A song, a psalm by the Korahites.
48:1 The Lord is great and certainly worthy of praise
in the city of our God, 2 his holy hill.
48:2 It is lofty and pleasing to look at, 3
a source of joy to the whole earth. 4
Mount Zion resembles the peaks of Zaphon; 5
it is the city of the great king.
48:3 God is in its fortresses;
he reveals himself as its defender. 6
50:2 From Zion, the most beautiful of all places, 7
God comes in splendor. 8
For the music director; to be accompanied by stringed instruments; a psalm of Asaph, a song.
76:1 God has revealed himself in Judah; 10
in Israel his reputation 11 is great.
76:2 He lives in Salem; 12
he dwells in Zion. 13
12:6 Cry out and shout for joy, O citizens of Zion,
for the Holy One of Israel 14 acts mightily 15 among you!”
14:32 How will they respond to the messengers of this nation? 16
Indeed, the Lord has made Zion secure;
the oppressed among his people will find safety in her.
14:1 Then 20 I looked, and here was 21 the Lamb standing on Mount Zion, and with him were one hundred and forty-four thousand, who had his name and his Father’s name written on their foreheads. 14:2 I also heard a sound 22 coming out of heaven like the sound of many waters and like the sound of loud thunder. Now 23 the sound I heard was like that made by harpists playing their harps, 14:3 and they were singing a new song before the throne and before the four living creatures and the elders. No 24 one was able to learn the song except the one hundred and forty-four thousand who had been redeemed from the earth.
14:4 These are the ones who have not defiled themselves 25 with women, for they are virgins. These are the ones who follow the Lamb wherever he goes. These were redeemed from humanity as firstfruits to God and to the Lamb, 14:5 and no lie was found on their lips; 26 they 27 are blameless.
1 sn Psalm 48. This so-called “Song of Zion” celebrates the greatness and glory of the Lord’s dwelling place, Jerusalem. His presence in the city elevates it above all others and assures its security.
2 sn The city of our God is Jerusalem, which is also referred to here as “his holy hill,” that is, Zion (see v. 2, as well as Isa 66:20; Joel 2:1; 3:17; Zech 8:3; Pss 2:6; 15:1; 43:3; 87:1; Dan 9:16).
3 tn Heb “beautiful of height.” The Hebrew term נוֹף (nof, “height”) is a genitive of specification after the qualitative noun “beautiful.” The idea seems to be that Mount Zion, because of its lofty appearance, is pleasing to the sight.
4 sn A source of joy to the whole earth. The language is hyperbolic. Zion, as the dwelling place of the universal king, is pictured as the world’s capital. The prophets anticipated this idealized picture becoming a reality in the eschaton (see Isa 2:1-4).
5 tn Heb “Mount Zion, the peaks of Zaphon.” Like all the preceding phrases in v. 2, both phrases are appositional to “city of our God, his holy hill” in v. 1, suggesting an identification in the poet’s mind between Mount Zion and Zaphon. “Zaphon” usually refers to the “north” in a general sense (see Pss 89:12; 107:3), but here, where it is collocated with “peaks,” it refers specifically to Mount Zaphon, located in the vicinity of ancient Ugarit and viewed as the mountain where the gods assembled (see Isa 14:13). By alluding to West Semitic mythology in this way, the psalm affirms that Mount Zion is the real divine mountain, for it is here that the
6 tn Heb “he is known for an elevated place.”
7 tn Heb “the perfection of beauty.”
8 tn Or “shines forth.”
9 sn Psalm 76. The psalmist depicts God as a mighty warrior who destroys Israel’s enemies.
10 tn Or “God is known in Judah.”
11 tn Heb “name,” which here stands metonymically for God’s reputation.
12 sn Salem is a shorter name for Jerusalem (see Gen 14:18).
13 tn Heb “and his place of refuge is in Salem, and his lair in Zion.” God may be likened here to a lion (see v. 4).
14 sn See the note on the phrase “the Holy One of Israel” in 1:4.
15 tn Or “is great” (TEV). However, the context emphasizes his mighty acts of deliverance (cf. NCV), not some general or vague character quality.
16 sn The question forces the Philistines to consider the dilemma they will face – surrender and oppression, or battle and death.
17 tn Grk “and the city”; the conjunction is omitted in translation since it seems to be functioning epexegetically – that is, explaining further what is meant by “Mount Zion.”
18 tn The Greek word μεσίτης (mesith", “mediator”) in this context does not imply that Jesus was a mediator in the contemporary sense of the word, i.e., he worked for compromise between opposing parties. Here the term describes his function as the one who was used by God to enact a new covenant which established a new relationship between God and his people, but entirely on God’s terms.
19 sn Abel’s shed blood cried out to the Lord for justice and judgment, but Jesus’ blood speaks of redemption and forgiveness, something better than Abel’s does (Gen 4:10; Heb 9:11-14; 11:4).
20 tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence within the narrative.
21 tn The phrase “and here was” expresses the sense of καὶ ἰδού (kai idou).
22 tn Or “a voice” (cf. Rev 1:15), but since in this context nothing is mentioned as the content of the voice, it is preferable to translate φωνή (fwnh) as “sound” here.
23 tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “now” to indicate the introduction of a new topic.
24 tn Grk “elders, and no one.” This is a continuation of the previous sentence in the Greek text, but because of the length and complexity of the sentence a new sentence was started here in the translation.
25 tn The aorist passive verb is rendered as a reflexive (“defiled themselves”) by BDAG 657 s.v. μολύνω 2.
26 tn Grk “in their mouth was not found a lie.”
27 tc Several