May I please Almighty God to bless the reading of his word to the prophet of our souls this evening. Let's turn to the book of Psalms and we'll read Psalm 48. The book of Psalms and reading Psalm 48. This here is a song and psalm for the sons of Korah. A song and psalm which the sons of Korah could therefore sing.

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, and 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 for ever. we are 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. Let Mount Zion rejoice. Let the daughters of Judah be glad because of thy judgments. Walk about Zion. Go round 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 for ever and ever. He will be our guide even unto death. Well, as God may help this evening, we'll make a few comments on some of the verses. We won't go through this psalm verse by verse, but nonetheless we will make some comments on some of the verses. And it starts off in a very wonderful way. And it tells us that which all of us should realise and understand and recognise.

Great is the Lord. He is great. He always has been. He always will be. A mystery completely beyond our comprehension. And yet this is a God that you and I have to deal with. The God that you and I come to. The God that you and I depend upon to hear and answer prayer. That great God who we hope one day we shall be with and spend eternity with him in glory. So what a wonderful truth it is Great is the Lord. And then it follows on with this statement, and I constantly feel that we often fail in this matter.

And he says, he's great, the Lord, and then greatly to be praised in the city of our God, in the mountain of his holiness. We have much cause to praise God and the psalmist says here, and greatly to be praised. How often we fail to even praise God and yet here's this injunction for us to greatly praise the Lord in the city of our God. That really means in the church of God, the mountains of his holiness as we go about to constantly be aware of the need to recognize that God is to be praised. We have this statement here in the 14th Psalm and we have a very similar statement in the book of Chronicles. In the first book of Chronicles the 16th chapter verse 25 we read this for great is the Lord and greatly to be praised and then he adds he also is to be feared above all gods well how true and wonderful that is and how good it is if we are able to come in with a that statement and truly be thankful and to recognize and to fear Him above all gods. And then in Psalm 77 we have a continuance really where the psalmist says, Thy way, O God, is in the sanctuary.

Who is so great a God as our God? Now we won't really understand that unless by the grace of God you and I have experienced it and realised that this great God has looked down from heaven and has been mindful of us and what a wonderful favour that is. to think that this great God looks down from heaven upon us.

And so we read, Thou art the God that doest wonders. Thou hast declared thy strength among the people. Well, it's good, again, in our little lives, if we can trace out some of the wonders that God has done for us. And really, any blessing that relates to our eternal soul is a wonder. A wonder setting forth God's amazing love to unworthy sinners and his great grace. What a favour it is. And therefore may we indeed join in and say with the psalmist, Thou art the God that doest wonders.

Thou hast declared Thy strength among the people. And then he continues, Thou hast with thine arm redeemed thy people, the sons of Jacob and Joseph, Selah. Well, what a mercy if you and I have the evidence that we are amongst those whom God has redeemed. You know, we read these words and yet how vital they are for each one of us. that we have the evidence that we are amongst those that God has redeemed. That means those whom he has saved, those whom he has called, those who have shed his precious blood to lift them up and to set them in heavenly places. What a mercy.

And so we can recognise the Lord always has been great. great increasing all things, great in being everywhere. Let us never underestimate this great God. And so we go on Beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth is Mount Zion. It really means how we rejoice in the goodness of God. We rejoice in what he's done and we read, is Mount Zion on the sides of the north, the city of the great king. God is known in her palaces for a refuge.

Well, what a mercy if you and I know this God as our refuge. one to whom we can continually resort. It's not as though God turns his back on us. No, we can think of those words, the door of his mercy stands open all day and night to the poor and the needy that knock by the way. What a mercy to have such a God who is gracious to us.

For though the kings were assembled, They passed by together, they saw it, and so they marvelled. They were troubled and hasted away. Fear took hold upon them there, and pain as of a woman in travail. They are 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. You see, we have an eternal God, a God who does not change, a God who is the same yesterday and today and forever. And then he says, we have thought of thy loving kindness. Oh God, in the midst of the temple, The temple, of course, was very special in Old Testament times. It was the place where the high priest met with God. It was a place where the sacrifices were offered. And as we see in those ceremonies, the loving kindness of God. And still today, as we think of Almighty God, and think of his loving kindness.

You may say, well, why do I need to think of it? We need to think of it because we have not been cut off as we deserve. We've not been cast off as we deserve. And why? Because of his loving kindness. He loved us wonderfully. We never deserved it. And yet if God has come and touched our heart and shown us his mercy toward us, shown us the cost of our salvation, how wonderful it is, and what a blessing it is, and so to think we have thought of thy loving kindness. Well, what a mercy if we have, if all of us have thought of the loving kindness of the Lord.

According to thy name, O God, so is thy praise unto the ends of the earth. Thy right hand is full of righteousness. God is pure. God is holy. God is righteous. He's full of righteousness. And yet he condescends to look down upon unworthy sinners. A real reason, isn't it? To come back to the beginning and say, great is the Lord. And then he comes on.

Let Mount Zion rejoice. Let the Church of God rejoice. We have much cause to rejoice. We have much cause to think that we live in a Protestant land, that we have the Bible before us. We can read the Word of God, we can hear the Word of God preached from, What a great blessing and what a great mercy. And so what a favour it is, as he says, let Mount Zion rejoice. Let the daughters of Judah be glad because of thy judgments. Then walk about Zion. Go round about her.

Tell the towers thereof. We are to walk in the church. We are to walk around. We are to testify of the greatness of God. Tell the towers thereof. Let's not be silent. How often the devil stops us speaking. He doesn't want the name of God to be honoured and glorified. and yet we have much cause to thank and to praise God. And so it's good to think of this statement here, an instruction, walk about Zion, go around about her, tell the towers thereof. We're not just to walk about. We're not just to go around. But in doing that, we are to tell the towers thereof.

We are to speak well of our God. And then he says, mark ye well her bulwarks. The bulwarks of God, that great support, none less than the glorious Saviour, Jesus Christ. What a bulwark he is to the Church of God. Do we know that? Do we rejoice in it? Do we have such a great Saviour who supports us and strengthens us and is one unto whom we can continually resort, continually resort.

Mark ye well our bullets. We are to mark them. We are to mark the word of God. We are to read the word of God. We are to mark the promises. We are to praise God for them. We are to be thankful for his great and glorious salvation. and we are to therefore bow down before him.

And then he goes on, how relevant this is, that ye may tell it to the generation following. My friends, it's our privilege to tell the things that God has done for us, the things that God has revealed to us, to the generation following. so that the generation following know what God means to us. He's not just a figure, he's a reality. A God who's dealt kindly and graciously and gloriously with us. And so here the psalmist says that you may tell it to the generation following. Well, it's a glorious statement.

It's so necessary, and yet you see in the day and age in which we live, seldom is this so. The devil seems to shut our mouth. He doesn't want us to tell the generation following how great God is, what he's done, and what love he's shown toward us. And yet this is the word of God that you may tell it to the generation following.

And then finally concluding words for this God, none else. This God is our God. Well, my friends, all of us want to come to that place and by God's grace, To be able to humbly say, this God is our God. This God is my God. And this God is my God forever and ever. What a statement that is, isn't it? To think that God will always remain our God. How humbling and how wonderful it is.

For this God is our God forever and ever. And then you see, the psalmist has that confidence. He will be our guide, even unto death, through our life, through all our life, unto the day of our death. He will not leave us, nor forsake us. Well, my friends, what a blessing to have such a God. May we meditate upon it. Go home and read this psalm again. Psalm 48. It's very beautiful. And it's very wonderful. Well, we'll leave these few remarks there.