Obama: Psalm 46 and the 10th Anniversary of 9/11

I just discovered that President Obama picked an interesting Bible reading for the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks last year: Pslam 46 - one of the passages which I highlight in the post The Casting Down of Mountains as a prophecy of the effects of the future collapse of the volcano Cumbre Vieja, and subsequent Mega-tsunami that will destroy the east coast of the Americas.

It should be worth quoting the full Pslam below:

 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. Selah
 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;
  God will help her when morning dawns.
 The nations rage, the kingdoms totter;
  he utters his voice, the earth melts.
 The LORD of hosts is with us;
  the God of Jacob is our fortress. Selah
 Come, behold the works of the LORD,
  how he has brought desolations on the earth.
 He makes wars cease to the end of the earth;
  he breaks the bow and shatters the spear;
  he burns the chariots with fire.
 “Be still, and know that I am God.
  I will be exalted among the nations,
  I will be exalted in the earth!”
 The LORD of hosts is with us;
  the God of Jacob is our fortress. Selah
(Psalm 46)

Note here that the important phrase "the nations rage" - which is an allusion to some other highly significant biblical passages that are directly related to the battle of Armageddon. This apocalyptic phrase first crops up in Psalm 2, which speaks of the eschatological battle in terms that appear again in the Book of Revelation:

 Why do the nations rage
  and the peoples plot in vain?
 The kings of the earth set themselves,
  and the rulers take counsel together,
  against the LORD and against his Anointed, saying,
 “Let us burst their bonds apart
  and cast away their cords from us.”
 He who sits in the heavens laughs;
  the Lord holds them in derision.
 Then he will speak to them in his wrath,
  and terrify them in his fury, saying,
 “As for me, I have set my King
  on Zion, my holy hill.”
 I will tell of the decree:
 The LORD said to me, “You are my Son;
  today I have begotten you.
 Ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage,
  and the ends of the earth your possession.
 You shall break them with a rod of iron
  and dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel.”
 Now therefore, O kings, be wise;
  be warned, O rulers of the earth.
 Serve the LORD with fear,
  and rejoice with trembling.
 Kiss the Son,
  lest he be angry, and you perish in the way,
  for his wrath is quickly kindled.
 Blessed are all who take refuge in him.
(Psalm 2)

 "The nations raged,
  but your wrath came,
  and the time for the dead to be judged,
 and for rewarding your servants, the prophets and saints,
  and those who fear your name,
  both small and great,
 and for destroying the destroyers of the earth.”
(Rev 11:18)

The above passage in Rev 11 which alludes to the raging nations in Pslams 2 and 46 is the third woe of the Book of Revelation, at the sounding of the seventh trumpet - which I suggest in Unveiling the Apocalypse refers to a third world war. It takes place after the martyrdom of the Two Witnesses, and should be considered to be the "fire from heaven" (symbolically poured forth from their mouths, just as Elijah called down fire from heaven to destroy his opponents) which is promised in reprisal to any harm that would come against them - as is warned in the Apocalypse:

These are the two olive trees and the two lampstands that stand before the Lord of the earth. And if anyone would harm them, fire pours from their mouth and consumes their foes. If anyone would harm them, this is how he is doomed to be killed.
(Rev 11:4-5)

Zerubbabel and Joshua the high priest in the Book of Zechariah are recognised to be the symbolic prototypes of the Two Witnesses of the Book of Revelation. And in the exact section that we find the reference to the "two olive trees" that stand before the Lord of all the earth in Zech 4, we are told that a mountain is made to collapse before Zerubbabel, who represents one of the Two Witnesses:

And the angel who talked with me came again and woke me, like a man who is awakened out of his sleep. And he said to me, “What do you see?” I said, “I see, and behold, a lampstand all of gold, with a bowl on the top of it, and seven lamps on it, with seven lips on each of the lamps that are on the top of it. And there are two olive trees by it, one on the right of the bowl and the other on its left.” And I said to the angel who talked with me, “What are these, my lord?” Then the angel who talked with me answered and said to me, “Do you not know what these are?” I said, “No, my lord.” Then he said to me, “This is the word of the LORD to Zerubbabel: Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, says the LORD of hosts. Who are you, O great mountain? Before Zerubbabel you shall become a plain. And he shall bring forward the top stone amid shouts of ‘Grace, grace to it!’”
(Zech 4:1-7)

The very last verse in this passage helps us to identify the person represented by Zerubbabel here as the Elijah to come, who prepares the way for the coming of the Lord. We are told that he brings forth the "top stone" amidst shouts of praise - and in Zech 3:9 the "top stone" is identified as the Righteous Branch, the Messiah - a stone with seven eyes, just like the Lamb of Revelation, with the seven spirits of God sent out to all the earth at the Second Pentecost:

Hear now, O Joshua the high priest, you and your friends who sit before you, for they are men who are a sign: behold, I will bring my servant the Branch. For behold, on the stone that I have set before Joshua, on a single stone with seven eyes, I will engrave its inscription, declares the LORD of hosts, and I will remove the iniquity of this land in a single day.
(Zech 3:8-9)

And between the throne and the four living creatures and among the elders I saw a Lamb standing, as though it had been slain, with seven horns and with seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent out into all the earth.
(Rev 5:6)

Turning back to the third woe of the Apocalypse, which is related to the raging nations described in Psalm 46, we find another allusion to the downfall of Babylon and the collapse of the "burning mountain". The majority of scholars recognise that the phrase "for destroying the destroyers of the earth" in Rev 11:18 is a direct allusion to the destroying mountain of Babylon mentioned in Jer 51:25:

 “Behold, I am against you, O destroying mountain,
 declares the LORD,
  which destroys the whole earth;
 I will stretch out my hand against you,
  and roll you down from the crags,
  and make you a burnt mountain.
(Jeremiah 51:25)

So this parallel further strengthens the relationship between the mountains being moved "into the heart of the sea" in Psalm 46 and the burning mountain of Jer 51 and Rev 8:8, linking it to the third woe of the Apocalypse after the martyrdom of the Two Witnesses in Rev 11. And the theme of the raging of the nations in Psalm 46 and Rev 11 is continued in the eschatological battle described in Psalm 2, where the kingdoms of the world are gathered against God's Anointed One - the Messiah:

 Why do the nations rage
  and the peoples plot in vain?
 The kings of the earth set themselves,
  and the rulers take counsel together,
  against the LORD and against his Anointed...
(Psalm 2:1-2)

This is final gathering of the nations against the Anointed One, who the Psalmist tells us will speak to them in his wrath and break them with a rod of iron, is to be identified with the escahtological battle described in Rev 19, where Christ strikes his opponents down with the sword that issues from his mouth:

 Then I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse! The one sitting on it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he judges and makes war. His eyes are like a flame of fire, and on his head are many diadems, and he has a name written that no one knows but himself. He is clothed in a robe dipped in blood, and the name by which he is called is The Word of God. And the armies of heaven, arrayed in fine linen, white and pure, were following him on white horses. From his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations, and he will rule them with a rod of iron. He will tread the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty. On his robe and on his thigh he has a name written, King of kings and Lord of lords.
 Then I saw an angel standing in the sun, and with a loud voice he called to all the birds that fly directly overhead, “Come, gather for the great supper of God, to eat the flesh of kings, the flesh of captains, the flesh of mighty men, the flesh of horses and their riders, and the flesh of all men, both free and slave, both small and great.” And I saw the beast and the kings of the earth with their armies gathered to make war against him who was sitting on the horse and against his army. And the beast was captured, and with it the false prophet who in its presence had done the signs by which he deceived those who had received the mark of the beast and those who worshiped its image. These two were thrown alive into the lake of fire that burns with sulfur. And the rest were slain by the sword that came from the mouth of him who was sitting on the horse, and all the birds were gorged with their flesh.
(Rev 19:11-21)

The sword that comes forth from the mouth of Christ is the Word of God, through which the world was created. And just as the world was created through the Word, so too will it reach its consummation. It is the command to the angel with the Flaming Sword of the Book of Genesis, to assemble the armies of the nations and send forth fire from the heavens to consume them. A scene which is first mentioned in Rev 16, before being recapitulated again in Rev 20:

And I saw, coming out of the mouth of the dragon and out of the mouth of the beast and out of the mouth of the false prophet, three unclean spirits like frogs. For they are demonic spirits, performing signs, who go abroad to the kings of the whole world, to assemble them for battle on the great day of God the Almighty. (“Behold, I am coming like a thief! Blessed is the one who stays awake, keeping his garments on, that he may not go about naked and be seen exposed!”) And they assembled them at the place that in Hebrew is called Armageddon.
(Rev 16:13-16)

And when the thousand years are ended, Satan will be released from his prison and will come out to deceive the nations that are at the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them for battle; their number is like the sand of the sea. And they marched up over the broad plain of the earth and surrounded the camp of the saints and the beloved city, but fire came down from heaven and consumed them...
(Rev 20:7-10)

We also find reference to this eschatological battle in the Pauline epistles:

This is evidence of the righteous judgment of God, that you may be considered worthy of the kingdom of God, for which you are also suffering—since indeed God considers it just to repay with affliction those who afflict you, and to grant relief to you who are afflicted as well as to us, when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus.
(2 Thess 1:5-8)

And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will kill with the breath of his mouth and bring to nothing by the appearance of his coming.
(2 Thess 2:8)

So by examining the significance of the various biblical allusions made in Psalm 46, we have yet again found several direct links between the Second Coming, the destruction of Babylon at casting of a burning mountain into the sea, and the battle of Armageddon. The exact sequence of events which I further elaborate on in the book, as a third world war being instigated by the Antichrist, who seizes the political vacuum left in the wake of the downfall of America following the devastating effects of the mega-tsunami caused by the collapse of Cumbre Vieja.

I'm sure Rabbi Johnathan Cahn would find the piece of synchronicity between Pres. Obama's 9/11 10th anniversary speech and the future chastisement of America worthy of note, since in his book Harbinger, he argues that the events of 9/11 were a warning of a worse disaster yet to befall the country if it does not turn from its sinful ways. As the story of Baalam in the Book of Numbers teaches us, God can put His words into the mouth of anyone He chooses. A fact which Cahn appears to pick up on in Harbinger, where he notes that certain events of post 9/11 America appears to be following the sequence of an obscure prophecy found in the Book of Isaiah. Cahn notes how the day after the attacks on the World Trade Centre, Sen. Tom Daschle quoted a passage from the Book of Isaiah, which speaks of Israel's act of defiance, describing their intent to rebuild stronger and better after the Northern Kingdom had been attacked by the Assyrians:

 The Lord has sent a word against Jacob,
  and it will fall on Israel;
 and all the people will know,
  Ephraim and the inhabitants of Samaria,
  who say in pride and in arrogance of heart:
 “The bricks have fallen,
  but we will build with dressed stones;
 the sycamores have been cut down,
  but we will put cedars in their place.”
(Isaiah 9:8-10)

The Israelites did not see the attacks as a harbinger of the judgment that was to fall upon the nation by the rod of Assyria, which would take place due to its state of apostasy.  Instead of turning to repentance, the Israelites arrogantly promised to rebuild. Cahn points out that this context makes Sen. Daschle's use of this quote even more strange.

Cahn goes on to note that Sen. John Edwards used the same quote on the third anniversary, and that when the foundation stone was laid for the building of Freedom Tower, it was hewn similar to the dressed gazit stone spoken of in Isaiah. Then a sycamore tree that was destroyed in the 9/11 attacks was replaced during a highly symbolic ceremony by a cedar. Also, in the Septuagint version of the Old Testament (the ancient Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible known as the LXX, which contains some variations of Scripture), the Israelites promise that they would build a tower upon the fallen rubble - just as Freedom Tower is being built right now:

The Lord has sent death upon Jacob, and it has come upon Israel. And all the people of Ephraim, and they that dwelt in Samaria shall know, who say in their pride and lofty heart, "The bricks are fallen down, but come, let us hew stones, and cut down sycamores and cedars, and let us build for ourselves a tower."
(Isa 9:8-10 LXX)

Cahn argues that just as the precursory attacks on the Northern Kingdom of Israel were a warning sent by God, telling of the nation's impending destruction by Assyria; so too the attacks on 9/11 herald a greater chastisement still to come. A chastisement that will ultimately lead to the nation's complete downfall.

 The people did not turn to him who struck them,
  nor inquire of the LORD of hosts.
 So the LORD cut off from Israel head and tail,
  palm branch and reed in one day...
(Isa 9:13-14)

In the earlier post The Two Towers and the Sixth Seal, we already discussed how the events of 9/11 appear to be intimately bound up with the future chastisement of the USA. Given that the link to Isaiah 9 was made by the leaders of America themselves in the wake of the terrible tragedy of 9/11, it seems highly significant that on the 10th anniversary of 9/11, the President of the United States unknowingly quoted a passage in the Bible that tells of the exact form the punishment will take - that mountains will be "moved into the heart of the sea", so that its waters swell, roar and foam. A passage which directly parallels the destruction of Babylon, caused by a burning mountain being thrown into the sea, as foretold in both the Book of Jeremiah and the Apocalypse.