Psalms 48:4

A RECENT EXAMPLE OF GOD'S PROTECTION

"For, lo, the kings assembled themselves,

They passed by altogether.

They saw it, then they were amazed;

They were dismayed, they hasted away.

Trembling took hold of them there.

Pain, as of a woman in travail.

With the east wind

Thou breakfast the ships of Tarshish.

Now have we heard, so have we seen

In the city of Jehovah of hosts, in the city of our God:

God will establish it forever.

(Selah)"

For comment on the first three verses here, see the chapter introduction.

"With the east wind thou breakest the ships of Tarshish" (Psalms 48:6). This is in all probability merely a figurative expression emphasizing God's power. There never was a campaign in which a great navy was available to aid the cause of Israel's adversary. The impossibility of fitting this verse into the supposed occasion for the psalm, whether the reign of Jehoshaphat or of Hezekiah, has caused some interpreters to refer the whole psalm to the eschatalogical conflict of the days of Gog and Magog. The idea of some kind of a proverbial expression of God's power appeals to us as the best solution.

"God will establish it forever" (Psalms 48:8). No doubt ancient Israel made some deductions from this that were totally unfounded. First, it was not an unconditional promise, as far as the literal Jerusalem was concerned. Israel's rejection of Messiah resulted in the most terrible destruction the city ever experienced; and yet in the sense of its eternal continuity as "The New Jerusalem," the promise was absolutely and unconditionally fulfilled. We must, of necessity, find overtones of that ultimate fulfilment in the text of this psalm.