1. GREAT IS the Lord, and highly to be praised in the city of our God! His holy mountain,
2. Fair and beautiful in elevation, is the joy of all the earth–Mount Zion [the City of David], to the northern side [Mount Moriah and the temple], the [whole] city of the Great King! [Matt. 5:35.]
3. God has made Himself known in her palaces as a Refuge (a High Tower and a Stronghold).
4. For, behold, the kings assembled, they came onward and they passed away together.
5. They looked, they were amazed; they were stricken with terror and took to flight [affrighted and dismayed].
6. Trembling took hold of them there, and pain as of a woman in childbirth.
7. With the east wind You shattered the ships of Tarshish.
8. As we have heard, so have we seen in the city of the Lord of hosts, in the city of our God: God will establish it forever. Selah [pause, and calmly think of that]!
9. We have thought of Your steadfast love, O God, in the midst of Your temple.
10. As is Your name, O God, so is Your praise to the ends of the earth; Your right hand is full of righteousness (rightness and justice).
11. Let Mount Zion be glad! Let the daughters of Judah rejoice because of Your [righteous] judgments!
12. Walk about Zion, and go round about her, number her towers (her lofty and noble deeds of past days),
13. Consider well her ramparts, go through her palaces and citadels, that you may tell the next generation [and cease recalling disappointments].
14. For this God is our God forever and ever; He will be our guide [even] until death.