Robert Spencer Questions Obama’s Use of Psalm 46 at 9/11 Remembrance

by Sheila Musaji

This year at a ceremony marking the anniversary of the tragedy of 9/11, Barack Obama read Psalm 46 from the Bible.  Here is the full Psalm:

God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. 2 Therefore we will not fear, though the earth should change, though the mountains shake in the heart of the sea; 3 though its waters roar and foam, though the mountains tremble with its tumult. (Selah) 4 There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy habitation of the Most High. 5 God is in the midst of the city; it shall not be moved; God will help it when the morning dawns. 6 The nations are in an uproar, the kingdoms totter; he utters his voice, the earth melts. 7 The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge. (Selah) 8 Come, behold the works of the Lord; see what desolations he has brought on the earth. 9 He makes wars cease to the end of the earth; he breaks the bow, and shatters the spear; he burns the shields with fire. 10 “Be still, and know that I am God! I am exalted among the nations, I am exalted in the earth.” 11 The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge. (Selah)

For some reason this provoked Robert Spencer to post an article Obama reads Biblical passage at 9/11 ceremonies implying that 9/11 was an act of God.  Here is the full text of Spencer’s article

Obama reads Psalm 46, including verse 8: “Come, behold the works of the LORD, how he has wrought desolations in the earth.”

The only people who think that 9/11 was an act of the Supreme Being wreaking desolations on the earth are…Islamic jihadists.

So why did Barack Obama pick this psalm out of 150 psalms, and out of innumerable appropriate Biblical passages, to read at the 9/11 ceremonies? 9/11, after all, was a day when there were indeed wrought desolations on the earth. Did Obama really mean to say that God did it, that it was an act of divine judgment, rather than a monstrous and unmitigated evil?

Or is this just another one of those funny coincidences, of which there are so very, very many when it comes to Barack Obama and his remarkable, unqualified and obvious affinity for Islam?

First of all, Spencer’s wild speculation about what Obama was “implying” is just that wild speculation.  There are people who actually do openly say that the 9/11 attacks were God’s punishment, but Obama is not one of them.

As Garibaldi at Loonwatch notes:

Robert Spencer, just like his comrade Pamela Geller believes Obama is a Muslim. They have repeated this claim numerous times, both implicitly and directly, though Spencer has reverted again to not saying it clearly.

Spencer, unlike his friend Geller knows that such a belief is bats*** loony so he attempts to couch his language in euphemism and hints.

It is interesting to note Spencer’s false claim that the “only people who think that 9/11 was an act of the Supreme Being are Islamic jihadists.” Spencer isn’t that stupid, just a week ago he was on Pat Robertson’s 700 Club, the same loon pastor who “in the wake of 9/11, had a now (in-)famous exchange with the late Jerry Falwell in which the two religious leaders suggested that the United States ‘deserved’ the attacks for its tolerance of secularism, gays, abortion, feminists and pagans.”

Maybe Spencer thinks that Robertson is an Islamic Jihadist?

Psalm 46 has been used by many well known and respected individuals in the same way that it was used by President Obama.  The White House statement as to why the President chose this text was “The President chose a scripture which he believed was most appropriate—he believed it was particularly appropriate to use—to read scripture this morning. And he chose a passage that talks of persevering through very difficult challenges and emerging from those challenges stronger,”

Vera Chan notes about the many times this verse has been referenced

Church history scholar Scott Manetsch, speaking to an Alabama divinity school in 2010, described its "emotive power" as deriving from "blunt honesty and its sturdy confidence in the Lord." The song has been favored among leaders like Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher. An inspired nine-year-old Wolfgang Mozart composed "God is Our Refuge," based on the psalm, in 1765. Its origins are still unknown among Biblical scholars, and may go back as far as 700 B.C.

The psalm was evoked after the attacks on America, including a statement from evangelist Billy Graham on Sept. 11. Wrote reporter G. Jeffrey Macdonald of the Times Picayune on Sept. 29, 2001, "On America's ever-more-diverse religious landscape, few occasions in recent years have led believers of varied stripes to invoke a common text as relevant and authoritative. In the aftermath of the terrorist strikes, however, no one disputed the appropriateness of the ancient Hebrew lyrics: 'God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble,' says the first verse. 'Therefore we will not fear, though the earth should change.'"