December 20
Reading: Psalm 48
A Song. A Psalm of the Sons of Korah.
1 Great is the LORD and greatly to be praised
in the city of our God! His holy mountain,
2 beautiful in elevation, is the joy of all the earth,
Mount Zion, in the far north,
the city of the great King.
3 God, within her citadels
has made himself known as a fortress.
4 For behold, the kings assembled;
they came on together.
5 As soon as they saw it, they were astounded;
they were in panic; they took to flight.
6 Trembling took hold of them there,
anguish as of a woman in labor.
7 By the east wind
you shattered the ships of Tarshish.
8 As we have heard, so have we seen
in the city of the LORD of hosts, in the city of our God,
which God will establish forever.
Selah
9 We have thought on your steadfast love,
O God, in the midst of your temple.
10 As your name, O God,
so your praise reaches to the ends of the earth.
Your right hand is filled with righteousness.
11 Let Mount Zion be glad!
Let the daughters of Judah rejoice
because of your judgments!
12 Walk about Zion, go around her,
number her towers,
13 consider well her ramparts,
go through her citadels,
that you may tell the next generation
14 that this is God,
our God forever and ever.
He will guide us forever.
Psalm 48 is a poem that praises the City of God, Zion, Jerusalem. In this psalm we learn something about book 2 of the Psalms. Though these songs and poems are largely attributed to David and the reign of David as king, the collection was assembled later and some of the psalms (at least this one) must have been written after David’s reign. We know this because of the lofty descriptions of Jerusalem and the presence of the Temple. It is likely that this psalm was written following Solomon’s construction of the Temple, completed in 957 BC.
Jerusalem is here praised for her beauty, for the fear that the city strikes into the hearts of the enemies of Israel, for the presence of God in His Temple, for the truth of God that resides there, for her towers and citadels, and for God having done it all. Both stanzas conclude with the word “forever” highlighting the foreverness of Zion.
This is instantly a problem for the student of history who knows that this Jerusalem and the temple was laid waste in 587 BC at the hands of the Babylonians. It was rebuilt by Cyrus the Persian in 516 BC and destroyed again by the Romans in 70 AD. Israel was restored as a nation in 1948, but today an Islamic Mosque sits on the site of the Temple.
Thus, the admiration of Jerusalem, mount Zion, “established forever” must be directed ultimately to a city somewhat different than the Jerusalem built, destroyed, rebuilt, and destroyed again.
It is a description of Jerusalem, the city of God, capital of Israel, but that city is a picture pointing not to the Jerusalem condemned by Isaiah as being like Sodom, but to the restored Jerusalem that Isaiah prophesied and God has promised. It will be a city made beautiful by the perfect presence of God. It will be a city made up of all those who love and worship God from every tribe and tongue.
We are looking forward to “the Jerusalem that is above.” (Galatians 4:26) We have come to “Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem.” (Hebrews 12:22)
And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and its lamp is the Lamb. By its light will the nations walk, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it, and its gates will never be shut by day– and there will be no night there. They will bring into it the glory and the honor of the nations. But nothing unclean will ever enter it, nor anyone who does what is detestable or false, but only those who are written in the Lamb’s book of life. Revelation 21:23-27