For those who may wish to ‘study’ this chapter, the following simple resources are provided for you. Each passage has a four-Part approach to help you take in and think further about what you have read.

Passage: Psalm 48

1 Great is the Lord, and most worthy of praise,
    in the city of our God, his holy mountain.

2 Beautiful in its loftiness,
    the joy of the whole earth,
like the heights of Zaphon is Mount Zion,
    the city of the Great King.
3 God is in her citadels;
    he has shown himself to be her fortress.

4 When the kings joined forces,
    when they advanced together,
5 they saw her and were astounded;
    they fled in terror.
6 Trembling seized them there,
    pain like that of a woman in labour.
7 You destroyed them like ships of Tarshish
    shattered by an east wind.

8 As we have heard,
    so we have seen
in the city of the Lord Almighty,
    in the city of our God:
God makes her secure
    for ever.

9 Within your temple, O God,
    we meditate on your unfailing love.
10 Like your name, O God,
    your praise reaches to the ends of the earth;
    your right hand is filled with righteousness.
11 Mount Zion rejoices,
    the villages of Judah are glad
    because of your judgments.

12 Walk about Zion, go round her,
    count her towers,
13 consider well her ramparts,
    view her citadels,
that you may tell of them
    to the next generation.

14 For this God is our God for ever and ever;
    he will be our guide even to the end.

A. Find Out:    

1. Where is God being praised? v.1,9
2. How is Jerusalem described? v.2
3. What effect does God’s presence have there? v.3,8
4. What effect had it had on others? v.4-7
5. What had that resulted in? v.10.11
6. What did the psalmist counsel & what did it make him feel? v.14

B. Think:

1. What are we told about the description of Jerusalem in this psalm?
2. What impact had God’s presence had?
3. What, therefore, is the overall message of this psalm?

C. Comment:

   The psalmist is aware of the wonderful presence of the Lord in Jerusalem. Mount Zion in Jerusalem was the place of Solomon’s temple, and thus “Zion” became shorthand for “Jerusalem, the place of God”. For the psalmist it is a place of beauty, a place of towers, ramparts and great walls. Within it was the temple, the visible dwelling place of God on earth.

   Because the Lord dwelt there it became a place of security. The psalmist described the Lord Himself as a fortress, a protection for them. Obviously armies had come against Jerusalem but had given up and fled. As a result the occupants had praised the Lord.

   As a general picture, we find God inhabiting the place of His people. Because He is there, invaders may come against His people but they will not prevail. There is an assumption here that the people are for God, because there were times when they took Him for granted and He eventually left them (see the major prophets). Yet when the relationship with the Lord is right, there is a sense of safety, of security, even in the face of enemy attack. When the Lord is honoured then He will protect and bless the place of His dwelling (see, for example, 1 Chron 13:14). We today are the place of His dwelling (1 Cor 6:19)

D. Application:

1. Where the Lord is honoured, He will honour. (1 Sam 2:30)
2. Where the Lord dwells, there is security.