Psalm 48

When I woke up this morning, I was thinking, "Psalm 48." I had no idea at that moment what Psalm 48 says; the only ones I know all of by heart are 1, 23, and 100. So I read it, and then I read some online commentaries on it.

Psalm 48 (King James Version)
Psalm 48
1Great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised in the city of our God, in the mountain of his holiness.
2Beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth, is mount Zion, on the sides of the north, the city of the great King.
3God is known in her palaces for a refuge.
4For, lo, the kings were assembled, they passed by together.
5They saw it, and so they marvelled; they were troubled, and hasted away.
6Fear took hold upon them there, and pain, as of a woman in travail.
7Thou breakest the ships of Tarshish with an east wind.
8As 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 for ever. Selah.
9We have thought of thy lovingkindness, O God, in the midst of thy temple.
10According to thy name, O God, so is thy praise unto the ends of the earth: thy right hand is full of righteousness.
11Let mount Zion rejoice, let the daughters of Judah be glad, because of thy judgments.
12Walk about Zion, and go round about her: tell [count] the towers thereof.
13Mark ye well her bulwarks, consider her palaces; that ye may tell it to the generation following.
14For this God is our God for ever and ever: he will be our guide even unto death.


One commentary said that the Temple was built upon Mount Moriah, which is one of the hills of which Mount Zion is composed. Apparently, this psalm is a source of one of the problems about rebuilding the Temple, as it says "on the sides of the north." To experts, this indicates that the Dome of the Rock does not mark the situation of the first or second Temple, but the actual location is either north or south of this marker. Which one is controversial.

Wouldn't it be wonderful to "go to the Holy Land," as people used to do! Of course people still do, but you don't hear so much about it, in recent years, as a sort of pilgrimage.