Psalms 48:3

God is known in her palaces for a refuge.

The secret of national greatness

It is not the nation makes the people, but the people make the nation. On the rulers depends the nation’s prosperity. When God is honoured in the palace He will be worshipped in the cottage. When Atheists make laws, sedition will be the offspring.

I. Influence always descends. It is like the rain and dew. The less follow the great. Great power, great wealthy, great minds always lead.

II. The great affect the great. The kings of the earth saw and were troubled. Palace religion is more displayed than that of the cottage. God has His own work for the insignificant, but the great have also their higher sphere.

III. National religion is national preservation. The kings hasted away. Their hostility was vain in the presence of Him who was the Refuge of the palace. (Homilist.)

God known as a refuge

Even false worship argues a constitutional capacity for the true.

I. The conception of God is the greatest thing in man. In proportion as it is lost or distorted, human dignity decays, and the race sinks nearer the level of inferior creatures. The mould on which he was made is the cause of man’s original greatness; but when he ceases to lay himself habitually back upon his origin, his being shrinks down again into the dimensions of a lower species.

II. God is. This is the first proposition in the inspired confession of faith (Hebrews 11:6). An atheist may reason against the existence of God, and a worldly man may keep God out of all his thoughts, but neither the one nor the other can blot God out of being. Although we practically banish God out of our little spot of time, He will meet us when we enter His great eternity.

III. God is known. Observe Paul’s method in reasoning with the Athenians regarding the altar which they had dedicated to the unknown God, and the cognate argument which he addressed to the idolaters at Lystra (Acts 14:15; Acts 17:22). This is an inspired recognition of natural religion. The revelation which has been imprinted on earth and sky does not go far enough for the necessities of the fallen; but it is true as far as it goes. Men ought both to perceive its meaning and trust in its truth.

IV. God is known in her. “God is known,” may be taken as the motto of natural, “God is known in her,” as the motto of revealed religion. Wherever Christ is admitted King into a believing heart, there are the thrones of the house of David, there the temple stands, and thence sweet incense rises morning and evening to Heaven. Wherever many such believers are congregated, there is the city of the great King; wherever there are believing men and women, there is a peopled Jerusalem; and of that city it is the distinction still that God is known in her.

V. God is known in her palaces. The psalm commemorates a revival in high places (2 Chronicles 17:1; 2Ch 18:1-34; 2 Chronicles 19:1; 2 Chronicles 20:1.). When grace was poured into the heart of the king, all ranks felt the benefit. The human skull, where the material organ of thought resides, has been called the palace of the soul. The princely spirit that dwells beneath that stately dome counts and keeps the whole world its tributary. In a princely way this king of the creatures has caught and tamed the powers of nature, and yoked them to his chariot. At the door of that regal residence a Stranger stands and knocks. Hear His voice, “If any man open, I will come in.” This is God our Saviour. When He is admitted, God will be known in that palace; for, “He that hath seen Me, hath seen the Father.” Not Christ in heaven, but Christ in you, is the hope of glory.

VI. God is known in her palaces for a refuge. The idea, the existence, the knowledge of God, whether among rich or poor, become for us all or nothing, according as we recognize Him as our refuge, or fear Him as our foe. For poor, blind, guilty, dying creatures, such as we are, there are only two ways open--we must either flee from God, or flee to Him. To those no good can happen, to these no evil. One thing is needful; and this is the meaning of a Gospel ministry, “Be ye reconciled to God.” Make Him your refuge, and you will find the way is open, the welcome prepared; all things will work together for your good. (W. Arnot.)