I remember when I was a kid our churches would have revival meetings. When the preaching was anointed and Spirit was moving, the revivals would extend to two weeks or longer. People would experience spiritual awakenings where the things of God would become dear to them again and their devotion to Jesus was renewed. I have seen times when those people would walk around the outside of the pews, much like we will at communion time, singing:
Come, we that love the Lord,
and let our joys be known;
join in a song with sweet accord,
join in a song with sweet accord
and thus surround the throne,
and thus surround the throne.
We're marching to Zion,
beautiful, beautiful Zion;
we're marching upward to Zion,
the beautiful city of God.
What they were doing was not crazy, but it was powerful. In those revival meetings, they were experiencing a course correction. They had set their sights on the world to come and began to evaluate this world with the values of another world.
On the other hand, there was me and my friends. We were getting to the age where we thinking about getting a driver’s license and dating girls and playing sports. These things were much more thrilling for us than revival meetings and thinking of Zion. This world seemed eternal and the one the old folks were singing about and living for seemed unreal or at least not as important driving and dating and playing ball. Obviously, there is nothing wrong with teenagers driving, dating, and playing sports. What is wrong is valuing those things above God.
We were all in the same place at the same time but with very different evaluations of it. As teenagers, we actually wanted too little out of life. We evaluated life on the basis of the present moment. The psalmist calls us to evaluate life in light of the City of God. The old marching saints had laid hold of a treasure, we desperately needed but couldn’t see.
Psalm 48 is a Song of Zion1 and invites us to evaluate all of life in light of the reality of the City of God
In verses 1-3, the psalmist tells us of the greatness and praiseworthiness of God. The psalmist is calling us to take our eyes off the world and look to the God of Zion to see that he is praiseworthy. We were made to see and enjoy the glory of God.
He describes the City of God in spectacular terms: a holy mountain, beautiful in elevation, the joy of all the earth, Mount Zion in the far north,2 the city of the great King (2). The City of God is all these things for one simple reason. God is there. He is present there in a way he is not present everywhere else. The psalmist is speaking of his covenantal presence. His covenantal presence is his saving, fortress presence. As long as God is covenantally present, Jerusalem is unconquerable.
There is nothing inherent in Zion to evoke praise. Zion is neither the highest nor most beautiful peak.3 It doesn’t appear to be joy of all the earth. The way Mt. Zion and the City of God is described is only true because of God’s presence and what that means for the world (2a joy).
The psalmist understands something about biblical theology we might miss. The City of God recalls Eden and anticipates the new heavens and the new earth and the New Jerusalem and everything in between. The City of God is the place of God’s Presence. It is about God dwelling with his people. Since the fall of man and his exile from Eden, the story of the Bible is about God mercifully making a way to be present with his people and them see and enjoy his glory.
The City is a microcosm of the world. In Scripture, the place of God’s presence is a garden, a city, a Mountain (Gen 22:14 Moriah; Ex. 3:1 Horeb; 24:13 Sinai), the tabernacle (Ex. 25:8) and later the temple (1 Kgs 8:1-11), Jerusalem and Mt. Zion (2 Sam. 6-10), and in the NT it is the church (Eph. 2:21-22). All of these anticipate the new heavens and the new earth and the New Jerusalem, a world where God dwells with his people, and they see and enjoy his glory (Rev 21:1-22:5; cf. Isa. 65:17-25).4 Then Zion will be the highest, most beautiful peak and the joy of all the earth. The psalmist is speaking of the destiny of Zion. What thrills our hearts, captures our imaginations, and stirs our affections must be the God of Zion. We were made to see and enjoy the glory of God.
We should not view the world the way pagans do, rather, we must see God at work in the present. We are prone to not see God at work and thus attribute the work of God to naturalistic processes.
I was talking to a woman in a small Moldovan town. She was educated in naturalism and Marxism. She had no sense of any immaterial reality. She asked, What evidence is there of spiritual reality? Unfortunately, for many of us, we have no more sense or sight of God at work in the present than the woman I talked to.
We must develop a biblical world view. The psalmist helps us by letting the theology of the biblical story inform his present experience. Instead of the Bible story being simply the way God worked in the past, the psalmist finds tools to help him see God at work in the present.
The psalmist contrasts two responses to the revelation of God in the world: opposition (4-7) and transformation (8). God’s enemies oppose him. His people are transformed by him. He shows us how to develop a biblical worldview.
A. Recount the history of Israel (4-7)
The reality of the City of God evoked praise because of the long history of God’s presence with his people. The psalmist recounts the history of Israel’s experience of God’s presence.
The history of Zion is the story of kings assembling in opposition the City of God. The fact that the City was there was reason enough to praise God and indicated his presence there. If you asked the assembling kings, Why do you oppose Zion? I’m not sure they could give an answer. Asking them that question would be like asking your 3 year old, Why did you color on the wall?
The kings of the earth oppose the city of God. This is characteristic of human history. Humanity desires absolute autonomy and, therefore, is antagonistic to the city of God.
The psalmist recounts the history of the people of God in verses 4-7 by using language that recalls the Red Sea, the Conquest, Assyria, and other or any big event from Israel’s history. The psalm was probably used anytime YHWH rescued his people from attackers. Enemies assembling is recurring language in the history of Israel, and God’s defeat of their enemies.
For example, in the Conquest, there is the story of when Hazor got hazed. The king of Hazor, Madon, Shimron, Achshaph, the kings of the northern hill country, kings in the Arabah, in the lowlands, in Naphoth-dor, the Canaanites in the east and west, the Amorite, Hittites, the Perizzites, the Jebusites, and the Hivites: All these kings joined their forces (yaad=assembled ) and came and encamped together at the waters of Merom to fight against Israel. And the LORD said to Joshua, “Do not be afraid of them, for tomorrow at this time I will give over all of them, slain, to Israel. You shall hamstring their horses and burn their chariots with fire (Josh. 11:5-6).
The Conquest is the story of the wild, undomesticated God of the Bible. It anticipates and in some way previews the final judgment.
Astonishment (5a), panic (5b), and trembling (6a) were common among Israel’s enemies when they encountered the God of Israel. In the Sea, the Egyptians panicked and tried to flee (Ex. 14:24-25). Philistia, Edom, Moab and Canaan responded this way when they heard about the Red Sea (Ex. 15:14-16).
The psalmist uses two metaphors to describe the experience of the enemies of the city of God when they came and they saw, but did not conquer: the anguish of labor (6) and the shattering of ships by the east wind (7).
Of course the east wind conjures up memories of the Red Sea. The shattering (sabar) describes what God promised to do the Assyrians: As I have planned, so shall it be, and as I have purposed, so shall it stand, that I will break (sabar) the Assyrian in my land, and on my mountains trample him underfoot; and his yoke shall depart from them and his burden from their shoulder (Isa 14:24-25). We know what happened to the Assyrians. The angel of the LORD smote 185,000 for having the audacity to think they could overthrow the city of God (Isa. 35:36).
This imagery of the east wind shattering of the ships of Tarshish goes even deeper in the story of the Bible. Ezekiel prophesied concerning the judgment to come upon Tyre: The ships of Tarshish traveled for you with your merchandise. So you were filled and heavily laden in the heart of seas. Your rowers have brought you out in the high seas. The east wind has wrecked (sabar) you in the heart of the seas (27:25-26). Ezekiel goes on to record the weeping, morning, and bitterness over the downfall of Tyre. John picked this up in the Revelation as symbol for the downfall of Babylon: The merchants of the earth weep and mourn for her (Rev. 18:11) and all the shipmasters and seafaring men, sailors and all whose trade is on the sea, stood far off and cried … (18:17).
But over in heaven, the cry was, Hallelujah! Salvation and glory and power belong to our God…(19:1). One event with two very different responses.
B. Experience the story (8)
The enemies of God oppose the City of God in world. It evokes in them, astonishment, panic, and trembling. Yet the people of God were transformed by their experience of the presence of God in the City of God (8). One and same City evoked two very difference responses. They had heard stories of history, but how different when hearing becomes seeing! The City of God will stand forever in contrast to passing opposition to that city.
I grew up hearing the great stories of the Bible. I loved those stories and believed those stories, but the story of God was all in the past. I needed a present experience of the God whose stories I was taught. We need two things: to be taught the Bible so that we know how to think rightly about God and to experience the God of the Bible in our contemporary lives.
When I was an 18 year old, I was sitting in my car with my Bible open praying for God to help me understand his word. I’m still praying that prayer because the well is deeper than I could think at the time. I had no idea then that 42 years later I would standing here preaching to you. God has been faithful. There is no other explanation. It is a miracle that I am here. That lady in Moldova had no idea about that 18 year old praying in his car 20 years earlier.
It’s no different for you. If you are here and in Christ, it is an absolute miracle. The church is opposed in every age in every way imaginable. The two things we need to save our minds and transform our lives is to know the story of the Bible and to let that truth inform our view of the world.
In verses 9-11, the language moves from 3rd person to 2nd person to show the response the present experience of God’s activity. The response was to meditate on covenant realities: lovingkindness (9), righteousness (10), and judgments (11). In other words, the story of the people of God is the story of God’s faithfulness to his promises.
Here were are compelled to lay our experiences beside covenant realities. God loves us and is merciful to us (9). I have to lay my sin, my failures, my mistakes, my stupidity beside the unending love and mercy of God. Otherwise, I will spend my life trying in some way to atone for my sin. This will leave me seeking approval, feeling like I never measure up, and imposing law on others. Legalists have a hard time with forgiveness and extending grace. The psalmist says, Meditate on the gospel. This is who God has revealed himself to be. This is how he is known, and why his praise reaches to the end of the end of the earth (10a).
God’s covenantal work in history is the story of his revelation of himself and will bring the ends of the earth praise him (10a).
This raises a question, If God loves me and is merciful to me, what about his righteousness and judgments. The reason his righteousness and his decisions call for gladness and rejoicing is because of his lovingkindness. There is no contradiction here because in the plan of God, He put forward [His Son] as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he has passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus (Rom. 3:25-26).
Those ancient Israelites could rejoice in the righteousness and judgments of God for the same reason we can: Christ Jesus has died and risen and ascended that we might through faith have the forgiveness of our sins.
Now I can lay my personal losses, disappointments, physical ailments beside righteousness and judgments of God and know that he is acting toward me in mercy. This is what Paul did. I can read my life through the lens of divine mercy. This is what the enemies of God hate. They hate mercy.
Here the psalmist gives instructions to the people of God who have their minds renewed with covenant realities: Walk, go around, number, go through (12-13a). The purpose of this tour is to tell the next generation that this is our God, and he will guide you forever (13b-14).
When we walk around the history of the people of God, we have much to tell the next generation. We must continue to point to biblical history and the mighty acts of God. Some of you, perhaps, are not providing that for your children or taking advantage of it yourselves. With the teaching we have in this church community, we really have no excuse to offer for not seeing to it that both we and our children benefit from it.
We need to learn the Bible to know the ways of God in history, so that we might rightly see our own history, namely the faithfulness of God in it. Walk around Cornerstone, look intently into the things we hold dear and tell your children where to look and what to see.
This past October 29, Cornerstone turned 21. From a small group of people pastored by a young college student gathering in a living room on Wednesday evening to pray to what you see now, God has been faithful. In an age of stage lights and fog machines, we simply sing songs and preach the Bible.
God has worked powerfully among us. Indeed, as the psalmist says, God guides. We have stories of great victories and heartbreaking losses, grand adventures and mundane faithfulness. We have fought for marriages and wept over wayward children. We have encouraged each other not to lose hope, not to stop praying, and not to stop believing. The church family has walked though crises together, and we have found God guides.
I can say to my children and grandchildren, look at the church and see God’s faithfulness. He has unmistakably shown his presence among us. This is God or this is who God is and the way God is. Everything else in life will fail you, but you can count on this, This is our God forever and ever. He does not change. As he has been, he will forever be. It is impossible that he would not be faithful.
In the last line the ESV follows the Greek text, He will guide us forever, but they gave us a footnote to help clarify the text. The last word is beyond death (‘al mut). Obviously, this has the sense of forever, but it is nuanced in a way to help us see the extent to which God guides. Death itself does not stop God’s guidance. He will see us to it and through it, and on the last day he will raise the dead. He will guide is right to the City of God. As we have heard, so we will see the City of our God is established forever.