Our Psalm of the month this month is PSALM 48. Since we’ll be singing it each week in July, I’d like to share a little bit of information about this Psalm with you.

Psalm 48 is in book II of the Psalter. The book of Psalms is broken up into five books, and each book ends with a doxology. The five-fold division of the Psalter is meant to mirror the five-fold division of the Torah, or Law. The books of the Torah are: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. Calls to meditate on, or delight in God’s law throughout the Psalms aren’t primarily drawing our attention to the Ten Commandments, but to the whole Torah. The Torah tells the story of how God created his people, delivered them from bondage, and brought them into fellowship with himself.

Book II in the Psalter (Psalms 42-72) focuses on the kingdom of God. Almost every Psalm in this section mentions the king or Jerusalem (the capital city of God’s people under the Old Covenant). The central theme of Psalm 48 is that God dwells in Jerusalem, and that his presence brings both blessing, and protection.

The Psalm begins by identifying God as the refuge of Jerusalem (v.3). When nations gather against the holy city, they crash like ships in a devastating storm (vs. 4-8). God’s providential protection over his people causes the psalmist to rejoice in God’s love and justice (vs. 9-11), and the Psalm concludes with a reflection on the glory of Zion (vs. 12-14).

What does it mean for us to sing this Psalm as Christians? First, it’s important to recognize that Jerusalem in the Old Testament always pointed forward to God’s heavenly city (Heb. 11:16). It’s the heavenly Jerusalem that descends to earth in Revelation 21:2, and her glory stretches far beyond a small plot of land in the Middle East. We are citizens of that heavenly Jerusalem (Phil. 3:20), a kingdom which can never be destroyed. Just like God defended Israel under the Old Covenant, today he defends his church, the people of the New Jerusalem (Gal. 4:26). When the gates of hell assemble in order to break down her walls, they are astounded, and flee in panic due to the King who has made himself known as a fortress (48:3). Hebrew Scholar Mark Futato writes, “By inviting worshipers to gaze on the protective walls and towers of Jerusalem, the poet invites them to see another reality, the protective presence of God.”

This Psalm reminds us that God is our defender and hope. It also reveals to us that God’s kingdom purposes have always been world-wide. His holy mountain is the joy of all the earth (v. 2), and his praise reaches to the ends of the earth (v. 10). The idea here is that God’s home, the heavenly city, is good news for the nations who embrace Jesus. Those who wage war against the church end up like ships thrust against the rocks by a strong east wind (v.7), but those who know the steadfast love of God are made citizens of the everlasting city. Instead of being broken against the ramparts of God’s kingdom, they’re granted refuge within the walls of God’s house.