Psalm 46/Participant Analysis/Set

There are 4 participants/characters in Psalm 46:

A Community of God's People

"we/us" (vv. 2, 3, 8, 12)

The City of God

"the holy dwelling [of the Most High]" (v. 5)

YHWH

"God" (vv. 2, 5, 6, 11)

"refuge" (v. 2)

"stronghold" (v. 2)

"YHWH of Hosts" (vv. 8, 12)

"the God of Jacob" (vv. 8, 12)

"the Most High" (v. 5)

Enemies

"nations" (vv. 7, 11)

"kingdoms" (v. 7)

Natural Forces

"the earth" (vv. 3, 7)

"the deepest sea" (v. 3)

"the deepest sea's waters" (v. 4)

"the mountains" (vv. 3, 4)

All humanity

A Community of God's People: is the main speaker in the psalm. The text also identifies them through self-referential appellations, i.e., “we” and "us". As per the superscription, this community was supposed to perform the psalm about God's military triumphs in the manner of a choir of young women. As such, the group was to embody their city personified as a woman (see further Participant Tracking notes). Accordingly, the community has a set of related participants (“the city of God”, “the holy dwelling of the Most High”, and “it”) who are featured as recipients of God’s care and protection amidst an international conflict.

The City of God: The psalm offers no specific details about the identity of the city and its geographical location. The mention of mountains, sea, a river with streams providing water for a city indicates a northern site, e.g., Dan. However, "the preservation and ongoing use of the psalm so that it came to be in the Psalter imply that it came to be a Jerusalem psalm (a “Zion song”; see on Ps. 48) even though Jerusalem is unmentioned"^[1]; see further The River and Its Streams in Psalm 46).

YHWH: one of the main participants in the psalm is God, who appears under various names and appellations, i.e., Elohim, the Most High, YHWH, YHWH of Hosts, and the God of Jacob. Other descriptors featured in the song for God are “refuge”, “fortress,” and "stronghold". These architectural designations for God make his identification with the city and its community particularly intimate. In a song about attempted urbicide, the metaphorization of God as urban artifacts and landmarks links the city's fate with God's own and guarantees its inviolability.

Nations and Kingdoms: The identity of these synonymous participants is not specified. "In the Prophets, plural 'nations' often refers to the great imperial superpower (e.g., Isa. 5:26; 14:26; 30:28), and this reference would make sense here. Ephraimite and Judean royal cities such as Dan, Samaria, and Jerusalem were vulnerable to attack by powers such as Assyria. The psalm’s declaration is that when that happens, these nations themselves fall down in the way that mountains might (v. 2), but, because of God’s presence, God’s city does not (v. 5). The nations are also characterized as kingdoms, another plural that can be used to refer to the superpower (Isa. 13:4; 47:5; Jer. 1:10, 15)."^[2]

The Natural Forces: In this set of inter-related participants, the earth, the raging waters, and the shaking mountains are given agency and literarily correlated with God’s human enemies (nations and kingdoms). Such correlation of the two groups of participants should be understood as a historicization of the ancient Near Eastern "divine conflict" motif.^[3] With various degrees of personification and agentivization, these entities all engage in hostility against God and his city and people.