We Will Praise God Until Death - Psalms Of The Sons Of Korah – Psalm 48 - Message Series

WE WILL PRAISE GOD UNTIL DEATH

PSALMS OF THE SONS OF KORAH – PSALM 48 - MESSAGE

Kewarra 20 March 2022 Ron Ferguson

Psalm 48 A Song; a Psalm of the sons of Korah.

Psalm 48 v 1 Great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised in the city of our God, His holy mountain. Psa 48:2 Beautiful in elevation, the joy of the whole earth, is Mount Zion in the far north, the city of the great King.

McLaren suggests this – “we may, with considerable probability, regard this psalm as the hymn of triumph over the baffled Assyrian, and the marvellous deliverance of Israel by the arm of God.” The psalm begins with an outburst of praise magnifying the Lord. Then it says the Lord is to be greatly praised in the city of our God, which is Jerusalem. How is God great? In answer, every aspect of God is great, but what the people recognise is His great Name; His great deliverance; His great majesty and glory; His great care for Jerusalem and His great Presence with them. Jerusalem was glorious when God was with her. It is His city, the city that is raised up, called His holy mountain. This is praise and gratitude for Jerusalem. The term Mount Zion refers to the whole city. For “beautiful in elevation”, McLaren says – “For the devout men amongst them, of whom the writer of this psalm was one, there was one thing, and one only, that made Zion glorious. It was beautiful indeed in its elevation, lifted high upon its rocky mountain. It was safe indeed, isolated from the invader by the precipitous ravines which enclosed and guarded the angle of the mountain plateau on which it stood; but the one thing that gave it glory was that in it, God abode.”

In verse 2, the words “the joy of the whole earth” are used. Jerusalem was not a joy to the Philistines or to the Assyrians and probably not to the Egyptians, so how do we interpret that expression? I think there is very much a prophetic aspect contained in it. Jerusalem is home to the Great King and we know from lots of prophetic references that the Lord will reign in peace one day from Jerusalem. Joy will cover the whole earth then. However it was in Jerusalem that the Lord died for our sins and for the sins of the whole world, and so the joy of our salvation and of people’s souls had its origin in Jerusalem. “Joy to the world, the Lord is come; let earth receive her King; let every heart prepare Him room; and heaven and nature sing . . . .” etc.

Presently the joy of the whole earth is very much Gentile, but one day it again will be Jewish. It is the City of the great King ? but look at what the city did to its King. In the first place they deserted Him very quickly. Even in the wilderness, coming out from Egypt, and all through their history, they turned to idolatry and terrible evil until God expelled them in BC 497. And they have never owned their holy city since. Even now they have only part of it. They will not have it in full until the Lord returns at the Second Coming. Secondly look at what they did to their Messiah. In shame, they crucified Jesus on a criminal’s cross and spurned any claim to the Messiah. That beautiful city, elevated above the surrounding countryside, will one day claim her Messiah with weeping for the sins of the past. They will mourn when they realise they put to death their very own King. Zechariah writes of that time – Zechariah 12 v 10-12 “And I will pour out on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the Spirit of grace and of supplication, so that they will look on Me whom they have pierced; and they will mourn for Him, as one mourns for an only son, and they will weep bitterly over Him, like the bitter weeping over a first-born. In that day there will be great mourning in Jerusalem, like the mourning of Hadadrimmon in the plain of Megiddo. And the land will mourn, every family by itself;”

We return to our Psalm.

VERSES 3-8

Psalm 48 v 3 In her palaces, God has made Himself known as a stronghold. Psa 48:4 Lo, the kings assembled themselves. They passed by together. Psa 48:5 They saw it, then they were amazed. They were terrified. They fled in alarm. Psa 48:6 Panic seized them there, anguish, as of a woman in childbirth. Psa 48:7 With the east wind You break the ships of Tarshish. Psa 48:8 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. Selah.