By Randall L. Broad
Read:
Leviticus 27:14 - Numbers 1:54; Mark 11:1-26; Psalm 46:1-11; Proverbs 10:23
Today the reading from the One Year Bible contains one of the six foundational verses in my code of discipleship. In Psalm 46:10 God says … Be still, and know that I am God. Personally, this verse reminds me of a friend who climbed a dark Tennessee hill at a Men's Freedom Weekend and spent a night praying with me under a starry sky. He shared it and we prayed before God for victory over battles we were fighting in our lives. Since that night, I have found comfort in Psalm 46:10 whenever I have felt the stress and pressure of life. But there is a deeper meaning to Psalm forty-six than just an exercise in stillness:
1God is our refuge and strength,
An ever-present help in trouble.
2Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way
And the mountains fall into the heart of the sea,
3though its waters roar and foam
And the mountains quake with their surging.
4There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God,
The holy place where the Most High dwells.
5God is within her, she will not fall;
God will help her at break of day.
6Nations are in uproar, kingdoms fall;
He lifts his voice, the earth melts.
7The Lord Almighty is with us;
The God of Jacob is our fortress.
8Come and see what the Lord has done,
The desolations he has brought on the earth.
9He makes wars cease
To the ends of the earth.
He breaks the bow and shatters the spear;
He burns the shields with fire.
10He says, “Be still, and know that I am God;
I will be exalted among the nations,
I will be exalted in the earth.”
11The Lord Almighty is with us;
The God of Jacob is our fortress.
Psalm 46
This Psalm contains only eleven verses,
but they are powerful reminders of who God is and tell us to seek Him in the
midst of every kind of trial and difficulty–whether they are natural, circumstantial,
or brought on by our own sin. The Psalm says Be still before the Lord … but understand the call for stillness is more than an inner calmness
or a meditation exercise in other faiths or religious practices. The Psalmist
is calling us to the reverent surrender for judgment (Hab. 2:20; Zeph. 1:7;
Zech. 2:13) where God will be exalted and all the earth shall bow before Him.
Natural disasters, war, and self-destructive sin are the inevitable challenges
of people living in the last days, but so is the assurance of God’s final
victory.
There are some interesting things about
Psalm 46.
This psalm begins with the declaration God ‘is’ our refuge and strength (v. 1).
The key word in this sentence is the verb. Often in the midst of life’s
challenges we call to God for His
protection and strength, but instead we should be giving thanks for
He is our refuge and strength.
When this Psalm was written the Messiah
was still a distant hope who would one day deliver the Israelites from the
trials and persecutions that plagued them. Thus this Psalm makes specific
reference to the God of Jacob (vv. 7; 11), and in Old Testament times it would
have been seen as a Psalm of Israel. The New Covenant believer however would
see it more–as a Psalm of the Church, the Kingdom of God, or perhaps in a
general sense as a Psalm for all the people of God …
People also associate this as one of
three Psalms that taken collectively celebrate Jerusalem as God’s Holy City
(Psalms 46-48). Verse four references the river
whose streams make glad the city of God. Jerusalem is one of the few
significant cities in the world that was not built on a major waterway–thus
there is no actual river in Jerusalem. Then as now the city is primarily
watered by springs and wells. Thus most people assume the river refers to the Lord.[1]
Finally,
there are four key things to learn from Psalm 46: the earth will rage (vv.
1-3), God is our fortress (vv. 4-7), nations will rise and fall (vv. 8-9), but
in the end God will be exalted (vv.10-11) above all things.
Take time each day to … be still and know that He is God.
Walk with the Lord …
Ephesians 1:17-23
(RLB250303)
© Copyright 2018: Randall L. Broad
Disclaimer: This commentary is written by Randall L. Broad. It is in no way affiliated with or represents any denomination, university, church, or pastor. Any errors or omissions are purely my responsibility.
[1] The Geneva Bible of 1599 refers to the
river of Shiloah as the actual source of this life sustaining water in Psalm
46. However this ‘river’ was most likely not much more than a small aqueduct or
channel built in the time of Hezekiah (circa 715-687 B.C.) to carry water from
the Gihon Spring to the Pool of Siloam during times of siege.
