Psalm XLVIII

A Song and Psalm for the sons of Korah.

1 GHEATis the Lord, and greatly to be praised

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

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.

4 For, lo, the kings were assembled, they passed by together.

5 They 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.

8 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. f) We have thought of thy lovingkindness, O God, in the midst of thy temple.

10 According to thy name, O God, so is thy praise unto the ends of the earth: Thy right band is full of righteousness.

11 Let mount Zion rejoice,

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

12 Walk about Zion, and go round about her: tell the towers thereof:

13 Mark ye well her bulwarks, consider her palaces; That ye may tell it to the generation following.

14 For this God is our God for ever and ever: he will be our guide even unto

death.

jonnection. The subjoct of the Mighty One’s history is still continued. The Mighty One is king, has entered on his dominion, is seated on his throne, is ruling in righteousness. But where is his

riic v’an. capital? It is at Jerusalem. Here He manifests himself; and by the glory of his presence being shed over that “City of the Great King,” brighter than the light of seven days, yet far more mellow and tranquillising than the sweetest hues of evening, Jerusalem becomes

‘” The joy oftlie whole earth.

(The joy) of the sides* of the north.’” (Jer. vi. 22.)

* “Sides,” ^JH^T* utmost extremes. See especially Isa. xiv. f), where the proud tyrant says, “I will sit on the mount of the congregation,” i.e., Zion,

She has become the joy of earth, far and near, the source of joy to earth’s remotest bounds. Now is fulfilled Isaiah xxiv. 23. Now is Jerusalem made “beautiful for situation,” or, set aloft on its hills in beauty, in another sense than formerly. Now is Zion exalted above the mountains, and obtains established pre-eminence above the hills.

And if associations are needed to make any place completely interesting, these are not wanting here. Such deeds have been done here, that Sennacherib’s overthrow is, in a manner, cast into the shade. The gathered kings of earth came up, “they passed” in all the pomp of battle, and the Lord scattered them; and writes here his “Veni, vidi, vici,” to all nations.” They saw!

They marvelled!

They xoere troubled!

They hasted away.’” (Ver. 5.) It was as when an east wind hurls the ships of Tarshish on the rocks. (Ver. 7.) It comprised in it all that is recorded as wonderful in the achievements of former days; present events now come fully up to the measure of former good deeds,

As we have heard, so have we seen,
In the city of the Lord of hosts.“” (Ver. 8.)

The solemn Selah-pause occurs here; and then we look out on a peaceful scene, God known in all the earth. (Ver. 10.) “Thou art praised wherever thy name is knoiun,” or rather, now at last thou art getting praise worthy of thy glorious name. Zion is glad, Judah’s tears are wiped away, while a voice invites all men to come and survey the bulwarks of the city of the Great Kiug, that they may tell it from age to age. The bulwarks are strong, for the Lord’s presence, Jehovah Shammah, is the wall of fire, on whose battlements the happy citizens walk in security, singing,

and then, “on the sides of the north,” earth’s widest bounds. Hengstenberg objects to this construction of the verse, that we do not find in Hebrew this resumption of a status constr. But Isa. xiv. 19 is a clear case, “the raiment of the slain, of the pierced with the sword.” So Job xxvi. 10, according to Ewald; and Prov. xv. 26. Tholuck renders it; “A joy of the earth to the remotest north.” Thei-e is another explanation that makes, “Sides of the north, the city of the Great King,” to be descriptive of the town (afterwards Acra) built on the ground north of Mount Zion.

] 54 PSALM XLIX. — THE DIRGE OF THE RIGHTEOUS

“This God is our God for ever and ever; He is our guide even over death.” (Tholuck, “even beyond death.”)

The last clause is much misunderstood, It is not, “Our guide unto death,” for the words are niD b ^^^Ty)^^.y “shall lead us over death.” Surely it means, “It is He who leads over death to resurrection” — over Jordan into Canaan. The 7^ is used in Levit. xv. 25 for “beyond,” in regard to time, and is not this the sense here? “Beyond the time of death?” Till death is to us over? Till we have stood upon the grave of death? Yes: He it is who leads us on to this last victory; he swallows up death in victory, and leads us to trample on death. And so viewed, we easily discern the beautiful link of thought that joins this Psalm to that which follows. Such is the celebration of

The Mighty One become the glory of Jerusalem.