ActualChristianMusic

Psalm 46

3 songs checked against Psalm 46. Each proof shows the passage, what the song does with it, and whether you can sing it. Read the whole chapter: Bible Gateway ↗ · Bible Hub ↗

Psalm 46:1-3 · “A Mighty Fortress Is Our God” · Sovereign Grace Music

~ FAITHFUL “A Mighty Fortress Is Our God” Sovereign Grace Music Psalm 46:1-3 Sing it. It is an honest free paraphrase five centuries old: Psalm 46's opening confidence rebuilt in Luther's own images. Just know the label names the psalm's theme, not its words, and most of the psalm is not in it.

✓ The opening line does verse 1's own work, God as stronghold and present help, stated before the threat, which is the psalm's order

⚠ Most of Psalm 46 is not here. The river and the city, the raging nations, the earth melting at God's voice, the ended wars, and the be-still command all drop away. Julian's dictionary says the psalm "is used only as a motto"

Psalm 46:1-3 · “Psalm 46” · Poor Bishop Hooper

~ FAITHFUL “Psalm 46” Poor Bishop Hooper Psalm 46:1-3 Sing it. It is Psalm 46 in the duo's own compressed wording, and it keeps the earthquake attached to the comfort. It names no translation, and four of the psalm's eleven verses are not in it.

✓ The song keeps verse 1's refuge claim attached to verse 2's collapsing earth, which is the context most often stripped when this verse is quoted alone

⚠ No translation is named anywhere on the release. The phrase about a very present help in trouble follows the King James wording, where the BSB shown here reads "an ever-present help in times of trouble," so a listener has nothing to check the song against

Psalm 46:7-11 · “Psalm 46 (Lord of Hosts)” · Shane & Shane

~ FAITHFUL “Psalm 46 (Lord of Hosts)” Shane & Shane Psalm 46:7-11 Sing it. It is a real setting of Psalm 46's back half, addressed to God throughout. Just know that verse 10, the one place God Himself speaks, is not sung, and its famous phrase appears only as your quieted heart.

✓ The chorus is the psalm's own refrain doing the psalm's own job: the presence of the LORD of Hosts held up as the answer to fire, storm and battle, with the catastrophe kept in the song rather than trimmed out

⚠ Verse 10 is not sung. Its phrase appears once, as God making the singer's heart be still. Nothing false is said, but a command God addresses to a warring world returns as a comfort applied to one heart, which is a smaller thing than the psalm says

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