Psalms 46:1 «To the chief Musician for the sons of Korah, A Song upon Alamoth. » God [is] our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.
Upon Alamoth] i.e. Upon the Virginals. Virgins with their shrill treble tune, 1 Chronicles 15:20, used (belike) to sing this triumphant psalm, and to play it on the instrument; and their hearts were somewhat suitable to it. The penman some think to have been David, upon occasion of those notable victories, 2 Samuel 8:1,14; others, Solomon, for the virgins to sing and play at his wedding, Psa 45:8-9 Song of Solomon 1:2; others, Isaiah, either upon the overthrow of those two kings, Rezin and Pekah, 2Ki 16:5 Isaiah 7:8, confer Judges 5:11, or else after the slaughter of Sennacherib's army by an angel; then the virgin daughter of Zion (much more than before) despised him, and laughed him to scorn; the daughter of Jerusalem shook her head at him, Isaiah 37:22, and sang as followeth:
Ver. 1. God is our refuge and strength] Deus nobis est receptus, et robur (Tremel.). All creatures, when in distress, run to their refuges, Pro 30:26 Psa 104:18 Pro 18:11 Dan 4:10-11 Judges 9:50,51. So do the saints to God Almighty, for the safe-guarding of their persons, as here, and Isaiah 25:4. Luther, when in greatest distress, was wont to call for this psalm, saying, Let us sing the forty-sixth psalm in concert; and then let the devil do his worst.
A very present help in trouble] Or, we have abundantly found him a help in tribulation (Joh. Manlii loc. com.). God, as he is not far off his people at such a time, so he needeth not much entreaty; but when we are nearest danger he is nearest to deliver, as in the gunpowder plot prevented eight or nine hours before it should have been acted; masses were sung in Rome for the prospering of it; but no prayers particularly made in England for the preventing, nor could be. Here God was, if ever, auxilium praesentissimum.