Psalms 48:2

Situation. Rather, “height.” Jerusalem’s elevation above the surrounding country is perhaps the most striking feature of its topography. The city is on one of the highest ridges in the country. Its elevation probably made invaders afraid to attack it (see vs. 4, 5).

Joy of the whole earth. A poet’s hyperbolic expression of his patriotic regard for the capital of his nation (see Ps. 50:2; Lam. 2:15).

Sides of the north. The exact meaning of this expression is not entirely clear, though the following explanation appears reasonable. Originally Mt. Zion referred only to the section of the city captured from the Jebusites (2 Chron 5:2; cf. 2 Sam. 5:7). Mt. Moriah lay to the north of Zion hill, and it was on this northern hill that the Temple and the palace of Solomon were later erected (2 Chron. 3:1; cf. 1 Kings 8:1). Geographically the two eminences of Zion and Moriah form a single ridge. After the building of the Temple the entire ridge became known as Zion (see Isa. 8:18; Joel 3:17). Because of the presence of the sanctuary and of the palace on the northern part of the ridge from the time of Solomon, the northern section became the most important district of the city. Hence by the expression “sides of the north” the psalmist may have figuratively attempted to represent the seat of civil and religious government and specifically the dwelling place of God, as the context of the psalm indicates. This interpretation sheds light also on Isa. 14:13, where Lucifer is represented as aspiring to sit “in the sides of the north.” To sit in such a position meant to share in God’s counsels and to enter into the divine purposes. This was precisely Lucifer’s ambition.

Since David was the author of Ps. 48 (see Introduction to Ps. 48), any prominence he have gave to the northern eminence of Moriah was in prophetic anticipation, or else he composed the psalm after the detailed plans for the Temple, including the determination of the site, had been completed (2 Chron. 3:1).

City of the great King. See on Ps. 46:4. Jesus quotes this phrase as an appellative of Jerusalem (Matt. 5:35).