Psalm 48
Magnus Dominus
1 Great is the Lord, and highly to be praised; *
in the city of our God is his holy hill.
2 Beautiful and lofty, the joy of all the earth, is the hill of Zion, *
the very center of the world and the city of the great King.
3 God is in her citadels; *
he is known to be her sure refuge.
4 Behold, the kings of the earth assembled *
and marched forward together.
5 They looked and were astounded; *
they retreated and fled in terror.
6 Trembling seized them there; *
they writhed like a woman in childbirth,
like ships of the sea when the east wind shatters them.
7 As we have heard, so have we seen,
in the city of the Lord of hosts, in the city of our God; *
God has established her for ever.
8 We have waited in silence on your loving-kindness, O God, *
in the midst of your temple.
9 Your praise, like your Name, O God, reaches to the world’s end; *
your right hand is full of justice.
10 Let Mount Zion be glad
and the cities of Judah rejoice, *
because of your judgments.
11 Make the circuit of Zion;
walk round about her; *
count the number of her towers.
12 Consider well her bulwarks;
examine her strongholds; *
that you may tell those who come after.
13 This God is our God for ever and ever; *
he shall be our guide for evermore.
This psalm feels drenched in Jewish nationalism. A militaristic pride springing from religious beliefs. It feels as if the writer is walking around Jerusalem and seeing all the strategic military fortifications that have been built in the name of God causing his confidence to swell.
In the same way when we experience trials we feel as if God has abandoned us, our successes make us feel confident God is with us. It is so hard for me to trust God on his word and promises alone. I need his word and his promises to be connected to the substance of my life. I need to see His hand lifting me up. I need to see my enemies falling. I need to experience something super natural. But Jesus tells me to just trust. To look at the birds of the air and learn a lesson from them about trusting my Father to provide.
Though I pray for my daily bread, I want more than that. I am counseled to trust God to provide my daily bread but the problem is, I can get my daily bread without God. In fact I can get a lot more than that. And that is my problem. I want a god that is going to provide abundance. A god that understands greed. A god on my side that does my will and makes me a king of my kingdom.
How do I make that shift. I need to make it. I can either humble myself before God or God will humble me but either way I will be humbled. Every knee will bow – one way or the other. Do I like St Francis give away everything and devote myself to serving the poor? Perhaps I think to grand. There are probably some real basics that I should try to tackle first.
How can my life look like Mt Zion? Everything built in my life is a fortress, tower, citadel, bulwark or refuge of God? My career, my home, my education, my circle, my tribe my my my. Those things are all the things I have attained and look to for reassurance and protection. And I have attained these things while I, as best as I knew to do, followed Jesus. So naturally, I look at them and see God in them. I would not be where I am if I had not followed Jesus. They are the blessings and result of following Christ.
That all makes sense, but that doesn’t make it true. And just because it doesn’t make it true, it doesn’t mean its not true. When I look at the nature and pattern of God overall, I have to really question how does it look when God blesses our life? We all want to position ourselves so that we are standing in stream of God’s blessings. Go to the places where God’s blessings flow and live there.