1For the lead player, for the Korahites, on the alamoth a song.
2God is a shelter and strength for us,
a help in straits, readily found.
3Therefore we fear not when the earth breaks apart,
when mountains collapse in the heart of the seas.
4Its waters roar and roil,
mountains heave in its surge.
5A stream, its rivulets gladden God’s town,
6God in its midst, it will not collapse.
God helps it as morning breaks.
7Nations roar and kingdoms collapse.
He sends forth His voice and earth melts.
8The LORD of Armies is with us,
a fortress for us, Jacob’s God.
selah
9Go, behold the acts of the LORD,
Who made desolations on earth,
10caused wars to cease to the end of the earth.
The bow He has broken and splintered the spear,
11“Let go, and know that I am God.
I loom among nations, I loom upon earth.”
12The LORD of Armies is with us,
a fortress for us, Jacob’s God.
selah
PSALM 46 NOTES
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1. on the alamoth. The preposition seems to indicate that this is a musical instrument, but nothing more is known about it.
2. God is a shelter and strength for us. The first-person plural, with the substance of this line picked up in the refrain of verse 8 and verse 12, marks this as a national psalm, evidently a collective thanksgiving after victory over an enemy (see verses 5–8).
3. we fear not when the earth breaks apart. An excessive literalism has led some commentators to attach this psalm because of these lines to one of the earthquakes that hit Jerusalem during the First Temple era, mentioned elsewhere in the Bible. The hyperbolic description of mountains collapsing into the sea is hardly a realistic depiction of an earthquake. It is more likely that the images are metaphorical: even when the whole world around us falls apart, we trust in God’s help and do not fear. In fact, the seismic cataclysm may be a figurative representation of an assault by enemies because some of the same terms are used (verses 6 and 7) in the representation of a military upheaval.
4. Its waters roar and roil. The translation seeks to approximate the strong alliterative effect of the Hebrew, yehemu yeḥmeru meymaw.
selah. The musical notation at the end of this verse also appears to mark the end of a unit in the poem, because “A stream” at the beginning of the next verse carries us, in a sharp antithesis, from the heaving sea to the quiet waters of Zion.
5. A stream, its rivulets gladden God’s town. There is no actual river in Jerusalem, but there is a partly underground stream, the Shiloah, that provides a water source from the Gihon spring east of the city.
Elyon. Conventionally, the Most High, a Canaanite deity co-opted for monotheistic usage.
6. it will not collapse. This line picks up the vocabulary of seismic upheaval from verse 3 but turns around the meaning.
as morning breaks. After the long night of siege, ridden with terrors, God intervenes in a figurative daybreak to rescue His people.
7. Nations roar and kingdoms collapse. Both verbs here are drawn from the depiction of seismic cataclysm in verses 3 and 4, now applied to the realm of warfare.
He sends forth His voice. Conventionally, as in Psalm 18, God’s voice would be thunder. In Canaanite mythology, as in other traditions, lightning bolts are the weapons of the sky god.
8. The LORD of Armies. This common epithet has a special, and reassuring, application to the situation in this psalm of an embattled Zion. Untypically for this section of Psalms, God is referred to as YHWH, perhaps because of the fixed formula of the epithet. YHWH recurs in the next verse, possibly under the influence of this one.
9. Go, behold the acts of the LORD. These words, after the selah notation at the end of the preceding line, begin the concluding unit of the poem, in which the God Who rules over nature and men is imagined eschatologically as overmastering all the world and bringing an end to war.
made desolations on earth. This line and the one immediately following telescope history and the glorious end-time to come. God is responsible for the vast sweeps of destruction that visit the inhabited earth, whether through natural events or military ones. But He also exercises the power to end the era of violence and bring peace to humankind.
10. caused wars to cease to the end of the earth. Throughout the poem, ʾerets has been used in its broader sense of “earth,” not “land.” Here, the large global perspective implied in that usage is made explicit.
chariots. Though the Hebrew noun usually means “wagons,” the parallelism with “bow” and “spear” suggests a more martial vehicle.
11. Let go. This verb—etymologically, it means to relax one’s grip on something—is somewhat surprising here. It might be an injunction to cease and desist from armed struggle, to unclench the warrior’s fist. At this juncture, which is in effect the end of the poem, the eschatologically triumphant God speaks directly, declaring His supremacy over all the world. The poem concludes by repeating the refrain, “The LORD of Armies is with us, / a fortress for us, Jacob’s God.”