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Psalm 48:7

With the east wind, you break the ships of Tarshish.

5They saw it, then they were amazed. They were dismayed. They hurried away.
6Trembling took hold of them there, pain, as of a woman in travail.
7With the east wind, you break the ships of Tarshish.
8As we have heard, so we have seen, in the city of the LORD of Armies, in the city of our God. God will establish it forever. Selah.
9We have thought about your loving kindness, God, in the middle of your temple.
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← Psalm 48:6Psalm 48:8 →
Notice

The east wind is God's means of breaking ships, a stark picture of destruction within a song about his city's fleeing enemies.

Questions to write on. Each one opens a new entry with this verse already attached.

What do you notice about God being addressed as the one who breaks the ships?

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How does the image of broken ships affect your reading of the city's safety in verse 8?

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Connect

Where else Scripture says this

9 passages readers most often link with this verse, and the thread each one shares with it.

This verse's connections, by chapterThe Bible's strongest chapter linksHover or tap a book to trace it
Jeremiah 18:17I will scatter them as with an east wind before the enemy. I will show them the back, and not the face, in the day of their calamity.Both passages connect the east wind with God's destructive action: breaking ships in the psalm and scattering people in Jeremiah.
1 Kings 10:22For the king had a fleet of ships of Tarshish at sea with Hiram’s fleet. Once every three years the fleet of Tarshish came bringing gold, silver, ivory, apes, …Both name ships of Tarshish: Kings describes a fleet bringing valuable cargo, while the psalm describes God breaking such ships.
1 Kings 22:48Jehoshaphat made ships of Tarshish to go to Ophir for gold, but they didn’t go, for the ships wrecked at Ezion Geber.Ships of Tarshish are wrecked in both passages, though Kings names Ezion Geber and the psalm names the east wind.
Ezekiel 27:25–26“‘“The ships of Tarshish were your caravans for your merchandise. You were replenished and made very glorious in the heart of the seas.The ships of Tarshish appear in both: as carriers of merchandise in Ezekiel and as vessels God breaks in the psalm.
Ezekiel 27:26Your rowers have brought you into great waters. The east wind has broken you in the heart of the seas.Both passages describe the east wind breaking something at sea, with the psalm naming God as the one who acts.
Psalm 107:23Those who go down to the sea in ships, who do business in great waters,Both passages picture ships at sea; Psalm 107 names their business, while Psalm 48 describes their breaking.
Revelation 8:9and one third of the living creatures which were in the sea died. One third of the ships were destroyed.Both describe the destruction of ships, though Revelation specifies a third and the psalm names the east wind.
Isaiah 2:16for all the ships of Tarshish, and for all pleasant imagery.The shared detail is the ships of Tarshish; the psalm adds the east wind and God's act of breaking them.
Isaiah 23:1The burden of Tyre. Howl, you ships of Tarshish! For it is laid waste, so that there is no house, no entering in. From the land of Kittim it is revealed to …Both name ships of Tarshish amid destruction: the psalm describes their breaking, while Isaiah tells them to howl over Tyre's devastation.
Where this verse fits

Fear for the future. praise and worship. sermon or Bible study notes.

What the Bible says about fear →What the Bible says about worship →
One step

Something small to carry out of this verse

Read Psalm 48:5–8 aloud, pausing at the broken ships

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Encouragement

God's power exceeds the strength of the ships in this song. Their destruction is stark, and the city's safety rests with the God who can break them.

Now put it in your words.

Start an entry on Psalm 48:7. Write what it stirs. Psalmlog sets your words beside Scripture and gives you one next step. Your first entry is free, no account needed.

Keep goingPsalm 48 · the whole chapter with its connection mapPsalms · every chapterBuild a reading plan through Psalms

Cross-reference data from OpenBible.info (CC BY). Scripture from the World English Bible (public domain). Arc diagram after Chris Harrison and Christoph Römhild (2007).