Psalm Chapter 48 - A Song and Psalm for the sons of Korah

Psalm 48: A Walking Tour of the City of God

Most poems praise a place by describing it from a safe distance. This one invites you to go inside the gates and take a walk. "Walk about Zion, and go round about her: tell the towers thereof. Mark ye well her bulwarks, consider her palaces." The psalmist is not inviting us to admire Zion as tourists but to learn her the way you learn the face of someone you love — slowly, up close, committing each detail to memory so that you might tell it to the next generation. And here is the strange tenderness of the thing: the great hostile kings take one look at the city and run away in terror, but we are invited inside, shown the pillars, given the tour. The God who breaks the ships of Tarshish with an east wind turns out also to be the God who keeps the gate open. He will be our guide, the psalm promises, even unto death — and every tower we counted on this walk is a reminder of what is on the other side.

00:00 Great Is the Lord
00:15 Beautiful for Situation
00:30 The Kings Marvelled and Fled
00:50 Thy Lovingkindness in the Temple
01:00 Let Mount Zion Rejoice
01:20 Walk About Zion
01:40 Our Guide Even Unto Death