It is not uncommon for some good book or movie to have a storyline in which people find themselves in a problem and all of the sudden a great hero, their deliverer, shows up. As he does, with great delight, they realize that he is with them. At times part of the story will even be the spreading of the news that the great hero has come and is now with them as they are being attacked. Then, the hero crushes their enemies, the people praise him for his work, and they begin proclaiming to others what he has done in hopes that they too will praise him and will learn to trust his deliverance in the future.

A very similar plotline is found in Psalm 48. This psalm takes us through a story as you read the psalm and watch it unfold. It’s as if you’re standing and watching the scene unfold before your eyes. The plotline itself moves in four parts. Therefore, what I want us to do this morning is to walk through each of these four parts of the psalm and then pause at each point to see what it is we learn about our God and how we should apply this in our lives.

The opening move of the psalm is found in the first three verses as the psalmist writes, “Great is the LORD and greatly to be praised in the city of our God! His holy mountain, beautiful in elevation, is the joy of all the earth, Mount Zion, in the far north, the city of the great King. Within her citadels God has made himself known as a fortress” (1-3).

The psalmist is looking at Jerusalem and declaring that God is to be praised in the great city. It’s clear he’s looking at Jerusalem because he refers to the city as Mount Zion (a reference in Scripture for Jerusalem). In addition, he speaks of the city being elevated on a mountain, which Jerusalem was. And he refers to it being the place where God is as indeed the temple and the ark of the covenant dwelt in Jerusalem.

However, at the same time it’s as if the author is picturing more than just Jerusalem. He sees it as the most beautiful of cities, being a joy to every person in the earth, and being that which symbolizes God’s reign as King, not simply over Jerusalem but over all the earth. It’s as if he sees Jerusalem is light of all the promises that God has made about Zion, symbolizing his redemption of and reign over the entire earth.

But what’s key about the city is that to those in the city God has made himself known as a fortress. God is the King and Protector of the city. He is the King and Protector of his people. Therefore, what should clearly translate over from this text into our lives is the truth that God is our King, is with us, and is our protector.

God is with us, is our King, and is our Protector (1-3)

This truth that the Creator of the universe has made himself the God of those who place their faith in Christ is clear throughout the Scripture. If anyone looks at nature, it is clear that there is a Creator. But as we look at the Scripture itself what we can know is that the Creator has committed himself to a certain group of people, to be their God. He has committed himself to those who are in covenant with them to be with them and to be their protector. Those people are those who have been given new hearts, who have God’s Spirit in them, and who have placed their faith in Jesus Christ. We who are Christians this morning are those people. We are the people of God. We are Abraham’s offspring. We are those who will inherit the promises with Christ.

So, this morning as we have praised God in song and in prayer, it is fitting, for he is our God, committed to us, and is our protector. Therefore, just as the psalmist declared hundreds of years ago that God is to be greatly praised, so we can declare it now. The difference is, we do not think in terms of God dwelling in a certain city alone, for God’s people are in all the earth. Jerusalem has indeed become the joy of all the earth not because every person in the world has gone there but because Jesus of Nazareth came there and has sent the gospel out from there to all the earth even as he told his disciples to be his witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the uttermost parts of the earth.

Therefore, this morning we should rest in the fact that God is committed to us and is our protector. Does this mean no harm will come to us and all will go well with us? No, it does not mean no harm will come to us. But it does mean that no harm will come to us apart from the gracious control of our God. As he is our fortress, nothing can come to us apart from coming through his hands. Therefore, what is going on in our lives right now that is causing us anxiety, whether it is that we have no job, have no spouse, do not have financial security, or whatever else need not lead us to great anxiety. Instead, we should say, “What is going on in my life right now has been measured out by the hand of the Creator who is committed to me and who has sent his Son to die in order that I might be redeemed.” He knows what is best, does not seek to crush you, but only seeks that which is best for you and brings most honor to him. Let us praise him for his is our King, our God, and our Protector.

In the second movement of the storyline we are told that the enemy kings have assembled together to attack the city. They have lined up and have come to mount their attack. However, as they come near the city and actually set their eyes on it, their reaction is far different from those who saw the fortifications of the city, God’s presence in the city, and rejoiced. Rather, we read in verses 5-7, “As soon as they saw it, they were astounded; they were in panic; they took to flight. Trembling took hold of them there, anguish as of a woman in labor. By the east wind you shattered the ships of Tarshish.” As they behold the Lord, they see him not as their King but as their Judge and Conqueror. He is a warrior, and he destroys them. Even as the ships of Tarshish were known as a great power in the ancient world, the Lord shatters them with only the wind.

Thus, we are reminded again in this text as we are throughout the entirety of Scripture that God will indeed crush all his enemies.

God will crush all his enemies (4-7)

Even from the very point of the Fall, one of the gracious promises that God makes is that he will destroy his enemies, and therefore the enemies of his people. In Genesis 3:15 he promises to crush the head of the serpent who had tempted Eve to sin. In the Exodus he destroys the Egyptians who held his people captive. And when he returns, he has promised that death itself, the last enemy, will be destroyed. Even declarations in the Old Testament such as “the Lord is my Shepherd” which typically conger up images of a gentle man holding a sheep in his arms should also (and maybe to a greater degree) conger up images of his using his rod and staff to kill bears or wolves or anything that would seek to do harm to the sheep. God will crush his enemies.

Therefore, as we go through life with the comfort that nothing comes to us without being measured out in God’s hand, so we can know that everything which is a product of sin and the futility to which this world has been subjected because of our sin will be destroyed. This means that when we hear stories of a child being run over while someone was backing the car out of the garage, a baby dying from suffocation in his sleep, or a mother or father being taken from their families what we feel is way too early, we can rightly hate it. It is good and right to say that we hate death, for it is an enemy of our God. It is not wrong to be angry with death, for every funeral, even the funeral of a believer is a reminder to us that we are still in a world where sin is real and where death (which was ushered in because of sin) still reigns.

However, as believers, we do not have to mourn in the same way the world does because even as Psalm 48 pictures, we can know that our God is our Warrior, and he will one day ultimately destroy Satan, and sin, and death, and they will be no more. So, let us take comfort in the fact that our God is not a caring but incompetent King but a Warrior who is compassionate toward his people and wrathful against his great enemies.

The third movement through the psalm is then the response of the people. They know God is among them, and they had heard of his great works, but now they have seen them. They have seen God demonstrate his love and care for them. Thus, the psalmist declares, “As we have heard, so have we seen in the city of the LORD of hosts, in the city of our God, which God will establish forever” (v. 8).

And this leads them to ponder and meditate on his love for him, even as they express in verse 9. They think of his steadfast love which he has pledged toward them and which moves him to care for them, and they begin to praise him. And this praise goes out from Zion to the ends of the earth, as verse 10 tells us. His praise spreads from Zion to the ends of the earth, for it is clear that God is righteous and his judgments are perfect (v. 11).

More than simply knowing God is among them, they now reflect on his works for them, consider his steadfast love for them, and they praise him. This is a reminder to us that we must spend time considering God’s act of kindness and love and grace toward us and praise him for it before others.

We must meditate on how we have seen God work and praise him for it (8-11)

Part of God’s deliverance of his people from darkness into light is so that we might declare his excellencies. However, the problem is that it is oftentimes rare that we pause to intentionally think on what all he has done for us and then to publicly declare his praise before others. Even as all but one of the lepers whom Jesus heals find no problem in coming to him to ask for help but are not to found returning to thank him, so it is far too easy for us to lift up requests for our needs but to forget what God has done for us and not praise him and thank him before others for it.

Imagine if the people in the city saw all the kings of the earth attack the city only to see God destroy them, and then they simply went on as if their victory was the work of their hands or quickly forgot about God’s work. That is the equivalent of what we can be tempted to do in our own lives. Our God cares for us daily, and we must make intentional effort to think on his works of grace toward us and to praise him for it.

In the final movement of the storyline, having seen their great King defend them and having praised him for his righteousness and love, the psalmist urges the people to stop and behold this great city that God has built. He wants them to walk around the city, see the towers, notice how protected it is, and see how able the city is to be defended. But he does not want them to do this in order that they might boast of the city. He wants them to take this long careful look so that they might realize that this is the work of God and so that they might tell the next generation that this is God who protects us, defends us, loves us, and cares for us. And he wants them to realize that not only is he their God today, but he will be their God forever and will guide them forever. He writes, “Walk about Zion, go around her, number her towers, consider well her ramparts, go through her citadels, that you may tell the next generation that this is God, our God forever and ever. He will guide us forever” (vv. 12-14). He wants the people to tell the next generation who their God is, what he has done, and what he indeed will do. And this must be true of us as well.

We must tell the next generation who our God is, what he has done, and what he will do (12-14)

One of the great privileges of watching God care for us first in redeeming us and then in our walk through this life is that we get to tell the next generation about him, what he has done, and what he will do. In my own life I hold tight to a stories such as my dad’s dad telling about dreaming that he led a man to Christ, waking, going to him, sharing the gospel with him, and witnessing the Lord open his heart to receive it. I remember my dad telling me about praying diligently for his local church one night when over the next few weeks their witnessed numerous people come to Christ, including my mom’s dad, shortly before he died of lung cancer. And I’ve been told of numerous stories of God’s provision, oftentimes people receiving money in the amount of the exact dollar and cent that they needed. And these stories have encouraged me. They have been passed down by the generations above so that I might know what God is like, what he has done, that he can be trusted, and what indeed he has promised to do in the future.

But it would be a tragedy for us to allow those past stories alone to stand. For then we may communicate to the next generation that these are the things God once did the past, that this is a God who was once committed to his people, or is a God who once proved he could be trusted. Rather, we must tell them what we have seen. We must declare with the psalmist, “As we have heard, so we have seen …” We must help those around us to stop and look and behold what God has done that they might know this is God, that he is our God, and that he will guide us forever. My prayer is that the next generation of believers in this community are filled with stories of God’s work for his people in this generation. But that will only be the case if we are faithful to declare his praise and tell others of his work and provision.

What is interesting about Psalm 48 is that it is a psalm which in many ways seems to celebrate Jerusalem, this great city that could not be destroyed. And yet Jerusalem was destroyed, the temple and all in 70 A.D. But does that mean that God’s presence is no longer with us, that God’s promises cannot be trusted, or that God cannot stop his enemies? No. It is a reminder to us that Psalm 48 is speaking of more than Jerusalem. Zion is only a symbol of the whole earth, for God is right now King of all the earth, he has people over all the earth, and when he returns this whole earth will be declared to be his kingdom. And it is a reminder to those who are non-Christians this morning that you do not have to make a pilgrimage to Jerusalem to have a relationship him, for even as Jesus has said, “The hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. … But the hour is coming when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him” (John 4:21-23). The hour has come in which the author of Hebrews can say that all people everywhere who have repented of their sins and placed their faith in Jesus Christ to save them “have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God” (Hebrews 12:22). Therefore, will you today remain his enemy and be crushed when he returns, thrown into an eternal lake of fire called hell? Or, will you bow to him and find your refuge in him?

For those who are Christians, Psalm 48 reminds us of a city to come, the new Jerusalem, for one day there will be a new heaven ad a new earth, and we will dwell there with our King, Jesus Christ. And when we are there we will share a meal with him, remembering that he gave his life for us. It is a meal that he has told us to delight in until he returns. We will indeed delight in that meal this morning as we close our time together in coming to the table. May it be a reminder to us that God is our God because he has made a covenant with him through the blood of Christ, that the enemies of Satan, sin, and death have received a fatal blow through his death and resurrection and will one day be destroyed, and may it be a time in which we meditate on God’s love for us and what he has done for us so that our hearts indeed overflow in praise to him. Let us declare that our God is greatly to be praised even as we come to the table. Amen.

THE CITY OF OUR GOD