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.

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!

The Desolations of the Lord, the Consolation of His Saints A Sermon (No. 190) Delivered on Wednesday Morning, April 28, 1858, by the REV. C.H. SPURGEON at the Music Hall, Royal Surrey Gardens On behalf of the Baptist Missionary Society. “Come, behold the works of the Lord, what desolations he hath made in the earth. 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.”—Psalm 46:8-9. IT SEEMS THAT EVERYTHING Christlike must have a history like that of Christ. His beginnings were small—the manger and the stable. So with the beginnings of that society which we love, and which we believe to be the very incarnation of the Spirit of Christ. Its beginnings also were small; but its latter end shall doubtless greatly increase—for, hath not the end of Christ become exceedingly glorious? He hath ascended up on high; he sitteth at the right hand of God, our Father; and doubtless this agency which God now employeth for the conversion of the world, shall have its ascension, and God shall greatly magnify it. But as Christ was called to suffer, so must everything Christlike suffer with him. The Christian who is the most like his Master will understand the most of the meaning of that term, “fellowship with him in his sufferings;” and inasmuch as the Missionary Society is like Christ, and hath Christ’s heart, and Christ’s aim, it also must suffer like Jesus. This year we have been made to sip of that cup. The blood of our martyrs has been shed; our confessors have witnessed to the faith of the Lord Jesus; at the hands of bloodthirsty and cruel men they have met their fate, and again the seed of the church has been sown in the blood of the martyred saint.

The Desolations of the Lord, the Consolation of His Saints A Sermon (No. 190) Delivered on Wednesday Morning, April 28, 1858, by the REV. C.H. SPURGEON at the Music Hall, Royal Surrey Gardens On behalf of the Baptist Missionary Society. “Come, behold the works of the Lord, what desolations he hath made in the earth. 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.”—Psalm 46:8-9. IT SEEMS THAT EVERYTHING Christlike must have a history like that of Christ.

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.

He maketh 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.