Psalm 48, part 2, verses 8 to 14, our God for ever and ever

 

Psalm 48:8 ¶  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. Selah. 9  We have thought of thy lovingkindness, O God, in the midst of thy temple. 10  According to thy name, O God, so is thy praise unto the ends of the earth: thy right hand is full of righteousness. 11  Let mount Zion rejoice, let the daughters of Judah be glad, because of thy judgments. 12  Walk about Zion, and go round about her: tell the towers thereof. 13  Mark ye well her bulwarks, consider her palaces; that ye may tell it to the generation following. 14  For this God is our God for ever and ever: he will be our guide even unto death.

 

Following from the last passage commentators have said that the people of Israel witness the destruction of Gog and Magog. God will preserve, establish, His city forever, which we might think of as the New Jerusalem that descends from Heaven.

 

Ezekiel 38:2  Son of man, set thy face against Gog, the land of Magog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal, and prophesy against him,

 

Revelation 20:8  And shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle: the number of whom is as the sand of the sea.

 

Revelation 3:12  Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go no more out: and I will write upon him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, which is new Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from my God: and I will write upon him my new name.

 

Revelation 21:2  And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.

 

Isaiah 2:2  And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the LORD’S house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it.

 

Isaiah 62:7  And give him no rest, till he establish, and till he make Jerusalem a praise in the earth.

 

Psalm 87:5  And of Zion it shall be said, This and that man was born in her: and the highest himself shall establish her.

 

Isaiah 33:20  Look upon Zion, the city of our solemnities: thine eyes shall see Jerusalem a quiet habitation, a tabernacle that shall not be taken down; not one of the stakes thereof shall ever be removed, neither shall any of the cords thereof be broken.

 

The Israelites hoped for God’s lovingkindness, His favor on their temporal, physical city, and temple while the Christian is the temple of God, and we think of God’s lovingkindness for us.

 

1Corinthians 3:16  Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?

 

God’s name will be praised in the whole earth.

 

Malachi 1:11  For from the rising of the sun even unto the going down of the same my name shall be great among the Gentiles; and in every place incense shall be offered unto my name, and a pure offering: for my name shall be great among the heathen, saith the LORD of hosts.

 

Zechariah 14:9  And the LORD shall be king over all the earth: in that day shall there be one LORD, and his name one.

 

Jews and Gentiles will be converted and songs of praise will be lifted up.

 

Isaiah 24:15  Wherefore glorify ye the LORD in the fires, even the name of the LORD God of Israel in the isles of the sea. 16a ¶  From the uttermost part of the earth have we heard songs, even glory to the righteous..

His righteousness and judgments will preserve us. We must not fail, as the Israelites did, to pass on the knowledge of God to the next generations. God will be our God for ever and as Job said;

 

Job 13:15a  Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him…

 

On a side note in verse 12 think of tell as count, like a bank teller. It is used this way also in;

 

Genesis 15:5  And he brought him forth abroad, and said, Look now toward heaven, and tell the stars, if thou be able to number them: and he said unto him, So shall thy seed be.

 

Interestingly, I think, in this Psalm we have discussed a physical Jerusalem and a physical temple as well as the Jerusalem that descends from Heaven and a spiritual temple that each Jew and Gentile believer has become with the indwelling of the Holy Ghost.