Psalms 48:2

_BEAUTIFUL FOR SITUATION, THE JOY OF THE WHOLE EARTH, IS MOUNT ZION, ON THE SIDES OF THE NORTH, THE CITY OF THE GREAT KING._ Beautiful for situation - rather, 'in its elevation' х_ NOWP_ (H5131)]. In so far only as the physical height is a symbol of the spiritual does the Psalmist value it. Compare Psalms 68:16, wherein "the hill which God desireth to dwell in" is preferred to all the "high hills" of pagandom. Compare Isaiah 2:2; Ezekiel 40:2, where the ideal "very high mountain (in the land of Israel), with the frame of a city on the south," is beheld in vision (Revelation

2._Beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth, is mount Zion _For the confirmation of the statement made in the preceding sentence, the prophet celebrates the excellencies for which mount Zion was at that time renowned; and in them was to be seen the glory of God, of which I have just now spoken. The beauty of its situation, which he mentions in the first place, was indeed natural; but by it he gives us to understand, that from the very commencement the agreeable appearance of the city had engraven upon it marks of the favor of God, so that the sight of it alone showed that God had in a special manner adorned and enriched that place, with the view of its being, at some future period, consecrated to sacred purposes. I do not, however, think that the situation is called beautiful and pleasant, merely because it was unequalled in the country of Judea; for there were other cities, a...

1-7 Jerusalem is the city of our God: none on earth render him due honour except the citizens of the spiritual Jerusalem. Happy the kingdom, the city, the family, the heart, in which God is great, in which he is all. There God is known. The clearer discoveries are made to us of the Lord and his greatness, the more it is expected that we should abound in his praises. The earth is, by sin, covered with deformity, therefore justly might that spot of ground, which was beautified with holiness, be called the joy of the whole earth; that which the whole earth has reason to rejoice in, that God would thus in very deed dwell with man upon the earth. The kings of the earth were afraid of it. Nothing in nature can more fitly represent the overthrow of heathenism by the Spirit of the gospel, than the wreck of a fleet in a storm. Both are by the mighty power of the Lord....

Verse Psalms 48:2. _THE JOY OF THE WHOLE EARTH_] Commentators have been greatly puzzled to show in what sense Zion, or the temple, could be said to be the _joy of the whole earth_. If we take the earth here for the _habitable_ globe, there is no sense in which it ever was the joy of the whole earth; but If we take כל הארץ _col_ _haarets_, as signifying the _whole of this land_, (and it has no other meaning,) the assertion is plain and easy to be understood, for the temple was considered the _ornament_ and _glory_ of the whole _land_ of Judea....

BEAUTIFUL FOR SITUATION - The word rendered “situation” - נוף _nôph_ - means properly “elevation, height,” (Ges. Lexicon); and the idea here is, that the mountain referred to is “beautiful for elevation;” that is, it rises gracefully. The allusion here is to Jerusalem as it would appear to one approaching it, and especially as it appeared to the “kings” Psalms 48:4 who came to invest it, and who were so impressed with its marvelous beauty and strength, that they were afraid to attack it, and turned away Psalms 48:5. THE JOY OF THE WHOLE EARTH - Either the whole “land” of Palestine, or the whole world. Most probably the former is the meaning; and the idea is that, as a place of beauty and strength, and as a

EXPOSITION HERE we have another psalm of thanksgiving for a deliverance, but not apparently for the same deliverance as gave occasion for either of the two preceding psalms. Israel had now been delivered from a confederacy of kings (Psalms 48:4), who had come within sight of the city, but had then been seized with panic, and retreated, without making an attack (Psalms 48:5). After this, pain had come upon them, and they had been "broken," like "ships of Tarshish with an east wind" (Psalms 48:6, Psalms 48:7). The deliverance had been celebrated by a thanksgiving service held in the temple ...

BEAUTIFUL FOR SITUATION,.... This, and what follows, are said of the city of God, the city of Jerusalem, which was delightfully situated on an eminence, in a wholesome air; the brook Kidron gliding by it, the water of Siloah running through it or at least through some parts of it; fields and gardens adjoining to it, and mountains all around it: and so the church of Christ is built upon him, the Rock; the river of divine love runs by it, the streams whereof make it glad; the green pastures of the word and ordinances are in it; and salvation is as walls and bulwarks about it; and so healthful is it, that the inhabitants have no reason to say they are sick, since the people that dwell therein have their iniquities forgiven, Isaiah 33:24; THE JOY OF THE WHOLE EARTH: that is, the city of Jerusalem,...

Psalms 48:1. _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, is mount Zion, on the sides of the north, the city of the great King. God is known in her palaces for a refuge._ It was so with the literal Jerusalem; and it is so now with the Church of Christ, of which «the city of the great King» was a type. God still dwelleth among men; his Spirit abides with his people; and his Church stands securely upon the rock of his eternal purposes, evermore the same. Psalms 48:4. _For, lo, the kings were assembled,_ The adversaries, who boasted that they would destroy Jerusalem: «the kings were assembled,»...

Psalms 48 The Judgment of the Nations and the Millennium _ 1. Jerusalem the city of the King (Psalms 48:1)_ 2. The confederated nations scattered (Psalms 48:4) 3. The millennium (Psalms 48:8) Jerusalem is now seen as the city of the great King. His glorious throne will there be established, and Mount Zion becomes the joy of the whole earth. Psalms 48:4 show what preceded the coming of the King. The nations had come against Jerusalem (Zecharia

XLVIII. A PSALM WHICH DESCRIBES THE IMPRESSION MADE ON A PILGRIM BY HIS VISIT TO ZION. Psalms 48:1 f. Praise of Zion. SIDES OF THE NORTH is hard to comprehend. It has been explained as contrasting Zion, the true mountain of the North, with the Oriental Olympus (Isaiah 14:13). The text, however, does not even hint at any such contrast. Mount Zion did indeed occupy the NE. corner of Jerusalem, but what of that? It has been suggested that the pilgrim came from the extreme S. of Egypt. But even then he must have known that there were mountains far further N. Really the text is unintelligible and probably corrupt. PSALMS 48:3. God's protection of His own city. The poet is thinking of Sennacherib's fate (s