Psalm 46:4

The psalm begins with God as “our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble”, and with a world in uproar, where the earth is removed, the mountains are carried into the sea and the waters “roar and be troubled” (Psalm 46:1–3). Verse 4 sets something quite different beside those waters: “There is a river.” The waters of the world rage and threaten, and the river of God refreshes and brings joy.

The word for river, nâhâr, comes from a root meaning to flow, and it is used of great rivers such as the Nile and the Euphrates. It can also picture prosperity. Jerusalem, the city of God, had no great river running through it. It drew its water from springs such as the Gihon and from cisterns. So the psalmist is speaking of God’s own supply, his grace, peace and life flowing constantly to his people, and the river is the picture of it. Its streams, peleg, are channels, the one river divided so that its water reaches every part of the city. These streams “make glad”, sâmach, the ordinary word for rejoicing and being glad, for feeling and showing great joy. The people of the city are glad because of what God gives them, whatever is happening beyond the walls.

Scripture follows this river further. Ezekiel sees a river flowing out from the temple (Ezekiel 47:1–12). Jesus cried, “If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink. He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water”, and John explains that he spoke of the Spirit, whom those who believe on him would receive (John 7:37–39). At the end of the Bible John is shown “a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb” (Revelation 22:1–3).

Verse 5 states plainly what the river pictured: “God is in the midst of her.” The word qereb means the inward part, the midst or centre, the nearest part of a thing. God is at the very centre of his city. Among the nations, a city’s safety was often credited to the favour of its own god. Jerusalem’s safety rested on the LORD himself living within her walls, and this verse is the ground of everything the psalm says about her standing firm.

“She shall not be moved” uses môwṭ, to totter, shake or slip, with the negative bal before it (bal timmôṭ). The earth of verse 2 may be removed and the mountains may shake, and the city where God lives stands. Another psalm says the same of those who trust him: “They that trust in the LORD shall be as mount Zion, which cannot be removed, but abideth for ever” (Psalm 125:1). Zephaniah gives the same reason for Zion’s joy: “the king of Israel, even the LORD, is in the midst of thee” (Zephaniah 3:15).

Verse 6 moves from the quiet city to the noise outside it. “The heathen raged”: the heathen, goyim, are the nations, and the verb hâmâh means to make a loud sound, to be in commotion or tumult, and it is used of roaring and uproar. “The kingdoms were moved”: the kingdoms, mamlakhot, are the established powers and their rulers, and the verb is môwṭ again, the same word as “she shall not be moved” in verse 5. The city where God lives will not totter, and the kingdoms that rage against her do. Israel was a small nation among great empires such as Assyria, Babylon, Egypt and Persia, and the raging of nations was something its people knew well. Psalm 2 begins with the same scene and the same answer: “Why do the heathen rage...? He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh” (Psalm 2:1–4).

Against all that noise God does one thing. “He uttered his voice” is literally “he gave his voice” (nātan b’qôlô), and that is enough. The God who said “Let there be light” (Genesis 1:3), and whose Son upholds “all things by the word of his power” (Hebrews 1:3), needs only to speak. Isaiah sets the passing life of man beside that word: “The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: but the word of our God shall stand for ever” (Isaiah 40:6–8).

The rest of the psalm tells what follows. “He maketh wars to cease unto the end of the earth” (Psalm 46:9), and God speaks to the nations himself: “Be still, and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth” (Psalm 46:10).

Verse 7 is the psalm’s refrain, sung here and again at its close (Psalm 46:11). Its two halves say the same truth in two ways. “The LORD of hosts is with us” joins God’s personal name to his power. LORD stands for Yᵉhôvâh, the covenant name of God, from a root meaning to be, the God who exists in himself and keeps his promises. “Hosts” (Sabaoth) are armies, and the title names him as commander of every force in heaven and on earth. And this God is “with us”, immanu in Hebrew. The God who rules all the armies of heaven has bound himself to his people. Moses told Israel, “he it is that doth go with thee; he will not fail thee, nor forsake thee” (Deuteronomy 31:6), and God told them through Isaiah, “Fear thou not; for I am with thee” (Isaiah 41:10).

“The God of Jacob is our refuge” gives the second half. A refuge, misgâb, is a high place out of reach, a stronghold or a lofty tower where enemies cannot climb. The cities of that day trusted in walls and citadels, and God is a stronghold higher than any of them. Psalm 91 dwells on the same picture of God as fortress and shield (Psalm 91), and Nahum says, “The LORD is good, a strong hold in the day of trouble” (Nahum 1:7).

The New Testament shows this psalm fulfilled in Jesus. “God with us” is his name: “they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us” (Matthew 1:23). In him God came to live in the midst of his people in person. He is the Word through whom “All things were made” (John 1:1–3), by whom “all things consist” (Colossians 1:16–17), and his voice is the voice that melts the earth. When the wind and sea rose against his disciples, “he arose, and rebuked the wind, and said unto the sea, Peace, be still. And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm” (Mark 4:39).

He has also conquered the powers that rage against God, “having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a shew of them openly” (Colossians 2:15), and every knee will bow to him and every tongue confess “that Jesus Christ is Lord” (Philippians 2:10–11). When he comes again as King of kings (Revelation 19:11–16), the raging kingdoms will be done away, and we look for “new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness” (2 Peter 3:10–13).

The city of God is now his church, “built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone”, and growing into “an habitation of God through the Spirit” (Ephesians 2:19–22). The river is the Spirit he gives, and he promised that the Comforter would “abide with you for ever” (John 14:16). Christ is the refuge the psalm sings of, “the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world” (John 1:29), who gives his people safety from sin and death. Some believers also hear in “right early” the morning of the resurrection, when the women came to the tomb “very early in the morning” (Mark 16:2) and found that God had helped his people at the break of day. In him “all the promises of God... are yea, and in him Amen” (2 Corinthians 1:20), and these four verses are among them.

These verses put two scenes side by side. Outside the city the nations roar, kingdoms totter and the news of the day is full of trouble. Inside, a river runs and the people are glad. If you belong to Christ, you live in that city now. Its gladness comes from the God who lives in the middle of it, and so it lasts through whatever the nations do.

When the night is long, the psalm gives you a morning to look for: God shall help her, “and that right early.” When the powers of the world are loud, it reminds you how little it takes for God to end their noise. And when you need somewhere to stand, it gives you the refrain to sing and to think on: the LORD of hosts is with us, and the God of Jacob is our refuge. The peace this gives is “the peace of God, which passeth all understanding” (Philippians 4:7).