Psalm 48: 1 – 14
Israel tour
A Song. A Psalm of the sons of Korah.
1 Great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised iIn the city of our God, in His holy mountain. 2 Beautiful in elevation, the joy of the whole earth, is Mount Zion on the sides of the north, the city of the great King. 3 God Is in her palaces; He Is known as her refuge. 4 For behold, the kings assembled, they passed by together. 5 They saw it, and so they marveled; They were troubled, they hastened away. 6 Fear took hold of them there, and pain, as of a woman in birth pangs, 7 As when You break the ships of Tarshish with an east wind. 8 As we have heard, so we have seen in the city of the LORD of hosts, in the city of our God: God will establish it forever. Selah 9 We have thought, O God, on Your lovingkindness, in the midst of Your temple. 10 According to 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 rejoice, let the daughters of Judah be glad, because of Your judgments. 12 Walk about Zion and go all around her. Count her towers; 13 Mark well her bulwarks; Consider her palaces; That you may tell it to the generation following. 14 For this is God, our God forever and ever; He will be our guide even to death.
I know I am bias, but I must state that our church runs the best tour trips to Israel. For over 30 years has been taking fellow believers to the Promised Land. I believe one of our biggest blessings is that our Lord matched us up with an awesome tour business. The individuals who work at this company are not only our contractors but have also become our friends.
Part of running a successful tour company has nothing to do with business at all, but the people involved. A hugely important aspect of running a business in the tourism sector is having people on your team who will inspire travelers and locals to come back and tell their friends.
Because it takes the right kind of person to be a tour guide, we’ve made note of some of the qualities that make for a successful guide.
1. Strong Communication Skills
Being a guide is all about having strong communication skills. It’s ok to be a quiet person, but if you have to communicate with new people on a daily basis, you just have to be able to do it well. On a basic level guides should be great at projecting their voices across a group and be able to do so in a clear and easy to understand way. On an interpersonal level, being great at knowing how to communicate well with people is a huge asset.
2. Personable & Outgoing
This skill takes communication to the next level. Guides shouldn’t just be able to communicate well, they must be great conversationalists with outgoing personalities; what we call the “Star of the Show” quality, which isn’t something you can teach. There can be a bit of social awkwardness when a new group of strangers show up, and a guide should be able to break that immediately to help people feel comfortable talking to each other and their guide. This ensures later they feel open to add comments or add questions along the way.
3. A Memory Like a Steal Trap
Tour guides need to retain a lot of stats and facts when walking people around a city- but they also need to be a great storyteller. Guides simply can’t get the information wrong, spend extra time trying to remember it or spend the whole tour reading from a piece of paper. Their memory should be so good, that it seems as if they’ve just always known these facts when they recite them.
4. Improvisational Skills
We’re not demanding your guides put on an improv show, but the ability to change things up on the fly and play off the energy of the group is important. Attendees will likely have additional questions or comments along the way. These things shouldn’t throw your guide for a loop, they should be able to adjust their script as needed. Sticking too closely to it, could end up making your guests feel like there’s no room for them to say anything at all.
5. Just Enough Enthusiasm
Just as guides will often play off the energy of the group, your attendees will likely feed off the energy of their guide. Your guide has been enthusiastic about the thing they’re talking about, but not so enthusiastic that they fail to sound genuine.
6. Humor
Just like being outgoing and enthusiastic, humor can be the perfect tool to cut any tensions and as always add an extra layer of entertainment for guests.
7. Punctuality
Punctuality is a can’t do without quality for tour guides. If your guide isn’t on time to meet arriving attendees at the meet up location there will be confusion, frustration and unhappy tour goers.
8. A Keen Sense of Direction
Outside of the fact that your tour guides should know where they’re going, they should also be able to help direct their guests. Often guides have to be prepared to give some general directions to help people get to where they need to be.
9. The Knowledge of A Local
Anyone can memorize and recite facts. Though it’s not a requirement, some of the best guides are locals themselves. What’s great about this quality is that in addition to the planned facts and statistics, they can bring their own knowledge, experience and personal anecdotes to the tour. This can make a tour feel particularly special for guests who are looking for a genuine experience outside the typical tourist attractions.
10. Passion for Their City
Last but certainly not least, true passion and interest can take a tour from typical to outstanding. Anyone can point and recite facts, but those who really love what they do can pass that passion onto tourists and locals to make them feel it too. Plus, those with passion for their city, bring their own experience to the tours they give.
There is only one problem with the tour though – Our trip is filled up.
Today our Precious Holy Spirit Is going to take us all on a tour of Jerusalem. We have the best tour guide.
A Song. A Psalm of the sons of Korah.
This psalm continues the theme of the Great King. Its aim is to exalt Him and describe the wonder of the place where He dwells. Israel understood God was so great that even the Heaven of Heavens could not contain Him. In the words of the wise Solomon, ‘Behold Heaven, and the Heaven of Heavens cannot contain you. How much less this house that I have built’ (1 Kings 8.27).
They also knew that God had been pleased to establish on earth a place where He could be approached, a kind of doorway to Heaven. And that place was the Temple on Mount Zion, on which was centered the worship of the one true God. That was why they gloried in Mount Zion and Jerusalem, because they represented God’s interest revealed on earth towards His people, and they pointed to, and drew men to, God. Today that Temple has been replaced by a greater Temple, the Lord Jesus Christ Himself (John 4.24). Thus, all that is said here about the Temple and Jerusalem should now be focused on our Lord Jesus Christ Who has replaced the Temple as the center of people’s worship. It is now to Him that we should point, and to Whom we should give praise and glory.
1 Great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised iIn the city of our God, in His holy mountain. 2 Beautiful in elevation, the joy of the whole earth, is Mount Zion on the sides of the north, the city of the great King. 3 God Is in her palaces; He Is known as her refuge.
While Mount Zion is being admired, it is not Mount Zion but the Great God Himself Who is being exalted. Mount Zion is only seen as beautiful in that it points towards the living God. It is the great God YHWH Who Is to be greatly praised.
The description of Mount Zion should also be noted. It is described in a way that transcends itself. ‘The sides of the north’ indicated the sacred mountains far off from men (Isaiah 14.13, “or you have said in your heart: ‘I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God; I will also sit on the mount of the congregation on the farthest sides of the north;). Here in this psalm God is, as it were, seen to have planted those sacred mountains in Jerusalem as His earthly abode. So as in Isaiah 2.2-4, “Now it shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the LORD’s house shall be established on the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; And all nations shall flow to it. 3 Many people shall come and say, “Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob; He will teach us His ways, and we shall walk in His paths.” For out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem. 4 He shall judge between the nations and rebuke many people; They shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; Nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore.”
It represents both the earthly and the heavenly Mount Zion. As men gazed on the earthly they were also to think of the heavenly. Today the earthly has long been done away, and we are to concentrate our thoughts on the heavenly (Hebrews 12.22, “But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to an innumerable company of angels,).
Yet there is still a Temple on earth in which God can be found. It is that Temple which consist of all true believers in Jesus Christ. In them dwells the Holy Spirit of God, and through them the glory of God is to be manifested to the world (1 Corinthians 3.16, “Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?). That is why we can rightly apply ideas about Mount Zion to His people.
Just as the people of old could gather on Mount Zion and sing His praises, and see it as beautiful because of its exaltation, and as the joy of the whole earth because of what it represented as ‘the city of the Great King’ where God made himself known, so today can we glorify God for His true church in which He dwells, made up of all who truly believe in our Lord Jesus Christ and call on His Name and worship Him in His Temple. His church is beautiful in elevation (Ephesians 5.25-27, “25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her, 26 that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word, 27 that He might present her to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish.), even though it may dwell here in vessels of clay, for we are the living stones of the Temple of God, built up on the chief Cornerstone, our Lord Jesus Christ (1 Peter 2.4-7, “4 Coming to Him as to a living stone, rejected indeed by men, but chosen by God and precious, 5 you also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. 6 Therefore it is also contained in the Scripture, “Behold, I lay in Zion A chief cornerstone, elect, precious, and he who believes on Him will by no means be put to shame.” 7 Therefore, to you who believe, He is precious; but to those who are disobedient, “The stone which the builders rejected
Has become the chief cornerstone,”), and we are called on to show forth the excellencies of Him Who has called us out of darkness into His most glorious light (1 Peter 2.9, “9 But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light”).
‘God has made himself known in her palaces for a refuge.’ And because God has made Himself known in the palaces of Jerusalem as being a refuge of His people Jerusalem can rest secure knowing that she cannot be touched by her enemies. And the same confidence can be enjoyed by God’s people today as He makes Himself known to us in His church.
The glory of the dwelling place of the Great God is such that the nations cower before Him. Though they may assemble themselves against His people and approach them with hostile purpose, once they recognize what they are fighting against they quail before it and fade away. This had proved true of Sennacherib and his forces. It would always prove true for whoever came against Jerusalem, because God was with them.
4 For behold, the kings assembled, they passed by together. 5 They saw it, and so they marveled; They were troubled, they hastened away. 6 Fear took hold of them there, and pain, as of a woman in birth pangs, 7 As when You break the ships of Tarshish with an east wind.
The kings of the nations had gathered themselves together against God’s people. They had passed over together and approached the city of God. But then, when they actually saw it they stopped in amazement. They were dismayed at what they saw and hastened away. Indeed so great was its impact that they trembled and were filled with the equivalent of labour pains. And God’s powerful and feared east wind blew among them, and the proud Tyreans and their associates fell before it.
The ships of Tarshish sailed regularly from Tyre, and indeed from other ports, around the world, and here they indicate what is strong and invulnerable. The mighty ships of Tarshish. Or at least they are until the East wind blows.
It also represents the powerful Tyrean contingent in Sennacherib’s army. But we are not to limit it to Tyre. Tyre’s glory and Sennacherib’s glory could not stand in the face of God’s holy mountain, the place that God had chosen as His earthly abode. God’s East Wind would see to that.
In the same way we can be sure today that all who begin to plot against the people of God will find themselves ashamed and dismayed. They may appear to be a great threat, but in the end their threat will collapse.
8 As we have heard, so we have seen in the city of the LORD of hosts, in the city of our God: God will establish it forever. Selah
The deliverance having taken place, and the enemy having faded away, God’s people triumphantly declare that they have now seen with their own eyes the delivering power of God revealed on behalf of His people. They had from their past heard many stories of His delivering power, but now they had seen it for themselves. It was thus clear to them that the city of YHWH of hosts, the city of their God, would be established by Him forever.
While they were faithful to Him that was, of course, true. But what they later forgot was that their security depended on faithfulness to the covenant. The truth was that God’s promises were only secure to an obedient people. That is why Jerusalem would end up a ruin, not once but several times (under Nebuchadnezzar, under Antiochus Epiphanes and under the Romans). However, in all that it was not that God had forgotten His true people. While unbelieving Israel suffered and perished, His true people, the remnant who expanded into the church, were preserved through all the tribulations that would come, as part of the whole people of God who will rise again at the last day (Isaiah 26.19). Their names were recorded in Heaven. Thus God’s cause was secure.
9 We have thought, O God, on Your lovingkindness, in the midst of Your temple. 10 According to 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 rejoice, let the daughters of Judah be glad, because of Your judgments.
What they have seen has turned their thoughts towards God’s lovingkindness (His covenant love), as they come to worship in His Temple, and they acknowledge gladly that what His Name (His nature and activity) means to them, has also become known to other nations so that they also praise Him. Many nations had in fact cause to be grateful for the humiliating of Assyria and would give praise to Israel’s God for His deliverance.
For they recognize that God has acted in righteous deliverance by the might of His right hand, and will therefore, they are sure, continue to do so. Thus, Mount Zion herself could rejoice, and so could all the neighboring towns (her ‘daughters’) who had suffered so terribly under the Assyrian invasion. All could now rest secure in the judgments and decisions of their mighty God.
What they later forgot was that His righteous deliverance was only for the righteous. Thus, once they had virtually forsaken Him (in the time of Jeremiah Jerusalem was almost totally unfaithful to YHWH - Jeremiah 5.1, “Run to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem; See now and know; And seek in her open places if you can find a man, if there is anyone who executes judgment, who seeks the truth, and I will pardon her.), His protection no longer applied.
The promise of His protection applies to all who are faithful to God, but only if they are looking to Him and trusting in Him. When they are they can ever be sure that His right hand will finally vindicate them, and that His judgments will be carried out on their behalf.
Next, we see an inspection of the walls carried out in triumphal procession in order to give thanksgiving to God, and it may even have been one that continued to be celebrated annually.
12 Walk about Zion and go all around her. Count her towers; 13 Mark well her bulwarks; Consider her palaces; That you may tell it to the generation following. 14 For this is God, our God forever and ever; He will be our guide even to death.
The Psalmist here is not boasting about the strength of Jerusalem He is rather praising God for the fact that it is all still there. He is basically saying, ‘look, because of what God has done you are now free to walk around the outside of the city. And as you do so you will note that nothing is missing. Her towers are still intact, her bulwarks (defensive walls) are in place, her palaces are still unmarked. And this in spite of the threats of the King of Assyria.’ This then was final evidence of how fully God has delivered them, and they will therefore be able to tell ensuing generations, how God preserved it for them, and delivered them without any real harm coming to Jerusalem. And this, he reminds them, is due solely to their God, the God Who Is theirs for ever and ever, and will be the guide of each one of them until death.
Note the contrast between their counting the towers, and the fact that the Assyrians had previously counted the towers with very different intent (Isaiah 33.18, “Your heart will meditate on terror: “Where is the scribe? Where is he who weighs? Where is he who counts the towers?”). The Assyrians had intended to destroy them. Thus, God has by His deliverance altered the whole situation.
The statement ‘He will be our guide even to death’ suggest that this fits oddly in the context because it is too personally applied in a national Psalm, but it is not so. It can rather be a practical final comment applying the situation of the whole to everyone. Having sung generally of the greatness of God, they are being brought to recognize that for each one of them that greatness is applicable throughout their lives.
