"To the choirmaster. Of the Sons of Korah. According to Alamoth. A Song.
God is our refuge and strength,
a very present help in trouble.
2 Therefore we will not fear though the earth gives way,
though the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea,
3 though its waters roar and foam,
though the mountains tremble at its swelling. Selah
4 There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God,
the holy habitation of the Most High.
5 God is in the midst of her; she shall not be moved;
God will help her when morning dawns.
6 The nations rage, the kingdoms totter;
he utters his voice, the earth melts.
7 The Lord of hosts is with us;
the God of Jacob is our fortress. Selah
8 Come, behold the works of the Lord,
how he has brought desolations on the earth.
9 He makes wars cease to the end of the earth;
he breaks the bow and shatters the spear;
he burns the chariots with fire.
10 “Be still, and know that I am God.
I will be exalted among the nations,
I will be exalted in the earth!”
11 The Lord of hosts is with us;
the God of Jacob is our fortress. Selah"
Psalm 46
It would be true to say that this Psalm vies with the 23rd and 121st for the place of pre-eminence in the thought and experience of the faithful down the ages. It is a great Psalm indeed, and so often when we read it we simply allow its savour to penetrate our deepest souls. And one is not at all sure whether at times this is not the best way to read it. All the same, it will always help to dig down into its specific meaning and message, and new enrichment will always result when we do. This may be said of its teaching at the outset: it is a Psalm which instructs us what to do in time of trouble. This is its message; and what it is we are to do will become clear as we seek to interpret it. It is usually an advantage, and a source of illumination, to be able to identify the circumstances in which the Psalm was written. Some scholars think it is impossible to gather from the Psalm or in any other way what historical situation it reflects. But Maclaren suggests two possible ones, one or other of which supplies the historical basis of both this Psalm and the next:
i) 2 Chronicles 20:1-30, Jehoshaphat and the attack by Ammon and Moab;
ii) 2 Chronicles 32 (and Isaiah 37/38), the defeat of Sennacherib the Assyrian in the days of Hezekiah. In support of the latter Maclaren observes that the Psalm has remarkable parallels with the words of Isaiah the prophet (cf 4 with Isaiah 33:21, and 7, 11 with Isaiah 7:14, 'Immanuel - God with us', the word which Isaiah gave as a pledge of Jerusalem's deliverance). Whether this be the historical basis or not, it is the kind of situation into which the Psalm would fit, and it enables us to grasp more vividly what it is saying to us. The Psalm consists of three well-defined stanzas, 1-3, 4-7, 8-11. Many scholars think that the refrain found at the end of stanzas 2 and 3, 'The Lord of hosts is with us...' should appear at the end of stanza 1 also, and did originally do so; in which case the structure of the Psalm would be completely symmetrical.