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Psalm 46:1-3
Refuge When Everything Shifts
Psalm 46:1-3
God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore we won’t be afraid, though the earth changes, though the mountains are shaken into the heart of the seas; though its waters roar and are troubled, though the mountains tremble with their swelling. Selah.
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Why it is worth knowing
- God is called a refuge and strength, and “a very present help in trouble”
- “We won’t be afraid” is said while the earth itself changes
- The images are the biggest the writer knew: mountains, seas and roaring water
- Selah marks a pause before the psalm turns to the river and the city
Where it sits: Psalm 46:1-7
God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore we won’t be afraid, though the earth changes, though the mountains are shaken into the heart of the seas; though its waters roar and are troubled, though the mountains tremble with their swelling. Selah. There is a river, the streams of which make the city of God glad, the holy place of the tents of the Most High. God is within her. She shall not be moved. God will help her at dawn. The nations raged. The kingdoms were moved. He lifted his voice and the earth melted. Yahweh of Armies is with us. The God of Jacob is our refuge. Selah.
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Background
Psalm 46 is a song of the sons of Korah, the Levite family of temple singers, and it celebrates Jerusalem as the city of God. It pictures the largest upheaval the writer could imagine: the ground itself changing, mountains falling into the sea, the waters roaring. Then it turns to a river that makes the city glad, and twice it says, “Yahweh of Armies is with us.”