God's purpose of the ages which embraces earth as well as the highest heavens. The

whole creation will be the eternal destiny of God's redeemed children as He has willed

and appointed for them, which fact is clearly revealed in the Scriptures. This being so,

no one who wants real understanding of the Word of God is going to confuse earth with

heaven and stress one at the expense of the other.

The Body of Christ is eternally linked with its associated Head, the Lord Jesus Christ,

in the heavenlies, "far above all" and even now is seen by God as seated with Him there

(Eph. 2: 6). Other members of the Lord's redeemed children will find their place on

earth and finally in the new earth "wherein dwelleth righteousness" (II Pet. 3: 13) which

will be a glorious inheritance. We need minds enlarged and freed from tradition in order

to appreciate this. The Psalm ends with the assured position of the righteous in contrast

to the wicked and this is because the believer is in the secure hands of the Lord Who will

never leave or forsake those who trust in Him.

We pass on to this Psalm which has been a comfort in trouble to so many all down the

The Psalm is linked with the next two, 47: & 48:, and they form a trilogy. They

could well refer to Israel's deliverance from Sennacherib and God's defence of His

people from this bitter enemy. If so, their author was probably Hezekiah.

This hymn of praise opens with the complete safety of the people of God in spite of all

difficulties, human and otherwise. The river of verse 4 primarily refers to the conduit

built by Hezekiah which brought the water from Gihon to a new pool he had made for the

purpose (II Kings 20: 20), thus ensuring the water supply for the city in times of difficulty

and war.

There is another way of looking at this Psalm and that is to regard it from a

prophetical standpoint. Many of the Psalms are intensely prophetic, looking forward not

only to the first coming of the Lord Jesus, but also the second coming to the earth to rule

and reign. The 47th and 48th Psalms back this up, for they are a wonderful looking

forward to the time when God's rule will be established and recognized all over the earth

(Psa. 47: 2, 7, 8, 9) and Jerusalem (Zion) will be its chief city.

Psalm 46: could well be the hymn of praise that Israel will sing after the Lord's

second coming when He rescues them at the end of the Great Tribulation, from the united

world forces, bent on Israel's final destruction. It will indeed be a time of "Jacob's

trouble", the worst and most dangerous that they have ever had to face, but the nation will

be rescued out of it (Jer. 30: 7, 8) by the returning Christ in power and great glory.