| A Heavenly Treasure by Eric Blick, December 12, 2025
As I mentioned in our last Heavenly Treasure on Psalm 46 (click here to read again), it is one of our favorites, and one that has three parts to it. Last time we focused on parts 1-2 of this Psalm saying these two truths:
I. God is IN the tumult with his own.
II. God is IN His city providing power over attackers
in whatever form they may take.
After the de-creation of the world described by the mountains being moved into the heart of the sea in verse 2, and the greatness of the City of God in verse 4, the Psalmist wraps up this first stanza with this thought in verse 6: “The nations rage, the kingdoms totter; He utters his voice, the earth melts.”
In contrast to Verse 1-3 with the raging of creation breaking and us living in this broken world, this is the raging of people with a city under siege. This is war. In contrast to all that is moved and rages, God cannot be moved. In verse 1 the impregnable mountains are moved, and in verse 6 the nations display the inherent instability of evil. But God is the one who causes his people to not be moved because HE cannot be moved. The same voice that spoke the world into being in Genesis 1, will one day decisively speak in dissolving the world to restore it to complete order, beauty, and perfection through his Son.
And then in verse 7 we get this beautiful refrain, or almost like a repeatable chorus in the Psalm or song. It is used in the first and second stanzas: “The LORD of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress. Selah”
David refers to God as the Lord of Hosts right before he slays Goliath (1 Sam 17:45). Romans 8 says if God is for us, who can be against us, AND He IS for us. Jacob is referenced to show the height of God’s undeserving grace to a swindler like you and me. The word “fortress” here is not the same as “refuge” in verse 1. This fortress implies inaccessible height, our high stronghold. There is an aspect where we hide safely in God as the broken world crashes on us and around us. Yet there is also an aspect that we hide in God with him as our portion which is unreachable by our enemies. We hear it in Romans 8 with another one of the rhetorical questions asked there: Who can separate followers of Christ from the love of God? Answer: No one can!
III. God’s power over all the warring world: HE is exalted IN the earth.
Verse 8 starts the second of two stanzas in this Psalm: “Come, behold the works of the LORD,”
What are we supposed to behold? The word “behold” here means to come and to see with the eyes of your heart as a prophet is called a seer. We are to behold his power in judgement. He rules.
Then we read these verses: “How he has brought desolations on the earth. He makes wars cease to the end of the earth; He breaks the bow and shatters the spear; He burns the chariots with fire.”
Although the outcome is peace, these verses are a process of judgment. This shows evil and those not for God being forcibly disarmed. It shows “tranquility is on the far side of judgment.” This a pattern throughout all of Scripture (Dan 12, 2 Peter 3:12f).
Then the Psalmist ends with a shout of command: “Be still, and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth!”
This is a strong word or rebuke, not a command to the humble that means: “You be quiet.” This is like in Mark 4 when Christ rebukes the wind and the waves that are in utter chaos just like in verse 1 of this Psalm, and they stop and become calm in obedience to his voice. What purpose is in mind here of being still? It is not first mainly of man’s hopes but rather of God’s great and awesome glory.
Then we get our refrain or chorus-like structure again to repeat in v11: “The LORD of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress. Selah”
If all of Scripture is about Christ (See our past Heavenly Treasure here), what are some of the ways Christ fulfills this Psalm? Here are three meditations for us to consider:
1. From verse 5 of this Psalm referencing Israel’s exodus from Egypt, Christ delivers his own from their ultimate bondage to sin and slavery to miraculously lead them to the ultimate Promised Land. Today we have peace with God in Christ and have rest in him today, and one day we will be with him in the new heavens and earth!
2. From verse 8-9, Christ is the ultimate judge who will in finality silence the nations who rage against his people thus bringing them to ultimate peace on all sides.
3. From verse 1-3 and verse 10, ultimately when Christ died on the cross in the storm of complete darkness, he was undone and crushed by the waves of God’s wrath so that we never would be. We get to dwell with God in the city of God! We are safe in our high-tower!
Prayer:
Father, we praise you that you rule over all the chaos of our broken world and reign above the nations that war. You are the great judge who will set all things right, restoring what is broken, and causing the pain to be undone. We are stilled before you in wonder and fear and awe; you reign in glory! Help us, Father, to behold you, to seek you, to study you, to know more of and about you and what you are like. Thank you for being both a refuge in storm and our high-tower where your love cannot be taken from us. What a beautiful savior we have!
AMEN!
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Source 1: Kidner, Derek, The Psalms part 1. Crossway Books, Wheaton, Illinois, 2025, commentary notes based on this passage and quote from p192. |
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