Psalm 48 - A Meditation

Go majestic,
praise abounds in our God-city!
His sacred mountain,
breathtaking in its heights -- earth's joy.
Zion Mountain looms in the North,
city of the world-King.
God in his citadel peaks
impregnable.

The kings got together,
they united and came.
They took one look and shook their heads,
they scattered and ran away.
They doubled up in pain
like a woman having a baby.

You smashed the ships of Tarshish
with a storm out of the East.
We heard about it, then we saw it
with our eyes --
In God's city of Angel Armies,
in the city our God
Set on firm foundations,
firm forever.

We pondered your love-in-action, God,
waiting in your temple:
Your name, God, evokes a train
of Hallelujahs wherever
It is spoken, near and far;
your arms are heaped with goodness-in-action.

Be glad, Zion Mountain,
Dance, Judah's daughters!
He does what he said he'd do!

Circle Zion, take her measure,
count her fortress peaks,

Gaze long at her sloping bulwark,
climb her citadel heights --
Then you can tell the next generation
detail by detail the story of God,
Our God forever,
who guides us till the end of time.