Psalms 48:1-14: a reflection

1Great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised, in the city of our God, in his holy mountain. 2Beautiful in elevation, the joy of the whole earth, is Mount Zion, on the north sides, the city of the great King. 3God has shown himself in her citadels as a refuge. 4For, behold, the kings assembled themselves, they passed by together. 5They saw it, then they were amazed. They were dismayed. They hurried away. 6Trembling took hold of them there, pain, as of a woman in travail. 7With the east wind, you break the ships of Tarshish. 8As we have heard, so we have seen, in the city of the LORD of Armies, in the city of our God. God will establish it forever. Selah. 9We have thought about your loving kindness, God, in the middle of your temple. 10As is your name, God, so is your praise to the ends of the earth. Your right hand is full of righteousness. 11Let Mount Zion be glad! Let the daughters of Judah rejoice because of your judgments. 12Walk about Zion, and go around her. Number its towers. 13Notice her bulwarks. Consider her palaces, that you may tell it to the next generation. 14For this God is our God forever and ever. He will be our guide even to death.

Psalm 48 celebrates the greatness of God and the security of his city, and it ends with a line that reaches beyond any city to the heart of the believer's hope: For this is God, our God forever and ever; he will be our guide even to death. The God who is great and greatly to be praised is not a distant deity but our God, and he commits himself to guide his people, faithfully, all the way, even to death.

Notice the scope of that promise: even to death. God's guidance is not for the good stretches only, not a companionship that thins out when the road gets hard or frightening. He will be our guide even to death, all the way to the end, through every stage of life and into its final passage. There is no part of the journey, however dark, where he abandons those who are his; he guides to the very end.

That is a promise to hold across the whole of life, and especially near its end. We may fear the later stretches of the road, the losses, the decline, the final passage through death itself. This psalm answers that fear: he will be our guide even to death. The God who has led you this far does not stop partway; he guides his people all the way home. Whatever stage of the journey you are in, and whatever you fear about the road ahead, hold this: he is your God forever, and he will be your guide even to death, and through it, to himself.

Lord, you are my God forever and ever, and you promise to be my guide even to death. When I fear the road ahead, the losses, the decline, the final passage, remind me that you do not lead your people partway and then abandon them; you guide all the way to the end, and through it. Thank you that you will not stop guiding me until you have brought me home. Be my guide, even to death, and beyond it to yourself.