Alright, continuing our series in Psalms. Psalms, hymns for worship and praise. Lesson 9 today, Praise of the Mount Zion. The text is Psalms 47-51, and we'll be looking at, focusing on chapter 48. The key verse, verse 8, chapter 48, as we've heard, so have we seen, in the city of the Lord of hosts, in the city of our God, God will establish it forever, silah. In application of today's lesson, we will rejoice in God's presence now in anticipation of His reign forever. As far as the context for our lesson, the Nation of Israel is special and still remains as a testimony of God's faithfulness to the Jewish people. Think of how many times that we have seen efforts by other nations to destroy Israel and annihilate the Jewish people. But those attempts have failed every time. And we see another instance of that even yesterday with Hezbollah bombing in Israel. I think there were 12 children killed in the ground playing on a soccer field. So pray for peace in Jerusalem. But God has promises yet to be fulfilled for the nation of Israel, and when God makes promises, He fulfills them. But what are some ways that God has protected the nation of Israel? What are some ways God has protected the nation of Israel up to now? God's appointed the United States to be an authority over Israel. He's using the United States to protect Israel. OK. Any others? Give them victory in their battles. OK. He went before them. when they were obedient. When they weren't obedient to his commands, he sometimes withheld his hand and allowed them to be defeated. He gave them their nation. He gave them their nation in the beginning in the promised land, but he also gave their nation back to them back in 1948 when they were allowed to return to their homeland. So God has taken care of Israel. Looking at our outline for today, point number one, the city, verses 1 through 3. And then the city's enemies, or the people's enemies, verses 4 to 8. And then the city's God, verses 9 to 14. I'm going to put up these verses just so we can see the words that go before verse 1. It says, It says, A psalm and psalm for the sons of Korah. Now, when we think of the psalms, many of them were written by David, some by Solomon, but there's 11 that were written by the sons of Korah. So, who are the sons of Korah? According to the Bible, Korah had several sons, including Asser, Elkanah, and Beasath. They're credited with, as I said, credited with writing 11 of the Psalms, including Psalm 48, which we're going to look at. And these Psalms that are written by the sons of Korah express gratitude, humility, a longing for God, and a devotion. According to Numbers 16.25-26, Korah's sons followed God's command to leave Korah's tent so that it would not be destroyed because of his sin. Korah was a cousin of Moses and Aaron, and he disputed or rebelled, however you want to say it, against God's command that the priest were all to come to the Levite tribe. And because of that, he was swallowed up, and his followers, along with all their possessions. But the point is, the sons of Korah were spared. God told them to get away from this tent. their father's tent. And they did. And they were spared. And the sons of Korah were of the Korathites. The descendants of Korah's sons who were a branch of the Korathite, the division of sinners, were that. The Korathites had many responsibilities in the tabernacle of the temple, including serving as gatekeepers and custodians. It turned, at King David's time, they became leaders in the choral and orchestral music, which leads to this title, which comes before verse one, that this psalm was intended to be accompanied by an orchestra when they sang. So with that in mind, this first point is the city. I want to reverse, review the history of the city of Jerusalem. It's one of the oldest cities in the whole world. And archaeological discoveries suggest that it's been inhabited since shortly after the flood, which would make it about, that would be about 4,000 BC. Early inhabitants were likely various tribal people, and the city was no more than a settlement on the top of Mount Zion. First mentioned in Jerusalem in the Bible is found in Genesis 14, 18, which talks about Melchizedek, the king. And he's identified as the king of Salem, which is just short for Jerusalem. Although nothing is known about Melchizedek and his people, the fact that he's called the king indicates that by this time Jerusalem was an established The next mention of Jerusalem in the scriptures is Joshua 10.1. Joshua and the Israelites had recently won the battle of Ai on their way to conquering the Promised Land, and Adonai Zedek, the king of Jerusalem at that time, gathered his allies together to fight against Israel's advance. And this is just, verse 13 of this chapter is when God calls the sun to stand still, and at the same time gave Joshua and Israel the victory over the Zedek. The city was later given when they were handing out and dividing up the land to the different tribes. The city, the tribe of Benjamin got the area in which Jerusalem is located. Unfortunately, God gave the Israelites the command to drive the Canaanite tribes, Canaanite people, completely out of the land. Whichever area, given tribe God, it was their responsibility to drive the inhabitants completely out. God didn't want the false gods of these Canaanite tribes to influence Israel, to draw them away from Him. But unfortunately, they didn't drive out the inhabitants of Jerusalem, as some of the other tribes didn't do either. We're talking here about Jerusalem. And these people, at that time, the people inhabiting Jerusalem were the Jebusites. And they didn't drive them out. Instead, they chose to go in and live beside them and make them into their servants. But that didn't always go well. It was not until King David came on the scene and conquered the city of Jerusalem and claimed it as his own that Jerusalem was completely under Israel's control. That's 2 Samuel 5. But it's not that that's a lie about the history of Jerusalem. And that's taken from Deuteronomy 12.5 and 12.11. So what we see is, long before David chose Jerusalem to be the capital city of Israel, God had chosen Jerusalem. So that brings us up to the first point in our outline, the city, or we might call it the praise of God. Verse 1 says, Praise the Lord, and greatly to be praised. Let's just stop there. What does the grave mean? If you look it up in the dictionary, a lot of different words, but it speaks of being massive, something large, something noble, something even awe-inspiring. And if people would take the time to look at God's attributes, they would be amazed at how great He is. We look up God in a Bible dictionary, we find a list of traits which are unique to God. One is omniscience, or, if you pronounced it, Break it up into two parts. It's omni-science. Science is knowledge. Omni is all. So all science. So that trait of God is God has all knowledge. He's all-knowing. He knows everything. The second one you probably find is omnipotence, or omnipotence. Something that's potent. A drug that's potent, that's strong. A weed killer that's strong, or is potent, that's strong. And so, omnipotence is all-strength or all-powerful. God is all-powerful. Third, you probably see omnipresence, all-presence or presence everywhere. God is everywhere, can be everywhere at the same time. And lastly, the fourth word we probably see somewhere in that definition would be immortality or eternal. God is all eternal. He doesn't have a beginning. He doesn't have an end. He has existed for all time, past, present, and future. Trying to comprehend and get our mind around just those four words, would probably take more than our lifetime. But I'm sure just delving into those four words and all that they mean would cause us to say God is truly a great God. So we go on. Great is the Lord and greatly be praised in the city of our God, in the mountain of His holiness. The psalmist here declares that Mount Zion, the city of God, should engage in intense praise to Him. He's grateful to be praised in the city of our God and the mountain of His holiness. and begins to discuss the city of Jerusalem, or Mount Zion, not to take anything away from God, but instead to show what God is really capable of doing. And that is, He's able and willing to stand behind Jerusalem, no matter what might happen, no matter who or what nation might come against them. Verse two says, beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth is Mount Zion, on the sides of the north, the city of the great king. So beautiful for situation might be, you might say it a different way, beautifully situated. It's talking about the elevation of the city. It sits up on a hill so the entire world can look to her. Even today, Jerusalem is the forefront of the thoughts of most nations. I'm sure, I didn't see the paper this morning, but I'm sure it's going to be in the headlines, what happened yesterday in Israel. It's a tiny nation compared to other nations, but yet it's in the headlines or in the paper almost every day, what's going on in Israel. And it's at the center of controversy because it's claimed by three religions, monotheistic religions of the world. Monotheistic being one God. And the three religions being Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. They all believe that their God is the one God and the only God. Islam is wrong in that their God is not the God of the Bible. Judaism and Christianity worship the same God, but we believe the Messiah has already come. They deny that and are still waiting. But no matter what the world thinks, this verse says, Jerusalem is the city of the great King, King Jesus. Verse three said, God is known in her palaces for a refuge. God is known in the world as a refuge, a place of safety and protection. And that protection is described in this next passage, verses four through eight. But before we leave this point, can you list some important events that happened in Jerusalem? Crucifixion? What are some others? Pentecost. Pentecost, okay, Holy Spirit meaning. It was given to us. When we say crucifixion, we could say crucifixion, burial, resurrection, ascension, a lot of things, different events there, and then giving the Holy Spirit. and we understood that in others. Point number two, point number one was the city, or the praise of God. This is the city's, or the Jewish people's enemies, and the protection of God. We'll read verses 4 through 6 all together here. It says, The situation described here in these verses has been repeated numerous times as the city of Jerusalem has come under siege by various enemies. And numerous times also the Lord has protected the city. It's not clear whether the writer here had a particular incident in mind, but The events that happened in 2 Kings 18 and 19 wouldn't fit the description. I'm not going to read those verses. I'm going to try to summarize them. Assyria was a major power in the world, and Assyrian king, Sennacherib, came against Jerusalem. He sent his generals to Jerusalem, to inform Jerusalem and King Hezekiah of an impending attack. Their choices were to surrender or be annihilated. But Hezekiah took this burden to the Lord in prayer. And that very same night, God sent his angel who smoked the Assyrian army and killed 185,000 soldiers that night. So this mighty army of Assyria was destroyed because God's hand was with Jerusalem and for Jerusalem. Verse 5 says, they saw it and so they marveled. The Assyrian army, especially Sennacherib, had come in pride and arrogance. He had boasted of his strength and guaranteed victory. But, as verse 6 says, fear took hold on them there in pain. Sennacherib and what was left of his army kind of lived out of town. And when he got back to Syria, he was Verses seven and eight. Thou breakest the ships of Tarshish, remember Tarshish is where Jonah went when he was told to go to Nineveh, he went 180 degrees the other direction to Tarshish, from the east. Thou breakest the ships of Tarshish with an east wind, 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 forever. So, This is at St. Tarshish. We don't know for sure where that city was located, possibly in Spain. It was somewhere to the west of where Jonah started. But this verse probably refers to these ships of Tarshish and how strong they were. They were known for making long voyages on the Mediterranean Sea, and Spain would have been about as far as you could get from Israel. So that would have been a long journey. And similar to the Titanic in our country, these ships were a source of human pride, even Arabs. Some say this reference, these two verses, are to a mistake that King Jehoshaphat of Judah back in 2 Chronicles 20, a mistake that he made. He was a, you know, in the Old Testament, the kings are kind of grouped. You go to Bible Dictionary, you find a group of the good kings and the bad kings. Joseph F, for the most part, was a good king, but he sinned here. He made an ungodly alliance with And the alliance was to build ships that were strong like these ships at Tarshish. And the purpose was so these ships they were building could go to Ophir to bring back gold. But the prophet Eliezer came to King Josaphat and said, quote, because thou hast joined thyself with Uzziah, the Lord hath broken thy works. And God sent a strong east wind. God, who controls the winds, controls the weather, destroyed the ship easily with an eastern wind. So because of God's displeasure with King Jehoshaphat, he broke the ship so that King Jehoshaphat could profit from an unholy alliance, from a union with a wicked king. So what we learn is God's hand is mighty to accomplish his purposes. And so it was back in the time of King Josaphat, so it is with the city of Jerusalem. God can accomplish his purposes with the city of Jerusalem. He's protected the city many times. But he's also, he was the one who allowed the invasion of the Babylonians and to destroy it, destroy the city of Jerusalem. So God protects those who seek Him, as King Ithacaiah did, but He destroys those who reject Him. In history, the city of Jerusalem has been torn apart and rebuilt several times. And again, the destruction was caused by Israel's disobedience. So God has an eternal plan, and the Jewish people and the city of Jerusalem are a part of it, and God will preserve both. So what have you observed concerning God's protection of Israel? They're still there, okay? I think when I look at protection, I think a couple of stories that I've either read or someone's told me, it was over there. Israel's been in a lot of wars. I don't remember which one it was, There was a story about as the, I guess it was still the IDF back then, the Israeli Defense Forces, as they overrun and they're in their fight with their enemy, whichever one it was, as they overrun one of these machine guns, what you call battlements or boards, The two soldiers from the enemy soldiers there were arguing over who was going to load the gun and who was going to shoot. Which you think, how could that ever happen? But God can put things in people's hearts to do that end up to their own detriment, accomplish God's will, his purpose for Israel. And another one was the closest Israel come to be defeated was one time when all the Arab nations got together and were working together. Usually they're bickering between themselves, but they were all working together. And Egypt was about the only one that had a real air force. And for some reason, they had parked all their planes out on the tarmac like the day before they were going to attack. All the Arab nations together were going to attack at the same time. And Israel got that intelligence from somewhere, and they come in the night before they were going to attack Israel and just wiped out the Egyptian air force. All those planes sitting on the tarmac were just totally destroyed. It seemed like a bad tactic, but God can cause things to happen. And then our last point, we looked at the city and the city's enemies. Now the city's God, or the promotion of God. In these next three verses, God gives three reasons that we should praise God. Verse nine, we have thought of thy lovingkindness, O God, in the midst of thy temple. So, one reason we should praise God is because he's filled with lovingkindness. There was a call made to the people to consider how much God's love, His kindness was extended to them, to the Jewish people. And the place that was to happen was in the temple. Here it says, in the midst of thy temple. So the call was made to them to encourage them to remember God's loving kindness to them, and it was done at the temple, which was the central part of the Jewish society. And what he's saying here, I think, is that because it's the central part of their society, Every plan was made, or was to be made, considering the special times of worship. They had certain times of day that they would go to the temple to worship. And nothing was to interfere with that. That was not a negotiable. And that way of setting priorities is a good lesson for us. It's a great way for us to conduct our lives. We shouldn't think of church as something to do if nothing else interferes. Too many people do that today. It's a priority, but a lot of things can come in and supersede that priority. But church attendance and worship should be our primary focus of our lives. Verse 10, according to thy name, O God, so is thy praise in the ends of the earth. Thy right hand is full of righteousness. So secondly, a second reason to praise God is because he's full of righteousness. Righteousness, someone wrote righteousness speaks of equity. I never thought of it that way. But one writer said, in the Bible, righteousness and equity are both considered aspects of true justice. The three words righteousness, justice, and equity are used together in Proverbs 2.9 to describe what justice is. I'm going to read that verse. Proverbs 2.9 says, Then shalt thou understand righteousness, and judgment, and equity, yea, every good past. So this writer goes on, righteousness describes a natural or a moral rightness or being morally correct and justifiable. Equity can mean an attitude of agreement or rectitude or the impartial distribution of justice in the Bible. The main Hebrew word for equity Miserum conveys ideas like uprightness, and fairness, and truth, order, and integrity. So you can see those things go together. If we say something's inequitable, we mean it's fair. So God is morally right. God is never wrong in a decision he makes. Not only is he morally right in his righteousness, But he's fair. So God's power is based on his righteousness. And this holy character of God This verse says, should be declared to the ends of the earth. And how does that happen? Well, it should be the responsibility of churches. Churches have been given the Great Commission, and so they're to take the message of God everywhere. And we see God, we said God was full of righteousness, and we see it on display in the life of Christ. Christ was perfect just as God was perfect. And that's the message that God wants churches to take to the end of the earth. And lastly, verse 11, let Mount Zion rejoice, let the daughters of Judah be glad because of thy judgments. Again, it's saying God is just and right in His judgments. His verdicts, when He pronounces judgment, are not pronounced arbitrarily. He's not prejudiced against anyone. He's just and right in what He declares, and because of that, people can rejoice and praise God. And then in verse 12, the call was put out for those in the city of Jerusalem to take a tour of their town and walk about the city and see how it looked. Verse 12 and 13. First part of verse 13. Verse 12, walk about Zion and go round about there. Tell the towers there, notice the towers there. Mark ye well her bulwarks. Consider her palaces. So in this tour, they are looking at the towers, the bulwarks, the places that have been reinforced, and to consider the beauty of its palaces. So, why? Why is he telling them to do that? We look at the end of verse 13, it says, that ye may tell it to the generation following. There needed to be a testimony to generations that were going to come after them. If this song was written during the time of Hezekiah, which we talked about earlier, And these words should have special significance because Jewish people maybe didn't know it, but their future was going to get very difficult. Babylon was on the rise and would come against Jerusalem. Jerusalem would be the Jewish, and Judah, the tribe of Judah or the area of Judah would be defeated and the people carried away captive. So they had some very difficult times ahead of them. But the time, we know the time will come when they would return to the city and have, they'd rebuild the house of God. And the Bible says old men would remind the young people about the former glory of the earlier temple. Verse 14, for this God is our God forever and ever. He will be our guide even into death. So through it all, God gave the assurance that He would go through every trial of life that they had, and He would guide them right up until the day of their death. I wonder sometimes, do we realize this truth? God can be trusted no matter what we face. The future's kind of uncertain right now, but we have to trust God that he's in control. He knows he's not, nothing's gonna surprise him. He knows all about what's going down here. on earth, and He'll guide us through whatever valleys He sees fit for us to pass through, even, as Psalm 23 says, even though we walk through the valley of the shadow of death. We can trust Him, and therefore, as this lesson has been all about, we can praise Him. So two questions to end. Has God been faithful to you? I think we'd have to say absolutely yes. Can you make a list of reasons why you should praise the Lord? Yes. Yes. It's not a yes or no question. I meant to put that in there. First of all, that's the second. What would you put on the list? That's the question, or that's the follow-up question. Salvation. Salvation has to be first, doesn't it? What else? Say again? Okay. Providence. Providence. God provides. The others? That God is worthy to be praised. Therefore, we can trust him. Pray to him and leave things in his hands. All right, let's pray. Father, thank you for this study. And in the 48th Psalm, we thank you for a God that loves us and is full of righteousness and is just in all his doings. We're thankful for a God who controls the future, who is not surprised by anything that we humans might do on Earth. First pray that We would not be fearful of what we're doing, but just to continue on trying to keep your commands and trying to carry your gospel around to our community and beyond. It is ready to supply our needs, and it is told us to speak to people in Christ's name.