Psalm 48:4

EXPOSITION

Verse 4. The kings were assembled, they passed by together. They came and they went. No sooner together than scattered. They came one way and fled twenty ways. Boastful the gathering hosts with their royal leaders, despairing the fugitive bands with their astonished captains. They came like foam on the angry sea, like foam they melted away. This was so remarkable that the psalmist puts in a note of exclamation, Lo! What! have they so suddenly fled! Even thus shall the haters of the church vanish from the field. Papists, Ritualists, Arians, Sceptics, they shall each have their day, and shall pass on to the limbo of forgetfulness.

EXPLANATORY NOTES AND QUAINT SAYINGS

Verse 4. They were many and powerful: kings and a plurality of them. They were confederate kings. The kings were assembled. Forces united are the more powerful. But all the endeavours of these confederate kings came to nothing. They passed by together - - together they came, and together they vanished. William Nicholson.

HINTS FOR PASTORS AND LAYPERSONS

Verse 4-7.

1. The opposition of worldly powers to the church. "The kings," etc.
2. The manner in which they are subdued -- by their own fears; conscience has persecuted those who have persecuted the church of God. They who have seized the ark of God have been glad to return it with an offering.
3. The completeness of their overthrow, As a fleet of ships of Tarshish, dispersed, broken, and engulfed by the east wind.