The Permanent Address of God's People Text: Psalm 48:12-14
Introduction: A Tale of Two Cities
The world has always been the story of two cities. There is the city of man, founded by Cain, built on pride, vainglory, and the blood of brothers. It is the city that trusts in its own ramparts, polishes its own palaces, and writes its own laws in defiance of Heaven. It is Babylon, it is Rome, and it is every secular empire that imagines itself to be eternal. It is a city of impressive towers, to be sure, but its foundations are dust and its destiny is judgment.
But there is another city. There is the city of God. This is the city whose builder and maker is God Himself. It began as a promise to Abraham, it took shape in the physical Jerusalem on Mount Zion, and it finds its ultimate fulfillment in the Church of Jesus Christ, the New Jerusalem which comes down from God out of heaven. This is the city that is beautiful in its situation, the joy of the whole earth. This is the city that cannot be shaken. This Psalm is a celebration of that city, a summons to inspect its fortifications, and a charge to pass on its story to our children.
Our text is a call to conduct a confident, leisurely inspection of our spiritual home. It is not the frantic check of a homeowner who hears a burglar downstairs. It is the joyful tour of a son walking the estate he is to inherit. The world looks at the Church and sees a crumbling institution, full of hypocrites and beset by scandals, destined for the ash heap of history. But the psalmist, with eyes of faith, tells us to look again. He tells us to walk the perimeter, count the towers, and consider the bulwarks. He tells us to see what God has built, not what man has managed to mess up. For what God builds, He defends. And what He defends is impregnable.
This passage is a command to cultivate a robust, tangible, and generational confidence in the God who has established His Church. It is a call to theological sightseeing, so that we might become faithful historical tour guides for the generations to come. We are not just preserving a museum; we are inhabiting a fortress, a living city, whose king is on the throne.
The Text
Walk about Zion and go around her;
Count her towers;
13Consider her ramparts;
Go through her palaces,
That you may recount it to the next generation.
14For this is God,
Our God forever and ever;
He will guide us over death.
(Psalm 48:12-14 LSB)
A Deliberate Inspection (v. 12-13a)
The first charge is to take a good, long look at the city God has built.
"Walk about Zion and go around her; Count her towers; Consider her ramparts; Go through her palaces..." (Psalm 48:12-13a)
This is a command to get acquainted with our security. "Walk about Zion." This is not a hurried sprint. It is a confident stroll. God is telling His people to stop being so rattled by the headlines and the threats of enemy kings. He wants them to take a victory lap. Go outside the walls, walk the entire circumference. See how solid this thing is. The enemies of God had just been routed, scattered in a panic by God Himself (vv. 4-7). Now is the time to survey the aftermath, which is to say, to survey the complete lack of damage.
The inspection is detailed. First, "Count her towers." Towers are for watching, for seeing the enemy from a long way off. They represent the high doctrinal truths of our faith, the watchtowers from which we survey the landscape and are not surprised by the enemy's approach. These are the great doctrines of the sovereignty of God, the authority of Scripture, the deity of Christ. Count them. Are any of them missing? Has the enemy toppled a single one? No. They stand secure because God Himself is their foundation.
Second, "Consider her ramparts." The ramparts, or bulwarks, are the defensive fortifications. These are the massive walls that make the city secure. This points to the covenantal promises of God that surround His people. God has not left us exposed. He has built a wall of salvation around us. These ramparts are the doctrines of election, justification, adoption, and preservation. Consider them. Mark them well. Are they crumbling? Can the enemy find a breach? The answer is a resounding no. Our security does not depend on our ability to fight off the devil, but on the finished work of Christ and the unbreakable promises of God.
Third, "Go through her palaces." A city is not just a fortress; it is a home. Palaces are places of beauty, glory, and royal fellowship. This is the internal life of the church: the glory of worship, the beauty of fellowship, the richness of life together under the kingship of Christ. We are not just saved from hell; we are saved to a glorious inheritance. We are brought into the very household of God. This is not a grim, utilitarian bunker. It is a glorious city, a royal dwelling place. We are to walk through it, to enjoy it, to recognize the splendor of what God has made for us.
The Generational Commission (v. 13b)
The purpose of this theological tour is not for our personal edification alone. It has a clear, stated goal.
"That you may recount it to the next generation." (Psalm 48:13b LSB)
This is the great task of every generation of believers. The faith is always one generation away from extinction. God has ordained that His truth be passed down not through mystical experiences or institutional inertia, but through faithful testimony. Fathers to sons, mothers to daughters, pastors to congregations. We are to recount, to tell the story. We are not inventing a new story. We are not editing the old one to make it more palatable to the modern ear. We are recounting what we have seen on our walk around the city.
We must be able to say to our children, "Look, I have walked the walls. I have counted the towers of God's sovereignty and the inspiration of Scripture. They are all there. I have tested the ramparts of justification by faith alone. They are solid. I have walked through the palaces of covenant worship, and they are glorious. This faith is not a ruin; it is a mighty and beautiful city. It is your home. It is your inheritance."
If we are not confident in the city, we will be pathetic tour guides. If we are constantly apologizing for the faith, if we are embarrassed by its hard edges, if we are more familiar with the criticisms of the world than with the glories of the city, then we will have nothing to recount to the next generation but our own doubts. A faith that is not robust enough to be passed on is not the faith of the Bible. The goal of our theological understanding is doxology and declaration. We learn it so we can sing it, and so we can say it to our children.
The Ultimate Foundation (v. 14)
And what is the foundation upon which these towers and ramparts rest? What is the ultimate source of this security? The final verse gives us the bedrock of everything.
"For this is God, Our God forever and ever; He will guide us over death." (Psalm 48:14 LSB)
The security of the city is not in the stones of the wall, but in the God who built the wall. "For this is God." This God, the one who routed the kings, the one who established this city, this is the one we are dealing with. The final confidence is not in a place, not even in Zion, but in a Person. Zion is glorious because it is the city of our God.
And notice the possessive pronoun. "Our God." This is the language of covenant. He is not an abstract deity, a philosophical principle. He is ours, and we are His. He has bound Himself to us in Christ. This is the most stupendous claim a creature can make. And He is our God "forever and ever." This covenant is not temporary. It does not expire. The world and its cities will pass away, but our relationship with our God is an eternal one.
And this relationship has a final, glorious promise attached to it. "He will guide us over death." Some translations render this "until death," but the Hebrew points to something more triumphant. He guides us even over death. Death is not the end of the tour. It is simply the gate through which our guide leads us into the palace itself. For the believer, death has lost its sting. It is the final enemy, yes, but it has been defeated. Our guide knows the way through that dark valley, because He has walked it Himself and came out the other side. Jesus Christ is our guide, and He guides us over death and into the eternal city, the heavenly Zion, where we will dwell with Him forever.
Conclusion: Your Permanent Address
So, the charge to us is plain. We live in a world that is crumbling. The city of man is cracking at the foundations. Its towers are leaning, its ramparts are illusions, and its palaces are dens of inequity. Do not be dismayed by this. We have a different citizenship.
Our task is to do exactly what the psalmist says. We are to walk about our city, the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ. We are to learn her doctrines, trust her promises, and delight in her worship. We are to get the blueprint of this city, the Word of God, deep into our bones. We must be so familiar with the strength and beauty of our spiritual home that when the world mocks it, we can smile with a confident pity.
And out of that confidence, we must speak. We must recount it to our children. We must tell them the story of this great King and His invincible city. We must show them the towers and the ramparts, and walk them through the palaces. We do this so that they too will know that this God, the triune God of Scripture, is their God. He is their God forever and ever.
And He will be their guide, just as He is ours. He will guide them through the trials of life, through the challenges of faithfulness in a hostile world, and at the last, He will take them by the hand and guide them straight over death, into the unending joys of the city of God. This is our story. This is our security. This is our commission. Therefore, let us be about it.