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Selected Verse: Psalms 46:4 - King James

Verse	Translation	Text
Ps 46:4	King James	There is a river, the streams whereof shall make glad the city of God, the holy place of the tabernacles of the most High.

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A Commentary, Critical, Practical, and Explanatory on the Old and New Testaments, by Robert Jamieson, A.R. Fausset and David Brown [1882]
God's favor is denoted by a river (compare Psa 36:8; Zac 14:8; Rev 22:1). city of God, the holy place--His earthly residence, Jerusalem and the temple (compare Psa 2:6; Psa 3:4; Psa 20:2; Psa 48:2, &c.). God's favor, like a river whose waters are conducted in channels, is distributed to all parts of His Church. most High--denoting His supremacy (Psa 17:2).

A Commentary, Critical, Practical, and Explanatory on the Old and New Testaments, by Robert Jamieson, A.R. Fausset and David Brown [1882]

God's favor is denoted by a river (compare Psa 36:8; Zac 14:8; Rev 22:1).

city of God, the holy place--His earthly residence, Jerusalem and the temple (compare Psa 2:6; Psa 3:4; Psa 20:2; Psa 48:2, &c.). God's favor, like a river whose waters are conducted in channels, is distributed to all parts of His Church.

most High--denoting His supremacy (Psa 17:2).

Notes on the Bible, by Albert Barnes, [1834]
There is a river - There is no allusion here to any particular stream or river, but the image is designed to represent a state of peace and calm security in contrast with the rough and troubled ocean. While the ocean rages, and foams, and dashes against the mountains as if it would overturn them, the state of Jerusalem, the city of God, was well represented by a calm and gently-flowing river; a river of full banks, diffusing joy and fertility and beauty wherever it flowed. This image, to represent happiness, abundance, peace, joy, is one that is often employed in the Scriptures. Compare Isa 32:2; Isa 33:21; Isa 41:18; Psa 1:3; Rev 22:1; Psa 36:8. The "idea" here is simply that Jerusalem would be calm and serene amidst all the external agitations in the world - calm as a gently-flowing stream. The streams - the canals - the water-courses of such a river flowing around each dwelling and along each garden, would diffuse happiness and beauty everywhere. The streams whereof - The allusion here is undoubtedly to the canals, watercourses, or rivulets that were led off from the main stream for the purpose of supplying fountains and watering gardens. Thus the city of Damascus is watered by streams or canals cut from the river Barrady, that flows down from the regions of Anti-Libanus. The greenness - the beauty - the fertility - of Damascus is owing wholly to the waters of the river thus conducted to every house and garden in the city. Compare introduction to Isa 17:1-14. So here, the flowing river of divine mercy and goodness is conveyed, as in smaller canals or streams, to each home and heart, producing peace, calmness, joy - while the world around is full of commotion and trouble. Shall make glad the city of God - Jerusalem, considered as the place where God was worshipped, and where he was supposed especially to dwell: Psa 48:1. The holy place of the tabernacles of the Most High - Of the "tent" where the Most High is supposed to abide. The word is applicable to any habitation or dwelling-place; but in the Scriptures it is applied especially to the sacred tent erected by Moses in the wilderness, and ultimately removed to Mount Zion by David, as the divine abode on earth. It is sometimes, also, applied to the temple; and if this psalm was written, as I have supposed, in the time of Hezekiah, it would be applicable to that. Compare Psa 84:2; Psa 132:5. The tabernacle and the temple were alike divided into two parts - the holy and the most holy place - and hence the "plural" term is sometimes applied to them. Compare the notes at Heb 9:2-3.

Notes on the Bible, by Albert Barnes, [1834]

There is a river - There is no allusion here to any particular stream or river, but the image is designed to represent a state of peace and calm security in contrast with the rough and troubled ocean. While the ocean rages, and foams, and dashes against the mountains as if it would overturn them, the state of Jerusalem, the city of God, was well represented by a calm and gently-flowing river; a river of full banks, diffusing joy and fertility and beauty wherever it flowed. This image, to represent happiness, abundance, peace, joy, is one that is often employed in the Scriptures. Compare Isa 32:2; Isa 33:21; Isa 41:18; Psa 1:3; Rev 22:1; Psa 36:8. The "idea" here is simply that Jerusalem would be calm and serene amidst all the external agitations in the world - calm as a gently-flowing stream. The streams - the canals - the water-courses of such a river flowing around each dwelling and along each garden, would diffuse happiness and beauty everywhere.

The streams whereof - The allusion here is undoubtedly to the canals, watercourses, or rivulets that were led off from the main stream for the purpose of supplying fountains and watering gardens. Thus the city of Damascus is watered by streams or canals cut from the river Barrady, that flows down from the regions of Anti-Libanus. The greenness - the beauty - the fertility - of Damascus is owing wholly to the waters of the river thus conducted to every house and garden in the city. Compare introduction to Isa 17:1-14. So here, the flowing river of divine mercy and goodness is conveyed, as in smaller canals or streams, to each home and heart, producing peace, calmness, joy - while the world around is full of commotion and trouble.

Shall make glad the city of God - Jerusalem, considered as the place where God was worshipped, and where he was supposed especially to dwell: Psa 48:1.

The holy place of the tabernacles of the Most High - Of the "tent" where the Most High is supposed to abide. The word is applicable to any habitation or dwelling-place; but in the Scriptures it is applied especially to the sacred tent erected by Moses in the wilderness, and ultimately removed to Mount Zion by David, as the divine abode on earth. It is sometimes, also, applied to the temple; and if this psalm was written, as I have supposed, in the time of Hezekiah, it would be applicable to that. Compare Psa 84:2; Psa 132:5. The tabernacle and the temple were alike divided into two parts - the holy and the most holy place - and hence the "plural" term is sometimes applied to them. Compare the notes at Heb 9:2-3.

Commentary on the Old Testament, by Carl Friedrich Keil and Franz Delitzsch [1857-78]
(Heb.: 46:5-8) Just as, according to Gen 2:10, a stream issued from Eden, to water the whole garden, so a stream makes Jerusalem as it were into another paradise: a river - whose streams make glad the city of Elohim (Psa 87:3; Psa 48:9, cf. Psa 101:8); פּלגיו (used of the windings and branches of the main-stream) is a second permutative subject (Psa 44:3). What is intended is the river of grace, which is also likened to a river of paradise in Psa 36:9. When the city of God is threatened and encompassed by foes, still she shall not hunger and thirst, nor fear and despair; for the river of grace and of her ordinances and promises flows with its rippling waves through the holy place, where the dwelling-place or tabernacle of the Most High is pitched. קדשׁ, Sanctum (cf. el-Ḳuds as a name of Jerusalem), as in Psa 65:5, Isa 57:15; גּדל, Exo 15:16. משׁכּני, dwellings, like משׁכּנות, Psa 43:3; Psa 84:2; Psa 132:5, Psa 132:7, equivalent to "a glorious dwelling." In Psa 46:6 in the place of the river we find Him from whom the river issues forth. Elohim helps her לפנותבּקר - there is only a night of trouble, the return of the morning is also the sunrise of speedy help. The preterites in Psa 46:7 are hypothetical: if peoples and kingdoms become enraged with enmity and totter, so that the church is in danger of being involved in this overthrow - all that God need to is to make a rumbling with His almighty voice of thunder (נתן בּקולו, as in Psa 68:34; Jer 12:8, cf. הרים בּמּטּה, to make a lifting with the rod, Exo 7:20), and forthwith the earth melts (muwg, as in Amo 9:5, Niph. Isa 14:31, and frequently), i.e., their titanic defiance becomes cowardice, the bonds of their confederation slacken, and the strength they have put forth is destroyed - it is manifest that Jahve Tsebaoth is with His people. This name of God is, so to speak, indigenous to the Korahitic Psalms, for it is the proper name of God belonging to the time of the kings (vid., on Psa 24:10; Psa 59:6), on the very verge of which it occurs first of all in the mouth of Hannah (Sa1 1:11), and the Korahitic Psalms have a royal impress upon them. In the God, at whose summons all created powers are obliged to marshal themselves like the hosts of war, Israel has a steep stronghold, משׂגּב, which cannot be scaled by any foe - the army of the confederate peoples and kingdoms, ere it has reached Jerusalem, is become a field of the dead.

Commentary on the Old Testament, by Carl Friedrich Keil and Franz Delitzsch [1857-78]

(Heb.: 46:5-8) Just as, according to Gen 2:10, a stream issued from Eden, to water the whole garden, so a stream makes Jerusalem as it were into another paradise: a river - whose streams make glad the city of Elohim (Psa 87:3; Psa 48:9, cf. Psa 101:8); פּלגיו (used of the windings and branches of the main-stream) is a second permutative subject (Psa 44:3). What is intended is the river of grace, which is also likened to a river of paradise in Psa 36:9. When the city of God is threatened and encompassed by foes, still she shall not hunger and thirst, nor fear and despair; for the river of grace and of her ordinances and promises flows with its rippling waves through the holy place, where the dwelling-place or tabernacle of the Most High is pitched. קדשׁ, Sanctum (cf. el-Ḳuds as a name of Jerusalem), as in Psa 65:5, Isa 57:15; גּדל, Exo 15:16. משׁכּני, dwellings, like משׁכּנות, Psa 43:3; Psa 84:2; Psa 132:5, Psa 132:7, equivalent to "a glorious dwelling." In Psa 46:6 in the place of the river we find Him from whom the river issues forth. Elohim helps her לפנותבּקר - there is only a night of trouble, the return of the morning is also the sunrise of speedy help. The preterites in Psa 46:7 are hypothetical: if peoples and kingdoms become enraged with enmity and totter, so that the church is in danger of being involved in this overthrow - all that God need to is to make a rumbling with His almighty voice of thunder (נתן בּקולו, as in Psa 68:34; Jer 12:8, cf. הרים בּמּטּה, to make a lifting with the rod, Exo 7:20), and forthwith the earth melts (muwg, as in Amo 9:5, Niph. Isa 14:31, and frequently), i.e., their titanic defiance becomes cowardice, the bonds of their confederation slacken, and the strength they have put forth is destroyed - it is manifest that Jahve Tsebaoth is with His people. This name of God is, so to speak, indigenous to the Korahitic Psalms, for it is the proper name of God belonging to the time of the kings (vid., on Psa 24:10; Psa 59:6), on the very verge of which it occurs first of all in the mouth of Hannah (Sa1 1:11), and the Korahitic Psalms have a royal impress upon them. In the God, at whose summons all created powers are obliged to marshal themselves like the hosts of war, Israel has a steep stronghold, משׂגּב, which cannot be scaled by any foe - the army of the confederate peoples and kingdoms, ere it has reached Jerusalem, is become a field of the dead.

Explanatory Notes on the Whole Bible, by John Wesley [1754-65]
A river - This may design the gracious presence, and blessing of the Lord, which is frequently described under the name of waters. Make glad - Shall not barely preserve it from danger, but give great occasion for rejoicing and thanksgiving. The city - Jerusalem, the place where God's holy tabernacle is settled.

Adam Clarke Commentary on the Whole Bible - Published 1810-1826
There is a river, the streams whereof - The Chaldee understands the river, and its streams or divisions, as pointing out various peoples who should be converted to the faith and thus make glad the city of God, Jerusalem by their flowing together to the worship of the true God. But the river may refer to the vast Medo-Persian army and its divisions: those branches which took Babylon; and, instead of ruining and destroying the poor Jews, preserved them alive, and gave them their liberty; and thus the city of God, and the tabernacle of the Most High, were gladdened.

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² Let my sentence come forth from thy presence; let thine eyes behold the things that are equal.

² Beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth, is mount Zion, on the sides of the north, the city of the great King.

² Send thee help from the sanctuary, and strengthen thee out of Zion;

⁴ I cried unto the LORD with my voice, and he heard me out of his holy hill. Selah.

⁶ Yet have I set my king upon my holy hill of Zion.

¹ And he shewed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb.

⁸ And it shall be in that day, that living waters shall go out from Jerusalem; half of them toward the former sea, and half of them toward the hinder sea: in summer and in winter shall it be.

⁸ They shall be abundantly satisfied with the fatness of thy house; and thou shalt make them drink of the river of thy pleasures.

² For there was a tabernacle made; the first, wherein was the candlestick, and the table, and the shewbread; which is called the sanctuary.
³ And after the second veil, the tabernacle which is called the Holiest of all;

⁵ Until I find out a place for the LORD, an habitation for the mighty God of Jacob.

² My soul longeth, yea, even fainteth for the courts of the LORD: my heart and my flesh crieth out for the living God.

¹ A Song and Psalm for the sons of Korah. Great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised in the city of our God, in the mountain of his holiness.

¹ The burden of Damascus. Behold, Damascus is taken away from being a city, and it shall be a ruinous heap.
² The cities of Aroer are forsaken: they shall be for flocks, which shall lie down, and none shall make them afraid.
³ The fortress also shall cease from Ephraim, and the kingdom from Damascus, and the remnant of Syria: they shall be as the glory of the children of Israel, saith the LORD of hosts.
⁴ And in that day it shall come to pass, that the glory of Jacob shall be made thin, and the fatness of his flesh shall wax lean.
⁵ And it shall be as when the harvestman gathereth the corn, and reapeth the ears with his arm; and it shall be as he that gathereth ears in the valley of Rephaim.
⁶ Yet gleaning grapes shall be left in it, as the shaking of an olive tree, two or three berries in the top of the uppermost bough, four or five in the outmost fruitful branches thereof, saith the LORD God of Israel.
⁷ At that day shall a man look to his Maker, and his eyes shall have respect to the Holy One of Israel.
⁸ And he shall not look to the altars, the work of his hands, neither shall respect that which his fingers have made, either the groves, or the images.
⁹ In that day shall his strong cities be as a forsaken bough, and an uppermost branch, which they left because of the children of Israel: and there shall be desolation.
¹⁰ Because thou hast forgotten the God of thy salvation, and hast not been mindful of the rock of thy strength, therefore shalt thou plant pleasant plants, and shalt set it with strange slips:
¹¹ In the day shalt thou make thy plant to grow, and in the morning shalt thou make thy seed to flourish: but the harvest shall be a heap in the day of grief and of desperate sorrow.
¹² Woe to the multitude of many people, which make a noise like the noise of the seas; and to the rushing of nations, that make a rushing like the rushing of mighty waters!
¹³ The nations shall rush like the rushing of many waters: but God shall rebuke them, and they shall flee far off, and shall be chased as the chaff of the mountains before the wind, and like a rolling thing before the whirlwind.
¹⁴ And behold at eveningtide trouble; and before the morning he is not. This is the portion of them that spoil us, and the lot of them that rob us.

⁸ They shall be abundantly satisfied with the fatness of thy house; and thou shalt make them drink of the river of thy pleasures.

¹ And he shewed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb.

³ And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.

¹⁸ I will open rivers in high places, and fountains in the midst of the valleys: I will make the wilderness a pool of water, and the dry land springs of water.

²¹ But there the glorious LORD will be unto us a place of broad rivers and streams; wherein shall go no galley with oars, neither shall gallant ship pass thereby.

² And a man shall be as an hiding place from the wind, and a covert from the tempest; as rivers of water in a dry place, as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land.

¹¹ And she vowed a vow, and said, O LORD of hosts, if thou wilt indeed look on the affliction of thine handmaid, and remember me, and not forget thine handmaid, but wilt give unto thine handmaid a man child, then I will give him unto the LORD all the days of his life, and there shall no razor come upon his head.

⁶ They return at evening: they make a noise like a dog, and go round about the city.

¹⁰ Who is this King of glory? The LORD of hosts, he is the King of glory. Selah.

³¹ Howl, O gate; cry, O city; thou, whole Palestina, art dissolved: for there shall come from the north a smoke, and none shall be alone in his appointed times.

⁵ And the Lord GOD of hosts is he that toucheth the land, and it shall melt, and all that dwell therein shall mourn: and it shall rise up wholly like a flood; and shall be drowned, as by the flood of Egypt.

²⁰ And Moses and Aaron did so, as the LORD commanded; and he lifted up the rod, and smote the waters that were in the river, in the sight of Pharaoh, and in the sight of his servants; and all the waters that were in the river were turned to blood.

⁸ Mine heritage is unto me as a lion in the forest; it crieth out against me: therefore have I hated it.

³⁴ Ascribe ye strength unto God: his excellency is over Israel, and his strength is in the clouds.

⁷ The LORD of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge. Selah.

⁶ The heathen raged, the kingdoms were moved: he uttered his voice, the earth melted.

⁷ We will go into his tabernacles: we will worship at his footstool.

⁵ Until I find out a place for the LORD, an habitation for the mighty God of Jacob.

² My soul longeth, yea, even fainteth for the courts of the LORD: my heart and my flesh crieth out for the living God.

³ O send out thy light and thy truth: let them lead me; let them bring me unto thy holy hill, and to thy tabernacles.

¹⁶ Fear and dread shall fall upon them; by the greatness of thine arm they shall be as still as a stone; till thy people pass over, O LORD, till the people pass over, which thou hast purchased.

¹⁵ For thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy; I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones.

⁵ By terrible things in righteousness wilt thou answer us, O God of our salvation; who art the confidence of all the ends of the earth, and of them that are afar off upon the sea:

⁹ For with thee is the fountain of life: in thy light shall we see light.

³ For they got not the land in possession by their own sword, neither did their own arm save them: but thy right hand, and thine arm, and the light of thy countenance, because thou hadst a favour unto them.

⁸ I will early destroy all the wicked of the land; that I may cut off all wicked doers from the city of the LORD.

⁹ We have thought of thy lovingkindness, O God, in the midst of thy temple.

³ Glorious things are spoken of thee, O city of God. Selah.

¹⁰ And a river went out of Eden to water the garden; and from thence it was parted, and became into four heads.