Psalms · psalm 48 of 150
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Psalm 48 is a song of the sons of Korah that praises the Lord for Jerusalem, Mount Zion, the city of the great King. It tells how the kings who gathered against it fled in terror, and how the people meditated on the Lord's steadfast love inside the temple. It ends by inviting us to walk around the city and tell the next generation that this is our God, who will guide us.
The title calls it a song and a psalm of the sons of Korah. It is one of the so-called songs of Zion, together with Psalms 46, 76, 84, 87 and 122. The text does not say which attack on Jerusalem it recalls, and it is often linked to some deliverance, such as the one in 2 Kings 19, though this is uncertain. It is a poem about the city that nonetheless exalts God and not only its walls.
The psalm begins: great is the Lord and greatly to be praised in the city of our God, his holy mountain. Beautiful in elevation, the joy of all the earth, is Mount Zion, in the far north, the city of the great King. Within her citadels God has made himself known as a fortress.
Then it tells what happened: the kings assembled; they came on together. When they saw it, they were astounded; they were in panic and took to flight. Trembling took hold of them there, anguish as of a woman in labor. By the east wind he shattered the ships of Tarshish. As we have heard, so have we seen in the city of the Lord of hosts, in the city of our God; God will establish her forever.
Within the temple the people think on God's steadfast love. His praise reaches to the ends of the earth, and his right hand is filled with righteousness. Mount Zion is glad and the daughters of Judah rejoice because of his judgments. The psalm invites us to walk about Zion, go around her, number her towers, consider her ramparts and go through her citadels, that we may tell the next generation. For this is God, our God forever and ever; he will guide us.
References follow ESV book names and verse numbers. Read each verse in your Bible before the explanation.
Great is the Lord and greatly to be praised in the city of his sanctuary. Jerusalem's greatness comes from the One who lives in it, not from its walls or towers.
God has made himself known in the citadels of Zion as a fortress. It is the same idea as Psalm 46: God's presence is what makes the city secure.
In the midst of the temple, the people reflect on the Lord's steadfast love. Worship is not only celebrating victories but meditating on God's faithful love.
This is God, our God forever and ever, and he will guide us. It is the conclusion of the psalm and what each generation must tell the next.
6 questions with answers and references, ready for Sunday school, small group or a Bible quiz night.
Answer: In the city of our God, his holy mountain. — Psalm 48:1
Answer: The city of the great King, the joy of all the earth. — Psalm 48:2
Answer: They were astounded, in panic, and fled. — Psalm 48:5
Answer: God's steadfast love. — Psalm 48:9
Answer: Walk around her, number her towers and consider her ramparts. — Psalm 48:12-13
Answer: So the next generation knows that this God is our God and will guide us. — Psalm 48:13-14
Psalm 48 invites us to look with gratitude at what God has built among us. In a church this can mean walking through the building, remembering how each thing came to be and telling children and youth what God did. A story told like that becomes testimony.
It also warns against trusting buildings or institutions. Zion's security was not in its towers but in God's presence. Today, for Christians, that presence is in Christ and his people. Ask what we are telling the next generation: tradition, or living faith in a God who guides?
Psalm 48 ends with the promise that God will guide us always. Psalm 49 opens a different theme, a wisdom meditation on the deceit of riches and the hope of being ransomed from death.
The Hebrew phrase alludes to Zaphon, the mountain of the north, which in the literature of the region was the dwelling of a god. The psalmist uses language his hearers knew to say that the true mountain of God is Zion. It is a poetic way of affirming that the Lord reigns there.
The text does not say. Some connect it with the defeat of the Assyrians before Jerusalem in the days of Hezekiah, described in 2 Kings 19, and others with an earlier situation. In any case, the psalm presents the kings' flight as God's work.
The Hebrew of verse 14 has an obscure phrase: some translations say he will guide us forever, and others he will guide us until death. On either reading, the message is that God will guide his people all their lives and will not leave them.