Psalm 48:1-8
New American Bible (Revised Edition)
Psalm 48[a]
The Splendor of the Invincible City
1 A psalm of the Korahites.[b] A song.
I
2 Great is the Lord and highly praised
in the city of our God:(A)
His holy mountain,
3 fairest of heights,
the joy of all the earth,(B)
Mount Zion, the heights of Zaphon,[c](C)
the city of the great king.
II
4 God is in its citadel,
renowned as a stronghold.
5 See! The kings assembled,
together they advanced.
6 [d]When they looked they were astounded;
terrified, they were put to flight!(D)
7 Trembling seized them there,
anguish, like a woman’s labor,(E)
8 As when the east wind wrecks
the ships of Tarshish![e]
Footnotes
- Psalm 48 A Zion hymn, praising the holy city as the invincible dwelling place of God. Unconquerable, it is an apt symbol of God who has defeated all enemies. After seven epithets describing the city (Ps 48:2–3), the Psalm describes the victory by the Divine Warrior over hostile kings (Ps 48:4–8). The second half proclaims the dominion of the God of Zion over all the earth (Ps 48:9–12) and invites pilgrims to announce that God is eternally invincible like Zion itself (Ps 48:13–14).
- 48:1 Korahites: see note on Ps 42:1.
- 48:3 The heights of Zaphon: the mountain abode of the Canaanite storm-god Baal in comparable texts. To speak of Zion as if it were Zaphon was to claim for Israel’s God what Canaanites claimed for Baal. Though topographically speaking Zion is only a hill, viewed religiously it towers over other mountains as the home of the supreme God (cf. Ps 68:16–17).
- 48:6 When they looked: the kings are stunned by the sight of Zion, touched by divine splendor. The language is that of holy war, in which the enemy panics and flees at the sight of divine glory.
- 48:8 The ships of Tarshish: large ships, named after the distant land or port of Tarshish, probably ancient Tartessus in southern Spain, although other identifications have been proposed, cf. Is 2:16; 60:9; Jon 1:3.
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