Psalm 46 is one of my favourite Psalms. It is referenced in the film “Zulu” by the Colour Sergeant, and is the inspiration for the worship song “Great is the Lord and most worthy of praise”.

This Psalm looks to God as a refuge and source of just rule in this earth. He is the Defender of Israel, and His kingdom is the only hope for the nations.

This Psalm, as so many others, has an eschatological aspect. It looks to the defeat and suppression of the Gentiles and the rule of God over this earth from a new Jerusalem, from Mount Zion. The river appears in Ezekiel, flowing from under the threshold of the Temple, and in Revelation John draws on Ezekiel.

We must have courage and trust in God. Though things may get worse, God will have the victory. On the Day of the LORD, He will be vindicated and take rulership of this earth. He will make wars cease and usher in a new age of peace.

It is important to note that chapters were added to the biblical text by later copyists and editors for ease of navigation and citation, not by the original authors themselves. The chapter break between 1 and 2 is artificial, for 2 continues the train of thought found in 1.

As Paul develops his narrative that mankind has descended into sin, he establishes that sin is universal. All humans are tainted by it, both Jew and Gentile.

In establishing that sin is universal, Paul can then develop this point to show that all humans need salvation if they are to survive the judgment of God. This idea Paul then focusses on Israel to expose hypocrisy.

He attacks the idea that one does not need salvation if one adheres to the Law of Moses, the Torah. It is important to understand the nuance here. Paul is not saying that the Torah is of no value. Nor is he saying that a person who keeps the Torah perfectly need fear the judgment of God.

Rather, he is saying that one must keep the Torah perfectly in order to withstand the judgment. But since no one can keep the Torah perfectly, as is evident from the sins of Israelites, one cannot be saved by attempting to keep the Torah.

This will become clearer in subsequent chapters, where Paul will discuss justification in more depth. At this stage, he is establishing that (1) Israelites are in need of salvation, just like the Gentiles, and (2) Israelites should be humble before God because of point (1), especially in light of the fact that the Gentiles themselves obey the moral precepts of the Torah (albeit imperfectly).

Paul is writing to a mixed audience, and he is trying to build a community where there is neither Jew nor Gentile in Christ, but all love one another as Christ loved us. (Although, as we shall see later, Paul’s doctrine of Israel is complex.)

Paul reminds his readers of the eschatological consequences of sin, for those who do not receive salvation: judgment during the Day of the LORD and in the hereafter. This note of warning and sobriety is another way of impressing upon the audience its need for salvation.

This Psalm is cited in the New Testament as a prophecy of the Messiah’s resurrection. We may not always think of the Psalms as prophetic – Isaiah, Daniel, and Ezekiel would more readily spring to mind, perhaps – but the Psalms are frequently cited as prophecy in the New Testament.

This Psalm is about trusting in the one true God, who will raise all people at the Last Day, and welcome His people into the kingdom prepared for them. Those who follow false gods and do not repent will not be part of this kingdom.

Seeking God and being intellectually honest are important. If we delude ourselves into accepting and staying in a false religion, we are not honest on this point. So many people around the world are trapped still, bound up with these systems because of personal, cultural, and national pressures.

Hope, trust, love, and honesty – these must guide us into the House of the Lord.

This Psalm is about righteousness. It is quoted by Paul in Romans to demonstrate that all are in need of salvation from sin, Jews and Gentiles alike.

The writer describes us as “filthy” and Isaiah, perhaps allusion to this Psalm, describes our righteousness as “filthy rags”, a poor covering for us to stand in God’s presence.

Experience bears this out. Not a single day passes without some sin transpiring in our lives, be it a thought, a word, a deed, or an omission. For centuries the Confiteor has been part of the Christian liturgy (http://www.preces-latinae.org/thesaurus/Basics/Confiteor.html).

Acknowledging that we are sinners and that we lack the means to overcome our sin by ourselves is the first step on the road of repentance. Sin comes in a variety of forms from “small” acts of self-indulgence to serious offences that will also result in criminal prosecution if picked up by the secular authorities.

Sin begins in the heart. Jesus taught in the Sermon on the Mount that we have only to think something sinful to have committed sin. We need not act on it to be rendered sinful. We are thus defiled at the root, unfit for God’s heaven, unless He first cleanses us.

Paul, building on the teachings of Jesus, emphasises that we are to focus on love and seek God’s Spirit. This requires self-discipline, but it would be wrong to think that by our effort alone we can overcome sin. Protestantism, looking to Paul’s teachings, advises that we should be conscious of our sin, but keep our focus on living in gratitude for what God has done for us. Where we fall into a deep pit of shame and despair, we are weak against temptation. Faith is, among other things, about trusting God, who is working in us to make us more and more like Jesus. We must focus on Jesus and benevolence and for those grievances in our lives, we must trust that God will make things right on the Last Day.

This Psalm, in combination with other verses (including from Revelation), inspired the modern worship song “O Lord our God, how majestic is Your name”. You can hear a performance of it here.

This Psalm is also referenced in The Epistle to the Hebrews, where it is applied to Christ. In becoming incarnate, the Creator assumed, for a time, a position lower than the angels. He became weak and tempted like we are, the better to overcome sin and serve as our Great High Priest. But now the LORD has given Him the name that is above every name, that He should receive worship in all corners of creation, to the glory of God the Father, now and forever.

This Psalm, along with other verses from Scripture, was also probably in the background of Paul’s mind when he wrote chapter one of The Epistle to the Romans. The glory of nature points to the greater glory of its creator. This is the “Book of Nature” spoken of by scholars and saints throughout the ages. The more we learn about nature, the more we should realise the existence and glory of its creator and long for the perfection of the age to come.

“For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope…” (Romans 8:20).

In the scheme of things, we are small. What is our seize compared with that of the planet, the solar system, the galaxy, the universe? What is our power, compared to that of the angels? What is our righteousness compared to that of God? What is our love compared with the Cross? Who are we that our Creator should take on flesh and die for us? And yet He did.

God created us to rule over this earth. We were to rule in accordance with His precepts, the greatest of which is love.

“Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets” (Matthew 22:37-40).

The Son of Man will rule this earth, enthroned on Mount Zion, in Jerusalem. He will commit authority to those who follow Him, who will rule in accordance with His statutes (Isaiah 53; Revelation 20).

On that day, the name of the LORD will be praised in all corners of the earth. How majestic is that name! There is no other given to man, by which he can be saved.

I leave you with another song inspired by this Psalm: “How Great Thou Art”.

The Psalms embrace a variety of thought. While their overall purpose is to praise God and be used in liturgy, they often do the following (sometimes simultaneously in a given piece):

• teach wisdom (through proverb, metaphor, and example);
• convey our inner thoughts, experiences, and struggles;
• describe the present;
• prophesy about the first coming of the Messiah;
• prophesy about the second coming of the Messiah (though the split between the comings may not have been known to the author).

Psalm 2 demonstrates a variety of layers in line with the above. On the one hand, enemy nations were a problem for Israel and its king in the days of the monarchy. Saul and David fought with the Philistines; David subdued Edom and other surrounding nations; the Egyptians, Aramaeans, Scythians, Assyrians, and Babylonians would prove to be a problem. After the return from Babylon, the Samaritans fought against the rebuilding of Jerusalem and its Temple.

The Psalm also looks further forward, however. In the preceding paragraph we identified the LORD’s anointed as the king of Israel. Jesus is the Anointed One, the final and greatest King. The nations have fought against His Kingdom and His people Israel, and the greatest coalition that has resisted the Gospel and threatened Israel is the House of Islam, and that is the primary Gentile force that will fight Christ when He returns. It is from the House of Islam, led by Gog of Magog, that Christ rescues Israel and His Church.

In the Millennium, Christ will rule the nations, through Israel and the Church, with a rod of iron. This phrase from Psalm 2 is referenced several times in the Book of Revelation. Then too, many shall chafe to throw off His rule. We know this because, at the end of the Millennium, after Satan is released from the Abyss, they form the coalition of Gog and Magog once more, led by Satan, and attempt to destroy “the camp of the saints” (Revelation 20).

But God is in control. He knows all and sees all: their deeds will be remembered on the Day of the LORD and at the Great White Throne Judgment. But blessed are those who put their trust in the Father and the Son: they will not be put to shame.

This post by NEO is worth reblogging given recent events.

https://jessicahof.blog/2017/09/16/terrorism-and-the-exhausted-west/

This series has been written from a futurist, pre-wrath, pre-millennialist perspective. The aim has been to derive a basic chronology for the end times from Scripture. I was prompted to write this because Audre explained that, in her experience, there is generally little teaching on these matters in her church. My concern when introducing people to study of the end-times is two-fold: that they will either get lost in the complex passages or that they will come with pre-conceived ideas that will result in forced, rather than natural, readings of the texts.

This brings us to the end of the Revelation-portion of this series. The following post will conclude the series. Revelation 19:17-21:5 should be read before continuing with this post.