord has spoken it.” One of my favorite examples of it in the prophets is the prophet Jeremiah. He’s been called to tear down kingdoms and to build kingdoms. A prophet called to tear down kingdoms and build kingdoms. Now, in point of fact, Jeremiah didn’t build any kingdom and he didn’t tear down any kingdom. But what he did is announce the word of the Lord about the tearing down and the building up of kingdoms. And through the word of the Lord, it was done.
And of course that takes us through to Revelation chapter 19, when Christ comes riding on a white horse with a sword coming out of his mouth and defeating his enemies. The spoken word of God with its omnipotent power.
Well, then he concludes this section, this stanza, with the refrain in verse 7:
The Lord of hosts is with us. The God of Jacob is our fortress.
“The Lord of hosts is with us.” Now, you might as well learn a little Hebrew here because you’re going to sing it at the end of the service. Lord of hosts—Lord Sabaoth. This is not a misspelling of the word Sabbath. Yahweh Sabaoth, Lord of the Hosts. It’s a military title. It presents God as the Lord of all the armies. He’s the Lord. Sometimes the hosts are the hosts of heaven, meaning the planets and all of that. He’s Lord of that as well. But often it’s the hosts of heaven, the angels, or the hosts of the armies—the hosts of the Assyrians, or the hosts of the Israelite army that come down. Lord is the Lord of the hosts. He’s Lord of the armies. He’s captain over all of it. He’s the one directing them all. He’s Lord of the Israelite army. He’s Lord of the Assyrian army. They’re all subject to the God of Israel.
And so all of the armies of the world may rise against God and against his people, but they will never frustrate his purpose because he’s Lord of the armies. They may say, like we find at the outset of the Psalter in Psalm 2, “Let us break his bands asunder. We won’t have him. We won’t have this king rule over us.” And you remember what the Lord God does in response? He chuckles. He’s Lord of the armies. He will have his way.
Now this is where the psalmist takes comfort then. The Lord of hosts, the Lord of the armies, is with us. The God who is Lord over all the hosts that come against us, he has sided with us. And we might add, just to complete the thought, if God be for us, who can be against us? That’s the thinking here.
Stanza Three
We come then to stanza three. And here the psalmist calls us to examine the evidence.
Verse 8: Come, behold the works of the Lord, how he has brought desolations on the earth.
You see that word “behold”? Sounds kind of ancient, I guess, but it simply means “look.” But it’s trying to draw our attention to it. Take a good look at this. Look at the works of the Lord. Just look out there in the battlefield. See the dead bodies of the enemy. All the war equipment left behind. Look at the chariots that have been burned. Here’s proof that verse 1—God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.
Now at this point, I think it’d be helpful to just reflect a little on what we’ve seen recently in the prophets and how it is typical of the prophets—it’s standard issue in the prophets—that when they prophesy a given event, that given event very likely is prospective of a greater event that is coming. And so the destruction of Egypt becomes prospective of the judgment of the world. Or the judgment of Edom, or the judgment of Babylon, or the judgment of the Syrians. It all is prospective, and you’ll read of their judgment, and you’ll read of their judgment, and this kingdom’s judgment, and then it culminates in this broad, sweeping prophecy of a judgment of the whole world. One is prospective of the other.
And I think that’s what’s going on here in Psalm 46 as well, particularly when we come to verse 8 in this third stanza. In verses 1 to 7, we have the song, the affirmation of trust, confidence in the Lord. When we come to verse 8, it’s something of a prophetic oracle. A bigger picture seems to be in view. Look at verse 8. We find the same in verse 10 as well:
Be still and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations. I’ll be exalted in the earth.
A big picture is in view here, not just the recent event. In other words, this recent event from which God has delivered his people becomes prospective of the great deliverance that he will bring in the end time. God will establish peace and he’ll establish peace universally. This little sampling of it here is a picture of that.
But God will establish peace by means of judgment—the two aspects of the kingdom of God that we keep running into in our studies. On one hand, there’s the destruction of his enemies. On the other hand, there’s the vindication of his people. God will establish peace, but he’ll do it by means of judgment, a common theme that we find throughout the Old Testament. We find it in many of our studies recently on Sunday nights in messianic prophecy, that Jerusalem then, with the king there, he will be the center of attention, and from this stump, which everyone thought was cut down forever, has come a branch, and he’ll be the center of attention for the whole world.
Well, that’s the prospect of Psalm 46. And by the way, just take a note of why the editors of the Psalter have placed it in the order that they have. This prospect of Psalm 46 follows inevitably from Psalm 45, where we have depicted, as we saw last time, the sure triumph of the bridegroom king. And then, in turn, Psalm 46 sets us up for the theme of Psalms 47 and 48, which depict the victorious reign of God over the nations. Look ahead at Psalm 47, verse one:
Clap your hands, all people. Shout to God with loud songs of joy. For the Lord, the Most High, is to be feared, a great king over all the earth.
Jump down to verse 6:
Sing praises to God. Sing praises. Sing praises to our King. Sing praises for God is King of all the earth. Sing praises with a psalm.
Well, that’s the theme that was set at the opening of the Psalter with Psalm 2, and it continues throughout the Psalter. It is our theme here as well. He is saying simply then: Do you see the proof that God is with us? That’s verse 8. Do you see the proof that God is with us? That is just a sample of what the Lord of hosts one day will do universally. One day, all the enemies of God will be put down forever. God will speak and whatever forces there are that have risen against him, they will melt and his enemies will be crushed in judgment.
Then we have that wonderful verse 10. Here God himself speaks:
Be still and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations. I will be exalted in the earth.
Sounds determined, doesn’t it? Now often this psalm, this verse, I think is misunderstood and mistaken as a call to God’s people to relax, be calm, don’t be anxious. We have a hymn that is taken from this verse, “Be Still, My Soul.” A great hymn; I love to sing it, but I think it gets this verse a little bit wrong in that way, as though it’s addressing the people of God: “Don’t be anxious, don’t worry.”
I think in context it’s better to understand verse 10 not as a call to God’s people not to worry, but as a call to the enemies of God. It’s a harsh warning and rebuke. “Be still. Ground your weapons. Be done. You’ll never succeed in this. I will be exalted in the nations. I will be exalted in the earth.” It is God’s resolve. Something like what we saw in Isaiah chapter nine. God is zealous to establish his kingdom.
These, by the way, are the marching orders of the church throughout all this age. It’s the call of repentance. God is not indifferent toward the defiance against him. He’s remarkably patient. Remarkably patient. But he’s not indifferent. Right now, he offers terms of peace. And he calls people everywhere to repent. But his day is coming. He will be exalted in the earth. He’ll be exalted among all the nations. And his motive in it is a very self-centered one. Verse 10: “I will be exalted in the nations. I will be exalted in the earth.” God is zealous to display his glory in the earth, whether through judgment or through salvation.
And so verse 11 closes with the refrain, the theme of the psalm:
The Lord of hosts is with us. The God of Jacob is our refuge, our fortress.
And then we have the postscript: “To the choirmaster.” He intends for us to sing this psalm.
How Do We Sing This Psalm?
The question then is, how do we sing this psalm? That is, how in the light of the fuller revelation that we have in Christ, how do we sing this psalm? What does this psalm tell us that we as Christians now can sing?
Psalm 46 is nowhere cited in the New Testament, but it has frequent echoes and parallel themes that come throughout the New Testament. Verses 1 to 3 again:
God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth gives way, though the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam, though the mountains tremble at its swelling.
That is, if God has sided with us, we have no reason to fear. Well, you can’t read that without hearing echoes of Romans 8:31: “What shall we say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us?” In Romans chapter 8, Paul is, of course, speaking of the final safety of the people of God. Those who in Christ are joined by faith enjoy the safety in Christ forever. “No condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus.” That’s Romans 8:1 and then verse 31. Keep that in mind.
Verse 8 here points to tangible evidence of God’s commitment to save his people. “Come see the works of the Lord. Look what he has done.” That stands as testimony that he has committed himself to his people. Well, that echoes in Romans 8:32 as well. Paul is reasoning the very same way—that God has demonstrated his love for us in a most pointed kind of way. He has given us his Son. And he reasons from that. Look at the evidence. If he has given us his Son, how could we not receive all of the attending benefits? In other words, here is real proof—verse eight—that is Paul in Romans 8:32. Here is real proof that God has sided with us. If he gave up his Son for us, well, we can be sure that he will be with us.
And of course, Romans 8:33 and following continues the same, that “Who will bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies,” and nothing will separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus. His point through all of that, his whole confidence, is that God himself has sided with us. And because he has sided with us, because he is our refuge and strength, we have no worry.
Verse six: “The nations rage, the kingdoms totter. He utters his voice, the earth melts.” That echoes in 1 Thessalonians chapter four and God’s commanding shout, at which the dead are raised and the kingdom of God is brought to its full culmination. It’s echoed in Revelation 19 when Christ comes in triumph, the sword coming out of his mouth to defeat the nations and all of his enemies.
Verse nine: “He makes wars to cease to the ends of the earth. He breaks the bow and shatters the spear. He burns the chariots with fire.” Well, that’s a picture of the consummated kingdom of God on earth. His enemies are subdued. Peace is established once and for all. Well, we find that over and again through the prophets. We find it echoed in the New Testament as well, that God’s kingdom will come to its culmination in the return of Christ when all of his enemies are defeated and his people are vindicated once and for all.
And so Psalm 46 invites us to think in terms of the big picture. An all-encompassing view: every threat, every danger. Keep in mind in all of it, God is our refuge and strength. Today, we are not threatened by the armies of Assyria. We’re not threatened by, over in 2 Chronicles 20, the armies of Ammon and Moab. But increasingly, we find ourselves in our culture, the ones who are being despised. We find laws being enacted that are increasingly posing threats to our well-being and our freedoms. We have shifting morals in our culture that have not only left the people of God despised, they present increasingly persistent temptations. The world situation? More volatile than we’ve seen in our generation? It is something like verse six: “The nations rage, the kingdoms totter.” Satan, the god of this age, is directing the affairs of this world with an ever-increasing zeal. And if we plug in Revelation chapter 12, it’s because he knows his time is short.
As we watch all of that happen and unfold in front of us—the complete collapse of our culture and all that seems so permanent and all of the things that we have loved about America—as we watch all of that, we might wonder what’s next. And what we must recall more than anything else in that kind of a context is what this psalm is given to remind us of: that God is the Lord over all history, that nothing has happened and nothing will transpire that goes one inch beyond his will.
God has appointed a king. The Lord Jesus Christ has died in the place of sinners. God has raised him from the dead. He’s ascended to the throne. He’s rescued a people for himself. One by one, he’s taking them out of the kingdom of Satan and bringing them to himself. And one day, he’ll return and he will bring that kingdom to consummation. Psalm 46 directs our hope to the fullness of the kingdom of God on the earth, twofold: the rescue of his people, the final defeat of all of his enemies.
God nowhere promises that we will never be under threat. But he does promise that his church will never be extinguished. And what is true of the church collectively is true of all of the people of God individually. You might be that rather sensitive soul. You’re afraid. You’ve come to Christ, you believe, but you’re afraid because, well, back in your past, you did this or that, and you wonder, “Could God really ever have me?” What you need to recognize more than anything else is verse one: God is our refuge and strength. For all of those who have come to God through His Son Jesus Christ in faith, He promises He will be their refuge and strength forever.
You might be one who frets over what we’re seeing in our culture and all the decline, potential threats that come against us—and if not us, our children, our grandchildren. What are they going to see? You may fret about that. I get that. I get it. But what we need is to recall God’s own resolve in verse 10: “I will be exalted among the nations. I will be exalted in the earth.”
In every danger, in every worry, in every trouble, this calls us to sing the refrain of verses 7 and 11. The greatest comfort and encouragement God’s people could ever have: “The Lord of hosts is with us. The God of Jacob is our refuge.” Verses 1 and 2, because God is our refuge and strength, “we will not fear though the earth gives way.” Or verse four, he’s the river whose streams make glad the people of God. And because he is in our midst, we shall never be moved. Amen.