It is probable that we have in this Psalm the devotional echo of the great deliverance of Israel from Assyria in the time of Hezekiah. We may call these verses the hymn of the defence and deliverance of the city of God.
I. First, we have the gladdening river an emblem of many great and joyous truths. The river is God Himself in the outflow and self-communication of His own grace to the soul. We may see here a very beautiful suggestion of the manner, and then of the variety, and then of the effects of that communication of the Divine love and grace. (1) The manner. Not with noise, not with tumult, not with conspicuous and destructive energy, but in silent, secret, underground communications, God's grace, God's love, His peace, His power, His almighty and gentle self, flow into men's souls. (2) The variety. "The streams whereof" literally the divisions thereof. As you can take and divide the water all but infinitely, and it will take the shape of every containing vessel, so into every soul according to its capacities, according to its shape, according to its needs, this great gift, this blessed presence, of the God of our strength shall come. (3) The effects. The streams make glad. That all-sufficient spirit not only becomes to its possessor the source of individual refreshment and slakes his own thirst, but flows out from him for the gladdening of others.
II. Notice, secondly, the indwelling Helper. "God is in the midst of her; she shall not be moved: God shall help her, and that right early" (at the appearance of the morning). There are two things, then: first of all, the constant presence; and second, help at the right time.
III. The conquering voice. "The heathen raged, the kingdoms were moved: He uttered His voice, the earth melted." With what vigour these hurried sentences describe (1) the wild wrath and formidable movements of the foe, and (2) the one sovereign word which quells them all, as well as the instantaneous weakness that dissolves the seeming solid substance when the breath of His lips smites it!
IV. Note, finally, how the Psalm shows us the act by which we enter the city of God. "The Lord of hosts is with us;the God of Jacob is ourrefuge." These truths are nothing to us unless, like the psalmist here, we make them our own, and losing the burden of self in the very act of grasping them by faith, unite ourselves with the great multitude who are joined together in Him, and say, "He is myGod; He is ourrefuge."
A. Maclaren, Sermons Preached at Manchester,3rd series, p. 45.
References: Psalms 46:6. F. W. Farrar, Silence and the Voices of God,p. 51.Psalms 46:8; Psalms 46:9. Spurgeon, Sermons,vol. iv., No. 190.