Psalm 48 · a question people ask
"God will establish it forever" (48:8). How does this sit beside the verses that tell of Jerusalem's fall?
The psalm says, "As we have heard, so we have seen, in the city of the LORD of Armies, in the city of our God. God will establish it forever" (48:8). It speaks of no fall. Other books tell of one. Nebuzaradan, "the captain of the guard" (2 Kings 25:8), "burned the LORD’s house, the king’s house, and all the houses of Jerusalem" (2 Kings 25:9), and the army with him "broke down the walls around Jerusalem" (2 Kings 25:10). In Lamentations those who pass by the daughter of Jerusalem say, "Is this the city that men called ‘The perfection of beauty, the joy of the whole earth’?" (Lamentations 2:15). The Hebrew there has this psalm's word for joy and its words for the whole earth (tap joy). Neither 2 Kings nor Lamentations names this psalm, and no verse says how these passages fit together. These notes don't choose an answer either.
The verses
“Beautiful in elevation, the joy of the whole earth, is Mount Zion, on the north sides, the city of the great King.”
“As we have heard, so we have seen, in the city of the LORD of Armies, in the city of our God. God will establish it forever. Selah.”
“Now in the fifth month, on the seventh day of the month, which was the nineteenth year of King Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard, a servant of the king of Babylon, came to Jerusalem. He burned the LORD’s house, the king’s house, and all the houses of Jerusalem. He burned every great house with fire. All the army of the Chaldeans, who were with the captain of the guard, broke down the walls around Jerusalem.”
“All that pass by clap their hands at you. They hiss and wag their head at the daughter of Jerusalem, saying, “Is this the city that men called ‘The perfection of beauty, the joy of the whole earth’?””