Perennial Streams

“God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in time of trouble. Therefore we will not fear though the earth gives way, though the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam, though the mountains tremble at its swelling. There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy habitation of the Most High. God is in the midst of her; she shall not be moved… Be still, and know that I am God.” – Psalm 46:1-5, 10

One word for river in Hebrew is nachal, a dry valley which runs with torrents of water during the rainy season. It figuratively describes things that emerge with a rush of power, then disappear suddenly, like the pride of nations (Isaiah 66:12), the power of the foe (Psalm 18:4), or torrents of oil that do not please God if the offerer’s heart is not right (Micah 6:7). 

That is not the word used here in Psalm 46:4. The word here is nahar, a perennial stream, a permanent natural watercourse. It appears for the first time in Genesis 2:10, where it describes the river that “went out of Eden to water the garden.” 

What does this nahar-river represent? It could be God the Father, who is our “very present” help in trouble: back then, rivers in the middle of cities helped fortify it against attacks, or helped irrigate its crops. It could be Jesus, the living water (John 4:10, 7:37). It could be the Holy Spirit, the Helper who is always in our midst (John 16:7). Perhaps it is all of the above: God’s triune presence and the life he gives us. The picture I always get is from Revelation 22:1, where John sees a heavenly city with “the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb through the middle of the street of the city”—a dazzling new remaking of that first river in Eden.

If there is any time in our generation when the world feels tumultuously displaced, it is now. My feelings chart up and down, like a river-bed sometimes dry, sometimes torrential. It seems like nothing is quite for sure in our immediate earthly future. But the Psalm holds all that roar and foam in contrast with the quieter, ever-present stream of God’s presence, which provides refuge like a moat protecting a besieged city, which provides strength like waters irrigating the ground. Which reminds us of the heavenly city in which our ultimate citizenship and hopes reside. Don’t be afraid, this song tells us. Be still, and know that God is God. He is here, always present, like that quiet river whose streams make glad its city.