Paraphrase Upon the Books of the Psalms, Book 2 · Psalm 46
The Forty Sixth Psalm.
TO the chief Musitian for the sons of Corah, a song upon a.Alamoth.
Paraphrase. The forty sixth Psalm is a profession of all trust and confidence in God, and seems to have been written in the time of that tranquillity which is mentioned 2 Sam. 8.15. 1 Chron. 18.14. And was committed to the Praefect of the Musick, to be sung by the posterity of Corah, to the tune known by the title of Alamoth.
1. God is our refuge and strength, a very‖ready foreign present help in trouble.
All our hope and trust is in God, from whom all our aid and auxiliaries must be expected, and fetcht down by our daily and constant prayers; wherein if we continue faithfull and diligent, he will never fail to answer, and be found by us, being alwayes ready at hand, in time of distresse, to succour those that thus seek him.
2. Therefore will we not fear, though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the†heart foreign midst of the sea:
This gives us courage in all that can befall us, be our state never so much worse than already 'tis; in time of the most formidable concussion of our armies, (proportionable to the terriblest earthquake) in time of the most visible unavoidable danger, (such as it would be, if the ground we stand on were removed from its stable foundation, and cast into the midst of the sea, and then ready to sinke the next minute, and to be ingulphed in that abysse.)
3. Though the waters thereof roar and be troubled, though the mountains shake with the swelling thereof. Selah.
When our enemies both threaten, and act most proudly and arrogantly, and accordingly are ready to strike a terror into the valiantest heart among us;
4. *The streams of the river, or, The river by his streams. foreignThere is a river, the stream whereof shall make glad the city of God, the holy place of the Tabernacles of the most high.
Yet shall the people of God injoy tranquillity and delight in him, fetch continual matter of pleasure and refreshment from him: the contemptible trenches of the brook Geon, which water Jerusalem (the waters of Siloah that goe softly, Is 8.6.) shall not envie the proudest swelling streams, as having the supreme creator and governour of the world in a peculiar manner resident among them.
5. God is in the midst of her, she shall not be moved: God shall help her,‖at the appearing of the morning. andb. that right early.
This special favourable providential presence of God is a ground of the greatest security: when ever calamity or danger approaches, he comes instantly and seasonably to their relief, as to the Israelites he did Exod. 14.23.
6. The heathen raged, the Kingdomes were moved: he uttered his voice, the earth melted.
When the Philistims and other heathen nations about us began to threaten, and prepare warre against us, God interposed his hand, declared his good pleasure and favour toward us (as discernibly as if it had been by voice from heaven, or by a thunderbolt shot out from the clouds;) and presently they were all discomfited, and dispersed, (as when a flash of lightening or thunderbolt melts or dissolves any thing.)
7. The Lord of hosts is with us, the God of Jacob is our‖fortress, or, high place foreign refuge. Selah.
Thus is Gods presence among us our security, he being the Lord to whom all armies are subject, the strong tower or fortresse, to whom we may safely retire in whatsoever difficulty or danger.
8. Come, behold the works of the Lord, what desolations he hath made in the earth.
'Tis worthy of consideration to all, what remarkable judgments God hath shewn upon the heathen nations about us, that have set themselves hostilely against us, what strange destructions and desolations he hath wrought among them.
9. He maketh warres to cease unto the end of the earth; he breaketh the bow, and cutteth the spear in sunder; he burneth thec. †shields.chariot in the fire.
'Tis he that loveth charity and peace among men, and therefore discomfiteth those that are hostilely disposed, and 'tis not all their military provisions will secure them: when he pleaseth to interpose himself, he presently brings all to nought, as if a consuming fire were come amongst them.
10. Be still, and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth.
This therefore may teach the wicked and heathen people, what is most prudent for them, even to give over their hostilities, to lay down their armes taken up against the people of God. For 'tis certain, they shall not finally prosper; God will subdue all their prowesse, and magnifie himselfe upon them, and demonstrate that there is nothing gained by resisting of him:
11. The Lord of hosts is with us, the God of Jacob is our*high place, or fortress. refuge. Selah.
Nor consequently by opposing of those with whom God is present, to support and relieve them in all their dangers.
Annotations on Psalm XLVI.
Tit. Alamoth] This Alamoth we finde mentioned 1 Chron. xv. 20. where in bringing up the Arke from Obed-Edom, the singers Heman, Asaph and Ethan, i. e. these sonnes of Corah here mentioned, were appointed to sound with Cymbals of brass, and Zechariah &c. with Psalteries on Alamoth, and Mattathias &c. with harps on the Sheminith, or the eighth to excell, or oversee (see note on Psal. iv. a.) what it is, Chimchi informs us upon Psal. iii. the name of a tune, or melody, or musical key, to which this Psalm was set, and to be sung by the sons of Corah. And considering that Psal. ix. intitled foreign foreign, it is not improbable that this should refer to that, and being set to the same key or tune, be said to be a song foreign upon this tune, so called, and vulgarly then known by that title. The Lxxii. referring to the notion of the theme foreign occultavit, render it foreign, for the hidden; and the Latine, pro arcanis: and the rest of the antient Interpreters take the same course; the Chaldee referring it to Coreh, and those that were hidden, i. e. swallowed up, by the earth with him, whilst these sons of Coreh escaped; as if the mention of the sons of Coreh in the title, by whom this song was to be sung, referred the whole Psalm to that story. Accordingly verse 2. when the Hebrew reads, Though the earth be removed, they paraphrase it [When our Fathers were changed from the earth.]
V. 5. Right early] What foreign foreignis referred to, and how 'tis to be rendered, is not agreed on by interpreters. 'Tis ordinarily joyned in construction with foreign, and is then to be rendred with it, in, or at the mornings appearing. And this will certainly be the sense of it, if we compare it with other places, where the same phrase is used; as Ex. xiv. 27. the sea returned to his strength, foreign at the appearing of the morning, we render, when the morning appeared, the Lxxii. foreign toward day. So Jud. xix. 26. we read in the dawning of the day, the Lxxii. foreign, early in the morning. Thus also foreign Gen. xxiv. 63. at the appearing of the evening, or at eventide, and Deut. xxiii. 12. When evening cometh on, or looketh toward. And being here spoken of Gods aids afforded to his people, it may either allude to that deliverance, Exod. xiv. 27. where at the appearing of the morning the sea returned for the drowning of the Aegyptians; or else be a proverbial speech, for an opportune and seasonable deliverance, because that then afforded to the Israelites was such, as [in the mount it shall be seen] is proverbially used in this sense. Aben Ezra seems to like the rendering it foreign every day, i. e. as oft as the morne appears; and so the Jewish Arab interpreter, according to the returne or course of the day daily. But the Syriack, according to the notion of it in those other places, Exod. xiv. &c. expresse it clearly to be foreign in the time or season of the morning; and so the Chaldee, by their paraphrase, [the Lord will aid her with the justice of Abraham who prayed foreign in the morning season] appear to have understood it; and so Kimchi, at the approach of the morning of deliverance, after the night of affliction. Which well accordeth with the style of S. Paul Rom. xiii. 12. foreign, the night is gone over or past, and the day approacheth, meaning the night of persecution, and the day of relief or rescue, foreign their deliverance, v. 11. The copies of the Lxxii. vary in this place; some read foreign, which the Latine seem to have read, and render, mane diluculo, in the morning at the dawning of light, and perhaps our English from thence have their [right early,] but the Romane, foreign with his countenance. But indeed neither of these seem to be their original reading, but a third composed between both these foreign, by his countenance in the morning, as rendring foreign by foreign, and foreign adverbially, in the morning; by this means probably applying it to God, that he would help her by his countenance, or by looking upon her: but that would better answer foreign then foreign, which here we have, and therefore the rendering will still be most proper [at the mornings appearing, or] when the morning appeareth.
V. 9. Chariot] From foreign is foreign round or circular; and from thence foreign foreigna wheel, and by Synecdoche a Chariot, Num. vii. and Gen. xLvi. But it signifies also a shield or buckler, as being round also; and so 'tis rendred by the Chaldee here, foreign round shields, and by the LXXII. foreign shields. And so it is most probable, being joyned here with bow and spear, weapons of warre, the military Chariots, which alone can be thought to be respected here, being constantly exprest by another word, foreign, not foreign.