Ps. 48.8 (Zion: the womb of covenant)

“As we have heard / so have we seen – in the city / of Yhwh Sabaoth – in the city / of our God – that God / established it forever.” From the devastating and humiliating defeat of the kings, who only saw and did not even touch Zion, we now move inside the city and join a congregation.  Here, within Zion’s walls, we hear the refrain: “city of Yhwh Sabaoth” (Lord of Hosts); “city of our God”. The first, Yhwh Sabaoth, points us back to the earthly kings: this is militaristic designation for Yhwh as the leader of armies (of ‘hosts’). It is, in a way, the external face of Yhwh as the protector of the city. The second, “city of our God”, is, in a way, the internal face of Yhwh to his citizens, as it designates his covenantal relationship with them (“you will be my people, and I will be your God.”). The duality of these twin names for God is the duality that Zion presents to the world: to those who attack her, she is the city of the Lord of Hosts; to those within her gates and who extol her, she is the “city of our God”. Again, Zion is, in this way, an emblem of God’s covenantal relationship with Israel—a curse to those who curse her, a blessing to those who bless her. Second, and of great thematic import, those inside (“we”), like the kings “see” Zion but, in addition, “hear” about it, specifically, “that God established it forever”. This ‘hearing’ is crucial to understand. In vs. 13, the penultimate verse, the psalmist calls upon the people to inspect Zion (to “walk around her”) so that they can “describe it to the next generation”. The point is that the younger generation, those who were not able to enter Zion yet, “hear about it” from the older generation; like wisdom, it is passed down from parents-to-children. It is an intra-familial dynamic; we might say, an intra-covenantal dynamic. We will come to reflect on this more later, but here we simply need to note that this “passing down”, this “hearing” is the mediation of the covenant itself. It is the ‘sap’ that flows through the family, the ‘city of God’. And, most importantly, it signals the ‘interior’ of the city; the kings only saw the exterior; they were not within the covenantal relationship and could not therefore be a part of this ‘hearing’ this ‘handing down’. All of this leads to the final and most important conclusion: that is only through this ‘interior’ covenantal hearing that one comes to “see and hear” that Zion is “established forever”. It is the duality of the senses (the “seeing” and the “hearing”) that one comes to truly perceive this ‘forever’ quality of Zion. Within the covenant, that which establishes God’s people “forever”, whatever is elected is taken up into and becomes a medium for God’s “forever” quality; it participates within this unique quality. Here, like every covenant established with men (from Noah, to Abraham, Moses and David), Zion itself becomes a ‘covenant partner’ and is made to be “established forever”. When this dynamic is infused within an actual city, it takes on, obviously, different contours than with men. It is the following verses that will delve into that. What we see here, though, is a dynamism between citizen and city—they both, in their mutual indwelling, come to reflect (one-to-another) the “forever’ glory of Yhwh.