Bible Strands
Psalms 46:4
There is a river whose streams delight the city of God, the holy place where the Most High dwells.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — A psalmist (sons of Korah) addresses the community between a scene of cosmic disruption (v. 3) and the assurance that God is within the city (v. 5). The verse is the pivot between chaos and confidence.
The words — פְּלָגָיו (p̄lāgāyw, "its streams") carries the root פלג, "to divide or channel," implying distributaries rather than a single flow. יְשַׂמְּחוּ (yiśam̄m̄ḥû, "they make glad") is Hiphil causative: the streams actively produce delight, not merely exist.
The thread — The same river-from-God's-dwelling image recurs in Ezekiel 47:1 (water from under the temple threshold) and Revelation 22:1 (river of life from the throne of God). Psalms 36:8 uses nearly identical language: "Your river of delights."
Why it lands — The verse claims that the city's joy is not self-generated but sourced in the presence of the Most High. It asks the reader to identify where their own stability is actually rooted.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
There is a river, the streams whereof shall make glad the city of God, the holy place of the tabernacles of the most High.
Cross-references
- Revelation 22:1 Then the angel showed me a river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb
- Ezekiel 47:1 Then the man brought me back to the entrance of the temple, and I saw water flowing from under the threshold of the temple toward the east (for the temple faced east). The water was coming down from under the south side of the temple, south of the altar.
- Psalms 36:8 They feast on the abundance of Your house, and You give them drink from Your river of delights.
- Psalms 48:8 As we have heard, so we have seen in the city of the LORD of Hosts, in the city of our God: God will establish her forever. Selah
- Psalms 87:3 Glorious things are ascribed to you, O city of God. Selah
- 2 Chronicles 6:6 But now I have chosen Jerusalem for My Name to be there, and I have chosen David to be over My people Israel.’
- Isaiah 60:14 The sons of your oppressors will come and bow down to you; all who reviled you will fall facedown at your feet and call you the City of the LORD, Zion of the Holy One of Israel.
- Psalms 23:2 He makes me lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside quiet waters.
- Psalms 65:9 You attend to the earth and water it; with abundance You enrich it. The streams of God are full of water, for You prepare our grain by providing for the earth.
- Revelation 21:2 I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.