Psalm 48 Introduction

Structure and Formatting

Psalm 48 is a psalm of praise. It is a specific type of praise psalm, a “song of Zion.” See the discussion of the types of psalms in the introduction to the book of Psalms. 1. Call to worship (1–3) 2. Reason to worship (4–10) 3. Call to worship (11–13) 4. Reason to worship (14)

Religious and Cultural Concepts in This Psalm

Who were the “kings” who “advanced” against Jerusalem?

The psalmist says in verse 4 that “kings assembled themselves” and “advanced together” to attack Jerusalem. He does not give enough information to identify these kings definitively. However, it is possible to understand Psalms 44, 46, and 48 as reflecting a sequence of compositions related to the Assyrian siege of Jerusalem in 701 B.C.Psalm 44 is a psalm of supplication that complains to Yahweh that “you do not go out with our armies” even though “we have not forgotten you and we have not dealt falsely with your covenant.” This is an urgent cry for help in a desperate and dangerous situation.Psalm 46 is psalm of trust. Even though there is warfare in the background (“Nations may roar; kingdoms may shake”), and this warfare seems to be ongoing, the psalmist expresses confident trust that Yahweh will help Jerusalem in time to save the city.Psalm 48 is a psalm of praise. It celebrates Jerusalem as the city that God has chosen as the place for people to worship him. In this psalm, the psalmist says in verse 8 that just as he and his contemporaries had heard from their ancestors about Yahweh’s deliverance, now they have seen it for themselves. This could be understood as an allusion back to Psalm 44:1, where the psalmist said, “God, we have heard with our ears, our fathers have recounted to us, the work you worked in their days.”While it is not necessarily the case that all three of these psalms relate to the same historical occasion, together they do represent the sequence of crying desperately to God for help, reaching a place of confident trust in God even before he acts, and celebrating God’s deliverance after he has brought it about. This rhythm characterizes the book of Psalms as a whole. See how you can translate these three psalms, which at least come from the same group of worship leaders and the same period in the history of the kingdom of Judah, in such a way as to highlight this rhythm.

Note 1 topic: figures-of-speech / metaphor

לִ⁠בְנֵי־קֹֽרַח

(li⁠ⱱənēy-qoraḩ)

See how you translated the expression “the sons of Korah” in the superscription to Psalm 42. Alternate translation: [of the descendants of Korah] or [of the Korahites]