John Gill Commentary Psalms 48

Great [is] the Lord
The same that in the foregoing psalm is said to be gone, up to heaven with a shout, to sit on the throne of his holiness, to reign over the Heathen, and to be King over all the earth; who is great, and the Son of the Highest; the great God and our Saviour; great in his person as God-man, God manifest in the flesh, his Father's fellow and equal; and in the perfections of his nature, being of great power, and of great wisdom, and of great faithfulness, and of strict holiness and justice, and of wonderful grace and goodness; great in his works of creation and providence; in his miraculous operations when on earth, and in the work of man's redemption and salvation.

Great is he in all his offices, a great Prophet risen in Israel, a great High Priest over the house of God, a Saviour, and a great one, and the great Shepherd of the sheep;

and greatly to be praised in the city of our God ;
the city of Jerusalem, the city of solemnities, where was the worship of God, and where the tribes went up to worship, and God was present with his people; and where the great Lord of all showed himself to be great; here Christ the great Saviour appeared, even in the temple, when a child, where Simeon and Anna saw him, and spoke great things of him; where he at twelve years of age disputed with the doctors, and showed his great wisdom; here when grown up he wrought many of his great miracles, and taught his doctrines; here he entered in great triumph, attended with the shouts, acclamations, and hosannas of the people; here he ate his last passover with his disciples; and in a garden near it was he taken and brought before the sanhedrim, assembled at the high priest's palace at Jerusalem; and then tried and condemned at the bar of Pilate; when being led a little way out of the city he was crucified on Mount Calvary; and on another mount, the mount of Olives, about a mile from it, he ascended to heaven; and here in this city he poured forth the Spirit in an extraordinary manner on his disciples at the day of Pentecost, as an evidence of his ascension; and from hence his Gospel went forth into all the world; and therefore was greatly to be praised here, as he was by his disciples, church, and people, (Acts 2:46Acts 2:47).

Jerusalem is a figure of the Gospel church, which is often compared to a city, (Isaiah 26:1) (62:12); of which saints are citizens and fellow citizens of each other; this is a city built on Christ the foundation; is full of inhabitants, when together and considered by themselves; is governed by wholesome laws, enacted by Christ its King, who has appointed officers under him to explain and enforce them, and see that they are put in execution; and has many privileges and immunities belonging to it; and this is the city of God, of his building and of his defending, and where he dwells; it is, as in (Psalms 48:2); "the city of the great King", the King Messiah, and where he displays his greatness; here he appears great and glorious, shows his power and his glory; is seen in the galleries and through the lattices of ordinances, in his beauty and splendour; here he grants his gracious presence, and bestows his favours and blessings; and is therefore greatly to be praised here, as he is by all his people on the above accounts, Even

[in] the mountain of his holiness ;
as Mount Zion is called on account of the temple built upon it, and the worship of God in it; and a fit emblem it was of the church of Christ, which, as that is, is chosen and loved of God, and is his habitation, is impregnable and immovable, and consists of persons sanctified by God the Father, in the Son, and through the Spirit.

Beautiful for situation
This, and what follows, are said of the city of God, the city of Jerusalem, which was delightfully situated on an eminence, in a wholesome air; the brook Kidron gliding by it, the water of Siloah running through it or at least through some parts of it; fields and gardens adjoining to it, and mountains all around it: and so the church of Christ is built upon him, the Rock; the river of divine love runs by it, the streams whereof make it glad; the green pastures of the word and ordinances are in it; and salvation is as walls and bulwarks about it; and so healthful is it, that the inhabitants have no reason to say they are sick, since the people that dwell therein have their iniquities forgiven, (Isaiah 33:24);

the joy of the whole earth :
that is, the city of Jerusalem, (Lamentations 2:15); especially it was so when Christ, whose birth near it was matter of great joy to all people; when he who is the desire of all nations was in it; and when the Gospel went out from it unto the whole earth, and caused joy wherever it came in power, and with the Holy Ghost: and the church of Christ, particularly in the latter day, will be an eternal excellency, and a joy of many generations, (Isaiah 60:15); and even now the whole world has reason to rejoice and be glad, because of the church of Christ in it, who are the light of the world and the salt of the earth, and on whose account the world continues, and the men of it enjoy the blessings they do;

[is] Mount Zion ;
or "by Mount Zion": Jerusalem was near it, and beautifully situated by it;

[on] the sides of the north ;
Jerusalem was north of Zion, as Zion was south of Jerusalem; likewise the temple was on the north part of Mount Zion, (Isaiah 14:13); the altar and altar gate were on the north side at the temple, and there were the tables on which the sacrifices were slain, (Ezekiel 8:5) (40:35-40); and on the north side of the altar was the creature to be offered killed, (Leviticus 1:11); and perhaps some reference is here had to the church of Christ in the latter day, which for many years past has been chiefly in our northern part of the world: hence the Protestant doctrine is by the Papists called the Northern Heresy; and it will be "tidings out of the north" that shall trouble the man of sin, or some agent of his, to come forth with fury, and plant the tabernacles of his palace between the seas, in the glorious holy mountain, (Daniel 11:44Daniel 11:45);

the city of the great King ;
of Christ the King of kings; (See Gill on Psalms 47:2); and (See Gill on Psalms 48:1).

God is known in her palaces for a refuge . As there were palaces in Jerusalem; see (Psalms 48:13) (122:7) ; so there are in the church of Christ; every place in it is a palace fit for a king; and everyone that has truly a name and a place there are kings and priests unto God: and here God is a "refuge" both for saints and sinners to fly unto; (See Gill on Psalms 46:1); and is "known" to be so;

the ministers of the Gospel being here appointed to direct and encourage souls to flee to Christ for refuge, who is the hope set before them in the everlasting Gospel, preached by them to lay hold upon; and all that do flee to him know, by experience, that he is a refuge for them; and as all the people of God do in every time of distress, and when all refuge fails them elsewhere.

For, lo, the kings were assembled
As the princes of the Philistines to seek for David, when in the strong hold of Zion, (2 Samuel 5:17) ; as the Ethiopians in the time of Asa, (2 Chronicles 14:9) ; and the Moabites and Ammonites in the times of Jehoshaphat, (2 Chronicles 20:1) ; and the kings of Syria and Israel in the times of Ahaz, (Isaiah 7:1) ; and Sennacherib with his princes, who, in his esteem, were kings, in the times of Hezekiah, (2 Kings 18:17) ; which are instances of the kings, of the nations' gathering together against Zion, the city of Jerusalem, and people of the Jews, who were typical of the church of Christ;

and that without success, and to their own confusion and destruction; though this seems to refer to the latter day of the Gospel dispensation, when all the kings of the earth, Pagan, Papal, and Mahometan, will be gathered together at the instigation of Satan, to the battle of the great day of the Lord God Almighty, in a place called Armageddon, where they will be defeated by Christ the King of kings, (Revelation 16:13Revelation 16:14Revelation 16:16) (19:19-21) .

Jarchi and Kimchi interpret the passage of Gog and Magog gathering together to fight against Jerusalem, with which compare (Revelation 20:8Revelation 20:9) ;

they passed by together ;
either to the battle, as Jarchi explains it; or they passed by Jerusalem, the city of our God, the church, without entering into it, or doing it any harm.

They saw [it] Either the city or the power of God, as Aben Ezra; or, as Jarchi, God himself going forth to fight against the nations. This refers to the power Christ will take to himself, and show forth, by reigning in his church, and protecting it, which will not only be visible to the saints, but to the nations of the world; and to the brightness of Christ's coming in his spiritual reign, with the lustre of which antichrist will be destroyed, (Revelation 11:17Revelation 11:18) (2 Thessalonians 2:8) ; and to the glorious state of the church, signified by the rising of the witnesses, and their standing on their feet, and ascending to heaven, which will be seen by their enemies, (Revelation 11:11Revelation 11:12) ; and to the destruction of Rome, the smoke of whose burning, the kings of the earth, that have committed fornication with her, will see and lament, (Revelation 18:8–10) ;

[and] so their marveled : at the glory of the church, the security of it, the power of Christ in it and over it, and at the destruction of mystical Babylon; see (Isaiah 52:14Isaiah 52:15) (13:8) (Jeremiah 51:41) ;

they were troubled : as Herod and all Jerusalem were, upon hearing of the birth of Christ, (Matthew 2:3) ; so these kings will be, upon seeing the coming and power of Christ in the latter day, the invincibleness of his church, and their own immediate and utter ruin: this will be the time or the howling of the shepherds, both civil and ecclesiastical, when all hands will be faint, and every man's heart will melt, (Zechariah 11:2) (Isaiah 13:6Isaiah 13:7) ;

[and] hastened away : fled for fear of the great King at the head of his armies, in the defence of his church and people: and as the kings of the earth also at the destruction of Rome will flee and stand afar off, for fear of her torment, (Revelation 18:10) .