Scripture For The Week
Psalm 46
For the director of music. Of the Sons of Korah. According to alamoth. A song.
God is our refuge and strength,
an ever-present help in trouble.
Therefore we will not fear, though the
earth give way
and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea,
though its waters roar and foam
and the mountains quake with their
surging.
Selah
There is a river whose streams make glad
the city of God,
the holy place where the Most High
dwells.
God is within her, she will not fall;
God will help her at break of day.
Nations are in uproar, kingdoms fall;
he lifts his voice, the earth melts.
The Lord Almighty is with us;
the God of Jacob is our fortress.
Selah
Come and see the works of the Lord,
the desolations he has brought on the
earth.
He makes wars cease to the ends of the
earth;
he breaks the bow and shatters the
spear,
he burns the shields with fire.
“Be still and know that I am God;
I will be exalted among the nations,
I will be exalted in the earth.”
The Lord Almighty is with us;
the God of Jacob our fortress.
Selah
Devotional
I think Psalm 46 may be one of the most quoted, picked apart and utilized passages in the Bible. And friends, I don’t mean that in a good way. I was absolutely shocked to read a beautiful Psalm full of verses that I had heard and seen everywhere, all the while never realizing how deeply our use of them was misinterpreting scripture.
I want to draw your attention to several verses or fragments of verses within Psalm 46.
Psalm 46:1
God is our refuge and strength
Psalm 46:2
We will not fear
Psalm 46:5
God is within her, she will not fail
Psalm 46:10
Be still
Psalm 46:10
Be still and know that I am God
Psalm 46:7,11
The Lord Almighty is with us
(often abbreviated to “God is with us”)
In an eleven verse Psalm, six are extracted and used for our purposes. Instead of seeing the power and beauty of the Psalm as a whole, we have extracted sixty percent of it to work for us rather than allowing it to work in us.
Instead of viewing the Psalm as a whole and considering the context, we’ve pulled out the “feel good” messages to fill our letter boards, print on t-shirts and design our coffee mugs.
Instead of looking at the Gospel for what it is and who it represents, we do the one thing we shouldn’t: we make it about us.
Consider the verses that are pulled out to work for us. None of these verses, on their own, are necessarily a bad thing. They speak of God’s provision and love for us. It makes so much sense that we would be attracted to them.
The problem is, that instead of seeing God’s provision and love in these verses for the incredible truth they are, we see what we want to see. Without the context of what these verses actually mean, we lose the weight of how incredible God’s love and provision is. By trying to find a feel-good verse of reassurance, we’ve actually taken away our ability to see how much goodness is actually there. In making it about us, we lose the depths of God’s provision, love and goodness.
I don’t want you to feel bad for any bible verse products you might have in your home. I wear a ring with Philipians 4:13, another verse used wildly out of context, that I haven’t taken off since I put it on in High School. I have a mug with the same verse on it that was an incredible gift when I was Devotional Chair in my college Sorority. I have a bracelet with Psalm 46:5, God is within her, she will not fail, on it from a dear friend that I treasure. I even started an Etsy shop not too long ago with embroidered hoops that have different bible verses on them.
I don’t think it’s inherently bad for us to fill our lives and homes with Bible verses. They give us hope and peace. They give us a sense of comfort while we are fighting through life.
What I hope you will see though, as we walk through what Psalm 46 actually means today, is how much greater these favorite verses could be if we actually knew the power behind them. How much more encouragement, comfort, peace and joy could we experience if we viewed these favorite verses in our homes with their true meaning?
Take a moment, clear the preconceptions you may have, and let’s start from the beginning.
Psalm 46:1-3
God is our refuge and strength,
an ever-present help in trouble.
Therefore we will not fear, though the
earth give way
and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea,
though its waters roar and foam
and the mountains quake with their
surging.
Psalm 46 is broken into four parts: Earth, Heaven, God’s works and God’s words. In each of these parts within the Psalm, we learn a different aspect about God’s character, who he is, and what he does.
Verses one through three describe God’s presence within the city of Earth. Before learning anything about our earthly city though, we learn what God’s relationship with this city is like.
Psalm 46:1
God is our refuge and strength,
an ever-present help in trouble.
When considering our residence on Earth, we see that no matter what is happening, God is ever-present. He isn’t far away from the citizens of our earthly home, he isn’t watching from afar and only visiting periodically. God is near to us and he is present. He is present in our trouble, he stands as our strength, and he opens his arms as refuge to his people.
Psalm 46:2
Therefore we will not fear…
It is because God is present in our lives, and constantly drawing near, that we will not fear. We aren’t afraid of the trials and adversaries that surround our lives, because we have a strong God, who has promised to be ever present. He has promised to always be there regardless of what happens.
Psalm 46:2-3
Therefore we will not fear, though the
earth give way
and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea,
though its waters roar and foam
and the mountains quake with their
surging.
Because we can live in God’s refuge, surrounded by the peace of his presence and ultimate protection, we don’t have to be afraid of anything that comes our way.
When we consider the city of Earth in Psalm 46 we learn two things. First, we are reminded that God is always near to us and actively caring for his people. Second, the city of Earth will fall away. The description we get of earth in this Psalm is of our planet falling into destruction.The very being of earth is collapsing in on itself; mountains are collapsing into the angry roars of the sea.
Many pastors have opinions of what Psalm 46:3 is referring to. Some consider it to be an exaggeration of speech to make a point, some consider it to be a retelling of natural events and others consider the power of what human’s warfare is able to do. When I read verse three though, I had a different consideration.
I remembered that Psalm 46 was written by the Sons of Korah and I remembered that they watched the power of God in action, as mere children, before they became worship writers.
Numbers 16:19-23
When Korah had gathered all of his followers in opposition to them at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting, the glory of the Lord appeared to the entire assembly. The Lord said to Moses and Aaron, “Separate yourselves from this assembly so I can put an end to them at once.”
But Moses and Aaron fell face down and cried out, “O God, God of the spirits of all mankind, will you be angry with the entire assembly when only one man sins?”
Then the Lord said to Moses, “Say to the assembly, ‘Move away from the tents of Korah, Dathan and Abiram.’”
Numbers 16:28-33
Then Moses said, “This is how you will know that the Lord has sent me to do all these things and that it was not my idea: If these men die a natural death and experience only what usually happens to men, then the Lord has not sent me. But if the Lord brings about something totally new, and the earth opens its mouth and swallows them, with everything that belongs to them, and they go down alive into the grave, then you will know that these men have treated the Lord with contempt.”
As soon as he finished saying all this, the ground under them split apart and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them, with their households and all Korah’s men and all their possessions. They went down alive into the grave, with everything they owned; the earth closed over them, and they perished and were gone from the community.
Numbers 26:10-11
The earth opened its mouth and swallowed them along with Korah, whose followers died when the fire devoured the 250 men. And they served as a warning sign. The line of Korah, however, did not die out.
Those last two verses in Numbers came from a second census that occurred after Korah’s demise. The Sons of Korah can easily write of a disposable earth, because they witnessed first hand, how easily God cracked the earth open and gave their father and his followers a live burial. As children, they watched the power of God easily tear apart the world that he had created.
Could Psalm 46:3 easily be talking about the world’s ability to dispose of herself? Of course. We are no strangers to natural disasters. Even if we haven’t been caught in one first hand, we’ve been raised in a world that works through endless tornadoes, hurricanes, earthquakes and tsunamis. We’ve seen the power the earth has to desolate her own surfaces.
Could Psalm 46:3 be talking about the effect of warfare? Of course. We’ve seen how our nations have fallen into war time and time again and we’ve seen the devastating effects the weapon warfare can have on our planet and our people.
What I don’t want to be lost though, is that even though Psalm 46:3 could cover a variety of natural and unnatural causes for the world to fall in on itself, the Sons who wrote this Psalm, had already experienced that first hand. And despite the horror that likely filled the moment, they still saw God’s refuge within. They saw a God who decided to take mercy not only on his people, but specifically on them.
You see, the Sons of Korah lived during a time where people believed that a parent’s sins would be born upon their children. If a human had decided to destroy those standing against God, they would have determined the Sons of Korah just as guilty as their father. By human understanding at the time, the Sons of Korah should have fallen into the earth with their father; but they didn’t. God extended his mercy to them. He cleared their name and gave them the chance to pursue him. He was their strength, their refuge, he was present in a moment where others may have sought their demise.
These first three verses already cover two of our six out of context verses.
Do you see how knowing the story behind what is happening doesn’t actually take away from the verses but rather, enriches their meaning?
We have learned that we don’t fear because our God is always near. God is our strength and refuge because he protects his children even if the physical earth around us falls apart.
Psalm 46:4-7
There is a river whose streams make glad
the city of God,
the holy place where the Most High
dwells.
God is within her, she will not fall;
God will help her at break of day.
Nations are in uproar, kingdoms fall;
he lifts his voice, the earth melts.
The Lord Almighty is with us;
the God of Jacob is our fortress.
In the next section of Psalm 46, we get to experience the city of Heaven. It’s so important to understand the disposability of the city of earth, before considering the city of heaven, because that is where we find our stark contrast.
Psalm 46:4
There is a river whose streams make glad
the city of God,
the holy place where the Most High
dwells.
What is the city of Heaven? It’s the city of God. It’s a holy place. It’s where our God and our Savior dwell. It’s the home that has been prepared to welcome us into someday.
Not only is this city magnificent because it’s the home of God, but we see it’s magnificence through the presence of a river. Historically, cities were built along rivers. The presence of a river within a city showed her strength and provision. A river provided a source of nourishment for people. It provided water to people and animals alike, it was a source of food, a source of transportation and the ability to trade goods.
A city by a river was a fertile city. The river nourished the area and the people would flourish as a result. Not only did a river provide life in desolate areas, but it provided a sense of protection. The mere presence of a river made a city harder to be invaded. The river stood between the people and their adversaries; a natural barrier and war defense.
The city of God is protected and nourished by the ultimate river. It makes this heavenly city glad because it’s a physical symbol of God’s ultimate protection and provision. It’s a physical symbol of God’s promise to be the ultimate source of life for his children.
Psalm 46:5-6
God is within her, she will not fall;
God will help her at break of day.
Nations are in uproar, kingdoms fall;
he lifts his voice, the earth melts.
Here is where we see the stark contrast between the city of earth and the city of heaven. God is present within both of these cities. We learned that God is always present on earth in Psalm 46:1 and in Psalm 46:4 we learned that God dwells in the heavenly city. Neither of these cities are negatively impacted by a lack of God’s presence because he is present in both. The difference though, is that regardless of God’s presence on earth, it can and will still fall away. The city of heaven, regardless of turmoil, regardless of earth falling away, will still stand strong.
The city of Heaven is our promised refuge with God. A refuge is a safe place, a place that stands to protect and give comfort regardless of the turmoil outside. Within the walls of God’s city, the people are protected, they are safe and they are provided for. The city of heaven will not fall apart.
You see, that verse women so commonly take out of context in Psalm 46, isn’t about God standing strong within his daughters. Without a doubt he does, but that’s not what Psalm 46:5, God is within her she will not fail, stands for.
What Psalm 46:5 truly means is that there is a beautiful refuge awaiting us all. It means that God is dwelling within our promised home and because of his goodness and promises, the sanctuary he has prepared will not fall. He has prepared a sanctuary that will protect and give life to his people.
Our lives may fall away, our earthly home may collapse, but our place in the city of Heaven is protected.
What incredible hope and peace that whatever happens, we are already provided for and protected.
Psalm 46:8-9
Come and see the works of the Lord,
the desolations he has brought on the
earth.
He makes wars cease to the ends of the
earth;
he breaks the bow and shatters the
spear,
he burns the shields with fire.
The third section of Psalm 46 shows a fracture of the character of God and the works he is capable of. Our earthly city is offered as a sacrifice to show the power of God and his ultimate ability to protect or destroy.
These two verses show us a God who has the incredible power to make all of our wars stop. When the Lord comes to the earth, he has the ability to stop everything - and I don’t just mean the work of those against him. He is stopping the war, the turmoil, the batter against each other. He puts an instant end to the wars we have built up against each other and makes the world desolate.
Desolation means destruction or emptiness but I don’t think this part of the Psalm is meant to be a bad or scary thing. If we look at the context of the desolation God will bring to the earth, it’s war and hatred. This Psalm isn’t telling us that God is going to completely wipe the earth clear, it tells us that the earth will become clear of what God hates: war, hatred, evil...
God’s presence falls upon the earth and makes desolate all the things that stand against him. This is a screaming portrayal of a God who desires goodness, peace and love.
These verses share of a God who is stopping wars, violence and hatred so that the chance for peace, forgiveness and love can fall upon the people. This desolation of the earth, this desolation to put a stop to our turmoils against each other is a good thing.
Psalm 46:10
“Be still and know that I am God;
I will be exalted among the nations,
I will be exalted in the earth.”
It is after we have experienced the city of earth, in contrast to the city of heaven, and the dust has cleared of instant desolation to things used to harm each other, that God speaks. We experience an entire Psalm in the third person and suddenly, God comes forth, his ever-presence suddenly crystal clear, and there is no mistaking his works.
God calls his people to be still. It’s a command not a suggestion. It’s a cry for all of mankind, both those who love and those who oppose him to stop what they are doing, to quiet their words and actions and to pay attention to Him. God makes his full presence known to all of mankind.
Exalted can mean several different things. The first thing we likely think of is it’s reference to status. Exalted can be a status of high ranking over others. It’s easy to read this, to see God’s developed character through this Psalm and know that he is reigning over his people, his earth and his holy city. But did you know that exalted can also mean joy?
Consider that.
God is present everywhere we are. Both in our earthly home and our future sanctuary.
He is present in protection.
He is present in trouble.
He is present in making his good and right desires desolate the world from anything that doesn’t align.
But friends, he isn’t just sovereign over us. He will have joy among his nations. He will have joy in the earth. He will have joy in us.
You see, by knowing the context of these verses, that are usually taken wildly out of context, we get to experience a God even greater than we could imagine. By taking verses out of context we only deprive ourselves of how much they actually mean.
Instead of half-witted promises, we get an image of a God who actually is our refuge and strength. We get to experience a God who can put a stop to everything, and a God who has willingly chosen to walk by our sides in every aspect of life.
We get to experience a powerful God who calls us to stop what we are doing and just be aware of him. To be aware that he calls us to peace. To be aware that he is so much greater than our fears. To be aware that he has already provided for us. God calls us to stop our foolish actions, to see his character and be aware that despite it all, he still has joy in us.
What an incredible blessing that is.
Thoughts For the Week
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What Bible verse do you use to comfort yourself or others that you’ve never considered the context behind?
Open your Bible and read the context behind your favorite verse. Don’t take it for what the world has claimed it to be. Clear your understanding and look at it with fresh eyes.
Ask yourself:
What does this verse actually mean?
How does knowing the context add depth to it’s comfort?
What can I learn from experiencing this verse in its fullest?
What does it teach me about God?
The next time you go to use your favorite verse, allow yourself to remember the actual context and meaning behind it. Remember that there is power in knowing the context of the Gospel.
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Prayer
Oh Heavenly Father,
You are our strength and our refuge. You are constantly present in our lives and you never abandon us to trouble.
It is because of your promise that we remain in you and because of our faith that you walk near, that we will not fear when the earth falls away. Lord, nothing that could happen on this earthly home is greater than you.
We know that even when our hearts start to flicker with the anxiety of fear, that we just have to remember who you are, and know that you are our refuge.
You have loved and prepared for us so well Lord. You gave your heavenly city the gift of a river to remind us that you are our ultimate protection and provision. While our trust alone should be enough, you go above and beyond to make sure that you are serious in your commitment to us and our mutual commitment to you.
You bring desolation to the earth in the most beautiful way. You call our grievencing ways to a stop and invite us into your way.
You call us to be still and to know who you are.
You are exalted above your nations.
You are exalted above the earth.
We exalt you Lord because of who you are and who you are to us.
Thank you for the continuous mercy you show your children. Thank you for the gift of this Psalm to remind us that we have a home with a God who desires our joy and finds joy in us.
Lord Almighty you are with us. You are our fortress. Praise be your name.
In the name of our Heavenly Host we pray,
Amen.
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