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THE church's security IN GOD.
Ps. xlviii. 12 — 14. Walk about Zion, and go round about her : tell the towers thereof: mark ye well her bulwarks; consider her palaces ; that ye may tell it to the generation folloiving. For this God is our God for ever and ever : He will he our guide even unto death.
MEN read the Bible in order that they may know what they are to do ; and this is well : but they should read the Bible also in order that they may know what they are to expect : for that blessed book is no less a record of their privileges, than of their duties. It is of privileges that our text speaks. The psalm evidently celebrates some triumph over confederate kings'' : and it was probably written on the occasion of Jeho- shaphat's deliverance from the confederate armies of Ammon, Moab, and Mount Seir ; who, through the special providence of God, turned their arms against each other, and left Jehoshaphat nothing to do but to collect the spoil". That, as might be expected, was a season of very exalted joy to all Judah: and the circumstances altogether correspond very exactly with the intimations given in this psalm. The secu- rity of Zion under Divine protection is that which is particularly specified in the text : and we are called to notice it for the benefit of future generations.
Let us consider, I. The survey proposed —
Whatever strength might be in the fortifications of Jerusalem, the writer of this psalm evidently looked beyond them to God, who alone is the security of his people. Moreover, Zion was a type of the Church of God, which is indeed " the mountain of his holi- ness, beautiful for situation, and the joy of the whole earth ; and in whose palaces he is well known for a refuged" Let us then " walk about her, and tell her towers, and mark well her bulwarks." Let us mark the bulwarks,
a ver. 4. b 2 Chron. xx. 22—25. ^ yej._ i__3_