Psalm 46

Psalms 46:1

“Do not flee what you do not need to flee, and do not have recourse to him to whom it is unnecessary. But one thing you must flee: sin; and one refuge from evil must be sought: God. Do not trust in princes; do not be exalted in the uncertainty of wealth; do not be proud of bodily strength; do not pursue the splendor of human glory. None of these things saves you; all are transient, all are deceptive. There is one refuge, God.… God is the true aid for the righteous.”

Psalms 46:1

“God is our refuge and strength. Not 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.”

Psalms 46:1

“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. xxviii.”

Psalms 46:2

"Therefore we will not fear." Ps. 26: "The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear?" As if to say: I will fear no one. And rightly, because he himself is "our God, a refuge and strength, a helper in the tribulations …

Psalms 46:2

“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.”

Psalms 46:3

"They roared and the waters were troubled." Here he shows what these tribulations are. And first, he proposes them in metaphor. Second, he explains. He says therefore, "They roared and their waters were troubled." According to Jerome, "its waters." And this is the better reading; …

Psalms 46:3

“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.”

Psalms 46:4

“Some give the definition that a city is an established community, administered according to law. And the definition that has been handed down of the city is in harmony with the celestial city, Jerusalem above. For there it is a community of the first-born who have been enrolled in heaven, and this is established because of the unchanging manner of life of the saints, and it is administered according to the heavenly law. Therefore, it is not the privilege of human nature to learn the arrangement of that city and all its adornment.”

Psalms 46:4

“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.”

Psalms 46:4

“A river - This may design the gracious presence, and blessing of the Lord, which is frequently described under the name of waters. Make glad - Shall not barely preserve it from danger, but give great occasion for rejoicing and thanksgiving. The city - Jerusalem, the place where God's holy tabernacle is settled.”

Psalms 46:5

“By his resurrection at dawn, the Lord confers on us wonderful and heavenly helps. His resurrection dispelled the night and poured on us the light of day. As Scripture says, "Rise, O sleeper; arise from the dead, and Christ shall enlighten you." Consider here a mystery. Christ suffered in the evening, and according to the Old Law, the lamb is slain at evening. … In the evening of this world, when the light is failing, he is killed. All this world would have been shrouded by even greater and more horrid darkness only that Christ came to us from heaven.”

Psalms 46:5

“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!”

Psalms 46:6

“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.”

Psalms 46:7

Our protector, he says, is not another God besides him who was handed down by the prophets. But [he is] the God of Jacob, who spoke in an oracle to his servant, "I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob."

Psalms 46:7

“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.”

Psalms 46:8

“Just as … great distances make the perception of visible objects dim, but a nearer approach offers a clear knowledge of the objects seen, so also in the case of objects of contemplation in the mind, he who has not drawn near to God is not able to see his works with the pure eyes of his mind.”

Psalms 46:8

“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.”

Psalms 46:8

“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 upon the church has been turned upon themselves. War is a tragedy which commonly destroys the stage it is acted on;”

Psalms 46:9

“He it is who routs all the enemy when he wishes and brings peace to the earth to the degree he wants.… He is the God who does away with the enemy with their own weapons when he wishes.”

Psalms 46:9

“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.”

Psalms 46:10

“It is not possible to know him if one has not become still and purified one's mind.”

Psalms 46:10

“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.”

Psalms 46:10

“Be still - Stir no more against my people. God - The only true and almighty God; your gods are but dumb and impotent idols. Exalted - I will make myself glorious by my great and wonderful works.”

Psalms 46:10-11

“We may, in singing it, apply it either to our spiritual enemies, and be more than conquerors over them, or to the public enemies of Christ's kingdom in the world and their threatening insults, endeavouring to preserve a holy security and serenity of mind when they seem most formidable.”

Psalms 46:11

“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. Selah; on this word; see Gill on Psa 3:2.”

Psalms 46:11

“The Lord 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.”

Psalms 46:11

“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.”