Psalm 46:6-11
Nations are in uproar, kingdoms fall;
He lifts his voice, the earth melts.
The LORD Almighty is with us;
the God of Jacob is our fortress. (Selah)
Come and see the works of the LORD,
the desolations he has brought on the earth.
He makes wars to cease to the ends of the earth;
he breaks the bow and shatters the spear,
he burns the shields with fire.
“Be still, and know that I am God;
I will be exalted among the nations,
I will be exalted in the earth.”
The LORD Almighty is with us;
the God of Jacob is our fortress. (Selah)
Perhaps no other psalm captures the essence of the cataclysmic as completely as Psalm 46. Here with the psalmist, we catch a glimpse of the apocalypse. The world of this psalm is in utter turmoil. It quakes. It writhes. It melts. Through a poetic eye we are viewing the death throes of a planet.
I spent New Year’s Day, 1985 in Hiroshima, Japan—a city well acquainted with cataclysm. Today, Hiroshima is a beautiful city. It is a seaside city, built on a flat river delta surrounded by mountains. Seven river channels cut across the city’s fertile flood plain on their way to the blue waters of Hiroshima Bay. In many respects Hiroshima resembles a more compact, oriental version of Vancouver.
But on August 6th, 1945, this beautiful city became a terrestrial picture of hell. The horrors inflicted on Hiroshima are without parallel in human history. In an atomic flash, 66,000 residents were instantly killed. They were the fortunate. Another 60,000 died later of their injuries, or from the effects of radiation sickness. The accounts of their suffering are among the most heart wrenching literature, I have ever read.
Historic Hiroshima explosion photo.
I was not in Hiroshima alone; my wife and my two-and-a-half-year-old son were with me. Together, on a cool but sunny New Year’s Day, we strolled through the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park. We slowly walked around the building known as the A-Bomb Dome. This devastated stone structure was the only building left standing after the atomic blast. Its skeletal structure is a visible reminder of that grim day in 1945. But is this stark ruin also a portent of our future, and the future of our planet?
Across the ages the psalmist speaks, “Nations are in uproar, kingdoms fall; He lifts his voice, the earth melts.”
In 1945 the nations of the world were in uproar, and kingdoms were falling. In Europe the vaunted thousand-year rule of the Third Reich came to a brutal end. Great cities lay in ruins. Millions were exterminated; millions more were displaced and starving. A demon in human flesh had put the whole apparatus of the modern state to work in eradicating God’s people. The last victim of every murderous demon is its human host, so staying true to Satanic form, in the final days of war Hitler and his leading Nazi henchmen pulled the trigger on their own demise.
Across the Pacific, expansionist, Imperial Japan was on the verge of collapse. The emperor, whose subjects worshipped him as god was about to call an end to a war that was cannibalizing his own people. Emperor Hirohito was revered as a descendant of the sun god, and through brutal military conquest the land of the Rising Sun had spread its rays across much of Asia. But before the emperor could call a halt to the war, a different kind of sun would ignite a blazing inferno in the heart of the nation.
Nuclear physicists will tell you that in its simplest form an atomic bomb is the power of the sun released upon the earth. The heat and radiation are of the same magnitude. A miniature sun flashed 100 million volts of raw energy over Hiroshima at 8:15 a.m. on August 6th, 1945.
People beneath the epicenter of the blast were simply vaporised. In the Atomic Bomb Museum, later that day my eyes bore witness to this phenomenon. Dark shadows were all that remained of men who were sitting on the stone steps of a bank building. Their bodies left something resembling a photographic imprint on the stone. In an instant—in a flash—they were gone.
Miles from the epicenter, brass globes drooped and melted on the side that was facing this new sun that had come to the earth. The effects upon human flesh of the intense heat of this nuclear flash can only be imagined. On many survivors, clothing and skin exposed just for an instant, simply melted away.
Again, across the ages the psalmist speaks, “Nations are in uproar, kingdoms fall; He lifts his voice, the earth melts.”
You view all these things in a different light, when you are with your family. My wife was walking beside me on this tour. She was into her third month of pregnancy. I was either carrying my two-year-old son in my arms, holding his little hand or pushing him in a stroller. I kept asking myself, “What kind of world am I bringing my children into? Will they experience these things—this hell—in their lifetime?”
Today’s newspaper headlines are not reassuring. More than forty years have passed since my visit to Hiroshima, and thus far the world has avoided nuclear holocaust. But once again we appear to be creeping closer to the brink of annihilation. I began writing this chapter two days ago, but in one of those odd cases of divine coincidence, today when I retrieved my morning newspaper from its slot in the screen door, the headline read, “North Korea Conducts Nuclear Test.”
And if a rogue state like North Korea does not raise the level of our concern, we can always look to Iran and its nuclear ambitions. Meanwhile Russia is edging ever closer to a full conquest of Ukraine. Then there is China, which is growing more powerful and restive as its economic might increases. As for the Middle East, tension and conflict are a constant reality. In short, we live in a very dangerous and unpredictable world.
If news headlines are not reassuring, Bible prophecies are even less so. The apostle Peter, speaking nearly a thousand years after Psalm Forty-six was penned, states, “the present heavens and earth are reserved for fire, being kept for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men” (2 Peter 3:7).
Peter goes on to evoke the very images of Psalm 46.
“The day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything in it will be laid bare (2 Peter 3:10).
But over this inferno—this world afire—the psalmist speaks, “The LORD Almighty is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress.”
We will not face this worldwide conflagration alone. We are not abandoned. The LORD has not left our side. We are not to yield to fear and worry. Though the ungodly perish, we have these words of assurance: “The LORD Almighty is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress.” If we must face dark days, we will not face them alone. We will face them with the LORD Almighty.
There are many names for God, and good poetry is all about the choice of words. It is then significant to note that the psalmist chose this particular name combination, the LORD Almighty, at this juncture in this psalm. The LORD, which is the Hebrew translation of Yahweh or Jehovah, means I AM. The great I AM is with us. The God of the burning bush has come to be with us. It is this God, who in Exodus 3:14 told Moses, “I AM who I AM.” He will carry us through this time of apocalyptic turmoil. And not only is I AM, the self-existent-one with us, the psalmist also asserts that this great I AM is none other than the Almighty. In cataclysm we will see the power of the Almighty. He not only holds the power to melt the world and its elements with a fervent heat, he also has the power to save and deliver his own from that cataclysmic destruction, if he so chooses.
Shadrach, Meshach and Abedinigo walked out of the blazing furnace unscathed, because the Almighty was with them. In Psalm 46 we are assured that this same God, the LORD Almighty, will be with us. He will be with us, when the end-times, world-consuming conflagration hits. The Almighty will be standing there in the furnace with us. His invisible mantle of protection will be extended over us, because the God of Jacob is our fortress.
By invoking the name of the God of Jacob, the psalmist links us to the great redemptive history of God’s people. This is the God who saves, who intervenes into the affairs of men. He is the God who brought Jacob back safely to the land of promise, after years of foreign sojourn. He is the God, who visited Egypt with the ten plagues, but by the blood of a lamb, he set apart his own people and so saved them from the Angel of Death. It was the God of Jacob, who parted the Red Sea for his people, but destroyed the pursuing army. He is the God who destroyed the world in the great flood, but he floated his eight-person restoration mission over the top of the billowing torrent. In these and a thousand other biblical stories, he is a God who saves. He is a fortress round about those who call on his name. In the fortress we rest secure, no matter what fiery maelstrom should assault.
Throughout history God’s people have found safety and refuge in the fortress. Martin Luther knew all too well the assaults of hell. It was from within the fortress that he took his stand against the legions of hell. On the threat of death, he would not bow to error. He stood upon the unchanging inerrant word of God. When he left the Diet of Worms, he was a marked man—marked for execution. But even then, he was safe. He was safe, because a fortress surrounded him and protected him wherever he travelled. You see Luther’s fortress was the God of Jacob. How fitting then that in addition to translating the whole Bible, he should pen the words to that great hymn, “A Mighty Fortress is our God.”
Now the psalmist beckons us closer. “Come and see the works of the LORD, the desolations he has brought on the earth. He makes wars to cease to the ends of the earth. He breaks the bow and shatters the spear; he burns the shields with fire.”
We live in a world that denies the existence of God, or at best it sees God as aloof and distant from the historical events that shape societies and the course of nations. But is this an accurate world view? The Old Testament writers had a completely different perspective. They saw God as active in the affairs of men. He does not stand aloof from his creation, but rather he is the great Conductor of History. Nations move at his impulse. He raises up one kingdom and sets down another. At his discretion, he exalts one leader and humiliates another.
Reading the above passage from the Psalms can be quite disturbing to some of us. It disturbs me. Does God really bring desolation on the earth? Does he take sides in war? We may prefer our God to be more passive and distant. Perhaps God is a pacifist? He certainly loves peace. Yet in the Bible, God actively intervened in great battles and wars. And sometimes, to the consternation of God’s people, he was helping the other side. The LORD used heathen Babylon to bring divine judgment down upon Judah.
Has God changed? Perhaps he has reformed in his old age? What would a twentieth century history text look like if it was written by Nehemiah, Isaiah, or Jeremiah? Would Isaiah see God’s hand of judgment being unleashed on Nazi Germany? Was God actively working against this murderer of millions, with his hell hatched theory of racial supremacy? Was the God of the heavens ready to share his glory with the earthbound emperor of Japan? Did the LORD sanction the Sun god’s conquest of Asia? Or did the Creator of the universe have the final say on the matter? Were the master theorists behind atheistic communism correct? Or did the LORD laugh at them in derision? Did the Soviet empire collapse under its own weight, or was the LORD helping a few Polish believers as they pulled the last few bricks out of the crumbling foundation?
But no nation can gloat in a state of moral superiority. The stench of sin hovers over the whole globe. Is this world ripe for God’s judgment? Are we facing apocalypse over the next horizon?
Into this global chaos the LORD speaks, “Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.”
This psalm from start to finish evokes a thousand images of catastrophe, but it is the last picture that should lodge most deeply in our hearts. It is the picture of a hurt young child rushing home into the arms of a loving parent. The world has hurt us. But in these arms, we will find love, healing and courage to face the world, to face a new day. At the core, where it counts most, we are loved by our Father. Over that frightened, wounded child our Father speaks these words, “Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.”
I need to hear those words spoken to me. In the rush of life, I need to pause. I need to stop and hear God as I’m curled up in his arms. When pain and fear and worry come, he says, “Be still.”
Quiet your heart in God. He is bigger than your problems—bigger than the whole cruel world out there. He is in control of world events. Yield to his control in your own life. He holds the future—your future is in his hands—and these are loving hands. Though nations are in uproar and kingdoms fall, his Kingdom stands secure and eternal. When you are still—still and at rest in his Kingdom—you know the truth of these words. The LORD Almighty is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress.
Bringing Life to the Psalms
- Read the account of Shadrach, Meshach and Abedinigo in the fiery furnace, as found in Daniel chapter three. Consider what this story says to you about facing persecution and calamity with courage.
- Do you have a hymnal handy? Why not read or sing, “A Mighty Fortress is our God?” The lyrics are a powerful declaration of the supremacy of God in a world gone mad. You may also wish to view the movie, Luther or the more recent movie, Bonhoeffer. Both movies accurately portray the courageous faith that is required when we rise up to oppose error and evil forces.
- End-times theology, or eschatology, frequently is a source of fear rather than comfort. Psalm 46 can act as a counterweight to many of the rather frightening passages found in the Book of Revelation. How can this psalm help you view the end-times in a more positive light?
- What are some of the dangers of putting too much emphasis on end-times prophecy? Are there dangers in wilful ignorance? How should we approach the scriptures that touch on the apocalypse?
- As we conclude this look at Psalm 46 take a moment to reread this apocalyptic psalm. What is God saying to you by His Spirit?
Today’s post is Chapter 10 from the book Psalms Alive! Connecting Heaven & Earth by David Kitz. To find out more or purchase click here.
I love the Psalms 