Psalm 48

Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised
In the city of our God,
In His holy mountain.
² Beautiful in elevation,
The joy of the whole earth,
Is Mount Zion on the sides of the north,
The city of the great King.
³ God is in her palaces;
He is known as her refuge.

⁴ For behold, the kings assembled,
They passed by together.
⁵ They saw it, and so they marveled;
They were troubled, they hastened away.
⁶ Fear took hold of them there,
And pain, as of a woman in birth pangs,
⁷ As when You break the ships of Tarshish
With an east wind.

⁸ As we have heard,
So we have seen
In the city of the Lord of hosts,
In the city of our God:
God will establish it forever. Selah

⁹ We have thought, O God, on Your lovingkindness,
In the midst of Your temple.
¹⁰ According to Your name, O God,
So is Your praise to the ends of the earth;
Your right hand is full of righteousness.
¹¹ Let Mount Zion rejoice,
Let the daughters of Judah be glad,
Because of Your judgments.

¹² Walk about Zion,
And go all around her.
Count her towers;
¹³ Mark well her bulwarks;
Consider her palaces;
That you may tell it to the generation following.
¹⁴ For this is God,
Our God forever and ever;
He will be our guide
Even to death.

Sometimes these Zion references pass over my head. I mean, I get the whole Jerusalem being special thing (sort of) and something about the end of the world… It starts to get all confusing because of all the ways it’s been used in modern culture, too. There’s Zionism, basically Jewish national pride. Plus, Zion was used by the anti-slavery movement as a representation of freedom as opposed to Babylon, a place of bondage, and along those lines, Rastafarians use Zion to refer to a utopia and Babylon as whatever the opposite of utopia is. The Mormons put Zion in Independence, Missouri (one day’s wagon trip from Lawrence on the Oregon Trail, I might add). And, let’s not forget The Matrix (you know, that city that was real and not in the matrix?). 

Obviously, here we have got a reference to the actual city of Jerusalem. But then again, as Adam Clark said, "There is no sense in which literal Jerusalem was ever the joy of the whole earth." So, some other aspect of Zion must be shining through too. What is it? Some end-of-the world type Zion or a Heavenly Kingdom or the congregation of believers or something else? Let’s consider the characteristics of the place being described here.

God is in her palaces; He is known as her refuge.

It’s a place where God resides and a place that God protects.

They saw it, and so they marveled

It’s a place that other people see and know that God is there. They can see His glory through it and are amazed at His power.

Let Mount Zion rejoice

It’s a place that knows that all the credit belongs to God. In its temple, praises go up to God for the judgments he has made there concerning its well-being.

That you may tell it to the generation following

It’s a place that stands as an example to all of God’s wonders on this earth.

For this is God, our God forever and ever; He will be our guide even to death.

So what is it? God lives in it and protects it, His power is seen through it, it praises God, and it exists to show others God’s glory. Sounds a lot like us. I often just go with whatever people tell me when we’re talking about the Bible. If they say Zion is this or that, I just agree because I don’t know where it came from, so I have to assume they’re right. But, here, it’s quite obvious. So, when you go out tomorrow, remember that you are part of Zion, you are the person carrying this legacy to show everyone else that this is our God, forever and ever.