Show Don't Tell: Psalm 48

Instead of saying "Zion is beautiful and secure," walk the walls. "Great is the LORD, and most worthy of praise, in the city of our God, his holy mountain. Beautiful in its loftiness, the joy of the whole earth, like the heights of Zaphon is Mount Zion, the city of the Great King." Zaphon was the pagan sacred mountain—Zion is the real thing. "God is in her citadels; he has shown himself to be her fortress." Not walls but God makes it safe. "When the kings joined forces, when they advanced together, they saw her and were astounded; they fled in terror. Trembling seized them there, pain like that of a woman in labor." Invading kings—one look at the city and they run, doubled over like women giving birth. "You destroyed them like ships of Tarshish shattered by an east wind." Navy wrecked by weather. "As we have heard, so we have seen in the city of the LORD Almighty, in the city of our God: God makes her secure forever." Heard the stories, now seen it ourselves. "Within your temple, O God, we meditate on your unfailing love." Then the tour: "Walk about Zion, go around her, count her towers, consider well her ramparts, view her citadels, that you may tell of them to the next generation. For this God is our God for ever and ever; he will be our guide even to the end."