Psalm 48

Psalm 48 belongs to Book II of the Psalms (Psalms 42–72). It continues the themes of Psalm 46, which praises God as the refuge of the city, and Psalm 47, which praises God as King over all the earth.

Structure

• Verses 1–3: The LORD is great, and Mount Zion, lofty and beautiful, is the city of the great King. God is known in her palaces as a refuge.
• Verses 4–8: Kings assembled together, but when they saw Zion they were amazed and terrified; trembling like a woman in labor, they fled. The Lord broke the ships of Tarshish with an east wind. What had been heard has now been seen in the city of God: God will establish this city forever (Selah).
• Verses 9–11: In the temple we meditate on God's lovingkindness. His praise reaches to the ends of the earth, and Zion and the daughters of Judah rejoice because of His judgments.
• Verses 12–14: The people are to walk about Zion, count her towers, and consider her ramparts and palaces so that they may tell the next generation. This God is our God forever, and He will guide us even unto death.

Key Verses

• Psalm 48:2: "mount Zion, on the sides of the north, the city of the great King." This phrase connects with Matthew 5, where Jesus calls Jerusalem "the city of the great King."
• Psalm 48:14: "He will be our guide even unto death." The psalm closes by expressing trust not in the city itself but in the God of that city.

People and Places

• Zion: The mountain on which the temple of Jerusalem stood; the name also refers to the city as a whole.
• The sons of Korah: A family of temple singers named in the superscription, traditionally regarded as descendants of Korah.
• Tarshish: A port thought to lie in the far western Mediterranean. "Ships of Tarshish" denotes large vessels that sailed distant seas.

Points for Reflection

• The text does not specify which kings came against Zion or when. Some interpreters connect the psalm with the withdrawal of the Assyrian army in the days of Hezekiah (2 Kings 19), or with 2 Chronicles 20, which records the sons of Korah offering praise and the wrecking of Jehoshaphat's ships; these connections, however, remain conjectural.
• Some scholars link "the north" in verse 2 (Hebrew tsaphon) with Mount Zaphon, which the Canaanites regarded as the mountain of the gods, and read the verse as declaring that the mountain of the true God is Zion.
• Some read the Hebrew at the end of verse 14 as "forever," while others regard it as a musical direction.
• "Lovingkindness" in verse 9 translates hesed, meaning faithful love grounded in the covenant.
• Christian tradition has commonly read Zion as a foreshadowing of the church or of the heavenly Jerusalem. The New Testament carries this imagery forward in "mount Sion" in Hebrews 12 and in the New Jerusalem of Revelation 21.
• According to Jewish tradition, the Levites sang this psalm on Mondays in the days of the temple.