Psalm 48 is a song about God’s presence. It starts with some words (verses 1, NIV) that some Christians will also recognise from a popular song released in the 1980s:
Great is the LORD, and most worthy of praise, in the city of our God, his holy mountain.
The psalm, written by some relatives of Moses, talks about the city of God – Jerusalem – where, in the temple, God was specially present.
God’s presence is both everywhere and specific
We think of God as being omnipresent – he is everywhere – and yet the Bible talks also about revealing himself with a closeness. In the temple, God presence appeared in the Holy of Holies. But when Jesus died, the curtain separating the Holy of Holies was torn in two, respecting a barrier between God being eliminated.
The notion of God’s presence being specific, rather than only omnipresent appears through the Bible. For example, Matthew 18:20 (NIV) says:
For where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them.
Later, God sends the Holy Spirit at Pentecost into the lives of Christians. And we also have this idea, popularised by Calvin, of the spiritual real presence of Jesus when we consecrate the Holy Communion.
The place where the real God is present
The descendants of Korah, who wrote the psalm, compare Jerusalem to Zaphon, a city where the Canaanites thought their god Baal resided. They say that Mount Zion – i.e. Jerusalem – is a (metaphorically speaking) high place like Zaphon, except that it’s “the city of the Great King”.
God protects the faithful
Between verses 4 and 9, the authors reflect on the security God provided the Israelites through his love being “in the midst of your temple”. Clearly, when the descendants of Korah write down the psalm, it is already well established that God does not intervene to protect those Israelites who are in a state of rebellion. Their army had been defeated at Ai, in the days of Joshua, as a result of breaking God’s instructions.
The NIV says that “God makes her [Jerusalem] secure for ever”. At first glance, that doesn’t seem to reflect the subsequent history, unless we understand it as reliant on the followers of Yahweh remaining followers. And yet we read that King Manasseh of Judah, for example, in 2 Kings 21 rejected the Ten Commandments in the century before the Exile:
He did evil in the eyes of the LORD, following the detestable practices of the nations the LORD had driven out before the Israelites. He rebuilt the high places his father Hezekiah had destroyed; he also erected altars to Baal and made an Asherah pole, as Ahab king of Israel had done. He bowed down to all the starry hosts and worshipped them. He built altars in the temple of the LORD, of which the LORD had said, ‘In Jerusalem I will put my Name.’ In the two courts of the temple of the LORD, he built altars to all the starry hosts. He sacrificed his own son in the fire, practised divination, sought omens, and consulted mediums and spiritists. He did much evil in the eyes of the LORD, arousing his anger.
Later, after brief return to following God, “old idolatrous tendencies came flooding back”. According to F.F. Bruce in Israel and the Nations:
Early in Jehoiakim’s reign the prophet Jeremiah raised his voice in the temple court in Jerusalem… Because of the sin of the people, he declared, that sacred edifice which was intended to be a blessing to all the nations would become on the lips of all the nations a by-word for cursing [and] the temple would go down in ruin unless there was a speedy repentance.
Zion as a future city
If we go to other translations – like the ESV, KJV or CSB – we get a subtly different take.
The ESV refers to “the city of our God, which God will establish forever”. It’s a statement about the future. Revelation, of course, talks about a New Jerusalem coming from heaven, as part of God’s plan to create a new heaven and new earth without sin.
So returning to the theme of God’s presence in light of his plans for a new Jerusalem, let’s look at an earlier part of the psalm:
God is in her [Jerusalem’s] citadels;
he has shown himself to be her fortress.
We could interpret this as: having a right relationship with God, where we seek to follow his will, is protective. Not in the sense that we will never catch an illness or never die in our current lives, but in a more eternal sense. As 2 Thessalonians says: “But the Lord is faithful. He will establish you and guard you against the evil one.”