Psalm 48, 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 by together. They saw it, and so they marveled. They were troubled and hasted
away. Fear took hold upon them there,
and pain as of a woman in travail. Thou breakest the ships of Tarshish,
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 have thought of thy lovingkindness,
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. Let Mount Zion rejoice. Let the
daughters of Judah be glad because of thy judgments. Walk about
Zion and go round about her. Tell the towers thereof. Mark
ye well her boards. 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. Now, of course this is a psalm of
praise as is given forth, great is the Lord, and greatly to be
praised in the city of our God, the mountain of His holiness.
And of course the city of God, as many would define it in the
carnal way, they would think of Jerusalem, as well the psalmist
here is speaking in the sense in which he understood these
things to be because Jerusalem was the center of things insofar
as he understood in the writing of this the city of our God being
Jerusalem. Now we understand that God is
not in the real estate business that is He's not mapped out some
certain spots on the earth and he said this is a holy spot and
this one's a holy spot and that's where I'm going to do certain
things. The Lord's pleased to meet with his people wherever
he's pleased to meet with them. He met with Moses in a burning
bush. It wasn't Jerusalem and he said
this ground that you stand on is holy ground. Now the ground
that you stood on was holy ground, not because the Lord set that
piece of ground apart, but because the Lord was there, that was
what made the piece of ground holy. And so wherever the Lord
is, is where holy ground is. And the city of our God, the
mountain of his holiness is where the Lord's pleased to meet with
his people. And of course when we read in the scripture about
the city of God, read about Zion, it says beautiful situation,
the joy of the whole earth is Mount Zion. Now again, Mount
Zion in the scriptures, David was speaking here of a particular
place. Mount Zion. Now, Mount Zion,
if you go back and you read the history of Zion, that was where,
and specifically to David, this was a precious place. In fact,
it was called the City of David, because it was the place where
David built his house, and it was the place that David dwelt. But he speaks of how lovely this
place is, Mount Zion, but Mount Zion while it is a glorious place
to Him, that is not the place of which we understand when the
psalm is speaking here, beautiful for situation, the joy of the
whole earth is Mount Zion. Now we don't have to go over
to Israel We don't have to get on a plane or a boat or something
and go over there to behold the beauty of Mount Zion because
that's not the Mount Zion of which we're concerned. We're
concerned not with a piece of dirt. Now, you know people take
tours of what they call the Holy Land. And I understand what they
mean by that and everything, but the problem with that is
that it becomes a superstitious thing with a lot of people. And
they think that if somehow or other they could get over there
to the Holy Land, that they'd find God over there. Well, you
know, they'd be sadly mistaken. Because if the Lord's not with
a man here, he's not gonna be with him when he gets there.
You know, that's just not the way that it is. So the Holy Land,
is that place where the Lord is. It can't be located on a
map. But David spoke about Mount Zion. And when we see Mount Zion in
the Scriptures, while it specifically has reference to that particular
place that David is speaking about, it has in a greater reference,
even throughout the Scripture, of the Kingdom of God. Zion is
the Kingdom of God, and the Lord is pleased to meet with His people
there. We sing that song, Zion stands
by hills surrounded. Zion kept by power divine. Now David, one of the reasons
that Mount Zion was precious to David was that he bought it
at a great price. That is, he had to conquer the
Jebusites in order to get Mount Zion because the Jebusites were
the enemies of the people of God and they wouldn't acquiesce
and so David conquered, the scripture says, the stronghold of Zion.
He conquered the Jebusites and he took Mount Zion. It belonged
to him. In that, of course, we've got
a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ as he purchased Zion. Now we
know that all of the earth is the Lord, so He couldn't be speaking
about a piece of dirt when He says that Zion is the place of
His delight. The Lord doesn't take delight
in that, but He does take delight in that purchased possession,
which is His, which is the Mount Zion of which this psalm ultimately
speaks of. Beautiful for situation. The
joy of the whole earth is Mount Zion on the sides of the north.
the city of the great king. Now, the city of the great king,
of course, that was David's city. I mean, he dwelt there. But David
understood that he was not the great king. He had to understand
him. As he speaks here, he says, great
is the Lord, and greatly to be praised. But the Lord does manifest
himself to men in the earth through the people of God. He said, the
Lord said that you're the light of the world. Now, How often
do you think of yourself as the light of the world? I mean, I
would think that the world would be pretty dim if I was the light
of the world, but the Lord, working through His people, does indeed
illuminate the truth of God through His people, and does manifest
Himself in them even when they don't see it or understand it.
Beautiful for situation. Now Mount Zion in the natural
sense is on the southwestern corner
of the city of Jerusalem. And, of course, I've never been
over there and looked, but at that time, at least, it was a
very beautiful setting. Of course, David, you know, had
his palace there, and so these things were beautiful for situation. They were situated in the right
place. But the beauty of the situation of Zion is this, that
it's situated in Christ. See, our situation, that place
where we are sited is in Christ. Now, I was thinking there earlier
as Brother Al was talking about Jacob being brought out of, how
the Lord brought the children of Jacob and his children out
of the land of Canaan where they were and brought them into Egypt. Now, if you think about that,
here they were in the land of Canaan, which was the land of
promise, and yet the Lord took them out of that and put them
into Egypt, which was a place of captivity. Now, we know that
all of this was done by the hand of the Lord, and we know there
were particular reasons why the Lord brought them there. He caused
a famine to be in the land to bring them there. But I see in
that a picture of the fact that, you see, the sons of God have
always been the sons of God. The Scripture says from before
the foundation of the world that we were chosen in Christ. We've
never had an existence. outside of being the children
of God. In other words, the Lord didn't
create men and then he picked out some and said, this one's
going to be my child and that one's going to be my child and
this, that and the other. That's not how the election of grace
is. The election of grace is that
the Lord created his people as his people. He loved them from
the beginning. And Jacob was a man who was in
the promised land and brought out of it and brought into captivity.
Now, he didn't understand this, and it wasn't a good thing as
it turned out insofar as men would say, but the Lord would
demonstrate the glory of His grace in the deliverance of Israel
out of Egypt. Now, isn't that a grand thing? I mean, if you pause and think
about it, how the Lord brought all of this to pass, why? So
that He might demonstrate the glory of His grace in delivering
Israel out of Egypt. He brought to bring them into
Egypt in order to show His deliverance. He said, for this same purpose
have I raised up Pharaoh. You see, Pharaoh came to power
in Egypt, I guess through birth. I mean, I suppose that was the
way that they were just born into that royal state and he
came there and Pharaoh no doubt thought that he was raised up
for some grand purpose to rule over Egypt, which he was. But
you see, the Lord said, I raised him up for this purpose. He said
that I might show my judgment in the earth upon him. That I
might show my deliverance of my people. And this same Pharaoh
whom you see now, you will see no more. Because I will destroy
him, the Lord said. Now, sometimes men get all worried
and fraught up about things like that, but the Lord raises up
men for destruction just as surely as He raises up men unto the
honor of the glory of His grace. And who maketh thee to differ
from another? What hast thou that thou didst
not receive? And can a man reply against God? Nay, but O man, why? How can
this form say anything? Why hast thou made me thus? Hath
not God power over the same lump of clay to make one vessel under
honour and another under dishonour? And so we see in that picture
of Jacob being brought into captivity the very story of mankind. The children of God were subjected
unto vanity, brought into captivity and the captivity of sin in order
that the Lord might show forth the grandeur of the redemption
of Christ's work. And that's the whole thing why
David's praising. He says, Great is the Lord and
greatly to be praised in the city of our God. You see, among
the people of God, only the people of God can praise Him for that.
I mean, the men of the world can't praise God for His grace,
can they? I mean, they hate it. Well, what
do you mean? What do you mean that God chooses
some vessels unto honor and some to dishonor? Well, that's not
right, that's not fair, that's not good. I mean, the natural
man, the flesh rebels against such a thing as that. But you
see, God's people are called to fall down and worship Him
and say, Great is the Lord. and greatly to be praised in
the city of our God, the mountain of His holiness. Beautiful, he
says here. Beautiful for situation. What
a glorious thing it is. Oh, what a wonder it is when
we're enabled to see the people of God hidden in the bosom of
Christ from the beginning. Now, if it were not so, how would
we have gotten there? I mean, you know, when men think
about God giving everybody a fair deal and a square deal and a
fair chance and He just putting it all out and it's all up to
you? I mean, does that really give you any comfort? To think
that the Lord just throws some The dice out on the table and
however they came up to be is how they were going to be insofar
as leaving the salvation of God's people up to them. I mean, would
you want your salvation left up to you? How could you get
it? What would you do? When the Lord
said, Believe, and thou shalt be saved, how could you do it? Could you believe? Can you just
believe something? I mean, can you believe that
the sky is red? No, you can't believe the sky
is red. Why? Because you're not given eyes to see the red sky.
Now, if the sky turned red, you could believe it was red, but
you see, the Lord is the one that gives the gift of faith.
Faith is the gift of God. Now, only the man who has faith
can understand that. Because only by the grace of
God as a man is given true faith can he understand that this could
not have originated with him. It could not have come forth
from his abilities or whatever, because why would he believe
when another man doesn't? What makes the difference between
that, if it be not the gift of God In the city of our God, that's
where God is going to be praised. The world is not going to praise
Him. The world will praise Him ultimately. The scripture says
that the whole creation will praise Him. Well, surely it shall.
But in the consideration of the redeeming work that the Lord
has performed in the earth, there's only one place. where God is
going to be praised and that's among the people of God in the
mountain of His holiness. Beautiful for situation. The
joy of the whole earth. Now how is this Mount Zion the
joy of the whole earth? Again, it's the joy of the whole
earth as this is the purpose of God. You see, this is that
which causes the angels to rejoice. The scripture says that there's
joy in heaven over one sinner that repenteth. Why is that?
Because that's the design of Almighty God, to bring that to
pass. And when that comes to pass,
what a glorious thing it is, the joy of the whole earth. This
is that which causes the world to rejoice on the sides of the
north. Now, you know, as you think about
that, The north is often mentioned in the scripture. In fact, there's
a place in Leviticus where it talks about that the sacrifice
was made on the north towards the Lord, that's what it says.
And David says, beautiful for situation, on the sides of the
north. Now as you think about Mount
Zion being on the southern part of Jerusalem, then as you look
back and you look southward, what do you see? The north side
of that mountain. The sides of the north. You see
that place where the God's people are called to look, to look unto
the Lord. The sides of the north, the city
of the great king, the palace of God. God is known in her palaces
for refuge. The people of God know that.
He is our refuge. He is our strong power. He is
that one who is constantly our help and our stay in times of
trouble. The sides of the north, the city
of the great king, God is known in her palaces for refuge. For
lo, the kings were assembled, they passed by together. They
saw it, and so they marveled. They were troubled and hasted
away. Now again, going back to what Brother Al said about when
that cloud by day was over the tabernacle and the fire by night,
this was an awesome thing to behold. I mean, you know if some
group of people were sitting out there, they said, now we're
going to attack these people. And they're, you know, kind of
observing them to think of the best way to do it. And they see
this cloud always hovering over this tabernacle. And then they
see this fire by night. These are things that are amazing. They can't comprehend it. And
men don't grasp the glories of the kingdom of God, but they
can do nothing. They can't do anything, you see,
to stymie that. Though they tried, the heathen
rage, I mean, the kingdoms of the earth would gather themselves
together against Almighty God, but the Lord said that the gates
of hell could not prevail against it. And that's what he's saying
here. For lo, the kings were assembled, they passed by together.
They got together and they said, we're going to kill this man,
Jesus Christ. But then they feared and trembled,
did they not, when he rose again the third day? And they had to
make some excuse, well we got to tell, we need to say, somebody
tell a lie and say that his followers took him away, because if this
ever gets out, that this man rose from the dead, we're in
trouble. And so it is, and so it has.
They saw it, and so they marveled, they were troubled, and they
hasted away. There's nothing they could do
about it. Fear took hold upon them there, and pain is of a
woman in travail. Thou breakest the ships of Tarshish
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. And he has established it forever.
He began a work and he will finish it. He said, these are my people. Now you know if you think about
the fact that the Lord has never looked upon His people as anything
else than that they are in Christ. He's never been angry with His
people. He's never hated His people. He's always loved them
because that was the very reason that He sent Christ into the
world to start with. He loved us. We love Him because
He first loved us. He's looked on His people with
love from the beginning. He said, I saw thee when thou
wast in thy blood. I saw thee when you were in your
natural state. And He said, it was the time
of love. He said, I cast my skirt around thee. And I said unto
thee, live. Because we couldn't have lived
otherwise. We were cast out to the loathing of our flesh. We
were not in any wise to be a thing considered, but yet the Lord,
because of the great love wherewith He loved us. You see, He hasn't
loved us because we've believed. He loved us before we believed.
And He caused us to believe because He does love us. Now that's a
glorious thing, brethren. And that's the establishment
of the kingdom of God. As we have heard, so have we
seen, that God will establish His kingdom forever, say, La. We have thought of thy lovingkindness,
O God, in the midst of thy temple. And have we not dwelt upon that?
I mean, can a man who knows himself to be redeemed from the destruction
that he richly deserves, can he not have thoughts of the loving
kindness of the Lord? I believe he is the only one
who can. You see, only the man that knows he is worthy of destruction
can rejoice in the loving kindness of God. Because if a man believes
that God should love him, or that he just normally does, I
mean if a man just really believes in his heart that God just loves
everybody, Then how can it be anything of marvel to him
that the Lord's loving kindness? I mean, isn't that just normal?
I mean, if God just loves everybody the same, where's the marvel
in the fact that God would show loving kindness? I mean, doesn't
He just have loving kindness to everybody? But you see, brethren,
love can only be the glorious thing that it is because of the
particular nature of it. I mean, you know, we're supposed
to love one another. And we're supposed to love our neighbor
as ourself. But only as that love is made
particular can it really be a true thing. In other words, I can
tell you I love you, but unless I demonstrate it, it's not going
to be true love, is it? I mean if I tell you that I love
you, I say be warmed and filled, but I tell you to just go down
the road and do the best you can. Did I show you any love? I mean is that true love even
though I say that it might be? Of course it isn't. Love has
to be demonstrated. And love has to be particular
in order for it to be love. But the loving kindness of the
Lord is that which is most prevalent in the eyes of those who know
that the Lord has no reason to love them. That's when His loving
kindness is seen, is it not? I mean, if you think that you
deserve somebody's love, you'd just get mad if they didn't show
it to you. You'd just figure it was, take
it for granted. But the man that knows he's not
worthy of it and he receives it, how grateful would he be. We have thought of thy lovingkindness,
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. Now if a man understands that,
he would tremble. to think that he could ever have
a place of entrance given to him into the presence of God.
If a man has a clear understanding that God is absolutely righteous,
that he is surrounded with righteousness, and that he will receive nothing
but righteousness, how could a man ever expect to come into
his presence? He couldn't. But you see, how
could he rejoice in the fact that the Lord is righteous unless
he knows that there's one who is his righteousness, not his
own? I mean, if I think, well, I'll
bring my righteousness to the Lord. There's many that shall
say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, didn't we do all these
righteous deeds? I mean, didn't we Go out here
and feed the poor? When did we not feed the poor?
I mean, we fed the poor. I mean, we went to all these
different countries and we did all these marvelous things. Lord,
doesn't this count for something? See, men, by nature, they believe
what they do counts for something. God, surely God's going to take
notice of it, and He's going to give us at least a pat on
the back. I mean, even if He doesn't, like,
give us some kind of reward in heaven, at least He'll pat us
on the back, won't He? For all the things we've done?
No. Our righteousness is that of Christ. Surely He shall say
unto His people when they come into Him, Well done, thou good
and faithful servant. But they're not going to say,
they're not going to think, oh yeah, yeah we really were. No. What are they going to do? The Scripture says they're going
to cast their crowns at the feet of Christ. Because they're going
to know that they have no reason whatsoever to be there. He said, well done thou good
and faithful servant. And they say, Lord, when saw
we thee naked and took thee in? When did we clothe thee? When
did we do anything? That was of any value or use
unto thee. He said because of Christ and
his righteousness. Because you see, Christ did those
things in your behalf. He loved the unlovely. You haven't? Oh, you might from time to time
get a big heart, you know, and do something that people would
look at and say, well, he really did good. You know, he'll give
you the shirt off his back. You know, every time somebody
dies, that's one of the things they always say at their funeral.
He would have given you the shirt off his back. Now, yeah, people might give
you the shirt off of their back if they got another one. You
know, I mean, it's like when people used to, years ago, of
course, now that they got insurance, people don't do this too much,
but back when people, their house was burned down or something,
and people would gather up, you know, clothes and stuff to give
to them. But you know, people didn't go
in their closet and get the best thing they had in there to give
them, did they? No, they went in the closet and looked at the
old stuff they wasn't wearing anyway, and they took it over
there and gave it to them. But then they felt good, because,
oh, we did all these good things. Well, then our righteousness
doesn't mean anything. And that's not to say we don't
encourage one another to do good, go about doing good. I mean,
do good things, for sure. We exhort one another to do so.
But we don't think, I hope, That these things are somehow a measure
of our righteousness before God. Because the only righteousness
that we could hope to have is that which is perfect. The only
righteousness He'll receive is that which is in Christ. Of Christ. He's made unto us righteousness.
For thy right hand is full of righteousness. Let Mount Zion
rejoice. Let the daughters of Judah be
glad because of thy judgments. Now men by nature can't like
the judgments of God, and especially if a man understands the judgment
of God, how could he have any delight in the judgment of God
except that he has delight in the fact that God is just and
he will justify those who are in Christ. See, he will judge
the people of God as without sin. Why? Because of what Christ
has done. We love the judgments of God.
Oh, I don't have any expectation or hope that I could stand before
God and be judged. Well, Lord, you see what I did.
Here's what I did. No. May God give me grace that
I stand there and say, see what Christ did. Because that's the
judgment of God that is at which we delight in. Let the Mount
Zion rejoice. Let the daughters of Judah be
glad because of thy judgments. He is a just God. He will do
right. He will act according to his
justice. And we rejoice therein because
he is the justifier of them that believe in Christ. Walk about
Zion and go round about her. Tell the towers thereof. See,
that's what the Lord sent men into the earth to preach the
gospel for. was so that men would see Christ. That they would look
at Christ. He didn't send men out here into
the world to try to persuade men to do something. But He sent
men into the world to declare the glory of God in Jesus Christ. The Redeemer has come. He's satisfied
the claims of God's justice. Go about, walk about Zion, go
around about her, tell the towers thereof, look at it, see what
Christ has done. Declare the glories that He has
wrought in the earth. Mark ye well her bulwarks, what
are her bulwarks? Christ is her bulwarks. Consider
her palaces, where is the glorious place of our dwelling? It is in Christ, that ye may
tell it to the generation following. Oh, what a glorious thing to
be able to declare the truth of God to all generations. For
this God is our God forever and ever. He will be our guide even
unto death. Now we don't know a whole lot
about dying. I mean, men talk about dying,
but you don't know anything about dying, neither do I. i know that
it's pointed on the man wants to die after this judgment i
do know that i know that death is a certainty but i don't know
anything about it i don't know what happened to you dot people
know that you know you hear a lot of people talk about what they
know exactly what happened when you die but i don't know what happens
when you die but i know this that he will be our guide even
unto death I mean, if He's our guide now,
He'll be our guide then. And He will be with us even to
the end. He said He would. And that's
the faith of God's elect. We just cast ourselves on Him.
We don't cast ourselves on anything that we have confidence that
we've done. You know, I mean, you can't go
back and look at the little card that you filled out. So, well,
look at there, I bleed. No. If your trust is not in Him,
looking at a card is not going to help you at all. Our confidence
is in Him. He will be our guide, even unto
death. Even if we're in a state where
we can't even communicate with somebody. You know, I mean, man's laying in on his deathbed,
you might lay there for a month and you might not know anybody.
But I'll tell you this, I believe this to be true according to
what the scripture says, that the Lord will be the guide of
his people even unto death. Because he's marked out the moment
that that heart will stop beating He marked out that moment when
they'll come in and say, well, He's gone. He'll be our guide even unto
death. What a glorious thing. What a glorious contemplation
for the sons of God. How did we get there? Why do we have confidence in
Him? Why do we find comfort in that knowledge? Because He's given us faith to
believe that what he said, that he would do. What a place of
glorious rejoicing it is.