Psalm 48

I've always loved the idea* of the holy city "set on a hill" where all live in equality and peace, whether called Augustine's City of God, Adam-Ondi-Ahman, Orderville, or Zion. This is my attempt to set this Zionist psalm to English meter and rhyme (as always, I recommend reading the texts together).

*Sadly, the ideal is usually better than the implementation, and as a believer in free and open global markets, I think the traditional implementation of the the United Order would be hard to pull off in the 21st century--but one can love the ideal and the principles and look for more modest ways to apply them according to circumstances.

Psalm 48

Great is the Lord and the city of God:
Beautiful mountain and refuge of earth.
Marveling rulers make haste from her rod,
Trembling in pain as a mother in birth.

Chaff is the value of their riches still;
Tarshish is naught when compared to her spires.
Thy lovingkindness, from temple’s bright hill
Beckons to all who do humbly aspire.

Praise ye our God to the ends of the earth.
Righteousness still is the fruit of thy hand.
Daughters of Judah in Zion, have mirth,
Stablished forever in this chosen land.

Mark ye her bulwarks and walk round each side,
Yea, till the last generation shall come.
Ever and ever our God is our guide,
Even to death when he welcomes us home.