Psalms 48:9

_WE HAVE THOUGHT OF THY LOVINGKINDNESS, O GOD, IN THE MIDST OF THY TEMPLE._ The second part: separated from the first by the "Selah" (Psalms 48:8). WE HAVE THOUGHT OF THY LOVING-KINDNESS, O GOD, IN THE MIDST OF THY TEMPLE - We revive the remebrance of if in the public congregation. The psalm was sung as a thanksgiving in the temple. "Thy loving-kindness" - namely, this act of thy grace; thy recent deliverance of us from our enemies....

9_O God! we have waited for thy mercy _This verse teaches us that the faithful were preserved by the power of God; for, when all things were in a state of the greatest confusion, they continued tranquil and patient until God at length, having pity upon them, brought them help. The Hebrew word, דמם,_damam, _which we have rendered _to wait, _properly signifies _to be silent, _and is here used to denote tranquillity of mind. From this we conclude, that the people of God were so harassed with dangers, that, had they listened to the judgment of carnal sense and reason, they would have been overwhelmed with terror; even as we know that men are in a state of continual uneasiness, and are driven hither and thither by contrary waves, until faith tranquillise their minds, and settle them in true patience. The amount of what the Psalmist says is, that the faithful, although severely afflicted, were...

8-14 We have here the improvement which the people of God are to make of his glorious and gracious appearances for them. Let our faith in the word of God be hereby confirmed. Let our hope of the stability of the church be encouraged. Let our minds be filled with good thoughts of God. All the streams of mercy that flow down to us, must be traced to the fountain of His loving-kindness. Let us give to God the glory of the great things he has done for us. Let all the members of the church take comfort from what the Lord does for his church. Let us observe the beauty, strength, and safety of the church. Consider its strength; see it founded on Christ the Rock, fortified by the Divine power, guarded by Him who neither slumbers nor sleeps. See what precious ordinances are its palaces, what precious promises are its bulwarks, that you may be encouraged to join yourselves to it: and tell this to...

Verse Psalms 48:9. _WE HAVE THOUGHT OF THY LOVING-KINDNESS_] We went to thy temple to worship thee; we meditated on thy goodness; we waited for a display of it; and the panic that in the first instance struck _us_, was transferred to our _enemies_; and _fear took hold upon_ _them, they marvelled, were troubled_, and _hasted away_....

WE HAVE THOUGHT OF THY LOVING-KINDNESS, O GOD - We have reflected on, or meditated on. The word used here literally means “to compare, to liken;” and this idea is perhaps always implied when it is used in the sense of thinking on, or meditating on. Perhaps the meaning here is, that they had “compared” in their own minds what they had heard from their fathers with what they had now seen; they had called all these things up to their remembrance, and had compared the one with the other. IN THE MIDST OF THY TEMPLE - See the notes at Psalms 5:7. The allusion here most probably is to the “temple,” properly so called, as these transactions are supposed to have occurred after the building of the temple by Solomon. The expression here also would make it probable that the psalm was composed after the defeat and overthrow of the armies

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 ...

WE HAVE THOUGHT OF THY LOVINGKINDNESS, O GOD,.... Jarchi interprets it, "we have waited for thy lovingkindness"; to see thy salvation; and some, as Ben Melech observes, explain it of hope and expectation; as if the sense was, "we have hoped for thy lovingkindness"; so the Syriac version renders it, and the word used has the signification of tarrying, 1 Samuel 14:9. God has his set time to favour his Zion, and till that time comes it is right in them to be hoping, expecting, and waiting for it. The Chaldee paraphrase is, "we have esteemed thy goodness"; it being very excellent, exceeding valuable, and better than life itself; but other Jewish writers, as Menachem, Aben Ezra, Kimchi, and Ben Melech, render it as we do, "we have thought", c. The lovingkindness of God towards his people in Christ is a very delightful and profitable subject to dwell in meditation upon, to consider the objects...

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