Psalms 46:11

Psalms THE LORD OF HOSTS, THE GOD OF JACOBPsalm 46:11 . Some great deliverance, the details of which we do not know, had been wrought for Israel, and this psalmist comes forth, like Miriam with her choir of maidens, to hymn the victory. The psalm throbs with exultation, but no human victor’s name degrades the singer’s lips. There is only one Conqueror whom he celebrates. The deliverance has been ‘the work of the Lord’; the ‘desolations’ that have been made on the ‘earth’ ‘He has made.’ This great refrain of the song, which I have chosen for my text, takes the experience of deliverance as a proof in act of an astounding truth, and as a hope for the future. ‘The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our Refuge.’ There is in these words a significant duplication of idea, both in regard to the names which are given to God, and to that which He is conceived as being to us; and I desire now simply to try to bring out the force of the consolation and strength which lie in these two epithets of His, and in the double wonder of His relation to us men. I. First, then, I ask you to look at the twin thoughts of God that are here. ‘The Lord of hosts . . . The God of Jacob.’ Now, with regard to the former of these grand names, it may be observed that it does not occur in the earliest stages of Revelation as recorded in the Old Testament.

The first instance in which we find it is in the song of Hannah in the beginning of the first Book of Samuel; and it re-appears in the Davidic psalms and in psalms and prophecies of later date. What ‘hosts’ are they of which God is the Lord? Is that great title a mere synonym for the half-heathenish idea of the ‘God of battles’? By no means. True! He is the Lord of the armies of Israel, but the hosts which the Psalmist sees ranged in embattled array, and obedient to the command of the great Captain, are far other and grander than any earthly armies. If we would understand the whole depth and magnificent sweep of the idea enshrined in this name, we cannot do better than recall one or two other Scripture phrases. For instance, the account of the Creation in the Book of Genesis is ended by, ‘Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them.’ Then, remember that, throughout the Old Testament, we meet constantly with the idea of the celestial bodies as being ‘the hosts of heaven.’ And, still further, remember how, in one of the psalms, we hear the invocation to ‘all ye His hosts, ye ministers of His that do His pleasure,’ ‘the angels that excel in strength,’ to praise and bless Him.