Ps. 48.12-13 (Zion, the beloved)

“Walk around Zion / and go all the way / around it – count / its towers – Consider / its fortress – traverse / its citadels – so that / you may / describe it – to the next generation.” We have emphasized it throughout but here it becomes crucial to see: one’s geographical location in relation to Zion reveals one’s citizenry to her. Those to whom the psalm is addressed have been, as far as the psalm is concerned, within the walls of Zion. While the psalm may describe a type of pilgrimage, it seems important that the only parties that have, thus far, been explicitly described as outside her walls are the kings who came to make war against her. In contrast to these kings we find Zion’s children/citizens, within the Temple, at the very heart of Zion, contemplating God’s ‘lovingkindness’ and his many other covenantal virtues. As we saw yesterday, those standing outside her walls in a state of aggression toward her see Zion in her massively infused power of God; there is almost no hiatus between Zion and God to them. For those on the inside, by contrast, Zion is seen to actually turn toward God in act of loving praise; for them, Zion radiates the iconic power of God precisely in her ‘turning toward him’ in praise, in turning toward the One who dwells in her. In other words, to her citizens Zion, as we have argued, is an emblem of the covenant between God and Israel. Zion herself manifests it (and, participates within it), as the place where these two parties meet “on the mountain” that is, as a home to Yhwh/God, “elevated” and more beautiful than any other “mountain”. It is not an exaggeration to call Zion ‘Mother’ or ‘womb’ of the covenant; in her is born the citizens of the “city of God”, for it is in her that God dwells in his covenantal power and reality. Zion is generative, a type of “mother of all the living” and Eve to the whole earth. All of this prepares us for these concluding verses. Although not, literally, central in the psalm, they are its height, the goal toward which the psalm has been moving. For now, the citizens move outside of Zion, after having contemplated the presence within her, and “walk around her”, examining her in a clearly loving manner (almost reminiscent of the Song of Songs and the Lover and the Beloved). Zion is now an object of delight and reverence. The examination is to be total (“all the way around”) and detailed (“count its towers”). Their eyes are meant to caress Zion. This is the height of Zion theology. And the contrast to the kings could not possibly be greater. Firstly, the kings were—kings. From the initial mention of them, they are set in opposition to Zion which houses the “Great King”. Second, the kings began “on the outside” and never moved inward, their geographical placement representing their alienation from and antagonism toward Zion. Furthermore, the kings only ‘saw’ Zion; they never participated within the ‘hearing’ of covenantal discourse that occurred within her walls. Finally, and most importantly (as a summation of all of these), Zion was, purely, an object of fear and torture. The mere sight of Zion was their dethronement and their utter humiliation (they became like women writing in child-birth). In the vision of Zion they were buffeted by the objective curse of Zion (in her manifestation of God’s covenant, as we have argued). Here, we begin not with “kings” but with citizens, not with antagonism but with a tender and overwhelming love of Zion. Second, these citizens are seen to, like the kings, be ‘together’ but in liturgy, contemplating God’s ‘lovingkindness’. Furthermore, they begin inside her walls, rather than outside. Unlike the kings, they not only see Zion, but they have been, familially-generationally and covenantally, a part of a traditioning (a ‘passing-down’) regarding her. They have ‘heard and seen’ Zion. Finally, in contrast to the curse experienced by the kings, Zion is nothing but blessing and life. Within this arena of blessing Zion is becomes a type of symphony between her and her king. And—crucially—it is in this symphony, in contrast to the king’s vision of Zion’s power, that we see the real manifestation and embodiment of Zion’s strength—her turning toward God in praise. This is important: the king’s vision of Zion’s power was, by definition, very limited and partial; God’s curse is always an attempted preliminary to his blessing where one “walks with God”. In the final portion of the verse above we also see a final contrast: whereas Zion caused the scattering of the kings, for her citizens it binds them together in familial-covenantal solidarity with each other (“so that you may describe it to the next generation”). This emphasis on generational solidarity is key: Zion, as the ‘stronghold’ of God endows her citizens with the perpetuity and safety guaranteed to those who stand within God’s/Yhwh’s “everlasting” sphere. In other words, the ‘passing down’ is, itself, a manifestation of Zion, her protection and her beauty (she is, like lady Wisdom, to be handed down “from father to son”).