Psalm 46 To the Chief Musician. A Psalm of the sons of Korah. A Song for Alamoth. 1 of 3
1 God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. 2 Therefore we will not fear, even though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea; 3 though its waters roar and be troubled, though the mountains shake with its swelling. Selah
A Song for Alamoth— i.e. upon the Virginals. Virgins with their shrill treble tune, 1 Chronicles 15:20, belike to sing this triumphant psalm, and to play it on the instrument; and their hearts were somewhat suitable to it.” (John Trapp) This perhaps alludes to the destruction of the world at the Second Coming. The virgins, or church, will have this as their song, which "calls to remembrance the song which Miriam and the women sang when the Lord redeemed His people by power at the Red Sea. The remnant delivered relates prophetically the experience of deliverance. They trusted in God as their refuge and strength, though the earth was moved and the mountains carried into the sea.” (Arno Gaebelein)
“‘God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.’ The clause ‘a very present Help in trouble,’ may be rendered more literally, ‘found exceedingly a Help in troubles;’ or, ‘a’ Help most readily to be found in troubles.” (Thomas Scott) “‘Therefore we will not fear— ‘even though the earth be removed,’ out of its place; should no longer support, but sink under us: though all our creature-confidence fail us, and that which should uphold us, threaten to swallow us up, as the earth did Korah; ‘and though the mountains’— the strongest and firmest parts of the earth; ‘be carried into the midst of the sea ‘— and lie buried in the unfathomed ocean; ‘though the waters thereof roar and be troubled’“ (Benson) “And it will be said in that day, ‘Behold, this is our God for whom we have waited that He might save us. This is Yahweh for whom we have waited; let us rejoice and be glad in His salvation.’” (Isa 25:9)
If calamity of calamity strikes- "The ruins would strike him unappalled.” (Horace) “It befits every era in which the Church is in danger from her foes, and foretells the final destruction of Antichrist.” (F.B. Meyers) “Whereas all who call on idols, or on any creature, to help them in trouble, are invoking the absent, as well as the helpless. Earthquakes, and other terrible convulsions in nature, are often made emblems of great commotions in nations, the fall of empires, revolutions, and other public calamities. But if imagination should be employed to conceive of such desolations, as are not likely to be realized, in the full literal import of the terms here used, till the consummation of all things.“ (Thomas Scott)
“That blessed Scripture in which Jehovah saith by His servant the prophet, that He hath laid in Zion for a foundation, a tried stone, serves to explain the nature of what this verse saith concerning God as a refuge. Until Christ is our foundation we have nothing to rest upon, nor trust in, against the storms and troubles of life. But if Jesus be our confidence we shall ride, as Noah did, tranquil amidst descending torrents, borne up and sheltered by the ark, Christ Jesus. It is said of Luther, the great minister and instrument in the Lord's hand of bringing about the reformation, that whenever storms or threatenings seemed to be coming upon the cause of Christ, He used to stir up the minds of the people with calling upon them to sing this 46th Psalm.” (Hawker's Poor Man's Commentary) Selah