Translation & Sermon by Nate Wilson for Christ The Redeemer Church, Manhattan, KS, 20 Aug 2023
In the inscription at this beginning of this psalm, the Septuagint and Vulgate dating at least back to 400AD add that this is a psalm especially for “the second [day] of the week.” That would be a Monday. You might also want to read this to get you going on Mondays!
In the last Psalm, we looked primarily at the nations worshiping God, but Psalm 48 focuses on how the people inside the city of God really ought to be worshiping the LORD.
The “City of our God” is the central theme of this Psalm (it is also called “the city of Yahweh Tsaba’ot” in v.8). As familiar as this idea may be to us as a result of Augustine’s famous book on The City Of God, this phrase “city of God/city of the LORD” only occurs four other places in the Bible outside this psalm, and all of them in the Old Testament:
Psalm 46:4 “There is a river whose streams will make the city of God happy, the holy residences of the Most High.” (NAW)
Psalm 87:3 “Glorious things are spoken of thee, O city of God.” (KJV)
Psalm 101:8 Where King David says, “...I will cut off all the evildoers from the city of the LORD.” (NKJV)
and Isaiah 60:14 “...they will call you the City of Yahweh, the Zion of the Holy One of Israel.” (NAW)
What is the “city of our God” in Psalm 48?
It is also called God’s “holy mountain” (in v.1), and “The Mountain of Zion” (in v.2),
The word “Zion” doesn’t appear in the Bible until David became king1 and conquered Jerusalem and made it his capitol city and called it “Zion.”
Jerusalem was (and is) situated atop a small mountain or hill, like many fortresses were in the old days, which is why it was called Mount Zion.
As for the meaning of the word “Zion,” some scholars suggest that its root meaning has to do with being a place of “defense,” others that it has to do with the “bald” top of a hill2, but I can’t help but be struck with the similarity between this name and the Hebrew word for a flock of sheep, צאון (Zaon).
This “city of God” is also called “the city of the great king” (v.3).
In Matt. 5:35, Jesus said explicitly that “Jerusalem... is ‘the city of the great King.3’”
That would explain why “daughters of Judah” are living there (v. 11), and it fits with the mention of the “towers” (v.12) that Uzziah and Hezekiah had built in Jerusalem4 and the “bulwarks/ramparts5” (v. 13) as well as all the “palaces/citadels6” (v. 3) built in Jerusalem by wealthy Israelites in the years after David and Solomon, and the “temple” that was there (v. 9).
Clearly the physical city of Jerusalem as the capitol of Israel is what the “city of God means” here, but, as Saint Augustine pointed out in his book, this “city of God” is a concept which is much broader than just the historical city of Jerusalem.
Consider how this concept is expanded by these New Testament passages:
1 Cor. 3: 9-11 “For we are God's co-workers. You are God's field – God's building... laid on the foundation… which is Jesus Christ.” (NAW)
1 Peter 2:5-9 “you yourselves also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual household, into a holy priesthood in order to offer up acceptable spiritual sacrifices to God through Jesus Christ...” (NAW)
Revelation 21:2-27 “...John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband... ‘Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people. God Himself will be with them and be their God. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away.’ … he carried me away in the Spirit to a great and high mountain, and showed me the great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God, having the glory of God... The city had no need of the sun or of the moon to shine in it, for the glory of God illuminated it. The Lamb is its light. And the nations of those who are saved shall walk in its light... only those who are written in the Lamb's Book of Life.” (NKJV)
But in the excitement of identifying the city of God, let’s not forget the main point of the Psalm. The city of God is only the context for the worship of God! It is not the city which is great, but its God who is “great and greatly to be praised”!
I must confess that I find it easy to focus on the church – the great things it has done and the great things it is doing and the great writings and the great personalities and all its resources, its growing edges, it’s problems and needs, and I can get wholly absorbed in the church to the point that I am no longer focused on God so much any more.
I constantly need to remind myself of that message that Dr. Zachary just shared from Colossians 3, “Set your mind on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God!”
The holiness of Mount Zion – the holiness of both the historical people of Jerusalem and of the contemporary people of the church – is not due to the people living there, but rather due to the Holy God making them holy and initiating a special relationship of salvation with them.
This is what makes the Lord “most worthy of praise.” This is something we should frequently remember in order to renew our attitude of worship toward our God.
Three more phrases are used to describe this city:
First is “the beautiful height/situation/elevation/loftiness”
I think this is still describing the mountain of Zion.
One commentator I read, brought to mind the beauty I have personally seen while travelling in the Middle Ease of terraced mountain-sides with beautiful, green crops growing on stair-steps all the way up the sides.
The second descriptive phrase is “the North sides/far north/utmost [heights] of Zaphon”
The Hebrew word for “North” is “Zaphon,”
and the other word in this phrase literally means “sides,” but, in the plural, it often means an “extreme end” of something that is out in the distance.
The meaning of this phrase is much-debated among Bible scholars:
Many correlate it with the idea in Pagan Canaanite religions that the “far North” (Mount Zaphon) was the abode of their gods, and so, as the king of Babylon says in Isaiah 14, to “ascend... and sit on the mount of assembly in the far reaches of the north” is to “make oneself like God Most High.”
However, every other time this phrase is used in the Bible, it refers to actual people and countries to the north of Israel. Augustine wrote that the “sides of the north” referred to Gentile nations who would become Christians and join God’s city spiritually.
In only one other place do we see these words together referring to something in Jerusalem, and that is in Ezekiel 46:19, where an angel is taking Ezekiel on a tour of the reconstructed temple: “After he brought me through the entry, which was at the side of the gate, into the holy chambers of the priests, which looked toward the north: and, behold, there was a place on the two sides westward. Then said he unto me, ‘This is the place where the priests shall boil the trespass offering and the sin offering...’" (KJV) Exodus 26 also mentions “north sides” to the tabernacle.
I have a lot of respect for the scholarship of Franz Delitzsch, who wrote a commentary on the Psalms in the 1800’s, and I am inclined to agree with him where he wrote, “the Temple-hill, or Zion in the narrower sense, formed in reality the north-eastern angle or corner of ancient Jerusalem. It is not necessarily the extreme north... for ירכּתים [could simply mean] the angle in which the two side lines meet, and just such a northern angle was Mount Moriah by its position in relation to the city of David and the lower city.”7
The third descriptive phrase in v.2 is “the city of the great king”
This is a special Hebrew word for “city,” which indicates that it has been “built up,” has “walls,” or is “well-established.” It is used to refer to Jerusalem in 1 Kings 1:41-45, and frequently in the book of Isaiah.
Who is “the great king”? While the Bible occasionally speaks of “great kings,” I find it interesting that the phrase “the great king” does not occur anywhere else in the Old Testament except in 2 Kings 18:19 || Isaiah 36:4 This is part of the Assyrian army-captain’s speech to the city of Jerusalem after laying seige to it: “...Thus said the great king, the king of Assyria, to Hezekiah, 'What is this faith which you believed?” This was a taunt to make fun of King Hezekiah’s faith in God.
I have to wonder if perhaps the sons of Korah were writing after this incident between King Hezekiah of Judah and King Sennacherib of Assyria and saying, in effect, “THE great king? Dude, we know who THE great king is, and it’s definitely not Sennacherib, THE great king is Yahweh, our God, who sent Sennacherib running home with his tail between his legs!”
This parallels what we saw in the psalm just before this one, Psalm 47:2, which doesn’t use the exact same Hebrew word, but uses a synonym to say that “Yahweh is the great8 king over all the earth.”
Psalm 95:3 uses the same synonymous phrase: “For the LORD is the great God, And the great King above all gods.” (NKJV)
And that synonymous phrase shows up once again in Malachi 1:14 “Cursed be the cheat who has a male in his flock, and vows it, and yet sacrifices to the Lord what is blemished. For I am a great King, says the LORD of hosts, and my name will be feared among the nations.” (ESV)
You don’t mess with a king that great; you don’t dare cut corners on showing respect to God, and you don’t diss the people He chooses to live with!
But the main point of v.2 is that this community is to be the “joy/delight/gladness of the entire world.”
Jerusalem was (and still is) the pride and “joy” of the Jews (Ezek. 24:21-25, Lam. 2:15), but God had bigger plans for it to bless all the nations as well.
Isaiah 60:15 “...I will position you for majesty forever, a joy of generation and generation!… 65:18 “...be glad and rejoice until forever in what I am creating, for look at me creating Jerusalem to be a joy and her people a gladness!” (NAW)
Calvin commented on the reason for this: “...because it was from there [Jerusalem] that salvation was to go out to the whole world… Christ appeared with his Gospel out of Zion, to fill the world with true joy and everlasting happiness.”
The last word in v.3 is one used throughout the Psalms to speak of the security of being protected by God:
Psalm 9:9 “Yahweh will be a high-fortress for the one who is beaten down, a stronghold for times when there is a crisis.” (NAW)
Psalm 18:2 “Yahweh is my rock-mountain, my stronghold, and my deliverer, my God, my landmark-rock. I will take refuge in Him, my shield and horn of my salvation, my high-fortress!” (NAW)
Psalm 46:7 “Yahweh of hosts is with us; a high-fortress for us is the God of Jacob.” (NAW)
In my travels through a number of majority-world countries, I’ve noticed the tendency of upper and middle-class urban folks to develop walled compounds to protect their extended families. Lots of them had barbed wire and glass shards secured to the tops of the walls that surround their family compound. When I went to a home for a meal, in order to get in to the compound, I would have to enter through a heavy steel door that the owner kept padlocked.
In our country, we instead tend to install devices that detect intrusion into the house itself, and, for a monthly fee, those devices can maintain video records of the activity around your building and automatically contact the police for you when your friend comes over to spend the night and you forgot to let the Brinks folks know. (Yep, I was that friend once.)
But when God provides security, it is stronger than barbed wire and smarter than GoogleNest, 911, and the ADT company combined!
The way verse 3 is worded,
It could mean that it is only in the houses/compounds/palaces of God’s city that they really know about God’s security,
or it could be emphasizing the fact that it is God who lets the people in His city know that He provides the best security9.
And it could well be all of the above: God reveals to us in His word – in places like Romans 8:39 – that there is not any created thing that is “able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (NKJV), and so God’s people know that God will keep them secure, and then when He does providentially protect us in any given circumstance, then, both God’s people and the world around us see it and gain the experiential knowledge that yes, “The name of the LORD is a strong tower; The righteous run to it and are safe” (which is what God revealed in His word already in Proverbs 18:10)!
Now, that doesn’t mean we can’t take reasonable measures against theft or vandalism, but I like how John Calvin applied it: “whatever we possess... must not be permitted to obscure the knowledge of the power and grace of God; but, on the contrary, the glory of God ought always clearly to shine forth in all the gifts with which he may be pleased to bless and adorn us; so that we may account ourselves rich and happy in him, and no where else.”
According to v.4, Jerusalem was threatened by a consortium of kings, but instead of steamrolling Jerusalem with their armies, they instead panicked and left Jerusalem alone.
What does this refer to? There is no consensus among Bible scholars as to which historical event is being described here, but the Bible commentaries I read generally fell out along three lines:
First, were those who correlated it to a specific attack on Jerusalem described in the history books of the Bible.
The most popular was when the Moabites and Ammonites and Edomites marched against Jerusalem during the reign of Jehoshaphat (Solomon’s great-great-grandson), and the Jews prayed for deliverance and trusted God and went out to defend themselves, but found that God had already somehow killed all the enemy soldiers (2 Chron. 20, Psalm 83:3-5).
Another possibility was later, in Ahaz’s reign, when the Syrians and northern Israelites joined forces and tried to beseige Jerusalem but failed (2 Kings 16:5),
or later, under the reign of Ahaz’s son Hezekiah, when the Assyrian army laid seige to Jerusalem and Hezekiah prayed for deliverance. The angel of the LORD went out in the night and killed most of the enemy soldiers so that when the Assyrian king Sennacherib woke up the next morning and realized he didn’t have an army anymore, he fled back to Nineveh and left Jerusalem alone (Isaiah 36-37).
The second main line of interpretation of verses 4-7 was that this Psalm was not referring to any specific event in history, but rather to the general theme of how, time and again throughout history, enemies have threatened God’s people, but God has confounded the heathen and saved His people10.
John Gill’s commentary typifies that general interpretation when he wrote, “As the princes of the Philistines... seek for David, when in the strong hold of Zion (2 Sam. 5:17); as the Ethiopians in the time of Asa (2 Chr. 14:9); and the Moabites and Ammonites in the times of Jehoshaphat (2 Chr. 20:1); and the kings of Syria and Israel in the times of Ahaz (Isa. 7:1); and Sennacherib with his princes... in the times of Hezekiah (2 Ki. 18:17); which are instances of the kings of the nations gathering together against Zion, the city of Jerusalem, and people of the Jews, who were typical of the church of Christ; and that without success, and to their own confusion and destruction…”
The third line of interpretation for the event in verses 4-7 which I found among commentators was eschatalogical, looking out into the future,
in the book of Revelation, where you have the people in Mount Zion, the city of God, described in stark contrast to the anti-christ city of Mystery Babylon.
They engage in the battle of Armegeddon in Rev. 16 and Rev. 19:19-21 “And I saw the beast and the kings of the earth with their armies gathered to make war against him [Jesus] who was sitting on the horse and against his army. And the beast was captured, and with it the false prophet... These two were thrown alive into the lake of fire that burns with sulfur. And the rest were slain by the sword that came from the mouth of him who was sitting on the horse, and all the birds were gorged with their flesh.” (ESV)
I suspect that the psalmist had specific instances in history going through his mind when he wrote this Psalm, but I think it is best to recognize this as a general theme of history that diabolical attacks on the city of God have happened (and will continue to happen), but God has delivered His people from every threat, and He will continue to do so.
“From this passage we are taught that it is no uncommon thing, if in our day the Church is assailed by powerful adversaries, and has to sustain dreadful assaults; for it has been God’s usual way from the beginning thus to humble his own people, in order to give more irrefragable and striking proofs of his wonderful power. At the same time, let us remember that a nod alone on the part of God is sufficient to deliver us…” ~J. Calvin
And, at the risk of trivializing this grand metanarrative of God’s deliverance of His city, it is worth remembering that we live out this story of threat and deliverance even in small ways every day. The enemy may use a breakdown in transportation, or in a home appliance, or in a family member’s health (or your health), to threaten you, or in an adversarial situation with a sibling or a neighbor or a co-worker. If you know how the big story goes, you can pray and trust God and see how He delivers you in the little things, just as well as in the big life circumstances.
Some Bible scholars connect verse 7 with the previous verses about an actual attempted military attack by enemy kings who gained a new respect for God’s city, but it is hard to see what the connection is between a group of kings marching inland past Jerusalem and a flotilla of seagoing ships being wiped out in a storm on the ocean.
Most commentators, however, have suggested that the “shattered ships” are a poetic metaphor for the humbling experiences that the enemies of God undergo.
Apparently “ships of Tarshish” were not necessarily from Tarshish. At least some of them were built in Israel; the “Tarshish” in their name may have meant that they were built to be able to travel all the way across the Mediterranean sea to Tarshish, like the ship that Jonah chartered from Joppa.
2 Chron. 9:21 “...in the days of Solomon... the king's ships went to Tarshish with the servants of Hiram. Once every three years the merchant ships came, bringing gold, silver, ivory, apes, and monkeys.” (NKJV)
There is a curious story in the Biblical history books, however, which might match this cryptic verse in Psalm 48.
1 Kings 22:48 tells the story in a nutshell: “Jehoshaphat made merchant ships to go to Ophir [Oman?] for gold; but they never sailed, for the ships were wrecked at Ezion Geber.” (NKJV)
2 Chron. 20:35-37 tells us a little more of what happened: “...Jehoshaphat king of Judah allied himself with Ahaziah king of Israel, who acted very wickedly. And he allied himself with him to make ships to go to Tarshish, and they made the ships in Ezion Geber [in the northeastern finger of the Red Sea – the Gulf of Aqaba]. But Eliezer the son of Dodavah of Mareshah prophesied against Jehoshaphat, saying, ‘Because you have allied yourself with Ahaziah, the LORD has destroyed your works.’ Then the ships were wrecked, so that they were not able to go to Tarshish.” (NKJV)
Isaiah 2:12-17 explains: “For Yahweh of hosts has a day against all that is proud and lofty, against all that is lifted up – and it shall be brought low... [including] all the ships of Tarshish, and against all the beautiful craft. So the haughtiness of man shall be humbled, and the lofty pride of men shall be brought low, and Yahweh alone will be exalted in that day.” (NAW)
Clearly these ships had something to do with people acting out of human pride, so God put a quick end to that because He is great and greatly to be praised, not us!
Although Augustine did not connect v.7 with that incident, his application fits perfectly: “Our foundation must be in Zion: there ought we to be established… Whoso by the uncertain things of this life has been puffed up, let them be overthrown, and be all the pride of the nations subjected to Christ, who shall “with a strong wind break all the ships of Tarshish.” God doesn’t like competition!
So, “The enemy hosts look on Mount Zion, tremble, and flee to their destruction. By contrast, the psalmist and his readers look at the ‘city of our God’ and find enduring security.” ~Gerald Wilson, NIV Application Commentary
“What we had heard, we then saw…” What is it that they had heard in the past and now saw unfold before their eyes? It was that God “will establish” His city “forever.”
Where did the psalmist hear that message in the past? It was in the Davidic Covenant.
2 Samuel 7:13 “It is he who will build a house for my name. Then I will establish the throne of his kingdom for ever.” (NAW)
1 Chronicles 22:10 “He is the one who will build a house for my name, and he himself will become a son to me, and, as for me, I will become a father to him, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom over Israel for ever.'” (NAW)
Psalm 87:5 “And of Zion it will be said, ‘This one and that one were born in her; And the Most High Himself shall establish her.’” (NKJV)
Psalm 89:3-4 "I have made a covenant with My chosen, I have sworn to My servant David: ‘Your seed I will establish forever, And build up your throne to all generations.’” (NKJV)
Isaiah 9:7 “Of His empire's increase and of peace there will be no end. On David's throne and over his kingdom to cause it to be established and to uphold it in justice and righteousness, from now until eternity. Yahweh of Hosts' zeal will do this.” (NAW)
This is why God will never allow His City, His Kingdom, the Church to perish but will always defend it; He promised to David and his descendents that Jesus will reign over her forever, so He will never cease to sustain and cherish us.
“God does not disappoint the hope which he produces in our minds by means of his word... it is not His way to be more liberal in promising than faithful in performing what he has promised … And now, since Christ by his coming has renewed the world, whatever was spoken of that city in old time belongs to the spiritual Jerusalem, which is dispersed through all the countries of the world. Whenever, therefore, our minds are agitated and perplexed, we should call to remembrance the truth, that, whatever dangers and apprehensions may threaten us, the safety of the Church which God has established, although it may be sorely shaken, can never, however powerfully assaulted, be so weakened as to fall and be involved in ruin.” ~ J. Calvin
The NIV Application Commentary made a really good point in closing: “The ramparts and citadels of Jerusalem” may have filled the ancient Jews with “pride at their own human saccomplishments… [but] The psalmist saw something far different – the wonderous work of Yahweh to draw together and protect his people…” May you hear God’s word and see the same in your life!
LXXB
|
Brenton (Vaticanus)C |
Vulgate (Ps. 47)D |
KJVE |
NAW |
Masoretic TxtF |
PeshittaG |
1
Ψαλμὸς ᾠδῆς τοῖς υἱοῖς
Κορε· [δευτέρᾳ σαββάτου]. |
1 A Psalm of praise for the sons of Core [on the second day of the weekH]. Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised in the city of our God, [in] his holy mountain. |
1
canticum psalmi filiis Core [secunda
sabbati] |
1 A Song and Psalm for the sons of Korah. Great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised in the city of our God, in the mountain of his holiness. |
1 {A psalm-song by the sons of Korah.} Great is Yahweh; indeed He is very praiseworthy in the city of our God, the mountain of His holiness, |
(א)שִׁיר מִזְמוֹרI לִבְנֵי קֹרַחJ. (ב)גָּדוֹל יְהוָה וּמְהֻלָּל מְאֹדK בְּעִיר אֱלֹהֵינוּL Mהַר קָדְשׁוֹ. |
|
3
εὖ |
2
The city of the great King is well
|
3
X |
2 Beautiful [for] situation, the joy of the whole earth, is mount Zion, on the sides of the north, the city of the great King. |
2 the beautiful height. The joy of all the earth is the North sides of Mount Zion – the walled-city of the great king! |
(ג)יְפֵה נוֹףP מְשׂוֹשׂQ כָּל הָאָרֶץ הַר צִיּוֹן יַרְכְּתֵי צָפוֹןR קִרְיַתS מֶלֶךְ רָבT. |
3 [ו]משׁבחא X חדותא [ב]כלה ארעא טורא דצהיון דבשׁפוליU גרביא קריתה הי דמלכא רבא |
4
ὁ θεὸς ἐν ταῖς βάρεσιν
αὐτῆς γινώσκεται, |
3
God is known in her palaces,
|
4
Deus in domibus eius cognoscitur cum
|
3 God is known in her palaces for a refuge. |
3 Within her compounds, it is God who is known to be a high-fortress. |
4 אלהא בסחרתה מודע xעושׁנ[ה] |
|
5
ὅτι ἰδοὺ οἱ βασιλεῖς συνήχθησαν,
|
4
For, behold the kings [of
the earthX]
were
assembled,
they |
5
quoniam ecce reges congregati sunt
|
4 For, lo, the kings were assembled, they passed by together. |
4 For look, the kings were confederated; they passed by together. |
5 מטל דהא מלכא אתטיבו ועברו איך חדא |
|
6 αὐτοὶ ἰδόντες οὕτως ἐθαύμασαν, ἐταράχθησαν, ἐσαλεύθησαν, |
5 They saw, and so they wondered: they were troubled, they were moved. |
6 ipsi videntes sic admirati sunt conturbati sunt commoti sunt |
5 They X saw it, and so they marvelled; they were troubled, and hasted away. |
5 They themselves saw, consequently they were amazed, they panicked, they dashed away. |
6
הנון |
|
7
τρόμος
ἐπελάβετο αὐτῶν, ἐκεῖ ὠδῖν |
6 Trembling took hold on them: there were [the] pang[s] as of a woman in travail. |
7
tremor adprehendit eos
ibi dolor |
6 Fear took hold upon them there, and pain, as of a woman in travail. |
6 Trembling seized them there, cramping like a woman giving birth. |
7 [ו]ארתיתא אחד אנון [ו]חבלא איך דילדתא |
|
8 ἐν πνεύματι βιαίῳ συντρίψεις πλοῖα Θαρσις. |
7 Thou wilt break the ships of Tharsis with a vehement wind. |
8 in spiritu vehementi conteres naves Tharsis |
7 Thou breakest the ships of Tarshish with an east wind. |
7 With an eastern-storm wind You will shatter the merchant-ships of Tarshish. |
8 ברוחא עשׁינתא נתתברן אלפא דתרשׁישׁ |
|
9
καθάπερ ἠκούσαμεν, οὕτως εἴδομεν
ἐν πόλει κυρίου τῶν δυνάμεων, ἐν
πόλει τοῦ θεοῦ ἡμῶν· ὁ θεὸς
ἐθεμελίω |
8
As we have heard, so have we also seen, in the city of the Lord of
hosts, in the city of our God: God |
9
sicut audivimus sic vidimus in civitate Domini virtutum in
civitate Dei nostri Deus fundav |
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 it for ever. Selah. |
8 Just as we have heard, so now we have seen, in the city of Yahweh of army-hosts – in the city of our God: God will establish her for ever! SELAH |
(ט) כַּאֲשֶׁר שָׁמַעְנוּ כֵּן רָאִינוּ בְּעִיר יְהוָה צְבָאוֹת בְּעִיר אֱלֹהֵינוּ אֱלֹהִים יְכוֹנְנֶהָAI עַד עוֹלָם סֶלָה. |
9 איך דשׁמען הכן חזין בקריתה דמריא חילתנא בקריתה דאלהן אלהא נתקניה עדמא לעלם X |
1Cf. the first two historical references to Zion: 2 Samuel 5:7 “Nevertheless, David did capture the stronghold of Zion – that is, the City of David.” (NAW), 1 Kings 8:1 “Now Solomon assembled the elders of Israel and all the heads of the tribes, the chief fathers of the children of Israel, to King Solomon in Jerusalem, that they might bring up the ark of the covenant of the LORD from the City of David, which is Zion [up to the new temple].” (NKJV)
2Viz. John E. Hartley’s article on “Zion” in the Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament, p.764.
3Mt. 5:34-35 “And I myself am saying to you not to swear as a whole, neither by heaven (since it is the throne of God), nor by the earth (since it is the footrest under His feet), nor by Jerusalem (since it is ‘the city of the great King’)” (NAW)
42 Chron. 26:9 “And Uzziah built towers in Jerusalem at the Corner Gate, at the Valley Gate, and at the corner buttress of the wall; then he fortified them.” 32:5 “And he [Hezekiah] strengthened himself, built up all the wall that was broken, raised it up to the towers, and built another wall outside; also he repaired the Millo in the City of David…” (NKJV)
5The only other clear instance in the Bible of this word in regards to the physical layout of Jerusalem is Lam. 2:8 “The LORD has purposed to destroy The wall of the daughter of Zion. He has stretched out a line; He has not withdrawn His hand from destroying; Therefore He has caused the rampart and wall to lament; They languished together.” (NKJV) – although Isaiah 26:1 could also be a reference to it.
6These structures in Jerusalem are mentioned in 1 Kings 16:18, 2 Chron. 36:19, Isa. 32:14, 34:13, Jer. 6:1, 9:20, 17:27, Lam. 2:5-7, Hosea 8:14, Amos 2:5. (The whole book of Amos mentions such structures existing in almost all the capitol cities of all the developed nations in the Ancient Near East.)
7John Gill and Charles Spurgeon also agreed with this interpretation in their commentaries.
8gadol instead of rav
9It could also mean that God reveals His protecting power through what the world sees of the Jerusalem’s physical fortifications, although I think that meaning unlikely because it is inconsistent with the theocentric thrust of the psalm.
10Augustine’s commentary analogized even more, seeing in the approach of the gentile kings and their coming undone before Jerusalem a symbol of the non-Christian world coming to hear the Gospel and being convicted of their sin.
AMy
original chart includes the NASB, NIV, and ESV, but their copyright
restrictions force me to remove them from the publicly-available
edition of this chart. (NAW is my translation.) When a translation
adds words not in the Hebrew text, but does not indicate it has done
so by the use of italics (or greyed-out text), I put the added words
in [square brackets]. When one version chooses a wording which is
different from all the other translations, I underline it.
When a version chooses a translation which, in my opinion, either
departs too far from the root meaning of the Hebrew word or departs
too far from the grammar form of the original text, I use strikeout.
And when a version omits a word which is in the original text, I
insert an X. (I also place an X at the end of a word if the original
word is plural but the English translation is singular.) I
occasionally use colors to help the reader see correlations between
the various editions and versions when there are more than two
different translations of a given word. The only known Dead Sea
Scrolls containing Psalm 48 are 4Q85 Psalmsc (which
contains a fragment of v.14) and 4Q91 Psalmsj (which
contains fragments of vs.1-8). Where the DSS is legible and reads
the same as the MT, the Hebrew text is colored purple. Where the DSS
or Vulgate and Peshitta support the LXX with text not in the MT, I
have highlighted with
yellow the LXX and its translation into English. Where the
Peshitta adds words, I greyed out those words.
BThis Greek New Testament is the 1904 "Patriarchal" edition of the Greek Orthodox Church. The Robinson-Pierpont Byzantine majority text of the GNT and the Textus Receptus are very similar. The Westcott-Hort, Nestle-Aland, and UBS editions are a slightly-different family of GNTs developed in the modern era as a break from the traditional Greek Bible by compiling just a few of the oldest-known manuscripts, but even so, the practical differences in the text between these two editing philosophies are minimal.
CEnglish translation of the Septuagint by Sir Lancelot Charles Lee Brenton, 1851. “based upon the text of the Vaticanus” but not identical to the Vaticanus. As published electronically by E-Sword.
DJerome's Latin Vulgate w/ Deuterocanon using Gallican Psalter, 405 AD. As published electronically by E-Sword.
E1769 King James Version of the Holy Bible; public domain. As published electronically by E-Sword.
FFrom
the Wiki Hebrew Bible
https://he.wikisource.org/wiki/%D7%AA%D7%94%D7%9C%D7%99%D7%9D_%D7%9E%D7%96/%D7%A9%D7%95%D7%A8%D7%95%D7%AA
.
DSS text comes from
https://downloads.thewaytoyahuweh.com/pdf/dead_sea_scrolls/DSS_-_4Q83Psalmsa.pdf
GThe Leiden Peshitta, Copyright © 2012 by The Peshitta Foundation c/o Leiden University Institute for Religious Studies, as published electronically in BibleWorks.
HAugustine commented that since this was the day of the creation week that the firmament of heaven was created, it went together with redeemed mankind who would inhabit heaven.
IThis is one of the 60 Psalms with the word Mizmor (“Psalm”) in the title, and one of 33 that have the word Shiyr (“song”) in the title, but one of only 10 with both words in the title, the others being Psalms 66; 83; 88, and 108 (which read shiyr mizmor like this title) and 30; 67; 68; 87 and 92 (which reverse the two words in the title to read mizmor shiyr).
JSeptuagint and Vulgate add “during the second [day] of the week,” so it is an ancient tradition for this Psalm to be especially for Mondays!
KThis phrase “great is the LORD and greatly to be praised” is also found in 1 Chron. 16:25; Psalm 96:4, and Psalm 145:3.
L“City of our God” does not occur in the Bible outside this psalm, but “city of God” occurs in Psalm 46:4 and Psalm 87:3.
MThe ancient versions (LXX, Peshitta, Vulgate) add “in” here (and the Peshitta also adds an “and”).
NPeshitta inserts the preposition “our” – which doesn’t change anything substantially.
O“Mountain” is singular in the Vaticanus and Sinaiticus and in Ralphs’ edition of the LXX, but it is plural in the Vulgate and here in Brenton. Augustine interpreted the plural in the Vulgate as indicating that the Gentiles as well as the Jews would become God’s people.
PHapex Legomenon. Delitzsch: “...nauf, root נף, the stronger force of נב, Arab. nb, ‘to raise one's self, to mount, to come sensibly forward;’ just as יפה also goes back to a root יף, Arab. yf, wf, which signifies ‘to rise, to be high,’ and is transferred in the Hebrew to eminence, perfection, beauty of form, a beautifully rising terrace-like height; Note: Luther with Jerome (departing from the lxx and Vulgate) renders it: “Mount Zion is like a beautiful branch,” after the Mishna-Talmudic נוף, ‘a branch,’ Maccoth 12a, which is compared also by Saadia and Dunash. The latter renders it ‘beautiful in branches,’ and refers it to the Mount of Olives.” In a footnote to Calvin’s commentary, Anderson noted that Augustine and Ambrose supported this meaning of “spreading/branching out.” Jewish commentators generally take it to mean “geographically ideal” (according to Cohen’s Soncino Book of Psalms, citing Kimchi and Hirsch), and Calvin followed that direction (as did Anderson, in a footnote to Calvin’s commentary, citing Montanus and Ainsworth in support), although with the caveat that, “When we hear the beauty of the city here celebrated, let us call to our remembrance that spiritual beauty which was added to the natural beauty of the place... that the ark would there abide for ever.”
Q“joy/delight/gladness” This is the only use of this word in the Psalms, but Isaiah uses it a bit (cf. Isaiah 24:8, 11; 32:13-14; 60:15; 62:5; 65:18; 66:10).
RTWOT:
“In Canaanite religion the assembly of the gods was thought to
meet in the far north. Therefore the Psalmist is using poetic
language to show that Zion is the religious center, not only for
Israel, but for the entire world.”
NAW: This interpretation
would be consistent with what we read in Isaiah 14:13-15 (It might
also correspond somewhat with Job 26:7, although that pictures the
North as empty, not as full of minor deities.) However, in Jeremiah
and Ezekiel, it is merely human foreigners who live in the sides of
the north and who muster armies to march south and capture those
south of them (Jer. 6:22; 25:32; 31:8; 50:41; Ezek. 32:23; 38:6, 15;
39:2, cf. Zeph. 2:13). But there is one other passage which uses the
same word for “sides” and the same word for “north” in
reference to Jerusalem, and that is Ezekiel 46:19, where the angel
is taking Ezekiel on a tour of the reconstructed temple. Exodus 26
also mentions “north sides” to the tabernacle.
DELITZSCH:
“Hitzig, Ewald, Hengstenberg, Caspari (Micha, p. 359), and others,
are of opinion that the hill of Zion is called the ‘extreme north’
with reference to the old Asiatic conception of the mountain of the
gods... forming the connecting link between heaven and earth, which
lay in the inaccessible, holy distance and concealment of the
extreme north. But... we have no trace of the Israelitish mind
having blended this foreign mythological style of speech with its
own. We therefore take the expression ‘sides of the north’ to be
a topographical designation, and intended literally. Mount Zion is
thereby more definitely designated as the Temple-hill; for the
Temple-hill, or Zion in the narrower sense, formed in reality the
north-eastern angle or corner of ancient Jerusalem. It is not
necessarily the extreme north (Eze 38:6; Eze 39:2), which is called
ירכתי
צפון;
for ירכּתים
are
the two sides, then the angle in which the two side lines meet, and
just such a northern angle was Mount Moriah by its position in
relation to the city of David and the lower city.” Cohen
agreed, “an account of Jerusalem in its two main divisions: Mount
Zion, i.e. Moriah, which lies to the northeast, and the city proper,
which is at its foot.”
SThis is differentiated from the other word for “city” (Iyr) used in vs.1 & 8, as a city that is “built up/developed/walled.” The Peshitta makes no distinction between the two words, rendering them all kiryat.
T“the great King; of Christ the King of kings” ~ John Gill. It’s surprising how few commentators said this explicitly.
UBoth Bauscher and Lamsa translated this “slopes,” adding yet another reasonable possibility to the meaning of the phrase.
VNASB, NIV, and ESV interpreted the Niphal stem here as reflexive (“makes Himself known” - which is grammatically possible), whereas KJV and Vulgate and NAW interpreted it as passive (“is known”).
WThe LXX, Vulgate, and Peshitta all abandon the lamed prefix for either a temporal “when” or, in the case of the Peshitta, no preposition, and all add a pronoun at the end of the noun here (“her” in the case of the LXX and Vulgate, and “his” in the case of the Peshitta). Gerald Wilson, in the NIV Application Commentary, suggested that this mishgab describes a “mountain hideout.”
XAlthough not in the Rahlfs edition, this added phrase is found in three Greek manuscripts: Alexandrinus, Lucian Rescription, and Veronensis. It merely clarifies what is already implied in the Hebrew, Latin, and Syriac texts, for if this plurality of kings is “alarmed… panicking... running away” from a well-“established” Jerusalem, they must be foreign kings, not residents.
YThe
DSS does not have a definite article here like the MT and LXX do,
nor does the Peshitta, but it doesn’t make for a significant
difference in meaning whether it is “kings” or “the kings.”
As
for who these kings were, commentators are all over the map:
*
RASHI & KIMCHI: the eschatological attack of Gog and Magog
against Israel.
* GILL: “this seems to refer to the latter
day of the Gospel dispensation, when all the kings of the earth,
Pagan, Papal, and Mahometan, will be gathered together at the
instigation of Satan, to the battle of the great day of the Lord God
Almighty, in a place called Armageddon, where they will be defeated
by Christ the King of kings, Rev_16:13.”
*BARNES: “The
kings referred to, if the allusion here is, as is supposed, to the
time of Jehoshaphat, were the kings of Ammon and of Moab, and of
Mount Seir, and perhaps others, not particularly mentioned, who came
up against Jehoshaphat (2 Chron. 20, Psalm 83:3-5).” (Faussett and
Delitzsch and Mudge agreed)
* DATTA: “Pre-Exilic, written
during the deliverance from Sennacherib’s invasion.”
(Kirkpatrick apparently agreed.)
*CALMET
“This
is apparently the same tempest which struck dismay into the
land-forces of Cambyses, and wrecked his fleet which was on the
coasts of the Mediterranean sea, opposite to his army near the port
of Acco, or the Ptolemais; for Cambyses had his quarters at
Ecbatana, at the foot of Mount Carmel; and his army was encamped in
the valley of Jezreel.”
*HENRY & SPURGEON applied
it generally as a series of events which happened often.
*CALVIN:
“It is probable that the psalm is to be referred to the time of
king Ahaz, when the city was besieged and the inhabitants brought to
the point of utter despair, and when, nevertheless, the siege was
suddenly raised, (2 Kings 16:5;)... Jerusalem was preserved from
utter destruction only by miraculous aid from heaven.”
*AUGUSTINE:
“Behold now those ‘sides of the North,’ see how they come, see
how they say, ‘Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the
Lord: and He will teach us His way, and we will walk in it’ ...
After their marvelling at the miracles and glory of Christ, what
followed? ... Whence took trembling hold upon them, but from the
consciousness of sins? Let them run then, king after a king; kings,
let them acknowledge the King. Therefore saith He elsewhere, ‘Yet
have I been set by Him a King upon His holy hill of Sion.’”
ZThe only instance of kings performing the action of this verb is Joshua 11:5 “And when all these kings had met together, they came and camped together at the waters of Merom to fight against Israel.” (But that was not at Jerusalem.)
AADelitzsch (following Henry and Adam Clarke and Calvin) was insistent that this means “conquered,” and that interpretation seems to be supported by the LXX, NIV, and ESV, but Cohen, following Rashi (and Barnes), believed that it meant “passed by without fighting against,” and the KJV and NASB seem to support that interpretation. Gill was undecided between the two meanings.
AB“[T]hey were troubled: as Herod and all Jerusalem were, upon hearing of the birth of Christ (Mat. 2:3); so these kings will be, upon seeing the coming and power of Christ in the latter day, the invincibleness of his church, and their own immediate and utter ruin: this will be the time or the howling of the shepherds, both civil and ecclesiastical, when all hands will be faint, and every man's heart will melt (Zec. 11:2).” ~J. Gill
AC2 Old Latin manuscripts add an “and” before this verb, a few Hebrew manuscripts switch the second and third letters of the word (changing the meaning only slightly from “alarmed/startled/hurried” to “agitated/boiled over”), but the Syriac omits this verb altogether. I like Calvin’s translation “precipitately.”
ADThis word for “trembling” only occurs in the Hebrew O.T. here and in Job 4:14, Ps. 2:11, and Isa. 33:14 (“Sinners in Zion were terrified פָּחֲד֤וּ; trembling gripped the corrupt ones…”).
AE“there” omitted by the Syriac and by Symmachus in his Greek version. It is not essential, but it renders more emphasis.
AFCompare with Isaiah 13:8 “They will be dismayed (from בְהַ֖לְ): pangs and agony (חֲבָלִ) will seize them; they will be in anguish (יְחִיל֑וּן) like a woman birthing…” and 21:3 “Therefore my loins filled with agony (חַלְחָלָ֔ה); pangs (צִירִ֣ים) seized me, like birth pangs; I have been bent from hearing; I have been dismayed from seeing.” (NAW) The phrase “pangs like a woman birthing” is repeated in Jer. 6:24; 22:23; 50:43; and Mic. 4:9.
AGThe more-ancient versions (Septuagint Greek, Vulgate Latin, and Peshitta Syriac) all translated this word “violent.” They also translated it “burning” or “south-wind” in other instances in the O.T., but it appears that the modern consensus of lexicographers has settled on the meaning of “east wind.” Anderson commented in a footnote of Calvin’s commentary: “The east wind in Judea and in the Mediterranean is very tempestuous and destructive. It is also very dry and parching, as well as sudden and terrible in its action. (Gen. 41:6; Ex. 14:21; Ezek. 19:12; 27:26; Job 27:21; Isa. 27:8; Jer. 18:17; Jonah 4:8) ...’Such a wind,’ says Bishop Mant, ‘is well known to the modern mariner by the name of Levanter, and is of the same kind as that spoken of in the twenty-seventh chapter of the Acts of the Apostles, under the name of Euroclydon.’”
AHAugustine considered Tarshish to mean Carthage, Calvin though it meant Tarsus of Cilicia in Asia Minor, Gill thought it meant the Mediterraean “sea in general,” but most modern commentators (e.g. Gerald Wilson) pin Tarshish on the Iberean peninsula of Spain.
AIcf. Psalm 87:5 “And of Zion it will be said, ‘This one and that one were born in her; And the Most High Himself shall establish her.’” (NKJV) What they “heard” was the Davidic Covenant (2 Sam. 7:13, 1 Chron. 22:10, Psalm 89:3-4, Isaiah 9:7), in which God promised to “establish” David’s kingdom “forever.” Now they “see” fulfillment of that promise in their time.