“The LORD of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge.” (Psalm 46:7,11)

Psalm 46 was the inspiration for Martin Luther’s most famous hymn, A Mighty Fortress is Our God. Although Luther cast his hymn from the perspective of the Church under assault by the Devil, Psalm 46 is written from the perspective of the believing Jewish remnant during the time of the Tribulation (i.e., Daniel’s 70th Week). It appears to have been composed in the days of King Hezekiah when an attack by the Assyrian army on Jerusalem was imminent (Isaiah 36-37), at which time the city was miraculously delivered by divine intervention (Isaiah 37:36-37). The message of the psalm is that the omnipotent and omnipresent God will be present with His people (Israel) during their time of greatest peril; He is their refuge and strength, so they need not fear.

A repeated refrain in the Psalm (vv. 7, 11) is that the “LORD” (i.e., the God whose personal name is Yahweh) commands the “host” of heaven, an army of innumerable angelic warriors, a single one of which delivered Jerusalem from the army of Assyria in the days of King Hezekiah by destroying 185,000 soldiers on one night (Isaiah 37:36). The LORD, while being the one true God over all of creation, is uniquely “the God of Jacob”, the sure “refuge” of Israel. The thought impressed upon Israel in this psalm is also impressed upon the Church, which is promised persecution throughout the Church Age (John 15:18-20; 16:33; Romans 8:35-39; 2 Timothy 3:12); namely, “If God be for us, who can be against us?” (Romans 8:31).

A new set of notes commenting on Psalm 46 has been added under the Biblical Studies menu.