GOD is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.
Therefore will not we fear, though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea;
Though the waters thereof roar and be troubled, though the mountains shake with the swellings 'thereof. Selah.
There is a river, the streams whereof shall make glad the city of GOD, the holy place of the tabernacles of the Most High.
GOD is in the midst of her; she shall not be moved: GOD shall help her, and that right early.
The heathen raged, the kingdoms were moved: He uttered His voice, the earth melted.
JEHOVAH of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge. Selah.
Come, behold the works of JEHOVAH, what desolations He hath made in the earth.
He maketh wars to cease unto the end of the earth; He breaketh the bow, and cutteth the spear in sunder; He burneth the chariot in the fire.
Be still, and know that I am GOD! I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth.
JEHOVAH of hosts is with us; the Gm) of Jacob is our refuge. Selah.
Psa. 46, gives us one most simple truth, but a most solemn and weighty one—one much needed by Christians in the heaving’s of this world, and in the tendency to seek relief by human effort. " Be still, and know that 'I am GOD!" That is the exhortation. The encouragement is this: GOD is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble." But if GOD takes this character, the waters may rage and be troubled, and the mountains. shake with their swelling; we can be still. For no matter what power or swelling there is, if GOD be there, our refuge. Only we must wait, and wait till He comes in: and here it is faith is tried. Hence, " and know that I am GOD." This may be by the exercise of patience, or the resisting the tendency to human effort. But the truth contained in the Psalm is a most blessed and precious encouragement, which no one trouble can touch; for trouble is at the utmost from the creature, and Goy is GOD. But it implies that nothing else is a. refuge, and this is perfect reliance, arid implies that all else may be against us.
The great point is, that it is GOD as such who is our refuge and strength. He does not say, "JEHOVAH": further on in the Psalm, where relationship is in question, He does. Here the point is, that it is GOD in His nature contrasted with man-indeed with every power; for, " If GOD be for us, who can be against us 9" Faith gets hold of this. He is a refuge, where we may resort for safety; and He is strength, so that no adverse power can reach or succeed against us. It supposes that trouble, yea, insolent swellings of power, are there; but He is a very present help. This secures fully; but the help is not always a present apparent one, But GOD Himself is looked to; and the fact that we are left wholly to Him, and that no other resource is there, makes all the power of evil immaterial to us; for it is nothing against GOD. " What confidence is this?" said the king of Assyria to Hezekiah (Isa. 36:44And Rabshakeh said unto them, Say ye now to Hezekiah, Thus saith the great king, the king of Assyria, What confidence is this wherein thou trustest? (Isaiah 36:4)). Other help we might calculate and compare the value of.. This only requires faith "Ye believe in GOD."
Against this help all effort is unavailing; only we must wait for it. Human efforts shut this help out. It is another kind of resource which is not faith. GOD may command activity, and faith acts confidently. But this is never man's way; and when the matter is in God's hands, when there is not a duty, then our part is to be still, and we shall soon know that He is GOD. Human effort only spoils all. No human planning is ever right. In His own time and way, GOD will come in. There are duties. When there are, do them: but when the power of evil against us is there, and there is not a duty, the path is to be still. Human efforts prove want of faith and restlessness, and planning is mere flesh. Of course integrity is needed to trust GOD, because it is God's holy nature which is trusted. This absolute trust is called for when the power of evil is rampant, and endurance till deliverance is the path of the saint. There is another thought here. GOD (the Most High over all the earth) has a dwelling-place, where the rivers of His grace refresh; then the city of GOD, Zion and the temple; now the church. There the streams of refreshment run, and He will preserve her (not now as Zion, the city of GOD’S solemnities, but in a better way), and there He enters into the proper character of His own relationship. And there He gives peace, having destroyed all the power of the enemy. Then will he who has waited know who is GOD-we in yet brighter and holier scenes.