Psalm 48, Meditating on God’s Lovingkindness

I love this Psalm and love reading it when in Israel.  The walls of the Old City today, on the north side, are quite amazing.  I am not saying they looked like this in the days of the sons of Korah.  I am just saying they are impressive today, as you can tell from the photo that shows the section with the Spafford House rising above. 

What I really am thankful for is the thought in 48:9, We have thought, O God, on Your lovingkindness, in the midst of Your temple.  We need to stop regularly and think of God’s lovingkindness.  In our churches, our small groups, our Sunday School classes, we ought to take time to share our meditations.  We used to call these “testimony services.”  I am not sure but we may have let these kinds of services go because we thought people should always be giving a testimony of God’s goodness.  It is possible that the result of cancelling a specific time means we almost never do what the Psalmist encourages here.

One thing we see is that, to think of God’s lovingkindness, we need to enter His presence, into His temple.  The word “temple” here (v9) is interesting.  The more common word in the OT is bayith which means “house” (e.g. see it all over Ezek. 40-46, as in 41:6).  Properly, people like to latch onto this term, reminding us that God’s desire from the beginning (Gen. 1-2) was to dwell with man, to make His home with man.  And in the end (Rev. 22), that is what He will do through the New Jerusalem.  This is a great thought, a truth that encourages us: God makes His home with us, in that we are the temple of the Holy Spirit (1 Cor. 6:19-20).

But the word in Ps. 48:9, translated “temple” (and it is a proper translation in that it refers to the place where God exists for His people) is the word heykal, which refers to a palace, a place where a king sits on his throne.  As I said, “temple” is a good translation.  This is where we inquire of God (Psalm 27:4).  This is where everyone and everything cries GLORY (Psalm 29:9).  It is the place where Isaiah saw God high and lifted up (Isa. 6:1).  His temple-house and temple-palace are the same place, as indicated by Psalm 65:4 where both terms are used.

So the sons of Korah are telling us that we need to enter the place where God’s throne is that we might properly meditate on His lovingkindness.  If you read all of Isaiah 6 you will find that Isaiah saw into that throne room, and he went away from there with a deep experience, with God’s forgiveness and as the servant of the LORD.  In other words, Isaiah had a deep appreciation for God’s goodness!

God’s people today like to emphasize their relationship with God in terms of His “dwelling” with them, of His making His home with them.  But we must know and meditate on this thought that His house is His palace, the place where He rules as the King of all the earth.  He is the Great King (48:2).  As the Psalmist concludes,

THIS IS GOD, OUR GOD FOREVER AND EVER; HE WILL BE OUR GUIDE EVEN TO DEATH (v14).