The Book of Psalms

Word Study

"refuge," Hebrew machaseh (מַחֲסֶה), a shelter to flee into. The psalm opens with three names for God stacked in one breath, and the first of them is a place to hide -- somewhere to run when the ground gives way.

"strength," oz (עֹז), might. The second is a power to hold us. God is not only the shelter we flee into but the might that keeps us standing once we are there.

"very present help," ezrah... nimtza me'od (עֶזְרָה... נִמְצָא מְאֹד), literally "a help, abundantly found". The third phrase is the strongest of the three: not help that is far off and hoped for, but help abundantly found in the tight place itself.

"trouble," tzarot (צָרוֹת), plural, distresses, tight places. And the trouble is plural -- distresses of every kind, met by a God who is found in all of them.

Explanation

Notice what the psalmist chooses as his picture of total catastrophe. To an ancient Israelite the most solid thing in the world was a mountain, and the most fearful, chaotic thing was the roaring sea. So he imagines the unimaginable: the mountains, the very symbols of permanence, "carried into the midst of the sea," toppled into the chaos, and the waters roaring over them. It is the undoing of creation itself, the world coming apart at its foundations. And precisely there he plants the word "therefore": "God is our refuge... therefore will not we fear." The fearlessness is not a denial that the mountains might fall; it grants that they might, and refuses to fear anyway, because the refuge is not the mountain but the God who outlasts it. The single word Selah then calls for a pause, a held breath, to let the scene of a collapsing world settle against the rock of the opening line.

Gospel Focus

"God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble", this refuge has a name and a face in Jesus Christ. He is the God who did not stay far off but came near, "a very present help," God with us in our very tight places, "in all points tempted like as we are" (Hebrews 4:15). When the disciples' boat was filling in the roaring sea, the exact scene of this psalm, He rose and said, "Peace, be still. And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm" (Mark 4:39); the One who is our refuge is the One who commands the very waters the psalm describes. Because He is our hiding place, we can say with the same "therefore" of faith, "The Lord is my helper, and I will not fear what man shall do unto me" (Hebrews 13:6), and, "If God be for us, who can be against us?" (Romans 8:31). The mountains may indeed be removed, the whole earth pass away, but "we according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth" (2 Peter 3:13), and the Refuge Himself remains, "Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever" (Hebrews 13:8).

Word Study

"river," Hebrew nahar (נָהָר). After the roaring sea of the previous verses comes a river, and the contrast is deliberate. Jerusalem, unlike her great rival cities, had no mighty river, only the quiet trickle of Gihon; the psalm makes that quiet water the emblem of a joy the world's roaring floods cannot give.

"streams," pelagav (פְּלָגָיו), channels, divided rivulets. The water comes not in a torrent but in small divided channels. The sea rages and destroys; these gentle rivulets do the opposite.

"make glad," yesamechu (יְשַׂמְּחוּ). What the streams do is gladden. That is the whole point of the contrast: the loudest waters in the psalm bring terror, and the quietest bring joy.

"in the midst of her," beqirbah (בְּקִרְבָּהּ). Her security is one word: God is in the midst of her. Not her walls, not her water supply, but His presence inside her is what makes her safe.

"shall not be moved," bal timmot (בַּל תִּמּוֹט). While the earth is removed and the mountains carried into the sea, the city with God inside her does not so much as totter.

"right early," lifnot boqer (לִפְנוֹת בֹּקֶר), at the turning of the morning, at daybreak. God's help comes at the turning of the morning -- at the hour when the long night ends and the attack is expected.

Explanation

The whole psalm turns on a contrast between two kinds of water. In verses 2-3 the sea "roars and is troubled" (the same verb, hamah, that describes the raging heathen in verse 6); the world's turbulence is a flood that swallows mountains. Here in verse 4 a very different water appears: not a roaring flood but a "river," its streams gently dividing to "make glad the city of God." The nations rage like the sea; the city is gladdened like a well-watered garden. And the reason for the difference is placed at the exact centre: "God is in the midst of her." The Hebrew says she "shall not be moved", the same word used in verse 2 of the mountains that are moved. The mountains, for all their mass, topple; the city, for all her smallness, stands, because her stability is not in her size but in her Guest. And His help comes "right early", at the turning of the morning, the hour when the long night of trouble breaks. God is never late to the city where He dwells.

Gospel Focus

"There is a river... God is in the midst of her", the gladdening river and the indwelling God both meet us in Jesus Christ. He is the source of the living water this psalm foreshadows: "If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink... out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. (But this spake he of the Spirit)" (John 7:37-39). The river that makes glad the city of God is the Holy Spirit, poured out from Christ, and the Scripture's last vision shows it in full: "a pure river of water of life... proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb" (Revelation 22:1). And "God is in the midst of her" is the very heart of the gospel, for God came to dwell in the midst of His people in the flesh, "the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us" (John 1:14), and now dwells within His church by His Spirit, "ye are the temple of God... the Spirit of God dwelleth in you" (1 Corinthians 3:16). The church, like the city of Psalm 46, "shall not be moved," not because she is strong, but because the LORD Jesus is in the midst of her, building a city on the rock against which "the gates of hell shall not prevail" (Matthew 16:18).

Word Study

"be still," Hebrew harpu (הַרְפּוּ), from raphah, let go, cease striving, drop your hands. "Be still" is not first a word of comfort but a word of command, and its edge is sharp. Spoken to the raging nations of verse 6, it means: stop your frantic warring. Spoken to God's people, the same word becomes a gift: cease your anxious striving.

"know," de'u (דְּעוּ). The dropping of the hands is for the sake of a knowing. Both the raging nations and the anxious people are told to stop long enough to recognize who God is.

"exalted," arum (אָרוּם), lifted high. "I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth." The stilling of every other striving ends in God alone being lifted high.

"LORD of hosts," YHWH tzeva'ot (יְהוָה צְבָאוֹת), the LORD of armies. The one who commands the nations to drop their weapons is Himself the LORD of armies -- and He is the one who is "with us."

"God of Jacob," Elohei Ya'aqov (אֱלֹהֵי יַעֲקֹב). Alongside the title of overwhelming power stands a name of covenant: the God who bound Himself to one family. The LORD of armies is the God of Jacob.

"refuge," misgav (מִשְׂגָּב), a high, unreachable stronghold. The psalm ends where it began, with God as refuge -- but now the word is a height rather than a hiding place: a stronghold set so high that no attacker can come at it.

Explanation

Two voices speak in these verses, and hearing the shift is the key to them. Through most of the psalm the people speak about God, "God is our refuge," "there is a river." But in verse 10, for the first and only time, God Himself breaks in and speaks in the first person: "Be still, and know that I am God: I will be exalted." The refuge finds His own voice. And the command "be still" is aimed, in its setting, less at frightened saints than at furious nations: the same verse 6 heathen who "raged" are told to drop their weapons and be silent before the God who "uttered his voice" and melted the earth. What terrifies the world is meant to quiet the church, for the God who will be "exalted among the heathen," whether they will it or not, is the very God who is "with us." That is why the psalm ends not with the shaking but with the refrain, repeated from verse 7 so that it lands as the last word: "The LORD of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge." He commands the armies of heaven, and He is on our side, the two truths the final Selah leaves ringing.

Gospel Focus

"The LORD of hosts is with us", this is the promise of Immanuel, and Immanuel is Jesus. The refrain of Psalm 46 is the gospel in seed, for the whole message of Christ is "God with us": "they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us" (Matthew 1:23). The LORD of hosts, YHWH tzeva'ot, the commander of heaven's armies, did not remain distant but came to be "with us" in the person of Jesus Christ, "God was manifest in the flesh" (1 Timothy 3:16). And the God who says "Be still, and know that I am God" is the same Jesus who said to the storm, "Be still," and to His anxious people, "Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me" (John 14:1); the stilling of the sea and the stilling of the soul come from the one Lord. He "will be exalted among the heathen," for God "hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name" (Philippians 2:9), and at the last every raging nation shall be still before Him. Until then His people rest in the refrain: the LORD of hosts is with us, Jesus is Immanuel, God with us to the end, "lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world" (Matthew 28:20). Be still, and know.