There is a river the streams whereof make glad the city of God, the sanctuary of the habitations of the Most High.
The psalm has just pictured the earth giving way and the sea roaring, and now the scene changes to still water. A river appears, along with a city, a holy place, and God's title "Most High" — so where does this river run, and when will its streams appear?
The psalm sets two kinds of water against each other. One writer describes each:
In contrast to the heaving, roaring seas, "there is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy habitation of the Most High" (v. 4). The seas stand for the commotion and trouble of the whole world. Their water is not even fit to drink. Their waves batter against each other, with no rest, no calmness of peace. But the river comes from above, flowing in one direction, with its fresh, pure water to refresh a weary land.
Hebrew has more than one word for flowing water. A reference work notes which one this verse uses:
God will make His people drink of the river of His pleasures, Ps. 36:8; here the word is nachal. In Ps. 46:4 it is nahar. "There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God." It will never run dry.
One writer points to Ezekiel and takes the river as more than a picture:
Blessing must flow from God's presence, and so we have the "river." It will have a literal as well as a spiritual fulfilment in the coming day (Ezek. 47:1).
Another writer reads Zechariah alongside Ezekiel and gives the direction of each branch:
Ezekiel did not mention the place to which the second arm of the double river will empty itself. In Zechariah we read in which direction it will flow. The river will flow right through Jerusalem. (Ezekiel shows us that the temple will stand apart from the city itself.) Half of it will go to the sea in the east, the Dead Sea. The other half will go to the sea in the west, the Mediterranean.
The verse does not say "the Lord" or "the God of Israel." One writer ties the title "Most High" to the crisis the psalm describes:
So Most High occurs in Ps. 46; for His supremacy is before the heart at that fearful time when "God" is the sole refuge, no matter what the desolations, no matter how the nations rage.
One writer takes the river as a picture of what God is doing through every upheaval:
Through all time, with its changes, upheavals, and conflicts, there flows the river of God's pleasure. No power of the enemy, no violence and corruption of men, no failure of the saints, can thwart God in carrying out His deep eternal counsels. Dispensations come and go: empires rise and fall; every testimony that God commits to the responsibility of men breaks down in their hands. But, over all, and through all, God is carrying out His purpose for the glory of Christ and the blessing of His people, earthly and heavenly.
The psalmist was not describing the Jerusalem in front of him. He was seeing something further on:
The Psalmist looks beyond the ruins of the Jerusalem of his own day. Looking by faith into the future, he sees the city as God has purposed it. There rises before his vision a city of gladness, a "holy place", a city that "shall not be moved", with God dwelling "in the midst of her". In the same way, in the middle of all the turmoil and confusion in the world around us, and the corruptions of the Christian world, the believer walks in the light of the heavenly city.
Trace the word "river" through Scripture and it stops at one place — a throne. One writer follows it to the end:
Finally, we have the river of God, presented to us in the last chapter of Revelation. "Then he showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb." "There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy habitation of the Most High." This is the last place in which we find river. Nothing can ever touch its source again, and nothing can ever interrupt its channel. "The throne of God" speaks of eternal stability. The presence of the Lamb marks that throne as resting directly on the ground of redemption already accomplished.
- Source — The river "comes from above," unlike the world's seas that batter each other with "no rest, no calmness of peace."
- Supply — The psalm's word is nahar, not the nachal of Psalm 36:8, and this river "will never run dry."
- Spread — The fulfilment is literal as well as spiritual: at Jerusalem the river divides toward the Dead Sea and the Mediterranean.
- Sovereign — The title "Most High" belongs to the moment when God alone is the refuge and the nations rage.
- Stability — The river's last appearance is at the throne of God and of the Lamb, where nothing can touch its source or interrupt its channel again.
God is in the midst of her; she shall not be moved God shall help her at the dawn of the morning.
The psalm opens with the earth giving way and mountains falling into the sea, and then turns to a city that stays firm. Verse 5 gives the reason — not walls or armies, but God Himself inside her — and sets her rescue at daybreak.
The psalm sets two things side by side: things that shake and one place that does not. One writer draws out the contrast in the same breath as the promise of help.
The mountains around them may be moved, but the city they are heading for "shall not be moved." They also see that morning is about to dawn, and God's city will come into view. The nations may rage, and their kingdoms be removed, but nothing can hinder the fulfillment of God's purpose. God only has to speak, and every enemy will melt away.
The security is not in the walls. It is in the One living inside.
The Most High lives in Jerusalem and never leaves. So she can never lack the grace that feeds her, the life-giving streams of His blessed Spirit. God in the midst of her is full security. She will not be moved. God will help her at daybreak.
Wherever God's people suffer, someone asks where their God has gone. Commentators note that this verse answers that question.
He has His city on the earth. The Most High lives there. And the river gladdens the places where He dwells — the river that stands for blessing everywhere in these descriptions... God is there — the sure and best of answers to the taunting demand, "Where is your God?" She will not be moved; God will help her when morning dawns.
The promise is not made about a city in good condition. Writers read the psalm as looking ahead to a time when nations pour in against Jerusalem and Antichrist defiles her. Faith, they say, still holds to what this verse states.
Faith sees what Jerusalem truly is, whatever her state at the moment. So faith stays fully confident that God is present in her midst. At the actual moment, when the nations assemble against her like a flood, she will be defiled by the oppressions of Antichrist... Still, she is the city of God, and faith lays hold of that fact, and expects God to show Himself in her midst for her deliverance.
Older versions read "and that right early," which sounds like speed. Commentators say a closer translation points to daybreak, not speed.
"Right early" means "when the morning appears," or "at the dawn of the morning" — that is the reading given in the note beside the text in older Bibles. Faith will not expect in vain. The cloudless morning will dawn when the King rides out in majesty... No true morning will rise upon earth's night until that morning appears.
That places the help at the end of the darkest stretch, not before it.
What a relief for the constantly besieged city of David! The Great Tribulation will be the darkest time of the night for Israel and the world. But the dawn will come quickly. "Weeping may tarry for the night, but joy comes with the morning" (Psalm 30:5). "The sun of righteousness shall rise with healing in its wings" (Malachi 4:2). His coming to Israel in power and glory will be the answer to the sorrows they have long endured.
Commentators do not leave the verse in the future only. They hear the same words on Jesus' lips about His gathered people.
"God is in the midst of her" (v. 5). This is the same God who says, "For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them" (Matthew 18:20). So the Lord Jesus will have the same place of central importance in Israel as He does now in the church of God. No wonder "she shall not be moved," as she has been in many centuries past.
And the scale of the promise does not shrink when it reaches one life.
What God can do for a whole nation in such extreme times, He can do for one person in his small troubles. The God who is enough for the whole universe can care for a sparrow, and the God of Psalm 46 is enough for you and for me.
- Presence — the city stands because God lives inside her. Take that away, and nothing else in the verse holds.
- Stability — mountains can move and kingdoms fall; the city where God lives cannot. Faith rests on His purpose, not on conditions.
- Answer — "God is there" is the reply to every taunting "Where is your God?"
- Dawn — the help comes "when morning dawns," at the end of the night, when the King appears in majesty.
- Reach — the God who is in the midst of a city is in the midst of two or three gathered in His name, and is enough for one person too.
The nations raged, the kingdoms were moved; he uttered his voice, the earth melted.
Psalm 46 speaks out of an hour when everything solid is shaking and God's people have nothing left to lean on but Him. Verse 6 packs that whole crisis into one line. The nations roar, and God answers with a word.
Commentators place this psalm in a time still to come. Israel goes through its darkest trouble, and God brings the nation out of it.
It has in view the sufferings and deliverance of the remnant of Israel in the great tribulation. It is divided into three sections, the close of each marked by the word Selah.
That setting rules out a popular view of the psalm. Many expect peace to arrive slowly, through deals between governments and a better society.
People say that this hope of peace will come true not only through the spread of the gospel. They also look to peace societies and other alliances, set up to spread peaceful principles and to press peaceful advice and policies on the governments of the earth. But is this what the Word of God says? Look at this Psalm. It relates to a time of tremendous trouble.
The verse is short, and it moves in stages.
Verse 6 is a very brief, but most graphic, description of God's great victory and man's utter defeat. The little verse is like a drama in four acts.
The rage is not random. It has a target.
"The nations raged." We see the nations worked up almost to frenzy. They are full of fury and threats and slaughter. The opening verses of Psalm 2 have told us why they are in this raging condition. Their real hostility is against God and His Christ. They want to snap the bonds that hold them and throw off His cords.
There is also something about the word "rage" itself. It describes behaviour that has stopped making sense.
When men "rage" they act against nature and common sense. Driven by Satan, the prince of this world, men act without reason. It was the same when the demons entered a herd of pigs. The animals went against every natural instinct and rushed to their own destruction.
The second phrase turns from the mood of the nations to their structures. Governments that looked permanent lose their footing.
"The kingdoms were moved." We now see the kingdoms of men in a state of flux and dissolution. Some kings are overthrown, as Daniel 7 shows, while "the beast" rises to his place of ruling power. All are in a condition of change and transition.
Against all that noise, God's method is plain. He gathers no army. He announces no plan.
"He uttered His voice." Quite a simple thing, this! None of the fuss, the scheming and the elaborate plans that mark men going out to war! The Lord Jesus appears in His glory, and "His Name is called the Word of God." Then, "From His mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations" (Rev. 19:11-15). He has only to speak, and His enemies are overthrown.
What He speaks, happens. And His speaking reaches His enemies and His people in opposite ways.
Long ago He spoke, and it was done... He has only to speak, and His enemies are thrown into confusion. He speaks, and His people are encouraged.
Commentators differ on what melts. One reading takes it of the world's whole order, dissolved so it can be reshaped.
"The earth melted." These graphic words describe the overthrow. They picture the whole earth melted down, ready for His mighty hand to reshape it for the millennial age He is about to bring in.
Another takes "earth" as the land, and the melting as hearts breaking in repentance.
"The earth melted," that is, the land melted. It refers especially to the remnant of Israel left in the land after two thirds have been cut off in death. Their hearts will be melted down in deep repentance, as Zechariah 12:10-14 tells us: "They will look on Me whom they pierced." What a reason for adding the word "Selah" — pause and consider!
The God who silences nations is not distant from ordinary people in trouble.
God was with Jacob, a man of faith despite many failures. He has also said to believers today, "I will never leave you nor forsake you." If He is with us, He is "our refuge," and the believer can say with confidence, "The Lord is my helper; I will not fear; what can man do to me?" (Heb. 13:5, 6).
- Rage — the fury of the nations is aimed at God and His Christ, and it is reason abandoned, not reason applied.
- Ruin — kingdoms that looked solid come apart. No government stands untouched.
- Voice — God needs no army and no strategy; He speaks, and the opposition is over.
- Melting — the same voice melts down the old order so God can reshape it, and, some say, melts hard hearts into repentance.
- Refuge — peace comes by God's own act, not by human peace-making. And the God who acts says to each believer, "I will never leave you."
Jehovah of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our high fortress. Selah.
This verse names God twice, and the psalm shouts the same words again before it ends. One name gathers every army in heaven and earth; the other belongs to one wayward man.
These words are an answer, not a plea. One writer points to what happens in the verse just before:
Verse 6 gives in magnificent abruptness the great result. All is decided. Then they say, "The LORD of hosts is with us." The God of the whole people is the refuge of this feeble remnant.
This title first appears at a low point in Israel's story. It covers everything in heaven and earth that God commands:
We do not meet with this name until 1 Samuel 1:3. It came in with prophetic testimony, when faith laid hold of Jehovah's glory at a time when Israel had corrupted themselves and were weak and low. Scripture shows that there is a mighty heavenly host, with rulers and powers in the unseen world. God is the God of them all, as well as God of all the elements of nature, which He has often used to punish His enemies. "The stars in their courses fought against Sisera" (Judges 5:20)... Psalm 24:10 shows the Lord Jesus to be "Jehovah of hosts: he is the king of glory."
The second name brings that same God down to one man:
Twice in the psalm we read, "The LORD of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress." Countless hosts of angels acknowledge His supremacy and serve His will, sustained by His power. Yet, what unspeakable grace! He is also "the God of Jacob." He bends down to the individual, even to the most wayward and unreliable, to the fearful and the needy, to you and me. His strength is against every foe that would hurt His people; His grace is their support in trial and drives away their fears. He has said, "I will never leave you nor forsake you." He said that to Jacob. Hebrews quotes those words and applies them to us, so that we can confidently say, "The Lord is my helper; I will not fear; what can man do to me?" (Hebrews 13:5-6).
The psalm makes the same claim three times over, and it marks off two ways of handling danger. The writer below quotes an older translation, which reads "refuge" in this verse where the ESV has "fortress":
The Psalm opens by saying that "God is our refuge." In the middle it says again that "the God of Jacob is our refuge." It closes by repeating, a third time, that God "is our refuge." So this is the great truth the Psalm presses home. When men of the world look for refuge from dangers and difficulties, they rely completely on natural and human plans. Believers do not despise the ordinary means God provides, but they have in God a resource that never fails.
One story shows what "with us" means in practice. The horses and chariots stood there long before the servant could see them:
The first clause reminds us of Elisha's words to his terrified servant in Dothan. The Syrians had surrounded the city to capture him: "Do not be afraid, for those who are with us are more than those who are with them." And Elisha prayed and said, "O LORD, please open his eyes that he may see." So the LORD opened the eyes of the young man, and he saw, and behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha (2 Kings 6:16-17). God's guarding care is as true for us today as it was for the prophet then. He is always with His own and around them, so that the enemy may do them no harm.
This comfort belongs to a particular stretch of time — the hours before daylight:
In the deepening shadows of the night, until the morning dawns, we can say with the Psalmist that the LORD of hosts is with us and the God of Jacob is our fortress. When the day dawns we shall be with Christ in the glory of that day; in the meantime He is with us as we pass through the sorrows of the night.
- Power. "LORD of hosts" claims the angel armies, the unseen powers, and the forces of nature. Faith first reached for this name when God's people were at their weakest.
- Grace. "God of Jacob" bends that same power down to one wayward, fearful man. Hebrews quotes Jacob's promise back to believers: "I will never leave you nor forsake you."
- Presence. Power and grace meet in the words "with us." At Dothan, Elisha's servant finally saw the horses and chariots that had been there all along.
- Refuge. Because He is with His people, He is their shelter. The psalm says it three times, against a world that trusts human plans alone.
- Result. The shout comes once the outcome is already decided, and it carries His people through the night until morning.