Psalm 48. Psalm chapter 48. This is Psalm
48, part 1. I was looking at the psalm this
week, and it's a wonderful, wonderful psalm. And I was looking at this
psalm and I was going to preach on verse 10. According to Thy
name, O God, so is Thy praise unto the ends of the earth. Thy
right hand is full of righteousness. And then as I further studied
this psalm, and I was talking to Brother Norm Wells yesterday
about this. I said I had all intentions of
preaching on verse 10, but as I read this psalm two or three
times, I just felt impressed to preach the whole psalm. So
we're going to break it up into a couple of different night studies.
It's going to be a three or four week study on Psalm 48. Psalm 48. And we'll look at three
or four verses at a time. Tonight we'll be looking at verses
1 to 3. And it's just a wonderful psalm.
It's a very uplifting picture of our great God and His elect
people, the church of the Lord Jesus Christ who He purchased
with His own precious blood. Let's look at the psalm. We'll
read the whole thing. Psalm 48, starting in verse 1.
A song and psalm for the sons of Korah. 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. For lo, the kings were assembled,
they passed together, they sought, and so they marveled. They were
troubled and hasted away. Fear took upon them there, and
pain as of a woman in travail. Thou breakest the ships of Tarnish
with an east wind. As we have heard, so have we
seen in the city of the Lord of hosts." In the city of our
God. God will establish it forever,
Selah. We know that Zion speaks of the
church. God has established the church forever in Christ. We have thought of thy loving
kindness, O God, in the midst of thy temple. According to thy
name, O God, so is thy praise unto the ends of the earth. Thy
right hand is full of righteousness." And the right hand speaks of
power. And the right hand speaks of our Savior, who is full of
righteousness. Let Mount Zion rejoice. Let the
daughters of Judah be glad because of thy judgments. Walk about
Zion and go about her. Tell the towers thereof. Mark
ye well her bulwarks. Consider her palaces that ye
may tell it to the generation following. For this God is our
God forever and ever. He will be our guide even unto
death. What a wonderful psalm. What
great comfort this can bring God's people. And I think that
this psalm will bring us great comfort as believers, as we look
through it. And we see the, you know, we
look through this psalm tonight, we see how God takes care of
His people. How God takes care of His church.
And we have an election coming up. And there's some uncertainty,
right? There is. But let us focus on the fact
that, again, even after this election, and Norm and I were
talking about this, even after the election, our king's still
beyond the throne. And however long he tarries,
beloved, he'll be on the throne. And when we're in eternity with
him, he'll still be on the throne. So let us rest in that. See,
we can draw, that's a well of comfort. We can draw from that
well, can't we? That's a well of comfort for
God's people. And we see through this psalm that the Lord takes
care of his people, takes care of his church. So what a beautiful picture we
have before us. Zion, as we know, is speaking of Jerusalem, but
we also know from our studies that it's a reference to the
church of God. Robert Hawker comments, Zion, the Zion of Jesus,
the gospel Zion, the church. Zion is the church. And here
before us in this wonderful psalm, the prophet speaks of Zion's
situation and God's relation to her. In the psalmist, speaks
of God's care for her. God's care for Zion. And we know from, like I said,
we know from studying scripture that Zion points to the church.
God cares for the church and he providentially protects them.
Have you not seen that in your own life? Oh my, even before
we were saved. That's the one that just blows
my mind away. Even before we were saved. He
protected us and took care of us. So we see that we also see
that Zion will be a terror to her enemies because they see
God at work in her. And we see that God is keeping,
and remember this when we go through trials and tribulations,
God is keeping Zion. God is keeping the church. He's
with her. He's with her. He's keeping her,
and he's watching over her. Just as the Lord watches over
his people, just as a shepherd watches over his sheep. And a
good shepherd, oh, he keeps his eye on them sheep. And he protects
them. There's a wolf coming. Whack!
He'd go out and protect them. And remember this, I remember
reading one old commentator, and this just struck me. He said,
the shepherd has a responsibility to protect the sheep. He has a responsibility to protect
the sheep. Jesus Christ will take care of his people. He'll
protect the sheep through everything. And then he takes us home to
glory. What a shepherd, what a redeemer, what a mighty God
we have. He's the one true God. We looked
at that this morning. He's the one true God who has
all power, all majesty. Poole comments on the writing
of this psalm here. Matthew Poole, he comments this.
This psalm was composed upon the occasion of some eminent
deliverance vouchsafed by God to the city of Jerusalem. from
some potent enemy and dreadful danger, either that in Jehoshaphat's
time or that under Hezekiah, in both which times there were
holy prophets by some of whom this psalm might be made." So
most commentators believe it was after a deliverance. And
that's why we see that God is delivering Zion, caring for Zion,
watching over Zion. And let us look at this first
verse. Tonight, as I said, we'll be covering the first three verses.
Let's look at the first verse of this wonderful psalm. And
as we look at this, let us keep in mind this, that Zion's being delivered.
As we look at this psalm, Zion's being delivered, and it's God
who's done this. It's God who's done this. And
we saw today, this morning, God is the one who delivers us. God
is the one who heals us. God's the one who pardons us.
We've sinned against him. And he's the one, though, who
does all these things for us. And, beloved, I can tell you,
you can look back on your life And if you're a believer, you
can look back on your life, and you can see now that you're on
the other side, how God delivered you time after time after time
after time. And he will continue to do that
for his people. He will continue. He will always.
He said this. I'll never leave you, nor forsake
you. And in the Greek, that's never,
not ever, never. Never. What a Redeemer. That's a Savior that I can rest
my eternal soul on. Is He your Redeemer? Oh, I pray
you flee to Him. Oh, He said He'd never leave. So let us keep this in mind,
that Zion, the church, a picture of the church is being delivered,
and it's God who's done this. And also let us, again, keep
in mind that the church is a picture. Zion is a picture of the church.
Brother Jim read that scripture that I mentioned this morning
about how these are for our learning, for us to learn. These pictures
in the Old Testament are to teach us, look, God takes care of his
people. God's redeemed his people. He
saves his people from their sins. And we have such types and shadows
and pictures. And remember this, I didn't bring
this up this morning, but as Norm and I were talking yesterday,
he brought out something that was marvelous. He said, remember
that there's types and pictures in the Old Testament. And a type
and picture is on purpose. It's there on purpose. It's not
there by accident. It's there on purpose to teach
us. This psalm's here on purpose to teach us how God will deliver
his people. How God will never leave his
people. Never. It's wonderful. Turn if you would to Luke 24,
44 before we get into the study. And again, May we always remember that a
type or a shadowing of Christ in the Old Testament is, again,
always on purpose. It's not by accident. It's not
by accident. And there are many, many pictures
of Christ. There's pictures we've never
seen. But God reveals them to his people as he's pleased to
do that. How many times have you read a scripture? You'll
be reading a scripture like that one brother Matt read this morning
about the outcast. I was sharing with Matt before
service. I had never seen that. until I was looking at a cross
reference for the message this morning for a scripture reading,
and I went, oh my gosh, look at this. A little word, outcasts. That's who we are. Zion though,
but we're Zion. We're God's people. My, oh my,
what a picture. And so remember, let's always
remember that there's pictures and shadows and types in the
Old Testament. And as God is pleased to reveal them to us,
Brother Jim, you mentioned that this morning, as God's pleased
to reveal them, He will. He will. Look at this in Luke
24, 44. In light of that, in light of
the types and shadows in the Old Testament, And He said, Luke
24, 44, this is our Master speaking to the two on the road to Arimaeus.
And He said unto them, These are the words which I spake unto
you while I was yet with you. that all things must be fulfilled
which were written in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and
the Psalms concerning me." Look at this. Then opened he their
understanding. See, they didn't know. Now what
happens? He opens their understanding
that they might understand the Scriptures. When God opens up
our understanding on the Scriptures, we see Christ. But the Law... which were written in the Law
of Moses and the Prophets and in the Psalms concerning me."
That's the Old Testament, beloved. When our masters speak in here,
they don't have the New Testament. See, these preachers that say,
well, they preach the history of Israel and they preach history
in the Old Testament, and they don't preach Christ, they don't
know Christ. Because, beloved, He's all through
this book. He's all the Old Testament. It all speaks of Him. It all
points to Him. He says here, He says, which
were written in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms,
what? Concerning Me. That's what our Master says.
So there's types and shadows and pictures. And beloved, again,
they're all on purpose. They're all on purpose. In our
prayer, my prayer as a preacher is, oh Lord, open up our understanding. Open up our understanding. The
Holy Spirit, please illuminate the Scriptures for us that we
might learn and grow in Christ. Because as the Scripture says,
then open he their understanding that they might understand the
Scriptures. If Christ doesn't open up our understanding to
the things of the Word, we're never knowing. But what does
he do for his people? How many times, as I said, have
you been reading the scripture and go, oh my, wow, look at that. It's beautiful. Or a preacher
be preaching, or even just use a cross-reference, and you're
stuck in that cross-reference while the preacher's still going
and it's just opening up before your eyes. My goodness, isn't
the Lord so good? So let's look at Psalm 48, verse
1. We'll look at verse 1. Look at
here. Great is the Lord. We could spend
weeks there. Great is the Lord. And greatly
to be praised in the city of our God, in the mountain of His
holiness. So verse 1 starts off with a
wonderful statement here before us, which springs from the lips
of the church of God. This is what God's people say.
Great is the Lord. Oh, He's great. He's great in
power and majesty. He's a great Redeemer, a great
Savior, a great God, the one true God. Great is the Lord. And He's greatly to be praised,
isn't He? If our Lord is great, then He's greatly to be praised.
Oh, my. Now the name Lord there, the
word Lord, is there Jehovah, the self-existent one. We see
it often times, the eternal one. The Jewish national name of God,
Jehovah the Lord. Great is Jehovah. He's great. And again, this is the cry of
every one of God's people. We proclaim the greatness of
our God. There was a time when we didn't
think he was great. There was a time when we didn't even consider
him. Oh, now, when God the Holy Spirit
regenerates you, don't you think he's great? My, why do you, because he's
opened your understanding, isn't he? He's showing you his greatness. He's manifest his greatness,
not only in the scriptures, but in our lives as well, and what
he's done. And now when we read the Scriptures,
we read them. I'll tell you what, my whole
reading the Scriptures has changed since the Lord showed me He's
absolutely sovereign. My goodness. I see His sovereignty
on every page. Every page. He's a great God.
He's greatest of the Lord and greatly to be praised. So I want
us to look at our great God and remember and to think Think about
His greatness, because that will bring us great comfort. Great
comfort to God's people. As we ponder that our God is
a great God. A great God. He's the God of
our salvation. He's the self-existent One. And
you know, He needs no one. He doesn't need us. We don't
add anything to His glory. We don't even add anything to
his greatness. He's great all by himself. Why did he save us? To manifest
his glory. To manifest his greatness. Don't
you think he's great after he saved you? Oh, he's a great God,
isn't he? He's a great God. So this great God before us,
great is the Lord, great is Jehovah. This is the one who is in this
psalm, in the psalm before us, he's delivered Zion. As we looked at this morning,
Zion is the church, he's delivered the church. He's delivered his
people. He's delivered Zion in the psalm
here, and he's delivered spiritual Zion. He's delivered us from
all our sins. He's delivered us from the law.
He's delivered us from the justice of God. He's delivered us from
the penalty of our sins. And one day, beloved, one day,
He will deliver us from the presence of our sins. What a great day
that'll be. And we'll see Him face to face. And then we'll see that He's
a great God. You see that He's a great God.
And our deliverance then will be complete. Our deliverance
then will be complete. And think of this. Our deliverance
isn't in anything we do. Our deliverance is in Christ.
Oh, what a great God. What a great Savior. That which
I could never do, Christ has done for me. And therefore, He
is greatly to be praised. Is He not? If He's redeemed your
soul, if He purchased you with His own precious blood, is He
not greatly to be praised? Does not your heart burn within
you wanting to give Him all the glory and give Him all the honor
and give Him all the praise? Oh, how great Jehovah is. I don't think we can conceive
it. I really don't think we can conceive it. But we can see. We can see how great our God
is by His deliverance of Zion and by His deliverance of us.
We have it manifested in our own lives. We can believe. Could
you save yourself? No. But if you believe, He saved
you. Could you pay for one of your
sins? I can't pay for one of mine. He paid for all of them. Could I live a perfect life?
Could you live a perfect life? He lives a perfect life as a
sinner's substitute. What a great Redeemer. And this
is no ordinary man. This is the one spoken of. Great
is the Lord who became a man, the God-man. And beloved, he
is greatly to be praised. He is greatly to be praised.
And in the eyes of those he has delivered, oh, how great is he. How great is he. We know what we've been delivered
from. And as I said, we know we could never deliver ourselves.
Great is the Lord. God's people say, great is the
Lord. Great is Jehovah. Great is Jehovah. There is none
great in the church but the Lord, because He gets all the preeminence,
beloved. He gets it all. He's the great
one. And our God is a great God. He reigns in holiness. He reigns
in absolute holiness. He sits upon the throne. He's over all that we see, and
He's over all that we don't see. He's a great King. Great is the
Lord. He reigns over all this earth.
As I mentioned this morning, I was talking to a guy yesterday,
he was going off about how Satan has control of this, and how
Satan has control of that, and I mentioned to him that my God
is absolutely sovereign. Absolutely sovereign. And that
He's in full control. And that Satan, and the fallen
angels, and all the governments of this world, even our next
president, is under our sovereign God's rule. Our King Beloved reigns and rules. He is a great, great King. And
He reigns right now. He's not waiting to come back
and reign. He's King right now. Right this second, and the next
second after that, all the way into eternity. He will never
abdicate His throne. Never. He's a King. He's a great God. The Great God,
the One True God. Let us think on this, beloved.
The Lord Jesus Christ is God in the flesh. He's the Great
Shepherd. He's the Great God manifested
in the flesh. Therefore, He's the Great Shepherd.
He's the Great Savior. He's the Great Bishop of our
souls. Oh, He's the Great High Priest.
He's our Great King. He's our Great Prophet. He's
our Great Redeemer. And where is our Great Redeemer?
Oh, He sits upon the throne in holiness. He's ruling and reigning
right now. And He reigns over all believers,
over unbelievers, over angels, over devils, over governments,
over citizens, everything we see and everything we don't see.
He is King over all the earth and
He is a great King, beloved. He is a great King. Jesus Christ
is great. He is the Son of the Highest.
He is the great God and our Savior. He is great in His person as
a God-man. He is great He's God manifest
in the flesh and He is equal with the Father and the Holy
Spirit. He's the One spoken of. Great
is the Lord. Great is the self-existent One.
And this is the One who keeps us, preserves, saves us, and
then keeps us, and then glorifies us. He's great in the perfections
of His nature. He has great power. Unmeasured
power. Infinite power. Infinite majesty. This is the God of the Bible. You see how different He is than
the gods of people's imagination? The God who can't do anything
unless you let Him. We saw this morning, I will. And what happens? It comes to pass. Great is the
Lord. Great is Jehovah. His thoughts
are not our thoughts. His ways are not our ways. Oh, he has great power and great
wisdom and great faithfulness, which he manifests to his people
in revealing himself to them. Our God is a great God of strict
holiness and of strict justice. It's unbending. It must be satisfied. And He's also a God of wonderful
and great grace. We who believe can testify to
that. He's a great God of goodness.
And all this grace and goodness and mercy, this great goodness,
this great mercy is manifested in Christ towards His people. It's all in Him. Ephesians 1.3,
yeah, Ephesians chapter 1 talks about all spiritual blessings
are in Christ. They're all in Him. Why does
God have mercy on us? Because of Christ. Why did Christ become a man and
die in our room? Because God had mercy on us in
Christ? Why? Because God purposed to save
a people in Christ? Oh, how great is our God. Our God is great in His works
of creation. And our God is great in His works
of providence. And our God is great in His miraculous
workings when He was here upon this earth. And our God is great
in the work of man's redemption. And our God is great in the work
of man's salvation, which was wrought in Christ. We have a
great God. We have a great God. Our God
is great in all of His offices, as I said earlier. He's a great
prophet raised up in Israel. There was never a prophet like
Him. He's a great high priest. You remember all the other priests,
there was no chair, they couldn't sit down. Where is our king right
now? He sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high,
because the work is finished. The Old Testament priests could
never sit down, because the work was never done. He pictured Christ,
but Christ finished the work. He sat down on the right hand
of the majesty on high. He's a great priest, beloved.
Great priest of his people. Great priest of his people, and
he's a great king. As I said, he rules brains right
now. He's king of his people. He's
not just king of his people, he's king of everyone, whether
they believe it or not. You and I breathe air, and take
each breath that we take because of the mercy of God. What a great God. He's a great
savior of His people. He's the great shepherd of the
sheep. He's the great surety of His people. To sum it up,
as the psalm says, great is the Lord. Great is the Lord. Let's read that verse again.
It says, Great is the Lord and greatly to be praised in the
city of our God, in the mountain of His holiness. Our God is a great God and He
is greatly to be praised. And none can praise Him too much.
You can never praise God too much. Never. You can never praise
Him too much. You can never give Him too much
glory. You can never give Him too much honor. Never. We can't reverence Him
as much. We can't reverence Him too much.
There's none like the Lord. There's no one who even compares
to Him. He's our great God. Who He is and His nature, the
fact that He is holy, sovereign, that He's a God over all the
universe proves that He alone is worthy. He alone is worthy
of all our praise. And notice the text. Where is
He to be praised? In the city of our God. In the
mountain of His holiness. He's greatly to be praised in
Zion. He's greatly to be praised amongst
His people. The elect of God. And who are
the ones who praise Him? The elect of God. Unsafe folks
don't praise Him. I didn't. But God's people, oh, we praise
the Lord. We praise Him for what He's done
for us. We praise Him for what, as I said, what He's done for
us before He even saved us, and how He takes care of us. And
we know, scripture tells us, we're gonna be with Him one day.
We praise Him for that. And it's based upon nothing we've
done. We praise Him because of a grateful heart for all that
the Lord Jesus Christ has done for us. Is it not so for you? The believer in Christ says,
there's none like him. There's none like him. Amongst God's people, he is great. He's great. Think of this. Even if all the world renounces
Jehovah's worship, God's people, the elect of God, those whom
Christ has redeemed, will continue to adore him. Will continue to
adore him. Will continue to give him praise.
He's in our midst, beloved. Where two or three are gathered
together in my name, there am I in the midst of them. And we love and adore our great
King. He's manifested His glorious
power in the salvation of our souls. Think of that, beloved. God,
if you're saved, if you're here and you're saved, God has manifested
His great power in the salvation of your soul. It's wonderful. We don't deserve
it, do we? If we got what we deserve, we'd
be in hell. But I obtained mercy. Paul says,
I obtained mercy. And that's what the believers,
the believers obtain mercy. And God is greatly praised by
those He's redeemed, by those He's saved. His great power is manifested
in the salvation of our souls. Even though others rage against
the Lord, the church of God, in the church of God, amongst
God's people, and the church is no building, the church is
the people. You and I are the church. We have been redeemed. The ecclesia, the called out
ones. God is exalted and praised amongst
us. And even though others rage against
the Lord, we're still exalted. We're still given praise. I have
family members who want nothing to do with me because of what
God's done for me. I'm still going to praise Him.
I'm still going to worship Him. He's my King. He redeemed my
eternal soul. Oh, let others say what they
say, and I'm just so thankful God saved me. But I pray that
God will save them, because I was just like them. Our text continues, in the mountain
of His holiness. Great is the Lord, and greatly
is the praise, in the city of our God, in the mountain of His
holiness. This is Mount Zion. In scripture, it is called the
mountain of his holiness on account of the temple being built upon
it and the worship of God in the temple. What a picture again
we have of the church, which is chosen, chosen and loved of
God. Israel was a chosen nation. This
city, Jerusalem, was chosen to have the temple in it. We are a chosen people. We are
loved of God. One of the commentators said
this, what a picture we have of the church of Christ which
is chosen and loved of God and is His habitation. It's unconquerable and immovable
and consists of God's elect who are sanctified by God the Father
in the Son and through the Spirit. See, in ourselves we're not immovable,
are we? No, we're tossed to and fro. But in Christ, the solid rock,
we stand. All other ground is sinking sand.
Who's our foundation? Christ. Christ. Do you know that only by holy
man, turn if you would to Hebrews chapter 12, do you know that
only by holy man can the Lord be fittingly praised? Now we're
sinners, aren't we? But beloved, remember this, we're
sinners who are made holy in Christ. So only by holy man can
the Lord be fittingly praised. We are made holy in Christ. This
is not our natural state, but we are just men made perfect
by the imputation of the righteousness of Christ unto us. Look at Hebrews
12, verses 22 and 23. Hebrews 12, verses 22 and 23. But ye are come unto Mount Zion,
and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem,
and to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly
and church of the firstborn." Now that's God's elect. That's
God's elect from all the ages. All the ages. "...which are written
in heaven, and to God the judge of all, and to the spirits of
just men made perfect." Just men. We're justified. We're clothed
in the righteousness of Christ. Just man made perfect. Now that's
not our natural state. No. Our natural state, we're
sinners. Dead in trespasses and sins.
But the Holy Spirit saves his people, regenerates his people. We're clothed in the righteousness
of Christ. And we stand before God justified. Isn't it amazing? It's incredible. Let's look at verse 2 now of
our psalm that we're in. Beautiful for situation, the
joy of the whole earth is Mount Zion on the sides of the north,
the city of the great king. The city of the great king. Beautiful for situation, One
commentator said, Jerusalem was so naturally a beautiful city.
She was in the center of providential operations of God where his temple
was. She was a chosen city. God has chosen it for special
manifestation of his grace. She was highly favored above
other cities. Think of that about the church.
So it is for the church, beloved. God has been pleased to choose
us in eternity, in Christ, based upon nothing we've done. Simply
by His pure, free, and sovereign grace, His mercy, His mercy has
been manifested to Zion. To Zion. It's poured out upon us in and
through the Lord Jesus Christ. Our text continues, on the side
of the north, the city of the great king. It is the city of
the great king where God is known. God is known in the city of the
great king. God has manifested Himself there,
which means God has manifested Himself to His people. His name
is great there. His name is great there. He is
known there and he knows the inhabitants of this city. And
to the inhabitants of this city, he is everything. The city is the city of the great
king. And God's church is the city of the great king.
My, my. Matthew 5.34-35 says this, But
I say unto you, Swear not at all, neither by heaven, for it
is God's throne, nor by the earth, for it is His footstool, neither
by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King. The city of the great King. The
city of the King of Kings. The city of the Lord of Lords.
Where His temple was. He dwelled there. He was worshipped
there. He was worshipped in Zion, in
Jerusalem. And He also dwells amongst His
people. And His people, Zion, worship Him. What a great God and King we
have. Now think on this, beloved. As we see here, God has distinguished
the city, hasn't He? He's distinguished this city
above all other cities. It's where his temple is. It's
where he dwells. He's distinguished his people. He dwells in his people. He dwells
amongst us. It was the glory of Jerusalem
to be God's city, the place of his regal dwelling, and it's
the joy of the church that God is in her midst. Where's Babylon? Where's Nineveh? Where's Tyre? What has become of all the great
monarchies of the earth, the Egyptian empires and the Assyrian
empires and the Grecian empires, the Persian empire, the Roman
empires? Nothing remains of those empires
as far as their power. And it is said of Zion, and remember
this is a picture of the type of the church, it will remain. Look at Psalm 87. Psalm 87. And we see the foundation. Zion of old was deserving of
being chosen of God Zion was chosen of God, but was
it deserving of it? No. It wasn't deserving of it.
Look at Psalm 87, verses 1-3. His foundation is in the holy
mountains. The Lord loveth the gates of
Zion more than all the dwellings of Jacob. Glorious things are
spoken of thee, O city of God, Selah. Now, was Jerusalem Any better of a city than any
of the other cities? No. It was a city chosen of God
where the temple was to be. What made her glorious? What
made Jerusalem glorious? Well, God had fixed his love
upon her. What made Zion glorious? God
had fixed his love upon her. God tabernacled there. God's
tavern happened there. Salvation did God appoint for
her walls and bulwarks. This city is protected by God.
He's distinguished her. It's so with the Church of God.
It's so with the Church of God. In that day shall this song be
sung in the land of Judah. We have a strong city. Salvation
will God appoint for walls and bulwarks. God has founded spiritual
Zion. His love has been set upon her
from eternity. Christ, who is God, tabernacles
amongst her, and He's her great protector, just as He protected
the city of Zion, Jerusalem. Who was the Redeemer of Jerusalem
then? God. Who's our Redeemer? God. Who's the refuge of Zion? God. Who's our refuge? God. Look at verse 3. And I'll read a text in Isaiah
14, verse 32. What shall one then answer the
messengers of the nation? that the Lord hath founded Zion,
and the poor of his people shall trust in it. God protects his
people, and he protects Zion in the Scriptures here, and Zion
is a picture of the church. Let's look at verse 3. Last verse
we'll look at tonight. And we'll continue this study
of Psalm 48 for the next few weeks on Sunday nights. Look
at this. Psalm 48, verse 3. God is known
in her palaces for a refuge. Now we could sit this verse again.
Every one of these verses you could spend literally weeks preaching
on. God is known in her palaces for
a refuge. We worship. We worship a God
who we know. We don't worship an unknown God,
do we? We worship a God who's revealed Himself. Now, there
was a time when He was unknown to us, because He hadn't revealed
Himself to us. But we worship a God who is known,
who has manifested Himself to us. And He's our refuge. He's our refuge. We know Him as our refuge in
distress. We know Him as our refuge in
trials. We know Him as our refuge in
temptations. And we delight in Him as our
refuge and we run to Him in every single time of need. The believer
seeks Christ. Now, as I said many times, you
know, religion will tell you, you come up, you pray a prayer,
and you're good for eternity. I'll tell you what. Every one
of God's saints will preserve to the end and will keep coming
to Christ. I need Him more now. I need Him
more today. I need Him more right now than
I've ever needed Him before. And He is so much greater to
me than He was when He first redeemed me. Is it so with you? It's amazing. What a great God. What a great refuge. And we don't
know any other refuge, do we? We once believed in all these
refuges of lies, but they've been torn down. They've been
shown to us to be shams. to be pitchers with holes in
them. They used to fill the pitchers
with water and then they'd carry it. Our pitchers had holes in
them. By the time we got back here, all the water was gone. That's what our works are to
us. That's what our righteousness, our own righteousness is to us. The other refuges which we have
proved to be, again, refuges of lies. And we have no confidence
in ourselves. No confidence in ourselves, but
we trust in the Lord Jesus Christ who is our great protector, our
shield, and our defense. Turn, if you would, to Isaiah
4. Isaiah 4. Isaiah 4. Verses 2-6. Oh, all our other refuges are gone.
The believer has one refuge, and that's Christ and Him alone.
And God is known in Her palaces for a refuge. God has manifested
Himself to His people. And we know Him as our refuge.
Look at Isaiah 4, verses 2-6. In that day shall the branch
of the Lord be beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of the
earth shall be excellent and calmly for them that are escaped
of Israel. And it shall come to pass that
he that is left in Zion and he that remaineth in Jerusalem shall
be called holy, even every one that is written among the living
in Jerusalem, when the Lord shall have washed away the filth of
the daughters of Zion and shall have purged the blood of Jerusalem
from the midst thereof, By the spirit of judgment and by the
spirit of burning, the Lord will create upon every dwelling place
of Mount Zion and upon her assemblies a cloud and smoke by day, and
the shining of a flaming fire by night. For upon all the glory
shall be a defense, and there shall be a tabernacle for a shadow
in the daytime from the heat, and a place of refuge and a covert
from storm and from rain." Our great God is our refuge. Isaiah 4 here tells us that our
great God is a refuge to His people. And we see again, Zion
spoken of, which pictures the church. Which pictures the church. The church is married to Christ
and all her uncleanness has been cleansed. And Christ has clothed
this church, oh beloved, Christ has clothed this church in His
perfect, spotless righteousness. We're clothed in the righteousness
of Christ. And Christ Himself shall dwell
in her midst. And He will be both her glory. We give Him all the glory. And
He'll be our defense. He'll protect us. He'll keep
us. Here be both our Son and our
Shield, our Savior and our Refuge. And this is true. for every single
follower of the Lord Jesus Christ, for all His blood-bought saints,
for His sheep, for His elect, for every single one of them
will be protected by Christ in Him alone. Look at verse 5 in Isaiah 4. And see how this goes with our
verse 3 in our psalm which says, God is known in her palaces for
a refuge. Look at verse 5. And the Lord
will create upon every dwelling place of Mount Zion and upon
her assemblies a cloud and smoke by day and the shining of a flame
and fire by night. All the glory shall be a defense. Here we see the prophet Isaiah
by inspiration of the Holy Spirit of God referring back to Israel
in the wilderness. As a pillar of cloud and a pillar
of fire in the camp of Israel indicated the Lord's presence
with his people. He was with them all the time.
Day and night. Day and night. He's with his
people, day and night. When you're sleeping, he's with
you. When you're awake, when trouble arises, he's with you. Oh, if I could just remember
this the whole time. He never leaves us, day and night. His presence is with His people.
And so the Lord here refers to these symbols to show that He's
with Zion right now. He's with His church right now.
Look at verse 6 again in Isaiah chapter 4. And there shall be
a tabernacle for a shadow in the daytime from the heat, and
for a place of refuge, and for a covert from the storm and from
rain. Our great God, the Lord Jesus
Christ, is a refuge and a covert from the storm of God's justice
and law for his people. On Calvary's cross, he paid with
his own precious blood that which God demanded for the redemption
of our souls. He paid it. And he paid it in
full. He paid it in full. And God's people say, praise
his mighty name, because I could never pay for it myself. God is known in her palaces for
a refuge. Again, back in our psalm, God
is known in her palaces for a refuge. God makes himself known to his
people. He manifests himself to his people. But now, after that, ye have
known God, or rather are known of God. We looked at that this
week. But now after that ye have known
God, or rather are known of God, Paul says in Galatians. The believer
knows God because God knew him. Because God gave you to Christ
in eternity. Because Christ redeemed your
soul on Calvary's cross. That's why we cry Abba Father. Don't we have a great God? What
a great God. He reveals himself to his people.
Now, folks, you know, I heard from a dear saint who said she
sat for years under sovereign grace, waiting for an experience. She knew in her head all about
the doctrines of grace. Knew all about that. There was no hard work. And she's
waiting for an experience. When God manifests himself to
her, she realized, I just have to look to him. I just have to rest in him. Is that not what you and I are
doing? We just look to Christ, don't we? We look to the Redeemer.
Look and live, scripture declares. And God makes himself known.
And the reason we look is because he's regenerated us. He's done
a work, yes. We look, don't we? We look to Christ. And we live.
We live. God is known in the palaces for
a refuge. He's revealed himself to us,
and we flee to him. We flee to Christ. Oh my. And He's our only refuge. We have no other hope. We have
no other refuge but Christ. Christ is all we need. He's revealed
to us our unworthiness, our inability to save ourselves, And then again,
at the same time, he reveals to the believer our utter unworthiness,
that we're not worthy at all of this salvation. And he grants us faith, and he
becomes a refuge for us. Just as those who were fleeing
to the cities of refuge, once they got inside those gates,
they were safe. The Avenger of Blood could not
follow them in there. They were saved. He's our refuge. And think of this. I recently,
as I was studying, this just popped for me. You know, like
when we say in scripture, you're reading. When was the one who
fled into the city of refuge, when were they allowed to leave?
When the high priest died, beloved. Our high priest died for us. Oh, my. My, oh, my. What a great King we have. He
reveals Himself to His people and we flee to Him for refuge.
And Christ, as I said, Christ is all we need. He's our hiding
place from the wind. He's a covert from the tempest.
He is as rivers of water in a dry place. He's a shadow of a great
rock in a weary land. God is refuge both for saints
and sinners to fly unto. Because that's what we are. We
who are born again, we become saints. But we're sinners too,
aren't we? And we fly unto Christ as He's
made known unto us. And gospel preachers, we direct
and encourage you to flee to Christ. Because He is the only
refuge for sinners. There is no other refuge. And we set before you in the
everlasting Gospel Christ, the Redeemer of His people. Christ,
the Savior of sinners. And He alone is the refuge for
sinners. And God's preacher's prayer is,
and I say this all the time, but I so pray that God would
make it so, may God grant your faith to believe. If you don't
know Him, may you flee to Him. Gracious Heavenly Father, again
we come before Thy throne of majesty. Oh, what a great God
You are. And You are greatly to be praised. You are worthy of all our praise. And if we had 10,000 years to
live a lifetime, we would never even come close to giving You
that which You are worthy of. And oh Lord, we know that we
who are redeemed by Your blood, we who are bought and purchased
by Thee, that we will spend eternity worshiping You and praising You
and giving You all the glory. Oh, we pray that You would be
with us through this week. I know various people are going
to go to appointments and have things coming up too, we pray
that you just give grace and peace to your people. To Zion,
comfort them, we pray. Lord, comfort us, no matter what
we face this week. You already know what that's
going to be. And may we rest and trust in Thee. We love You
and praise You. In Jesus' name, Amen.