Psalms 48

1 How great is the LORD, how deserving of praise, in the city of our God, which sits on his holy mountain!

2 It is high and magnificent; the whole earth rejoices to see it! Mount Zion, the holy mountain, is the city of the great King!

3 God himself is in Jerusalem’s towers, revealing himself as its defender.

4 The kings of the earth joined forces and advanced against the city.

5 But when they saw it, they were stunned; they were terrified and ran away.

6 They were gripped with terror and writhed in pain like a woman in labor.

7 You destroyed them like the mighty ships of Tarshish shattered by a powerful east wind.

8 We had heard of the city’s glory, but now we have seen it ourselves— the city of the LORD of Heaven’s Armies. It is the city of our God; he will make it safe forever. Interlude

9 O God, we meditate on your unfailing love as we worship in your Temple.

10 As your name deserves, O God, you will be praised to the ends of the earth. Your strong right hand is filled with victory.

11 Let the people on Mount Zion rejoice. Let all the towns of Judah be glad because of your justice.

12 Go, inspect the city of Jerusalem. Walk around and count the many towers.

13 Take note of the fortified walls, and tour all the citadels, that you may describe them to future generations.

14 For that is what God is like. He is our God forever and ever, and he will guide us until we die.

Psalms 48 Commentary

Chapter 48

The glories of the church of Christ.

Verses 1-7 Jerusalem is the city of our God: none on earth render him due honour except the citizens of the spiritual Jerusalem. Happy the kingdom, the city, the family, the heart, in which God is great, in which he is all. There God is known. The clearer discoveries are made to us of the Lord and his greatness, the more it is expected that we should abound in his praises. The earth is, by sin, covered with deformity, therefore justly might that spot of ground, which was beautified with holiness, be called the joy of the whole earth; that which the whole earth has reason to rejoice in, that God would thus in very deed dwell with man upon the earth. The kings of the earth were afraid of it. Nothing in nature can more fitly represent the overthrow of heathenism by the Spirit of the gospel, than the wreck of a fleet in a storm. Both are by the mighty power of the Lord.

Verses 8-14 We have here the improvement which the people of God are to make of his glorious and gracious appearances for them. Let our faith in the word of God be hereby confirmed. Let our hope of the stability of the church be encouraged. Let our minds be filled with good thoughts of God. All the streams of mercy that flow down to us, must be traced to the fountain of His loving-kindness. Let us give to God the glory of the great things he has done for us. Let all the members of the church take comfort from what the Lord does for his church. Let us observe the beauty, strength, and safety of the church. Consider its strength; see it founded on Christ the Rock, fortified by the Divine power, guarded by Him who neither slumbers nor sleeps. See what precious ordinances are its palaces, what precious promises are its bulwarks, that you may be encouraged to join yourselves to it: and tell this to others. This God, who has now done such great things for us, is unchangeable in his love to us, and his care for us. If he is our God, he will lead and keep us even to the last. He will so guide us, as to set us above the reach of death, so that it shall not do us any real hurt. He will lead us to a life in which there shall be no more death.

Footnotes

• [a]. Or Mount Zion, in the far north; Hebrew reads Mount Zion, the heights of Zaphon.
• [b]. Hebrew Zion.

Chapter Summary

INTRODUCTION TO PSALM 48

\\<>\\. This psalm is entitled a "song psalm", a psalm to be sung vocally; or "a song and psalm" to be sung both vocally and instrumentally; and is one of the spiritual songs the apostle speaks of, Eph 5:19; It was occasioned, as some think, by David's spoiling the Philistines, 2Sa 5:17-21; or, as others, by the deliverance of the people from the Moabites and Ammonites in the times of Jehoshaphat, 2Ch 20:27,28; or, as others, by the deliverance of the inhabitants of Jerusalem from Sennacherib in the times of Hezekiah, 2Ki 19:34,35; though as Kimchi, a celebrated Jewish commentator, owns, it belongs to the times of the Messiah, as the other preceding psalms; and treats of his greatness, and of the praise and glory due to him, and gives large encomiums of his church.