Psalm 48
PSALM FORTY-EIGHT
A song. A psalm of the Sons of Korah.
1 Great is the LORD, and most worthy of praise, in the city of our God, his holy mountain.
2 It is beautiful in its loftiness, the joy of the whole earth. Like the utmost heights of Zaphon is Mount Zion, the city of the Great King.
3 God is in her citadels; he has shown himself to be her fortress.
4 When the kings joined forces, when they advanced together,
5 they saw [her] and were astounded; they fled in terror.
6 Trembling seized them there, pain like that of a woman in labor.
7 You destroyed them like ships of Tarshish shattered by an east wind.
8 As we have heard, so have we seen in the city of the LORD Almighty, in the city of our God: God makes her secure forever. Selah
9 Within your temple, O God, we meditate on your unfailing love.
10 Like your name, O God, your praise reaches to the ends of the earth; your right hand is filled with righteousness.
11 Mount Zion rejoices, the villages of Judah are glad because of your judgments.
12 Walk about Zion, go around her, count her towers,
13 consider well her ramparts, view her citadels, that you may tell of them to the next generation.
14 For this God is our God for ever and ever; he will be our guide even to the end.
In a sense, this psalm is a continuation of the preceding one. In the previous psalm the topic was God's plan of salvation through the glorification of Jesus Christ, after His incarnation, suffering, and death. In this psalm, the theme is God's revelation of Himself and His glory in the church, which is the fruit of Jesus' labor. We find the fulfillment of this psalm in John's vision of the New Jerusalem, as the bride of the Lamb: "I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. And he carried me away in the Spirit to a mountain great and high, and showed me the Holy City, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God. It shone with the glory of God, and its brilliance was like that of a very precious jewel, like a jasper, clear as crystal."1 This psalm opens that same vision for us; that is the glory of Jesus Christ in His church. The beautiful symbolism in which this glory is expressed is the content of this moving poem.
We can divide this psalm into four parts: Verses 1,2: God's glory in Zion; verses 3-6: the world's reaction to God's revelation of Himself; verses 7-11: the believers' reaction, and verses 12-14: the measuring of Zion.
Beyond doubt, the first image uses the temple in Jerusalem as a model. Mount Zion was originally the place where David built his palace. It was the first citadel David conquered, which turned out to be of vital importance in the taking of the city. We read in the report of the conquest: "David captured the fortress of Zion, the City of David. David then took up residence in the fortress and called it the City of David. He built up the area around it, from the supporting terraces inward."2 The name Zion was later used for the place where the temple was erected on Mount Moriah, and finally for the whole city. The beauty of it all is that this place on earth was, even in David's days, always as a symbol of something that was greater than its outward dimensions. In C. S. Lewis' book The Last Battle there is a barn that was bigger inside than outside, which expresses well the principle we see here. The Israelites of old realized that the world in which they lived was an image of a heavenly reality. They understood that the presence of God in Jerusalem expressed in earthly forms and images something of that which surpasses all description, and which will be fully understood only in heaven. Such insight gives a special hue to the things on earth. There is in the Flemish city of Ghent a medieval altarpiece by the brothers van Eyck, entitled: The Adoration of the Lamb. The unearthly effect of glory in the painting is achieved by the use of very earthly objects: An altar from a Roman Catholic church is put in a meadow with flowers and a very ordinary lamb stands on top of the altar. The effect is overwhelming. Earthly objects tend to become more earthly as they express more clearly the heavenly reality. In the same way, the Son of Korah stood before the temple in Jerusalem, which is an extraordinarily beautiful and well built edifice, yet a building made from ordinary stone. With the eye of the spirit they saw "the Lamb, standing on Mount Zion, and with him 144,000 who had his name and his Father's name written on their foreheads."3 They attributed much more to the Mount Zion on earth than meets the eye. In that way they did not see what is visible, but they saw the real meaning of the visible things. Only those who know the Lord are able to do such things; they see Him everywhere because their communion with God is uninterrupted. It is the knowledge that He is everywhere where we are, because we only want to be where He is. That is why Zion is part of heaven on earth, and this is the essence of worship and adoration.
It is also true that we will only know God in heaven if we have known Him on earth. We will be able to partake of the heavenly worship only if we have practiced it on earth.
"Great is the LORD, and most worthy of praise…" What a statement in a hostile world! For the average person the earth is not full of his unfailing love,4 as David expresses elsewhere. Demons veil God's glory before our eyes. If God had not come Himself and revealed Himself on earth, we would have perished in darkness. Zion, therefore, stands for God's revelation on earth. That was the place where the ark stood. When this psalm was written, Zion was the only place on earth where God dwelt; it was an image of the Incarnation. In our dispensation, we praise and worship God, who came to us in Jesus Christ. There is a sense in which the Lamb and Mount Zion are one and the same. When we have seen Him, or when we have seen the city, we have seen the Father.
The NIV reads in vs. 2: "Like the utmost heights of Zaphon is Mount Zion." The KJV, and several other versions translate the name Zaphon with "on the sides of the north." Strongs Definitions defines tsaphown or tsaphon as: "hidden, i.e. dark; used only of the north as a quarter (gloomy and unknown)." In The Word Biblical Commentary, Craigie says in a footnote that the primary meaning of Zaphon is a holy mountain that was found in the mythology of Canaan. The geographical location of the mountain changes with the source of the myth. Similar phenomena are known all over the world. The mountain tribes of Irian Jaya, Indonesia, place the origin of man in the neighborhood of a village called Seima, where the first human being came out of a hole in the ground. That, in the mind of the people of the Middle East, there would be a Mount Zaphon, where God (or the gods) lived, would fit the picture. The important point for us is that the Holy Spirit takes this human tradition seriously. It is obvious that the fortress Zion where David lived, was geographically quite different from the Mount Zion "on the sides of the north," about which the Sons of Korah speak here. It becomes even more interesting when we see that Jesus seems to give His sanction to this piece of mythology, when He quotes this psalm in the admonition: "But I tell you, Do not swear at all: either by heaven, for it is God's throne; or by the earth, for it is his footstool; or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the Great King."5
As we said before, the real intent is to present the heavenly reality. The intriguing part is that a topographical vocabulary is used, not only to express the things on earth (Mount Zion), but the spiritual reality. Some theologians believe that heaven, as the seat of God's presence, is found in the north of the universe. On the basis of our human experience it is difficult to assert a specific physical location of heaven, if it can even be conceived in physical terms. The fact that this would strike us as primitive thinking does not mean anything. A great deal of truth can be hidden in what we call "primitive concepts." It is true that the north is often mentioned in the Bible in connection with the throne of God.6 We all should understand more about this in less than one century! In the meantime we should refrain from mocking primitive representations of heaven.
Some years ago, TIME Magazine carried an article in which an Israeli who was standing in front of the Wailing Wall was quoted as saying that God was present in the stones of that wall. In saying that, he denied the truth of Ezekiel's prophecy in which the prophet sees the glory of the Lord leaving the temple and the city before Nebuchadnezzar destroyed it.7 The stones of the Wailing Wall are now more dead than dry bones. But when those stones were still alive, because of the presence of God, the believers understood this living manifestation was more than it appeared to be: it pointed to the eternal, immutable reality of God's being, in the same way as, in John's Gospel, the miracles described therein are pointers to the reality of Christ.
The God the Sons of Korah worshipped was not merely the God of Zion, but the King of heaven and earth. Zion is the joy of the whole earth because God dwells there. The Korahites also understood that the God of this revelation was more than the revelation of God. There is a subtle danger in the battle that has raged throughout the ages around God's revelation of Himself. In the last centuries this battle has taken on the shape of "The Battle of The Bible." It is, in fact, very dangerous to take away something of the inspiration of the Scriptures, but we can become so involved and excited about the doctrine of the inspiration of Scripture that we leave the God who inspired the Scriptures on the side. The Korahites understood that the glory of God was more than the ark. In the same way King Hezekiah, centuries later, would understand that healing was more than the bronze snake. We read in the book of Second Kings: "He broke into pieces the bronze snake Moses had made, for up to that time the Israelites had been burning incense to it. (It was called Nehushtan.)"8 Daniel knew that God was more than windows that were opened toward Jerusalem.9 So for us, the Holy Spirit will have to be greater than the inspiration of Scriptures; otherwise, the letter will kill us, as the Apostle Paul observes.10
The NIV renders vs. 3 with: "God is in her citadels; he has shown himself to be her fortress," but the KJV reads: "God is known in her palaces for a refuge." The Hebrew word is 'armown, which, according to Strongs, means "be elevated; a citadel (from its height)." It is translated variously in the KJV with "castle" or "palace." Palaces are among the most luxurious dwelling places that exist, but citadels are functional, intended for the defense of a place against attacks of the enemy. As the KJV puts it, it is the glory of God that forms our defense, and that is a deep and beautiful thought. If we are in Christ, the enemy has no foothold in us. The expression "He has shown himself to be …" points to a practical experience. Our faith in the invisible God will, sooner or later, manifest itself in the visible world. Our experiences are not essential to our faith; they do not form the basis of it, but they serve as a confirmation, and a reinforcement of our faith. The more we experience God's protection, the more we will see of His glory. And, in reverse, the more we see His glory, the safer we will feel.
Verses 4-6 describe what this protection means to the attacking enemy. The kings are human potentates who are being manipulated by the Prince of Darkness. World history, as well as the history of the church, is full of examples of kings who joined forces, and who left with their "tails between their legs" when they hit the wall with which God protect His own. The writer of the second psalm sets the tone, when he says: "Why do the nations conspire and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth take their stand and the rulers gather together against the LORD and against his Anointed One."11 In many instances it seems as if the devil has the upper hand. Throughout the centuries, martyrs have been killed by the thousands, and Christians have been persecuted. But thus far, the gates of hell have not yet prevailed against the church of Christ, and the blood of the martyrs always turned out to be the seed of the church. It requires a broad panoramic view to understand that the powers of darkness are ultimately powerless against the church of Jesus Christ. If we look at that which is visible, it often seems that all is lost. But in this psalm, the psalmist sees demons bent over in pain like a woman in labor. We ought not to miss the irony of this picture: here are men who are very much aware of their prowess and masculinity. The fact that they fall victim to a specifically female form of suffering makes their fate the more embarrassing. The image represents them as what they do not think themselves to be: weak females who suffer labor pains, but who do not give birth to a baby. They flee, therefore, for themselves. A person who is confronted by God is usually more afraid of himself than of anything else. He flees "the wrath of the Lamb."12
There is a suggestion of economic power in the mention of the ships of Tarshish. In The Word Biblical Commentary, Craigie suggests that the image of the ships is parallel to the labor pains of the woman. There are differences of opinion about the meaning of the name Tarshish. It may be the name of a place, such as the Phoenician colony in Spain. The original meaning is probably the open sea. The east wind that demolishes the ships depicts God destroying strong men psychologically, as well as materially. We see the same picture in the book of Revelation, where the city of Babylon is destroyed as a center of spiritual fornication and of economic power.13 We do not often think of the church which is filled with the glory of God, as a means of condemnation for the economic powers of this world. Yet, the Bible is full of protest against exploitation, and it is also full of social concern. After all, it is rather difficult to love your neighbor as yourself, and at the same time, enrich yourself at his expense. God's presence in man convicts him of the way he does his commerce.
In verses 8-11 we encounter the person who has experienced God's grace and forgiveness, and who loves Him. He beholds the same scene that the kings in the previous verses saw, but for him it contains no fearful elements. That which is the smell of death to the one is the fragrance of life to the other.14 At this point, the faith of the person who loves God changes into beholding. Initially, we all only know about God through what we hear, like Job who said: "My ears had heard of you but now my eyes have seen you."15 Jesus pronounces a blessing upon "those who have not seen and yet have believed."16 There will come a time, though, when we will all see clearly Him in whom we have put our trust. The Book of Proverbs expresses this beautifully with: "The path of the righteous is like the first gleam of dawn, shining ever brighter till the full light of day."17 Even while we are on the road, we will be able to discern more clearly, but the culmination will be the day when we will see Him in all His glory.
Let's try to catch the ecstasy of this Korahite who wrote these words. His feet stood in Jerusalem; he played the role of a pilgrim who had come from afar, and he said: "This is the way it will be when I arrive at the real city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God, of which this city is an image."18 It is obvious from the tone of the whole psalm that the topic is the real Zion, the mountain that will fill the whole world.19 Jerusalem on earth is only secure inasmuch as she clearly reflects the real city. It is about the New Jerusalem, the bride of the Lamb, that the psalmist says: "God makes her secure forever."
The beauty of this psalm comes from the fact that it flashes back and forth between time and eternity. In vs. 9 the psalmist has both feet on the ground again. This does not mean that he returns from a mystical sphere to the harsh reality of this world. The reality of the New Jerusalem is greater than that of its earthly shadow. But meditation is something one does on earth; seeing and meditating are not done simultaneously. God allows us to peek at fragments of glory, and we feed on that while on our way to heaven. That is meditation. As long as there is a temple, the ultimate reality has not been reached yet. There is no temple in the New Jerusalem.20 Meditation brings out, in the first place, God's lovingkindness, or His unfailing love, as the NIV calls it, His checed. In the midst of all the power and glory of Zion it is obvious that the essence of God's character is lovingkindness. The place that is indicated in connection with that discovery is "within your temple," which has a profound symbolic meaning. God's goodness is central; it is the Name of God, the revelation of His being. Throughout eternity we will forever be fulfilled with the Revelation of God's character. The Name of God can be expressed in the words: praise and righteousness.
The praise of God fills this earth. The whole of creation acknowledges, confesses, and worships His Name. The fact that Satan, for a fraction of eternity, has diverted this praise to a dead end, is no reason to be overly concerned. The fall and its consequences are a passing stage. "The earth will be full of the knowledge of the LORD as the waters cover the sea."21 The fact that most people do not yet see this, is due to their blindness. The tragedy of our present dispensation is not that God's glory is absent, but that man is unable to see it.
We should not underestimate the position man occupies in all this, both in the negative, as well as in the positive sense. The blindness of man is, for the greater part, due to the darkness in which he lives, and in which this world is steeped. The opening of man's eyes to the glory of the Lord will be decisive for the rehabilitation of the whole of creation. "The earth will be full of the knowledge of the LORD." And "The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed."22
Next to God's unfailing love, His righteousness is mentioned. Without righteousness, God's unfailing love would be impossible. Righteousness is the basis of all of God's relationships with all His creatures. The practical application on creation of God's righteousness is called justice. Righteousness is also the expression of the truth of God's character. The moral behavior of God's creatures derives its value from the character of God, and it will be judged accordingly. God's character will be the measuring stick to distinguish between good and evil. It is, therefore, of vital importance for the life of man to understand God's righteousness. It is this righteousness which, in the words of the Apostle Paul, is revealed in the gospel of Jesus Christ.23 When we read, therefore, in vs. 11: "Mount Zion rejoices, the villages of Judah are glad because of your judgments," we should think primarily of the death of Jesus Christ on the cross of Calvary. That is enough reason for Mount Zion, which is the symbol of the church, to rejoice, and for the villages of Judah, or as the KJV renders it "the daughters of Judah," to be glad. All our acts will be judged in the light of Jesus' death on the cross. Those who believe in Jesus do not fall under God's judgment, but whoever rejects the atoning death of Jesus as payment for his sins, "God's wrath remains on him."24 We can never separate the revelation of God's glory from God's righteousness, which is His punishment of our sins in Jesus Christ.
In the last three verses of this psalm, we are encouraged to take a walk around Zion. The question is: "Which Zion?" If the meaning is Mount Zaphon, this invitation can hardly be taken literally. If the citadel of Zion on earth is meant, the reference to the "next generation" is hard to explain. There was little reason for the Sons of Korah to believe that Zion would not be there for future generations. Even this literal walk around and through the city of Jerusalem, therefore, should be understood as an image of a spiritual reality.
The theme of the measuring and studying of Jerusalem returns several times in the Scriptures. The prophet Ezekiel gives a very detailed description of the rebuilt city of Jerusalem and the temple.25 The purpose of this was to make all of Israel feel ashamed of their sins. We read that God said to Ezekiel: "Son of man, describe the temple to the people of Israel, that they may be ashamed of their sins. Let them consider the plan, and if they are ashamed of all they have done, make known to them the design of the temple-- its arrangement, its exits and entrances-- its whole design and all its regulations and laws. Write these down before them so that they may be faithful to its design and follow all its regulations."26 This would result in obedience to the will of God. In Revelation, the Apostle John is told to measure the temple, and the worship service carried on in it.27 This gives a picture of the testimony of the believers during the Great Tribulation. The last measuring of Jerusalem is recorded at the end of Revelation. In that great chapter of the Bible we read: "One of the seven angels who had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues came and said to me, 'Come, I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb.' And he carried me away in the Spirit to a mountain great and high, and showed me the Holy City, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God. It shone with the glory of God, and its brilliance was like that of a very precious jewel, like a jasper, clear as crystal. It had a great, high wall with twelve gates, and with twelve angels at the gates. On the gates were written the names of the twelve tribes of Israel. There were three gates on the east, three on the north, three on the south and three on the west. The wall of the city had twelve foundations, and on them were the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb. The angel who talked with me had a measuring rod of gold to measure the city, its gates and its walls. The city was laid out like a square, as long as it was wide. He measured the city with the rod and found it to be 12,000 stadia in length, and as wide and high as it is long. He measured its wall and it was 144 cubits thick, by man's measurement, which the angel was using. The wall was made of jasper, and the city of pure gold, as pure as glass. The foundations of the city walls were decorated with every kind of precious stone. The first foundation was jasper, the second sapphire, the third chalcedony, the fourth emerald, the fifth sardonyx, the sixth carnelian, the seventh chrysolite, the eighth beryl, the ninth topaz, the tenth chrysoprase, the eleventh jacinth, and the twelfth amethyst. The twelve gates were twelve pearls, each gate made of a single pearl. The great street of the city was of pure gold, like transparent glass. I did not see a temple in the city, because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its lamp. The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their splendor into it. On no day will its gates ever be shut, for there will be no night there. The glory and honor of the nations will be brought into it. Nothing impure will ever enter it, nor will anyone who does what is shameful or deceitful, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb's book of life."28 In this place in Scripture the measuring and description of the city are meant to demonstrate that He who is seated on the throne will make everything new.29 The testimony of the Korahites comes closest to this last survey.
The application of this object lesson should not be lost: God makes monuments in this world. The actual buildings are not made out of stone and mortar, but they are the lives of men. The fact that God saves human beings, and that He uses them to reveal Himself is a monument. In the Old Testament those monuments were usually made of stone; in the New Testament we see how Jesus often paused to erect a monument. The clearest example is the memorial He establishes for Maria who anointed His feet. We read that in Matthew's Gospel He said: "I tell you the truth, wherever this gospel is preached throughout the world, what she has done will also be told, in memory of her."30 If a person honors God, God will honor that person. People like George Müller and Hudson Taylor have themselves become monuments of God's grace. The foundations, the walls and the streets of the New Jerusalem are not made out of dead materials, but out of human lives. The city is the bride of the Lamb. God wants us to survey His acts of grace. In practice this is impossible to do in a literal sense, but we can imagine that, if man can measure the exact circumference of the equator, God's acts also can be studied in a scientific way. His acts are, in a way, measurable. They do not go against the laws of nature, but rather they confirm them.
The world is filled with counterfeits, with things that are attributed to God's power, but that have little or nothing to do with it. This does, however, not take away anything from the genuine character of God's acts. The Incarnation of the Word, His life, suffering, death, and resurrection are facts that have taken place on our planet. They were "measurable facts" just as much as the birth, life, and death of all other creatures in the world. Believing in the Lord Jesus Christ does not mean intellectual suicide, or the giving up of all logic; faith confirms the facts. God did intervene in world history, and He still intervenes in the lives of individuals today. This is still noticeable in the confusion of life in the world in which we live. The rising of the sun, and the coming of the new day of eternity will confirm our conclusions. Every new generation has to rediscover and experience this. But it is the task of the parents to teach this to their children. Young people ought to be able to see in the lives of the generation that goes before them that God is a reality. How else would He become a reality to them?
Father Kevin O'Sullivan O.F.M., who wrote a commentary on the Psalms that is used in a Roman Catholic Book of Prayer, believes that the historical background of this psalm was the siege of the city of Jerusalem by Sennacherib in 701 BC, when the city was saved from the enemy; he states that it was written after the blockade was lifted. This theory has its attraction, but the reference to the Sons of Korah would then be meaningless in connection with this psalm.
The psalm ends with the declaration: "For this God is our God for ever and ever; he will be our guide even to the end." The last word in Hebrew is muwt, which means death. The NIV renders this with "the end," but most other translations use the phrase "unto death." The contrast between "forever and ever," and "unto death" is interesting. The thought of death brings us back to earth, where we have to follow a path that is difficult to see, and where we are in need of supernatural guidance. Death is the end of our earthly existence. The psalmist, having been drawn up to the heavenly Zion and to God's eternal glory, is seems unlikely that he the psalm would end with the word "death." This leaves us in the middle of the tension in which we live on earth. We would have anticipated that the psalmist would have said: "He will be our guide even through death into eternity." Obviously, the tension is intentional, and it is beneficial. If God is really the God the psalmist describes to us, then His guidance will not end at death. The psalmist intends to generate faith that death may be the last word, but death does not have the last word.
1
Rev. 21:2,10,112
II Sam. 5:7,9
3
See Rev. 14:1
4
Ps. 33:5
5
Matt. 5:34,35
6
See Isa. 14:13,14 (KJV)
7
See Ezek. Ch. 8-11
8
II Kings 18:4
9
See Dan. 6:10
10
See II Cor. 3:6
11
Ps. 2:1,2
12
See Rev. 6:16
13
See Rev. ch. 18
14
See II Cor. 2:15,16C
15
Job 42:5
16
John 20:29
17
Prov. 4:18
18
See Heb. 11:10
19
See Dan. 2:35b
20
See Rev. 21:22
21
Isa. 11:9; Hab. 2:14
22
Rom. 8:19
23
See Rom. 1:17
24
See John 5:24; 3:36
25
See Ezek. ch. 40-42
26
Ezek. 43:10,11
27
Rev. 11:1,2
28
Rev. 21:9-27
29
See Rev. 21:5
30
Matt. 26:13
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