Psalm 48
The city of Jerusalem (in Palestine) is one of the oldest cities in the world, and one which will always be known. It is built on several hills, the highest one is Mount Zion, which was where King David built his house, and where he set a Tent for the golden Ark.
Afterward the grand temple was built on a nearby hill, Mt. Moriah; and the Ark was placed in that; and the Lord. showed His cloud of glory there. So Jerusalem was called “the City of God,” and also often, “the City of Zion,” and “the City of David.”
The name Zion means sunny; the name Jerusalem means “a place of peace,” and there was peace there when the people obeyed God, but it has most often been a place of trouble and war, because the people have been careless of God’s words; for a long time many of them prayed to idols, and houses were built for the idols and other wicked ways were followed. Then God let fierce nations come against them, and tear down the high walls and burn the houses and the temple.
So this high city teaches that God is holy, and does not bless or accept gifts from His people when they do evil. But when the people were sorry for their wicked ways, He helped them to rebuild their city, although it is not told of ever being as beautiful as in the time of the first great kings.
It was to Jerusalem that Jesus, the Son of God, often came, while on earth; and taught the people of God. But the leaders did not like Jesus because He spoke against sin. And it was just outside that city’s walls that He was crucified. Since then the people of that nation have had no true peace; other nations have ruled eat, of Jerusalem, and the city of Jerusalem, and there is no temple for God.
But in this psalm Jerusalem is praised as city which God will at last bless; then He will truly be honored, and such praise sung:
“Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised in the city of our God, in the mountain of His holiness. Beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth Mount Zion.”
This high city pictures to us a much higher city, not on earth but in heaven where the Lord will have delight in those who have believed in Him, and where sin will ever enter, and called New Jerusalem, of which very blessed things: are told in the last chapters in the Bible. The people saved by the blood of the Lord Jesus are spoken of as a “city.” God gave the apostle John to see this in a vision, and told him to write what he saw:
“And I saw no temple therein: for the Lord Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it. And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it: for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof.” Rev, 21:22, 23.
ML 09/29/1940