a foreign nation · noun, common masculine plural absolute
raged
הָמ֣וּha.Mu
H1993
to make a loud sound (like English 'hum') · verb, qal perfect, 3rd person common plural
kingdoms
מַמְלָכ֑וֹתmam.la.Khot
H4467
dominion · noun, common feminine plural absolute
moved
מָ֣טוּMa.tu
H4131
to waver · verb, qal perfect, 3rd person common plural
uttered
נָתַ֥ןna.Tan
H5414
to give · verb, qal perfect, 3rd person masculine singular
voice
בְּ֝קוֹל֗וֹbe.ko.Lo
H6963
a voice or sound · preposition + noun, common masculine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine singular
earth
אָֽרֶץ'A.retz
H776
the earth (at large · noun, common feminine singular absolute
melted
תָּמ֥וּגta.Mug
H4127
to melt · verb, qal imperfect, 3rd person feminine singular
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Amos 9:5 And the Lord GOD of hosts is he that toucheth the land, and it shall melt, and all that dwell therein shall mourn: and it shall rise up whol…
Psalms 18:13 The LORD also thundered in the heavens, and the Highest gave his voice; hail stones and coals of fire.
Nahum 1:5 The mountains quake at him, and the hills melt, and the earth is burned at his presence, yea, the world, and all that dwell therein.
Habakkuk 3:5-6 Before him went the pestilence, and burning coals went forth at his feet.
Micah 1:4 And the mountains shall be molten under him, and the valleys shall be cleft, as wax before the fire, and as the waters that are poured down…
Psalms 2:1-4 Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing?
Joel 2:11 And the LORD shall utter his voice before his army: for his camp is very great: for he is strong that executeth his word: for the day of the…
Amos 9:13 Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that the plowman shall overtake the reaper, and the treader of grapes him that soweth seed; and the m…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Psalms 46:6–end
These verses give glory to God both as King of nations and as King of saints.
I. As King of nations, ruling the world by his power and providence, and overruling all the affairs of the children of men to his own glory; he does according to his will among the inhabitants of the earth, and none may say, What doest thou? 1. He checks the rage and breaks the power of the nations that oppose him and his interests in the world (Psa 46:6): The heathen raged at David's coming to the throne, and at the setting up of the kingdom of the Son of David; compare Psa 2:1, Psa 2:2. The kingdoms were moved with indignation, and rose in a tumultuous furious manner to oppose it; but God uttered his voice, spoke…
(Compare Psa 46:2).
earth melted--all powers dissolved by His mere word (Psa 75:3; Hos 2:22).
John Gill on Psalms 46:6
The Heathen raged,.... As they did at Christ's first coming, against him, his Gospel, and people; and which continued during the three first centuries; and then the Pagan kingdoms belonging to the Roman empire were removed; since then another sort of Heathens, the Papists, have raged, in violent persecutions and bloodshed of the saints and martyrs of Jesus, and will rage again, about and at the downfall of Babylon; see Revelation 11:18;
the kingdoms were moved; either from their Pagan or Papal religion, and became subject to Christ. So it was at the downfall of Rome Pagan; and so it will be at the downfall of Rome Papal; when the kings of the earth shall hate the whore, make her desolate, a…
Psalm 46:6-11
6. The peoples raged, the kingdoms were moved: he uttered his voice [178] the earth melted. 7. Jehovah of armies is with us: the God of Jacob is our fortress. Selah. 8. Come ye, consider the works of Jehovah, what desolations [179] he hath made in the earth. 9. He maketh battles to cease even to the end of the earth; he breaketh the bow, he cutteth in pieces the spear; he burneth the chariots with fire. [180] 10. Be still [181] and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth [182] 11. Jehovah of armies is with us: the God of Jacob is our fortress. Selah.
6 The peoples raged Since the Church of God is never without enemies, and these…
The Church Fathers
Sin is a heavy kingdom, and it subjects to a heavy servitude the souls of all sinners. "Whoever commits sin is the slave of sin." The kingdom of sin is the kingdom of death, and for a long time it held sway over all the earth.… The truth came, the figure ceased. Life came, the kingdom of death vanished. Forgiveness of sin came, and the chains of sin were undone.… The cult of idols and the enticement of sin began to diminish with the preaching and doctrine of the gospel. Perfidy bowed its head, and faith began to reign in the hearts of the nations.
"The heathen are troubled" [Psalm 46:6]. And how troubled? Why troubled? To cast down the City of God, in the midst whereof is God? To overthrow the tabernacle sanctified, which God helps with His Countenance? No: with a wholesome trouble are the heathen now troubled. For what follows? "And the kingdoms are bowed." Bowed, says He, are the kingdoms; not now erected that they may rage, but bowed that they may adore. When were the kingdoms bowed? When that came to pass which was predicted in another Psalm, "All kings shall fall down before Him, all nations shall serve Him." What cause made the kingdoms to bow? Hear the cause. "The Most High gave His Voice, and the earth was moved." The fanatics of idolatry, like frogs in the marshes, clamoured, the more tumultuously, the more sordidly, in filth and mire. And what is the brawling of frogs to the thunder of the clouds? For out of them "the Most High gave His Voice, and the earth was moved:" He thundered out of His clouds. And what are His clouds? His Apostles, His preachers, by whom He thundered in precepts, lightened in miracles. The same are clouds who are also mountains: mountains for their height and firmness, clouds for their rain and fruitfulness. For these clouds watered the earth, of which it was said, "The Most High gave His Voice, and the earth was moved." For it is of those clouds that He threatens a certain barren vineyard, whence the mountains were carried into the heart of the sea; "I will command," says He, "the clouds that they rain no rain upon it." [Isaiah 5:6] This was fulfilled in that which I have mentioned, when the mountains were carried into the heart of the sea; when it was said, "It was necessary that the word of God should have been spoken first to you; but seeing ye put it from you, we turn to the Gentiles;" [Acts 13:46] then was fulfilled, "I will command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it." The nation of the Jews has just so remained as a fleece dry upon the ground. For this, you know, happened in a certain miracle, the ground was dry, the fleece only was wet, yet rain in the fleece appeared not. [Judges 6:36-40] So also the mystery of the New Testament appeared not in the nation of the Jews. What there was the fleece, is here the veil. For in the fleece was veiled the mystery. But on the ground, in all the nations open lies Christ's Gospel; the rain is manifest, the Grace of…
Dictionary and topics
Alamoth — Virgins, a musical term (1 Chr. 15:20), denoting that the psalm which bears this inscription (Ps. 46) was to be sung by soprano or female voices.
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
(Heb.: 46:5-8) Just as, according to Gen 2:10, a stream issued from Eden, to water the whole garden, so a stream makes Jerusalem as it were into another paradise: a river - whose streams make glad the city of Elohim (Psa 87:3; Psa 48:9, cf. Psa 101:8); פּלגיו (used of the windings and branches of the main-stream) is a second permutative subject (Psa 44:3). What is intended is the river of grace, which is also likened to a river of paradise in Psa 36:9. When the city of God is threatened and encompassed by foes, still she shall not hunger and thirst, nor fear and despair; for the river of grace and of her ordinances and promises flows with its rippling waves through the holy place, where the…
People and nations live in chaos, characterized by opportunism (83:2), busyness (39:6), and noise. These people shake, totter, and crumble, unlike the city of God (cp. 15:5). In contrast, when the godly feel disturbed, they cry out for God’s help (42:5, 11; 43:5; 55:17).
Spurgeon's Treasury of David on Psalms 46:6
The heathen raged, the kingdoms were moved: he uttered his voice, the earth melted.
The heathen raged. The nations were in a furious uproar, they gathered against the city of the Lord like wolves ravenous for their prey; they foamed, and roared, and swelled like a tempestuous sea. The kingdoms were moved. A general confusion seized upon society; the fierce invaders convulsed their own dominions by draining the population to urge on the war, and they desolated other territories by their devastating march to Jerusalem. Crowns fell from royal heads, ancient thrones rocked like trees driven of the tempest, powerful empires fell like pines uprooted by the blast: everything was in disorder, and d…
