The close of the 46th Psalm speaks about the work and power of God. In verse 8 we read about the desolations in earth. These desolations are attributed to the power of God. Jesus, a short time before His trials and crucifixion, said to the Jewish people, “Your house is left unto you desolate” (Matt. 23:38). Why would Jesus make such a pronouncement? Because the Jewish people in the first century were rejecting the Son of God. A rejection necessary in order for Him to die for us. Their sins had grown and reached a point in which God would no longer accept them as His chosen people. The end would come in A.D. 70 with the fall of Jerusalem and the temple destroyed.
As we turn our attention back to Psalm 46, verse nine states that God makes war to cease. The bow, spear and chariot all lose their power to make war. When the Jewish people were taken into Babylonian captivity for seventy years, the land had rest. They went into that captivity because they rejected the rule of God over their lives. God then has the power to cause war to cease and the land be quiet. At this time in our history many are worried about the outcome of events here on earth. No doubt some will lose their faith as they realize that governments cannot solve problems that destroy mankind across the globe.
The appeal in verse 10 of chapter 46, is a call for the people of God to be still. A people not driven by the winds of war, hate or despair. It is good in the context of that time period for the people of God to stop what they were doing and consider God who is in control. It was the intent of God to present His will in written form (1 Cor. 13:8-10). Once the Bible was a finished product men would have a standard to which they could appeal to solve religious and or spiritual questions. How could we trust that standard if we did not trust God, Himself? Paul writes that once the Bible was a finished product we would no longer be children tossed back and forth from one doctrine to another (Eph. 4:14). The Spirit of God uses the same idea when He inspired Paul to write, “when I was a child, I thought like a child” (1 Cor. 13:11).
When those of the days of the Psalms were called to be still, what follows is the reason to be still. Stop what you are doing and know that God is God. We hear “voices” from the world that tell us that the Bible is not absolute but relative. They would have us believe that it does not concern God about how we worship Him. The Bible, the work of the Holy Spirit, responds by shouting from the plains of Mount Sinai, the events of Lev. 10:1,2. Why were Nadab and Abihu killed by God? They made the mistake of thinking it does not matter to God, how we worship. They paid for that mistake with their own lives.
The world mistakenly believes that government decides right and wrong. It is God who decides what constitutes marriage (Gen. 2:24). It is God who tells us what is immoral and what is moral. If governments agree with the leadership of God coming through the absolute rule of the scriptures, such governments will be blessed by God. No government or legislative body has the power or right to make laws that contradict what God has revealed. The Bible is our standard to decide about marriage, right and wrong issues, how we treat each other. God has given us the law to live by and it is called the law of the Spirit of LIFE in Christ Jesus (Rom. 8:2).
We pause then to recognize that no matter how bad the world becomes and how low it sinks in depravity of one kind or another, God is God and not man. Nebuchadnezzar came to grips with his own frailty of mind and body when Daniel told him that God rules in the kingdoms of men (Dan. 4:17). The turmoil of life around us should cause all of us as Christians to be still and know that God is God.