Psalms 48

The LORD is great, and he deserves great praise in the city of our God, on his holy mountain.

1Great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised in the city of our God, in the mountain of his holiness.

NoteLORD in small capitals stands for the personal name of Israel's God, four Hebrew consonants usually written YHWH. Jewish readers avoided pronouncing it and said "the Lord" instead, and English translations follow that custom. "The city of our God" and "his holy mountain" both mean Jerusalem, built on a ridge in the Judean hills, with the temple at its highest point.

2Mount Zion is beautiful in its height, and it brings joy to the whole earth. It rises on the northern side. It is the city of the great King.

2Beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth, is mount Zion, on the sides of the north, the city of the great King.

NoteZion was originally the name of the fortified hill David captured, and came to stand for the whole of Jerusalem. "On the sides of the north" translates a phrase that can simply mean the northern part of the ridge, but the Hebrew word for north is *zaphon*, also the name of the mountain that Canaanite poetry made the home of the gods. The line may therefore be claiming for Zion the status other peoples gave to Zaphon. The rendering keeps the plainer sense; the other reading cannot be ruled out.

3God is known inside her strong buildings as a safe place to hide.

3God is known in her palaces for a refuge.

Note"Palaces" in 1611 English meant fortified strongholds or citadels, not luxurious residences. The picture is of defensive towers inside the city walls.

4Look: the kings gathered and advanced together.

4For, lo, the kings were assembled, they passed by together.

5But when they saw the city, they were stunned. They were terrified, and they ran away.

5They saw it, and so they marvelled; they were troubled, and hasted away.

NoteThe scene is a coalition of enemy kings marching on the city, seeing something that stops them, and breaking off the attack. The psalm never says what they saw.

6Trembling gripped them there, and pain like a woman giving birth.

6Fear took hold upon them there, and pain, as of a woman in travail.

7You wreck the ships of Tarshish with a wind out of the east.

7Thou breakest the ships of Tarshish with an east wind.

NoteTarshish was a distant port, probably in the western Mediterranean, reached only by long sea voyages. "Ships of Tarshish" became a stock phrase for the largest ocean-going merchant vessels of the day, so the image is of the strongest ships afloat being smashed. The east wind off the desert was the wind Israelites associated with scorching heat and destructive storms.

8What we had been told, we have now seen for ourselves in the city of the LORD of Armies, in the city of our God. God will make it secure forever. Selah.

8As 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.

Note"The LORD of hosts" means the LORD commanding armies, either heavenly armies or Israel's, the Hebrew does not specify. "Selah" is a term that appears throughout the Psalms, most likely a musical or performance direction; its exact meaning was already lost in antiquity, and translators leave it untranslated.

9Inside your temple, God, we think about your faithful love.

9We have thought of thy lovingkindness, O God, in the midst of thy temple.

NoteThe Hebrew word behind "faithful love" is *hesed*, the loyalty owed within a binding relationship, steady commitment that keeps its obligations rather than warm feeling.

10Your name, God, and the praise you receive, reach to the farthest parts of the earth. Your right hand is full of justice.

10According to thy name, O God, so is thy praise unto the ends of the earth: thy right hand is full of righteousness.

NoteIn Hebrew usage a name stands for the whole reputation and character of the one who bears it. The right hand is the standard image for active power, the hand that wields a weapon or hands down a verdict.

11Let Mount Zion be glad. Let the towns of Judah rejoice because of the decisions you make.

11Let mount Zion rejoice, let the daughters of Judah be glad, because of thy judgments.

Note"Daughters of Judah" is a Hebrew idiom for the smaller towns and villages that clustered around a main city and depended on it, much as we might say outlying settlements; it can also be read as the women of Judah, and the two senses were probably both available to the original hearers. "Judgments" here means verdicts actually carried out, decisions God has made and acted on, in this case against the attacking kings.

12Walk around Zion. Go all the way around her. Count her towers.

12Walk about Zion, and go round about her: tell the towers thereof.

Note"Tell" in the King James Version keeps its older sense of "count," as in a bank teller. The invitation is to make a circuit of the walls and take an inventory of the defenses.

13Look closely at her defensive walls. Study her strong buildings. Then you can describe them to the next generation.

13Mark ye well her bulwarks, consider her palaces; that ye may tell it to the generation following.

Note"Bulwarks" means ramparts: the earthworks and outer defensive walls of a fortified city.

14This God is our God forever and ever. He will be our guide, right up to death.

14For this God is our God for ever and ever: he will be our guide even unto death.

NoteThe final Hebrew phrase, *al-muth*, is obscure. It is usually read as "unto death," but the same consonants can be divided to give "forever" or "beyond death," and some scholars think the words are a stray musical notation that belongs to the heading of the next psalm. The rendering takes the most common reading.