Our Scripture reading this morning is Psalm 48. I invite you to turn in the Bible with me to Psalm 48. The heading in the Bible calls this a song, a Psalm of the sons of Korah, which suggests it most likely was composed after the exile. Psalm 48, great is the Lord and greatly to be praised in the city of our God. His holy mountain, beautiful in elevation, is the joy of all the earth. Mount Zion in the far north, the city of the great king. With inner citadels, God has made himself known as a fortress. For behold, the kings assembled, they came on together. As soon as they saw it, they were astounded. They were in panic, they took to flight. Trembling took hold of them there, anguished as of a woman in labor. By the east wind, you shattered the ships of Tarshish. As we have heard, so have we seen in the city of the Lord of hosts, in the city of our God, which God will establish forever. We have thought on your steadfast love, O God, in the midst of your temple. As your name, O God, so your praise reaches to the ends of the earth. Your right hand is filled with righteousness. Let Mount Zion be glad. Let the daughters of Judah rejoice because of your judgments. Walk about Zion, go around her, number her towers, consider well her ramparts, go through her citadels, that you may tell the next generation that this is God. Our God forever and ever, He will guide us forever. This truly is the Word of the Lord. I encourage you to keep the passage open as we look at it together. I want to note that the central verse is verse 8. As we have heard, so have we seen in the city of the Lord of hosts, in the city of our God, which God will establish forever. The Congregation of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, it is rather remarkable that the Mount called Zion would get such high praise in the Bible. If you've ever been to Jerusalem and you have visited the Temple Mount, Mount Zion, you would say that it is not really all that impressive as a hill. If you cross to the east, the Kidron Valley, there's the Mount of Olives, and the Mount of Olives is actually about 200 feet higher higher in elevation than Mount Zion. And yet verses 1 and 2 speak of Zion as beautiful in elevation, the joy of all the earth. One commentator in visiting Mount Zion said, Mount Zion is more like a pimple of a hill. It's really not all that impressive. And so then we ask, well, what's going on here? Well, Psalm 46 is one of those psalms that we classify as Zion Psalms, that is, psalms that are written about the great and holy city. Like Psalm 46, there is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy habitation of the Most High. Or Psalm 76, God's abode has been established in Salem. his dwelling place in Zion. Or Psalm 87, on the holy mount stands the city he founded. The Lord loves the gates of Zion more than all the dwelling places of Jacob. Glorious things are spoken of you, O city of God. Or Psalm 122, the psalm we sang when we began our worship. Jerusalem, built as a city that is firmly bound together. pray for the peace of Jerusalem." Now, these Psalms that we classify as Zion Psalms are holy inspired songs that recall the central place that this city had in the life of God's people, because here was the temple. The temple was built here, of course, that great shrine, that house of God. Here is where the thrones of David were set from which the Davidic dynasty would rule over God's people and all the other nations around them from time to time. Here is where God's people would aim and make it their goal in pilgrimage to go to Jerusalem for the great festivals, the great feasts of God's people, Passover, Pentecost, and then booths in the fall. And so the theme of this psalm can best be summarized in this way, the Lord is the true strength of His city. And as I said, verse 8 is the center, it is the thematic center of Psalm 48, as we have heard, so have we seen in the city of the Lord of hosts, in the city of our God, which God will establish forever. In other words, God's people have heard this truth. and they have seen it in real time and space. The city that belongs to God is the city that He has established forever because He is its true and lasting strength. Now the psalm divides nicely into four different stanzas. Now scholars don't always agree on exactly where one stanza ends and the next one begins, but most of them would say verses 1-3, first stanza, 4-7 is the second, verse 8 is the center, and then verses 9-11, 12-14 are the third and fourth stanzas. Okay. First stanza, verses 1 through 3, great is the Lord, of course. Praise for our God pours forth from the city that God has founded. Even Jesus will refer to Jerusalem in the Sermon on the Mount as the city of the great king. Now, Jerusalem actually came under Israelites' control fairly late in the conquest. In fact, the Jebusites held onto the city for a long time. It is David and his men who finally capture the city of Jerusalem, and then he proceeds to make it the city of David. David will then move the Ark of the Covenant into the city, and later on, David's greater son, Solomon, would then build the shrine. Now, what was that shrine, that temple? This was the house of God. God had an address in Jerusalem where the temple was. As a way of saying, I live in glory and I live in your midst, it's the whole principle of Immanuel. God is with us. He has His house here. There's an address where we can go and we can come into the presence of God. The priests minister in that house, they teach, they sing, they sacrifice, but we can go and visit God. Emmanuel, God has made His home and His dwelling in the very midst of His people. In the Old Covenant, it was in the form of a shrine. It was in a city, in its citadels. That is why. This goes now to explain why Jerusalem, Zion, is beautiful in its elevation. It's not because of its heights. It's not because of its great mass as a mountain. It's because the Lord lives here. It is the joy of all the earth because the great and holy God, the God who cannot be contained in any temple, who cannot be contained in heaven or even the heavens of the heavens, has chosen to place Himself in the midst of His people. And what's more, verse 3 goes on to say that, he has made himself known as a fortress, shown himself to be her fortress, her refuge. Great is the Lord. Great is Yahweh. He's in our midst. He's living in our midst. But more than that, He is in our midst strong. He's in our midst as a very fortress, not in any weakness, but with great power and might. He is the fortress for Zion, the city of the great king. Now that sets us up for the second stanza, verses 4 through 7. And there we learn that the city of the great king has enemies. Imagine that. Not everyone in this world is a friend of grace. God and His people are not universally loved in this world today. If they're polite, they just tell you to move on. If they're impolite, they seek your death. Last month in December, I had the opportunity to spend one week in Istanbul. Now, we Christians remember that as Constantinople, the great city of the Eastern Roman Empire. There are Christians there, they work as missionaries, and they've obeyed the laws, they are good visitors working in Turkey. And now the Turkish government has told many of them, your visas are revoked, leave the country. What have they done wrong? Nothing, except that they are Christians in a secular Muslim country. God's people are not universally loved, even when they obey the laws and seek the well-being of the city where they are. It reminds us of Psalm 2, doesn't it? Why do the nations rage? Why do the peoples imagine a vain and empty thing? They imagine that the rule of the Lord God and His Christ is slavery. So that's why these nations say, let us break their bonds, let us cast their chains away from us. We will not have the Lord and His Messiah Christ as our ruler. The Jews even said that when Jesus was on trial. Pilate asked the crowd, what shall I do with your king? We have no king but Caesar, the liars. They would rather have a pagan Roman govern them than have Jesus the Christ who healed them of their diseases, who fed them with food that didn't end, who preached the truth to them. We would rather have a pagan Roman as our king." You see, Psalm 2 reveals that when God sees this rebellion going on in the world, His first reaction, He laughs. But then it's not funny because His second reaction is then He gets very angry. And that's why if the kings of the earth would really be wise, also in the United States, you kiss the son lest he be angry and you perish in the way. True wisdom is submitting to Yahweh, the Lord, and to His Christ, His Son. You see, Psalm 48 verses 4 and following tells us that the kings of the earth are not as smart as they think they are. They assemble, they gather their forces, verse 4. Then they make their moves against the city. They march on Jerusalem. And then when they see the city, interestingly, they are astounded, they're panicked, they're frightened, they flee, quite different than what Caesar, Julius Caesar said when he was describing for the world how he came to foreign countries. You remember that from your Latin? Veni, vidi, vici. I came, I saw, I conquered. Three words. But that's not the experience of these royal enemies of the great king, the Lord. No, they came, they saw. They panicked, and then they flee away. Now, the writer of Psalm 48 doesn't tell us what historical matters he has in mind when he says this. It's kind of a summary statement, but we can think of many stories in the Bible, can't we? Think of Pharaoh watching as the Israelites are leaving Egypt. He's watching his workforce leave. What do we do without Israelite slaves? So he sends his chariots, his best tanks after them. But you know the story. They pursue Israel into the Red Sea, and then the Red Sea drowns them, covers them. And Exodus 14 says, and God's people saw the Egyptian dead, and they believed in the Lord and in Moses. Later on, King Jehoshaphat faces an unholy alliance of Ammonites, Moabites, and Edomites. They're coming up from the south. They're marching on Jerusalem. Jehoshaphat is terrified. What do we do? But he leads the nation in prayer. And then, by revelation, it is told to him, victory belongs to the Lord. The battle is the Lord's. All you need to do is stand and watch the victory of Yahweh. The text tells us that these three enemies of God's people, they turned on themselves. They destroyed themselves. So when the Israelites came upon their camp, all they saw was the plunder. One final occasion, the Assyrians under King Sennacherib, they march on Jerusalem. They march against King Hezekiah. And Sennacherib sends his big, potentate general, Rabshakeh, and he makes this big, impressive speech to the soldiers on the wall. Don't trust the Lord. He's forsaken you. Don't trust in Hezekiah. The Lord has abandoned Hezekiah. Trust us Assyrians. We're kind and gentle. What happens? See, God's people... The Lord is the strength of His city. The angel of the Lord comes and strikes down, kills 185,000 Assyrian soldiers. So Sennacherib now discovers, I have nothing to fight the Israelites with. He goes home, tail between the legs, as we would say, only to be assassinated by his own sons. The kings of the earth assemble, they march, they meet the city of God, they see it, and they turn around frightened. They might amass their fleets, but God destroys their ships. The city remains. The city remains. You know, the story is told that during the Russian Revolution. Vladimir Lenin took one of his associates into an Orthodox church, and he said, you see that babushka there, that grandmother praying? I can assure you that when that babushka, when the grandmother is dead, the church in Russia will be dead. Well, brothers and sisters, I can assure you that Lenin is dead, and the babushkas are still in the church praying. and they've been joined by their children and their grandchildren. The church in Russia is not dead. It's going through great struggles, no doubt about that. I know, I teach students when I am in Latvia via Zoom, Russian pastors who had to flee Russia because of the war, because of their opposition to Mr. Putin. But the church is not dead. It lives. It lives because the Lord is the strength of His people. Communism is wobbling, but the church of the Lord Jesus Christ still is there. Yes, there are young people praying to Christ, serving Christ in the great country of Russia. Now, persecution is never pleasant. It's never pleasant. But Tertullian was right when he said, the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church. Why? Why would that be true? Because the Lord is the true strength of His city, not its pastors, not its teachings as such, not its financial wealth, and not its buildings. The Lord lives as a fortress in the midst of His people, and you need to be reminded of that, and I need to be reminded of that again and again. Namely this, that Jesus Christ has overcome the world. In this world you will face tribulation, but be of good cheer. I have overcome the world, says Christ. He is King of kings and Lord of lords, and He is with us as a fortress. You know, in the days of the Protestant Reformation, things weren't always going so swimmingly well for the Protestants. And Martin Luther had a right-hand man, Philip Melanchthon. And Melanchthon could often become discouraged and downhearted when things were not going right. And Luther would say to him, come, Philip, let us sing the 46th Psalm. God is our refuge and our strength and ever-present help in time of trouble. The defeat of the enemies of God is not because the city walls are so thick and strong. The defeat of those enemies is only because the Lord has shown Himself to be the true fortress, the actual strength of His people. Now, this leads us then to the third stanza, verses 9 through 11, where the psalm tells us that we contemplate, we think about the unfailing Steadfast love of God. So what are God's people thinking about? Stock market, grain prices, cattle prices, political prospects, inflation. How will the White Sox do this year? What are God's people thinking about this year? Well, this text tells us that they think about His unfailing love. They think about His commitment, the great loyalty in His covenant with His people. Now, history shows us what that means. God makes a sure promise to His people. Though they be sinners, He has made a promise and a commitment. I will crush through the seed of the woman. I will crush the head of the serpent. Now we are sinners. We deserve to be crushed. We are the sinners in history. We are the ones deserving of His just wrath and punishment. Nevertheless, nevertheless, God has chosen His own people from the beginning of time until its very end and gathers them from every tribe and nation of the world. and He lives with them, people who were once dead in sins and trespasses, people who were once sinners and rebels against God. But now reconciled through the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, the steadfast love of God, that commitment that God has made for His people, it all comes to fulfillment in the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ. For Christ paid the debt you couldn't pay. Christ conquered that cold enemy called death. The grave will not be our final resting place. Christ has ascended on high, there to intercede for us. always and to prepare a place for us for eternity. This is Christ's work. It fulfills the commitment that God has made to His elect. They don't deserve it. They're amazed by it. We can't add to it. It's finished. And God is committed to this cause for you. For you sinners, for you, he's committed to this. He has poured out his Holy Spirit so that that spirit might take the things of Christ and apply them to your life, working them into your hearts and lives. Do you know this? Do you believe this? Does this truth of the gospel become the source of your encouragement day after day after day when opposition and tribulation come your way? Do you trust this Jesus to accomplish everything for you, unfailing love? Are you thinking about this? What are God's people thinking about these days? You know, back in the older covenant era, the Old Testament times, as I said before, you could go to temple and the priests there were supposed to be the chief instructors in the Torah, in the laws of God, in the ways of God. And if they were doing their duty, God's people would have been well-taught, but they weren't doing what God required of them. No, no, no, they weren't. So that we arrive at a situation described in Jeremiah 7, where God tells Jeremiah, you stand at the gate of the temple. And you warn this people and you tell them, do not say the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord. As if having this beautiful building, God's temple is a promise. That he will always be with us, and then you go out of the temple. And you commit murder, you steal, you practice sorcery, you practice adultery, but you come back to the temple and you say, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord is this. That's why the temple of the old Jerusalem has to go, it's gone. But what replaces it? The church of the Lord Jesus Christ, a living temple. It now stands and it is now being built by God's Word and Spirit, Ephesians 2. And here is where you people have this privilege of learning about the unfailing, steadfast love of God, Sunday after Sunday after Sunday after Sunday. You learn it in Bible studies. You learn about it in your private, in your family devotions. And that contemplation, that thinking should lead to doxology, verse 11. Let the daughters of Judah rejoice. Let the villages that are the suburbs of Jerusalem join the chorus of praise to God. And this all leads then to the fourth stanza. This final stanza, verses 12 through 14, they tell us to go on a walkabout. That's probably not a common English term. In Australia, you know what a walkabout is. To do something. Now, what's interesting is that the earlier verses, the earlier three stanzas, describe many things, and it's only here in this last stanza are the people of God actually told to do something. Go on a walkabout. Take note of these citadels, these towers, these palaces, just see how beautiful and how great they are. But then we come strangely to verse 14. Go around, walk around, take note of what you see, and then verse 14, that you may tell the next generation that this is God. And we immediately pull back and say, wait a minute, we're Christians. We're not gonna look at these citadels and these towers and these walls and say, this is God. No, we're not gonna, what's going on here? We don't make created things to be idols. In other words, that would be our Protestant reaction. We don't make created things idols, huh? Or would we? Or have we? Bear in mind that, as Romans 1 tells us, anything that has been created, anything that God has made, has the potential to become an idol. Anything created potentially could be turned into an idol. Because we are inherently religious, incurably religious, if you don't worship the true God, inevitably you will come back into creation and you will find some deity or gods and goddesses in life. Let me flesh that out a little bit. What are the strengths that we can see in the church today? Great pastors. Sound doctrine? Oh my, those are so important, so important. The church needs more pastors who are committed to the Word of God, not just in their minds, but also in their practice. The church needs doctrine, teaching, sound teaching, that that catechetical instruction in the teaching of the Word of God must go on. But let me ask this. Will the doctrine by itself save us? No. James 2, even the demons believe God is one and they tremble. In other words, demons probably understand the doctrine of God, the theology proper of the Bible better than we do. But that doesn't save them. They're demons. They are opposed to God. They tremble at the truth. Or how about this? In the history of the Christian church, some have said that the bread of communion, which is a sign and seal of the body of Christ, and the wine of communion, which is a sign and seal of the blood of Christ, become actually, really and truly the very body and blood, soul and divinity of Jesus Christ. But brothers and sisters, if you trust bread and wine, if you trust bread and wine, you are sadly mistaken for this is idolatry. In communion, our teeth don't press the flesh of Jesus. So how do we stay away from idolatry? Well, ultimately, it's the Holy Spirit who does that, who opens our eyes to take what we see physically to understand what is spiritually being communicated, that we may see Jesus. Faith is the mouth that receives Christ in communion, not our teeth. Faith is the mouth. Faith opens our eyes to see Christ. Christ is the one who sends His enemies away in terror and panic. You remember the Garden of Gethsemane scene? Here comes this mob at night with their sticks and their knives. And Jesus said, whom are you seeking? Jesus of Nazareth. Well, I am He. And the text says, and they fell over backwards. It's a strange story. They came, they saw, they fall over. Do the walkabout, yes. Take note of the many strengths that are visible in this church, in this world, and even outside of this church, but then give very careful, prayerful instruction that these visible manifestations need the kind of instruction that we see beyond what our eyes can see. If we see the strength of a building or of a wall that reminds us of the strength of Yahweh, He is the strength of these people. Verses 13 and 14, yes, consider all that you see, but learn that they must, must remind you of the true strength of the city. It is the Lord Himself. Because if the Lord ever leaves the church, then you and I have nothing except exposure to our enemies, who at best want us quiet and staying in the ghetto where we can be spiritual. At worst, they want us dead." Now, you don't have to tell people to be ignorant. They can do that pretty well on their own. They can. Because if this truth was self-evident, There wouldn't be a need for the Scriptures to say again and again, teach these things. Deuteronomy 6, Psalm 78, teach these things to your children, instruct them in them so that they might see and understand and then obey. They won't get it on their own. Show them, tell them, lay it out for them. that we have a God who will lead us forever and ever, even to death, even beyond death. You see, Psalm 48 brings it all together, mountain, city, temple. But even more than that, it tells us to take a good look at that city, temple, walls, and then to think beyond. Where is the strength of this church? Where is the strength of this city? Where is the strength of this community? It is the Lord. For if the Lord does not guard the city, then the best-trained troops will have no chance against the enemies that are arrayed against her." But all of this requires faith, faith. Not faith in what our physical eyes see, but what the eyes of faith see that lie beyond it, Christ. Therefore, abandon all hope in your own righteousness. Abandon all hope in what you can contribute and maybe add to the picture. Look in faith to what the Lord Jesus Christ has done for His people and that He lives as Emmanuel in our midst. He has given us this promise, and the promises of God are yes and amen. I will never leave you. I will never forsake you. I will be with you to the end of the age. Amen. Let us pray. Lord our God, Your promises sometimes go beyond what our minds can grasp. And our eyes see, like Peter, we see the waves, we see the dangers, it's dark, there are things that threaten us, and we sometimes feel just overwhelmed. And therefore, Lord, with the power of your Holy Spirit and the truth, the sure truths of your word, reach to us and take hold of us. that as we live as brothers and sisters in Christ, we may have that strength of faith and the comfort of knowing that we are in the palm of Your hand. Indeed, our names are engraved on the palms of Your hand, that You will never forsake us, You will never forget us. And so, Father, we are comforted by that, and we pray that You will take away the doubts that come our way, and the struggles give us hope and strength in those struggles. and answer us for Jesus' sake. Amen. We sing in response Psalm 46. 46C, God is our refuge and strength. All the stanzas of 46C.