You Are Not the Only One

Context

Psalm 48 is a hymn of praise that praises the God of Zion  Ps 46, 76, 84, 87, 122.  Zion is the place where God’s presence is accessed by His people.  Zion/ Jerusalem represents  God’s presence in the city. As such,  and his holy presence makes the city impregnable to attack from any nation. This Psalm berates foreign powers who dare to think that they can attack Israel, and win! Gods people sang His praises to His sovereignty in the OT, and we sing it today too!

God Is Worthy of All Our Praise

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.

Psalm 48 begins with a factual statement about the greatness of “The Lord.”  Secondly, the Psalmist also declares that due to that He is entitled to the praise and worship of His people. Ps 96:4 iterated the same sentiment. “For the Lord is great, and greatly to be praised: he is to be feared above all gods.”  Once again the Psalmist restated the location of God’s presence, “n the mountain of his holiness.” We are reminded that “the mountain of his holiness”  refers to Mount Zion/Jerusalem. That is where the tabernacle, with the Holy of Holies, resides. Also See Psalm 46:4.

• 2 Beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth, is mount Zion, on the sides of the north, the city of the great King.
• 3 God is known in her palaces for a refuge.

Mount Zion Stand Most Beautiful It is the City of the King of Kings

Verse 2: God has been, and still is, the King of Kings. See Psalm 47:2 and Matt. 5:34-5 “But I say unto you, Swear not at all; neither by heaven; for it is God’s throne: Nor by the earth; for it is his footstool: neither by Jerusalem; for it is the city of the great King.” Today we sing this beautiful verse in our churches all over the world. For Christians today Zion and the city of the great King, represents the church bought by the very blood of the Lord Jesus Christ.  Scripture declares that Jerusalem will be the center of the Kingdom of God in the New Age. Revelation 21″1-4 “Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. ² And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. ³ And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. ⁴ He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.” The last two words of verse 3 solidify the fact that God protects His people. He is, in fact, their “refuge.”

The Nations Think That They Can Prevail

• 4For, lo, the kings were assembled, they passed by together.
• 5They saw it, and so they marvelled; they were troubled and hasted away.
• 6 Fear took hold upon them there, and pain, as of a woman in travail.
• 7 Thou breakest the ships of Tarshish with an east wind. unto death.

Talk about hard-headed people! Many Nations have tried to overwhelm and sack the nation of Israel and have never succeeded.

As in…

• The Philistines in2 Sam. 5:17;
• The Ethiopians in 2 Chron. 14:9;
• The Moabites and Ammonites2 Chron. 20:1;
• The kings of Syria and Israel in the times of Ahaz 
• See also “Events in the Reigns of Kings of Judah and Israel.”

Each king tried to take over Israel “they marvelled [and] were troubled and hasted away.”

Cayce provided an apt description of what happened to the kings who attempted to siege the city of Jerusalem. “Or, as Kimchi observes, in the place where they thought to have made a great slaughter; that is, in Armageddon (Rev. 16:16 ESV). So, upon the slaughter of the seven thousand names of men, or men of name and renown, such as the kings here assembled, the remnant will be frightened (Rev. 11:13 ESV).” 

Verse 5& 6: The Psalmist utilizes the simile of a “woman in travail [or labor]” to describe the pain that the leaders of the nations experienced when then attempted to take over the “Holy City!” When “They saw it” [the Holy City] fear and consternation was what they experienced. Why? The realized that the God of Jacob was the people’s refuge.

Verse 7: Thou breakest the ships of Tarshish with an east wind. unto death. Longman offers some insight into the location and significance of the city of Tarshish.

While the location and significance of Tarshish (the Phoenician colony of Tartessos in Spain?) are uncertain, the ships of Tarshish are clearly large, long-distance trading ships (1 Kgs 10:22; Jer. 10:9; Ezek. 27:25).

 

References

Cayce, Ken. 2018. “Books of the Bible.”  http://www.bible-studys.org/About%20Me.html. Accessed October 30, 2018.

Longman, Tremper, III. 2014. Psalms: An Introduction and Commentary. Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press. Accessed October 30, 2018. ProQuest Ebook Central.