Emotional Meditation—By Micah Siemens
Fear usually knows its lines. It enters early, raises its voice, controls the pace of the scene. It tells us what will happen next, how bad it will be, and why we should brace ourselves. But in this psalm, fear shows up—and then falls apart.
“For behold, the kings assembled; they came on together.”
There is real threat here. Organized. United. Intentional. The psalm doesn’t pretend danger is imaginary. Power is gathered. Opposition is real. And yet—
“As soon as they saw it, they were astounded; they were in panic; they took to flight.”
Nothing happens. No battle described. No strategy unfolded. Just sight. They see the city—and that is enough. Which raises a quiet question: What did they see? Not walls alone. Not armies. They saw a place where God was present. And fear, confronted by something greater, loses its script.
“Trembling took hold of them there, anguish as of a woman in labor.”
The imagery is visceral, human, unavoidable. This isn’t polite fear. It’s the kind that bypasses reason and grips the body. And yet, the psalmist doesn’t mock it. He simply names it. Because fear doesn’t need to be shamed—it needs to be displaced.
“By the east wind you shattered the ships of Tarshish.”
The most impressive vessels of trade and power—undone not by force, but by God’s breath. This matters for us. Because so many of the things that intimidate us today are massive, well-funded, technologically impressive. Systems, institutions, futures that feel too big to challenge. Psalm 48 reminds us: Power is not always toppled by equal power. Sometimes it is undone by presence.
“As we have heard, so have we seen in the city of the Lord of hosts… God will establish her forever.”
This line feels personal. Faith moves from inherited stories to lived experience. What we were told about God becomes what we’ve witnessed. And for someone like you — thoughtful, patient, aware of complexity—this verse affirms that belief is allowed to mature. To be tested. To be confirmed slowly. Psalm 48 doesn’t promise that fear will never arrive. It promises that fear does not get to narrate the ending. Sometimes, it only takes seeing where God stands for fear to forget what it came to say.
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