Psalm 48

Broken Bondage

A song. A Psalm of the sons of Korah.

¹Great is Yahweh,

and greatly to be praised

in the city of our God,

His holy mountain.

²Beautiful in loftiness,

the joy of all the earth,

like the peaks of Zaphon is Mount Zion,

the city of the great King.

• PS 48:2[NOTE]THE NORTH. Zaphon was the mountain of the gods in Canaanite stories. The psalm says Zion is the real mountain of the great King.

³God is in her citadels;

He has shown Himself to be a fortress.

⁴For behold, the kings assembled;

they all advanced together.

⁵They saw and were astounded;

they fled in terror.

⁶Trembling seized them there,

anguish like a woman in labor.

⁷With a wind from the east

You wrecked the ships of Tarshish.

⁸As we have heard, so we have seen

in the city of Yahweh of Hosts,

in the city of our God:

God will establish her forever.

Selah

⁹Within Your temple, O God,

we contemplate Your loving devotion.

¹⁰Your name, O God, like Your praise,

reaches to the ends of the earth;

Your right hand is full of righteousness.

¹¹Mount Zion is glad,

the daughters of Judah rejoice,

on account of Your judgments.

¹²March around Zion, encircle her,

count her towers,

¹³consider her ramparts, tour her citadels,

that you may tell the next generation.

¹⁴For this God is our God forever and ever;

He will be our guide even till death.