"Great is the LORD, and gready to be praised in the city of our God, in the mountain of his holiness. Beautiful..is mount Zion...the city of the great King. God is known in her palaces for a refuge...The kings were assembled...saw it, and marveled; they were troubled...For this God is our God for ever and ever he will be our guide even unto death."
This Psalm begins and ends with praises unto God. The psalmist is speaking of the City of Jerusalem, but it is a picture of the church, the body of Christ. When you looked at this city, it was only the presence of the Lord God of Heaven that made it to differ. So praise does not go to this city, but to the God who made it what it was. If there is any honor in the church, it is because God is there.
This is the only thing that the Kings of this earth have ever feared. There is enough knowledge of God in the hearts of men to make them have some fear concerning His church. There was nothing about the City of Jerusalem that made it scary when the kings of this earth looked on it. Its strength lay in the presence of God. When these kings looked on it, they remembered what they had heard concerning the special presence of God there, and the divine protection it was under. They knew them selves to be no match for the omnipotent God.
It is called "The city of God." He chose the city out of all the cities of Israel to put His name there. The King of all the earth declares Himself in a special way there. Here is the special residence of His grace. Here is the light of the knowledge of God. Happy is that nation, that city, that family, that heart, where God is great, in which He is uppermost, in which He is all.
The Psalmist says that this is where God is known. The only people of this world who hate God are those who do not know Him. This is the place that is appointed for the solemn worship of God. Those who came to the Temple, had great reason to be thankful, that God would not only permit them to come before Him, but He promised to accept them, and considered Himself praised and honored by their coming, and like them, we come through a sacrifice, the Lord Jesus Christ. This is our "refuge." Here is "the joy of the whole earth."
Can you imagine what this world and this nation would be were not for the church and the influence of the Gospel? We can see what lack of the Gospel has produced in other nations. The Gospel alone gives to man a sense of what death really is. You take away the Gospel and all respect for human life is gone.
Here is our hope. "This God" who has done so many great things, is "our God." He is constant and unchangeable in His love and care for us. If this God is our God, He is ours "for ever". If God is our God, He is "our guide". He will show us the way and lead us in it. He will be "our guide even unto death." He will be our guide over death, beyond death, and to a life of joy where there is no more death.