Read verse in KJV Bible Reader
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 Samuel 5:17; or, as others, by the deliverance of...
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 says, the psalmist compares the pain that shall...
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 calculated for that but that it might serve any other...
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 manner, those who attack the truth as it is in...
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 with the “Invincible” Armada on our own coasts.