What does it mean when God says, "I will be exalted among the nations" (Psalm 46:10)?

To proceed with Psalm 46. In the concluding section delivered Israel says, "Come, behold the works of the Lord, what desolations He has made in the earth. He makes wars to cease to the end of the earth: He breaks the bow, and cuts the spear in sunder; He burns the chariot in the fire" (v. 8-9). War is not yet at an end, the sorrowful events of the present time being witness. But when the last great crisis has come and gone, with all its unparalleled horrors and bloodshed, men will delight in instruments of destruction no more. Under the beneficent reign of the great King "they shall beat their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more" (Isa. 2:4). Happy time for this poor distracted scene!

God's voice is now heard. "Be still and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth" (v. 10). Here we have the object and result of all the discipline through which Israel and the world have passed. God is known by the works that He has wrought, and His universal supremacy is indisputably established. Then will be fulfilled the words: "Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven" (Matt. 6:10).

Psalm 46 describes the hour of Israel's trouble, the waters roaring, the mountains shaking, the Gentiles raging, and the kingdoms in commotion. Still they can exclaim — "Jehovah of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge. Selah. Come, behold the works of Jehovah, what desolations He has made in the earth. He makes wars to cease unto the end of the earth; He breaks the bow and cuts the spear in sunder; He burns the chariot in the fire." Here the God of Jacob, a national name, is with "us" — Israel — bringing the wars and commotions of the Gentiles to an end by desolating judgments and establishing peace on the earth. "Be still," He adds, "and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the Gentiles, I will be exalted in the earth." And once again exultant Israel replies — "Jehovah of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge. Selah."

Verse 6 gives in magnificent abruptness the great result. All is decided. Then they say, "Jehovah Sabaoth is with us." The God of the whole people is the refuge of this feeble remnant (v. 8, 9), they summon the earth to see what the works of Jehovah are, what is come of the impotent rage and violence of men; for He will be exalted among the heathen and exalted in the earth. The place of faith is to be still and wait on Him and know that He is God, as the remnant of Jacob will with joy — that Jehovah of hosts, the God of Jacob, is with them.

So writes another prophet of that same time, the prelude to the reign of peace of which the closing verses of our Psalm speak. "Come, behold the works of Jehovah, what desolations He has made in the earth. He makes wars to cease to the end of the earth; He breaks the bow and cuts the spear in sunder: He burns the chariot in the fire" (8, 9). Such is His character, and such will be His acts. For Him His people may well wait. Suited, then, is the exhortation at the close, "Be still, and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth" (10). Who speaks thus? Jehovah of Hosts is the answer. His title suggestive of power; the God of Jacob, too, reminding all that He can act in grace toward one who does not deserve it. He has but to speak, and His enemies are confounded. He speaks, and His people are encouraged. We may remark on the different characters in which, in this most interesting Psalm, God is introduced. He is God. He is Jehovah. He is Most High. As God He is the strong One. As Jehovah He is the self-existing One. As Most High He will be owned when all on earth is brought under His sway: such is the God of Jacob. Such we, too, can say is our God, the New Testament revelation telling us in addition of the relationship He has formed by birth between Himself and us, for He is our Father.

A strain of grandest power, and of most abundant blessing to the soul whose refuge is the living God. Its very full practical bearing upon the proper experiences of Christian patience need not be pointed out; but it is most clearly a millennial Psalm. The works of Jehovah, and their decisive results in the desolation of human pride, and the quelling of the anger of the nations by the majesty of His power, are joyfully commemorated (verses 8, 9): The singers of this noble ode are evidently inhabiters of the city of God. But that this city is not the heavenly Jerusalem is quite apparent from the whole drift of the Psalm. The heathen do not rage against that. But they have raged, and will yet again be found assembled in dreadful yet impotent fury against the earthly city of God's name (Zech. 12; Zeph. 3:8). Nothing can exceed the sublimity and energy of the language in which the catastrophe is described (verse 6). The results of the judgment, opening the new era of peace and blessing upon the earth, are stated in expressions not unlike what are elsewhere used by the Spirit in other prophetic testimonies of the same events (Isa. 2:4; Zech. 9:10; Hosea 2:18). The exaltation of Christ, as God of the whole earth, is the theme of the Psalm (verse 10). There is nothing heavenly in its first intention God is exalted among the heathen; He is exalted in the earth. The tabernacles of the Most High are re-established abidingly in the city of His name. All these things are celebrated by the people, whose cup of joy flows over in the exulting declaration, that "the Lord of hosts is with us, the God of Jacob is our refuge."

In the tenth verse we have the universal acknowledgment of the name of God as the praise of the nations (Mal. 1:11), when the oaths of the tribes shall have become the world's confession, in the day when the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of Jehovah, . as the waters cover the sea. They will praise Him according to His name. The full and blessed meaning of that name, instead of being as it is now revealed to a chosen few, into whose hearts, as vessels of mercy, the treasures of Divine grace are poured (Ex. 34:5-7; John 1.12), will then be disclosed to multitudes. For all the ends of the earth shall remember and turn unto the Lord; and all the kindreds of the nations shall worship before His Christ (Ps. 22:27).

And He has glorified Himself; and will. The desolations of the earth are witness of His right hand of power. Edom (Isa. 34) and Babylon (Isa. 13:20), as lands that have nurtured His enemies, will be thus condemned to desolation. He will make war against war, and the very implements of it shall exist no more. Blessed display of power, which shall everywhere make Him known as God; — make the nations at last perforce to realize this, and exalt Him over the whole earth! For the God of hosts; the Unchangeable, who has shown Himself thus for Israel, is after all the God of grace, — the God of Jacob.

How salutary the exhortation — "Be still and know that I am God." We are very prone to agitate and busy ourselves in times of trouble; but it avails nothing, it only betrays our want of faith and entangles and distracts us still more. The proper effect of trouble is patience, and of patience experience of God, etc. (Rom. 5:3-4). "I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth." This is emphatically an answer to the faith expressed in the Psalm, it is Jewish and earthly; but we can and do share with the faithful Jew and rejoice with him in the prospect and assurance of his blessing, although God has prepared some better thing for as.

"And he shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people." Is this the gradual, peaceful spread of truth by human instrumentality? "And they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning-hooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more." (ver. 4.) Ps. 46 connects itself with the prospect of universal peace here held out, and we will turn aside to consider it for a moment. People say that it is not only by the spread of the gospel that this prospect is to be realized, but by peace societies and other confederations to spread pacific principles, and to promote among the governments of the earth pacific counsels and measures. But is this what the Word of God testifies? Look at this Psalm. It relates to a time of tremendous trouble, the period we were considering in a former lecture, the time of Jacob's trouble, out of which he is to be delivered. This Psalm expresses the confidence of the faithful Jewish remnant, while surrounded by the horrors of that day of unequalled tribulation, and of the judgments with which it terminates. "God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore will not we fear, though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea; though the waters thereof roar and be troubled, though the mountains shake with the swelling thereof." (ver. 1-3.) This is surely most unlike the gradual spread of truth, and the conversion, by its imperceptible influences, of the whole mass of mankind to holiness and peace. Convulsions are here described of a character the most formidable. "The heathen raged, the kingdoms were moved: he uttered his voice, the earth melted." (ver. 6.) Again do the remnant declare their confidence amid the desolating storm. "The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge." (ver. 7.) And now the storm is past. God has arisen to his strange

work; and his judgments having been accomplished, we are invited to contemplate the results. "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." It is not the slow and gradual progress of peaceful principles, but God's solemn interposition in judgment at the coming of the Lord, that puts an end to the strifes and wars which have for so many ages desolated the earth, and that introduces the period of universal peace. And what is the moral drawn from all this by the Holy Ghost? Is it, "exert yourselves — put forth all your energies — labour with all your might to impregnate society with principles which will introduce the golden age of universal concord, and harmony, and peace" — is this, I ask, the moral drawn by the Spirit from this solemn prophetic history? No, my brethren, it is this: "Be still, and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth." (ver. 10.) It is by his power — not by human energy; to his glory — not to the exaltation of proud, vaunting man — that these wonders are accomplished.

Two truths of great practical importance, for believers of every dispensation, are brought before us in Psalm 46. In the presence of the upheavals and conflicts of a godless world, we are reminded, first, that God is "a very present help in trouble." Secondly, in order to realise, and obtain, the present help of God, our part is to "be still" and know that God is God (Verses 1 and 10). Only faith can enter into these truths. Flesh can lean upon an arm of flesh; but flesh can neither trust in God, nor "be still" and wait for God to act.