Psalms 48:6-14

6 Fear took hold of them there, And pain, as of a woman in birth pangs,

7 As when You break the ships of Tarshish With an east wind.

8 As we have heard, So we have seen In the city of the Lord of hosts, In the city of our God: God will establish it forever. Selah

9 We have thought, O God, on Your lovingkindness, In the midst of Your temple.

10 According to Your name, O God, So is Your praise to the ends of the earth; Your right hand is full of righteousness.

11 Let Mount Zion rejoice, Let the daughters of Judah be glad, Because of Your judgments.

12 Walk about Zion, And go all around her. Count her towers;

13 Mark well her bulwarks; Consider her palaces; That you may tell it to the generation following.

14 For this is God, Our God forever and ever; He will be our guide Even to death.

Psalms 48:6-14 Meaning and Commentary

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.

Footnotes

• [a]. Following Masoretic Text and Syriac; Septuagint and Vulgate read Forever.