Psalm 46 Overview

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Welcome to the Overview of Psalm 46

This page will introduce and provide orientation to Psalm 46 as a whole. It includes the following sections:


Introduction to Psalm 46

Author:

Purpose:

To encourage God's people to trust in God as their defense.

Content:

God cares for his people. That is why God is our refuge, even if God's city is threatened by enemies, and even if the earth quakes and the sea roars.

Message:

God’s city can never be overthrown.

Psalm 46 At-a-Glance

These sections divide the content of the psalm into digestible pieces , and are determined based on information from many of our layers, including Semantics, Poetics, and Discourse. The columns, left to right, contain: the verse numbers; the main title of the section; a brief summary of the content of that section (quote marks indicate the text is taken directly from the English text of the psalm (as per our Close-but-Clear translation); and an icon to visually represent and remember the content. Psalm 046 -- synthesis.jpg

Background Orientation for Psalm 46

Following are the common-ground assumptionsCommon-ground assumptions include information shared by the speaker and hearers. In our analysis, we mainly use this category for Biblical/Ancient Near Eastern background. which are the most helpful for making sense of the psalm.

  • God resides in his city and when the city and its residents are under attack, God himself is under attack.
  • In times of war and peace, God is made known by his actions. Just as in human warfare, victors destroy their defeated enemies' weapons (cf. Josh 11:6, 9; Isa 2:2-4; Mic 4:1-4), God also disarms his opponents. Hence, no weapon formed against his people can prosper and God's people do not need to fight.
  • In HB, God is exalted cultically (Isa 6:1; 57:15) and politically (Pss 47:2-3, 9; 86:10; 95:3). In HB war texts, "exaltation" can signify a military victory (Ps 47:2-3; Isa 33:3, 5, and 10).

Background Situation for Psalm 46

The background situation is the series of events leading up to the time in which the psalm is spoken. These are taken from the story triangle – whatever lies to the left of the star icon. Psalm 046 - story background.jpg

Participants in Psalm 46

This resource is in the process of reformatting.
These are the participants in Psalm 46:
Psalm 046 - participants1.jpg.