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.