The Beauty and Glory of Zion.
A Song; a Psalm of the sons of Korah.
48 Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised,
In the city of our God, His holy mountain.
2 Beautiful in elevation, the joy of the whole earth,
Is Mount Zion in the far north,
The city of the great King.
3 God, in her palaces,
Has made Himself known as a stronghold.4 For, lo, the kings assembled themselves,
They passed by together.
5 They saw it, then they were amazed;
They were terrified, they [a]fled in alarm.
6 [b]Panic seized them there,
Anguish, as of a woman in childbirth.
7 With the east wind
You break the ships of Tarshish.
8 As we have heard, so have we seen
In the city of the Lord of hosts, in the city of our God;
God will establish her forever. [c]Selah.9 We have thought on Your lovingkindness, O God,
In the midst of Your temple.
10 As is Your name, O God,
So is Your praise to the ends of the earth;
Your right hand is full of righteousness.
11 Let Mount Zion be glad,
Let the daughters of Judah rejoice
Because of Your judgments.
12 Walk about Zion and go around her;
Count her towers;
13 Consider her ramparts;
Go through her palaces,
That you may tell it to the next generation.
14 For [d]such is God,
Our God forever and ever;
He will guide us [e]until death.
As we read this psalm, it would be easy to look at the fantastic descriptions of this city, even a fortress, and miss the point. Yet sprinkled throughout, the author keeps coming back to God. The “city of our God” is amazing, but that’s only a result of who made the city. So if we are distracted by the city, lets go back to the beginning, “Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised…” Why?
In verse 3, “God… has made himself known as a stronghold”. There is no one like our God, and his strength is unending. No one and nothing can overcome God our refuge, which is pretty incredible when we think of the things that this world can dish out.
Verse 9 reminds us to think on His lovingkindness, which is the reason for all that exists–even things we wish didn’t. God’s love for us is unquenchable and undeniable. We were made to live for him, but we couldn’t love him back truly without the choice to go the other way. No matter where we are right now, whatever choices we have made, He still loves us, and He still hears us.
And in verse 14, God is our guide. Through all the twists and turns (and there are a lot of those), God leads us forward. It’s hard to trust someone else with the steering wheel. Yet when the One at the wheel is the one who created us, and can see beyond every bend in the path, you’re in good hands, unfailing hands.
God’s strength is the greatest, His love never ending, and He is with us every step of every day. Nothing on this earth can come close, so don’t try to substitute anything in His place. When we are tempted to put our trust and hope in earthly things, we need to lift our eyes, to the “city of our God”.