Here is how others have translated this verse:

Ancient texts:

Latin Vulgate                          Unto the end, for the sons of Core, for the hidden.

Masoretic Text                       To the Preeminent [One]; for sons of Korah, upon virgins; a song.

Septuagint                              For the end, for the sons of Core; a Psalm concerning secret things.

Significant differences:           The inscription is dramatically different; the Greek and Latin both have to the end at the beginning, and the Hebrew has to the Preeminent [One] (or, to the choirmaster). All 3 have to [for] the sons of Korah. The Latin and Greek again agree on the end of the inscription, concerning [for] secret [hidden] things; whereas the Hebrew speaks of virgins. It may even appear that the Greek and Latin agree that this is a psalm, but the Hebrew word for song is not really an exact match for the Greek word psalmos (ψαλμος). I would not claim to know which text is accurate, as the Latin and Hebrew are usually in agreement, over-against the Greek. Here, the Greek and Latin agree, and, interestingly enough, it is about the end and about secret [hidden] things. One could make an argument here that this psalm would apply to the end times and that there would be secret or hidden things within the psalm. Because of these great differences, I will give the Greek rendering of the inscription.

Thought-for-thought translations; paraphrases:

CEV                                       (A special song for the people of Korah and for the music leader.)

The Message                         A song of the sons of Korah.

Mostly literal renderings (with some occasional paraphrasing):

Bible in Basic English             To the chief music-maker. Of the sons of Korah; put to Alamoth. A Song.

Complete Apostles’ Bible      For the end, for the sons of Korah; A Psalm concerning secret things.

God’s Word™                         For the choir director; a song by the descendants of Korah; according to alamoth.

The Scriptures 1998              [None]

Literal, almost word-for-word, renderings:

The Amplified Bible                To the Chief Musician. [A Psalm] of the sons of Korah, set to treble voices. A song.

English Standard Version      To the choirmaster. Of the Sons of Korah. According to Alamoth. A Song. .

MKJV                                     To the Chief Musician. For the sons of Korah. A Song "For the Virgins".

Updated Bible Version 2.11   For the Chief Musician. [A Psalm] of the sons of Korah; set to Alamoth. A Song.

Young's Literal Translation     To the Overseer. --By sons of Korah. `For the Virgins.' --A song.

What is the gist of this verse? That this is performed or written for the Chief Musician (or the Preeminent One) is stated, along with the fact that this is for the sons of Korah. This song is apparently performed with young women.

Translation: To the Preeminent One;... As we have seen with the numerous translations above, no one is clear as to who this person is. This psalm could be dedicated to God, which is essentially how I have translated it; however, it could be designed to be conducted by the chief musician, which is how Rotherham understands it. Most translators assume that this is given over to the choir director or the conductor or the one in charge of those who sang.

Unfortunately, the exact meaning of the lâmed preposition is also hard to determine. We find several psalms which are ascribed to David written to David; but the idea is, the psalm belongs to David. The lâmed preposition is used more often when something is given to someone else or something is for someone else, the chief meanings of the lâmed preposition. Despite the use of the lâmed preposition with David throughout the book of Psalms, I have taken this to me that this psalm is written for whoever this Preeminent person is.

Barnes comments on this portion of the inscription: This phrase in the title, “To the chief Musician,” occurs at the beginning of 53 psalms, and at the close of the hymn in Habak. 3:19. It is uniformly rendered “to the chief Musician,” and means that the psalm was intended for him, or was to be given to him, probably to regulate the manner of performing it. In no one instance does the title imply that he was the author. The word rendered “Chief Musician” is derived from [ a Hebrew word] properly meaning “to shine,” but not used in the Qal. In the Piel form it means to be conspicuous; to be over anything; to be chief; to be superintendent (2Chron. 2:2, 18 34:12) and then it means to lead in music. The meaning of the form used here, and in the other places where it occurs as a title to a psalm, is “Chief Musician,” or precentor; and the idea is, that the psalm is to be performed under his direction; or that the music is to be directed and adapted by him.

Even though we have the same preposition used here as we find used with David, when he is the author, the many times that this phrase is found in combination with the author’s name suggests more that there is a musical organization and that this song was delivered over to the Choirmaster (or conductor) of that organization to be sung and performed at various functions.

The NIV Study Bible has its opinion on this matter: [For the director of music is] probably a liturgical notation, indicating either that the psalm was to be added to he collection of works to be used by the director of music in Israel’s worship services, or that when the psalm was used in the temple worship, it was to be spoke [or, sung?] by the leader of the Levitical choir—or by the choir itself (see 1Chron. 23:4–5, 30 [Of the overseers over the works of the house of the Lord there were twenty-four thousand, and there were six thousand scribes and judges; and four thousand gatekeepers, and four thousand to praise the Lord with instruments which he made to praise the Lord...to stand in the morning to praise and give thanks to the Lord, and so in the evening] 25 [assignments are given to the sons of Korah, among others]). In this liturgical activity the Levites functioned as representatives of the worshiping congregation. Following their lead the people probably responded with “Amen” and “Praise the Lord” (Hallelujah); see 1Chron. 16:36 Neh. 5:13; compare 1Cor. 14:16 Rev. 5:14 7:12 19:4.

Translation:...[and] for the sons of Korah,... The lâmed preposition here could mean that this is written by sons of Korah, or that this was written for the sons of Korah. What was said for the previous portion of this inscription applies here as well. Whereas, we might argue about what we find above, I think that it is reasonable that descendants of Korah became a well-known choir and their sons after them. This appears to be a tradition which continued in this family for a very long time.

Barnes on the authorship of this psalm: The author of the psalm is unknown. It is not ascribed to David, but to “the Sons of Korah,” and there are no indications in the psalm that David was the author, or that it refers to his times. There is reason to believe that most of the psalms attributed to the “Sons of Korah” were composed subsequent to the time of David.

Barnes, on another psalm, goes into much more detail about the sons of Korah: DeWette renders it, “A poem of the sons of Korah.” The psalms to which this title is prefixed are the Psalms 42 44 45 46 47 48 49 84 85 87 88. So far as the title is concerned, it may mean either that the psalms were dedicated to them, or that they were submitted to them for arranging the music; or that they were designed to be employed by them as leaders of the music; or that they were the authors of these psalms, that is, that the psalms thus indicated emanated from their body, or were composed by one of their number. Which of these is the true idea must be determined, if determined at all, from some other source than the mere title. The sons of Korah were a family of Levitical singers. Korah was a great–grandson of Levi (Num. 16:1). He was united with Dathan and Abiram in opposition to Moses, and was the leader of the conspiracy (Num. 16:2; Judges 1:11).

Barnes continues: Korah had three sons, Assir, Elkanah, and Abiasaph (Ex. 6:24) and of their descendants David selected a number to preside over the music of the sanctuary, (1Chron. 6:22–23, 31) and they continued in this service until the time of Jehoshaphat (2Chron. 20:19). One of the most eminent of the descendants of Korah, who was employed especially in the musical service of the sanctuary, was Heman (1Chron. 6:33: Of the sons of the Kohathites; Heman, a singer). The sons of Heman were appointed by David, in connection with the sons of Asaph, and of Jeduthun, to preside over the music: (1Chron. 25:1, 4, 6 2Chron. 5:12 29:14 35:1). The general appellation, the “sons of Korah,” seems to have been given to this company or class of singers. Their office was to preside over the music of the sanctuary; to arrange tunes for the music; to distribute the parts; and possibly to furnish compositions for that service. Whether, however, they actually composed any of the psalms is uncertain [I will discuss this below]. It would seem that the usual custom was for the author of a psalm or hymn designed for public service to deliver it, when composed, into the hands of these leaders of the music, to be employed by them in the public devotions of the people. Thus, in 1Chron. 16:7, it is said, Then on that day David delivered first this psalm, to thank the Lord, into the hand of Asaph and his brethren.

The NIV Study Bible gives us some information about this particular title: “Sons of Korah” refers to the Levitical choir made up of the descendants of Korah appointed by David to serve in the temple liturgy. The Korahites represented the Levitical family of Kohath son of Levi. Their leader in the days of David was Heman (see Psalm 88 title)—just as Asaph led the choir of the Gershonite and Jeduthun (Ethan) the choir of the Merarites (see 1Chron. 6:31–47 Psalm 39 title). This is the third of a collection of seven psalms ascribed to the “Sons of Korah”) Psalm 42–49); four more occur in Book III (Psalm 84–85 87–88).

Heman, Asaph and Ethan are the sons of Korah during the reign of David. However, it is not unreasonable to suppose that they have musically inclined children as well, and it is not unreasonable to suppose that their children were believers in Jesus Christ, the God of the Jews, as well. Therefore, even if we understand the sons of Korah to have written these psalms, that does not place the psalms necessarily in the time of David, as the authors may be sons of the sons of Korah.

Of all the psalms listed with the phrase of [for?] the sons of Korah, we also find the phrase to the Choirmaster in all of them except Psalm 48 & 88.

Translation:...together with young women;... The preposition found here can mean several different things, and I suspect that we are speaking of the sons of Korah singing together with a female choir. The Amplified Bible apparently sees it this way as well, saying, in the inscription, that this is set to treble voices. Others have suggested that this refers to high-pitched instruments. The NIV Study Bible suggests that this might be maidens playing tambourines, although where they come up with the idea that these maidens must be playing tambourines is beyond me.

Rotherham, in his footnote on this verse, sees it the same way: according to maidens, i.e., with female voice (our treble or soprano) to indicate the style of music or singing.

I think that we are looking at singing combined with a chorus; perhaps the female chorus sings most of the psalm, while the male chorus (or complete chorus) sings vv. 1, 7 and 11. Perhaps, the idea of the psalm is, we are all helpless before world disasters, and our safety is in God.

Now, even though I believe that the thrust of this word is to indicate a female chorus or female voices, there are a number of theories, which Gill presents (the reading of which may or may not be edifying): The word "Alamoth" is thought by some, as Aben Ezra, to be the beginning of a song, to which this psalm was set; and by others a high tune, such as virgins express; and by others the name of musical instruments, as Jarchi and Kimchi; which seems most likely, since it is mentioned with other instruments of music in 1Chron. 15:19; and may not unfitly be rendered "virginals", from the sound of them being like the shrill voice of virgins, which this word signifies; though others choose to render it "of hidden things", (s), making it to design the subject matter of the psalm, the secret counsels and purposes of God, both in a way of love and grace to his people, and of judgment to his enemies.

Now, to be quite frank, the only reason that I tried to tie this psalm to the transporting of the Ark of God in 1Chron. 16 is this word, which is found only here and in 1Chron. 15:20. Given that the previous psalm which we studied (Psalm 24) undoubtedly had a give and take between two groups of singers, it would make sense that these young women would be named in 1Chronicles. Therefore, my particular placement of this psalm would not be valid.

Translation: ...a song. This psalm was written to be performed. It was written to be sung. The psalmist even specifies that male and female groups of singers need to be involved.

Barnes: The word “song” in the titles to Psalms 30 45 48 65–68 75 76 83 87 88 92 108 120–134. Nothing seems to be indicated by it in regard to the nature and character of the psalms where it is found. As above, I don’t think that it is unreasonable to suppose that these psalms had been composed and arranged to be performed. What that would say about the other psalms, however, is not clear. The NIV Study Bible points out that these are psalms of praise (with the exception of Psalms 83 and 88). The final group of psalms (120–134) are songs of ascents.

Translation: To [concerning, near] the end; for the children of Korah regarding secret [hidden] things; a psalm. The difference between the Greek and the Hebrew were so marked as to require a reading from the Greek (particularly, as the Latin is closer to the Greek than to the Hebrew).

This psalm deals with the end. This does not necessarily mean the end times or the Tribulation, as we have common Greek words for those phrases. This is an apt phrase, indicating, to those who observe the events of this psalm, that the nation Israel (or their city or their location) is coming to a cataclysmic end. Although this psalm was probably written during the time that Sennacherib first brought his troops to Jerusalem and that God wiped them out one morning—this could refer to any great disaster which threatens the existence of a city or of a large group of people. Such a title is apt to this psalm; however, aptness is not a good enough reason to adopt this ancient text over the Hebrew. Recall that, in any translation, we should expect the translation to make more sense than the original. We have seen innumeral situations where the Hebrew text was very difficult, but that the English text in almost over English translation was smooth and easy to understand. This is what is done with a translation. Therefore, if the text was obscure or if the text could not be read, a quick perusal of this psalm would suggest that this is a psalm about the end.

The only place where this psalm is in agreement with the Hebrew text is that it is apparently dedicated to or given to the sons of Korah; or, it was written by sons of Korah. I chose the latter explanation and this is explained above in greater detail (see Reasons Why the Sons of Korah Authored These Psalms).

One of the last words in this verse is difficult to define, as I was unable to find it online or in my Greek lexicons, which primarily examine New Testament words. It is possibly related to a common New Testament verb, and was given a meaning which corresponded to this verb. This word is not a Greek transliteration of the Hebrew text.

If this is a psalm of hidden things, then we may reasonably suspect that there may be some hidden meanings within this psalm. However, our problem here is twofold: (1) this is not what the Hebrew text says; and (2) the meaning of the Greek word is probable, but not assured. On the other hand, there are several verses in this psalm which appear to have more than one meaning, which would correspond quite nicely with our supposed meaning of this Greek word.

The final word is a psalm, which does not correspond exactly with the Hebrew word for song. That this is a psalm is clear; and given the organization and refrain, it is probably a song as well (which we would expect, given that it was probably composed by sons of Korah).

Even in Great Natural Disasters, God is our Refuge

Here is how others have handled this verse:

Ancient texts:

Masoretic Text                       Elohim to us refuge and strength

a help in affliction being found exceedingly. This is v. 2 in the Hebrew.

Septuagint                              God [is] our refuge and strength, a help in the afflictions that have come heavily upon us.

Significant differences:           The verb found here is actually the correct parallel verb to the MT; it is unclear in the Hebrew as to whom we should apply the verb.

Thought-for-thought translations; paraphrases:

CEV                                       God is our mighty fortress, always ready to help in times of trouble.

Good News Bible (TEV)         God is our shelter and strength, always ready to help in times of trouble.

The Message                         God is a safe place to hide, ready to help when we need him.

NET Bible®                             God is our strong refuge;

he is truly our helper in times of trouble.

New American Bible              God is our refuge and our strength,

an ever-present help in distress.

Mostly literal renderings (with some occasional paraphrasing):

Bible in Basic English             God is our harbour and our strength, a very present help in trouble.

Complete Apostles’ Bible      God is our refuge and strength, a help in the afflictions that have come heavily upon us.

od’s Word™                            God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in times of trouble.

HCSB                                     God is our refuge and strength, a helper who is always found in times of trouble.

JPS (Tanakh)                         God is refuge and stronghold,

a help in trouble, very near.

Literal, almost word-for-word, renderings:

The Amplified Bible                God is our refuge and strength [mighty and impenetrable to temptation] a very present and well-proved help in trouble.

LTHB                                     God is our refuge and strength, very much found to be a help in distresses.

WEB                                      God is our refuge and strength, A very present help in trouble.

Young's Updated LT              God is to us a refuge and strength, found to be a help in adversities most surely.

What is the gist of this verse? God is our strength and refuge, and we find Him to be our help during times of distress and adversity.

Translation: Elohim [is] to us [our] refuge and [our] strength;... The first half of this verse is quite simple. God is our refuge, our shelter, the person to whom we flee; He is also our strength and our protection. I have inserted the possessive pronouns our, as I think it is the gist of the understanding of this verse. Both the Tanakh and the NIV Study Bible insert the personal pronoun as well. This would be a reasonable substitute for the phrase to us. That is, this could be reasonably rendered Elohim is our refuge and our strength.

The NET Bible notes: "our refuge and strength," is probably a hendiadys meaning "our strong refuge" (see Psalm 71:7—Many are appalled when they see me, but you are my secure shelter). Another option is to translate, "our refuge and source of strength." 

It comes from a verb which means to flee, to flee to. Refuge is a place to where we go to during times of great pressure or trouble. This might be a bomb shelter, a safe room or a properly constructed building during storms, high winds and tornados. This word sets the tone for this psalm; it is going to become clear that there are great national disasters and that our safe room is Jehovah, the Elohim of Israel, Jesus Christ.

The Contemporary English Version renders refuge as fortress, and comments: Historically, a fortress was a ace of protection for people during times of trouble. Often, during times of war, soldiers guarded these structures and gave the people inside a strong sense of security. If there was any safe place to be, the fortress was the safest. Psalm 46:1 tells us that God is “our mighty fortress.” He is our mightiest protection, our strongest security, and our safe place to go to in times of trouble.

Application: People constantly get confused when it comes to dependence upon God. This does not mean that we abandon all common sense. When we are on the roof of our home, and the water is rising, and we are praying for deliverance, and someone with a boat comes by and offers us a ride, we don’t refuse and say, “I am waiting on God to deliver me.” That boat is God providing you the deliverance. When there are tornados in your area or high force winds and devastating rain showers, and there is a recommended safe place in your house where you can go, then it is reasonable to go to that place.

Spurgeon writes: “God is our refuge and strength.” Not our armies, or our fortresses. Israel's boast is in Jehovah, the only living and true God. Others vaunt their impregnable castles, placed on inaccessible rocks and secured with gates of iron, but God is a far better refuge from distress than all these: and when the time comes to carry the war into the enemy's territories, the Lord stands his people in better stead than all the valour of legions or the boasted strength of chariot and horse. Soldiers of the cross, remember this, and count yourselves safe, and make yourselves strong in God. Forget not the personal possessive word “our;” make sure each one of your portion in God, that you may say, “He is my refuge and strength.” Neither forget the fact that God is our refuge just now, in the immediate present, as truly as when David penned the word. God alone is our all in all. All other refuges are refuges of lies, all other strength is weakness, for power belongs to God: but as God is all-sufficient, our defence and might are equal to all emergencies.

God is also our strength, defense and our refuge. These words foreshadow the need for God to be these things to us.

Translation: ...being discovered [as] great help [when] in distress. The second part of this verse is more difficult; it is difficult to determine how the verb should be applied. If we apply the verb to God, He is found [to be] a great help [when we are] in adversity [and affliction]. I think this is the way that it should be understood. One problem, however, with this interpretation, is where I have located the adverb. The adverb appears to modify the verb and not the word help.

The other way is to understand that [our] great help in adversity is present. That is, the verb is applied to help. Again, there is the problem with the placement of the adverb. Some translators appropriately change the meaning of the adverb and apply it to the verb.

Another way to understand this is, God has been consistently found to be help to us during times of trouble. The idea is, we have an incident during which we need God’s help, and we call upon Him and He responds to us; another problem occurs and we call upon Him, and we find that God comes to our assistance again. Barnes suggests that God has proven Himself to be a help to us during times of need. Even though this verb is pretty far from being found to be our help in times of trouble, when this occurs again and again, and God is found again and again to be a help to us, then we learn to trust Him; He has proven Himself to be a help to us in times of disaster. The additional adverb very, exceedingly indicates to us that this is emphatically true. Therefore, we have no reason to be afraid or rattled or shaken up during times of trouble.

McGee comments: Most people think they are the only ones who have ever had trouble, but God’s people find God sufficient in time of trouble. Psalm 46 was Martin Luther’s favorite psalm. When he wrote that great Reformation hymn, “A Mighty Fortress Is Our God,” he probably had this in mind. God is our refuge, and our strength, and a very present help when we are in trouble. Men down through the ages have found this to be true.

Zodhiates comments on this verse: [God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble] God is a “present help” for those who depend upon Him, but the unregenerate have no access to Him (Psalm 10:1 Lam. 3:44 Ezek. 20:3). Even His children do not have access to the fullness of His glory (Ex. 33:20 1Tim. 6:16). The phrase “very present” in the Hebrew...emphasizes the speed, completeness, and the might of the Lord’s help.

Gill writes concerning the last half of this verse: a very present help in trouble; whether [this trouble is] inward or outward, of soul or body; the Lord helps his people under it to bear it, and he helps them out of it in the most proper and seasonable time: they are poor helpless creatures in themselves; nor can any other help them but the Lord, who made heaven and earth; and he helps presently, speedily, and effectually: in the Hebrew text it is, "He is found an exceeding help in trouble"; in all kind of trouble that the saints come into, the Lord has been found, by experience, to be an exceeding great helper of them; moreover, he is easily and always to be come at, and found by them for their help.

It is possible that this psalm—this verse and the next—inspired Martin Luther’s powerful lines:

A mighty fortress is our God, a bulwark never failing.

Our helper He, amid the flood, of mortal ills prevailing.

Because of the language of this first verse, we should expect great turmoil to be presented in the second.

Here is how others have translated this verse:

Ancient texts:

Masoretic Text                       Upon so we do not fear in a changing of earth;

and in a shaking of mountains in a heart of seas.

Septuagint                              Therefore will we not fear when the earth is agitated [or, troubled], and the mountains are removed into the depths of the seas.

Significant differences:           The second verb, although somewhat different than my English rendering, is a reasonable translation of the Hebrew verb. Recall that primarily what we look for here is evidence of textual differences between the present Masoretic text and the Hebrew text used by the Greek translators. What appears to be the case, and I can’t explain why, is that the 2d and 3^rd verbs seems to be transposed. In the Hebrew text, the 2^nd verb means to change, to exchange and the 3^rd verb in the Greek means to transpose, to transfer, to change. The 3^rd verb in the Hebrew means to shake, to dislodge, to totter; and the 2^nd verb in the Greek means to agitate, to trouble, to stir up. This is not a big problem, and it is possible that the Greek translators took some minor liberties here.

Thought-for-thought translations; paraphrases:

CEV                                       And so, we won't be afraid! Let the earth tremble and the mountains tumble into the deepest sea.

The Message                         We stand fearless at the cliff-edge of doom, courageous in sea storm and earthquake,.

NET Bible®                             For this reason we do not fear when the earth shakes,

and the mountains tumble into the depths of the sea,...

New Jerusalem Bible             so we shall not be afraid though the earth be in turmoil,

though mountains tumble into the depths of the sea,...

New Living Testament           So we will not fear, even if earthquakes come

and the mountains crumble into the sea.

Mostly literal renderings (with some occasional paraphrasing):

God’s Word™                         That is why we are not afraid even when the earth quakes or the mountains topple into the depths of the sea.

HCSB                                     Therefore we will not be afraid, though the earth trembles and the mountains topple into the depths of the seas,...

New International Version      Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way

and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea.

The Scriptures 1998              Therefore we do not fear, Though the earth reels And mountains topple into the heart of the seas.

Literal, almost word-for-word, renderings:

English Standard Version      Therefore we will not fear though the earth gives way, though the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea,...

King James 2000 Version      Therefore we will not fear, though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea;...

LTHB                                     On account of this we will not fear when the earth changes and when mountains are slipping into the heart of the seas.

Updated Bible Version 2.11   Therefore we will not fear, though the earth changes, And though the mountains shake into the heart of the seas;...

A Voice in the Wilderness      Therefore we will not fear when the earth changes, when mountains are slipping into the midst of the seas.

Young's Literal Translation     Therefore we fear not in the changing of earth, And in the slipping of mountains Into the heart of the seas.

What is the gist of this verse? In the greatest of natural disasters, we are not afraid.

Translation: Therefore, we are not afraid... This goes back to the first verse, where God is our refuge in times or trouble, and the result of knowing this is, therefore, we are not afraid. Understanding our relationship to God makes our life on earth much easier. We will see great disasters, and even more now, with the advent of television and instant news. However, we need not concern ourselves with what occurs around us, as we are related to God.

Translation: ...when the earth changes;... Here is also an amazing thing for David (or, whoever the psalmist is) to speak of. In his short life, we have no idea what he had observed. We know that mountains are formed and we know that they erode; we know that, over the time that the earth has been here, there have been tremendous changes of seas, mountains, rivers and lakes. However, the psalmist would not necessarily have observed anything like this; however, the psalmist still acknowledges here that there are great changes which take place. Now, I live in the south where we see an occasional hurricane and tornado, as well as some spectacular storms. I don’t know that the Land of Promise has the opportunity to observe such drastic phenomenah, and there is nothing in this psalm which seems to approximate these kinds of natural disasters. However, this psalmist, with apparently little or no evidence, speaks of the earth changing, and, in the next portion of this verse, it will be clear that he is speaking of great and drastic changes.

Translation: ...when mountains totter into the midst of the seas. Here we have a tremendous change in landscape, where mountains totter and fall into the seas. Obviously, we are speaking of great earthquakes, possibly floods, and we are speaking of the greatest disaster which could possibly occur—mountains tumbling into the seas. Actually observing this in person, which is what is suggested here, although awesome, should not be a cause for fear in the believer in Jesus Christ.

The actual phrase which is found here is ...when mountains totter into the heart of the seas. It should be clear that the oceans do not possess a heart or hearts, and that what is meant is, ...when mountains totter into the seas [or, into the midst of the seas]. Bullinger tells us that sometimes the word heart is used when we are not speaking literally of the precise middle point (whatever that could be in relation to the oceans).

In part, I think what we have here is hyperbole. A bit of an exaggeration. Now, it is true that an earthquake can bring portions of a mountain down, and, for all I know, there may even be recorded instances in geographical history where this has occurred. However, this is not an every day event; nor is this even an event which we observe every decade or even every 50 years. Since we are dealing with an entirely uncommon event, we should recognize that hyperbole is being used here. We could witness a mountain falling into the midst of the seas—we could witness, say, the sudden drop of a mountain island in the midst of the ocean—and even at the sight of this, our focus should be upon our refuge in God. However, bear in mind, the crises that we face, from day to day and year to year, pale by comparison to this somewhat exaggerated event. The writer chooses one of the most unlikely things for a person ever to witness, and uses this as an example of a time when we should maintain our faith in God.

This understanding of hyperbole here also helps us to understand when Jesus says this to his disciples: And Jesus answered them, "Truly, I say to you, if you have faith and do not doubt, you will not only do what has been done to the fig tree, but even if you say to this mountain, 'Be taken up and thrown into the sea,' it will happen. (Matt. 21:21). Quite frankly, I have known only one or two very strong believers who have prayed this prayer and then witnessed a mountain being thrown into the sea (okay, maybe none). This is hyperbole. Our prayer is seen as greatly powerful, even beyond one’s imagination. Is it not the actual event of a mountain being flung into the sea which is the emphasis here; it is the power of prayer which is being emphasized. Just as, in our passage, it is not the event of a mountain tottering into the sea which is emphasized, but God’s ability to be our strength and our refuge in times of trouble.

Barnes comments: This may either be understood literally, as implying that they should not be afraid though the mountains, the most fixed and firm things of earth, be uprooted and sunk in the ocean - implying that nothing earthly was stable; or, the mountains here may be referred to as emblems of that which seemed to be most settled and established on earth - the kingdoms of the world. The idea is, that in any convulsion - any change - any threatened danger - they would place confidence in God, who ruled over all, and who could not change.

Gill applies this verse: The consideration of the Lord's being the refuge, strength, and help of his people, in all times of trouble and distress, has a great influence on their faith and confidence, and makes them intrepid and fearless in the midst of the greatest dangers: nor indeed have they any reason to be afraid of men or devils, since the Lord is on their side; nor should they indulge a slavish fear on any account whatever.

Spurgeon: Let the worst come to the worst, the child of God should never give way to mistrust; since God remains faithful there can be no danger to his cause or people. When the elements shall melt with fervent heat, and the heavens and the earth shall pass away in the last general conflagration, we shall serenely behold “the wreck of matter, and the crash of worlds,” for even then our refuge shall preserve us from all evil, our strength shall prepare us for all good.

Or, as we read in Psalm 102:25–27: Of old you laid the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the work of your hands. They will perish, but you will remain; they will all wear out like a garment. You will change them like a robe, and they will pass away, but you are the same, and your years have no end. The heavens and the earth will change, but God remains the same throughout. Or, as David wrote, in Psalm 23:4–6: Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the LORD forever. And in the New Testament: Heb. 13:6: So we can confidently say, "The Lord is my helper; I will not fear; what can man do to me?"

Application: Periodically, I am dumbfounded by this world, and, in particular, by that which occurs within this nation. There are college professors and television personalities who say, without even a shred of evidence, that somehow President George Bush colluded with Osama Ben Laden to take out the world trade center (apparently Bush had explosives placed throughout the buildings). What is shocking is, I have heard people clap and cheer when these opinions are expressed; and I have heard intelligent people say, despite all the evidence to the contrary, they are entitled to their opinions, and their opinions are just as reasonable as anyone else’s. We’ve gibe from the point where all philosophical opinions are of equal value to all opinions of events which we have actually observed have equal value, and are equally valid (with the exception of global warming; one should not have an alternate opinion in this area). I see these events unfold—particularly disconcerted when people cheer and clap when they hear what is absolute, unscientific nonsense—and I have to console myself with, God does not change; God can be depended upon. We could even see our own nation destroyed; we could see our precious freedoms lost in this nation; we might witness nuclear attacks against our nation—but, no matter what the situation, we need to recognize that we live in the devil’s world and that God changes not. God is our refuge and God is our strength, He our helper amid the flood.

Here is how others have translated this verse:

Ancient texts:

Latin Vulgate                          Their waters roared and were troubled: the mountains were troubled with His strength.

Masoretic Text                       Roar [and] rise up his waters,

tremble mountains in his majesty.

Peshitta                                  Though the waters thereof roar and are troubled, though the mountains shake with force thereof.

Septuagint                              Their waters have roared and been troubled, the mountains have been troubled by his might. Pause.

Significant differences:           The second verb in the Greek is not too different from the corresponding verb in the Hebrew. It can mean to agitate, to make restless. It is an interesting verb to apply to mountains, as it seems perfectly suited for the ocean.

Thought-for-thought translations; paraphrases:

CEV                                       Let the ocean roar and foam, and its raging waves shake the mountains.

Good News Bible (TEV)         ...even if the seas roar and rage, and the hills are shaken by the violence.

The Message                         Before the rush and roar of oceans, the tremors that shift mountains.

NET Bible®                             ...when its waves crash and foam,

and the mountains shake before the surging sea. (Selah)

New Living Testament           Let the oceans roar and foam.

Let the mountains tremble as the waters surge!Interlude

Mostly literal renderings (with some occasional paraphrasing):

Bible in Basic English             Though its waters are sounding and troubled, and though the mountains are shaking with their violent motion. Selah.

Complete Apostles’ Bible      Their waters have roared and been troubled, the mountains have been troubled by His might. Pause.

God’s Word™                         Water roars and foams, and mountains shake at the surging waves. Selah

HCSB                                     ...though its waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with its turmoil. Selah

JPS (Tanakh)                         ...its waters rage and foam;

in its swell mountains quake.

Literal, almost word-for-word, renderings:

The Amplified Bible                Though its waters roar and foam, though the mountains tremble at his swelling and tumult. Selah [pause, and think calmly of that]!

LTHB                                     Let its waters foam; let the mountains shake in its swelling. Selah.

New King James Version       Though its waters roar and be troubled.

Though the mountains shake with its swelling. Selah

Updated Bible Version 2.11   Though its waters roar and are troubled, Though the mountains tremble with its swelling. Selah.

A Voice in the Wilderness      Let its waters roar and foam; let the mountains shake with the swelling of it. Selah.

WEB                                      Though the waters of it roar and are troubled, Though the mountains tremble with their swelling. Selah.

Young's Literal Translation     Roar--troubled are its waters, Mountains they shake in its pride. Selah.

What is the gist of this verse? This appears to be a continuation of examples of how the earth changes, but how we should maintain our faith in the strength and refuge of God.

Translation: His waters roar [and] rise up;... Because selah occurs at the end of this verse, we know that v. 3 should be tied to what has come before. In v. 1, the psalmist trusts in God as his refuge and his strength, and in v. 2, the psalmist says he will not fear even if mountains crumble into the seas. He continues this same approach of trusting in God without fear, even though certain natural disasters or incredible forces of nature occur. This is why many translators include the word though at the beginning of this verse.

Barnes comments: Though the waters thereof roar and be troubled - The waters of the sea. The idea is, that they would not be afraid though everything should be in commotion, and be as unsettled as the restless waves of the ocean. The earth might be changed, the mountains removed, the agitated sea roar and dash against the shore, but their minds would be calm. The word rendered “be troubled” means to boil; to ferment; to foam; and here it refers to the ocean as agitated and lashed into foam. Nothing is more sublime and fearful than the ocean in a storm; nothing furnishes a better illustration of the peace produced by confidence in God amid the agitations which occur in the world, than the mind of a seaman that is calm when the ocean is heaved in wild commotion.

For most of us, water is a very pleasant thing to observe; who doesn’t want the home along the river’s edge, or overlooking a beautiful lake, or on a small cliff above the ocean. For many, that is a dream location. However, there are some who have lived along a river’s edge who have seen their home and all of their possessions taken away in the space of an hour; there are those who were walking along the ocean’s edge at the southern coast of Thailand, when the tsunami struck, causing untold devastation to everything near the beach. The water of rivers and oceans can be devastating to the n^th degree, and, in many cases, we have little or no warning. I’ve lived in Houston for the past 25+ years, and we have seen our share of flooding. Rarely have I ever seen a weatherman say, “This is going to be the big one; this is going to be bad; if you live in these neighborhoods, you need to find higher ground.” Much of the time that we are told to expect a heavy rain, we see rain, and it is not that big of a deal; and sometimes, it is devastating.

In this verse, we are speaking of water in terms of its devastating force. The idea is, we can depend upon God in times of natural disaster; we can look to Him in a crisis. God does not forget about us, even when the waters roar and rise up.

We find this written as His waters; although Satan is the god of this world, God does maintain ownership and control over the waters, and the 3^rd person masculine singular suffix here refers to God. Some attribute the suffix to the seas from the previous verse.

Translation: ...mountains tremble before His majesty. In the previous verse, we spoke of a mountain tumbling into the sea; here, we have mountains trembling because of or by means of or before His majesty. Again, the 3^rd person masculine singular suffix refers to Jesus Christ. The trembling of the mountains refers to either a severe earthquake or to a volcanic eruption.

Barnes: Though the mountains shake with the swelling thereof - The rolling ocean breaking against; the sides of the mountains on its shore, and seeming to shake them to their foundation. The word rendered “swelling” means properly majesty, glory; then pride, haughtiness, insolence. Literally, “though the mountains tremble through their pride.” 

Again, it is interesting for the psalmist to speak of things like this, which he possibly never has observed personally. He has never seen movies of these sorts of phenomenon (this is because youtube had not yet been invented), yet the writer appears to be very aware of the power of these natural forces, which function at the permission or at the direction of a sovereign God.

Clarke sees this verse as more symbolic: Waters, in prophetic language, signify people; and, generally, people in a state of political commotion, here signified by the term roar. And by these strong agitations of the people, the mountains – the secular rulers, shake with the swelling thereof – tremble, for fear that these popular tumults should terminate in the subversion of the state. This very people had seen all Asia in a state of war. The Persians had overturned Asia Minor, and destroyed the Babylonian empire: they had seen Babylon itself sacked and entered by the Persians; and Cyrus, its conqueror, had behaved to them as a father and deliverer. While their oppressors were destroyed, themselves were preserved, and permitted to return to their own land. The NET Bible® concurs: the repetition of the verbs (hamah, "crash; roar," Psalm 46:3) and (mot, "shake," Psalm 46:2) in Psalm 46:6, where nations/kingdoms "roar" and "shake," suggests that the language of Psalm 46:2–3 is symbolic and depicts the upheaval that characterizes relationships between the nations of the earth. As some nations (symbolized by the surging, chaotic waters) show hostility, others (symbolized by the mountains) come crashing down to destruction. The surging waters are symbolic of chaotic forces in other poetic texts (see, for example, Isa. 17:12—the roar of nations; they roar like the roaring of mighty waters; Jer. 51:41–42—How Babylon is taken, the praise of the whole earth seized! How Babylon has become a horror among the nations! The sea has come up on Babylon; she is covered with its tumultuous waves; and Rev. 17:15—And the angel said to me, "The waters that you saw, where the prostitute is seated, are peoples and multitudes and nations and languages.”) and mountains can symbolize strong kingdoms (see, for example, Jer. 51:25—The LORD says, "Beware! I am opposed to you, Babylon! You are like a destructive mountain that destroys all the earth.”).

I find the literal rendering to be apt, yet I do not think that Clarke’s approach is farfetched. And the gist of these 3 verses is, God is our refuge and strength during times of great crisis, which could include natural and political disasters. Natural and political disasters will be viewed side-by-side in v. 6. Symbolically, v. 3 might be seen to foreshadow v. 6. This is hinted at, as two verbs of v. 2–3 is also used in v. 6. In other words, there is no reason to try to confine this verse to natural or political disaster; finding a dual meaning in poetry is quite reasonable and not at all out of the ordinary. In fact, this may suggest that upcoming verses have dual meanings as well.

It is interesting that when Jesus speaks of the end times, his verbiage is strikingly similar: “There will be great earthquakes, and in various places famines and disease. And there will be terrors and great signs from heaven...And there will be signs in sun and moon and stars, and on the earth distress of nations in perplexity because of the roaring of the sea and the waves, people fainting with fear and with foreboding of what is coming on the world. For the powers of the heavens will be shaken.” (Luke 21:21, 25–26). Again, the theme of this psalm is, in times of great upheaval of any sort, we need to depend upon God, Who will take care of us.

The NIV Study Bible nicely sums up these three verses: [vv. 1–3 are] a triumphant confession of fearless trust in God, though the continents break up and sink beneath the resurging waters of the seas—i.e., though the creation itself may seem to become uncreated (see Psalm 104:6–9 [The deep, like a garment, is His covering; the waters shall stand on the hills. At Your rebuke they shall flee; at the voice of Your thunder they shall be alarmed. They go up to the mountains, and down to the plains, to the place which You founded for them. You have set a boundary which they shall not pass, neither shall they turn again to cover the earth] Gen. 1:9–10 [And God said, Let the water which is under the heaven be collected into one place, and let the dry land appear, and it was so. And the water which was under the heaven was collected into its places, and the dry land appeared. And God called the dry land Earth, and the gathering of the waters He called Seas; and God saw that it was good]) and all may appear to be going down before the onslaught of the primeval deep. The described upheaval is probably imagery for great threats to Israel’s existence, especially from her enemies.

There is a refrain found in vv 7 and 11 [Jehovah of the Armis is with us; the God of Jacob is a refuge for us], which is followed by selah! Rotherham suggests that this refrain was accidentally dropped from the text here.

Translation: [Musical] Pause [or, musical interlude; lit., Selah!] As described in the exegesis, this word çelâh comes from a verb which means to lift up. It is reasonable to assume that those who are playing musical instruments are to lift up these instruments and play during a pause in the singing. I believe that this is called the bridge in modern music? Keil and Delitzsch suggest: The music, as Sela directs, here becomes more boisterous; it gives intensity to the strong cry for the judgment of God; and the first unfolding of thought of this Michtam is here brought to a close. Let me suggest that this also is a time where David takes a break from writing, and concentrates on his run. Obviously, he is formulating this as he runs; he does not stop to scratch out a few verses on a rock or a tree; but this represents a break in his thinking, and the music intensifies as he simply runs.

God is Greater than the Disturbances of Nations

Just as, in the previous verse, it seemed quite reasonable for it to have a dual meaning, this should be kept in mind as we examine the 2^nd part of this psalm.

Here is how others have translated this verse:

Ancient texts:

Masoretic Text                       A river His canals make happy a city of Elohim

holy dwelling places of [the] Most High.

Septuagint                              The flowings of the river gladden the city of God: the Most High has sanctified his tabernacle.

Significant differences:           In the Greek and Latin, we have the verb to sanctify in the second line. The Syriac and Hebrew do not. There are a number of places in this psalm, where differences in text are found in the Greek and Latin, but not in the Syriac.

Thought-for-thought translations; paraphrases:

CEV                                       A river and its streams bring joy to the city, which is the sacred home of God Most High.

Good News Bible (TEV)         There is a river that brings joy to the city of God, to the sacred house of the Most High.

The Message                         River fountains splash joy, cooling God's city, this sacred haunt of the Most High.

NET Bible®                             The river's channels bring joy to the city of God,

the special, holy dwelling place of the sovereign One.

New Jerusalem Bible             There is a river whose streams bring joy to God’s city,

it sanctifies the dwelling of the Most High.

Mostly literal renderings (with some occasional paraphrasing):

Bible in Basic English             There is a river whose streams make glad the resting-place of God, the holy place of the tents of the Most High.

Complete Apostles’ Bible      The flowings of the river gladden the city of God; the Most High has sanctified His tabernacle.

God’s Word™                         There is a river whose streams bring joy to the city of God, the holy place where the Most High lives.

HCSB                                     There is a river--its streams delight the city of God, the holy dwelling place of the Most High.

The Scriptures 1998              A river whose streams Make glad the city of Elohim, The set-apart dwelling of the Most High.

Literal, almost word-for-word, renderings:

English Standard Version      There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy habitation of the Most High.

A Voice in the Wilderness      There is a river whose streams cause rejoicing in the city of God, the consecrated place of the tabernacle of the Most High.

WEB                                      There is a river, the streams of which make the city of God glad, The holy place of the tents of the Most High.

Young’s Updated LT             A river—its rivulets rejoice the city of God, Your holy place of the tabernacles of the Most High.

What is the gist of this verse? Water causes rejoicing in the city of God, a holy place of dwelling places for God.

Translation: A river—His canals—make happy the city of Elohim;... These same waters, which are so destructive and cause so much fear, are used to provide all necessities for the city of God. I am going to assume that the city of God is a reference to Jerusalem, which is seen as the city of God during the time of David (and during the reigns of his sons), and it will be the holy city again in the Millennium (Rev. 21:2, 10). At the same time, bear in mind that this might be a narrow interpretation, and that this can simply refer to the earth, which God had designed for habitation.

Most cities in the ancient world were built near water; water then, as today, was necessary for almost every function of life. It was well-understood to be our lifeblood. Without some source of water, man cannot survive. Canals are probably manmade irrigation ditches used for crops or simply to move water closer into the city.

Interestingly enough, Jerusalem was not built on a river, unlike Thebes (Neh. 3:8), Damascus (2Kings 5:12), Nineveh (Nahum 2:6, 8) or Babylon (Psalm 137:1). We don’t know exactly how Jerusalem was watered during the time of David. Solomon built great pools for Jerusalem in the Bethlehem area; and Hezekiah had deep tunnels built in order to reach an underground spring (2Kings 18:17 Isa. 22:11). It is suggested that David attacked Jerusalem through underground tunnels, which, no doubt, were routes to an underground water supply.

For this reason, even though most would agree that Jerusalem is the City of God spoken of here, the river may be seen as symbolic. In Psalm 1, the blessed man is planted by the rivers of water, which is the Word of God. We read in Ezekiel of a river which flows out from the house of God (Ezek. 47). Finally, in Rev. 22:1–2, we read: And he showed me a pure river of water of life, bright as crystal, proceeding from the throne of God and of the Lamb. In the middle of its street, and on both sides of the river was the tree of life, producing twelve fruits, each yielding its fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations. In these examples, a river represents much more than simply water; it represents the Word of God, by which our spiritual lives are sustained, just as clean, clear water sustains our physical beings. .

As I have already mentioned, there is a contrast here between waters as a destructive force and water as our lifeblood. We find a similar contrast in Isa. 8:6–8, where the armies of Assyria will sweep into Judah as water overruns the banks of a river; this is because the gentle waters of the Lord have been rejected by His people.

As believers in Jesus Christ, we enjoy the river and canals of God, and we sometimes face the flood waters as well. However, it is the same God, and we are provided for no matter what it is that we face. We are going to find ourselves facing small disasters and major disasters. Sometimes we fail or get D–‘s when we face these disasters, but we can be assured that God is going to take us through to the other side. The end result is going to be to our good.

Barnes has a take on this verse: 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 33:21 41:18 Psalm 1:3 36:8 Rev. 22:1. 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 NET Bible® comments: The image of a river flowing through Zion may have inspired prophetic visions of an eschatological river flowing from the temple (see Ezek 47:1-12; Joel 3:18—“And in that day the mountains shall drip sweet wine, and the hills shall flow with milk, and all the streambeds of Judah shall flow with water; and a fountain shall come forth from the house of the LORD and water the Valley of Shittim”).

Spurgeon: “There is a river.” Divine grace like a smoothly flowing, fertilizing, full, and never-failing river, yields refreshment and consolation to believers. This is the river of the water of life, of which we all partake. It is no boisterous ocean, but a placid stream, it is not stayed in its course by earthquakes or crumbling mountains, it follows its serene course without disturbance. Happy are they who know from their own experience that there is such a river of God. “The streams whereof” in their various influences, for they are many, “shall make glad the city of God,” by assuring the citizens that Zion's Lord will unfailingly supply all their needs. The streams are not transient like Cherith, nor muddy like the Nile, nor furious like Kishon, nor treacherous like Job's deceitful brooks, neither are their waters “naught” like those of Jericho, they are clear, cool, fresh, abundant, and gladdening. The great fear of an Eastern city in time of war was lest the water supply should be cut off during a siege; if that were secured the city could hold out against attacks for an indefinite period. In this verse, Jerusalem is described as well supplied with water, to set forth the fact, that in seasons of trial all-sufficient grace will be given to enable us to endure unto the end. The church is like a well-ordered city, surrounded with mighty walls of truth and justice, garrisoned by omnipotence, fairly built and adorned by infinite wisdom: its burgesses the saints enjoy high privileges; they trade with far-off lands, they live in the smile of the King; and as a great river is the very making and mainstay of a town, so is the broad river of everlasting love and grace their joy and bliss.

The idea of this and previous verses is, water, in any form—as a storm, as part of a tornado, as found in the ocean or in a river—can be extremely powerful and destructive; however, the exact same water provides all that is needed for the preservation and the happiness of any city.

If you have just studied Psalm 24, it is amazing how integral water is to life, and how well David understood this when writing Psalm 24. The same is true here; it is absolutely integral to life.

Here, what I find interesting is, that the psalmist recognizes just how powerful and destructive water can be, where we have no recorded historical incidents to which we can reference which would indicate that people in Israel faces this kind of force before (apart from storms being used against their enemies in battle).

We have a reference here also to the city of God, which we may reasonably interpret as being Jerusalem, much as we find it in Psalm 3:4 I cried aloud to the LORD, and he answered me from his holy hill; in Psalm 20:1: May he send you help from the sanctuary and give you support from Zion; and in Psalm 48:1–2a: Great is the LORD and greatly to be praised in the city of our God! His holy mountain, beautiful in elevation, is the joy of all the earth, Mount Zion. See also: Psalm 48:8 87:3 2Chron. 6:6 Isa. 37:35–36 60:14 Heb. 12:22 Rev. 21:2–3, 10. This is seen as God’s place of rule during the Age of Israel and He will rule over the earth from there in the Millennium as well. God is also seen as dwelling in the 3^rd heaven in Psalm 2:4: He who sits in the heavens laughs; the Lord holds them in derision (actually, God the Father is seen as dwelling in the 3^rd heaven and God the Son, the King, is seen as dwelling in Zion—Psalm 2:6–7).

There is no doubt some difficulty with assigning a particular place to God, Who is Omnipresent. God is everywhere and God sees everything including our very thoughts. However, God created man and the angels with free will; therefore, at times, we function outside God’s directive will, and the angels which fell are always outside God’s will. To that extent, God does not function within the demons or where the demons are. So, His throne is seen to be elsewhere. Even in reference to man—even regenerate man—God’s throne is often represented as being in heaven, as His will is not being done on earth (as it is in heaven). God can take the negative volition toward Him and turn that into good (Rom. 8:28), but all that occurs on this earth is, taken apart from everything else, is not good. We live in the devil’s world, and therefore, God’s throne is spoken of as being elsewhere. However, God functions within us and, when we are filled with the Holy Spirit, God functions through us and He is said to reside within us.

As an aside, there is no there is in this verse; so, there is a river is not an accurate rendering. However, this short phrase, like many found in Scripture, was chosen for the title of a book about Edgar Cayce, who is called the sleeping prophet. Personally, I was raised to believe in reincarnation, and much of that is based upon the trance-readings of Cayce. I have quite frankly forgotten the details here, but one of the many things which I was taught, along with reincarnation, is that religious types took all references to reincarnation out of the Bible. This is something which I even heard again on the radio the other day on a late-night show. When it comes to the Old Testament, it was preserved by a number of groups: there are the Masorite Jews who preserved the Hebrew text, and apparently added the vowel points; there are Christians who preserved the Greek text; the Catholic church preserved the Latin text; and there are several other groups who preserved the text of the Old Testament in Syriac, Arabic, and other languages. What is amazing to me is, how close these texts are to one another, even though the groups which preserved the texts were often theologically opposed to one another. However, their faith in the text itself is so strong that, it is doubtful that any text was dramatically changed (we have come across two instances of what could be seen as a serious problem in the text; we have come across many incidents of minor disagreements, none of which affect any doctrines whatsoever). The New Testament is a whole different story. Although it is preserved by several groups, and found in several languages, there is an unprecedented number of manuscripts: 26,000 full and partial ancient manuscripts, something which is unparalleled in human history. There are a huge number of manuscripts which predate the Catholic Church, whom many think made many and drastic changes to the text in order to suit Catholic doctrine. As we have seen, the Latin text and Hebrew text are very similar, and are in agreement 95% of the time; and the disagreements are few and unsubstantial. My point is, although there are a few changes which have been made to the text of the Bible, both Old and New Testaments; we can pinpoint those changes, and, in many cases, we are able to determine the more accurate text. And one thing which is clear is, the idea of reincarnation is not and has never been a part of Scripture; we do not find any references to reincarnation in any text or alternate text. What we have here is—something which as become famous in this culture—made-up history. Without any shred of evidence whatsoever, people make up things in order to support whatever weird ideas that they have.

It is very telling for reincarnation types to say things like this about the Bible. Why can’t they simply say, “I believe in reincarnation; I think that I should get better and better with each incarnation.” Why do they need to say, “Well, the Bible used to say thus and so, but that was changed by religious types over the years.” They need to say this because, even in their own darkness, they have to acknowledge the importance of God’s Word. They need some kind of authority for their weird ideas, and they simply make up false history about the Bible in order to pretend that the Bible supports their ideas. There are all kinds of religious texts out there, and some which even support, to some degree, their philosophies; but that is not good enough: in their minds, some evil organization had to come along, find all mentions of reincarnation in the Bible, and surreptitiously take them out—this is despite the fact that this is one of the most well-known books throughout history and millions of people have committed great sections of the Bible to memory—they still think somehow, some way, some organization snuck in, took out these references, and no one noticed, and only the changed manuscripts were somehow preserved.

This is obvious even today. We have people in universities and on television proclaiming that George W. Bush worked out a deal with Osama Bin Laden to destroy the twin towers in New York City, so that Bush could, as far as I can tell, get the people of the US riled up enough so that they would approve him attacking Middle Eastern countries, and cause Bin Laden to flee into obscurity. Yes, that makes so much sense. But so many people think, well, that is their opinion and everyone has a right to their opinion. You don’t get to have an opinion about what did or did not historically occur! You might be able to have differeing opinions concerning the interpretation of events, but you do not simply get to make up events in order to prove your own weird philosophies.

Among Muslims today, there are huge segments who doubt the holocaust, who doubt the severity of it; and yet, in the same breath, call for the complete annihilation of Israel. It does not matter that we have films of it; we have eyewitnesses of it who are still alive; it does not matter that we have thousands upon thousands of people who have testified in writing and on camera as to the incredible horror of the holocaust, but at the same time, there are possibly millions of Muslims who ignore every historical evidence, make up facts, and teach these made-up facts to their children. I remember the first time that I heard of the concept of a holocaust museum, and that seemed strange to me, a place to preserve evidence of this horror, so that man could not forget. I thought to myself, how could man ever forget something like this? And yet, here it is, not but 60–70 years later, and millions of people deny that the holocaust even occurred, despite the preponderance of evidence to the contrary.

I have heard that in England, they have, at least in some schools, removed teaching the holocaust from their historical curriculum, because it may offend Muslims or it may cause too much discussion in the classroom and too many disagreements. This is because, man loves darkness rather than light; he prefers that which is false over that which is true.

Translation:...[and they make happy] the holy dwelling places of the Most High. I don’t claim to fully apprehend the meaning of this phrase. Is this a reference to God being omnipresent? It is unusual to use this word Tabernacle in the plural, as there was to be one Tabernacle only during the history of Israel. Perhaps this refers to the Tabernacle and to the Temple, the Temple having been build prior to this psalm being written. It is even possible that God the Holy Spirit was looking forward to the Church Age when we would all be indwelt by the Trinity. I am concerned about prophecies in the Old Testament which refer to fulfillments in the Church Age; however, it is possible that the saints of the Tribulation will be indwelt by the Trinity as we are. During the time of David, it is unclear whether the Tabernacle was functioning; after his reign, Solomon built the Temple, which made the Tabernacle obsolete, so to speak (it was kept within the Temple, if memory serves).

Perhaps, even though Israel saw the Tabernacle, and later the Temple, as sort of a dwelling place for God—at least, a place where man met God—that this psalmist understood that God could be found throughout the universe.

As has been suggested in previous verses, we may be looking at a meaning which is below the surface; that is, we may not be speaking of Jerusalem specifically in the first half of this verse, nor are we necessarily speaking of the specific Tabernacle of God in the second half. One possible interpretation is, it is the entire earth which is made glad by the streams of water; and that these dwelling places of the Most High can refer to any home inhabited by believers; or to any place on this earth, as God is omnipresent.

We find the designation for God as the Most High in 54 verses, in both the Old and New Testaments. We first find this name in Gen. 14:18: And Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine. (He was priest of God Most High). This title is prevalent in the Psalms (21 times); in the book of Daniel (13 times); and in the book of Luke (7 times). It is interesting that the final use of this name for God occurs in Heb. 7:1–2, where Melchizedek is mentioned once again: For this Melchizedek, king of Salem, priest of the Most High God, met Abraham returning from the slaughter of the kings and blessed him, and to him Abraham apportioned a tenth part of everything. He is first, by translation of his name, king of righteousness, and then he is also king of Salem, that is, king of peace. Jesus Christ, the first and the last.

Here is how others have translated this verse:

Ancient texts:

Latin Vulgate                          God is in the midst thereof, it shall not be moved: God will help it in the morning early.

Masoretic Text                       Elohim in a midst of her lest she is shaken

helps her Elohim to turn toward [away from] a morning.

Peshitta                                  God is in the midst of her; she will not be moved; God will help her in the early morning.

Septuagint                              God is in the midst of her; she shall not be moved: God shall help her with His countenance. [or, as per the Alexandrian LXX and Hebrew, before, or, toward the morning]..

Significant differences:           The verb to turn toward and the noun for faces are cognates of one another in the Hebrew. Therefore, it is easy to see where the Greek translators got their rendering. It is possible that what was in the Hebrew confused them, and they tried to fix this. You will note that the Jerome and those who translated the Syriac were also confused by the Hebrew text, and simply said that God would help her (the earth). With what we know today, this makes perfect sense.

Thought-for-thought translations; paraphrases:

CEV                                       God is in that city, and it won't be shaken. He will help it at dawn.

Good News Bible (TEV)         God is in that city, and it will never be destroyed; at early dawn he will come to its aid.

The Message                         God lives here, the streets are safe, God at your service from crack of dawn.

NET Bible®                             God lives within it, it cannot be moved.

God rescues it at the break of dawn.

New American Bible              God is in its midst; it shall not be shaken;

God will help it at break of day.

Mostly literal renderings (with some occasional paraphrasing):

Bible in Basic English             God has taken his place in her; she will not be moved: he will come to her help at the dawn of morning.

Complete Apostles’ Bible      God is in the midst of her; she shall not be moved; God shall help her with His countenance.

God’s Word™                         God is in that city. It cannot fall. God will help it at the break of dawn.

HCSB                                     God is within her; she will not be toppled. God will help her when the morning dawns.

JPS (Tanakh)                         God is in its midst, it will not be toppled,

by daybreak God will come to its aid.

New International Version      God is within her, she will not fall,

God will help her at break of day [or, as dawn approaches].

The Scriptures 1998              Elohim is in her midst, she does not topple; Elohim does help her when morning turns.

Literal, almost word-for-word, renderings:

English Standard Version      God is in the midst of her; she shall not be moved; God will help her when morning dawns.

Updated Bible Version 2.11   God is in the midst of her; she will not be moved: God will help her, and that right early.

Young’s Updated LT             God is in her midst—she is not moved, God does help her at the turn of the morning!

What is the gist of this verse? God is in the earth’s midst, so that the earth is not dislodged from its orbit; God turns the earth toward each morning. God is in the city’s midst, so that it remains, able to view each morning.

The Hebrew text here is pretty amazing; by one interpretation, it sounds like a layman’s expression of to the earth’s gravity, it’s stability and its orbit, all of which are attributed to God.

Translation: Elohim is in her [the city; the earth’s] midst,... The feminine singular suffix again refers back to the earth (v. 2) and it can also refer back to the city [of God] (v. 4). I think that the intention of this is a double meaning, one which God the Holy Spirit inserted for the last few generations. It makes sense to us now; it would not have made sense at the time it was written.

The first interpretation has God in the midst of the city of God, which clearly makes sense. This does not mean that God’s omnipresence is changed, simply that God has some sort of a special presence within the city of God, which is Jerusalem. This would be another verse that would appear to identify this psalm with the moving of the Ark into Jerusalem. However, as has been previously discussed, this psalm more logically should be placed with an event like the sudden destruction of Sennacherib’s army (Isa. 36–37).

Barnes writes: God is in the midst of the “city” referred to above - the “city of God.” That is, (a) he dwelt there by the visible symbol of his presence, the shekinah; (b) he was there “actually” as a help and a protector. It was his chosen abode, and as long as such a Being dwelt in the city, they had nothing to fear.

That God is in the midst of His city, or in the midst of His people, is found in a number of passages: Deut. 23:14 Psalm 68:18 Isa. 12:6 Ezek. 43:7, 9 Hosea 11:9 Joel 2:27 Zeph. 3:15 Zech. 2:5, 10–11 8:3 Matt. 18:20 Rev. 2:1.

The second interpretation is quite fascinating; the idea that God is within the earth (the other prominent feminine singular noun in this psalm). Again, this is not necessarily a reference to God’s omnipresence, or even to a specialized presence, in this case. God simply set up the laws of universe. God is in the midst of the earth. God set up all physical laws, including the law of gravity, the law of centrifugal force, and whatever other laws allow the eearth to fly through space at astonishing speeds, turn on an axis, and for us to feel in complete stability. This is quite interesting, particularly in view of the words which follow.

Translation: ...so that she is not dislodged;... The dual interpretation begins like this: if this refers to Jerusalem, then the indication is, God would preserve this city, that is not be moved. Jerusalem still exists, although, at various times, it has been thrown into disorder and into disarray.

Now, even more interesting, is understanding this as a reference to the earth: God is within the earth, so that the earth is not shaken, so that it does not totter, so that it is not dislodged from her orbit. God also keeps the earth from being thrown into disarray. The Bible is not a scientific book, and therefore, it is not going to be written with scientific rigor; the Bible will report certain scientific facts, but from a layman’s perspective (which is not too different from us saying, the sun rises in the east and sets in the west). The earth spins on its axis, and it is also going around the sun in a specific elliptical orbit. God maintains this spin and this orbit for the earth, so that it is not dislodged. For the earth to somehow be thrown out of its orbit would throw the world into disorder and disarray.

Translation: ...Elohim helps her [the city; the earth]... First interpretation: God helps Jerusalem; God will preserve Jerusalem for many years, including the times that the Jews occupy this city. Jerusalem is still preserved to this very day. We may think that it is unfortunate that Jerusalem became some kind of an Islamic city, and therefore, a city for which the Arabs will always struggle. Let me disabuse you of your notions: radical Islam is fueled by hatred; hatred for the Jews and hatred for Christianity, despite the fact that we all recognize all or portions of the Old Testament as divinely inspired. Radical Muslims will always hate the Jews, no matter where they live. The son of the bond woman always persecutes the son of the free woman (Gal. 4:29). The fact that they occupy a postage stamp piece of land in the Middle East simply gives them an excuse for their outrage. However, the fact that Jerusalem is a holy city to the Muslims keeps them from destroying it completely. Certain Muslims would like nothing better than to see Jerusalem leveled (along with its Jewish population)—except that, it is a holy city to them. Many radical Muslims could care less whether hundreds of thousands of Palestinians die in the process, just so the Jews die as well—except, that Jerusalem is a holy city to the Muslims. So God, in this way, has preserved Jerusalem for all this time.

More specifically, if this took place during the siege of Sennacherib, God will help and protect Israel in that siege. This expresses the confidence of the mature believers during that desperate time.

The second interpretation will be tied to the next phrase below, so I will cover it there.

Translation: ...turn toward the morning. Under the first interpretation, God helps Jerusalem, so that it sees morning after morning. It turns toward the morning. Barnes suggests that, when the people of Judah awoke the next morning, all of the Assyrians were dead corpses (Isa. 37:36), and that this is the idea of the latter half of this verse. The NIV Study Bible suggests that attacks against a city were typically launched at dawn.

Under the second interpretation of this passage, God helps the earth to turn toward each morning. At the beginning of this verse, God is within the earth so that it is not dislodged from its orbit or from its spin; and here, God helps the earth to turn toward the morning. God setting the earth into an orbit and setting up the earth to turn on its axis as well, is how God turns the earth, so to speak, toward each and every morning.

Now you may think, I don’t know if I go along with all this; after all, the feminine singular noun “city” was in the previous verse, and the feminine singular noun “earth” was way back there. And that is a reasonable comment (I am not aware of any other commentator who puts this kind of a spin on this verse). However, if you look at the verbs which we find here, they are very closely related to the idea of the physical laws which God set up and how the earth functions according to these physical laws. Also, take note of the only feminine singular noun in the next verse:

Here is how others have translated this verse:

Ancient texts:

Masoretic Text                       Roared nations, shaken up kingdoms;

He gives his voice dissolves [the] earth.

Septuagint                              The nations were troubled, the kingdoms tottered: he uttered his voice, the earth shook.

Significant differences:           No significant differences (the Greek translation is within the parameters of the meanings of the Hebrew words).

Thought-for-thought translations; paraphrases:

Good News Bible (TEV)         Nations are terrified, kingdoms are shaken; God thunders, and the earth dissolves.

The Message                         Godless nations rant and rave, kings and kingdoms threaten, but Earth does anything he says.

NET Bible®                             Nations are in uproar, kingdoms are overthrown.

God gives a shout, the earth dissolves.

Mostly literal renderings (with some occasional paraphrasing):

God’s Word™                         Nations are in turmoil, and kingdoms topple. The earth melts at the sound of God's voice.

JPS (Tanakh)                         Nations rage, kingdoms topple,

at the sound of His thunder the earth dissolves.

The Scriptures 1998              The gentiles shall rage, Reigns shall topple; He shall give forth His voice, The earth melts.

Literal, almost word-for-word, renderings:

A Voice in the Wilderness      The nations raged, the kingdoms were shaken; He uttered His voice, the earth melted.

WEB                                      The nations raged. The kingdoms were moved. He lifted his voice, and the earth melted.

Young’s Updated LT             Troubled have been nations, Moved have been kingdoms, He has given forth with His voice, earth melts.

What is the gist of this verse? Nations and kingdoms are in great disarray; God speaks, and the earth is dissolved.

Translation: The Gentiles are in a commotion,... This word has a lot of applications, as you can see by reading through the Hebrew exegesis above. Most of the time, there is sound involved; however, there is also the idea of a disquieted mind. That is, the mind is always on; the mind is disturbed; there is always a conversation going on within a person’s mind.

Here, I think that more is going on than simply a disquieted mind here; we have a mob scene. There is nothing worse than a group of men involved in a mob scene; they lose control, the scream, they yell, they hurt, they plunder, they destroy. This is man at his absolute worst. This is man without restrictions and without restraints; this is man like raging flood waters which destroy. There seems to be a mob mentality which feeds from the most basic emotions of those there. Some do things that they would not otherwise do, under any circumstances. You place a man in the street, in the light of day, by himself, in a lawful community, and he will generally behave honestly and lawfully. You throw the same man into a mob scene and he is liable to hurt, maim, steal and destroy. This kind of behavior has occurred a lynchings; at KKK meetings; in college universities where a conservative speaker speaks, and there are devoted liberals there to disrupt his free speech; in riots in various cities; and at our Lord’s crucifixion.

When we have the word Goiim, this can be rendered gentiles or nations, but often the idea is that we are dealing with those who are not related to God; in other words, unbelievers or heathen. In this psalm, we are speaking of great natural events or disasters, and unbelievers, who have no grasp of true reality are disquieted; they are upset. Their souls are in an uproar. They are murmuring, they are growling, and those who are not vocal, their minds are in an uproar.

We have a number of parallels to this portion of v. 6 in Scripture: Psalm 2:1–6: Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD and against his Anointed, saying, "Let us burst their bonds apart and cast away their cords from us." He who sits in the heavens laughs; the Lord holds them in derision. Then he will speak to them in his wrath, and terrify them in his fury, saying, "As for me, I have set my King on Zion, my holy hill." Psalm 83:1–4: O God, do not keep silence; do not hold your peace or be still, O God! For behold, your enemies make an uproar; those who hate you have raised their heads. They lay crafty plans against your people; they consult together against your treasured ones. They say, "Come, let us wipe them out as a nation; let the name of Israel be remembered no more!"

Translation: ...kingdoms are thrown into disarray;... Throughout the world, we have various forms of government and these governments are tottered and shaken, thrown into disorder.

Barnes comments: The nations were in commotion, or were agitated like the waves of the sea. This language would well describe the consternation of the nations when the Assyrians went forth to conquest, and when, having subdued so many other kingdoms, they made war on Jerusalem.

I think what we have here is a contrast; we have a contrast between waters which are raging out of control, and waters which are orderly and found within a stream, within boundaries and confines; waters which sustain a city (or, sustain the earth). Nations and kingdoms are the same way; they can rage out of control, or they can be orderly, with boundaries, and with reasonable confinements. In the previous verse, we spoke of a city as being orderly and under control; and here, we have nations and kingdoms raging out of control, being shaken, dislodged and thrown into disarray.

When people are rightly or wrongly upset over their existence, often they see their governments as the cause. This has become more and more the case as we move along in history. At one time, when a group of people decided that they did not like how things were going, they could essentially pick up and move—they could leave the realm of their government. For others, government played less of a part in their daily lives. Today, government intrudes more and more into our daily lives, making great changes, even, in social order and social customs.

Let me go off on a tangent here, but one which deals with a nation (or, in this case, a people) being thrown into disarray: I just heard someone complain about slavery and how slavery destroyed the Blacks and the Black family. This is untrue. During the time of slavery and, up until about 40 years ago, Blacks had a strong family. However, since government has intruded, and government has tried to bring the Black man up, the unintended result has been the destruction of the Black family. If I recall correctly, nowadays, 3/4^ths of Black children are born out of wedlock. Now, there may or may not be a Black male figure involved, but government has taken up for Black women, and has given economic stability to Black women with children. The result is, Black women have an incentive to remain unmarried; they have an economic incentive to raise their children alone. They perceive the government as being more permanent and reliable than men in general, so depending upon the government for support makes more sense than depending upon a man for support. Our great war on poverty has, for all intents and purposes, destroyed the Black family.

As we become more and more intertwined with our governments, and more and more dependent upon our governments, when things go wrong, our automatic response is to attack the government for its inability to take care of us. We saw this most recently with Hurricane Katrina. 50 years ago, we had great natural disasters, and people with insurance saw if they could get money from their insurance companies; people without insurance did the best that they could, often starting from scratch. At the advent of Hurricane Katrina, government became a major player—every tragedy, every moment lost, was blamed on government. People did not seek relief simply through their insurance companies or they did not do what they could for themselves; people depended more and more upon big government to solve their myriad of problems.

My point is, as governments become greater and greater in their impact on our daily lives, we become more and more disquieted as a people when things go wrong. When people become so intertwined with their government and believe that their misery is caused in part by the government, they riot, they revolt, they attack their own government. The result is, kingdoms and dominions are thrown into disarray.

Now, I don’t know whether we should take this one step further and speak of angelic hierarchies. This is a topic that we have very little information about. We do not really know much about the demonic hierarchy and who is in control of who, and how much authority Satan has over his dominion. Nor do I know whether this applies here or not; perhaps even Satanic authorities are thrown into disarray. in Isa. 14:12–17, we read about Satan: "How you are fallen from heaven, O Day Star, son of Dawn! How you are cut down to the ground, you who laid the nations low! You said in your heart, 'I will ascend to heaven; above the stars of God I will set my throne on high; I will sit on the mount of assembly in the far reaches of the north; I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.' But you are brought down to Sheol, to the far reaches of the pit. Those who see you will stare at you and ponder over you: 'Is this the man who made the earth tremble, who shook kingdoms, who made the world like a desert and overthrew its cities, who did not let his prisoners go home?'

Translation: ...He speaks with [lit., gives] His voice... I have assumed here that we are speaking of God, as that would be the closest noun to take on a masculine singular verb (even though Elohim is a masculine plural noun). The idea that God speaks, and amazing things happen, is found throughout Scripture.

Clarke writes: These words seem to refer to thunder, lightning, and earthquake. The expressions, however, may be figurative, and refer to the wars and desolations already mentioned. God gave the command; and one empire was cast down, and another was raised up.