“Great is the LORD and greatly to be praised in the city of our God! His holy mountain,” Psalm 48:1
July 27, 2022
A recent ride up Lookout Mountain in Chattanooga, Tennessee at 1,850 feet above sea level offered a breathtaking view of the city below. Mountains are wonderful creations of God. As the flood waters of the Noahic Flood abated, the planet’s mountain ranges appeared, a different kind of topography from the pre-flood world. Mountains have a way of pulling our minds upward toward God. Sadly, sinful human beings have defaced this experience of God’s nature by believing the gods dwell in the mountains. In Psalm 48:1 the psalmist is borrowing the imagery of Canaanite theology, but not the theology. The Canaanites believed that El/Baal dwelt on Mt. Zaphon, (25 miles north of Jerusalem). Mt. Zion was greater than Mt. Zaphon, not because of elevation, but because God had chosen to dwell in the great city of Jerusalem on Mt. Zion. It was the covenant God of Israel that gave Mt. Zion its distinction. Today Mt. Zion is only 2500 feet above sea level, but the day is coming when in the Messianic kingdom Mt. Zion will be the chief of the mountains (Isa. 2:2). From there God’s government will be established over all the kingdoms of this world. Let your next drive through the mountains be a worship experience, not because God dwells on any mountain, but because the mountains can lift our attention upward in praise to God. H