Psalm 48

seekeroftruth

Well-Known Member
Psalm 48[a]A song. A psalm of the Sons of Korah.
1 Great is the Lord, and most worthy of praise,
in the city of our God, his holy mountain.
2 Beautiful in its loftiness,
the joy of the whole earth,
like the heights of Zaphon(b) is Mount Zion,
the city of the Great King.
3 God is in her citadels;
he has shown himself to be her fortress.
4 When the kings joined forces,
when they advanced together,
5 they saw her and were astounded;
they fled in terror.

6 Trembling seized them there,
pain like that of a woman in labor.
7 You destroyed them like ships of Tarshish
shattered by an east wind.
8 As we have heard,
so we have seen
in the city of the Lord Almighty,
in the city of our God:
God makes her secure
forever.[c]
9 Within your temple, O God,
we meditate on your unfailing love.
10 Like your name, O God,
your praise reaches to the ends of the earth;
your right hand is filled with righteousness.
11 Mount Zion rejoices,
the villages of Judah are glad
because of your judgments.
12 Walk about Zion, go around her,
count her towers,
13 consider well her ramparts,
view her citadels,
that you may tell of them
to the next generation.
14 For this God is our God for ever and ever;
he will be our guide even to the end.


a. Psalm 48:1 In Hebrew texts 48:1-14 is numbered 48:2-15.
b. Psalm 48:2 Zaphon was the most sacred mountain of the Canaanites.
c. Psalm 48:8 The Hebrew has Selah (a word of uncertain meaning) here

Well, this is supposed to be the third song of a trilogy.... so I'm going to stick with the easy English commentary.

Verses 1 – 2: The holy mountain is Mount Zion, where they built the temple. But, in this psalm, the holy mountain is all the city of Jerusalem. They had built it on the edge of high land, so when you came to it, it looked beautiful. The High Place of Zaphar was where all old religions thought that their god came to the earth. The psalmist is saying that there is only one Zaphar, and only one God: Jerusalem is the real Zaphar, and the LORD is the real God.
Verses 3 – 8: The kings in verse 4 were the leaders of the Assyrian army. (Look at The Story of Psalms 46, 47 and 48 again.) They attacked Jerusalem, but God kept his city safe, and the people that were in it. The kings saw something that frightened them away. We do not know what it was. Perhaps it was the 185 000 dead bodies! God did this just as easily as he could send a wind to destroy a ship! Tarshish was a place in Spain that had the biggest ships in the world at that time. The people living in Jerusalem saw that what they had heard was true: God will keep his people safe! But they must believe in him, obey him and love him. Later, when the Jews did not do these things, God did not keep their city safe.
Verses 9 – 13: After the war was over, the psalmist tells the people to remember what happened. They were to look at all the places that God had made safe. Then they could tell their children what had happened, and the places where it had happened. This would help their children to believe, obey and love God also. The Bible teaches us that it is important to tell our children what God has done for us.
Verse 14: "God will be our guide until we die" means that he will lead if we will follow him. "*for ever and ever" means "always". After we die, we will be with God if we believe, obey and love him.
The Temple that Solomon built was laden with gold and silver. When the sun hit it... I bet it could blind a girl. Consider this.... at a certain time of day.... when hubby has his truck parked in front of the garage.... a beam of sunlight will bounce off the chrome on his truck and shoot a beam into the garage. If that beam hits me in the eye.... I can tell you.... it's blinding.

That Temple that Solomon built.... it sat on the top of the hill in Jerusalem.... and it was a gleaming spotlight for God.

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