My wife and I are reading through the Psalms in our evening reading and occasionally a nugget of the Psalms jumps out of the page. Don’t you love it when, after years of reading the “Old Book” passages become alive, reinforcing old teachings or simply warming your heart.
This is the book of Psalms, and it is rich.
I pray I can communicate a portion of the blessing we receive from this wonderful book.
Psa. 48:12 ¶ Walk about Zion, go around her,
number her towers,
Psa. 48:13 consider well her ramparts,
go through her citadels,
that you may tell the next generation
Psa. 48:14 that this is God,
our God forever and ever.
He will guide us forever.
Our final three verses in this marvelous psalm encourages the saint to consider the defense of Jerusalem. He begins the passage in speaking of Jerusalem’s towers, ramparts and citadels. He speaks of the citadels early on in our psalm, back in verse 3
Psa. 48:3 Within her citadels God
has made himself known as a fortress.
A citadel is a stronghold, sometimes referring to the castle or palace, but in this case, it appears to be referring to the city itself. The psalmist, at least from my understanding, is mixing pictures of the city’s defense, of speaking of the physical defenses, of the city itself, to impress upon the saint of the protection they experience through the city itself. But in verse 14, he makes his intent clear. The city represents the defense that God provides, and is a type or picture of the protection of God, who is the citadel, the ramparts and the towers that provide the actual protection.
Verse 14 is very interesting in that not only does it clear up who (or what) is the actual defense of Jerusalem, but that the protection the city experiences takes the psalmist to a “logical” conclusion.
The protection (or guidance) is from God and since He is forever, the protection is forever. What is interesting to me is an alternate reading for the verse. In the last phrase , the psalmist concludes with
Psalm 48:14 …He will guide us forever
The alternate reading is ..He will guide us beyond death
The psalmist speaks of the result of a great deliverance for the people of Jerusalem, and then speaks of death, that the God who protects, guides and delivers actually will continue His guidance and protection beyond the physical defense of the City and through death, even beyond death.
Does this not speak of the Lord Jesus, who entered into death to be our guide, our forerunner. As a matter of fact, as I read Hebrews 6, I find some uncanny parallels I had never noticed before with psalm 48. Consider.
Hebrews 6:18 – 20
so that by two unchangeable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled for refuge might have strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us.
We have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters into the inner place behind the curtain,
where Jesus has gone as a forerunner on our behalf, having become a high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.
The refuge of the Lord and His entering into the inner place as a forerunner both remind me of Psalm 48 and the emphasis of His being our protector and guide.
Consider the greatness of the Lord. He provides guidance and protection, much of the time without our knowledge or acknowledgement, and beyond that, continues to move forward in preparing and leading us, even through our most difficult enemy, that is death.
He has conquered death, and we may find a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul in Jesus our Savior.
Thanks again for coming to visit. I hope you found something of interest in this post and would appreciate a comment, to begin a discussion.
Considering the Bible 
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