Zion as a Type of the Christian Church.

A song and psalm for the sons of Korah, written by one of their number to set forth the privileges and blessings of God’s dominion in His Church.

v. 1. Great is the Lord and greatly to be praised, in setting forth His fame in psalms of thanksgiving, in the city of our God, where the Tabernacle and afterward the Temple stood, in the mountain of His holiness, where He dwells in the glory of His holiness.

v. 2. Beautiful for situation, elevated for the sake of bringing out the beauty of its location on the hill, the joy of the whole earth, as it deserves to be according to the opinion of the spiritual Israel living there, is Mount Zion, on the sides of the north, where Moriah proper lifted its summit, the city of the great King. The entire description, though taken from the picture of Jerusalem, the location of which is singularly beautiful and impressive, is evidently typical of the holy Christian Church; for the name Zion or daughter of Zion, the city of God, is applied by the Holy Spirit to the congregation of believers of all times, as in Psalms 46.

v. 3. God is known in her palaces for a refuge, having given evidence of His gracious protection and deliverance in so many troubles; the citadels of the spiritual Jerusalem are upheld by His divine power.

v. 4. For, lo, the kings, the same enemies of Zion which are mentioned in Psalms 2, were assembled, they passed by together, in a confederacy to attack the city of God.

v. 5. They saw it, after passing the boundary of the country and encamping against the Church, they became aware of the fact that Jehovah is its mighty Protector, and so they marveled, they were greatly astonished; they were troubled and hasted away, filled with terror at the revelation of God’s omnipotence.

v. 6. Fear took hold upon them there, trembling and quaking, and pain, as of a woman in travail.

v. 7. Thou breakest the ships of Tarshish, the largest and most valuable merchant ships of those days, with an east wind, and so the mightiest enemies have no chance of overcoming him, they cannot cope with His almighty power.

v. 8. As we have heard, in reports brought to them concerning former deliverances, so have we seen in the city of the Lord of hosts, who has all the heavenly armies under His command, in the city of our God; God will establish it forever, the gates of hell shall not prevail against the Church of Christ, Mat 16:18. Selah. The believers therefore, in congregation assembled, draw their conclusions to the strengthening of their faith in Jehovah.

v. 9. We have thought of, by reflecting upon this deliverance and other manifestations of God’s mercy, Thy loving-kindness, O God, in the midst of Thy temple, the grace and goodness revealed in His Church.

v. 10. According to Thy name, O God, as it is proclaimed and glorified by the preaching of the Word, by setting forth the nature and the attributes of God, so is Thy praise unto the ends of the earth, wherever believers are gained by the preaching of the Gospel; Thy right hand, symbol of His dealings with His Church, is full of righteousness, which the Lord deals out and imputes to the believers, as they accept the redemption gained by the Savior, Jesus Christ.

v. 11. Let Mount Zion, the spiritual Israel, rejoice, let the daughters of Judah, the congregation of believers, the children of the spiritual Judah, be glad because of Thy judgments, the decisions and acts of His just government in their favor.

v. 12. Walk about Zion, taking the opportunity of examining the Church closely, both in its appearance and in its work, and go round about her; tell the towers thereof, counting the many means of defense which the Lord has given her in His Word.

v. 13. Mark ye well her bulwarks, setting their hearts upon the fortifications of the Church, consider her palaces, the many fine congregations in which the Word and the Sacraments are in use in their original purity, that ye may tell it to the generation following, using all diligence that the faith of the fathers may be transmitted inviolate to the children, and that the hearts of the Christians may truly remain habitations of God through the Spirit.

v. 14. For this God, who has revealed Himself to His Church in His Word, is our God forever and ever; He will be our Guide even unto death, or, in eternal youthfulness, to a world where there is no death, where all believers will be with Him in everlasting, deathless bliss.

Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann

EXPOSITION

HERE we have another psalm of thanksgiving for a deliverance, but not apparently for the same deliverance as gave occasion for either of the two preceding psalms. Israel had now been delivered from a confederacy of kings (Psa 48:4), who had come within sight of the city, but had then been seized with panic, and retreated, without making an attack (Psa 48:5). After this, pain had come upon them, and they had been “broken,” like “ships of Tarshish with an east wind” (Psa 48:6, Psa 48:7). The deliverance had been celebrated by a thanksgiving service held in the temple (Psa 48:9). These details accord remarkably with the account given in 2Ch 20:1-28 of an expedition against Jerusalem, made by the Moabites, Ammonites, and children of Seir, in the reign of Jehoshaphat, who advanced as far as Tekoa, whence Jerusalem is visible (Delitzsch), but there quarrelled among themselves, and began a retreat, in the course of which they came to blows, and destroyed one another. The imagery of “ships of Tarshish broken by the east wind” is naturally used at this period, when Jehoshaphat’s fleet of “ships of Tarshish” (2Ki 22:1-20 :48) was, by a Divine judgment, “broken at Ezion-geber.”

The psalm consists of two strophes, nearly of equal length, divided at the end of 2Ch 20:8 by the pause-mark, “Selah.”

Psa 48:1

Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised; rather, great is the Lord, and greatly is he praised. The psalmist speaks of what is, not of what ought to be. Jehoshaphat had solemnly praised God for the deliverance from the Moabites and Ammonites, both in the valley of Berachah, when he came upon the bodies of the slain (2Ch 20:26), and in the temple after his return to Jerusalem (2Ch 20:28). In the city of our God (comp. Psa 46:4; Psa 101:8). In the mountain of his holiness. The “holy hill of Zion” (Psa 2:6), on which the temple and a great part of the city stood.

Psa 48:2

Beautiful for situation; literally, for elevation; i.e. in respect of its lofty position. “Jerusalem, above all other great capitals,” says Professor Cheyne, “is a mountain city.” “It is a glorious burst,” says Canon Tristram, “as the traveller rounds the shoulder of Mount Olivet, and the Haram wall starts up before him from the deep gorge of the Kedron, with its domes and crescents sparkling in the sunlighta royal city”. The joy of the whole earth, is Mount Zion (comp. Rom 2:15). The psalmist writes as a devout Israelite. To him there is nothing in the world so lovely, nothing so gladdening, as Mount Zion and the holy city seated on it. He does not mean to say that all the earth felt as he did; though he may have thought that, if men were wise, they would so feel. On the sides of the north. Professor Cheyne regards this clause as a gloss which has crept into the text. Others give a mystical interpretation founded on Isa 14:15. But the simplest explanation seems to be the best. Zion, the city of David, lay to the north of the temple, and abutted on the city’s northern wall. The city of the great King (comp. Isa 14:1, “the city of our God”).

Psa 48:3

God is known in her palaces for a Refuge; or, in her castles. The palaces of the king and his chief nobles are, no doubt, intended.

Psa 48:4

For lo, the kings were assembled; they passed by together. Some see in these “kings” Sennacherib’s princes, who, according to him (Isa 10:8), were “altogether kings.” But actual monarchs, each leading his own army, seem rather to be intended.

Psa 48:5

They saw it, and so they marvelled; they were troubled, and hasted away. The sight of the city, with its walls and towers (Psa 48:12, Psa 48:13), was enough for themthey recognized that the place was too strong to be attacked with any prospect of success; “marvelled,” or “were amazed” (Cheyne), at its strength, and, being troubled in mind, hasted away. The unconnected verbs remind the commentators of Caesar’s famous despatch, “Vent, vidi, vici.”

Psa 48:6

Fear took hold upon them there, and pain, as of a woman in travail. This description is wholly inapplicable to the destruction of Sennacherib’s host, unperceived until it was accomplished (2Ki 19:35), but is sufficiently in agreement with the narrative of 2Ch 20:1-23.

Psa 48:7

Thou breakest the ships of Tarshish with an east wind. The literal exposition is wholly out of place, since history does not speak of any co-operation of a fleet with a land army in any attack upon Pales. fine. The expression must be used metaphorically of a great and violent destruction wrought by the arm of God upon Israel’s foes. Still, the imagery would scarcely have been used, unless there had been something in the circumstances of the time to suggest it, as there certainly was in Jehoshaphat’s time, whose fleet of “ships of Tamhish” was “broken” at Ezion-geber (2Ki 22:1-20 :48). The poet may have witnessed the catastrophe.

Psa 48:8

As we have heard, so have we seen in the city of the Lord of hosts, in the city of our God; i.e. as we have heard of former deliverances of Jerusalem from the attacks of enemies; e.g. from Shishak (2Ch 12:2-12), from Zorah (2Ch 14:9-13), so now we have seen with our own eyes a deliverance of the same favoured city, such as might be expected from the fact that she is “the city of the Lord of hosts, the city of our God.” Having seen with our own eyes Jerusalem thus delivered, we come to the conclusion that God will establish it for ever.

Psa 48:9

We have thought of thy loving-kindness, O God, in the midst of thy temple. Jehoshaphat, on his return to Jerusalem from the scene of his adversaries’ slaughter, held a thanksgiving service in the temple, “with psalteries, and harps, and trumpets,” because the Lord had made the people to rejoice over their enemies (2Ch 20:27, 2Ch 20:28).

Psa 48:10

According to thy Name, O God, so is thy praise. The “Name of God,” i.e. the character that he has established for himself by former mighty deeds, and the praise which he has now won by the recent deliverance, are coextensive. Both of them reach unto the ends of the earth; i.e. over all the regions known to the writer. Thy right hand is full of righteousness. Thou hast dealt out a righteous judgment by thy right hand and thy stretched-out arm, thereby showing how full thy right hand is of justice and judgment.

Psa 48:11

Let Mount Zion rejoice, let the daughters of Judah be glad; i.e. let there be a chorus of joyful thanks over the length and breadth of the land, not only in Jerusalem, but in every city of Judah (Jos 15:45) equally. Because of thy judgments. Because thou hast vindicated thy people, and executed judgment on their enemies.

Psa 48:12

Walk about Zion, and go round about her; tell the towers thereof. Admire, i.e; O Israelites, your glorious city, which God has preserved for you intact. Walk around it, view it on every side; observe its strength and beauty. Nay, count its towers, and see how many they are, that ye may form a true estimate of its defences, which render it well-nigh impregnable. Such a survey would “tend to the glorifying of the God of Israel, and to the strengthening of their faith” (Hengstenberg).

Psa 48:13

Mark ye well her bulwarks (or, her ramparts), consider her palaces. Note the height and fine masonry of her outer wall, which no people could destroy except the Romans (Neh 1:3; Neh 2:13-17; Neh 4:6). And note also the grand houses of her princes and nobles (Amo 6:11), which show themselves even above the ramparts. That ye may tell it to the generation following. That ye may let them know “how splendid Jerusalem appeared on the morrow of its great danger” (Cheyne).

Psa 48:14

For this God (i.e. the God who has now delivered us) is our God for ever and ever; i.e. he will always remain faithful to us, as we will to him. He will be our Guide even unto death. Dr. Kay translates “even over death,” and understands that God’s loving protection is promised to the faithful even in the land beyond the grave. But he stands alone in this interpretation. Host moderns question whether the words are any part of the psalm, and, comparing them with the of the title to Psa 9:1-20; suggest that they are a mere musical notation. But the psalm would end abruptly without the words, and the meaning, “he will be our Guide unto death,” is quite satisfactory (so Hengstenberg and the Revised Version).

HOMILETICS

Psa 48:9

God’s loving-kindness.

“We have thought of thy loving-kindness.” Thought is quick. A lightning-flash of thought, a momentary recollection of God, may give guidance to take the right step, courage to speak the right word, strength to withstand sudden temptation, comfort when we are ready to give up all as lost. But this swift inspiration, sudden illumination, is not the kind of thought of which this text speaks. It is calm meditation, devout; leisurely contemplation. Memory spreads her stores. Faith, hope, love, drink full draughts from the living well of truth. Prayer and praise have time to clothe themselves in fit words. While we muse, the fire burns. One of the greatest blessings of the sabbath is the opportunity for such prolonged, undisturbed thought. One of the richest fruits of the public service of God’s house, and of the ministry of God’s Word, is reaped when we are led to think of God‘s loving-kindness.

I. The Revisers have wisely retained THIS BEAUTIFUL WORD “LOVING–KINDNESS,” although the same Hebrew word is frequently translated “mercy” (sometimes also “goodness,” or “kindness”). We could ill afford to lose it, for no other English word so happily expresses one of the most wonderful and delightful aspects of Divine mercy, goodness, or kindness; viz. its special application to individuals. The Bible alone sheds this ray of Divine glory on the path of human life. We do not find it in heathen religions, for men do not naturally think thus of God. Science cannot reveal it; for science deals with what is universal or general, not with individuals. We learn it by faith and experience. The histories of Scripture are full of it; e.g. Hagar in the desert; Eliezer at the well; Jacob at Bethel, at Haran, at Penuel; Elijah in the famine; Ezra at Ahava (Ezr 8:21, Ezr 8:22). The miracles of Scripture are largely concerned in this lesson. Miracles are but lessons writ large, that none may be able to mistake their meaning. The promises of the Bible abundantly announce the same truth; and the thanksgivings (in the Psalms and elsewhere) of those whose faith has tested those promises, bear witness to their fulfilment. So does the experience of God’s children in all ages.

II. THIS SPECIAL VIEW OF GOD‘S LOVING–KINDNESS TO INDIVIDUALS MUST NOT NARROW OR OBSCURE OUR VIEW OF HIS MERCY AND LOVING–KINDNESS ON THE BROAD SCALEto his Church and to mankind. “The earth is full of the goodness of the Lord” (Psa 33:5, same Hebrew word; Luk 6:35, Luk 6:36; Joh 3:16; 1Jn 4:9). The “glad tidings of great joy,” the gospel, is in the heart of it the message that God loves us. The transcendent proof, the gift of his Son, while it casts all lesser gifts into the shade, is the assurance of them all (Rom 8:32).

III. CONTEMPLATION OF GOD‘S LOVING–KINDNESS IN ALL THESE ASPECTSdevout, thankful meditation on it, is at once a delight and a duty. A duty, because gratitude demands it (Psa 103:2), because God wills it and is honoured thereby (Psa 111:2 4), because thus the roots of our love and piety are nourished, and our doubts answered. But a duty that can be practised only by those to whom it is a delight. For really to apprehend God’s loving-kindness without having our heart opened to its gladness and brightness, as the flower to the sunshine, is impossible. Love only apprehends love (1Jn 4:8). What richer, sweeter, more glorious object of contemplation is possible?

IV. THE CONTEMPLATION OF GOD‘S LOVING–KINDNESS, NEVER OUT OF SEASON, IS ESPECIALLY SEASONABLE IN THE SANCTUARY. “In the temple.” Here Asaph got quit of his doubts, and felt his faith and joy revive (Psa 78:17, Psa 78:28). Christian places of meeting and worship are not called “temples” in the New Testament. But Christian people are (2Co 6:16). The material temple present to the psalmist’s thought, with all its glorious ritual and local sanctity, has vanished like a vision. Not because the Gospel has put us further from God, but because it has brought us nearer. The cross has hallowed the whole earth as the outer court of the temple, of which heaven is the sanctuary; and we have boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus. How rich are the poorest who know that this portion is theirs, the loving-kindness of the Lord! How poor the richest without this! Let our meditation of him be sweet! Let us be glad in the Lord!

HOMILIES BY C. CLEMANCE

Psa 48:1-14

God’s own Church the object of his special care.

In this psalm, which is both song and psalm, and is one of those “for the sons of Korah,” there is a general theme, illustrated by a reference to some historic event. The general theme is the loving-kindness and care of God over his Church. The specific historic illustration it is not possible to fix with certainty, although the preponderance of opinion, and also the largest amount of probability, seems to incline towards the wondrous repulse of Edom, Ammon, Moab, and ethers, in answer to Jehoshaphat’s prayer, without Israel having to fight in the battle (see 2Ch 20:1-37.). We see from the narrative of the Chronicles that the children of the Korahites sang a song of praise on the occasion of that signal interposition of God, although it is not likely that the song then sang was the forty-eighth psalm; for the reference in Psa 48:7 is against that; and at first it is not easy to see how “ships of Tarshish” should come to be mentioned in this song, if prepared with reference to the event of which we have made mention. Ezekiel (Eze 27:25, Eze 27:26) makes mention of ships of Tarshish which belonged to Tyro, being “broken” by the east wind; and it is possible that the psalm may have an allusion thereto. But, singularly enough, the chapter that records Jehoshaphat’s prayer and deliverance records also his defection and its punishment; and we are told that his ships were broken so that they were not able to go to Tarshish (2Ch 20:35-37). If this be the reference in the song before us, its significance would be very striking; in that case, it would mean that Jehovah, Israel’s God, who put the heathen to flight for Israel’s sake, put even Israel to shame when her people or her kings left the straight path of reliance on and obedience to God alone; and that this was among the “judgments” of him whose right hand is full of righteousness; showing us that God’s care for his Church is just as marked when he rebukes her for her sins as when he delivers her from her foes; and that both for his faithful chastisement as for his mighty interposition, his loving-kindness is rehearsed in his temple with gratitude and song. And there is a holy pride in rehearsing the privileges of Zion as far outweighing those of the nations arounda pride, however, which refers all the honour and glory of Zion to God, and to God alone. Interesting, however, as these historic allusions are to the student, the higher spiritual bearing of the psalm is far more interesting, and far more important, as it sets before us this themethe privilege and honour of the Church of God. We need not here argue the point that the Christian Church is the successor to the honours and privileges of the Jewish Church. A comparison of Exo 19:6 with 1Pe 2:9 will show this. The Christian Church, in its largest sense, is made up of all believers in our Lord Jesus Christ. The organization of distinct and definite communities as Churches is a necessity for the time now present, but no such organizations include all believers; many believers, moreover, are in no such organization at all; only “the Lord knoweth them that are his;” and over all such his care is exercised: in their totality as including all regenerated souls, they make up the Church of God. Of this Church as a unity we have now to speak.

I. GOD‘S DWELLING–PLACE IS IN HIS CHURCH, (1Pe 2:1, 1Pe 2:2.) It is quite possible that, after what we have just said about the Church in its entirety and vastness, and about the impossibility of its being scanned by any human eye, that it may be said, “But if the Church is thus undefinable by us as to its limits, we cannot conceive of it as a dwelling-place.” This we can easily understand. But the demur has, in reality, no force. For it is quite clear from the New Testament that as there is “the Church” in the highest spiritual sense, so there are local and organized Churches in the geographical sense. Of this the epistles to the seven Churches of Asia are immediate and sufficient proof. And wherever a Church is faithful to its Lord, since whatever is true of the whole Church is true of any part of it, the believers in Jesus who belong to any local and faithful Church may apply to themselves that which Paul declared of the Ephesian converts when he wrote, “Ye also are builded together for a habitation of God through the Spirit.” Thus no Christian need hesitate to apply the words to the fellowship of believers to which he belongs; he may say,” God is known in our palaces for a Refuge. This Church is a city of the great King. And the real presence of a living Saviour among us is our honour, our joy, our life (Mat 18:20; Mat 28:20).

II. GOD HIMSELF IS THE REFUGE OF THE CHURCH. (1Pe 2:3.) It is the privilege of the individual believer, in all times of trial, sorrow, and care, to betake himself to his God and Saviour as to an unfailing Friend. But this privilege rises to sublimity when a whole company of believers, encompassed with peril and threatened by foes from without, can all rush to their Saviour in faith and prayer, as to a Refuge from the gathering storm!

III. GOD‘S LOVING–KINDNESS IS THE THEME OF THE CHURCH. (1Pe 2:9.) How much fuller and sweeter is this theme for meditation now than of old! Then it was gained through prophets; now from him before whose presence lawgiver and prophet retire, as stars are concealed in the brightness of the sun! How incomparably does Rom 8:1-39. surpass aught in the Old Testament! And what was there in the olden time so tender as Luk 15:1-32.? Verily such a theme lifts the soul heavenward, tunes the lips to song, and speeds the feet to run the race set before us.

IV. GOD‘S DELIVERANCES MARK THE HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. (Luk 15:4-8.) The effect of this vivid description is pictorial. We can almost see the kings eyeing Jerusalem with envy, plotting her capture, seized with panic and hurrying away as for very life. The psalmist says that he had heard of such deliverances in times past, and now had seen them. And any student of Church history who has been withal for fifty years a close observer of Church life, can say the same. That God is the perpetual Deliverer of his Church is the story of the past and the testimony of the present. Nor may we forget the double kind of deliverance:

(1) from foes without;

(2) from mischief within.

If the view given above of Luk 15:7 is correct, the verse suggests that the Church owes quite as much to God’s chastening love in correcting her for her sins, as to his rescuing power in spoiling her foes. That he will do this is part of the covenant (Psa 89:28-33).

V. THE HONOUR OF GOD‘S NAME IS HIS OWN PLEDGE TO THE CHURCH. (Luk 15:10,Luk 15:11.) In the attribute of God’s righteousness is the Church’s repose and glory. Through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus, faithfulness, justice, righteousness, can be the supports of sinful men. This is the supreme wonder of redeeming grace. Think of it! Sinful people rejoicing that God‘s right hand is full of righteousness!

VI. GOD‘S GRACIOUS RELATIONS ARE THE GUARANTEE OF THE PERPETUITY OF THE CHURCH. (Luk 15:12-14.) We omit the italic “it” in Luk 15:13 (Authorized Version), and translate the first word in Luk 15:14 “that.” The psalmist incites to a study of Zion’s towers, bulwarks, palaces, privileges, that it may be declared to the generation following, that “this God is our God for ever and ever.” And when we study the redemption in Christ which has founded the Church, the spiritual power which is building up the Church, the watchful providence which has for eighteen centuries guarded the Church, the story which we have to hand down to the coming generation is the same, but told with vaster emphasis, surer faith, and more rapturous joy. “This God is our God for ever and ever; he will be our Guide above death, and beyond it!” “Happy is the people that is in such a case! yea, happy is that people whose God is the Lord!”C.

HOMILIES BY W. FORSYTH

Psa 48:1-14

The Church and her Head.

This psalm may teach us something of

I. THE GLORY OF THE CHURCH. The outward is the symbol of the inward. The glory of the Church is not material, but moral. Mind is of all things the greatest. One soul is infinitely more precious than the richest domains. Think of some great manNewton, Bacon, or Shakespeare. If all the wealth in that one mind could be yours, would you not choose it rather than the grandest of earthly inheritances? And how rich is the Church in mind! “The glorious company of the apostles, the goodly fellowship of the prophets, the noble army of martyrs,” are here; and here also are thousands and tens of thousands whose names have been unknown on earth, but are written in heaven. The Church, like Jerusalem, is set on high, but. her beauty is not in “situation,” but in character; her “elevation” is not in outward advantages, but in nearness to God. She has the “righteousness which exalteth.”

1. The glory of the Church is not limited, but universal. Jerusalem was for a single people, but the Church is for all nations and kindreds and tongues. The light that dwells in her is to shine forth to all lands. The moral power that centres in her is to radiate its gracious influences to the ends of the earth. Jerusalem had her daughtersin the towns and villages of Judah; but the Church’s daughters are to be found in every land under the sun.

2. The glory of the Church is not transitory, but eternal. It is not like the passing shows of earthly kings; nor is it short-lived and disappointing, like the glory of Jerusalem. It derives its being from God, and will endure while God endureth. Love and goodness can never die. Much of the glory of the Church is as yet hidden. There were mysteries in the days of Paul, and there are mysteries still. But the light will shine more and more to the perfect day. The past”what we have heard,” the present”what we have seen,” alike bear witness, and combine to raise our hopes of the coming glory.

II. THE GREATNESS OF THE CHURCH‘S HEAD. “Great.” (Psa 48:1.) The measure of the glory of the Church is the greatness of the Church’s Head. The certainty of the glory of the Church in all its transcendent developments, is to be found in the greatness of the Church’s Head (Eph 1:17-23).

1. In the might of his power. His enemies shall lick the dust (Psa 48:4-8). Sooner or later, either with the joy of love or the torments of fear, the confession must be madethat “he is Lord” (Php 2:10, Php 2:11).

2. In the sweetness of his loving-kindness. (Psa 48:9.) There is a fitness of place (“temple”) and a fitness of method (” wait”). As we keep our ears open, truth will come to us. As we bend our minds in eager thought upon Divine things, more and more of the Lord’s goodness will be revealed to us. It is the “loving-kindness” of God that has blessed the past, and it will, in like manner, but in larger measure, bless the future. God’s loving-kindness culminated in the cross. There could be nothing higher. And the cross is the best help to our faith, and the surest guarantee of our hopes (Rom 5:8-10).

3. In the righteousness of his judgments. (Psa 48:10-13.) The heathen fabled that Jove’s hands were full of thunderbolts; but our God’s “right hand is full of righteousness.” Let us praise God for freedom. There were terrors, but they have passed. We have the glad sense of escape. We are free. It is God who has done it. Let us give thanks for Divine protection. Jerusalem had her towers and bulwarks. Round about her stood the everlasting hills. She seemed impregnable. But in the evil day of unbelief she fell. But the defences of God’s people are better far, and can never be overthrown. Our “bulwarks” are not rampart and tower, but God’s love and faithfulness. There will be assaults in the future as in the past, but the foundation standeth sure. There will be many a sore fight and struggle, but the powers against us can never prevail over the omnipotence of God. Let us rejoice in the everlasting love of God (Psa 48:13, Psa 48:14). We should think of others as well as ourselves. We have a duty to our children and those who come after us. Musing on what God has done for us, our hearts will burn within us, and we shall be able to “tell” the generation following “the wonderful works of God.” It is with exulting faith that we claim “this God” as “our God,” and commend his love and his truth to others. What he has been to us he can be to them, and more. For ourselves we “know whom we have believed.” He will keep us all our days. Our Guide into death, he will be our Portion and our Joy for ever.W.F.

HOMILIES BY C. SHORT

Psa 48:1-14

The eternal city of God.

A patriotic hymn, to be sung in the temple service in celebration of a signal deliverance of Jerusalem from an invading army. Commentators are not agreed as to what army. Let it be taken as suggesting some things which may be said of the true eternal city of God, what it is, and what it will become through everlasting ages, exhibiting the greatest glory of man and the highest glory of God.

I. SOCIETY FOUNDED AND BUILT UP IN HOLINESS. (Psa 48:1.) Nothing unclean can permanently dwell in it. The heavenly Jerusalem.

II. FILLED THROUGHOUT WITH DIVINE JOY. (Psa 48:2.) “God shall wipe away all tears.” No permanent sorrow.

III. ETERNALLY SAFE FROM DANGER OF OVERTHROW. (Psa 48:3.) Often threatened during her earthly history by the combined forces of evil which have been arrayed against her.

IV. GOD HAS EXPENDED THE GRANDEST POWERS OF HIS NATURE IN BUILDING IT UP.

1. Moral omnipotence. (Psa 48:4-8.) The history of past times and personal experience testify to this. He breaks the forces of evil as he broke the ships of Tarshish with an east wind.

2. It has been and is the theatre for the display of the infinite love. (Psa 48:9.) “God is in Christ reconciling the world unto himself.”

3. Also for the fullest display of the Divine righteousness. (Psa 48:10, Psa 48:11.) “Righteousness and judgment are the habitation of his throne.”

4. He is the everlasting Guide and Light of the city. (Psa 48:14.) Because he is its King and Father and Lawgiver. Here is a theme for grateful thanksgiving and joy and worship.S.

Fuente: The Complete Pulpit Commentary

Psalms 48.

The ornaments and privileges of the church.

A Song and Psalm for the sons of Korah.

Title. Shiir mizmor libnei korach. This is a triumphant hymn, the author of which is not known, nor the particular time when it was composed. It appears from the contents of it, that it was made upon some providential deliverance which God had given to the city of Jerusalem, when it was violently attacked, or threatened at least, by some very powerful and confederate enemies. Mudge thinks that it refers to the ineffectual attempt of Rezin, king of Syria, and Pekah, king of Israel: Isa 7:1 and that the prophesy of Isaiah, in that and the succeeding chapter, confirms this idea. See also the 4th, 5th, and 6th verses. But an anonymous writer well observes, that mount Sion is the main subject of the poem, which was not much regarded after the ark had been some time removed from thence; whereas, at the time this psalm was made, it was evidently in its highest reputation; whence it is probable, that the psalm is as old as David’s time. The LXX, Vulgate, and Arabic, subjoin the words, “on one of their sabbaths,” or “on the second sabbath,” to the title: by which they would insinuate, that the use of this psalm was to be appropriated to the sabbath: for indeed some of the psalms were peculiar to the service on week-days, and others set apart for the public solemnities, and the sabbath, on which only they were to be used.

Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke

Psalms 48

A Song and Psalm for the sons of Korah

Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised

In the city of our God, in the mountain of his holiness.

2Beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth,

Is mount Zion, on the sides of the north,

The city of the great King.

3God is known

In her palaces for a refuge.

4For, lo, the kings were assembled,

They passed by together.

5They saw it, and so they marvelled;

They were troubled, and hasted away.

6Fear took hold upon them there,

And pain, as of a woman in travail.

7Thou breakest the ships of Tarshish

With an east wind.

8As we have heard, so have we seen

In the city of the Lord of hosts, in the city of our God:
God will establish it for ever. Selah.

9We have thought of thy lovingkindness, O God,

In the midst of thy temple.

10According to thy name, O God, so is thy praise

Unto the ends of the earth:
Thy right hand is full of righteousness.

11Let mount Zion rejoice,

Let the daughters of Judah be glad,
Because of thy judgments.

12Walk about Zion, and go round about her:

Tell the towers thereof!

13Mark ye well her bulwarks,

Consider her palaces;
That ye may tell it to the generation following.

14For this God is our God for ever and ever:

He will be our guide even unto death.

EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL

Contents and Composition.The introduction, in which the great God and His glorious city are praised (Psa 48:1-2), is followed (Psa 48:3-8) by a description of the deliverances of the city from threatened danger, effected by Jehovah, who disperses its terrified enemies. Psa 48:9-10 contain the expressions of gratitude for this interposition, while in Psa 48:11-14 the people are exhorted to guard all parts of the city, so that its safety may be manifest to all, and thus the glory of God be revealed to coming generations, to confirm their faith in His guidance. There are many points of resemblance between these verses and Is. 22:2933, but they do not warrant our supposing the Psalm to have been written by that Prophet. Still less can we imagine that the author belonged to the party in opposition (i.e. to the delivered city), and that the occasion of it was the siege of Jerusalem by the allied forces of Israel and Syria, which was frustrated by Tiglath Pileser, (Credner, G. Baur). We are uncertain whether the occasion of it was the siege by Sennacherib, in the time of Hezekiah, (Calvin, De Wette, Hitzig, Ewald, Hupf.), or the victory gained by Jehosaphat over the allied kings named in 2 Chronicles 20, (Rosen., Hengst., Del.). The older Christian expositors apply the Psalm to the eternal glory of the spiritual Zion, while the Rabbins take it to be descriptive of Jerusalem in the Messianic times, after the victory over Gog and Magog.

Psa 48:2-3. Beautiful for situation (in elevation.) The terms perfection of beauty, the joy of the whole earth, are taken as a single cumulative one in Lam 2:15, perhaps with reference to this passage, and Psa 50:2; Isa 60:15; Eze 16:14; Eze 24:25. The word was misunderstood by the ancients, and is wrongly rendered by Luther, (after the Chald. and Jerome), Zweiglein=little branch. That it has the sense of elevation is established by a comparison with the Arabic. That a geographical elevation is not meant is obvious from Psa 68:17, where the high hills of Bashan are said to envy the hill of Zion on account of its superior loftiness. (Comp. also Isa 2:2; Eze 40:2; Rev 21:10). So too the sides of the north, translated by Hitzig the corner of the north, and by Hengstenberg and Hupfeld the extreme north, must be understood not in a topographic but a religious sense; as in Isa 14:13, where the mountain of God lies on the sides of the north. This mythologic idea in the last named passage comes from the lips of the Chaldean king, and cannot be at once transferred to the Biblical writers. Nor does Eze 5:5 accord with it, for here Jerusalem is placed in the midst of the nations and countries round about her. So in Eze 38:6; Eze 38:15; Eze 39:2 the extreme north is the residence of Gog and Magog. Now Mount Zion is not here compared to the supposed mountain homes of the gods of the Asiatic nations in the far north, nor is it presented as realizing that of which the heathen dreamed, (Hengst., Ewald, Hitzig and others). Both the phrase and the context suggest a definite locality. It cannot, however, be the north side of the city, (Aben Ezra, Kimchi, Calvin, etc.), since Mount Zion is its most southerly hill; nor can the meaning be on the north side lies the city, (Luther, Rosen., etc.), for this does not agree with the order of the words. These are in opposition, not with joy, as if Zion were the joy of the remote north, i.e. the most distant nations (Gesen., De Wette), but with Zion. The temple hill is thus designated as being the northeastern corner, or northern angle (Delitzsch, Schegg,) of Mount Zion, and so giving a reason for the name of the city itself. This explanation is plainer than that of in the extreme north the city of the Great King, (Hupfeld). Since Zion is thus contrasted with another mountain in the south, on which God appeared, viz., Sinai, to strike out the words that are obscure, as Olshausen proposes, is not admissible.

[Stanley:Beautiful in elevation. To the traveller approaching Jerusalem from the west or east, it must have always presented the appearance, beyond any other capital of the then known worldwe may add, beyond any important city that has ever existed on the earthof a mountain city; breathing, as compared with the sultry plains of the Jordan or of the coast, a mountain air; enthroned, as compared with Jericho, or Damascus, Gaza or Tyre, on a mountain fastness.Perowne:The sides of the north. The question is to what particular part of it the words refer. (1) Now Jerusalem itself did not lie on the north, but on the south side of the elevated table land. But the Temple did lie north, i.e., northeast of the city; and as the Temple was, in a peculiar sense, the dwelling-place of God, the Psalmist may have designated this when he spoke of the sides of the north, the expression being sufficiently accurate for the purpose of poetry. Hence we have the Holy City regarded from three different points of view, viz.: the Mount Zion, (the city of David), the sides of the north, (Mount Moriah and the Temple), the city of the Great King, (Jerusalem proper). Compare Mat 5:35. (2) If, however, Zion be the peak now leveled on the north of the Temple mount, as Furguson and Thrupp suppose, the Mount Zion (on) the sides of the north may be the true rendering here. And this, too, might peculiarly be called beautiful for situation, as it was the highest point of the whole plateau, and that which would most readily strike the eye. (3) Another reason may be suggested why the north should be especially mentioned, because an enemy approaching like the Assyrians, would obtain their first view of the city on that side.J. F.]

Psa 48:4-8. They passed by together.The enemies, designated by the article as the well-known kings who had assembled according to agreement at a certain place (comp. Jos 11:5; Psa 83:4) passed by all at once, over the boundary, Jdg 11:29; 2Ki 8:21; Isa 8:9, (Ancient Versions, Rabbins, Kster, Ewald, Hitzig, Del.). It is grammatically admissible to take in the sense of disappear, (Calvin, Rosen., De Wette, Hengst., Hupf.), but this rendering presents, instead of a fitting picture, immediately the result of an unsuccessful enterprise, the details of which are then given. If the reference be to the attack in the time of Jehosaphat, we must suppose that the allies were encamped about three miles from Jerusalem, in the desert of Tekoah, whence they had a view of the holy city, and where God caused a great terror to fall upon them (1Sa 14:15). The annihilation in Psa 48:8 is not alarm (Rosen.), nor flight (De Wette), but the figure expressing it must have been suggested by the remembrance of the foundering of the commercial fleet sent out by Jehosaphat in union with Ahaz, (1Ki 22:49; 2Ch 20:36). But it is by no means necessary to adopt this view, for ships are elsewhere used as symbols of worldly powers. The ships of Tarshish, as the largest and strongest of their class, are figures of mighty powers, Isa 33:21; Isa 33:23. The east wind (Job 27:21) illustrates the power of God in overthrowing His enemies (Jer 18:17), because it so frequently scattered the strongest ships, (Isa 27:8; Eze 27:26; Amo 4:9; Jon 4:5). Hence there seems to be no special reason for supposing that there is an allusion to the destruction of an actual hostile fleet (Kster, Hitzig), but only that there is here a well-known illustration of the omnipotence of God. As the sentence is not joined to the preceding one by a particle of comparison, we need not take the verb as a third person feminine=like as by an east wind which destroys, (Kimchi, Rosen., De Wette). It is better to regard it as a second person masculine, making God the subject of it, (the Ancient Versions, Calvin, Geier, and most others). In this case it would be proper to place here the beginning of a strophe, which, comprising all that has been thus far said, would make, in contents and structure, a good transition to the section in which God is directly addressed.

[Perowne:As we have heard, Psa 48:8.This marvellous deliverance is but a fresh proof, in our own experience, of that wonder-working Love, which in the days of old had so often manifested itself in Israel. The things which our fathers have told us, we have now witnessed with our own eyes, (compare Psa 44:1). And therefore, also, the present is regarded as a pledge of the future.J. F.]

Psa 48:9-14. We have thought.The idea here is that of contemplation, reflecting, and comparing, rather than that of hopeful expectation, (Sept., Syr., Sym., Jerome). The Rabbins are divided on this point. The Temple is named as being the place in which God had revealed His grace (Calvin, Hupfeld), or rather, as the place in which the Church commemorated that grace, by songs of praise (Hengst. Ewald), or by the solemn services which preceded the marching forth to battle, mentioned in 2 Chronicles 20. The daughters of Judah are not virgins who take part in the festive dance (De Wette, Ols.), but other outlying cities and villages, (Psa 69:36; Jos 15:45; Isa 40:9). The exhortation carefully to consider and look about the city, which has remained inviolate, is not addressed ironically to the enemies (Geier, Sachs., Hitz.), but seriously to the inhabitants. The reading (on the bulwarks), found in many old editions, ancient versions, and in 18 Codd. of De Rossi, also occurs in Zec 9:4. If Mappik be omitted, we must insert a softened suffix, (Ewald, Gram. 247). There is no proof that has the sense of to elevate, (Luther, following Jewish tradition); nor is it quite certain that its meaning is to regard a thing part by part, to consider attentively, (De Wette, Hengst., Ewald, Hitz.). The sense to walk through, derived from that of to intersect, (viz.: a vineyard in which there is no way), is based on a passage in the Talmud. The demonstrative pronoun is occasionally though rarely placed before the noun, (Ewald, Gram. 293). It is not necessary, therefore, to translate Psa 48:14 that here is God (Hupf.); nor for this is God, (De Wette, Ols., Btt., Ewald, Hitz.). In this case this must be taken in the sense of such, since the allusion was not to God, but to the city (Camp.). The concluding phrase, , might be rendered the point of death (Ges., Hengst.); or until death (Hupfeld, Kimchi, and most others). But the latter expression would be unusual, and is liable to misconception, whilst the former would be more appropriate. For the reference is not to persons, but a community, and the allusion is not to dying, but the deliverance of the city, and the joy caused by it to the whole earth, as well as the renewed trust in the Divine guidance. We should look for something to indicate the duration of that guidance, which forever secured the stability of the people. The rendering, therefore, should not be beyond death, (Syriac, Mendelssohn, Stier), which would give the idea of personal immortality (Aquila), but away past death, i.e. destruction (Campb.). It cannot be denied, however, that the idea which Hengstenberg finds here, viz.: that God delivers from the danger of death (Hab 1:12; Psa 49:16; Psa 68:21; Psa 85:7), and saves His people from destruction, would be unusual and obscure. The same may be said of the rendering in the eternities, (Sept., Chald., Symm., Aben Ezra, J. H. Mich., Ewald). This sense would suit, but it supposes the reading to be , (found in Cod. Kenn.), which occurs only in later and non-biblical Hebrew. It is, however, not impossible that this form of the word may stand in place of . But Luthers version, derived from the Chald., like the youth, or like the virgins, or in youthfulness, is objectionable, partly because it is foreign to the context, and partly because it would require the particle or to be supplied. The reading , found in many ancient Codd. and early editions, must be very old, because most of the earliest versions, in the main, express the same idea. Under these circumstances we may suppose that these words, like those in Psalms 9. are a mark (Hitzig) to indicate the kind of music to be used, here as in Hab 3:19 placed exceptionally at the end instead of the beginning of the hymn (Del.); or as indicating the sort of verse (Bttcher). The rythm implies that nothing (Hitzig), rather than that something (Del.) has been omitted.

DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL

1. God protects not only His people, but the city in which they dwell. He guards the very house in which they call upon Him. But He means that they should recognise this, should trust His watchfulness and power, should be grateful for His help and goodness to them, and by proclaiming what He has done, induce others, especially their descendants, to exercise a like faith. For God is the same, yesterday, to-day, and forever. This God is our God.

2. The glory of the hill of Zion where God revealed Himself, and the beauty of Jerusalem, as Gods city, symbolized the glory of the Church. Gods promise of protection to Jerusalem, the display of His power and goodness in regard to her and the whole land, and the solemn commemorative festivals of which she was the theatre, may all be regarded as types. In the physical elevation, the Psalmist sees an image of the spiritual, and so far only has it any significance to him. Only when Jerusalem is contemplated with the spiritual eye, does she appear so lovely that she ought to be a joy to the whole earth, Eze 16:14. What the heathen dreamed about a mountain of gods, is only true of the hill of Zion. Its roots are on the earth, but its summit is in heaven (Hengst.).

3. From the beginning, Gods works have made known His name and His praise over all the earth, but Zion is the place where His glory has been specially manifested. This is the central point of His historical revelations. And from this spot the triumphal proclamation of His name shall go forth throughout the world; so that not only in the Promised Land but to the ends of the earth, the latest generation shall praise that God who hears prayer, who exercises justice to the joy of His people, who is their guide, helper, and protector.

HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL

Where Gods name is known, His help will be experienced and His praise proclaimed.What does God do for His people, and what gratitude does He receive?Zions beauty is a symbol and a type.The contemplation of Gods doings should lead us and others to proclaim His glory, and should strengthen our faith.What we have heard of God we may ourselves experience, for He remains ever the same.Protected by God, we can resist all attacks; guided by Him, we can never perish.How, and by what means does God eternally preserve His city?Is the joy produced by Gods help as great as the fear of His chastisement?The gradual development of the praises of God from generation to generation.The protection and eternal maintenance of the city of God though His power, and watchfulness, and grace.

Calvin: There is no nook so hidden that the wisdom, justice, and goodness of God are not displayed in it.But as He means to make His perfections specially visible to His Church, the Psalmist holds up before our eyes the mirror in which His image is seen.

Starke: We should magnify and praise the Great God by a proper confession of His grace, and reverence for His holy name.The greatest ornament to any place, and the source of its purest joy, is to have a church and to maintain divine service.How many earthly palaces are to-day the holy places of the Most High?How many lords recognize Him as their Supreme Lord?When the promises of Gods word are fulfilled in our experience, then our faith in that word is gloriously confirmed.The Christians best thoughts are those arising from the view of Gods goodness, for then his heart becomes a holy temple of the Lord.Why should not believers rejoice over Gods judgments?Are they not all designed to glorify God, to comfort His people, to weaken and destroy His enemies?Osiander: Though faith is founded on Gods word, and not on our experience, yet this faith is strengthened when our experience actually agrees with the promises of that word.Franke: The predictions of the Old Testament concerning Zion and Jerusalem are fulfilled in you who believe in Him who is established the true King on Mount Zion.Renschel: God is the shield of His Church.Frisch: In the Church of God we are safe, not only because He is her protector, but because her members possess the most excellent gifts.Burk: As Thy name is so is Thy praise.Vaihinger: The great deliverance should be made known to posterity, as a testimony to the everlasting covenant.Tholuck: When Gods grace mightily interposes in our temporal affairs, our faith will become all the stronger in a blessed eternity.Guenther; God leads us not into, but through and beyond death.Diedrich: We are His people only because we accept Him as our protector; whoever looks for another protector, has already separated himself from His people.Our true courage consists in allowing ourselves truly to be helped by God, and in genuine trust in Him, who alone can do that by which His kingdom on earth is organized and preserved.Taube: The city of God under the guardianship of her protector! a joy of the whole earth! a terror for her enemies! an everlasting remembrance to His people! Come and see! this is the waythrough experience to knowledge.

[Henry: The clearer discoveries are made to us of God and His greatness, the more it is expected we should abound in His praises.God can dispirit the stoutest of His Churchs enemies, and soon put them in pain who live at ease.Gods latter appearances for His people, against His and their enemies, are consonant to His former appearances, and should put us in mind of them.In the great things that God has done, and is doing, for His Church, it is good to take notice of the fulfilling of the Scriptures, and this would help us the better to understand both the providence itself, and the Scripture that is fulfilled in it.All the streams of mercy that flow down to us must be run up to the fountain of Gods loving-kindness.1. If God be our God, He is ours forever, not only through all the ages of time, but to eternity; for it is the everlasting blessedness of glorified saints that God Himself will be with them, and will be their God.2. If He be our God, He will be our Guide, our faithful, constant Guide, to show us our way, and to lead us in it; He will be so even unto death, which will be the period of our way, and will bring us to our rest. He will be our Guide above death, so some. He will so guide us as to be above the reach of death, so that it shall not be able to do us any real hurt. He will be our Guide beyond death, so others. He will conduct us safe to a happiness on the other side of death, to a life in which there shall be no more death. If we take the Lord for our God, He will conduct and convey us safe to death, through death, and beyond death; down to death, and up again to glory.J. F.]

Fuente: A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures, Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical by Lange

CONTENTS

The prophet, in a beautiful strain, is here extolling mount Zion. It should seem to mean principally the Zion of Jesus, the gospel Zion. In this spiritual sense it is most lovely indeed. He speaks of her situation; God’s relation to her; his love of her, and care of her; and what a terror Zion is, and ever will be to her enemies, while she becomes the present and everlasting joy of her friends.

A Song and Psalm for the sons of Korah.

Psa 48:1

The prophet very properly begins with praising the King of Zion, before he enters upon the praise of Zion. Reader! it is always comely to bless the God of our mercies, before we bless God for our mercies. If we really love the gift, how much more ought we to love the giver? Jesus, I adore thee for bringing life and immortality to light through thy gospel. But oh! my Lord, how endeared are both, when both are viewed in thyself.

Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

The Subject of Meditation (A Communion Sermon)

Psa 48:9

This Psalm is a song of triumph, when Jerusalem was saved from some impending danger. The theme is that God is the safety of Zion, the impregnable city, made such by the loving care of God.

I. Into the temple the joyful people surge to give vent to their feelings of gratitude and triumph. Where else can they go with such fitness but to the sanctuary which stands to them as the very heart of their religion? And what is more fitting than that they should before all else give thanks to God? Such deliverance drives the pious heart to God, to think sweetly of His lovingkindness. They go up to the temple to think of it, lovingly, gratefully, humbly, prayerfully. Shallow souls let even great events pass without real thought, without notice, without making them an occasion for going deeper into life, deeper into the mystery and wonder of God’s providence, and deeper into their own hearts. They do not consider the true inward significance of what yet strikes them as marvellous.

II. Here in this Psalm, after the great deliverance, the Psalmist feels that the first thing to do, the first thing to think, is praise, grateful thanksgiving. And what fitter theme could there be for us as we come to take in our hands the symbols of God’s love in Christ Jesus? Let us make our Communion season one grateful meditation on this grandest of all themes. There can be no better preparation beforehand, and no more appropriate frame of mind during the act than this. We come to meditate on God’s loving kindness. That sums up everything, all we would like to do, all we would like to feel. In the light of the deathless love which shines through the simple form of this memorial rite, should not complete trust fill our hearts now and confidence for the future illumine our path?

III. Whether we look back or forward, within or without, is not thanksgiving our appropriate state? What can we think of in the presence of the tokens of love but of Him and His lovingkindness? Let the breaking of the bread and the pouring out of the wine stand to us as they should for all that Christ has brought us, the forgiveness of sins, peace with God, reconciliation, hope of glory, all the rich and glorious elements of Divine love. When we come to the table, we will think of Thy lovingkindness, O God, in the midst of Thy temple. From the burning heart of love, shown to us there, we see love everywhere. We see that life is surrounded by God, that we are engirded, enswathed, encompassed by the love of God, beset behind and before. On that love we will meditate: on it we will feed: we will seek to get from it comfort and peace and hope and strength for new obedience. We have but one thought, in the midst of the temple, amid the sacred mysteries of the temple: namely, His lovingkindness.

Hugh Black, Christ’s Service of Love, p. 254.

Towers of Zion

Psa 48:12

This is a Psalm full of the most joyful spirit and expressed in the very best way. We do not know what great deliverance was thus splendidly celebrated; it may have been the deliverance in the days of Jehoshaphat, which was very signal and very marked; it may have been that in the days of Hezekiah, which was more signal and more marked still. The two points are that God is a sure refuge to His people when they seek His grace and power; and that it is more distinctly connected with Jerusalem, the central city of the kingdom and the people.

‘Let Mount Zion rejoice,’ sings the Psalmist, ‘let the daughters of Judah be glad, because of Thy judgments’. And so, he continues, ‘let us walk about Zion, let us go round about her, let us tell the towers thereof’.

But to come to our own times. What are the towers of our own Zion, of our own Church? What are the bulwarks of our religion? There is a great deal, of course, that is common to the whole Church of God throughout the world.

I. There is the Presence of God Himself. The Lord is there. It is His presence which makes it His Church; it is His presence which makes it His holy Church.

II. There is the Faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, clearly understood and fully grasped and held. A very important matter. It may not always be expressed in exactly the same words, but it has the same life, the same power, and the same salvation.

III. There are the Holy Scriptures. Whatever may be said now of the form and manner in which they were delivered and have come down to us, they are the fount of knowledge of God. It is from these words, blessed and illumined by the Holy Spirit, that we gain the further knowledge of salvation and grace and hope. There are parts of the Holy Scriptures of which we may read verse after verse which seem to convey very little to us, and then suddenly there is one illuminated with the grace and power of God. which seems to strike the very inward conscience and experience of the heart.

IV. There are the Means of Grace. How very important it is to us that we should really use them not merely as Christian duties to be performed, but that we should use them as an approach unto the very presence of God, from which we are to learn and by which we are to be strengthened.

V. There are the Examples of Christian People. How very delightful they are. We see what men and women may be who are of like passions with ourselves; we see their self-denial, their devotion, their unworldliness, their unselfishness; we see their readiness to think and plan what shall be for the best advantage of others, and what shall most conduce to the glory of God. How delightful it is that we have this long stream of saints and Christians behind us, not merely painted in windows or standing before us as statues, as memorials of the past, but those whom we ourselves know, perhaps in the ordinary and humble walks of life. There is no walk of life in which the grace of God is more clearly seen than when persons of little education and little position are truly inspired with the love and the grace of our Blessed Lord; it makes them often shame those who have more privileges and who perhaps have a clearer understanding of the theories and the facts of redemption.

Fuente: Expositor’s Dictionary of Text by Robertson

PSALMS

XI

AN INTRODUCTION TO THE BOOK OF PSALMS

According to my usual custom, when taking up the study of a book of the Bible I give at the beginning a list of books as helps to the study of that book. The following books I heartily commend on the Psalms:

1. Sampey’s Syllabus for Old Testament Study . This is especially good on the grouping and outlining of some selected psalms. There are also some valuable suggestions on other features of the book.

2. Kirkpatrick’g commentary, in “Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges,” is an excellent aid in the study of the Psalter.

3. Perowne’s Book of Psalms is a good, scholarly treatise on the Psalms. A special feature of this commentary is the author’s “New Translation” and his notes are very helpful.

4. Spurgeon’s Treasury of David. This is just what the title implies. It is a voluminous, devotional interpretation of the Psalms and helpful to those who have the time for such extensive study of the Psalter.

5. Hengstenburg on the Psalms. This is a fine, scholarly work by one of the greatest of the conservative German scholars.

6. Maclaren on the Psalms, in “The Expositor’s Bible,” is the work of the world’s safest, sanest, and best of all works that have ever been written on the Psalms.

7. Thirtle on the Titles of the Psalms. This is the best on the subject and well worth a careful study.

At this point some definitions are in order. The Hebrew word for psalm means praise. The word in English comes from psalmos , a song of lyrical character, or a song to be sung and accompanied with a lyre. The Psalter is a collection of sacred and inspired songs, composed at different times and by different authors.

The range of time in composition was more than 1,000 years, or from the time of Moses to the time of Ezra. The collection in its present form was arranged probably by Ezra in the fifth century, B.C.

The Jewish classification of Old Testament books was The Law, the Prophets, and the Holy Writings. The Psalms was given the first place in the last group.

They had several names, or titles, of the Psalms. In Hebrew they are called “The Book of Prayers,” or “The Book of Praises.” The Hebrew word thus used means praises. The title of the first two books is found in Psa 72:20 : “The prayers of David the son of Jesse are ended.” The title of the whole collection of Psalms in the Septuagint is Biblos Psalman which means the “Book of Psalms.” The title in the Alexandrian Codex is Psalterion which is the name of a stringed instrument, and means “The Psalter.”

The derivation of our English words, “psalms,” “psalter,” and “psaltery,” respectively, is as follows:

1. “Psalms” comes from the Greek word, psalmoi, which is also from psallein , which means to play upon a stringed instrument. Therefore the Psalms are songs played upon stringed instruments, and the word here is used to apply to the whole collection.

2. “Psalter” is of the same origin and means the Book of Psalms and refers also to the whole collection.

3. “Psaltery” is from the word psalterion, which means “a harp,” an instrument, supposed to be in the shape of a triangle or like the delta of the Greek alphabet. See Psa 33:2 ; Psa 71:22 ; Psa 81:2 ; Psa 144:9 .

In our collection there are 150 psalms. In the Septuagint there is one extra. It is regarded as being outside the sacred collection and not inspired. The subject of this extra psalm is “David’s victory over Goliath.” The following is a copy of it: I was small among my brethren, And youngest in my father’s house, I used to feed my father’s sheep. My hands made a harp, My fingers fashioned a Psaltery. And who will declare unto my Lord? He is Lord, he it is who heareth. He it was who sent his angel And took me from my father’s sheep, And anointed me with the oil of his anointing. My brethren were goodly and tall, But the Lord took no pleasure in them. I went forth to meet the Philistine. And he cursed me by his idols But I drew the sword from beside him; I beheaded him and removed reproach from the children of Israel.

It will be noted that this psalm does not have the earmarks of an inspired production. There is not found in it the modesty so characteristic of David, but there is here an evident spirit of boasting and self-praise which is foreign to the Spirit of inspiration.

There is a difference in the numbering of the psalms in our version which follows the Hebrew, and the numbering in the Septuagint. Omitting the extra one in the Septuagint, there is no difference as to the total number. Both have 150 and the same subject matter, but they are not divided alike.

The following scheme shows the division according to our version and also the Septuagint: Psalms 1-8 in the Hebrew equal 1-8 in the Septuagint; 9-10 in the Hebrew combine into 9 in the Septuagint; 11-113 in the Hebrew equal 10-112 in the Septuagint; 114-115 in the Hebrew combine into 113 in the Septuagint; 116 in the Hebrew divides into 114-115 in the Septuagint; 117-146 in the Hebrew equal 116-145 in the Septuagint; 147 in the Hebrew divides into 146-147 in the Septuagint; 148-150 in the Hebrew equal 148-150 in the Septuagint.

The arrangement in the Vulgate is the same as the Septuagint. Also some of the older English versions have this arangement. Another difficulty in numbering perplexes an inexperienced student in turning from one version to another, viz: In the Hebrew often the title is verse I, and sometimes the title embraces verses 1-2.

The book divisions of the Psalter are five books, as follows:

Book I, Psalms 1-41 (41 chapters)

Book II, Psalms 42-72 (31 chapters)

Book III, Psalms 73-89 (17 chapters)

Book IV, Psalms 90-106 (17 chapters)

Book V, Psalms 107-150 (44 chapters)

They are marked by an introduction and a doxology. Psalm I forms an introduction to the whole book; Psa 150 is the doxology for the whole book. The introduction and doxology of each book are the first and last psalms of each division, respectively.

There were smaller collections before the final one, as follows:

Books I and II were by David; Book III, by Hezekiah, and Books IV and V, by Ezra.

Certain principles determined the arrangement of the several psalms in the present collection:

1. David is honored with first place, Book I and II, including Psalms 1-72.

2. They are grouped according to the use of the name of God:

(1) Psalms 1-41 are Jehovah psalms;

(2) Psalms 42-83 are Elohim-psalms;

(3) Psalms 84-150 are Jehovah psalms.

3. Book IV is introduced by the psalm of Moses, which is the first psalm written.

4. Some are arranged as companion psalms, for instance, sometimes two, sometimes three, and sometimes more. Examples: Psa 2 and 3; 22, 23, and 24; 113-118.

5. They were arranged for liturgical purposes, which furnished the psalms for special occasions, such as feasts, etc. We may be sure this arrangement was not accidental. An intelligent study of each case is convincing that it was determined upon rational grounds.

All the psalms have titles but thirty-three, as follows:

In Book I, Psa 1 ; Psa 2 ; Psa 10 ; Psa 33 , (4 are without titles).

In Book II, Psa 43 ; Psa 71 , (2 are without titles).

In Book IV, Psa 91 ; Psa 93 ; Psa 94 ; Psa 95 ; Psa 96 ; Psa 97 ; Psa 104 ; Psa 105 ; Psa 106 , (9 are without titles).

In Book V, Psa 107 ; III; 112; 113; 114; 115; 116; 117; 118; 119; 135; 136; 137; 146; 147; 148; 149; 150, (18 are without titles).

The Talmud calls these psalms that have no title, “Orphan Psalms.” The later Jews supply these titles by taking the nearest preceding author. The lack of titles in Psa 1 ; Psa 2 ; and 10 may be accounted for as follows: Psa 1 is a general introduction to the whole collection and Psa 2 was, perhaps, a part of Psa 1 . Psalms 9-10 were formerly combined into one, therefore Psa 10 has the same title as Psa 9 .

QUESTIONS

1. What books are commended on the Psalms?

2. What is a psalm?

3. What is the Psalter?

4. What is the range of time in composition?

5. When and by whom was the collection in its present form arranged?

6. What the Jewish classification of Old Testament books, and what the position of the Psalter in this classification?

7. What is the Hebrew title of the Psalms?

8. Find the title of the first two books from the books themselves.

9. What is the title of the whole collection of psalms in the Septuagint?

10. What is the title in the Alexandrian Codex?

11. What is the derivation of our English word, “Psalms”, “Psalter”, and “Psaltery,” respectively?

12. How many psalms in our collection?

13. How many psalms in the Septuagint?

14. What about the extra one in the Septuagint?

15. What is the subject of this extra psalm?

16. How does it compare with the Canonical Psalms?

17. What is the difference in the numbering of the psalms in our version which follows the Hebrew, and the numbering in the Septuagint?

18. What is the arrangement in the Vulgate?

19. What other difficulty in numbering which perplexes an inexperienced student in turning from one version to another?

20. What are the book divisions of the Psalter and how are these divisions marked?

21. Were there smaller collections before the final one? If so, what were they?

22. What principles determined the arrangement of the several psalms in the present collection?

23. In what conclusion may we rest concerning this arrangement?

24. How many of the psalms have no titles?

25. What does the Talmud call these psalms that have no titles?

26. How do later Jews supply these titles?

27. How do you account for the lack of titles in Psa 1 ; Psa 2 ; Psa 10 ?

XII

AN INTRODUCTION TO THE BOOK OF PSALMS (CONTINUED)

The following is a list of the items of information gathered from the titles of the psalms:

1. The author: “A Psalm of David” (Psa 37 ).

2. The occasion: “When he fled from Absalom, his son” (Psa 3 ).

3. The nature, or character, of the poem:

(1) Maschil, meaning “instruction,” a didactic poem (Psa 42 ).

(2) Michtam, meaning “gold,” “A Golden Psalm”; this means excellence or mystery (Psa 16 ; 56-60).

4. The occasion of its use: “A Psalm of David for the dedication of the house” (Psa 30 ).

5. Its purpose: “A Psalm of David to bring remembrance” (Psa 38 ; Psa 70 ).

6. Direction for its use: “A Psalm of David for the chief musician” (Psa 4 ).

7. The kind of musical instrument:

(1) Neginoth, meaning to strike a chord, as on stringed instruments (Psa 4 ; Psa 61 ).

(2) Nehiloth, meaning to perforate, as a pipe or flute (Psa 5 ).

(3) Shoshannim, Lilies, which refers probably to cymbals (Psa 45 ; Psa 69 ).

8. A special choir:

(1) Sheminith, the “eighth,” or octave below, as a male choir (Psa 6 ; Psa 12 ).

(2) Alamoth, female choir (Psa 46 ).

(3) Muth-labben, music with virgin voice, to be sung by a choir of boys in the treble (Psa 9 ).

9. The keynote, or tune:

(1) Aijeleth-sharar, “Hind of the morning,” a song to the melody of which this is sung (Psa 22 ).

(2) Al-tashheth, “Destroy thou not,” the beginning of a song the tune of which is sung (Psa 57 ; Psa 58 ; Psa 59 ; Psa 75 ).

(3) Gittith, set to the tune of Gath, perhaps a tune which David brought from Gath (Psa 8 ; Psa 81 ; Psa 84 ).

(4) Jonath-elim-rehokim, “The dove of the distant terebinths,” the commencement of an ode to the air of which this song was to be sung (Psa 56 ).

(5) Leannoth, the name of a tune (Psa 88 ).

(6) Mahalath, an instrument (Psa 53 ); Leonnoth-Mahaloth, to chant to a tune called Mahaloth.

(7) Shiggaion, a song or a hymn.

(8) Shushan-Eduth, “Lily of testimony,” a tune (Psa 60 ). Note some examples: (1) “America,” “Shiloh,” “Auld Lang Syne.” These are the names of songs such as we are familiar with; (2) “Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing” and “There Is a Fountain Filled with Blood,” are examples of sacred hymns.

10. The liturgical use, those noted for the feasts, e.g., the Hallels and Hallelujah Psalms (Psalms 146-150).

11. The destination, as “Song of Ascents” (Psalms 120-134)

12. The direction for the music, such as Selah, which means “Singers, pause”; Higgaion-Selah, to strike a symphony with selah, which means an instrumental interlude (Psa 9:16 ).

The longest and fullest title to any of the psalms is the title to Psa 60 . The items of information from this title are as follows: (1) the author; (2) the chief musician; (3) the historical occasion; (4) the use, or design; (5) the style of poetry; (6) the instrument or style of music.

The parts of these superscriptions which most concern us now are those indicating author, occasion, and date. As to the historic value or trustworthiness of these titles most modern scholars deny that they are a part of the Hebrew text, but the oldest Hebrew text of which we know anything had all of them. This is the text from which the Septuagint was translated. It is much more probable that the author affixed them than later writers. There is no internal evidence in any of the psalms that disproves the correctness of them, but much to confirm. The critics disagree among themselves altogether as to these titles. Hence their testimony cannot consistently be received. Nor can it ever be received until they have at least agreed upon a common ground of opposition.

David is the author of more than half the entire collection, the arrangement of which is as follows:

1. Seventy-three are ascribed to him in the superscriptions.

2. Some of these are but continuations of the preceding ones of a pair, trio, or larger group.

3. Some of the Korahite Psalms are manifestly Davidic.

4. Some not ascribed to him in the titles are attributed to him expressly by New Testament writers.

5. It is not possible to account for some parts of the Psalter without David. The history of his early life as found in Samuel, 1 and 2 Kings, and 1and 2 Chronicles, not only shows his remarkable genius for patriotic and sacred songs and music, but also shows his cultivation of that gift in the schools of the prophets. Some of these psalms of the history appear in the Psalter itself. It is plain to all who read these that they are founded on experience, and the experience of no other Hebrew fits the case. These experiences are found in Samuel, 1 and 2 Kings, and 1 and 2 Chronicles.

As to the attempt of the destructive critics to rob David of his glory in relation to the Psalter by assigning the Maccabean era as the date of composition, I have this to say:

1. This theory has no historical support whatever, and therefore is not to be accepted at all.

2. It has no support in tradition, which weakens the contention of the critics greatly.

3. It has no support from finding any one with the necessary experience for their basis.

4. They can give no reasonable account as to how the titles ever got there.

5. It is psychologically impossible for anyone to have written these 150 psalms in the Maccabean times.

6. Their position is expressly contrary to the testimony of Christ and the apostles. Some of the psalms which they ascribe to the Maccabean Age are attributed to David by Christ himself, who said that David wrote them in the Spirit.

The obvious aim of this criticism and the necessary result if it be Just, is a positive denial of the inspiration of both Testaments.

Other authors are named in the titles, as follows: (1) Asaph, to whom twelve psalms have been assigned: (2) Mosee, Psa 90 ; (3) Solomon, Psa 72 ; Psa 127 ; (4) Heman, Psa 80 ; (5) Ethem, Psa 89 ; (6) A number of the psalms are ascribed to the sons of Korah.

Not all the psalms ascribed to Asaph were composed by one person. History indicates that Asaph’s family presided over the song service for several generations. Some of them were composed by his descendants by the game name. The five general outlines of the whole collection are as follows:

I. By books

1. Psalms 1-41 (41)

2. Psalms 42-72 (31)

3. Psalms 73-89 (17)

4. Psalms 90-106 (17)

5. Psalms 107-150 (44)

II. According to date and authorship

1. The psalm of Moses (Psa 90 )

2. Psalms of David:

(1) The shepherd boy (Psa 8 ; Psa 19 ; Psa 29 ; Psa 23 ).

(2) David when persecuted by Saul (Psa 59 ; Psa 56 ; Psa 34 ; Psa 52 ; Psa 54 ; Psa 57 ; Psa 142 ).

(3) David the King (Psa 101 ; Psa 18 ; Psa 24 ; Psa 2 ; Psa 110 ; Psa 20 ; Psa 20 ; Psa 21 ; Psa 60 ; Psa 51 ; Psa 32 ; Psa 41 ; Psa 55 ; Psa 3:4 ; Psa 64 ; Psa 62 ; Psa 61 ; Psa 27 ).

3. The Asaph Psalms (Psa 50 ; Psa 73 ; Psa 83 ).

4. The Korahite Psalms (Psa 42 ; Psa 43 ; Psa 84 ).

5. The psalms of Solomon (Psa 72 ; Psa 127 ).

6. The psalms of the era of Hezekiah and Isaiah (Psa 46 ; Psa 47 ; Psa 48 )

7. The psalms of the Exile (Psa 74 ; Psa 79 ; Psa 137 ; Psa 102 )

8. The psalms of the Restoration (Psa 85 ; Psa 126 ; Psa 118 ; 146-150)

III. By groups

1. The Jehovistic and Elohistic Psalms:

(1) Psalms 1-41 are Jehovistic;

(2) Psalms 42-83 are Elohistic Psalms;

(3) Psalms 84-150 are Jehovistic.

2. The Penitential Psalms (Psa 6 ; Psa 32 ; Psa 38 ; Psa 51 ; Psa 102 ; Psa 130 ; Psa 143 )

3. The Pilgrim Psalms (Psalms 120-134)

4. The Alphabetical Psalms (Psa 9 ; Psa 10 ; Psa 25 ; Psa 34 ; Psa 37 ; 111:112; Psa 119 ; Psa 145 )

5. The Hallelujah Psalms (Psalms 11-113; 115-117; 146-150; to which may be added Psa 135 ) Psalms 113-118 are called “the Egyptian Hallel”

IV. Doctrines of the Psalms

1. The throne of grace and how to approach it by sacrifice, prayer, and praise.

2. The covenant, the basis of worship.

3. The paradoxical assertions of both innocence & guilt.

4. The pardon of sin and justification.

5. The Messiah.

6. The future life, pro and con.

7. The imprecations.

8. Other doctrines.

V. The New Testament use of the Psalms

1. Direct references and quotations in the New Testament.

2. The allusions to the psalms in the New Testament. Certain experiences of David’s life made very deep impressions on his heart, such as: (1) his peaceful early life; (2) his persecution by Saul; (3) his being crowned king of the people; (4) the bringing up of the ark; (5) his first great sin; (6) Absalom’s rebellion; (7) his second great sin; (8) the great promise made to him in 2Sa 7 ; (9) the feelings of his old age.

We may classify the Davidic Psalms according to these experiences following the order of time, thus:

1. His peaceful early life (Psa 8 ; Psa 19 ; Psa 29 ; Psa 23 )

2. His persecution by Saul (Psa 59 ; Psa 56 ; Psa 34 ; Psa 7 ; Psa 52 ; Psa 120 ; Psa 140 ; Psa 54 ; Psa 57 ; Psa 142 ; Psa 17 ; Psa 18 )

3. Making David King (Psa 27 ; Psa 133 ; Psa 101 )

4. Bringing up the ark (Psa 68 ; Psa 24 ; Psa 132 ; Psa 15 ; Psa 78 ; Psa 96 )

5. His first great sin (Psa 51 ; Psa 32 )

6. Absalom’s rebellion (Psa 41 ; Psa 6 ; Psa 55 ; Psa 109 ; Psa 38 ; Psa 39 ; Psa 3 ; Psa 4 ; Psa 63 ; Psa 42 ; Psa 43 ; Psa 5 ; Psa 62 ; Psa 61 ; Psa 27 )

7. His second great sin (Psa 69 ; Psa 71 ; Psa 102 ; Psa 103 )

8. The great promise made to him in 2Sa 7 (Psa 2 )

9. Feelings of old age (Psa 37 )

The great doctrines of the psalms may be noted as follows: (1) the being and attributes of God; (3) sin, both original and individual; (3) both covenants; (4) the doctrine of justification; (5) concerning the Messiah.

There is a striking analogy between the Pentateuch and the Psalms. The Pentateuch contains five books of law; the Psalms contain five books of heart responses to the law.

It is interesting to note the historic controversies concerning the singing of psalms. These were controversies about singing uninspired songs, in the Middle Ages. The church would not allow anything to be used but psalms.

The history in Samuel, 1 and 2 Kings, and 1 and 2 Chronicles, and in Ezra and Nehemiah is very valuable toward a proper interpretation of the psalms. These books furnish the historical setting for a great many of the psalms which is very indispensable to their proper interpretation.

Professor James Robertson, in the Poetry and Religion of the Psalms constructs a broad and strong argument in favor of the Davidic Psalms, as follows:

1. The age of David furnished promising soil for the growth of poetry.

2. David’s qualifications for composing the psalms make it highly probable that David is the author of the psalms ascribed to him.

3. The arguments against the possibility of ascribing to David any of the hymns in the Hebrew Psalter rests upon assumptions that are thoroughly antibiblical.

The New Testament makes large use of the psalms and we learn much as to their importance in teaching. There are seventy direct quotations in the New Testament from this book, from which we learn that the Scriptures were used extensively in accord with 2Ti 3:16-17 . There are also eleven references to the psalms in the New Testament from which we learn that the New Testament writers were thoroughly imbued with the spirit and teaching of the psalms. Then there are eight allusions ‘to this book in the New Testament from which we gather that the Psalms was one of the divisions of the Old Testament and that they were used in the early church.

QUESTIONS

1. Give a list of the items of information gathered from the titles of the psalms.

2. What is the longest title to any of the psalms and what the items of this title?

3. What parts of these superscriptions most concern us now?

4. What is the historic value, or trustworthiness of these titles?

5. State the argument showing David’s relation to the psalms.

6. What have you to say of the attempt of the destructive critics to rob David of his glory in relation to the Psalter by assigning the Maccabean era as the date of composition?

7. What the obvious aim of this criticism and the necessary result, if it be just?

8. What other authors are named in the titles?

9. Were all the psalms ascribed to Asaph composed by one person?

10. Give the five general outlines of the whole collection, as follows: I. The outline by books II. The outline according to date and authorship III. The outline by groups IV. The outline of doctrines V. The outline by New Testament quotations or allusions.

11. What experiences of David’s life made very deep impressions on his heart?

12. Classify the Davidic Psalms according to these experiences following the order of time.

13. What the great doctrines of the psalms?

14. What analogy between the Pentateuch and the Psalms?

15. What historic controversies concerning the singing of psalms?

16. Of what value is the history in Samuel, 1 Kings and 2 Chronicles, and in Ezra and Nehemiah toward a proper interpretation of the psalms?

17. Give Professor James Robertson’s argument in favor of the Davidic authorship of the psalms.

18. What can you say of the New Testament use of the psalms and what do we learn as to their importance in teaching?

19. What can you say of the New Testament references to the psalms, and from the New Testament references what the impression on the New Testament writers?

20. What can you say of the allusions to the psalms in the New Testament?

XVII

THE MESSIAH IN THE PSALMS

A fine text for this chapter is as follows: “All things must be fulfilled which were written in the Psalms concerning me,” Luk 24:44 . I know of no better way to close my brief treatise on the Psalms than to discuss the subject of the Messiah as revealed in this book.

Attention has been called to the threefold division of the Old Testament cited by our Lord, namely, the Law, the Prophets, and the Psalms (Luk 24:44 ), in all of which were the prophecies relating to himself that “must be fulfilled.” It has been shown just what Old Testament books belong to each of these several divisions. The division called the Psalms included many books, styled Holy Writings, and because the Psalms proper was the first book of the division it gave the name to the whole division.

The object of this discussion is to sketch the psalmist’s outline of the Messiah, or rather, to show how nearly a complete picture of our Lord is foredrawn in this one book. Let us understand however with Paul, that all prophecy is but in part (1Co 13:9 ), and that when we fill in on one canvas all the prophecies concerning the Messiah of all the Old Testament divisions, we are far from having a perfect portrait of our Lord. The present purpose is limited to three things:

1. What the book of the Psalms teaches concerning the Messiah.

2. That the New Testament shall authoritatively specify and expound this teaching.

3. That the many messianic predictions scattered over the book and the specifications thereof over the New Testament may be grouped into an orderly analysis, so that by the adjustment of the scattered parts we may have before us a picture of our Lord as foreseen by the psalmists.

In allowing the New Testament to authoritatively specify and expound the predictive features of the book, I am not unmindful of what the so-called “higher critics” urge against the New Testament quotations from the Old Testament and the use made of them. In this discussion, however, these objections are not considered, for sufficient reasons. There is not space for it. Even at the risk of being misjudged I must just now summarily pass all these objections, dismissing them with a single statement upon which the reader may place his own estimate of value. That statement is that in the days of my own infidelity, before this old method of criticism had its new name, I was quite familiar with the most and certainly the strongest of the objections now classified as higher criticism, and have since patiently re-examined them in their widely conflicting restatements under their modern name, and find my faith in the New Testament method of dealing with the Old Testament in no way shattered, but in every way confirmed. God is his own interpreter. The Old Testament as we now have it was in the hands of our Lord. I understand his apostle to declare, substantially, that “every one of these sacred scriptures is God-inspired and is profitable for teaching us what is right to believe and to do, for convincing us what is wrong in faith or practice, for rectifying the wrong when done, that we may be ready at every point, furnished completely, to do every good work, at the right time, in the right manner, and from the proper motive” (2Ti 3:16-17 ).

This New Testament declares that David was a prophet (Act 2:30 ), that he spake by the Holy Spirit (Act 1:16 ), that when the book speaks the Holy Spirit speaks (Heb 3:7 ), and that all its predictive utterances, as sacred Scripture, “must be fulfilled” (Joh 13:18 ; Act 1:16 ). It is not claimed that David wrote all the psalms, but that all are inspired, and that as he was the chief author, the book goes by his name.

It would be a fine thing to make out two lists, as follows:

1. All of the 150 psalms in order from which the New Testament quotes with messianic application.

2. The New Testament quotations, book by book, i.e., Matthew so many, and then the other books in their order.

We would find in neither of these any order as to time, that is, Psa 1 which forecasts an incident in the coming Messiah’s life does not forecast the first incident of his life. And even the New Testament citations are not in exact order as to time and incident of his life. To get the messianic picture before us, therefore, we must put the scattered parts together in their due relation and order, and so construct our own analysis. That is the prime object of this discussion. It is not claimed that the analysis now presented is perfect. It is too much the result of hasty, offhand work by an exceedingly busy man. It will serve, however, as a temporary working model, which any one may subsequently improve. We come at once to the psalmist’s outline of the Messiah.

1. The necessity for a Saviour. This foreseen necessity is a background of the psalmists’ portrait of the Messiah. The necessity consists in (1) man’s sinfulness; (2) his sin; (3) his inability of wisdom and power to recover himself; (4) the insufficiency of legal, typical sacrifices in securing atonement.

The predicate of Paul’s great argument on justification by faith is the universal depravity and guilt of man. He is everywhere corrupt in nature; everywhere an actual transgressor; everywhere under condemnation. But the scriptural proofs of this depravity and sin the apostle draws mainly from the book of the Psalms. In one paragraph of the letter to the Romans (Rom 3:4-18 ), he cites and groups six passages from six divisions of the Psalms (Psa 5:9 ; Psa 10:7 ; Psa 14:1-3 ; Psa 36:1 ; Psa 51:4-6 ; Psa 140:3 ). These passages abundantly prove man’s sinfulness, or natural depravity, and his universal practice of sin.

The predicate also of the same apostle’s great argument for revelation and salvation by a Redeemer is man’s inability of wisdom and power to re-establish communion with God. In one of his letters to the Corinthians he thus commences his argument: “For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent. Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this world? Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? -For after that in the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preach-ing to save them that believe.” He closes this discussion with the broad proposition: “The wisdom of this world is foolishness with God,” and proves it by a citation from Psa 94:11 : “The Lord knoweth the thoughts of the wise, that they are vain.”

In like manner our Lord himself pours scorn on human wisdom and strength by twice citing Psa 8 : “At that time Jesus answered and said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent and hast revealed them unto babes. Even so, Father: for so it seemed good in thy sight” (Mat 11:25-26 ). “And when the chief priests and scribes saw the wonderful things that he did, and the children that were crying in the temple and saying, Hosanna to the Son of David; they were sore displeased, and said unto him, Hearest thou what these say? And Jesus saith unto them, Yea; have ye never read, Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings thou hast perfected praise?” (Mat 21:15-16 ).

But the necessity for a Saviour as foreseen by the psalmist did not stop at man’s depravity, sin, and helplessness. The Jews were trusting in the sacrifices of their law offered on the smoking altar. The inherent weakness of these offerings, their lack of intrinsic merit, their ultimate abolition, their complete fulfilment and supercession by a glorious antitype were foreseen and foreshown in this wonderful prophetic book: I will not reprove thee for thy sacrifices; And thy burnt offerings are continually before me. I will take no bullock out of thy house, Nor he-goat out of thy folds. For every beast of the forest is mine, And the cattle upon a thousand hills. I know all of the birds of the mountains; And the wild beasts of the field are mine. If I were hungry, I would not tell thee; For the world is mine, and the fulness thereof. Will I eat the flesh of bulls, Or drink the blood of goats? Psa 50:8-13 .

Yet again it speaks in that more striking passage cited in the letter to the Hebrews: “For the law having a shadow of good things to come, not the very image of the things, can never with the same sacrifices year by year, which they offer continually, make the comers thereunto perfect. For then would they not have ceased to be offered? because that the worshipers, once purged should have no more consciousness of sins. But in those sacrifices there is a remembrance made of sins year by year. For it is impossible that the blood of bulls and goats should take away sins. Wherefore when he cometh into the world, he saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldst not, But a body didst thou prepare for me; In whole burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin thou hadst no pleasure: Then said I, Lo, I am come (In the roll of the book it is written of me) To do thy will, O God. Saying above, Sacrifice and offering and whole burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin thou wouldst not, neither hadst pleasure therein, (the which are offered according to the law), then hath he said, Lo, I am come to do thy will, O God. He taketh away the first, that he may establish the second” (Heb 10:1-9 ).

This keen foresight of the temporary character and intrinsic worthlessness of animal sacrifices anticipated similar utterances by the later prophets (Isa 1:10-17 ; Jer 6:20 ; Jer 7:21-23 ; Hos 6:6 ; Amo 5:21 ; Mic 6:6-8 ). Indeed, I may as well state in passing that when the apostle declares, “It is impossible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins,” he lays down a broad principle, just as applicable to baptism and the Lord’s Supper. With reverence I state the principle: Not even God himself by mere appointment can vest in any ordinance, itself lacking intrinsic merit, the power to take away sin. There can be, therefore, in the nature of the case, no sacramental salvation. This would destroy the justice of God in order to exalt his mercy. Clearly the psalmist foresaw that “truth and mercy must meet together” before “righteousness and peace could kiss each other” (Psa 85:10 ). Thus we find as the dark background of the psalmists’ luminous portrait of the Messiah, the necessity for a Saviour.

2. The nature, extent, and blessedness of the salvation to be wrought by the coming Messiah. In no other prophetic book are the nature, fullness, and blessedness of salvation so clearly seen and so vividly portrayed. Besides others not now enumerated, certainly the psalmists clearly forecast four great elements of salvation:

(1) An atoning sacrifice of intrinsic merit offered once for all (Psa 40:6-8 ; Heb 10:4-10 ).

(2) Regeneration itself consisting of cleansing, renewal, and justification. We hear his impassioned statement of the necessity of regeneration: “Behold, I was shapen in iniquity and in sin did my mother conceive me. Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward parts,” followed by his earnest prayer: “Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me,” and his equally fervent petition: “Wash me thoroughly from mine iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. Purge me with hyssop and I shall be clean; wash me and I shall be whiter than snow” (Psa 51 ). And we hear him again as Paul describes the blessedness of the man, unto whom God imputes righteousness without works, saying, Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, And whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not reckon sin Psa 32:1 ; Rom 4:6-8 .

(3) Introduction into the heavenly rest (Psa 95:7-11 ; Heb 3:7-19 ; Heb 4:1-11 ). Here is the antitypical Joshua leading spiritual Israel across the Jordan of death into the heavenly Canaan, the eternal rest that remaineth for the people of God. Here we find creation’s original sabbath eclipsed by redemption’s greater sabbath when the Redeemer “entered his rest, ceasing from his own works as God did from his.”

(4) The recovery of all the universal dominion lost by the first Adam and the securement of all possible dominion which the first Adam never attained (Psa 8:5-6 ; Eph 1:20-22 ; Heb 2:7-9 ; 1Co 15:24-28 ).

What vast extent then and what blessedness in the salvation foreseen by the psalmists, and to be wrought by the Messiah. Atoning sacrifice of intrinsic merit; regeneration by the Holy Spirit; heavenly rest as an eternal inheritance; and universal dominion shared with Christ!

3. The wondrous person of the Messiah in his dual nature, divine and human.

(1) His divinity,

(a) as God: “Thy throne, O God, is forever and ever” (Psa 45:6 and Heb 1:8 ) ;

(b) as creator of the heavens and earth, immutable and eternal: Of old didst thou lay the foundation of the earth; And the heavens are the work of thy hands. They shall perish, but thou shalt endure; Yea, all of them shall wax old like a garment; As a vesture shalt thou change them, and they shall be changed. But thou art the same, And thy years shall have no end Psa 102:25-27 quoted with slight changes in Heb 1:10-12 .

(c) As owner of the earth: The earth is the Lord’s and the fulness thereof; The world, and they that dwell therein, Psa 24:1 quoted in 1Co 10:26 .

(d) As the Son of God: “Thou art my Son; This day have I begotten thee” Psa 2:7 ; Heb 1:5 .

(e) As David’s Lord: The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand, Until I make thine enemies thy footstool, Psa 110:1 ; Mat 22:41-46 .

(f) As the object of angelic worship: “And let all the angels of God worship him” Psa 97:7 ; Heb 1:6 .

(g) As the Bread of life: And he rained down manna upon them to eat, And gave them food from heaven Psa 78:24 ; interpreted in Joh 6:31-58 . These are but samples which ascribe deity to the Messiah of the psalmists.

(2) His humanity, (a) As the Son of man, or Son of Adam: Psa 8:4-6 , cited in 1Co 15:24-28 ; Eph 1:20-22 ; Heb 2:7-9 . Compare Luke’s genealogy, Luk 3:23-38 . This is the ideal man, or Second Adam, who regains Paradise Lost, who recovers race dominion, in whose image all his spiritual lineage is begotten. 1Co 15:45-49 . (b) As the Son of David: Psa 18:50 ; Psa 89:4 ; Psa 89:29 ; Psa 89:36 ; Psa 132:11 , cited in Luk 1:32 ; Act 13:22-23 ; Rom 1:3 ; 2Ti 2:8 . Perhaps a better statement of the psalmists’ vision of the wonderful person of the Messiah would be: He saw the uncreated Son, the second person of the trinity, in counsel and compact with the Father, arranging in eternity for the salvation of men: Psa 40:6-8 ; Heb 10:5-7 . Then he saw this Holy One stoop to be the Son of man: Psa 8:4-6 ; Heb 2:7-9 . Then he was the son of David, and then he saw him rise again to be the Son of God: Psa 2:7 ; Rom 1:3-4 .

4. His offices.

(1) As the one atoning sacrifice (Psa 40:6-8 ; Heb 10:5-7 ).

(2) As the great Prophet, or Preacher (Psa 40:9-10 ; Psa 22:22 ; Heb 2:12 ). Even the method of his teaching by parable was foreseen (Psa 78:2 ; Mat 13:35 ). Equally also the grace, wisdom, and power of his teaching. When the psalmist declares that “Grace is poured into thy lips” (Psa 45:2 ), we need not be startled when we read that all the doctors in the Temple who heard him when only a boy “were astonished at his understanding and answers” (Luk 2:47 ); nor that his home people at Nazareth “all bear him witness, and wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth” (Luk 4:22 ); nor that those of his own country were astonished, and said, “Whence hath this man this wisdom?” (Mat 13:54 ); nor that the Jews in the Temple marveled, saying, “How knoweth this man letters, having never learned?” (Joh 7:15 ) ; nor that the stern officers of the law found their justification in failure to arrest him in the declaration, “Never man spake like this man” (Joh 7:46 ).

(3) As the king (Psa 2:6 ; Psa 24:7-10 ; Psa 45:1-17 ; Psa 110:1 ; Mat 22:42-46 ; Act 2:33-36 ; 1Co 15:25 ; Eph 1:20 ; Heb 1:13 ).

(4) As the priest (Psa 110:4 ; Heb 5:5-10 ; Heb 7:1-21 ; Heb 10:12-14 ).

(5) As the final judge. The very sentence of expulsion pronounced upon the finally impenitent by the great judge (Mat 25:41 ) is borrowed from the psalmist’s prophetic words (Psa 6:8 ).

5. Incidents of life. The psalmists not only foresaw the necessity for a Saviour; the nature, extent, and blessedness of the salvation; the wonderful human-divine person of the Saviour; the offices to be filled by him in the work of salvation, but also many thrilling details of his work in life, death, resurrection, and exaltation. It is not assumed to cite all these details, but some of the most important are enumerated in order, thus:

(1) The visit, adoration, and gifts of the Magi recorded in Mat 2 are but partial fulfilment of Psa 72:9-10 .

(2) The scripture employed by Satan in the temptation of our Lord (Luk 4:10-11 ) was cited from Psa 91:11-12 and its pertinency not denied.

(3) In accounting for his intense earnestness and the apparently extreme measures adopted by our Lord in his first purification of the Temple (Joh 2:17 ), he cites the messianic zeal predicted in Psa 69:9 .

(4) Alienation from his own family was one of the saddest trials of our Lord’s earthly life. They are slow to understand his mission and to enter into sympathy with him. His self-abnegation and exhaustive toil were regarded by them as evidences of mental aberration, and it seems at one time they were ready to resort to forcible restraint of his freedom) virtually what in our time would be called arrest under a writ of lunacy. While at the last his half-brothers became distinguished preachers of his gospel, for a long while they do not believe on him. And the evidence forces us to the conclusion that his own mother shared with her other sons, in kind though not in degree, the misunderstanding of the supremacy of his mission over family relations. The New Testament record speaks for itself:

Son, why hast thou thus dealt with us? behold, thy father and I sought thee sorrowing. And he said unto them. How is it that ye sought me? Knew ye not that I must be in my Father’s house? And they understood not the saying which he spake unto them Luk 2:48-51 (R.V.).

And when the wine failed, the mother of Jesus saith unto him, They have no wine. And Jesus saith unto her, Woman, what have I to do with thee? Mine hour is not yet come. Joh 2:3-5 (R.V.).

And there come his mother and his brethren; and standing without; they sent unto him, calling him. And a multitude was sitting about him; and they say unto him. Behold, thy mother and thy brethren without seek for thee. And he answereth them, and saith, Who is my mother and my brethren? And looking round on them that sat round about him, he saith, Behold, my mother and my brethren) For whosoever shall do the will of God, the same is my brother, and sister, and mother Mar 3:31-35 (R.V.).

Now the feast of the Jews, the feast of tabernacles, was at hand. His brethren therefore said unto him, Depart hence, and go into Judea, that thy disciples also may behold thy works which thou doest. For no man doeth anything in secret, and himself seeketh to be known openly. If thou doest these things, manifest thyself to the world. For even his brethren did not believe on him. Jesus therefore saith unto them, My time is not yet come; but your time is always ready. The world cannot hate you; but me it hateth, because I testify of it, that its works are evil. Go ye up unto the feast: I go not up yet unto this feast; because my time is not fulfilled. Joh 7:2-9 (R.V.).

These citations from the Revised Version tell their own story. But all that sad story is foreshown in the prophetic psalms. For example: I am become a stranger unto my brethren, And an alien unto my mother’s children. Psa 69:8 .

(5) The triumphal entry into Jerusalem was welcomed by a joyous people shouting a benediction from Psa 118:26 : “Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord” (Mat 21:9 ); and the Lord’s lamentation over Jerusalem predicts continued desolation and banishment from his sight until the Jews are ready to repeat that benediction (Mat 23:39 ).

(6) The children’s hosanna in the Temple after its second purgation is declared by our Lord to be a fulfilment of that perfect praise forecast in Psa 8:2 .

(7) The final rejection of our Lord by his own people was also clear in the psalmist’s vision (Psa 118:22 ; Mat 21:42-44 ).

(8) Gethsemane’s baptism of suffering, with its strong crying and tears and prayers was as clear to the psalmist’s prophetic vision as to the evangelist and apostle after it became history (Psa 69:1-4 ; Psa 69:13-20 ; and Mat 26:36-44 ; Heb 5:7 ).

(9) In life-size also before the psalmist was the betrayer of Christ and his doom (Psa 41:9 ; Psa 69:25 ; Psa 109:6-8 ; Joh 13:18 ; Act 1:20 ).

(10) The rage of the people, Jew and Gentile, and the conspiracy of Pilate and Herod are clearly outlined (Psa 2:1-3 ; Act 4:25-27 ).

(11) All the farce of his trial the false accusation, his own marvelous silence; and the inhuman maltreatment to which he was subjected, is foreshown in the prophecy as dramatically as in the history (Mat 26:57-68 ; Mat 27:26-31 ; Psa 27:12 ; Psa 35:15-16 ; Psa 38:3 ; Psa 69:19 ).

The circumstances of his death, many and clear, are distinctly foreseen. He died in the prime of life (Psa 89:45 ; Psa 102:23-24 ). He died by crucifixion (Psa 22:14-17 ; Luk 23 ; 33; Joh 19:23-37 ; Joh 20:27 ). But yet not a bone of his body was broken (Psa 34:20 ; Joh 19:36 ).

The persecution, hatred without a cause, the mockery and insults, are all vividly and dramatically foretold (Psa 22:6-13 ; Psa 35:7 ; Psa 35:12 ; Psa 35:15 ; Psa 35:21 ; Psa 109:25 ).

The parting of his garments and the gambling for his vesture (Psa 22:18 ; Mat 27:35 ).

His intense thirst and the gall and vinegar offered for his drink (Psa 69:21 ; Mat 27:34 ).

In the psalms, too, we hear his prayers for his enemies so remarkably fulfilled in fact (Psa 109:4 ; Luk 23:34 ).

His spiritual death was also before the eye of the psalmist, and the very words which expressed it the psalmist heard. Separation from the Father is spiritual death. The sinner’s substitute must die the sinner’s death, death physical, i.e., separation of soul from body; death spiritual, i.e., separation of the soul from God. The latter is the real death and must precede the former. This death the substitute died when he cried out: “My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me.” (Psa 22:1 ; Mat 27:46 ).

Emerging from the darkness of that death, which was the hour of the prince of darkness, the psalmist heard him commend his spirit to the Father (Psa_31:35; Luk 23:46 ) showing that while he died the spiritual death, his soul was not permanently abandoned unto hell (Psa 16:8-10 ; Act 2:25 ) so that while he “tasted death” for every man it was not permanent death (Heb 2:9 ).

With equal clearness the psalmist foresaw his resurrection, his triumph over death and hell, his glorious ascension into heaven, and his exaltation at the right hand of God as King of kings and Lord of lords, as a high Driest forever, as invested with universal sovereignty (Psa 16:8-11 ; Psa 24:7-10 ; Psa 68:18 ; Psa 2:6 ; Psa 111:1-4 ; Psa 8:4-6 ; Act 2:25-36 ; Eph 1:19-23 ; Eph 4:8-10 ).

We see, therefore, brethren, when the scattered parts are put together and adjusted, how nearly complete a portrait of our Lord is put upon the prophetic canvas by this inspired limner, the sweet singer of Israel.

QUESTIONS

1. What is a good text for this chapter?

2. What is the threefold division of the Old Testament as cited by our Lord?

3. What is the last division called and why?

4. What is the object of the discussion in this chapter?

5. To what three things is the purpose limited?

6. What especially qualifies the author to meet the objections of the higher critics to allowing the New Testament usage of the Old Testament to determine its meaning and application?

7. What is the author’s conviction relative to the Scriptures?

8. What is the New Testament testimony on the question of inspiration?

9. What is the author’s suggested plan of approach to the study of the Messiah in the Psalms?

10. What the background of the Psalmist’s portrait of the Messiah and of what does it consist?

11. Give the substance of Paul’s discussion of man’s sinfulness.

12. What is the teaching of Jesus on this point?

13. What is the teaching relative to sacrifices?

14. What the nature, extent, and blessedness of the salvation to be wrought by the coming Messiah and what the four great elements of it as forecast by the psalmist?

15. What is the teaching of the psalms relative to the wondrous person of the Messiah? Discuss.

16. What are the offices of the Messiah according to psalms? Discuss each.

17. Cite the more important events of the Messiah’s life according to the vision of the psalmist.

18. What the circumstances of the Messiah’s death and resurrection as foreseen by the psalmist?

Fuente: B.H. Carroll’s An Interpretation of the English Bible

XV

PSALM AFTER DAVID PRIOR TO THE BABYLONIAN EXILE

The superscriptions ascribed to Asaph twelve palms (Psa 50 ; 73-83) Asaph, Heman, and Jeduthun presided over the Levitical singers in the time of David. Their sons also directed the various bands of musicians (1Ch 25 ). It seems that the family of Asaph for many generations continued to preside over the service of song (Cf. Ezr 3:10 ).

The theme of Psa 50 is “Obedience is better than sacrifice,” or the language of Samuel to Saul when he had committed the awful sin in respect to the Amalekites. This teaching is paralleled in many Old Testament scriptures, for instance, Psa 51:16-17 . For thou delightest not in sacrifice; else would I give it: Thou hast no pleasure in burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: A broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.

The problem of Psa 73 is the problem of why the wicked prosper (Psa 73:1-14 ), and its solution is found in the attitude of God toward the wicked (Psa 73:15-28 ). [For a fine exposition of the other psalms of this section see Kirkpatrick or Maclaren on the Psalms.]

The psalms attributed to the sons of Korah are Psa 42 ; Psa 44 ; Psa 45 ; Psa 47 ; Psa 48 ; Psa 49 ; Psa 84 ; Psa 85 ; Psa 87 . The evidence that Psalms 42-43 were one poem is internal. There are three stanzas, each closing with a refrain. The similarity of structure and thought indicates that they were formerly one psalm. A parallel to these two psalms we find in the escape of Christian from the Castle of Giant Despair in Pilgrim’s Progress .

Only two psalms were ascribed to Solomon, viz: Psa 72 and 127. However, the author believes that there is good reason to attribute Psa 72 to David. If he wrote it, then only one was written by Solomon.

The theme of Psa 72 is the reign of the righteous king, and the outline according to DeWitt, which shows the kingdom as desired and foretold, is as follows: (1) righteous (Psa 72:1-4 ) ; (2) perpetual (Psa 72:5-7 ); (3) universal (Psa 72:8-11 ); (4) benign (Psa 72:12-14 ); (5) prosperous (Psa 72:15-17 ).

Psa 127 was written when Solomon built the Temple. It is the central psalm of the psalms of the Ascents, which refer to the Temple. It seems fitting that this psalm should occupy the central position in the group, because of the occasion which inspired it and its relation to the other psalms of the group. A brief interpretation of it is as follows: The house here means household. It is a brief lyric, setting forth the lessons of faith and trust. This together with Psa 128 is justly called “A Song of Home.” Once in speaking to Baylor Female College I used this psalm, illustrating the function of a school as a parent sending forth her children into the world as mighty arrows. Again I used this psalm in one of my addresses in our own Seminary in which I made the household to refer to the Seminary sending forth the preachers as her children.

The psalms assigned to the era of Hezekiah and Isaiah are Psa 46 ; Psa 47 ; Psa 48 . The historical setting is found in the history of the reign of Hezekiel. Their application to Judah at this time is found in the historical connection, in which we have God’s great deliverances from the foreign powers, especially the deliverance from Sennacherib. We find in poetry a description of the destruction and desolation of Jerusalem in the Lamentations of Jeremiah and in Psa 74 ; Psa 79 .

The radical critics ascribe Psa 74 ; Psa 79 to the Maccabean period, and their argument is based upon the use of the word “synagogues,” in Psa 74:8 . The answer to their contention is found in the marginal rendering which gives “places of assembly” instead of “synagogues.” The word “synagogue” is a Greek word translated from the Hebrew, which has several meanings, and in this place means the “place of assembly” where God met his people.

The silence of the exile period is shown in Psa 137 , in which they respond that they cannot sing a song of Zion in a strange land. Their brightening of hope is seen in Psa 102 . In this we have the brightening of their hope on the eve of their return. In Psa 85:10 we have a great text:

Mercy and truth are met together;

Righteousness and peace have kissed each other.

The truth here is God’s law demanding justice; mercy is God’s grace meeting justice. This was gloriously fulfilled in Christ on the cross. He met the demands of the law and offers mercy and grace to all who accept them on the terms of repentance and faith.

Three characteristics of Psa 119 are, first, it is an alphabetical psalm; second, it is the longest chapter in the Bible, and third, it is an expansion of the latter part of Psa 19 . Psalms 146-150 were used for worship in the second temple. The expressions of innocence in the psalms do not refer to original sin, but to a course of conduct in contrast with wicked lives. The psalmists do not claim absolute, but relative sinlessness.

The imprecations in the psalms are real prayers, and are directed against real men who were enemies of David and the Jewish nation, but they are not expressions of personal resentment. They are vigorous expressions of righteous indignation against incorrigible enemies of God and his people and are to be interpreted in the light of progressive revelation. The New Testament contains many exultant expressions of the overthrow of the wicked. (Cf. 1Co 16:22 ; 2Ti 4:14 ; Gal 5:12 ; Rev 16:5-6 ; Rev 18:20 .) These imprecations do not teach that we, even in the worst circumstances, should bear personal malice, nor take vengeance on the enemies of righteousness, but that we should live so close to God that we may acquiesce in the destruction of the wicked and leave the matter of vengeance in the hands of a just God, to whom vengeance belongs (Rom 12:19-21 ).

The clearest teachings on the future life as found in the psalms, both pro and con, are found in these passages, as follows: Psa 16:10-11 ; Psa 17:15 ; Psa 23:6 ; Psa 49:15 ; Psa 73:23-26 . The passages that are construed to the contrary are found in Psa 6:5 ; Psa 30:9 ; Psa 39:13 ; Psa 88:10-12 ; Psa 115:17 . The student will compare these passages and note carefully their teachings. The first group speaks of the triumph over Sheol (the resurrection) ; about awaking in the likeness of God; about dwelling in the house of the Lord forever; about redemption from the power of Sheol; and God’s guiding counsel and final reception into glory, all of which is very clear and unmistakable teaching as to the future life.

The second group speaks of DO remembrance in death; about no profit to the one when he goes down to the pit; of going hence and being no more; about the dead not being able to praise God and about the grave as being the land of forgetfulness ; and about the dead not praising Jehovah, all of which are spoken from the standpoint of the grave and temporal death.

There is positively no contradiction nor discrepancy in the teaching of these scriptures. One group takes the spirit of man as the viewpoint and teaches the continuity of life, the immortality of the soul; the other group takes the physical being of man as the viewpoint and teaches the dissolution of the body and its absolute unconsciousness in the grave.

QUESTIONS

1. How many and what psalms were ascribed to Asaph?

2. Who presided over the Levitical singers in the time of David?

3. What is the theme of Psa 50 , and where do we find the same teaching in the Old Testament?

4. What is the problem of Psa 73 , and what its solution?

5. What psalms are attributed to the sons of Korah?

6. What is the evidence that Psalms 42-43 were one poem and what the characteristic of these two taken together?

7. What parallel to these two psalms do we find in modern literature?

8. What psalms were ascribed to Solomon?

9. What is the theme of Psa 72 ?

10. What is the outline according to DeWitt, which shows the kingdom as desired and foretold?

11. When was Psa 127 written and what the application as a part of the Pilgrim group?

12. Give a brief interpretation of it and the uses made of it by the author on two different occasions.

13. What psalms are assigned to the era of Hezekiah and Isaiah, and what their historical setting?

14. What is their application to Judah at this time?

15. Where may we find in poetry a description of the destruction and desolation of Jerusalem?

16. To what period do radical critics ascribe Psalms 74-79; what is their argument, and what is your answer?

17. Which psalm shows the silence of the exile period and why?

18. Which one shows their brightening of hope?

19. Explain Psa 85:10 .

20. Give three characteristics of Psa 119 .

21. What use was made of Psalms 146-150?

22. Explain the expression of innocence in the psalms in harmony with their teaching of sin.

23. Explain the imprecations in the psalms and show their harmony with New Testament teachings.

24. Cite the clearest teachings on the future life as found in the psalms, both pro and con.

Fuente: B.H. Carroll’s An Interpretation of the English Bible

Psa 48:1 A Song [and] Psalm for the sons of Korah. Great [is] the LORD, and greatly to be praised in the city of our God, [in] the mountain of his holiness.

A Psalm and Song for the sons of Korah ] When and by whom compiled we certainly know not. If by David, probably it was upon occasion of the Philistines coming up to seek him, but were sent away back with shame and loss, 2Sa 5:7 ; 2Sa 5:9 . If upon the slaughter of Sennacherib’s army by an angel, Isaiah or some other prophet of those times (as there were many) might be the penman. It seemeth to be of the same time and occasion with Psa 76:1-12

Ver. 1. Great is the Lord ] Greater, Job 33:12 , greatest of all, Psa 95:3 , greatness itself, Psa 145:3 . A degree he is above the superlative.

And greatly to be praised ] No mean praises can be meet for so great a majesty. It must be modus sine modo (Bern.).

In the city of our God ] i.e. In the Church; for others will not, cannot do it to divine acceptation. Galen (lib. 3, de usu part.), amazed at the wonderful frame of man’s body, sang a hymn to the Maker thereof, but yet he lived and died a Pagan.

Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

It is “A song, a psalm for the sons of Korah.” The remnant rise in the expression of their faith and can now begin with Jehovah, as they see the vision of Zion in its beauty and glory, and all confederacies confounded, yea, vanished away. It is an advance even on the last. The glory of the king penetrates as it were place and people. So predicted Isa 2 , Isa 60 , Mic 4 , Mic 5 , Zec 14 .

Fuente: William Kelly Major Works (New Testament)

Psalms

A SONG OF DELIVERANCE

Psa 48:1 – Psa 48:14 .

The enthusiastic triumph which throbs in this psalm, and the specific details of a great act of deliverance from a great peril which it contains, sufficiently indicate that it must have had some historical event as its basis. Can we identify the fact which is here embalmed?

The psalm gives these points-a formidable muster before Jerusalem of hostile people under confederate kings, with the purpose of laying siege to the city; some mysterious check which arrests them before a sword is drawn, as if some panic fear had shot from its towers and shaken their hearts; and a flight in wild confusion from the impregnable dwelling-place of the Lord of hosts. The occasion of the terror is vaguely hinted at, as if some solemn mystery brooded over it. All that is clear about it is that it was purely the work of the divine hand-’Thou breakest the ships of Tarshish with an east wind’; and that in this deliverance, in their own time, the Levite minstrels recognised the working of the same protecting grace which, from of old, had ‘commanded deliverances for Jacob.’

Now there is one event, and only one, in Jewish history, which corresponds, point for point, to these details-the crushing destruction of the Assyrian army under Sennacherib. There, there was the same mustering of various nations, compelled by the conqueror to march in his train, and headed by their tributary kings. There, there was the same arrest before an arrow had been shot, or a mound raised against the city. There, there was the same purely divine agency coming in to destroy the invading army.

I think, then, that from the correspondence of the history with the requirements of the psalm, as well as from several similarities of expression and allusion between the latter and the prophecies of Isaiah, who has recorded that destruction of the invader, we may, with considerable probability, regard this psalm as the hymn of triumph over the baffled Assyrian, and the marvellous deliverance of Israel by the arm of God.

Whatever may be thought, however, of that allocation of it to a place in the history, the great truths that it contains depend upon no such identification. They are truths for all time; gladness and consolation for all generations. Let us read it over together now, if, perchance, some echo of the confidence and praise that is found in it may be called forth from our hearts! If you will look at your Bibles you will find that it falls into three portions. There is the glory of Zion, the deliverance of Zion, and the consequent grateful praise and glad trust of Zion.

I. There is the glory of Zion.

Hearken with what triumph the Psalmist breaks out: ‘Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised in the city of our God, in the mountain of His holiness. Beautiful for situation or rather elevation, the joy of the whole earth, is mount Zion, on the sides of the north, the city of the great King.’ Now these words are something more than mere patriotic feeling. The Jew’s glory in Jerusalem was a different thing altogether from the Roman’s pride in Rome. To the devout men amongst them, of whom the writer of this psalm was one, there was one thing, and one only, that made Zion glorious. It was beautiful indeed in its elevation, lifted high upon its rocky mountain. It was safe indeed, isolated from the invader by the precipitous ravines which enclosed and guarded the angle of the mountain plateau on which it stood; but the one thing that gave it glory was that in it God abode. The name even of that earthly Zion was ‘Jehovah-Shammah, the Lord is there.’ And the emphasis of these words is entirely pointed in that direction. What they celebrate concerning Him is not merely the general thought that the Lord is great, but that the Lord is great in Zion . What they celebrate concerning it is that it is His city, the mountain of His holiness, where He dwells, where He manifests Himself. Because there is His self-manifestation, therefore He is there greatly to be praised. And because the clear voice of His praise rings out from Zion, therefore is she ‘the joy of the whole earth.’ The glory of Zion, then, is that it is the dwelling-place of God.

Now, remember, that when the Old Testament Scripture speaks about God abiding in Jerusalem, it means no heathenish or material localising of the Deity, nor does it imply any depriving of the rest of the earth of the sanctity of His presence. The very psalm which most distinctly embodies the thought of God’s abode protests against that narrowness, for it begins, ‘The earth is the Lord’s and the fulness thereof: the world and they that dwell therein.’ The very ark which was the symbol of His presence, protests by its name against all such localising, for the name of it was ‘the ark of the covenant of the God of the whole earth.’ When the Bible speaks of Zion as the dwelling-place of God, it is but the expression of the fact that there, between the cherubim, was the visible sign of His presence-that there, in the Temple, as from the centre of the whole land, He ruled, and ‘out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God shone.’

We are, then, not ‘spiritualising,’ or forcing a New Testament meaning into these words, when we see in them an Eternal Truth. We are but following in the steps of history and prophecy, and of Christ and His Apostles, and of that last vision of the Apocalypse. We are but distinguishing between an idea and the fact which more or less perfectly embodies it. An idea may have many garments, may transmigrate into many different material forms. The idea of the dwelling of God with men had its less perfect embodiment, has its more perfect embodiment, will have its absolutely perfect embodiment. It had its less perfect in that ancient time. It has its real but partial embodiment in this present time, when, in the midst of the whole community of believing and loving souls, which stretches wider than any society that calls itself a Church, the living God abides and energises by His Spirit and by His Son in the souls of them that believe upon Him. ‘Ye are come unto Mount Zion and unto the city of the living God.’ And we wait for the time when, filling all the air with its light, there shall come down from God a perfect and permanent form of that dwelling; and that great city, the New Jerusalem, ‘having the glory of God,’ shall appear, and He will dwell with men and be their God.

But in all these stages of the embodiment of that great truth the glory of Zion rests in this, that in it God abides, that from it He flames in the greatness of His manifestations, which are ‘His praise in all the earth.’ It is that presence which makes her fair, as it is that presence which keeps her safe. It is that light shining within her palaces-not their own opaque darkness, which streams out far into the waste night with ruddy glow of hospitable invitation. It is God in her, not anything of her own, that constitutes her ‘the joy of the whole earth.’ ‘Thy beauty was perfect, through My comeliness, which I had put upon thee, saith the Lord.’ Zion is where hearts love and trust and follow Christ. The ‘city of the great King’ is a permanent reality in a partial form upon earth-and that partial form is itself a prophecy of the perfection of the heavens.

II. Still further, there is a second portion of this psalm which, passing beyond these introductory thoughts of the glory of Zion, recounts with wonderful power and vigour the process of the deliverance of Zion.

It extends from the fourth to the eighth verses. Mark the dramatic vigour of the description of the deliverance. There is, first, the mustering of the armies-’The kings were assembled.’ Some light is thrown upon that phrase by the proud boast which the prophet Isaiah puts into the lips of the Assyrian invader, ‘Are not my princes altogether kings?’ The subject-monarchs of the subdued nationalities that were gathered round the tyrant’s standard were used, with the wicked craft of conquerors in all ages, to bring still other lands under the same iron dominion. ‘The kings were assembled’-we see them gathering their far-reaching and motley army, mustered from all corners of that gigantic empire. They advance together against the rocky fortress that towers above its girdling valleys. ‘They saw it, they marvelled’-in wonder, perhaps, at its beauty, as they first catch sight of its glittering whiteness from some hill crest on their march; or, perhaps, stricken by some strange amazement, as if, basilisk-like, its beauty were deadly, and a beam from the Shechinah had shot a nameless awe into their souls-’they were troubled, they hasted away.’

I need not dilate on the power of this description, nor do more than notice how the abruptness of the language, huddled together, as it were, without connecting particles, conveys the impression of hurry and confusion, culminating in the rush of fugitives fleeing under the influence of panic-terror. They are like the well-known words, ‘I came, I saw, I conquered,’ only that here we have to do with swift defeat-they came, they saw, they were conquered. They are, in regard to vivid picturesqueness, arising from the broken construction, singularly like other words which refer to the same event in the forty-sixth psalm, ‘The heathen raged, the kingdoms were moved; He uttered His voice, the earth melted.’ In their scornful emphasis of triumph they remind us of Isaiah’s description of the end of the same invasion-’So Sennacherib, king of Assyria, departed, and went and returned, and dwelt at Nineveh.’

Mark, still further, the eloquent silence as to the cause of the panic and the flight. There is no appearance of armed resistance. This is no ‘battle of the warrior with garments rolled in blood,’ and the shock of contending hosts. But an unseen Hand smites once-’and when the morning dawned they were all dead corpses.’ The impression of terror produced by such a blow is increased by the veiled allusion to it here. The silence magnifies the deliverance. If we might apply the grand words of Milton to that night of fear-

‘The trumpet spake not to the armed throng,

But kings sat still, with awful eye,

As if they surely knew their sovereign Lord was by.’

The process of the deliverance is not told here, as there was no need it should be in a hymn which is not history, but the lyrical echo of what is told in history; one image explains it all-’Thou breakest the ships of Tarshish with an east wind.’ The metaphor-one that does not need expansion here-is that of a ship like a great unwieldy galleon, caught in a tempest. However strong for fight, it is not fit for sailing. It is like some of those turret ships of ours, if they venture out from the coast and get into a storm, their very strength is their destruction, their armour wherein they trusted ensures that they shall sink. And so, this huge assailant of Israel, this great ‘galley with oars,’ washing about there in the trough of the sea, as it were-God broke it in two with the tempest, which is His breath. You remember how on the medal that commemorated the destruction of the Spanish Armada-our English deliverance-there were written the words of Scripture: ‘God blew upon them and they were scattered.’ What was there true, literally, is here true in figure. The Psalmist is not thinking of any actual scattering of hostile fleets-from which Jerusalem was never in danger; but is using the shipwreck of ‘the ship of Tarshish’ as a picture of the utter, swift, God-inflicted destruction which ground that invading army to pieces, as the savage rocks and wild seas will do the strongest craft that is mangled between them.

And then, mark how from this dramatic description there rises a loftier thought still. The deliverance thus described links the present with the past. ‘As we have heard so have we seen in the city of the Lord of hosts, in the city of our God.’ Yes, brethren! God’s merciful manifestation for ourselves, as for those Israelitish people of old, has this blessed effect, that it changes hearsay and tradition into living experience;-this blessed effect, that it teaches us, or ought to teach us, the inexhaustibleness of the divine power, the constant repetition in every age of the same works of love. Taught by it, we learn that all these old narratives of His grace and help are ever new, not past and gone, but ready to be reproduced in their essential characteristics in our lives too. ‘We have heard with our ears, O Lord, our fathers have told us what work Thou didst in their days.’ But is the record only a melancholy contrast with our own experience? Nay, truly. ‘As we have heard so have we seen.’ We are ever tempted to think of the present as commonplace. The sky right above our heads is always farthest from earth. It is at the horizon behind and the horizon in front, where earth and heaven seem to blend. We think of miracles in the past, we think of a manifest presence of God in the future, but the present ever seems to our sense-bound understandings as beggared and empty of Him, devoid of His light. But this verse suggests to us how, if we mark the daily dealings of that loving Hand with us, we have every occasion to say, Thy loving-kindness of old lives still. Still, as of old, the hosts of the Lord encamp round about them that fear Him to deliver them. Still, as of old, the voice of guidance comes from between the cherubim. Still, as of old, the pillar of cloud and fire moves before us. Still, as of old, angels walk with men. Still, as of old, His hand is stretched forth, to bless, to feed, to guard. Nothing in the past of God’s dealings with men has passed away. The eternal present embraces what we call the past, present, and future. They that went before do not prevent us on whom the ends of the ages are come. The table that was spread for them is as fully furnished for the latest guests. The light, which was so magical and lustrous in the morning beauty, for us has not faded away into the light of common day. The river which flowed in these past ages has not been drunk up by the thirsty sands. The fire that once blazed so clear has not died down into grey ashes. ‘The God of Jacob is our refuge.’ ‘As we have heard so have we seen.’

And then, still further, the deliverance here is suggested as not only linking most blessedly the present with the past, but also linking it for our confidence with all the future . ‘God will establish it for ever.’

‘Old experience doth attain

To something of prophetic strain.’

In the strength of what that moment had taught of God and His power, the singer looks onward, and whatever may be the future he knows that the divine arm will be outstretched. God will establish Zion; or, as the word might be translated, God will hold it erect, as if with a strong hand grasping some pole or banner-staff that else would totter and fall-He will keep it up, standing there firm and steadfast.

It would lead us too far to discuss the bearing of such a prophecy upon the future history and restoration of Israel, but the bearing of it upon the security and perpetuity of the Church is unquestionable. The city is immortal because God dwells in it. For the individual and for the community, for the great society and for each of the single souls that make it up, the history of the past may seal the pledge which He gives for the future. If it had been possible to destroy the Church of the living God, it had been gone long, long ago. Its own weakness and sin, the ever-new corruptions of its belief and paring of its creed, the imperfections of its life and the worldliness of its heart, the abounding evils that lie around it and the actual hostility of many that look upon it and say, Raze it, even to the ground, would have smitten it to the dust long since. It lives, it has lived in spite of all, and therefore it shall live. ‘God will establish it for ever.’

In almost every land there is some fortress or other, which the pride of the inhabitants calls ‘the maiden fortress,’ and whereof the legend is, that it has never been taken, and is inexpugnable by any foe. It is true about the tower of the flock, the stronghold of the daughter of Zion. The grand words of Isaiah about this very Assyrian invader are our answer to all fears within and foes without: ‘Say unto him, the virgin, the daughter of Zion, hath despised thee, and laughed thee to scorn; the daughter of Jerusalem hath shaken her head at thee. . . . I will defend this city to save it for My own sake, and for My servant David’s sake.’ ‘God will establish it for ever,’ and the pledges of that eternal stability are the deliverances of the past and of the present.

III. Then, finally, there is still another section of this psalm to be looked at for a moment, which deals with the consequent grateful praise and glad trust of Zion.

I must condense what few things I have to say about these closing verses. The deliverance, first of all, deepens the glad meditation on God’s favour and defence. ‘We have thought,’ say the ransomed people, as with a sigh of rejoicing, ‘we have thought of Thy loving-kindness in the midst of Thy temple.’ The scene of the manifestation of His power is the scene of their thankfulness, and the first issue of His mercy is His servants’ praise.

Then, the deliverance spreads His fame throughout the world. ‘According to Thy name, O God! so is Thy praise unto the ends of the earth. Thy right hand is full of righteousness.’ The name of God is God’s own making known of His character, and the thought of these words is double. They most beautifully express the profoundest trust in that blessed name that it only needs to be known in order to be loved. There is nothing wanted but His manifestation of Himself for His praise and glory to spread. Why is the Psalmist so sure that according to the revelation of His character will be the revenue of His praise? Because the Psalmist is so sure that that character is purely, perfectly, simply good-nothing else but good and blessing-and that He cannot act but in such a way as to magnify Himself. That great sea will cast up nothing on the shores of the world but pearls and precious things. He is all ‘light, and in Him is no darkness at all.’ There needs but the shining forth in order that the light of His character shall bring gladness and joy, and the song of birds, and opening flowers wheresoever it falls.

Still further, there is the other truth in the words, that we misapprehend the purpose of our own deliverances, and the purpose of God’s mercy to Zion, if we confine these to any personal objects or lose sight of the loftier end of them all-that men may learn to know and love Him. Brethren! we neither rightly thank Him for His gifts to us nor rightly apprehend the meaning of His dealings, unless the sweetest thought to us, even in the midst of our own personal joy for deliverance, is not ‘we are saved,’ but ‘God is exalted.’

And then, beyond that, the deliverance produces in Zion, the mother city and her daughter villages, a triumph of rapture and gladness. ‘Let mount Zion rejoice, let the daughters of Judah be glad because of Thy judgments.’ Yes, even though an hundred and four score and five thousand dead men lay there, they were to be glad. Solemn and awful as is the baring of His righteous sword, it is an occasion for praise. It is right to be glad when men and systems that hinder and fight against God are swept away as with the besom of destruction. ‘When the wicked perish there is shouting,’ and the fitting epitaph for the oppressors to whom the surges of the Red Sea are shroud and gravestone is, ‘Sing ye to the Lord, for He hath triumphed gloriously.’

The last verses set forth, more fully than even the preceding ones, the height and perfectness of the confidence which the manifold mercies of God ought to produce in men’s hearts. The citizens who have been cooped up during the invasion, and who, in the temple, as we have seen, have been rendering the tribute of their meditation and thankful gratitude to God for His loving-kindness, are now called upon to come forth from the enclosure of the besieged city, and free from all fear of the invading army, to ‘walk about Zion, and go round about her and tell the towers,’ and ‘mark her bulwarks and palaces.’

They look first at the defences, on which no trace of assault appears, and then at the palaces guarded by them, that stand shining and unharmed. The deliverance has been so complete that there is not a sign of the peril or the danger left. It is not like a city besieged, and the siege raised when the thing over which contending hosts have been quarrelling has become a ruin, but not one stone has been smitten from the walls, nor one agate chipped in the windows of the palaces. It is unharmed as well as uncaptured.

Thus, we may say, no matter what tempests assail us, the wind will but sweep the rotten branches out of the tree. Though war should arise, nothing will be touched that belongs to Thee. We have a city which cannot be moved; and the removal of the things which can be shaken but makes more manifest its impregnable security, its inexpugnable peace. As in war they will clear away the houses and the flower gardens that have been allowed to come and cluster about the walls and fill up the moat, yet the walls will stand; so in all the conflicts that befall God’s church and God’s truth, the calming thought ought to be ours that if anything perishes it is a sign that it is not His, but man’s excrescence on His building. Whatever is His will stand for ever.

And then, with wonderful tenderness and beauty, the psalm in its last words drops, as one might say, in one aspect, and in another, rises from its contemplations of the immortal city and the community to the thought of the individuals that make it up: ‘For this God is our God for ever and ever; He will be our guide even unto death.’ Prosaic commentators have often said that these last two words are an interpolation, that they do not fit into the strain of the psalm, and have troubled themselves to find out what meaning to attach to them, because it seemed to them so unlikely that, in a hymn that had only to do with the community, we should find this expression of individual confidence in anticipation of that most purely personal of all evils. That seems to me the very reason for holding fast by the words as being a genuine part of the psalm, because they express a truth, without which the confident hope of the psalm, grand as it is, is but poor consolation for each heart. It is not enough for passing, perishing men to say, ‘Never mind your own individual fate: the society, the community, will stand fast and firm.’

I want something more than to know that God will establish Zion for ever. What about me , my own individual self? And these last words answer that question. Not merely the city abides, but ‘He will be our guide even unto death.’ And surely, if so-if His loving hand will lead the citizens of His eternal kingdom even to the edge of that great darkness-He will not lose them even in its gloom. Surely there is here the veiled hope that if the city be eternal and the gates of the grave cannot prevail against it , the community cannot be eternal unless the individuals be immortal.

Such a hope is vindicated by the blessed words of a newer revelation: ‘God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He hath prepared for them a city.’

Dear brethren! remember the last words, or all but the last words of Scripture which, in their true text and reading, tell us how, instead of aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, we may become fellow-citizens with the saints. ‘Blessed are they that wash their robes that they may have a right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gate into the city!’

Fuente: Expositions Of Holy Scripture by Alexander MacLaren

NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Psa 48:1-3

1Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised,

In the city of our God, His holy mountain.

2Beautiful in elevation, the joy of the whole earth,

Is Mount Zion in the far north,

The city of the great King.

3God, in her palaces,

Has made Himself known as a stronghold.

Psa 48:1-3 Notice the different ways Jerusalem and her different hills are characterized.

1. the city of our God, Psa 48:1

2. His holy mountain, Psa 48:1

3. beautiful in elevation (BDB 832, only here in the OT, possibly a superlative marker, most beautiful)

4. the joy of the whole earth, Psa 48:2

5. Mount Zion in the far north (or north = Zaphon, the mountain of the Canaanite gods north of Ugarit, cf. NIDOTTE, vol. 3, pp. 836), Psa 48:2

6. the city of the great King, Psa 48:2

7. God has made Himself known, in her palaces, as a stronghold, Psa 48:3

These descriptions refer both to the temple on Mt. Moriah and the whole city of Jerusalem, often called Zion.

Psa 48:1 the city of our God This phrase can refer to several ideas.

1. the city linked to Melchezedek Gen 14:18 (i.e., Salem)

2. the city where YHWH caused His name to dwell Deu 12:5; Deu 12:11; Deu 12:21; Deu 14:23-24; Deu 16:2; Deu 16:6; Deu 16:11; Deu 26:2

3. the city David captured from the Canaanites (i.e., Jebus), which later became his capital 1Sa 5:7; 1Sa 5:9

4. the city linked to the angel of the Lord stopping the plague; purchased by David as site of the future temple 2Sa 24:15-25; 2Ch 3:1 (i.e., Mt. Moriah, possible site of the offering of Isaac, Gen 22:2)

5. Zion, same as Jebus 2Sa 5:7; 1Ch 11:5 (i.e., way of referring to the whole city of Jerusalem, although it was built on seven hills, Zion became the common designation

The problem with Psalms 48 is Psa 48:2, Mount Zion in the far north. These are only theories.

1. It is metaphorical for heaven where YHWH dwells Isa 14:13 a,b; Rev 3:12; Rev 21:2; Rev 21:10

2. It, like other Psalms, incorporates some Canaanite mythological terminology (i.e., Zaphon = Hebrew north, BDB 8) Isa 14:13 c,d; Eze 28:14

It was common in ANE religious thought to view the gods as living on mountain tops (cf. Gilgamesh Epic). This is especially true for the Ugaritic Ba’al myth poems from Ras Shamra. The gods met and lived on a northern mountain called Saphon or Zaphon. Ba’al had a throne there built by Anath. The male god of Phoenician fertility worship was called Baal Saphon. This name has been found in Phoenician colonies around the Mediterranean. This northern mountain tradition, totally unrelated to Israel’s holy Mt. Moriah (cf. Ps. 20:40), seems to be the source of the imagery of both Isa 14:13-15 and Eze 28:14; Eze 28:16. See Roland de Vaux, Ancient Israel, vol. 2, pp. 279-281.

3. Some scholars suggest a different division of the Hebrew consonants, on the northern side of the city

The concept of city as a way of referring to the place of YHWH’s special presence continues in the NT.

1. Heb 11:10 for he (Abraham) was looking for the city which has foundations, whose architect and builder is God

2. Heb 12:22 you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem

3. Heb 13:14 we do not have a lasting city, but we are seeking the city which is to come

4. Rev 3:12 the name of the city of My God, the new Jerusalem, which comes down out of heaven from My God

5. Rev 21:2; Rev 21:10 the city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God

Psa 48:2 mountains For the ANE, mountains were the home of the gods. In Babylon, which had no natural mountain, they built elevated towers (i.e., ziggurat, cf. Gen 11:3-4) for a place for heaven and earth to meet.

In Israel’s history there are several significant mountains.

1. Mt. Sinai where YHWH met Israel and gave her the law (cf. Exodus 19-20)

2. Mt. Zion, the city of David (Salem [Genesis 14], later Jebus [2Sa 5:6-10])

3. Mt. Moriah, the location of the temple (cf. Genesis 22)

4. in this Psalm Mt. Zion is greater than Mt. Zaphon, the mountain of the Canaanite gods (equivalent to Mt. Olympus for the Greek pantheon) because YHWH is greater

Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley

Title. A Song. Hebrew. Shir. See App-65.

Psalm. Hebrew. mizmor. See App-65.

for the sons of Korah. See App-63. The fifth of nine so ascribed; and the last of the four Psalms celebrating the deliverance of Zion and Hezekiah (44, 46-48).

the LORD. Hebrew. Jehovah. App-4.

the city: i.e. Zion, recently delivered from Sennacherib.

God. Hebrew. Elohim. App-4.

the mountain of His holiness, or of His Sanctuary. Genitive of Character.

Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics

Psa 48:1-14

Psa 48:1-14 :

Great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised in the city of our God, in the mountains of his holiness. Beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth, is mount Zion, on the sides of the north, the city of the great King ( Psa 48:1-2 ).

This is still looking forward into the Kingdom Age, when Jesus the great King will dwell in Jerusalem. His throne will be upon Mount Zion. So it is always so exciting to me when I go over to Jerusalem, one of my favorite places in all of Israel is Mount Zion. I love to just stand on Mount Zion and just say, “Wow, this is the place. I wonder where on this Mount He is going to put His throne.” The glorious King is coming; He is coming soon. He’s going to establish His kingdom over the whole earth, and Mount Zion will be the place of His throne.

“Beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth, is Mount Zion, the sides of the north, the city of the great King.” And so the north side of the mount of Zion actually slopes down into the city of Jerusalem. And somewhere, somewhere around there He is going to establish His throne.

God is known in her palaces for a refuge. For, lo, the kings were assembled, they passed by together. They saw it, and so they marveled; they were troubled and hasted away. Fear took hold upon them there, and pain, as of a woman in travail. Thou breakest the ships of Tarshish with an east wind. 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 it for ever. We have thought of thy loving-kindness, O God, in the midst of thy temple. According to thy name, O God, so is thy praise unto the ends of the earth: thy right hand is full of righteousness. Let mount Zion rejoice, let the daughters of Judah be glad, because of thy judgments. Walk about Zion, and go round about her: tell the towers thereof. Mark well her bulwarks, consider her palaces; that ye may tell it to the generation following. For this God is our God for ever and ever; he will be our guide even unto death ( Psa 48:3-14 ).

So walk about Zion, go round about her, look at the towers and all. And I do this every time I go over there. I love to just walk around Mount Zion, and just to think ahead of God’s glorious plan. Oh, what a thrill. “

Fuente: Through the Bible Commentary

Psa 48:1-3. Great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised in the city of our God, in the mountain of his holiness. Beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth, is mount Zion, on the sides of the north, the city of the great King. God is known in her palaces for a refuge.

It was so with the literal Jerusalem; and it is so now with the Church of Christ, of which the city of the great King was a type. God still dwelleth among men; his Spirit abides with his people; and his Church stands securely upon the rock of his eternal purposes, evermore the same.

Psa 48:4. For, lo, the kings were assembled,

The adversaries, who boasted that they would destroy Jerusalem: the kings were assembled,

Psa 48:4-7. They passed by together. They saw it, and so they marveled; they were troubled, and hasted away. Fear took hold upon them there, and pain, as of a woman in travail. Thou brakest the ships of Tarshish with an east wind.

The adversaries of Zion looked up at the city set on that high hill, and they despaired of being able to capture it; and, in like manner, those who attack the truth as it is in Jesus if they did but know how well it is garrisoned by the omnipotence of Jehovah, they also would faint with fear, and give up the assault. If they do not, the Lord can break them in pieces as he broke the ships of Tarshish with his strong east wind.

Psa 48:8-14. 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 it for ever. Selah. We have thought of thy lovingkindness, O God, in the midst of thy temple. According to thy name, O God, so is thy praise unto the ends of the earth: thy right hand is full of righteousness. Let mount Zion rejoice, let the daughters of Judah be glad, because of thy judgments. Walk about Zion, and go round about her: tell the towers thereof. Mark ye well her bulwarks, consider her palaces; that ye may tell it to the generation following. For this God is our God for ever and ever: he will be our guide even unto death.

According to Alexander and Bonar, this last clause should be read, He will be our Guide at death and over death. He will lead us across the Jordan, and be our God and our Guide in the land that floweth with milk and honey, whither we are bound; so, glory be unto the God of Abraham,Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, for ever and ever! Amen.

This exposition consisted of readings from PSALMS 114. and 48.

Fuente: Spurgeon’s Verse Expositions of the Bible

Psa 48:1-3

THE BEAUTY AND GLORY OF ZION

Here we have taken the title that appears in the ASV, because it uses the word “Zion,” as a designation of Jerusalem, having a double application, not merely to the earthly Jerusalem, but to the heavenly Jerusalem which is above, “which is our mother” (Gal 4:26).

This psalm, along with Psalms 46 and Psalms 47, forms a trilogy. All three seem to reflect the euphoria of Israel following the miraculous deliverance from the army of Sennacherib. “Psalms 46 extolled the deliverance; Psalms 47 extolled the power and majesty of Him who wrought it; and Psalms 48 describes the glory of the city which God has so marvelously preserved.

Two different historical `deliverances’ are identified by scholars as possibly the occasion for the psalm. Rawlinson seemed sure that the occasion was that described in 2Ch 20:1-28, “Upon which a confederation of three nations, the Moabites, the Ammonites, and the Edomites attacked Israel during the reign of Jehoshaphat. They advanced as far as Tekoa, from which town Jerusalem is visible; but they quarreled among themselves, began a retreat, and then came to blows against each other, destroying themselves.” The mention of a plurality of `kings’ in Psa 48:4, and their turning back in `dismay’ (Psa 48:5) were factors cited by Rawlinson in support of his view.

However, Sennacherib’s army was made up of multiple vassal kings (Isa 10:8); and the `dismay’ of Sennacherib could have referred to his consternation following the destruction of his army! Dummelow, Addis, Baigent and others cling to the view that the deliverance during the reign of Hezekiah in 701 B.C. was the occasion.

Either view seems all right to us, for we certainly do not know which is correct; and, for that matter, as we have often pointed out, `it really doesn’t make a lot of difference.’

One thing, however, seems to be dogmatically certain, `This psalm is not a cultic, liturgical celebration of the occasions when pilgrims came to Jerusalem to worship.’ Furthermore, it is extremely unlikely that the terminology here is influenced by mythological traditions of pagan peoples surrounding Israel. There is one possible exception to this which we shall notice under Psa 48:2 b.

There is also an eschatalogical implication in the entire psalm. The earthly Jerusalem is most certainly a type of the Church of our Lord; and there are surely overtones of this poem that speak of the eternal security and glory of the Church.

John Newton’s immortal hymn, Glorious Things of Thee Are Spoken, set to the music of the ancient national anthem of Austria by Joseph Haydn, stresses this spiritual meaning of Psalms 48.

If the dominant opinions regarding the occasion are correct, then the date of the Psalm would be shortly after 701 B.C.

The divisions of the psalm are Psa 48:1-8, concluded with the word “Selah”; and Psa 48:9-14. Leupold further divided the psalm thus:

I. Zion’s glory is the indwelling of the Lord (Psa 48:1-3).

II. A recent instance of God’s protection (Psa 48:4-8).

III. An exhortation to praise the Lord for his judgments (Psa 48:9-11).

IV. The glories of Zion to be transmitted to posterity (Psa 48:12-14).

THE INDWELLING OF THE LORD; ZION’S GLORY

Psa 48:1-3

“Great is Jehovah, and greatly to be praised,

In the city of our God, in his holy mountain.

Beautiful in elevation, the joy of the whole earth.

Is mount Zion on the sides of the north,

The city of the Great King.

God hath made himself known in her palaces for a refuge.”

“Great is Jehovah” (Psa 48:1). The mad frenzy of the Ephesian mob, shouting for hours at a time, “Great is Diana of the Ephesians,” was the insane cry of the pagan world; but here the greatness of Jehovah is proclaimed, along with the proof that God is indeed truly `great.’

“In the city of our God … in his holy mountain” (Psa 48:1). These expressions are not intended to identify the place where God is praised, but the place where God resides. It is the indwelling of God in his chosen city that glorifies and secures the city as nothing else in heaven or upon earth could accomplish. Note also that in Psa 48:3, God is even “in” the palaces of the nobles as “a refuge.”

Before leaving this verse, we should remember that Jesus himself referred to Jerusalem as, “The city of the Great King” (Mat 5:35). This, of course, was not spoken of any Davidic king, but of God in heaven.

We would be amiss not to point out that God also in-dwells the New Jerusalem, his holy Church. The Day of Pentecost was the occasion when, “with a rushing sound of a mighty wind, and with cloven tongues of fire,” the Spirit of God descended upon the apostles who were the nucleus of God’s Messianic kingdom; and every child of God on earth also has his measure of the token indwelling of the Holy Spirit. There is also a vast difference. God’s presence in the ancient Jerusalem was confined to the Temple; but now he dwells in the heart of every believer.

“Beautiful in elevation” (Psa 48:2). The elevation of ancient Jerusalem was literal, as the city was actually built on a mountain; but the “elevation” of God’s Church (the New Jerusalem, or the New Israel) is ethical and spiritual.

“The joy of the whole earth” (Psa 48:2). It is almost impossible to apply this statement to the earthly Jerusalem; but Interpreter’s Bible did their best: “This means that from all lands the pilgrims came up with rejoicing and loud singing.

Of course, the truth about this was bluntly stated by Adam Clarke who wrote, “There is no sense in which literal Jerusalem was ever the joy of the whole earth.

The fulfilment of this in its fullest sense is found only in the joy of Christians worshipping all over the world continually for nearly two thousand years. As Spurgeon stated it, “Jerusalem was the world’s star; whatever light there is upon this earth, it comes from the oracles of the Word of God preserved by Israel. This is profoundly true. Christ the Light of the World chose Jerusalem as the place where He would make the atonement for all men. “The Word of God went forth from Jerusalem,” as the prophets declared; and, in the sense of the old Israel’s providing the nucleus and the original membership of the Messianic Kingdom of God, – in this sense, Jerusalem is indeed “the joy of the whole earth.” We might also add, that, `in no other sense whatever could the statement be viewed as the truth.’

“In mount Zion on the sides of the north” (Psa 48:2). Some scholars maintain that “the sides of the north” are here a reference to the location of the Temple mountain in relation to the rest of the city; but that is disputed. A popular view, current among recent scholars, is that there is here a reflection of the mythological tale locating the abode of certain pagan gods “in the far north.” RSV honors that viewpoint by rendering the last phrase here, “Mount Zion, in the far north, the city of the great King.” We do not altogether trust the RSV in some renditions wherein they are definitely inferior both to the KJV and the American Standard Version. Addis declared that the text here, “does not even hint at such a rendition.

The mythological claims that lie back of this interpretation were mentioned by Leupold. “The expression `the far north’ is an allusion to another mountain, a kind of Olympus (where the Greeks imagined the gods lived), which was supposed to he the dwelling place of certain near-Eastern gods.” Kidner identified one of those near-Eastern gods as, “Baal who was supposed to live on Mount Zaphon (meaning `north’),” Leupold further remarked that, “What the psalmist here implies is that what the fables of the Gentiles imagined, was indeed a reality in Zion, for the true God actually lived there.

Our own conviction with regard to this is that, “If the RSV is indeed correct, then Rhodes’ comment is appropriate. He wrote: “The Psalmist throws the pagan mythology out the window, and by the use of the expression states that Jehovah God is the true deity, and that Zion is truly `the far north’ where God lives.

E.M. Zerr:

Psa 48:1. The city referred to is Jerusalem and the mountain is the government of God which is holy.

Psa 48:2. This verse pertains to the same subject as the preceding one. Situation is from an original that means “elevation.” It does not refer to it from a physical standpoint, but from the high honor that God had brought unto it. Mount Zion was that part of the city where David had his headquarters and aften called “city of David.”

Psa 48:3. The people came to recognize the institution of the Lord as one to offer protection to the righteous.

Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary

In Psa 46:1-11 the dominant note was of confidence, because of the government of God in the midst of His people. This is a song describing the experience resulting from such government. It is the anthem of a city’s deliverance from an alliance of hostile kings. The beauty and glory of the city remain, notwithstanding the foes attack. The intervention of God was of such a nature that the attack failed ere it positively began.

The kings assembled themselves, They passed by together.

They were seized with weakness and fear, and fled. So God had delivered, and the deliverance is a reason for new confidence that the city will be established forever. The singer urges the inhabitants to examine well the city, that the wonder of its preservation may fill the heart with praise, and be the foundation for faith in all the years to come.

We may seem to have lost something in the reading of this psalm, because we cannot place it historically with any certainty. Yet it is so due to a constantly recurring experience of the saints that it is in constant use. Threatening perils massed against us suddenly waver and pass away, smitten by unseen hands, and deliverance comes when we had seen nothing but destruction. Verily great is Jehovah, and greatly to be praised as the God of deliverance.

Fuente: An Exposition on the Whole Bible

The City of Our God

Psa 48:1-14

This psalm also probably dates from 2Ch 20:20. Tekoa was only three hours march from Jerusalem and commanded an extensive view, so that Psa 48:4-5 were literally true.

The psalmist celebrates the beauty and glory of Zion, Psa 48:1-3. The Church today is the City of the great King. Apart from God, the fairest palace is no refuge; but a cottage becomes a palace if God is known and loved there. Judahs recent deliverance is gratefully commemorated, Psa 48:4-8. It is a sublime picture: the gathered array, the dismay, flight, and destruction of the foe. Then comes the call to loving thought on Gods care and goodness, Psa 48:9-14. Notice those two sentences-As we have heard, so we have seen, Psa 48:8; and, As is thy name, so is thy praise, Psa 48:10. Whatever we have been told by our fathers about God, God is prepared to be and do for us; and our aim should be to praise Him worthily. Think of His love till your heart kindles to praise; and remember that this God is yours forever and ever. Let us surrender to Him the guidance of every step, until we pass through death into His immediate presence.

Fuente: F.B. Meyer’s Through the Bible Commentary

Psa 48:3

I. God. The first germ of religion is the conception of God. God is a Spirit, and only spiritual natures can worship. Even false worship argues a constitutional capacity for the true. The beasts that perish never fall into idolatry.

II. God is. This is the first proposition in the inspired confession of faith, “He that cometh to God must believe that He is” (Heb 11:6). This is the pillar and ground of truth. Our idea of God depends on His existence, not His existence on our idea.

III. God is known. God is, and He may be, known, for He puts Himself in our way at every turn of our path. Not only out of his own mouth, but out of his own frame, the atheist will be condemned. In the organisation of his body, and the capacity of his mind, and the things of his conscience he might have known God if he would.

IV. God is known in her. “God is known” may be taken as the motto of natural, “God is known in her” as the motto of revealed, religion. Jerusalem occupied the very centre of God’s work and ways. In her the word was deposited that from her it might spread; in her God was known that by her He might be made known to the nations of the earth.

V. God is known in her palaces. The Psalm commemorates a revival in high places. With God there is no respect of persons. The rich are as precious in His sight as the poor, and no more.

VI. God is known in her palaces for a refuge. On this last point all that has gone before absolutely depends. The idea, the existence, the knowledge, of God, whether among rich or poor, become for us all or nothing according as we recognise Him as our refuge or fear Him as our foe. Whether they flee from God or to Him is the article of a standing or a falling Church, a living or a dying soul. They who do not know God as a refuge do not know Him at all.

W. Arnot, The Anchor of the Soul, and Other Sermons, p. 138.

Psa 48:8

I. First, “we have heard” of the honour of the Church as included in that testimony of Jesus which is the spirit of prophecy, the very groundwork of the Psalter. We hear our Lord’s own predictions about His Church, His accomplishment of His own prophetic psalms-those psalms in which ages beforehand He prepared men to realise what the Church of Christ should be and how it should fill up His sufferings and share His glory.

II. “Like as we have heard, so have we seen.” This frequent teaching about the Church is not a thrice-told tale, not only a prophetic vision or an Apostolic instruction. It is something for us to realise ourselves. The “fair place” is our heritage. The kingdom of God is within us. The Divine presence is granted to us if we will but open the eyes of our mind, the temple of our hearts, every day.

III. The past and the present alike cheer us on in our hopes for the future of the Church of Christ. In this present time we see, and not only with the eye of faith, the fulfilment of those ancient promises and predictions in the marvellous preservation and enlargement of the Church.

IV. Notice one or two reflections as to our own duty in the Church into which we have been baptized. (1) Take on trust the doctrine of the Church’s life, even if you can only hear of it at present. (2) Abide in the Church. We must not try to stand outside the Church or above it, but where Christ is, in it. (3) Though faith tarry, wait for it. Fulness of conviction, like consummate knowledge, can only gradually be won. Study then humbly the holy doctrines delivered unto you, and most of all that priceless word which proves them.

V. Let us all remember that holiness is the great mark of the Church-the holiness which is God’s gift of mercy through the merits of His Son, granted to the lowliest and most degraded if truly penitent and faithful.

J. E. Jelf, Oxford Review, May 3rd, 1883.

Psa 48:8

These words of the prophet and psalmist seem to contain a short and plain account of the temper and behaviour of the friends and Apostles of our Lord during those days of hope and patience which came to an end on the morning of the first Whit-Sunday.

I. They waited patiently for the Lord. They had taken it on His word, however unaccountable it might sound, that it was expedient for them His going away; and they were prepared to trust Him still further and to abide in faith and quietness any length of time during which the Comforter might delay His coming.

II. Observe the place where they waited. The prophecy had described God’s people as waiting in the Temple. Our Lord ordered His Apostles to tarry in the city of Jerusalem, and they were continually in the Temple.

III. This teaches, first, that patient waiting is the strength of God’s people, that they greatly err if they pretend to fix His times or to take His matters into their own hands; and, secondly, that they are to take things as they find them and set out on God’s work in their social callings from the present moment and the present state of things, whenever and whatever it be.

IV. There can be no such encouragement to serious repentance, to serious improvement, to patient continuance in welldoing, as the answer which God gave to those prayers in which our Lord’s disciples and His mother continued during the ten days from His ascension to Pentecost. The return of these prayers was the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven, Jesus Christ coming by His Spirit to save us one by one from the power of sin for the future, as He had before come in His own person to offer Himself an all-sufficient sacrifice for us, and save us one and all from the punishment of sins past.

V. If the disciples were to wait for the Comforter in Jerusalem, in or near the visible Temple, much more ought we to take care how we wander in any way, even in thought, beyond the bounds of the spiritual temple, the Church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth. Let us so long and strive for these mercies, as never to forget the sort of persons to whom they are promised.

Plain Sermons by Contributors to “Tracts for the Times” vol. vii., p. 127.

References: Psa 48:8.-J. Keble, Sermons from Ascension Day to Trinity, p. 151. Psa 48:9.-J. C. Gallaway, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xiii., p. 275.

Psa 48:11-13

I. There are times when heart and brain fail and are weary beneath the weight of the years that have been and the thought of those that are yet to be, times when the whole being sinks back overwhelmed by the endless range of life and creation, appalled at the springing up and dying away of creatures innumerable, and we amongst them, generation after generation rising, living, dying, passing out of sight, whether they be man, the seeming lord of this earth, or the worm, his seeming subject. Then this soul of man, with its strong, active life-power, refuses to believe that this short perishing of its seventy or eighty years is its boundary, determines to grasp a greater inheritance, will hold fast and make the ages its own, and by abiding works, by deeds that live, conquer the coming years and bid them do its commands. It is part of our immortality to feel this.

II. It was needful in the childhood of the world to have a strong city and a glorious temple as the rallying place and visible fortress of the people of God. The strong walls and the glorious temple, telling as they did of many a past year of holy trial and holy victory, and speaking in their strength of years unnumbered yet to come, satisfied the craving for an enduring record, and became a home that could be seen of national honour, a home to Israel for Israel’s God upon earth.

E. Thring, Uppingham Sermons, vol. i., p. 86. Three thoughts are most conspicuous in the verses of the text.

I. Loyal, patriotic pride.

II. Consideration for posterity: “that ye may tell them that come after.”

III. An ascription of all past blessings to God and a resolution to remain faithful to Him for ever.

H. M. Butler, Harrow Sermons, 1st series, p. 133.

Reference: Psa 48:13.-H. M. Butler, Harrow Sermons, 2nd series, p. 176.

Psa 48:14

I. We believe, first, in God the Father, who made us and all mankind, who created all things, and for whose pleasure they are and were created. God has not left Himself without witness among us. In volume after volume He has spoken to us. In voice after voice He has made known His will-by His works which are all around us in the universe wherein we live; by His word which He inspired into holy men of old; by that conscience which is the lamp lit by the Spirit in every soul of man; by history, which is the record of His dealing with nations; by His experience, which is the pattern woven by His own hand in the web of our little lives. By these we all may know Him. They teach us that He is perfect, awful, holy; that He is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity. But when we think of God only as the Creator, there is something in this thought which inevitably appals us. Thank God, His revelations of Himself do not stop here.

II. When, in our utter littleness, we feel ourselves annihilated by the supreme and infinite completeness of God, then, pointing us to Christ, our elder Brother in the great family of man, God reveals to us the mystery of our redemption, and teaches us that we are greater than we know. For us there is no longer a God in the rushing fire, or destroying earthquake, or roaring wind; but the Divine temple of God was the human body of His Son, and even for rebels and for sinners “God is in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them.”

III. There is the third, the last and highest, stage of God’s revelation of Himself. Christ told His disciples, and He tells us, that it is good for us that He should go away. The spiritual presence of the Comforter was nearer, more powerful, more blessed, than even the physical presence. God had been with them, but it was better for them that He should be in them. The Father, who made, the Son, who redeemed, the Holy Ghost, who sanctified and who liveth in the temple of our hearts-“this God is our God for ever and ever; He shall be our Guide unto death.”

F. W. Farrar, Penny Pulpit, No. 1042.

Piety is not unfavourable to patriotism; rather does it enlarge and hallow it. In this Psalm you have the most fervent piety in combination with the most fervid patriotism. Two chief thoughts are presented to us in this verse.

I. Who is this God that is emphatically designated and claimed as our God? (1) He is a known God. We are not left to frame a God for ourselves; we have revealed to us in the Bible, and especially in the person and work of Jesus Christ, God, not only as our Creator, but as our loving Father and our Saviour and Sanctifier. (2) Our God is a covenant God. This was peculiarly true of Jehovah in relation to His ancient people. We live under a new and better covenant. The two great provisions of this covenant are: (a) that God will write His laws in our hearts, and that He will put them within us; (b) “Your sins and iniquities will I remember no more.” (3) This God, called “our God,” is a tried God. During all the ages of the world’s and the Church’s history, He has been put to the test by countless multitudes of those who have trusted in Him, and not one of them has ever been confounded.

II. God is called our Guide. (1) He is our Guide into the truth. “When the Spirit of truth is come, He shall guide you into all the truth.” And if you ask in one word what is meant by “the truth,” Christ Himself answers, “I am the Truth.” (2) God is our Guide in making our way clear before our face. Seek His blessing, and He will guide you even unto that hour to which this text refers you-the last. “Thou shalt guide me with Thy counsel and afterward receive me to glory.”

J. C. Miller, Penny Pulpit, No. 980.

Psalm 48

There is one event, and only one, in Jewish history which corresponds point for point to the details of this Psalm-the crushing destruction of the Assyrian army under Sennacherib. We may, with considerable probability, regard it as the hymn of triumph over the baffled Assyrian and the marvellous deliverance of Israel by the arm of God. The Psalm falls into three portions. There is the glory of Zion, the deliverance of Zion, and the consequent grateful praise and glad trust of Zion.

I. The glory of Zion. The Jew’s pride in Jerusalem was a different thing altogether from the Roman’s pride in Rome. The one thing that gave it glory was that in it God abode. The name even of the earthly Zion was “Jehovah-Shammah”-“The Lord is there.” We are not spiritualising or forcing a New Testament meaning into these words when we see in them an eternal truth. Zion is where hearts love, and trust, and follow Christ. The “city of the great King” is a permanent reality in a partial form upon earth, and that partial form is itself a prophecy of the perfection of the heavens.

II. The deliverance of Zion. (1) Mark the dramatic vigour of the description of the deliverance. The abruptness of the language, huddled together, as it were, without connecting particles, conveys the impression of hurry and confusion, culminating in the rush of fugitives fleeing under the influence of panic terror. (2) Mark the eloquent silence as to the cause of the panic and the flight. There is no appearance of armed resistance. An unseen hand smites once; and when the morning dawned, “they were all dead corpses.” The impression of terror produced by such a blow is increased by the veiled allusion to it here. The silence magnifies the deliverance. (3) Mark how from this dramatic description there rises a loftier thought still. The deliverance thus described links the present with the past. “As we have heard, so have we seen in the city of the Lord of hosts, in the city of our God.” (4) The deliverance also links the present for our confidence with all the future. “God will establish it for ever.”

III. The grateful praise and glad trust of Zion. (1) The deliverance deepens the glad meditation on God’s favour and defence. (2) It spreads His fame throughout the world. (3) It produces in Zion, the mother city, and her daughter villages, a triumph of rapture and gladness. The last verses set forth the height and perfectness of the confidence which the manifold mercies of God ought to produce in men’s hearts.

A. Maclaren, Sermons Preached in Manchester, 3rd series, p. 163.

Fuente: The Sermon Bible

Psalm 48

The Judgment of the Nations and the Millennium

1. Jerusalem the city of the King (Psa 48:1-3)

2. The confederated nations scattered (Psa 48:4-7)

3. The millennium (Psa 48:8-14)

Jerusalem is now seen as the city of the great King. His glorious throne will there be established, and Mount Zion becomes the joy of the whole earth. Psa 48:4-7 show what preceded the coming of the King. The nations had come against Jerusalem (Zec 14:1-21), a mighty confederacy was assembled. He came and scattered them by His judgments. Then Jerusalem is established forever; His millennial reign begins.

Fuente: Gaebelein’s Annotated Bible (Commentary)

for: or, of, Psa 46:1, *title

Great: Psa 86:10, Psa 99:3, Psa 99:4, Psa 145:3, Psa 147:5

greatly: Psa 89:1-7, Neh 9:5, Rev 15:3, Rev 15:4, Rev 19:5

city: Psa 46:4, Psa 65:1, Psa 78:68, Psa 87:3, Heb 12:22, Rev 21:2, Rev 21:10-22

mountain: Psa 47:8, Psa 99:9, Isa 2:2, Isa 2:3, Isa 27:13, Jer 31:23, Oba 1:17, Mic 4:1, Zec 8:3, Mat 24:15

Reciprocal: Num 26:11 – General 2Sa 7:22 – Wherefore 2Ch 6:6 – But I have chosen Jerusalem 2Ch 12:13 – the city Ezr 4:12 – bad city Psa 2:6 – my Psa 42:1 – the sons Psa 48:8 – city of the Lord Psa 49:1 – for Psa 74:2 – this mount Psa 76:1 – In Judah Psa 84:1 – How Psa 87:1 – the holy Psa 99:2 – great Psa 132:13 – he hath desired Psa 135:5 – I know Psa 135:21 – which dwelleth Isa 1:21 – the faithful Isa 48:2 – they call Jer 10:6 – thou Eze 35:10 – whereas Dan 2:45 – the great Rev 20:9 – the camp

Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

The victory over the last confederacy.

A Song: a psalm of the sons of Korah.

We have now the celebration of the final victory over the enemies of Israel, which leaves them in peace and gladness to realize the goodness of God, according to all that they had heard from their fathers of His works of old. The victory is plainly that of Eze 38:1-23, and not the deliverance of Zec 14:1-21, which precedes it. In the one case the city is in the extreme of distress, already partly in the enemy’s hands, and on the brink of ruin, when the Lord interferes. Clearly it is not yet the glorious city of God, of which this psalm speaks, but in the misery which is the result of sin and departure from Him. It is saved by the appearing of Christ from heaven, the triumph of the enemy turned into defeat and overthrow. We should naturally conclude that this would be the end of all attempts of this kind; but our conclusions are often mistaken, even when we think them quite secure. The attack of Gog as prophesied in Ezekiel is against the “land that is brought back from the sword and gathered out of many people, against the mountains of Israel which have been constantly” -not “always” “waste, but is brought forth out of the nations; and they dwell safely, all of them.” Here the state of things is quite different from that pictured in Zechariah; and correspondingly there is no hint of any disaster to the people of God, but the contrary: when he comes up against the land of Israel, the Lord says, “my fury shall come up in my face, . . . and I will call for a sword against him through all my mountains.” So in the psalm here: the glorious city of God, strong in the might of Him who dwells in her; laughs the invader to scorn. The kings see, and marvel, and are smitten with fear and overthrown. All the circumstances are in this way different.

1. The first section here therefore begins with the celebration of the city of God, the place where He dwells, His holy mountain. The numerical structure indicates What I doubt not, the blessed unity which the city, indwelt of God; manifests. What a contrast to the strife and corruption hitherto found in her at the best of times! Now she is the home of peace and concord; man fitted to man in the realization of that sweet mutual dependence and ministry of each to each which God has ordained to His creatures for their blessing and comfort and moral invigoration. So in the heavens the home of the redeemed is again a city; the new Jerusalem; “Jerusalem which is above,” the “city which hath foundations,” -those glorious foundations of light-jewels, Urim and Thummim, the Lights and Perfections of God Himself; and which abides therefore as surely as He abides.

Where He is, there is unity, -intelligent subjection to Him in love; whereby each being occupies his own place in ceaseless activity of service without weariness. And great is Jehovah here, and greatly to be praised. No wonder that this city, beautiful in its elevation, spiritually as physically, should be the joy of the whole earth. It is Mount Zion, the “fixed” place of Jehovah’s rest (see 2Sa 5:7, notes). There shall be no more alienation from Him, no more Jebusite treading down of holy places forever. Who shall disturb the place of His rest?

“On the sides of the north,” adds to this great significance. There is no need to quarrel with any topographical reference that may be suggested, for the typical meaning never displaces the literal and external, but shines through it, and gives it beauty and enforcement. We must not make matter the enemy; but the servant and shrine of the Spirit. Let Mount Zion be actually and literally on the sides of the north; this is the beautiful symbol of a deeper reality. The north -tzaphon -is “what is hidden;” because the north side of anything is the dark; the hidden side. The north therefore is the place of mystery; and of opposition to the light; and “God is light.” From the mysterious in nature; the mysteries of God’s providence, the clouds and darkness which are round about His throne, -full as all these must be of His wisdom and goodness really; -infidelity derives its arguments, and with these makes its attacks upon the truth of God. In the sides of the north therefore it is that the Babylonian scoffer means to sit (Isa 14:13) in defiance of the Most High. But here now Mount Zion stands, God’s bulwark against the foe; who is (let us note) a northern foe. God opposes to him the grace of His promise, His immutable word; Himself; in short; as that against which the wave of national madness must first break; and break itself to pieces.

And how grandly Mount Zion rises “on the sides of the north,” the answer at last to all the mystery of God’s dealings with His people; the fulfillment of promise, the sign of peace for the earth itself; God;s ways now to be open; in the sight of men; day having succeeded to night, sight (in some sense) to faith; Jerusalem now the city of the great King, for whom the expectant ages have been looking. Yes; God is known in her palaces as a high place; -Zion itself His symbol.

2. Now the brief passage of the storm-cloud is recited; -how the kings assembled; how in their collective might they passed and were gone! They but looked and marveled, and in the haste of fear started to flee. Fear seized upon them; the pangs of a woman in travail; and then sudden shipwreck, as of vessels broken with an east wind.

3. Zion emerges in her beauty from under this passing cloud. She is untouched. And now they realize in the present what they had in faith received from their fathers as to the days of old. As they had heard; so now they have seen; in the city of Jehovah of hosts as it truly is: God establishes it forever. In the sanctuary of His presence restored to them; they think upon His love. His praise is now; even to the ends of the earth, in accordance with His Name, -that is, with the revelation of Himself. Power has acted in righteousness so as to declare what His right hand is. Experience may well exhort them to exultant joy.

4. The next verses; while easy to understand on the whole; are difficult to particularize. They are urged to make full proof of this city of strength: survey her as a whole, I take it, -consider her points, -to tell it to the generations afterwards. For the God who has taken all this abundant care for His people, such as He has shown Himself in it, is their God forever, -the guide of His flock forever. This is the glorious portion of His people, a portion which, after all measurements; remains unmeasured.

{Verse 14 ‘until death’ or ‘ever more’. A difference only of pointing from the common reading, as to which MSS. more or less differ, and expositors decidedly. That given is found in the LXX., and is one of three suggested in the Jerusalem Talmud.}

Fuente: Grant’s Numerical Bible Notes and Commentary

Psa 48:1. Great is the Lord, &c. Great is the majesty and the power of Jehovah; who is therefore to be celebrated with the highest praises; in the city of our God Especially in his own city Jerusalem, and by the inhabitants of it; in the mountain of his holiness In that mountain which he hath long ago set apart for the place of his worship, and hath now so marvellously defended.

Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Title. A psalm for the sons of Korah. Asaph being dead, and his sons not named, we infer that the psalm, as many think, was composed on the Assyrian invasion; for then God was truly great in Zion, in the mountain of his holiness.

Psa 48:2. Beautiful for situation. Dr. Lightfoot describes the situation of Jerusalem from original authorities. It stood on two hills; Zion was the higher, and more extended hill, being strongly fortified. This David called the Castle: but after the Babylonian captivity it was called the Upper-town. The lower hill was called Acra, and was steep on both sides. Against this was a third hill, called Moriah, separated from Acra by a valley. But while the Asmonean family reigned, being desirous that the temple might communicate with the city, they filled it up, and levelled the top of Acra, that the majestic temple might overlook the whole city. Ophel was another little hill, on which strong works were erected. It is translated the tower, 2Ki 5:24. See also 2Ch 27:3; 2Ch 33:14. Neh 3:26. Bezatha was also a little hill opposite to the tower of Antonia, and separated from it only by a deep ditch. The Millo, another fortification, was adjacent to the temple, and on the west side. The city of David was in the north-west part of Jerusalem, and ascended by steps. Hence the situation being highly military, Zion displayed her towers. But mount Zion, here said to be on the north, was by the building gradually rising towards the north; yet the Litany reads, Upon the north side lies the city of the great king.

Psa 48:4-5. Lo the kings were assembledthey sawthey were troubled they hasted away. This perfectly agrees with the flight of the Assyrians, as described in 2Ch 32:21.

Psa 48:7. Thou breakest the ships of Tarshish. Isa 23:6. 1Ki 10:22, With an east wind, blowing like the euroclydon, Act 27:14, when Paul was shipwrecked. The east wind is often named in the scriptures as injurious to health, and noxious to vegetation. It blows up the sands of the deserts very often into high ridges, buries the camels, and scatters armies with terror. Jer 18:17. While Dr. Edward Clarke, our accredited traveller, was entering the bay of Salamis in the Isle of Cyprus, there sprang up an east wind which laid the frigate on her beam ends, blistered the lips of the sailors, attended with much pain. In the short space of two minutes, the mercury rose in the thermometer from eighty to eighty six degrees of heat.On the land it is often accompanied with hot and destructive winds, described by Bruce and other travellers.

Psa 48:8. As we have heard, from Moses, Deu 28:29., in the recital of covenant blessings, so have we seen, in the victories of David, that the Lord keeps his covenant and promises, which he sware to Abraham our father; for his word is clean and abideth for ever.

Psa 48:14. This God is our God. He will be our guide and our refuge, in all the public and private calamities of life; and will accompany us in the valley of the shadow of death.

REFLECTIONS.

Here is a song in praise of Zion, a song glowing with the ardours of piety, and great elevation of sentiment. But the spiritual Zion is intended; a psalm of mere topography could not be obtruded on divine worship. She is beautiful in her appearance and situation, on the hill of Gods eternal power and love. She is beautiful in the feet of her sons, who carry glad tidings of peace to all the earth. She is beautiful in her king, the Lord of hosts.

God is known in all her palaces for a refuge. As Solomon built many palaces, and was a protection to the poor and oppressed, so JEHOVAH sheds happiness and heaven on all who trust under the shadow of his wings. Oh that sinners would come to this sanctuary, more especially because the hail of Gods anger shall sweep away their refuges of lies.

Zion is a terror to all kings and potentates who league together for its destruction. They look on its strength, and tremble; they look again, and seeing that God is there, they relinquish their plans, and recede from their ill-advised persecutions with eternal shame. Where are now the men who for awhile have made war on the saints? And what is their name in ecclesiastical and profane history? Truly all who meddled with it have been put to shame. Zion is the joy of all her children; the daughters of Judah were glad because of Gods judgments on the oppressors. And as the Jews rejoice in the strength of their impregnable city, so the saints rejoice in the alsufficient protection of the Lord. The one gloried in the splendid palaces of Solomon, and in his towers of defence; the other boasts of prophets, of apostles, of martyrs and confessors, who have been as bulwarks, pillars, and ornaments in the church. They glory also in all the doctrines of grace, and in all the promises of the new covenant, which have made the children of Zion champions in the faith. Thus while we walk about Zion, and tell her towers, our confidence rises in her strong and mighty God.

Fuente: Sutcliffe’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

XLVIII. A Psalm which Describes the Impression made on a Pilgrim by his Visit to Zion.

Psa 48:1 f. Praise of Zion.sides of the north is hard to comprehend. It has been explained as contrasting Zion, the true mountain of the North, with the Oriental Olympus (Isa 14:13). The text, however, does not even hint at any such contrast. Mount Zion did indeed occupy the NE. corner of Jerusalem, but what of that? It has been suggested that the pilgrim came from the extreme S. of Egypt. But even then he must have known that there were mountains far further N. Really the text is unintelligible and probably corrupt.

Psa 48:3-7. Gods protection of His own city. The poet is thinking of Sennacheribs fate (see on Psalms 46) though he may well have written centuries later. Notice in Psa 48:4 the vague word kings, which can hardly refer to Sennacherib and his princes.

Psa 48:7. Tarshish is an unknown place. It has been identified with Tartessus in S. Spain, with the land of the Tyrseni or Etruscans, with Phnicia and Sardinia. The phrase ships of Tarshish came to mean large ships of any kind. The author borrows the phrase from Isa 2:16*. But neither great ships or E. wind are appropriate here when the reference is to a siege of Jerusalem.

Psa 48:8-14. The pilgrim has often heard of, now he has seen and worshipped at Jerusalem and would tell others of its marvels.

Psa 48:10. The congress of pilgrims proves that the praise of Yahweh has reached the remotest parts of the world.

Psa 48:11. The daughters of Judah are, according to a common Heb. idiom, the country towns in Judah.

Psa 48:14. RVm is possible, RV is not. But it is highly probable that the last two words, al-muth, are a musical direction, and belong to the title of the next Ps.

Fuente: Peake’s Commentary on the Bible

PSALM 48

The celebration of the reign of the King in Zion, the city of God, at last delivered from the enemy and established as the centre of government for the whole earth.

This psalm completes the series of psalms commencing with Psalm 44. In that psalm the faith of the godly, having heard from the fathers of God’s deliverances in days of old, looks to God to arise for their help and redeem Israel from the power of the enemy. Psalm 45 presents Christ as the answer to their cry to God for help. He is the One through whom deliverance will come. Psalm 46 expressed the confidence in God gained by the actual experience of God’s mercy in the present, and not simply the report of what God has done in the past. Psalm 47 celebrates the intervention of God on behalf of His people, establishing Christ as King over all the earth, exalting Israel over the nations, and calling upon the nations to join with Israel in praise to Jehovah. Psalm 48 presents the King established in Zion the centre of government for the whole earth. Thus the godly say, As we have heard, referring to Psalm 44, so have we seen.

(vv. 1-3) The psalm opens with an ascription of praise to Jehovah, who has established His throne in Zion, the city of our God. Then follows a description of the glory of the city. As becomes the dwelling place of Jehovah, it is described as the mountain of his holiness. Holiness being established, the city which had been desolate now becomes beautiful, the joy of the whole earth. On the sides of the north may indicate the blessedness of the city in the sight of the world, that at enmity with the people of God had once approached from the north. Now God, dwelling in the city, is known as its defence and security. Thus the city is publicly known as holy, beautiful, a joy, and as a refuge for God’s people.

(vv. 4-7) There follows a vivid description of the sudden judgment by which the city had been delivered from the enemies of God’s people. The confederated kings had assembled against the city. They mustered their hosts that passed by together in battle array, only to find themselves confronted, not simply by man, but by the mighty power of God. Astonished and dismayed they fled, seized with sudden panic; trembling like a woman overcome with the pain of travail, and dispersed like a navy in a storm.

(vv. 8-10) Thus the godly can say, not only We have heard with our ears, O God, our fathers have told us, what work thou didst in their days (Psa 44:1), but, as we have heard, so have we seen in the city of the Lord of hosts. Moreover the city now delivered, will be established for ever. When cast out of the land, they had thought of the loving-kindness of God (Psa 42:8); now that the city is freed from the enemy the godly can delight in the loving-kindness of God in the midst of thy temple. The praise of God, according to all that He is, as set forth in His name, will flow to the ends of the earth, and the power of His right hand will be known in righteousness for the whole world.

(vv. 11-14) The psalm closes with a call to mount Zion to rejoice, and to the cities of Judah to be glad. In peace the inhabitants can contemplate the beauty of Zion as they survey her bulwarks and palaces, and thus be able to tell of this great deliverance to future generations, recognizing that the God who has wrought the deliverance is their God for ever and ever. Never again will the nation turn aside to idolatry. Henceforth through life God will be their God and their guide.

Fuente: Smith’s Writings on 24 Books of the Bible

48:1 [{a} A Song [and] Psalm for the sons of Korah.] Great [is] the LORD, and greatly to be praised in the {b} city of our God, [in] the mountain of his holiness.

(a) Some put this difference between a song and psalm, saying that it is called a song when there is no instrument but the voice, and the song of the psalm is when the instruments begin and the voice follows.

(b) Even though God shows his wonders through all the world, yet he will be chiefly praised in his Church.

Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes

Psalms 48

The psalmist praised God for delivering Zion from her enemies (cf. Psalms 46, 47). Jerusalem was secure and glorious because God had blessed it with His favor.

Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)

1. Zion’s privilege 48:1-3

Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)

Ancient peoples connected the glory of a god with the place where he dwelt. That association is clear in this psalm. The holy mountain where His Ark resided reflected God’s greatness. This verse summarizes the theme of the psalm, namely, that God is worthy of great praise.

Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)

Psa 48:1-14

THE situation seems the same as in Psa 46:1-11, with which this psalm has many points of contact. In both we have the same triumph, the same proud affection for the holy city and sanctuary, the same confidence in Gods dwelling there, the same vivid picturing of the mustering of enemies and their rapid dispersion, the same swift movement of style in describing that overthrow, the same thought of the diffusion of Gods praise in the world as its consequence, the same closing summons to look upon the tokens of deliverance, with the difference that, in the former psalm, these are the shattered weapons of the defeated foe, and in this the unharmed battlements and palaces of the delivered city. The emphatic word of the refrain in Psa 46:1-11 also reappears here in Psa 48:3. The psalm falls into three parts, of which the first (Psa 48:1-2) is introductory, celebrating the glory of Zion as the city of God; the second (Psa 48:3-8) recounts in glowing words the deliverance of Zion; and the third tells of the consequent praise and trust of the inhabitants of Zion (Psa 48:9-14).

The general sense of the first part is plain, but Psa 48:2 is difficult. “Mount Zion” is obviously subject, and “lovely in loftiness” and “joy of all the earth” predicates; but the grammatical connection of the two last clauses is obscure. Further, the meaning of “the sides of the north” has not been satisfactorily ascertained. The supposition that there is an allusion in the phrase to the mythological mountain of the gods, with which Zion is compared, is surely most unnatural. Would a Hebrew psalmist be likely to introduce such a parallel, even in order to assert the superiority of Zion? Nor is the grammatical objection to the supposition less serious. It requires a good deal. of stretching and inserting to twist the two words “the sides of the north” into a comparison. It is more probable that the clause is topographical, describing some part of the city, but what part is far from clear. The accents make all the verse after “earth” the subject of the two preceding predicates, and place a minor division at “north,” implying that “the sides of the north” is more closely connected with “Mount Zion” than with the “city of the great King,” or than that last clause is.

Following these indications, Stier renders “Mount Zion [and] the northern side (i.e., the lower city, on the north of Zion), which together make the city,” etc. Others see here “the Holy City regarded from three points of view”-viz., “the Mount Zion” (the city of David), “the sides of the north” (Mount Moriah and the Temple), “the city of the great King” (Jerusalem proper). So Perowne and others. Delitzsch takes Zion to be the Temple hill, and “the sides of the north” to be in apposition. “The Temple hill, or Zion, in the narrower sense, actually formed the northeastern corner of ancient Jerusalem,” says he, and thus regards the subject of the whole sentence as really twofold, not threefold, as appears at first-Zion on the north, which is the palace temple, and Jerusalem at its feet, which is “the city of the great King.” But it must be admitted that no interpretation runs quite smoothly, though the summary ejection of the troublesome words “the sides of the north” from the text is too violent a remedy.

But the main thought of this first part is independent of such minute difficulties. It is that the one thing which made Zion-Jerusalem glorious was Gods presence in it. It was beautiful in its elevation; it was safely isolated from invaders by precipitous ravines, inclosing the angle of the plateau on which it stood. But it was because God dwelt there and manifested Himself there that it was “a joy for all the earth.” The name by which even the earthly Zion is called is “Jehovah-Shammah, The Lord is there.” We are not forcing New Testament ideas into Old Testament words when we see in the psalm an eternal truth. An idea is one thing; the fact which more or less perfectly embodies it is another. The idea of Gods dwelling with men had its less perfect embodiment in the presence of the Shechinah in the Temple, its more perfect in the dwelling of God in the Church, and will have its complete when the city “having the glory of God” shall appear, and He will dwell with men and be their God. God in her, not anything of her own, makes Zion lovely and gladdening. “Thy beauty was perfect through My comeliness which I had put upon thee, saith the Lord.”

The second part pictures Zions deliverance with picturesque vigour (Psa 48:3-8). Psa 48:3 sums up the whole as the act of God, by which He has made Himself known as that which the refrain of Psa 46:1-11 declared Him to be-a refuge, or, literally, a high tower. Then follows the muster of the hosts. “The kings were assembled.” That phrase need not be called exaggeration, nor throw doubt on the reference to Sennacheribs army, if we remember the policy of Eastern conquerors in raising their armies from their conquests, and the boast which Isaiah puts into the mouth of the Assyrian: “Are not my princes altogether kings?” They advance against the city. “They saw,”-no need to say what. Immediately they “were amazed.” The sight of the city broke on them from some hillcrest on their march. Basilisk-like, its beauty was paralysing, and shot a nameless awe into their hearts. “They were terror-struck: they fled.” As in Psa 46:6, the clauses, piled up without cement of connecting particles convey an impression of hurry, culminating in the rush of panic-struck fugitives. As has been often noticed, they recall Caesars Veni, vidi, vici; but these kings came, saw, were conquered. No cause for the rout is named. No weapons were drawn in the city. An unseen hand “smites once, and smites no more”; for once is enough. The process of deliverance is not told; for a hymn of victory is not a chronicle. One image explains it all, and signalises the Divine breath as the sole agent. “Thou breakest the ships of Tarshish with an east wind” is not history, but metaphor. The unwieldy, huge vessel, however strong for fight, is unfit for storms, and, caught in a gale, rolls heavily in the trough of the sea, and is driven on a lee shore and ground to pieces on its rocks. “God blew upon them, and they were scattered,” as the medal struck on the defeat of the Armada had it. In the companion psalm Gods uttered voice did all. Here the breath of the tempest, which is the breath of His lips, is the sole agent.

The past, of which the nation had heard from its fathers, lives again in their own history; and that verification of traditional belief by experience is to a devout soul the chief blessing of its deliverances. There is rapture in the thought that “As we have heard, so have we seen.” The present ever seems commonplace. The sky is farthest from earth right overhead, but touches the ground on the horizon behind and before. Miracles were in the past; God will be manifestly in the far-off future, but the present is apt to seem empty of Him. But if we rightly mark His dealings with us, we shall learn that nothing in His past has so passed that it is not present. As the companion psalm says, The God of Jacob is our refuge,” this exclaims, “As we have heard, so have we seen.”

But not only does the deliverance link the present with the past, but it flings a steady light into the future. “God shall establish her forever.” The city is truly “the eternal city,” because God dwells in it. The psalmist was thinking of the duration of the actual Jerusalem, the imperfect embodiment of a great idea. But whatever may be its fate, the heart of his confidence is no false vision; for Gods city will outlast the world. Like the “maiden fortresses,” of which there is one in almost every land, fondly believed never to have been taken by enemies, that city is inexpugnable, and the confident answer to every threatening assailant is, “The virgin, the daughter of Zion, hath despised thee, and laughed thee to scorn; the daughter of Jerusalem hath shaken her head at thee.” “God will establish her forever.” The pledges of that stability are the deliverances of the past and present.

The third part (Psa 48:9-14) deals with the praise and trust of the inhabitants of Zion. Deliverance leads to thankful meditation on the lovingkindness which it so signally displayed, and the ransomed people first gather in the Temple, which was the scene of Gods manifestation of His grace, and therefore is the fitting place for them to ponder it. The world wide consequences of the great act of lovingkindness almost shut out of sight for the moment its bearing on the worshippers. It is a lofty height to which the song climbs, when it regards national deliverance chiefly as an occasion for wider diffusion of Gods praise. His “name” is the manifestation of His character in act. The psalmist is sure that wherever that character is declared praise will follow, because he is sure that that character is perfectly and purely good, and that God cannot act but in such a way as to magnify Himself. That great sea will cast up nothing but pearls. The words carry also a lesson for recipients of Divine lovingkindness, teaching them that they misapprehend the purpose of their blessings, if they confine these to their own well-being and lose sight of the higher object-that men may learn to know and love Him. But the deliverance not only produces grateful meditation and widespread praise; it sets the mother city and her daughter villages astir, like Miriam and her maidens, with timbrel and dance, and ringing songs which celebrate “Thy judgments,” terrible as they were. That dead host was an awful sight, and hymns of praise seem heartless for its dirge. But it is not savage glee nor fierce hatred which underlies the psalmists summons, and still less is it selfish joy. “Thy judgments” are to be hymned when they smite some giant evil; and when systems and their upholders that array themselves against God are drowned in some Red Sea, it is fitting that on its banks should echo, “Sing ye to Jehovah, for He hath triumphed gloriously.”

The close of this part may be slightly separated from Psa 48:9-11. The citizens who have been cooped up by the siege are bidden to come forth, and, free from fear, to compass the city without and pass between its palaces within, and so see how untouched they are. The towers and bulwark or rampart remain unharmed, with not a Stone smitten from its place. Within, the palaces stand without a trace of damage to their beauty. Whatever perishes in any assaults, that which is of God will abide; and, after all musterings of the enemy, the uncaptured walls will rise in undiminished strength, and the fair palaces which they guard glitter in untarnished splendour. And this complete exemption from harm is to be told to the generation following, that they may learn what a God this God is, and how safely and well He will guide all generations.

The last word in the Hebrew text, which the A.V. and R.V. render “even unto death,” can scarcely have that meaning. Many attempts have been made to find a signification appropriate to the close of such a triumphal hymn as this, but the simplest and most probable course is to regard the words as a musical note, which is either attached abnormally to the close of the psalm, or has strayed hither from the superscription of Psa 49:1-20. It is found in the superscription of Psa 9:1-20 (“Al-Muth”) as a musical direction, and has in all likelihood the same meaning here. If it is removed, the psalm ends abruptly, but a slight transposition of words and change of the main division of the verse remove that difficulty by bringing “forever and aye” from the first half. The change improves both halves, laying the stress of the first exclusively on the thought that this God is such a God (or, by another rendering, “is here,” i.e., in the city), without bringing in reference to the eternity of His protection, and completing the second half worthily, with the thought of His eternal guidance of the people among whom He dwells.

Fuente: Expositors Bible Commentary