Ps. 46.10 ("Who I am, is who I will become")

“Relax, / and know that / I am God. – I will be / exalted among the nations / exalted in the earth.” This is probably the most important verse of the psalm, precisely because it is the only time wherein God speaks. Likewise, as a type of concluding verse, it will likely represent either an answer or a summation to the opening. The first word spoken by God mirrors the opening: “God is our refuge…therefore we shall not fear.” There, however, the lack of fear was rooted in God as refuge in times of trouble. It was oriented to God as the one who affords the protection of the central city of Jerusalem by and through his presence. Here, by contrast, the command to “relax” is rooted in something more expansive: God’s exaltation among the nations and in the earth. This is an important change in emphasis. As we have argued, the first half of the psalm is a deep meditation on the destructive/chaotic power contained with the nations and kingdoms of the world. From within that realm, Jerusalem stands as the antithesis: the island that cannot be submerged. Whereas the world is full of dread and horror, Jerusalem (the “city of God”) is full of joy. Whereas the world is being covered by the rising chaos sea (and being returned to its primal state), the city is nourished by a river and its streams. The second half of the psalm, though, pushes this imagery further—it moves historically and sees this consumption of chaos as the descending fire of God in preparation for world-wide (to “the ends of the earth”) peace. In effect, the destruction of the nations (and earth) is a form of disarming (breaking of bow, shattering of spear) and purgation. In this verse we now see that it has been not simply the spreading of peace, but the spreading of God’s reign on earth: “I will be exalted among the nations, exalted in the earth”. All of the turmoil has represented the battle engaged in by Yhwh of hosts (Yhwh Sabaoth) against the forces of chaos and the emergence of his establishment of peace through his reign. God’s command, following on this development, re-orients the opening declaration of “we shall not fear” and roots it in the spreading reign of God on the earth.  Jerusalem, then, was a type of ‘staging point’, the place from which God would begin the spread of his reign. It therefore embodied, first, the ‘joy’ that was to be consequent to the peace of his reign and, likewise, it was from that river (that throne) that the joy originated. This reality, however, is something that emerges from the very mouth of God. He proclaims that he himself will be exalted and not only in Jerusalem. Hence, the first portion of the verse focuses on God while the second looks to what he is to accomplish. This expansive sense of God’s reign is a result of the first, but one obtained by and through his own pronouncement. One can’t help but hearing here an echo of the Divine Name: “I will be who I will be.” Who he is, is who he will become.