Peter Pett's Commentary on the Bible
Psalms 46:8-11
A Call To Consider All God's Mercies And To Recognise That One Day He Will Bring Everlasting Peace And Will Be Exalted Among The Nations (Psalms 46:8).
‘Come, behold the works of YHWH,
What desolations he has made in the earth.
He makes wars to cease to the end of the earth,
He breaks the bow, and cuts the spear in sunder,
He burns the baggage wagons (or ‘shields') in the fire.
All God's people are now called on to look on and consider the works of YHWH. Let them look on and consider His final judgments, as initially exemplified in the destruction of the Assyrian army. Mankind may continue to fight and war, but God will in the end visit them with His desolations, thereby bringing to an end all their sinful activities. He will outlaw war worldwide, He will destroy man's weaponry, He will burn up their supplies. Then He will introduce His kingdom of everlasting peace. Compare here Isaiah 2:3 which describes how He will do it. And see Revelation 19.
‘Baggage wagons.' Compare 1 Samuel 17:20; 1 Samuel 26:7. The word nowhere means chariots. Some would repoint to mean ‘shields' as in LXX and the Targum.
‘Be still, and know that I am God,
I will be exalted among the nations,
I will be exalted in the earth.'
All are therefore to be stilled in awe, as they recognise by what He has done, that He truly is God, and what it will mean for the future. For in the future God will be exalted among the nations. He will be exalted in the earth. All power will be seen to be His, even on earth. To Him every knee will bow. His triumph is sure.
This gradual attainment of His triumph began at the cross when he defeated all the powers of evil (Colossians 2:15), then as His people went our to establish the Kingly Rule of God, and it will be finalised in that day when Satan and all his hosts and followers, including warring mankind, are totally vanquished (Revelation 19), and God is all in all.
‘YHWH of hosts is with us,
The God of Jacob is our refuge.' [Selah
No wonder then that he can remind God's people that:
· ‘YHWH of the hosts of heaven and earth is with us.'
· ‘The God who protected weak and lowly Jacob is our refuge.'
With God present with us as our powerful God and Protector we need fear nothing. ‘Of hosts' has in mind God's people (Exodus 12:41; Numbers 2); the heavenly hosts (the angels - Genesis 32:2; Psalms 148:2); the host of heaven, (the sun moon and stars - Deuteronomy 4:19; Deuteronomy 17:3; Psalms 33:6), the hosts of men (their armies), and the hosts of creation (everything that is made - Genesis 2:1). He is God over all.
‘The God of Jacob' underlines the fact that He was the God of His people who saw themselves as ‘descended from Jacob'. They looked to the God of their forefathers to whom the promises were made. They WERE Jacob.
(Of course, not all of the people of Israel were literally descended from Jacob. They included among their number descendants of those who had been in Jacob's ‘household' who would probably have numbered a few thousand (Abraham had 318 fighting men in his household and they would have grown in numbers since then); descendants of the mixed multitude who had left Egypt with them (Exodus 12:38) and were united with them at Sinai and then by circumcision on entering the land; descendants of others who had joined with them in the wilderness (e.g. Kenites); and descendants of any who chose to become Yahwists and united themselves with Israel (Exodus 12:48; Deuteronomy 23:1).