The City of the Great King (Psalm 48:1-14)
Psalms 46-48 are a triplet of Psalms by the sons of Korah celebrating Israel’s victory over Assyria, when the Angel of the Lord destroyed the enemy armies and delivered Jerusalem, in response to her prayer (Isa 37, see Ps 44). This revealed God’s power, leading to Him being known by the nations and Israel’s exaltation because of God’s manifest Presence with her (2Chr 32:22-23). “Psalm 48 - A Song (Schir, a joyful song, as after a great victory, Gen 31:27, Ex 15:1, Ps 33:3). A Psalm of the sons of Korah.” Ps 48 has many correspondences with other 2, especially 46, another Song of Zion (also 76,84,87,122). These events were a prophetic type of Christ’s future final victory at His 2nd Coming, when He will destroy antichrist’s armies, establish His Kingdom on earth, and reign over all nations from Jerusalem, where His Presence will be the greatest, with Israel as the exalted nation. The language of these Psalms points to these greater future events as the ultimate fulfilment. The 1st Section (v1-3a) is praise to God, the great Lord and King (46:2,7), who dwells in Zion, the holy City of God (46:4,5.7,11), and is the Source of her glory and beauty. v1:“Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised in the City of our God, in His holy Mountain.” As He is infinitely great in power, faithfulness, wisdom, love and honour (Ps 95:3, 145:3), He is to be greatly praised. If our praise is not great (abundant and consistent), it’s because we don’t consider Him great enough to deserve it. He is worthy of all our praise. His greatness was recently manifested in His deliverance of Zion, and will be manifested again at His Return in power and glory. He should be greatly praised in His holy dwelling places (which includes us). He should be praised in Jerusalem, for all He has done in and for her, and what He will do there, especially in His holy Mountain – Mount Zion, where God dwelt in His Temple, and where Christ died and rose again for our salvation, and from where He will reign in His Kingdom. v2-3a: “Beautiful in elevation (this speaks of God’s dwelling place, the sacred space of the Temple - height represents holiness = spiritual beauty), the joy of the whole earth, is Mount Zion on the sides of the north (of) the city of the Great King (Ps 47:2,7). God is in her Palaces.” The Temple was built on the mount overlooking the original city of David on higher ground directly to its north - Mount Moriah (2Chr 3:1), renamed Mount Zion), so the city expanded to the north in Solomon’s time. The reference to ‘the sides of the north’ connects the earthly Jerusalem with God’s heavenly City and Temple, Mount Zion, the New Jerusalem (Heb 12:22-24, Gal 4:26), the ultimate fulfilment of this description in v1-3a, for the location of God’s throne in the heavenly Mount is described in similar terms in Isaiah 14:13-14, thus portraying the earthly Zion as an image of the heavenly Zion. It is the joy of the whole earth, for it is the place of His Presence and in His Presence is fullness of joy (Ps 16:11), and it was here that Christ was sacrificed and rose again for the salvation of the whole world (on the peak of Mt.Zion), from where He ascended to Heaven (Acts 1), where the Holy Spirit was poured out at Pentecost (Acts 2), from where the Gospel went forth to the whole earth (Acts 1:8), to where Christ will return (Matt 23:37-39, Zech 14:4), and from where Christ will reign over the whole earth. This description will also be fulfilled in the Millennial Jerusalem, for the holy Temple, from where Christ will reign, will be on the summit on the north side of the very high Mount of the Lord, north of the city where people will live (Ezek 40-48). The description of Zion (Jerusalem) as God’s chosen holy Covenant City, applies to Zion at the time this was written, for God’s Presence in her was her protection (the theme of Ps 46). It also applies generally from David’s time on (Ps 132:13-14), but when Israel is out of fellowship, she loses her divine protection. Jesus quoted v2 in describing Jerusalem in His day as: “the City of the Great King” (Matt 5:35), but there will be a greater fulfilments in the Millennium, and in the heavenly eternal Zion, the joy of the whole earth throughout eternity, as the place where God dwells (v1,14 inclusio, Rev 21:1-2).....

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