Psalm 46
Some people think they will be secure if only they have enough money. So they lay it up in bank accounts, stocks, and other tangible assets. Like the rich man of Jesus’ parable they say, “You have plenty of good things laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry” (Luke 12:19). Jesus called a person who does that a fool, since in the end death comes and he or she must stand before God at his final judgment. Money cannot protect us from judgment. It cannot even shield us against heartbreak, failure, sin, disease, or disaster in this world.
Other people think they will be secure because of their specialized training, skills, or personal talents. But even the best-educated and highly skilled people suffer sudden reversals of fortune.
Still others expect security from their families, friends, or business connections. But these are all only human supports. They are uncertain at best, and at times they are suddenly swept away.
Verse 1 looks to God for two kinds of help, indicating that he is: (1) a stronghold into which we can flee and (2) a source of inner strength by which we can face calamities.
maḥseh
The root is probably to be distinguished from bāṭaḥ “rely on,” “take refuge in” as denoting more precipitate action. The etymology is doubtful. With derivatives the root is used fifty-six times, predominantly in the Psalms and similar poetic and hymnic literature.
While it is used literally of taking shelter from a rainstorm (Isa 4:6; 25:4; Job 24:8) or from any danger in the high hills (Ps 104:18), it is more often used figuratively of seeking refuge and thus putting confident trust whether in any god (Deut 32:37) or in the “shadow” (protection) of any major power such as Egypt (Isa 30:2; cf. the plant in the parable of Jud 9:15).
This idea of taking refuge may well derive from the common experience of fugitives or of men at war, for whom the adjacent hills provided a ready “safe height” or “strong rock” to which the often helpless defender could hurry for protection. In this way the noun maḥseh “place of refuge” is used as a snyonym of māʿôz “stronghold,” miśgāb “secure height,” or mānôs “place of escape.”
As is the case with the parallel terms, the “rock” (ṣûr, Ps 62:7), “rock of my refuge” (ṣûr maḥsî Ps 94:22), “the shield, cover” (māgēn, Ps 144:2; Prov 30:5), or the “wings” denoting protection (Ruth 2:12; Ps 17:8; 36:7 [H 8]), the “Refuge” is used as an epithet for God. He above all is the Refuge (maḥseh, Ps 14:6; 46:1 [H 2]; 62:8; 91:9), the Shelter (Ps 61:3 [H 4], KJV), the “strong Refuge” (Ps 71:7), and Fortress (Ps 91:2). God is ever the sole refuge of his people. Trust in him (godliness) protects the individual by its solidarity (Prov 14:26; Jn 4:10). The Qal stem of ḥāsâ is primarily used of man putting trust in God as his Rock (II Sam 22:3), Strength (Ps 18:2 [H 3]), and Stronghold (NEB “sure refuge,” Nah 1:7). It is always better to trust in God rather than to trust (bāṭaḥ) in princes (Ps 118:8–9). He acts as the shield or cover (māgēn) of all who take refuge in him (II Sam 22:31; Ps 18:30 [H 31]).
The analogy of taking refuge in God may occasionally refer to the temple of God in Jerusalem where the afflicted of his people could always find refuge (Isa 14:32 RSV: cf. Ps 61:4). This was a development of the ancient custom whereby the fleeing criminal could seize the horns of the altar and so find safety from revenge (I Kgs 1:50). The interpretation of Prov 14:32 (“the righteous hath hope in his death,” KJV) is difficult but should probably be emended from bĕmôtô (“in his death”) to bĕtmmô (interchanging the “m” and “t”) to read “seeks refuge in his integrity” (so LXX), as opposed to the wicked who is driven away in his wickedness.
“To seek refuge” stresses the insecurity and self-helplessness of even the strongest of men. It emphasizes the defensive or external aspect of salvation in God, the unchanging one in whom we “find shelter” (F. D. Kidner, The Psalms, 1973, ad loc Ps 46:1). David could view the cave to which he had fled as a stronghold, whereas others would see it as a trap.
(ʿōz). Strength, power. (ASV, RSV are similar.) This word is used primarily of deity, particularly in the Psalms.
Strength is an essential attribute of God (Pss 62:11 [H 12]; 63:2 [H 3]), his voice (Ps 68:33 [H 34]) and his arm (Isa 62:8; cf. Isa 51:9; Ps 89:10 [H 11]) are mighty. While the ark is a symbol of his power (II Chr 6:41; Ps 78:61; 132:8; cf. Num 10:35, 36), it is also observable in the skies (Ps 150:1).
God bestows strength on man: the king (I Sam 2:10), his people (Ps 29:11; 68:35 [H 36]), and on Zion (Isa 52:1). But not only is strength a quality given by God, he himself is that strength. Frequently the personal possessive pronouns are attached to strength in the Psalms to show this (Ps 28:7; 81:1 [H 2]; 118:14). In seeking his presence, strength is found (Ps 105:4=I Chr 16:11).
God exercises this strength on behalf of his people against their foes. This is particularly well illustrated in the Exodus (Ex 15:13).
This word is used figuratively to describe the security enjoyed by the righteous. The Lord is a strong tower against the enemy (Ps 61:3 [H 4]) and a mighty rock (Ps 62:7 [H 8]). His name (i.e. person) is the strong tower in which the righteous are safe (Prov 18:10). The impartation of his strength, made the psalmist secure as a strong mountain (Ps 30:7 [H 8]). Zion is a strong city because it is surrounded not only by material walls but also by his salvation (Isa 26:1).
The strength of the Lord is to be a common theme of our praise. We are to ascribe strength to him. We are to recognize his glorious might and to praise him for it (Ps 29:1; 96:7; I Chr 16:28).
Thus in hymns of praise God’s strength shows itself as his overwhelming majesty, and in the laments it appears as his helping protection.
(ṣārâ). Straits, distress. It indicates intense inner turmoil (Ps 25:17). It describes the anguish of a people besieged by an enemy. It is comparable to the pain of a woman bearing her first child (Jer 4:31). It refers to terror at the approach of a raping army (Jer 6:24). It defines the quality of time when Judah suffers her severest punishment for violating the covenant (Jer 30:7; cf. Ps 78:49). The land of a people that reject the Lord’s word is described as full of distress, darkness, and the gloom of anguish (Isa 8:22; cf. 30:6). Into such darkness Yahweh will bring the light of his salvation (Isa 9:1–2 [H 8:23–9:1]).
A brother provides help in adversity (Prov 17:17). Similarly the Lord helps his people out of the times of affliction (Ps 50:15; 37:39). God graciously promises to save Israel from the trouble of the Day of the Lord (Jer 30:7).
2, 3. This is not only a powerful word-picture, built up of the two things that are most immutable and impregnable, the earth and the mountains, over against the symbol of what is most restless and menacing, the sea; it begins to contemplate the end of the whole created scheme, by which the earth, the mountains and the waters were set in place, as described in, e.g., 104:5–9. This ultimate undoing, glimpsed darkly here, is made explicit in 102:25ff., where the final security of God’s servants is made equally clear.
With God the waters are no longer menacing seas but a life-giving river; cf. the seas and floods (rivers) of 98:7f., welcoming their Maker; cf. too the picture of God’s help as the quiet water-supply of the besieged, in Isaiah 8:6. The city of God is one of the great themes of the Old Testament, and especially of the Psalms, where the present psalm and the next two form a memorable group. God’s choice of Zion, or Jerusalem, had been as striking as his choice of David, and the wonder of it keeps breaking through; for it is only as God’s abode that it is either strong (5) or of any consequence; yet as such it will be the envy of the world (68:15f.) and the mother-city of the nations (87). Indeed the Old Testament already points towards the New Testament’s vision of Zion as a heavenly community rather than a mere locality on earth (cf. on 48:2).
5. The promise she shall not be moved gains special force from the repetition of the same word, moved, used of the mountains (2; RSV ‘shake’) and of the kingdoms (6; RSV ‘totter’), impressive as these are in comparison with little Zion. Also the words right early (lit. ‘at break of day’; cf. NEB) set up an echo of the greatest deliverance of all, the moment when ‘at break of day’ the Red Sea turned back to engulf the armies of Egypt (Exod. 14:27).
6. As in some other places, judgment is seen here in both its aspects: first the outworking of the inherent instability of evil, where the fitting sequel of to rage (or be in tumult) is to be insecure (to totter, on which see also on 5, above); and secondly the intervention of God, whose voice will be as decisive in dissolving the world as it was in creating it (cf. 33:6, 10).
the Most High The Hebrew name used here, elyon, emphasizes God’s supremacy as ruler and judge over the entire earth (47:2; Deut 32:8). Melchizedek first used the name (see Gen 14:18 and note).
This is a vision of things finally to come, although the victories of the present are a foretaste of them. The word for behold is generally used for seeing with the inward eye, as a ‘seer’ or prophet sees.
Although the outcome is peace, the process is judgment. The reassuring words, he makes wars cease …, are set in a context not of gentle persuasion but of a world devastated and forcibly disarmed (8, 9b). This sequence, with tranquillity on the far side of judgment, agrees with Old Testament prophecy and apocalypse, and with the New Testament (e.g. Isa. 6:10–13; 9:5; Dan. 12:1; 2 Pet. 3:12f.).
Yahweh admonishes the nations to desist from their vain endeavors to destroy his people. He bids them to recognize him as the true God who will one day manifest his absolute sovereignty.