by Emmett Smith

God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in 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 (Psalms 46:1-3 ESV).

These words were not written by David. In fact, they were written some 200 to 300 years after David’s death, during Hezekiah’s reign. And there is remarkable agreement among various groups of scholars that they were written in celebration of God’s destruction of Sennacherib’s army.

Sennacherib, king of the Assyrians, had already conquered the area around Jerusalem. Now he had turned his attention to Jerusalem itself. He sent Rabshakeh to brag to Jerusalem that the gods of the surrounding nations had not saved them, and that their God would not save them either. But after king Hezekiah prayed to the Lord about these boasts, God spared Jerusalem. He had decreed that Babylon, not Assyria, would conquer Jerusalem.

So during the night God struck down 185,000 of Sennacherib’s army, so that when people arose “early in the morning” they were all dead! God sent Sennacherib home in disgrace, and eventually two of his sons assassinated him, just as God had predicted through Isaiah.

God’s dominion over the nations is stated in Jeremiah as follows:

If at any time I declare concerning a nation or a kingdom, that I will pluck up and break down and destroy it, and if that nation, concerning which I have spoken, turns from its evil, I will relent of the disaster that I intended to do to it. And if at any time I declare concerning a nation or a kingdom that I will build and plant it, and if it does evil in my sight, not listening to my voice, then I will relent of the good that I had intended to do to it (Jeremiah 18:7-10 ESV).

And Paul reiterated this theme in Athens:

And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place (Acts 17:26 ESV).

God has always controlled when and where any nation would exist. He has used believing and unbelieving nations as He saw fit. And He rules among the nations this very day!

On his robe and on his thigh he has a name written, King of kings and Lord of lords (Revelation 19:16 ESV).