Two important themes in the psalter are God as King and God as refuge. There is a close connection between the office of King and the role of Protector. These two themes are often found interconnected in Scripture. For example, Psalm 2:12 says, Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and you perish in the way. For his wrath is quickly kindled. Blessed are all who take refuge in him.1 The Son is King, therefore, those who take refuge in him are blessed.
Psalms 45-48 are interlocked by the alternating themes of kingship and refuge. We looked at kingship in Psalm 45. In Psalm 46, God is our refuge. Lord willing, we will see God as King in Psalm 47, and God as refuge in Psalm 48.2
Psalm 46 is a community psalm that expresses confidence. You can tell this by the plural pronouns, God is our refuge (1) and therefore we will not fear (2). So the congregation affirms God as refuge and the corresponding result, no fear. The psalm is a categorized as a “Song of Zion.”3 It is classified as a “Song of Zion” because of the reference to the city of God as the habitation (mishkan-tabernacle) of the Most High (Elyon cf. Gen. 14:18-19)(4).4 Unike the other Zion psalms, it lacks the specific words Zion and/or Jerusalem. However, its shared language with Psalm 48 and other Zion psalms seems to indicate it was an early psalm that was brought into the final form of the Psalter to extol the Lord who reigns in Zion and is the refuge of his people.
God as King and, thus, as refuge brings us to the heart of Zion theology of the OT. In Zion theology, YHWH is the Great Warrior who establishes peace for his people therefore they need not fear. No power can resist his kingdom. He has clearly demonstrated his power in the Exodus, the Conquest, and the return from Exile in the OT, not to mention the resurrection of Jesus in the NT. Zion theology (eschatology) looks to the future renewal of the world with God’s dwelling at its center. This outlook gives the people of God hope and an anchor for their souls.5 You see these elements in Psalm 46.
Psalm 46 falls into 3 sections each separated by the word selah (1-3, 4-7, 8-11).6 The second and third sections end with the refrain, The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress (7,11), which expands and strengthens the first 2 lines of the psalm, God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble (1). The psalm presents God as the one who is present and, therefore, is our refuge, strength, help, and fortress.
This psalm is about trusting the God who is present, and the only strong refuge, help, and fortress there is for your life. All other rivals are cheap, temporary imitations that will leave your eternally disappointed.
The greatest need of humanity, besides needing to charge your personal electronic device, is to abandon self-reliance, self-determination, and moral autonomy and place your faith and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ whose rule is being established in the world and who will be exalted among all the nations of the earth. I simply do not know how you will survive if you do not so trust him.
A sobering question to ponder is, Where does your hope rest? What are you trusting? Psalm 46 shows the inadequacy of all the things we trust but God.
The psalmist being by presenting God as our refuge and strength. We can read that as strong refuge. A refuge evokes the images of shelter, hope, and trust. The psalmist also presents the world as chaotic not a shelter worthy hope and trust (2-4).
Climate activists keep telling us that the world will end if we don’t stop using fossil fuels, but somehow, if we make changes, we can reverse the chaotic decay of the earth. They are right that the world as we know it will end. The Scripture warns us, The heavens and earth that now exist are stored up for fire, being kept until the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly (2 Pet. 3:7) and The day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens and earth will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed (2 Pet. 3:10). In light of this, the Scripture does not call on us to reduce fossil fuels but to repent.
I’m all about clean air and clean energy, but nothing can prevent the earth from toppling (2). You can hear in the language of the debate today a desire to live, to somehow survive and a plan to do so that ignores all the Creator has told people to do, repent and trust him because the end is coming. I simply trust the Bible more than someone’s plan to save the planet.
The psalmist takes things that we think of as a source of stability and shows that they are after all not as stable as we have assumed. The earth gives testimony to its own instability constantly. The seas roar and the mountains tremble swelling (3). Terra ferma seems secure until it’s not, and entire apartment collapse into a sinkhole or rivers run through the streets of quiet towns and sweep lives away in an instant.
God is our strong refuge and a very present help in trouble (1). To be in trouble is to be in a tight place. It doesn’t get tighter than the earth passing away. Help is an interesting concept. It is not assisting people who are doing their part. It is delivering people who have no power and have exhausted their final resource. Our concept of help is like “assist me.” The biblical idea of help is without it you die. It’s more like emergency surgery to repair a severed artery.
As a believer you can know 2 things: if you are swept away you are right where God wants you to be, and he is your only refuge.
Either the world will dissolve, or you will dissolve to the world. What then? Do you just pass into non-existence? Will your current refuge, the place of your trust, the way of your life, the anchor of your hope help you then? What we are insensible to is we are being swept away now, at this moment, but life seems so secure, safe, and insulated.
In our self-expression, self-reliance, and moral autonomy, we have lost a sense of the transcendent and personal nature of God. We have elevated self to the throne of our personal universe ruled by our own law and have forgotten that we are creatures dependent in every way on and wholly accountable to our Creator. When it comes down to it, life is about what is ultimate. The most important thing about us is not how we have self-identified or if we have sufficiently expressed our individualism, but rather do we trust God totally.
Either we trust him completely, or we retreat to our fear (2). When you operate out of your fear, you are relying on yourself in everyway as if you are adequate for the real issues of life. Fear exalts the momentary and temporary to the place the eternal.
The psalmist says, God is a refuge strong enough that when the world dissolves, we have no need to fear (2a). We make it a habit not to think about such things as the temporary nature of life as we know it. That is a bad habit and a household of fear. Trust in God as our refuge allows us to contemplate the ultimate destruction of creation without fear.
The permanence of the city of God is set in contrast to the temporary nature of the world as we know it. This is done through the repetition of vocabulary. God is there, so that city will not be moved (mote, 5a) like the mountains are moved (mote) into the heart of the sea (2b) and the like the kingdoms of the world totter (mote 6). The waters roar (hamah 3a), and the nations rage (hamah 6a), but the city of God is not moved (5a).
In the middle of the chaos of the un-creation of the world and the toppling of nations, we learn that there is a river whose streams make glad the city of God (4a). This text has levels of fulfillment through the Scripture.
That city is the holy habitation (mishkan-tabernacle, dwelling place) of the Most High (4b). The ancient designation Most High first appears in Scripture in Genesis 14:18-19 when Abraham returning from the battle of the kings met Melchizedek, king of Salem and priest of the Most High God. Abraham spent the rest of his life looking for a city that has foundations, whose builder and maker is God, that is the city of God (Heb. 11:10)—the city to which Salem pointed and a King and Priest to which Melchizedek pointed.
The scene of the river flowing recalls Genesis 2:10 with the River Eden flowing out to water the earth. A river is always a symbol and source of life. Eden and the tabernacle were patterned after the cosmos7 and pointed to a time when heaven would come to earth and all things would be made new.
There was no river that flowed out of Zion in Jerusalem. Yet the psalmist and the prophets spoke of it. This shows us that the Jerusalem that is does not fulfill the biblical vision of the Jerusalem from above (Gal. 4:26). Ezekiel saw a river flowing from below the threshold of the temple, a river with no tributaries, but the farther it flowed the deeper it got (Eze. 47). Zechariah saw living waters flowing out of Jerusalem (Zech. 14:8).
This vision of a river whose streams make glad the city of God is fulfilled only in the new heavens and the new earth. There John saw the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb (Rev. 22:1). The water makes glad the city of God because it is the water of life for the thirsty: To the thirsty I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment” (Rev. 21:6); The Spirit and the Bride say,“Come.” And let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who desires take of the water of life without price (Rev 22:17).
In the meantime in this world of upheaval and rage, God is gathering for himself a people who place their faith in His Son who died for sins and was raised and ascended to represent those who believe. These enjoy in the present the steams of the city of God. This is the water Jesus offered the woman at the well (John 4): If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, “Give me drink,” you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water (4:10); and to those at the feast, he said, If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink (7:37). This water of life is the life giving Spirit of God (7:39).
These, God’s gathered people, will not be overwhelmed by this raging chaotic world. His city will not be moved because he will help her when morning dawns (5). What a strange clause! It is there because it recalls the Exodus when the Egyptians were in hot pursuit of the Israelites as they crossed the sea. When the morning appeared (Ex. 14:27 same words) the sea returned to its normal course. The nations rage but totter (6a). God utters his voice and the earth melts (6b). Yet, the city of God is secure, and the saints are secure.
The upheaval of our age can be a bit unsettling. Our nation is filled with rage. People protest and riot. Churches are burning in Canada. A virus takes the lives of 4 million people. People are locked down. Kids miss school. The government is giving money away like it grows on trees. Inflation is on the rise. Jobs are plenty but laborers are few. The nations rattle their sabers and build up arms. Crazy people go on shooting rampages. There is gang violence and ethnic tension. Biological males compete in women’s sports. Biological females claim to be pregnant men. Gender confusion is making its way onto official documents. Bravery is publicly announcing your sexual preference. Christian social media is a slug fest.
What is all the rage in the world about? The rage is rebellion against God. The Psalter opens with these words, Why do the nations rage? And the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD and against his Anointed, saying, “Let us burst their bonds apart and cast away their cords from us” (Ps 2:1-3).
Yet in the middle of all the rage the LORD of hosts is with us, the God of Jacob is our refuge. His city will not be moved. In the middle of chaos and upheaval, we gather in a kingdom that us unshakable and carry on the mission of the church that is unstoppable, knowing full well we are part of a kingdom that cannot be moved. Some have given up on the church in world and see it as a declining failing entity. Not so. The gates of hell will not prevail against it. Our best day is yet to come because God is with us.
This last section brings us to the imperative section of the psalm: Come and see (8) and be still and know (10). First, we are given an invitation to come and see the works of the LORD. He has brought desolations on the earth. He makes wars cease, breaks the armaments of armies, and burns their chariots with fire (8-9).
We can see the works of the LORD in history. The two big events of the OT, the exodus and the return from exile, were the works of God. He raised no army. The LORD can use human agency if he desires and often does, but even in such cases human agency would be of no consequence without divine purpose. This is why in the conquest though Israel fought, the battle was the LORD’s. Again and again we hear the refrain, See, I have given them into your hand (Josh. 6:2; 8:1; 11:6; 13:6; 23:5).
These lessons from history point to the where God is directing the world even now. He one day will cause all wars to cease. The world is at a stalemate with its armaments. No one can be first to lay down his gun and with good reason. The biblical picture is not of one nation taking the high road and laying its weapons down so that everyone will follow suit. The biblical picture is of God so working in the world to make weaponry unnecessary (Isa. 2:1-5; Micah 4:1-5). Scripture is clear that such as time will come about by divine judgment (see Revelation).
The psalm has brought us to the place to see that when the world as we know it no longer is, God is our refuge. While the nations rage and cultures collapse, the city of God is glad because he is with us. The evidence of his mighty acts in history show his purpose will stand.
In light of what has been said, the voice of God himself breaks into the psalm for the first time, Be still, and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth! (10). Be still (rph) does not mean quiet calm but rather stop what you are doing. Cease and desist. Take note of the exaltation of God. Give up on your frantic schemes to accomplish your purpose. To what end is it? Stop your frantic activity and begin to experience God acting for us. Only then do we know he is God.8 See that his purpose, to be exalted among the nations and exalted in the earth, will stand. Therefore, get your life in step with his purpose.
You can fight, rebel, rage, war, but to no avail. On when you stop pursuing your own ends can you know—commit, trust, love—Him.