{"id":1146,"date":"2020-06-29T22:51:15","date_gmt":"2020-06-29T21:51:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pbthomas.com\/blog\/?p=1146"},"modified":"2020-06-29T22:51:17","modified_gmt":"2020-06-29T21:51:17","slug":"the-glorious-city-of-god-psalm-48","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/pbthomas.com\/blog\/?p=1146","title":{"rendered":"The Glorious City of God Psalm 48"},"content":{"rendered":"

We looked last week at Psalms 46 and 47. Those two Psalms gave us a number of reasons why we should put our trust in God.<\/p>\n

1 God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble.<\/p>\n

Because God is creator and sustainer of all things we need not fear natural disasters. Even if the whole earth should come to an end, God is in control!
\nAnd God is also the Ruler over all the nations, the awesome great King over all the earth. So God\u2019s people do not need to fear anything that other people can do to us.
\nGod has made his chosen people into a great nation and God is always working out his cosmic masterplan of salvation through his chosen people. We are never alone. The ever-present God will never fail us or forsake us or abandon us.
\nSo God is our refuge and strength, always ready to help in times of trouble. NLT<\/p>\n

Psalm 46:10 He says, \u2018Be still, and know that I am God;
\nI will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.\u2019<\/p>\n

God is ALREADY exalted all over the earth and among all the nations. And God ALWAYS WILL BE exalted and honoured over all the earth and among all the nations.
\nSo what we need to do is, Be still and know that I am God.
\n1 God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble.<\/p>\n

So on to Psalm 48. We said last week that many theologians link Psalms 46 and 47 together with Psalm 48 with the suggestion of an annual ritual drama performed in the temple. They think it was part of a celebration of the Lord\u2019s kingship over all the earth. Psalm 48 focuses on one particular way in which God keeps his chosen people safe. This way was a vital expression of the salvation God provided for Israel.
\nPsalm 48 1 Great is the LORD, and most worthy of praise, in the city of our God, his holy mountain.
\n2 Beautiful in its loftiness, the joy of the whole earth,
\nlike the heights of Zaphon is Mount Zion, the city of the Great King.
\n3 God is in her citadels; he has shown himself to be her fortress.<\/p>\n

God expressed his love for his chosen people in his Holy City Jerusalem. Built on Mount Zion, Jerusalem was the political and military capital city of the nation where the King had his palace.
\nAt the same time Jerusalem was also the spiritual centre of Israel because it was the location of Solomon\u2019s Temple. That was where sacrifices were offered day by day and particularly year after year at the great Festivals celebrating Israel\u2019s faith. The nation believed that God was especially present in his Temple and in His Holy City and that as a consequence He would always protect Jerusalem.
\nSo the Israelites found God to be their refuge and strength especially within Jerusalem.
\nFor God\u2019s chosen people, the city of God is the most beautiful and glorious place in the world.
\nPsalm 48 1 Great is the LORD, and most worthy of praise, in the city of our God, his holy mountain.
\n2 Beautiful in its loftiness, the joy of the whole earth,
\nlike the heights of Zaphon is Mount Zion, the city of the Great King.<\/p>\n

Because God in in his Holy City his people are safe there.<\/p>\n

3 God is in her citadels; he has shown himself to be her fortress.<\/p>\n

Verse 8 8 As we have heard, so we have seen in the city of the LORD Almighty,
\nin the city of our God: God makes her secure for ever.
\nThe Israelites were convinced that God would always protect His Holy City and defend her against any attacks from other nations
\n4 When the kings joined forces, when they advanced together,
\n5 they saw her and were astounded; they fled in terror.
\n6 Trembling seized them there, pain like that of a woman in labour.
\n7 You destroyed them like ships of Tarshish shattered by an east wind.<\/p>\n

God will keep Jerusalem safe because his Temple is there. The God who is Lord of heaven and earth has chosen to make Jerusalem his home
\n9 Within your temple, O God, we meditate on your unfailing love.
\n10 Like your name, O God, your praise reaches to the ends of the earth;
\nyour right hand is filled with righteousness.
\n11 Mount Zion rejoices, the villages of Judah are glad because of your judgments.<\/p>\n

Because God is in His Temple he will keep the whole city and of his chosen people within it safe forever.
\n12 Walk about Zion, go round her, count her towers,
\n13 consider well her ramparts, view her citadels,
\nthat you may tell of them to the next generation.
\n14 For this God is our God for ever and ever; he will be our guide even to the end.<\/p>\n

God is especially present in His Temple and in His Holy City and so he is the strength and refuge of all His chosen people there.
\nPsalm 46 7 The LORD Almighty is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress.<\/p>\n

This is another of the Psalms written the Sons of Korah. We can be pretty sure it was written in the tenth or ninth centuries BC, long before the time when God would allow the Babylonians to tear down Jerusalem and destroy the Temple and take the few surviving Israelites off to exile scattered across Babylonia. It expresses the complete faith the Israelites had in their God\u2019s care and protection. They still trusted God in the face of overwhelming opposition.
\nAs Christians, we view Jerusalem differently. The geographical city of Jerusalem has an important place in the history of the Jews and equally in the history of the church. Our Lord Jesus Christ died and rose again in Jerusalem. The church was born and grew out from Jerusalem. But Christians don\u2019t attach the same importance to the city or to the ruins of the Temple there as the Jews still do.
\nFor us there is a new Temple. The church is God\u2019s new Temple. We are the living stones being built into a holy Temple and God lives in us by His Holy Spirit
\nFor us there is a new city of God, the new Jerusalem. The church is the new city of God, now scattered throughout the earth but waiting one day to be revealed in glory.
\nRevelation 21 2 I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. 3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, \u2018Look! God\u2019s dwelling-place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God.
\nVerse 9 One of the seven angels who had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues came and said to me, \u2018Come, I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb.\u2019 10 And he carried me away in the Spirit to a mountain great and high, and showed me the Holy City, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God. 11 It shone with the glory of God, and its brilliance was like that of a very precious jewel.
\nSo the Old Testament city of God, Jerusalem, has been replaced by the New Jerusalem, the Bride of Christ, the Church. The old Temples lie in ruins but we are the New Temple where the Holy Spirit lives. These ideas are summed up in a number of well-known hymns.
\nGLORIOUS THINGS OF THEE ARE SPOKEN, Zion, city of our God!
\nHe whose word cannot be broken Formed thee for His own abode.
\nOn the Rock of Ages founded, What can shake thy sure repose?
\nWith salvation\u2019s walls surrounded, Thou mayest smile at all thy foes.<\/p>\n

See! The streams of living waters, Springing from eternal love,
\nWell supply thy sons and daughters, And all fear of want remove;
\nWho can faint, whilst such a river Ever flows their thirst to assuage?
\nGrace which, like the Lord, the Giver, Never fails from age to age.<\/p>\n

Round each habitation hovering, See the cloud and fire appear!
\nFor a glory and a covering, Showing that the Lord is near.
\nHe who gives them daily manna, He who listens when they cry:
\nLet Him hear the loud hosanna Rising to His throne on high.<\/p>\n

The church is the new city of God. We are the new Temple. So what does Psalm 48 have to say to us today? Something which I think is very important.
\nFor us as Christians, Jerusalem and Mount Zion are now metaphors and symbols. God is still our refuge and strength. God is still our fortress. But our safety does not lie in some physical city on Mount Zion, or anywhere else. Our safety DOES still lie in the New Jerusalem, the church.
\nLet me put it another way. God wants us to experience peace and security. These come to us in our relationship with Him. But God\u2019s peace and security also come to us through other Christians in our shared life in the church. We experience God caring for us, as Christians care for each other. We experience God helping us, as Christians help each other. God keeps us safe, as we keep each other safe.
\nMany folk have been saying to me during these hundred days of lockdown how much of a help and comfort the church family have been to them. We have been appreciating our fellowship and our common life together more and more. God has been our strength and refuge, and we have experienced that in the community of the church.
\nJim Wallis and his organisation the Sojourners, is an influential advocate of Biblical community. In his book, Call to Conversion, he wrote \u201cThe greatest need of our time is for koinonia, the call simply to be the church, to love one another, and to offer our lives for the sake of the world … the creation of living, breathing, loving communities of faith at the local church level.\u201d Wallis argues from Ephesians that such a life of love is central to God’s purposes for the church, which should be a family rather than an institution or an organisation. \u201cCommunity is the great assumption of the New Testament.\u201d Community life, he says \u201cis both the lifestyle and vocation of the church.\u201d I like this bit. \u201cAt a minimum the church should be known as the kind of community that makes it more possible, not less possible, to follow Jesus.\u201d
\nSo God is our strength and our refuge and this comes to us in large part through our experience of the common life of the Christian community, the church. I can\u2019t find the exact quote, but Jim Wallis wrote that in all the crises which life can bring us to, he would rather have the support of the community of the church than the biggest Swiss bank account in the world.
\nGod is our strength and our refuge. The God of Jacob is our fortress. And as Christians God wants us to experience those blessings through the fellowship and community of the church.
\n1 Great is the LORD, and most worthy of praise, in the city of our God, his holy mountain.
\n3 God is in her citadels; he has shown himself to be her fortress.
\n8 As we have heard, so we have seen in the city of the LORD Almighty, in the city of our God: God makes her secure for ever.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We looked last week at Psalms 46 and 47. Those two Psalms gave us a number of reasons why we should put our trust…<\/span><\/p>\n

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