Psalms 48:1-2

Psalm 48 ¹ 

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.

Psalms 50:2

50:2 From Zion, the most beautiful of all places, ⁶ 

God comes in splendor. ⁷ 

Psalms 78:68

78:68 He chose the tribe of Judah,

and Mount Zion, which he loves.

Psalms 132:13-14

132:13 Certainly ⁸  the Lord has chosen Zion;

he decided to make it his home. ⁹ 

132:14 He said, ¹⁰  “This will be my resting place forever;

I will live here, for I have chosen it. ¹¹ 

Hebrews 12:22

12:22 But you have come to Mount Zion, the city ¹²  of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to myriads of angels, to the assembly

Revelation 14:1

An Interlude: The Song of the 144,000

14:1 Then ¹³  I looked, and here was ¹⁴  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.

[48:1]  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.

[48:1]  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).

[48:2]  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.

[48:2]  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).

[48:2]  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 Lord God of Israel lives and rules over the nations. See P. Craigie, Psalms 1-50 (WBC), 353, and T. N. D. Mettinger, In Search of God, 103.

[50:2]  ⁶ tn Heb “the perfection of beauty.”

[50:2]  ⁷ tn Or “shines forth.”

[132:13]  ⁸ tn Or “for.”

[132:13]  ⁹ tn Heb “he desired it for his dwelling place.”

[132:14]  ¹⁰ tn The words “he said” are added in the translation to clarify that what follows are the Lord’s words.

[132:14]  ¹¹ tn Heb “for I desired it.”

[12:22]  ¹² 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.”

[14:1]  ¹³ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence within the narrative.

[14:1]  ¹⁴ tn The phrase “and here was” expresses the sense of καὶ ἰδού (kai idou).