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Selected Verse: Psalms 46:4 - New American Standard Bible©
| Verse |
Translation |
Text |
| Ps 46:4 |
New American Standard Bible© |
There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, The holy dwelling places of the Most High. |
| |
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. |
Summary Of Commentaries Associated With The Selected Verse
| 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. |
| 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. |
2 Let my judgment come forth from Your presence; Let Your eyes look with equity.
2 Beautiful in elevation, the joy of the whole earth, Is Mount Zion in the far north, The city of the great King.
2 May He send you help from the sanctuary And support you from Zion!
4 I was crying to the LORD with my voice, And He answered me from His holy mountain. Selah.
6 "But as for Me, I have installed My King Upon Zion, My holy mountain."
1 Then he showed me a river of the water of life, clear as crystal, coming from the throne of God and of the Lamb,
8 And in that day living waters will flow out of Jerusalem, half of them toward the eastern sea and the other half toward the western sea; it will be in summer as well as in winter.
8 They drink their fill of the abundance of Your house; And You give them to drink of the river of Your delights.
2 For there was a tabernacle prepared, the outer one, in which were the lampstand and the table and the sacred bread; this is called the holy place.
3 Behind the second veil there was a tabernacle which is called the Holy of Holies,
5 Until I find a place for the LORD, A dwelling place for the Mighty One of Jacob."
2 My soul longed and even yearned for the courts of the LORD; My heart and my flesh sing for joy to the living God.
1 Great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised, In the city of our God, His holy mountain.
1 The oracle concerning Damascus. "Behold, Damascus is about to be removed from being a city And will become a fallen ruin.
2 "The cities of Aroer are forsaken; They will be for flocks to lie down in, And there will be no one to frighten them.
3 "The fortified city will disappear from Ephraim, And sovereignty from Damascus And the remnant of Aram; They will be like the glory of the sons of Israel," Declares the LORD of hosts.
4 Now in that day the glory of Jacob will fade, And the fatness of his flesh will become lean.
5 It will be even like the reaper gathering the standing grain, As his arm harvests the ears, Or it will be like one gleaning ears of grain In the valley of Rephaim.
6 Yet gleanings will be left in it like the shaking of an olive tree, Two or three olives on the topmost bough, Four or five on the branches of a fruitful tree, Declares the LORD, the God of Israel.
7 In that day man will have regard for his Maker And his eyes will look to the Holy One of Israel.
8 He will not have regard for the altars, the work of his hands, Nor will he look to that which his fingers have made, Even the Asherim and incense stands.
9 In that day their strong cities will be like forsaken places in the forest, Or like branches which they abandoned before the sons of Israel; And the land will be a desolation.
10 For you have forgotten the God of your salvation And have not remembered the rock of your refuge. Therefore you plant delightful plants And set them with vine slips of a strange god.
11 In the day that you plant it you carefully fence it in, And in the morning you bring your seed to blossom; But the harvest will be a heap In a day of sickliness and incurable pain.
12 Alas, the uproar of many peoples Who roar like the roaring of the seas, And the rumbling of nations Who rush on like the rumbling of mighty waters!
13 The nations rumble on like the rumbling of many waters, But He will rebuke them and they will flee far away, And be chased like chaff in the mountains before the wind, Or like whirling dust before a gale.
14 At evening time, behold, there is terror! Before morning they are no more. Such will be the portion of those who plunder us And the lot of those who pillage us.
8 They drink their fill of the abundance of Your house; And You give them to drink of the river of Your delights.
1 Then he showed me a river of the water of life, clear as crystal, coming from the throne of God and of the Lamb,
3 He will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water, Which yields its fruit in its season And its leaf does not wither; And in whatever he does, he prospers.
18 "I will open rivers on the bare heights And springs in the midst of the valleys; I will make the wilderness a pool of water And the dry land fountains of water.
21 But there the majestic One, the LORD, will be for us A place of rivers and wide canals On which no boat with oars will go, And on which no mighty ship will pass--
2 Each will be like a refuge from the wind And a shelter from the storm, Like streams of water in a dry country, Like the shade of a huge rock in a parched land.
11 She made a vow and said, "O LORD of hosts, if You will indeed look on the affliction of Your maidservant and remember me, and not forget Your maidservant, but will give Your maidservant a son, then I will give him to the LORD all the days of his life, and a razor shall never come on his head."
6 They return at evening, they howl like a dog, And go around the city.
10 Who is this King of glory? The LORD of hosts, He is the King of glory. Selah.
31 "Wail, O gate; cry, O city; Melt away, O Philistia, all of you; For smoke comes from the north, And there is no straggler in his ranks.
5 The Lord GOD of hosts, The One who touches the land so that it melts, And all those who dwell in it mourn, And all of it rises up like the Nile And subsides like the Nile of Egypt;
20 So Moses and Aaron did even as the LORD had commanded. And he lifted up the staff and struck the water that was in the Nile, in the sight of Pharaoh and in the sight of his servants, and all the water that was in the Nile was turned to blood.
8 "My inheritance has become to Me Like a lion in the forest; She has roared against Me; Therefore I have come to hate her.
34 Ascribe strength to God; His majesty is over Israel And His strength is in the skies.
7 The LORD of hosts is with us; The God of Jacob is our stronghold. Selah.
6 The nations made an uproar, the kingdoms tottered; He raised His voice, the earth melted.
7 Let us go into His dwelling place; Let us worship at His footstool.
5 Until I find a place for the LORD, A dwelling place for the Mighty One of Jacob."
2 My soul longed and even yearned for the courts of the LORD; My heart and my flesh sing for joy to the living God.
3 O send out Your light and Your truth, let them lead me; Let them bring me to Your holy hill And to Your dwelling places.
16 "Terror and dread fall upon them; By the greatness of Your arm they are motionless as stone; Until Your people pass over, O LORD, Until the people pass over whom You have purchased.
15 For thus says the high and exalted One Who lives forever, whose name is Holy, "I dwell on a high and holy place, And also with the contrite and lowly of spirit In order to revive the spirit of the lowly And to revive the heart of the contrite.
5 By awesome deeds You answer us in righteousness, O God of our salvation, You who are the trust of all the ends of the earth and of the farthest sea;
9 For with You is the fountain of life; In Your light we see light.
3 For by their own sword they did not possess the land, And their own arm did not save them, But Your right hand and Your arm and the light of Your presence, For You favored them.
8 Every morning I will destroy all the wicked of the land, So as to cut off from the city of the LORD all those who do iniquity.
9 We have thought on Your lovingkindness, O God, In the midst of Your temple.
3 Glorious things are spoken of you, O city of God. Selah.
10 Now a river flowed out of Eden to water the garden; and from there it divided and became four rivers.