Last week we were considering psalm titles: it is perhaps necessary in view of what has been inserted for the 46th, to caution some of our readers against the explanatory notes in the King James version at the head of each of the psalms in many instances (as in this one) they are altogether misleading. The thought seems to have been in the minds of the men who added these notes, that in the Psalms where comfort, blessing, deliverance, happiness, glory, are spoken of, the Church of God is in general the subject.
If we have been following these Bible Lessons, it will have been seen that the psalms are not concerned with God's present dealing with the world; or His calling out a people to share heavenly glory with His Son. In various cases they give the experiences of David, of Moses, and of others unnamed, but the Psalms have evidently been written under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, and collected and set in an evident order under His guidance, for the spiritual help and encouragement of the Israel which is to be God's earthly people when the Church has been transferred to heaven. At the same time, as part of the "all scripture" of 2 Timothy 3:15-17,15And that from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. 16All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: 17That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works. (2 Timothy 3:15‑17) they are "profitable" to the Christian reader, and in circumstances of trial, they have rightly comforted many Christians.
"On Alamoth," in the title of this psalm, is thought to mean that it was to be sung by young women. This word appears also in 1 Chronicles 15:2020And Zechariah, and Aziel, and Shemiramoth, and Jehiel, and Unni, and Eliab, and Maaseiah, and Benaiah, with psalteries on Alamoth; (1 Chronicles 15:20).
Psalm 46 tells the immediate effect upon the remnant of the coming of Israel's Messiah—an event of supreme importance which is shown in Psalm 45 to have taken place. All fear is gone, though there may (and apparently there will) be after this, an attack upon the Holy Land by a northern enemy who will be destroyed.
"The City of God" (verse 4) is none other than Jerusalem, and the river whose streams are mentioned as gladdening it, is a vivid picture of blessings, wide, deep and ever flowing, as in the heavenly Jerusalem (Revelation 22:11And he showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb. (Revelation 22:1))..
In verse 7 and again in verse 11, He is the LORD (Jehovah), name of relationship with man, and particularly with Israel, and He is the God of Jacob, a name that speaks of His faithfulness.
Jacob through most of his life was a grasping, self-seeking man, and full of the energy of the natural man, but God never gave him up, and He brought him into blessing after letting him reap what he had sown.'