33 matching verse commentaries
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
INTRODUCTION TO Psalms 48 A Song [and] Psalm for the sons of Korah. This psalm is entitled a "song psalm", a psalm to be sung vocally; or "a song and psalm" to be sung both vocally and instrumentally; and is one of the spiritual songs the apostle speaks of, Ephesians 5:19; It was occasioned, as some think, by David's spoiling the Philistines, 2...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Great [is] the Lord,.... The same that in the foregoing psalm is said to be gone, up to heaven with a shout, to sit on the throne of his holiness, to reign over the Heathen, and to be King over all the earth; who is great, and the Son of the Highest; the great God and our Saviour; great in his person as God-man, God manifest in the flesh, his...
Matthew Henry - Complete Commentary - Matthew Henry
This psalm, as the two former, is a triumphant song; some think it was penned on occasion of Jehoshaphat's victory (2 Chron. xx.), others of Sennacherib's defeat, when his army laid siege to Jerusalem in Hezekiah's time; but, for aught I know, it might be penned by David upon occasion of some eminent victory obtained in his time; yet not so...
Spurgeon - Verse Expositions - Charles H. Spurgeon
Great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised in the city of our God, in the mountain of his holiness. Beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth, is mount Zion, on the sides of the north, the city of the great King. God is known in her palaces for a refuge. It was so with the literal Jerusalem; and it is so now with the Church of Christ,...
Spurgeon - Verse Expositions - Charles H. Spurgeon
Great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised — Surely a great God should have great praise: “greatly to be praised” — Psa_48:1. In the city of our God, in the mountain of his holiness. If there is any place where he ought to be praised, surely it is there. Even if all the rest of the world is silent, let God be praised “in the mountain of his...
Spurgeon - Treasury of David - Charles H. Spurgeon
Ver. 1. Great is the Lord. How great Jehovah is essentially none can conceive; but we can all see that he is great in the deliverance of his people, great in their esteem who are delivered, and great in the hearts of those enemies whom he scatters by their own fears. Instead of the mad cry of Ephesus, "Great is Diana, "we bear the reasonable,...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Beautiful for situation,.... This, and what follows, are said of the city of God, the city of Jerusalem, which was delightfully situated on an eminence, in a wholesome air; the brook Kidron gliding by it, the water of Siloah running through it or at least through some parts of it; fields and gardens adjoining to it, and mountains all around it:...
Spurgeon - Verse Expositions - Charles H. Spurgeon
Beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth, in mount Zion, on the sides of the north, the city of the great King. Thus the Jew praises Jerusalem, and thus the Christian praises the Church. The Church of Christ is, to his eye, the most precious thing in the whole world, and there is nothing upon the face of the earth that is so lovely in...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
God is known in her palaces for a refuge. As there were palaces in Jerusalem; see Psalms 48:13; so there are in the church of Christ; every place in it is a palace fit for a king; and everyone that has truly a name and a place there are kings and priests unto God: and here God is a "refuge" both for saints and sinners to fly unto; [See comments on...
Spurgeon - Verse Expositions - Charles H. Spurgeon
God is known in her palaces for a refuge. Are not all her people kings? Therefore they live in palaces; and they none of them trust in themselves, God is known to them as a refuge.
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
For, lo, the kings were assembled,.... As the princes of the Philistines to seek for David, when in the strong hold of Zion, 2 Samuel 5:17; as the Ethiopians in the time of Asa, 2 Chronicles 14:9; and the Moabites and Ammonites in the times of Jehoshaphat, 2 Chronicles 20:1; and the kings of Syria and Israel in the times of Ahaz, Isaiah 7:1; and...
Spurgeon - Verse Expositions - Charles H. Spurgeon
For, lo, the kings were assembled, The adversaries, who boasted that they would destroy Jerusalem: “the kings were assembled,”
Spurgeon - Verse Expositions - Charles H. Spurgeon
They passed by together. They saw it, and so they marveled; they were troubled, and hasted away. Fear took hold upon them there, and pain, as of a woman in travail. Thou brakest the ships of Tarshish with an east wind. The adversaries of Zion looked up at the city set on that high hill, and they despaired of being able to capture it; and, in like...
Spurgeon - Verse Expositions - Charles H. Spurgeon
For, lo, the kings were assembled, they passed by together. They saw it, and so they marveled; They came up with their confederate bands of kings to attack Jerusalem, and they looked at it, and wondered at its strength and beauty.
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
They saw [it],.... Either the city or the power of God, as Aben Ezra; or, as Jarchi, God himself going forth to fight against the nations. This refers to the power Christ will take to himself, and show forth, by reigning in his church, and protecting it, which will not only be visible to the saints, but to the nations of the world; and to the...
Spurgeon - Verse Expositions - Charles H. Spurgeon
They were troubled, and hasted away, If they came quickly, they went away still more quickly, hurrying off like a band of frightened children.
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Fear took hold upon them there,.... That is, either when they came up to the city, and passed by it, and saw what they did; or, as Kimchi observes, in the place where they thought to have made a great slaughter; that is, in Armageddon, Revelation 16:16; so upon the slaughter of the seven thousand names of men, or men of name and renown, such as...
Spurgeon - Verse Expositions - Charles H. Spurgeon
Fear took hold upon them there, and pain, as of a woman in travail. Thou breakest the ships of Tarshish with an east wind. God broke up the confederacies of kings that were leagued against his people. Even the great galleons of Tarshish were dashed to pieces when the Lord blew with his wind, and scattered them, as, many centuries later, he did...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Thou breakest the ships of Tarshish with east wind. This is either another simile, expressing the greatness of the dread and fear that shall now seize the kings of the earth; which will be, as Kimchi observes, as if they were smitten with a strong east wind, which breaks the ships of Tarshish; and to the same purpose is the note of Aben Ezra; who...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
As we have heard, so have we seen,.... These are the words of the people of God making their observations on the above things; and so Aben Ezra and Kimchi understand them of the people of Israel; and the former, referring them to the war of Gog and Magog, paraphrases them thus: "the Israelites shall say in that day, as we have heard the prophets,...