Psalm 48:12-14 Walk about Zion, and go round about her: tell the towers thereof.… The psalm speaks of Jerusalem, the pride of the Jewish heart, and the boast of the Jewish glory. It is described from two points: from that of admiring friendship, and from continuous enmity. In this symbolical poem the kings are represented as enemies. I. BULWARKS SYMBOLIZE POWER AND STRENGTH. I fail to discern any of the marks of decay and weakness with which the Church of God in our day is charged. Her towers are growing stronger, her glory more resplendent, her foes decrease, and her friends become more numerous. Some of the manifest emblems of power are — 1. Christian civilization. The very air men breathe is charged through and through with Christian thought. 2. The Bible, for it is a great source of power. One of the surest proofs of its power is the virulence of its enemies. Men would not attack a book which is a dead letter. 3. The vast accumulation of wealth, and the number of churches. These are signs of power. The value of Church property in our land is unparalleled, and increases greatly every year. There is not a single heathen temple in process of erection in the world. The Church gives hundreds of thousands a year for mission world. Her light flashes away up in frozen Greenland, in Central Africa and in Polynesia. Christ will be universal King. II. RICHES AND GLORY ARE INDICATED BY THE PALACES OF ZION. 1. There is the palace of assurance — the doctrine of the witness of the Spirit. These need no witness of guilt — of that men are conscious. When pardon comes we have the witness of the Spirit that we are taken into the family of God. 2. The palace of Christian fellowship. 3. That of Divine communion. Zion with her towers, her bulwarks, her palaces, is the joy of the whole earth. Now she is the Church militant, but shall be soon the Church triumphant. (J. H. Bayliss, D. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: Walk about Zion, and go round about her: tell the towers thereof. |
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