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Psalm 48:3-5
New Catholic Bible
Psalm 48:3-5
New Catholic Bible
3 towering in its beauty,
is the joy of the entire earth.
Mount Zion, the true heights of the north,[a]
is the city of the great King.
4 God is in her citadels
and has revealed himself as her fortress.[b]
5 [c]For the kings conspired together
and came onward in unison.
Footnotes
- Psalm 48:3 The true heights of the north: Zaphon. Mount Zaphon was in the far north, the home of the Canaanite storm-god Baal. The psalmist declares that, although Zion is only a small hill, it is higher than any other mountain because it is the home of the only true God (see Ps 68:16f).
- Psalm 48:4 The psalmist shows that Zion is impregnable not because of her walls but because of the fact that the Lord is present there as the strength of his people (see Pss 18:3; 122:7).
- Psalm 48:5 In recalling past defeats of Israel’s enemies who attacked Zion, the psalmist may have in mind the victory over the Moab-Ammon coalition at the time of Jehoshaphat (see 2 Chr 20:22-28) or over the Assyrians at the time of Hezekiah (see 2 Ki 19:35f).
