Psalms 48
The Beauty and Glory of Zion.
1 Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised,
In the city of our God, His holy mountain.
2 Fair and beautiful in elevation, the joy of all the earth,
Is Mount Zion [the City of David] in the far north,
The city of the great King.
3 God, in her palaces,
Has made Himself known as a stronghold.
4 For, lo, the kings assembled themselves,
They [came and] passed by together.
5 They saw it, then they were amazed;
They were stricken with terror, they fled in alarm.
6 Panic seized them there,
And pain, as that of a woman in childbirth.
7 With the east wind
You shattered the ships of Tarshish.
8 As we have heard, so have we seen
In the city of the Lord of hosts, in the city of our God:
God will establish her forever. Selah.
9 We have thought of Your lovingkindness, O God,
In the midst of Your temple.
10 As is Your name, O God,
So is Your praise to the ends of the earth;
Your right hand is full of righteousness (rightness, justice).
11 Let Mount Zion be glad,
Let the daughters of Judah rejoice
Because of Your [righteous] judgments.
12 Walk about Zion, go all around her;
Count her towers,
13 Consider her ramparts,
Go through her palaces,
That you may tell the next generation [about her glory].
14 For this is God,
Our God forever and ever;
He will be our guide even until death.