Psalm 46 explained

"Be still, and know that I am God" (46:10) is God speaking, to more than one person, with the nations in view. And the refuge of 46:1 and the refuge of the refrain (46:7, 46:11) are two different Hebrew words, machseh and misgav.

The title is "For the Chief Musician. By the sons of Korah. According to Alamoth." (46:1), and it says no more than that; these notes don't explain Alamoth. Then the psalm opens, "God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble" (46:1) (tap refuge). Twice more it says refuge, in a line that comes back word for word: "The LORD of Armies is with us. The God of Jacob is our refuge" (46:7), and again at the very end (46:11). Here is what almost everyone misses: the refuge of 46:1 and the refuge of 46:7 and 46:11 are two different Hebrew words. The first is machseh, which Brown-Driver-Briggs gives as "refuge, shelter". The second is misgav, "secure height, retreat" (tap refuge in 46:7). The WEB has one English word for both. Each of the psalm's three parts ends with Selah (46:3, 46:7, 46:11), and the last two end with that same line.

"God is our refuge and strength" (46:1), and "The God of Jacob is our refuge" (46:7, 46:11). The WEB has refuge in all three verses. In Hebrew the first is machseh, "refuge, shelter" (Brown-Driver-Briggs), and the refrain's is misgav, "secure height, retreat".

Psalm 46:1 · Psalm 46:7 · Psalm 46:11

Psalms 46:2→leads toLuke 21:9

When some were talking about the temple and its beautiful stones (Luke 21:5), Jesus said the days would come when not one stone would be left on another (Luke 21:6), and they asked him, "Teacher, so when will these things be?" (Luke 21:7). Among his words in answer: "When you hear of wars and disturbances, don’t be terrified, for these things must happen first, but the end won’t come immediately" (Luke 21:9). Psalm 46 says, "Therefore we won’t be afraid, though the earth changes" (Psalm 46:2), and "The nations raged. The kingdoms were moved" (Psalm 46:6). Jesus doesn't name Psalm 46, so setting the two together is a reading. It rests on a shared subject, not being afraid while the nations are in uproar; no link between the Hebrew and the Greek words is claimed. Some hear one call in both: the psalm's we won't be afraid, and Jesus tells those who asked him not to be terrified. Others keep each to its own setting and its own reason: the psalm's is "God is our refuge and strength" (Psalm 46:1); Jesus gives as his that "these things must happen first, but the end won’t come immediately" (Luke 21:9), answering a question about the temple. These notes don't choose between them. They don't make the psalm a prophecy of the end or of the things Jesus names, and they apply neither passage to any war or nation today.

רָפָהraphahsay ra-FAH

Brown-Driver-Briggs gives "sink, relax", and for the causative form used here, among its uses, "let go" and "refrain". Strong's: "to slacken (in many applications, literal or figurative)", and it lists "be still" among the English words it is given as. "Be still, and know that I am God" (46:10): in Hebrew Be still is harpu, a command spoken to more than one person, and God is the one speaking ("I am God", 46:10). The Psalms have the verb three times in Hebrew. Psalm 37 has it in the same form, spoken to one person: "Cease from anger, and forsake wrath" (Psalm 37:8). And a prayer: "Don’t forsake the works of your own hands" (Psalm 138:8). In Deuteronomy it is the fail of "He will not fail you nor forsake you" (Deuteronomy 31:6).

"Therefore we won’t be afraid, though the earth changes" (46:2). What feels like shaking ground in your life right now, and what would it look like to call God your refuge in it?