Series: Psalms
Title: Our Refuge,
Rejoicing and Resolve
Text: Psalm 48:
1-14
Date: Sept 19,
2019
Place: SGBC, NJ
Psalm 48: 12: Walk about Zion, and go
round about her: tell the towers thereof. 13: Mark ye well her bulwarks,
consider her palaces; that ye may tell it to the generation following.”
Brethren, I have walked round about Mt Zion. I have seen her palaces. I have seen her towers and bulwarks. I am here to tell this generation about our
great God and what he has done for us
Psalm 48: 1: Great is the LORD, and
greatly to be praised in the city of our God, in the mountain of his
holiness. 2: Beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth, is
mount Zion, on the sides of the north, the city of the great King.
Our God is great. We who believe have seen and experienced that our God is great in
the salvation of his people. There is
none great in the church but the Lord Jesus Christ.
Hebrews 13: 20…the
God of peace,…brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd
of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant,…
Christ Jesus is our great High Priest. His “mercy is great unto the heavens, and
[his] truth unto the clouds” (Ps 57:10). “His name shall be great unto the ends
of the earth” (Mi 5:4).
And indeed our God is greatly to be praised in his city—the telling mark that you are in his
church is that his church praises God our Savior alone. Each one he saves gives him all the glory, all
the honor, all the praise for every aspect of our salvation. Our testimony is, “Not unto us, O LORD,
not unto us, but unto thy name give glory, for thy mercy, and for thy
truth’s sake” (Ps 115:1).
But where is the city of our God
and the mountain of his holiness?
It is not an earthly city. The
city of God is his church, heavenly Jerusalem, heavenly Mt Zion. Some of the citizens are here in the earth,
others are made perfect and dwell in heaven.
Hebrews 12: 22:
But ye are come unto mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the
heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, 23: To the general
assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, and to God
the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, 24: And to Jesus
the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh
better things than that of Abel. 25: See that ye refuse not him that
speaketh. For if they escaped not who refused him that spake on earth, much more
shall not we escape, if we turn away from him that speaketh
from heaven:
As our text says Christ’s church is beautiful
for situation. “Situation” means “elevated”,
“lifted up”. The church of God is beautiful
because God has lifted his people up in Christ in the righteousness of our
Great King. He “hath raised us up
together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus: That in
the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his
kindness toward us through Christ Jesus” (Eph 2:6)
In this earth, the church, this city of the
great King Jesus, is the joy of the whole earth.
Proposition: The reason Christ’s church is the joy of
his people throughout the whole world is because Christ has lifted us up—his
church—to bear witness of him through the preaching of the gospel.
Title and Divisions: 1) Our refuge, 2) Our rejoicing 3) Our
resolve
OUR REFUGE
Psalm 47: 3: God is known in her palaces for a refuge. 4: For,
lo, the kings were assembled, they passed by together. 5: They saw it, and
so they marvelled; they were troubled, and hasted away. 6: Fear took
hold upon them there, and pain, as of a woman in travail. 7: Thou
breakest the ships of Tarshish with an east wind.
“The palaces” of God’s city are Christ’s
local churches. Christ has made his
people kings by his precious blood and we dwell in his palaces that Christ has
planted. This is how God regards us!
However, Christ has not planted every so-called local church in
this world. The majority are not palaces
but dens of thieves. Most are planted by
false preachers who claim to speak for God but speak their own word. “Behold, I am against them that prophesy
false dreams, saith the LORD, and do tell them, and cause my people to err by
their lies, and by their lightness; yet I sent them not, nor commanded them:
therefore they shall not profit this people at all, saith the LORD” (Jer 23:
32).
Still, Christ’s palaces—his true local
churches made up of his people—are planted by Christ, not men. “Thou shalt bring them in, and plant them
in the mountain of thine inheritance, in the place, O LORD, which thou hast
made for thee to dwell in, in the Sanctuary, O Lord, which thy hands have
established” (Ex 15: 17).
Therefore—"God is known in her
palaces for a refuge.” By nature, every
sinner is ignorant of who God is and we have no way of knowing God in and of
ourselves. But God graciously sends
his preachers preaching Christ and him crucified and he regenerates and calls his
people, making us know Christ in spirit and in truth. The apostle Paul said,
1 Corinthians 1:
17: For Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel: not with
wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of none effect. 18: For
the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us
which are saved it is the power of God…22: For the Jews require a sign, and the
Greeks seek after wisdom: 23: But we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a
stumblingblock, and unto the Greeks foolishness; 24: But unto them which are
called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God.
Through the gospel, by the power of God,
Christ becomes unto us the Power and Wisdom of God. He is made unto us everything in our salvation. Therefore, in his church, God our Savior,
Jesus Christ, is known for a refuge—our only refuge.
During the days of Israel, God provided cities
of refuge. When a man had committed manslaughter,
the law said he must die. So the
executioner would come to kill him. But
no matter where you were in Israel, there was a city of refuge nearby. The roads were kept clear and signs freshly
painted to direct you to the city of refuge so the guilty could flee into a
city of refuge and remain there safe.
Those cities of refuge picture Christ our Refuge. We all are guilty before the law by nature and
God’s justice demands we be executed. But
God has graciously provided his Son for a refuge. Christ is near to everyone made willing to flee
to him—flee into him by believing on him and you will be safe.
He is our refuge from sin—he alone frees
his people from our sin-nature and never allows it to bring us back into bondage. Christ is our refuge from the curse of the
law—Christ has redeemed his people from the curse of the law [by taking the
place of his people] being made a curse for us.
Christ is our refuge from all enemies, including our last enemy, death—"The
sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to
God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ” (1Co 15:55-57).
In order to illustrate how great a refuge
Christ is, God used the attacks of kings against earthly Jerusalem, “For,
lo, the kings were assembled, they passed by together.” The Philistines surrounded Jerusalem in David’s
reign (2 Sa 5:17); the Ethiopians in the time of Asa (2 Chr 14:9); the Moabites
and Ammonites in the times of Jehoshaphat (2 Ch 20:1); and Sennacherib in the
times of Hezekiah (2 Ki 18:17).
But what became of them? “They
saw it, and so they marvelled; they were troubled, and hasted away. 6: Fear
took hold upon them there, and pain, as of a woman in travail.” Sunday, April
15, 2001, after church, Melinda and I and a friend walked down to the pond and
watched our lab retrieve. We walked back
to the house and were visiting with our friend Ken. Then suddenly everything changed in an
instant. Melinda went into labor with
Emma! The enemies came and saw
and marveled at how easily they thought they could triumph over Jerusalem. But a sudden change came upon them. In an instant, they were seized with fear and were
so confounded that they ran away. That
really happened to those great kings and their armies when they came against
Jerusalem! Brethren, Christ is
not only our refuge, he can turn the hearts of our enemies with a look and make
them fear us and flee. Don’t fear man! Christ is our Refuge! A very present help in trouble!
And he is all powerful to protect us, “Thou
breakest the ships of Tarshish with an east wind.” This is the season when
the east wind brings hurricanes. Christ
is in control of the hurricane that breaks the ships in pieces. “He arose,
and rebuked the wind, and said unto the sea, Peace, be still. And the wind
ceased, and there was a great calm” (Mk 4:39).
Our LORD Jesus is in control of all things. Everything is at his disposal to protect his
church which he purchased with his own blood.
OUR REJOICING
Psalm 47: 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 it for ever. Selah. 9: We have thought of thy lovingkindness, O God,
in the midst of thy temple. 10: According to thy name, O God, so is thy
praise unto the ends of the earth: thy right hand is full of righteousness. 11:
Let mount Zion rejoice, let the daughters of Judah be glad, because of thy judgments.
As we have heard in the gospel of Christ
preached, so we have seen by faith and by experience that God has established his
church forever. Look at what he has done
for your local church! Look at what he has done for you personally! Brethren, this is the city of the LORD of
hosts; the city of our God. We are his
purchased possession, his city, his palace.
We are established in his love, “We
have thought of thy lovingkindness, O God, in the midst of thy temple.” God loves his temple—his people—alone! He first loved his people, even when we did
not love him. God loves his people in
Christ alone. Christ dwells in the midst
of his temple and in each of his people individually. Therefore, God’s love for his elect never
ends. His love saves and that forever!
Jeremiah 31: 3:
The LORD hath appeared of old unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an
everlasting love: therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee. 4: Again I
will build thee, and thou shalt be built, O virgin of Israel:
Therefore, our rejoicing, our praise, throughout
the earth is his great name and his righteousness!—"According to thy
name, O God, so is thy praise unto the ends of the earth: thy right hand is
full of righteousness.” In Christ
crucified, we behold God’s very name glorified and his righteousness manifest. God is just and God is our Justifier. The glory of his name and righteousness guarantees
us that he will establish us forever.
Isaiah 48:11: For
mine own sake, even for mine own sake, will I do it: for how should my name be
polluted? and I will not give my glory unto another.
Malachi 1:11: For
from the rising of the sun even unto the going down of the same my name shall
be great among the Gentiles; and in every place incense [praise] shall be
offered unto my name, and a pure offering: for my name shall be great among the
heathen, saith the LORD of hosts.
Therefore, wherever his people are
throughout all the earth, our rejoicing and praise is his name for his
righteousness sake, “Let mount Zion rejoice, let the daughters of Judah be
glad, because of thy judgments.”
OUR RESOLVE
Psalm 47: 12: Walk about Zion, and go
round about her: tell the towers thereof. 13: Mark ye well her bulwarks, consider
her palaces; that ye may tell it to the generation following; that ye may
tell it to the generation following; 14: For this God is our God
for ever and ever: he will be our guide even unto death.
Brethren, since Christ is our refuge and
our rejoicing, our resolve is to bear witness of him to our generation knowing
he shall provide for us all our days.
God commands us to walk about Zion, go round
about her, count the towers thereof and mark well her bulwarks. Believer,
each local
church we know—this one included—is fully provided for and protected by Christ. One, Christ is our Strong tower, Bulwark
never ceasing (Ps 18:10) Two, his preachers are towers set by Christ. God told
Jeremiah, “I have set thee for a tower and a fortress among my people, that
thou mayest know and try their way” (Jer 6:27). Three, the Scriptures are a
tower, as David’s armory was, to furnish us with spiritual armor and weapons (So
4:4) Four, the ordinances—baptism and the Lord’s table—are called towers, keeping
us in constant remembrance of Christ’s broken body and shed blood (So 8:10) Christ
has fully provided for us! He has, is
and shall save us.
Amen!