PSALM 87: GLORIOUS THINGS OF THEE ARE SPOKEN

 

PSALM 87: GLORIOUS THINGS OF THEE ARE SPOKEN

This psalm has both a temporal meaning and a prophetic one. At the time it was written, it is the exaltation by one who was going to Jerusalem, possibly for one of the three pilgrim feasts. 

Jerusalem was a special place to all Israelites because the temple was there. They rejoiced to come from all over the country to Jerusalem to see the temple and participate in the feasts. It emphasized to them how special Jerusalem was because God promised to dwell there. 

The psalm also has a prophetic meaning, looking forward to a future time when people of all races, not just Jews, will come to God. 

Zion Exalted By The Choice of God

87:1-3

“Zion” is another name for Jerusalem. It was originally a mountain upon which the Jebusites built their fortress. It was unconquered by the Israelites until David became king. He lived there and called it the City of David. (Samuel 5:6-10) He built a palace and then a city around it. Solomon then built a temple in Jerusalem on Mount Moriah, and God’s presence dwelt within the temple.  (1 Kings 8:10)

The psalm begins with a praise, or exaltation of Zion because it is the place God chose to dwell. The psalmist calls it the city God founded. He founded it by choosing it as his dwelling place. Psalm 132:16 says “For the LORD has chosen Zion; he has desired it for his dwelling place”. Psalm 78:68 says “he chose the tribe of Judah, Mount Zion, which he loves”. 

God chose Jerusalem and loved it. The “gates of Zion” is just another way to say “Zion”, referring to the city of Jerusalem. He not only loved it, but loved it more than the other cites of Israel (dwelling places of Jacob). He showed this by speaking glorious things about Jerusalem. (3) 

For example, Isaiah wrote that in the latter days the mountain of the house of the Lord would be established as the highest mountain, meaning the preeminent one. Many people will come to the house of God, the temple, to learn God’s ways. (Isaiah 2:2-4) 

Isaiah also wrote that the day would come when everyone in Zion would be called holy, recorded for life, washed of sin. His presence will be with them as it was in the wilderness. (Isaiah 4:2-5)

John Newton, who wrote the hymn “Amazing Grace”, also wrote a hymn entitled “Glorious Things of Thee Are Spoken”, based on this psalm. 

The psalmist also calls Zion\Jerusalem the “city of God”, referring again to God’s presence there as his chosen and beloved place. 

God Exalted By the Inclusion of the Gentiles

89:4-6

These verses seem at first glance to be contradictory, for he refers to foreign nations, not as foreign, but as those who were born here in Zion. But it is not contradictory, it is prophetic. It looks forward to the day when the Jews will not be the only people of God. 

Gentiles from other nations will come into the kingdom. They would not only come in, they would come in as full members and citizens of the kingdom. That is what the psalmist means when he writes “this one and that one were born in her” and that he records these Gentiles as if they were of Israel, they were born there. (5-6)

Paul picked up this theme in the second chapter of Ephesians. He said they were alienated from the commonwealth of Israel, but through Christ were no longer strangers and aliens, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God. 

The psalmist named some of the kingdoms known to Israel as examples of this truth. Rahab is a name for Egypt. (4) It was an insult. Rahab was a sea monster which had been rendered powerless by God. Job 26:12 says “By his power he churned up the sea; by his wisdom he cut Rahab to pieces”. 

When King Hezekiah wanted to make an alliance with Egypt against Assyria, the Lord warned him that Egypt would not actually help Israel. The Lord said “Egypt’s help is worthless and empty; therefore I have called her Rahab who sits still.” (Isaiah 30:7)The picture is of a dragon or monster lying still in the Nile, looking formidable, but actually doing nothing. 

Babylon was another great enemy of Israel, which was squeezed between it and Egypt. Philistia (the Philistines) was a long time enemy of Israel. Tyre was a costal city state in what is now Lebanon, to the north of Israel. Cush was an area of southern Egypt. It is named after the son of Ham, grandson of Noah. (Genesis 10:7)

These were not all of the Gentile countries of the world, even in the time of the psalmist, but they were countries known to Israel and surrounding it. The psalmist, led by the Holy Spirit, uses them to prophetically state that Gentiles will come into God’s kingdom, pictured here as Zion\Jerusalem. They would be registered by the Lord as being part of the kingdom as if they were born there. It is similar to the Book of Life mentioned in the New Testament. (Revelation 20:12-15, 21:27)

It was always God’s intention to do this. It was not Plan B after Israel failed. God told Adam and Even to have children and multiply over the earth as God’s representatives, in effect, spreading his glory over all the earth. God told Abram that “in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed”. (Genesis 12:3) This shows that God intended to bless all nations through Christ, not just Israel. 

Jesus specifically told his disciples to go and make disciples of all nations. (Matthew 28:18) 

Yet, some Jewish believers took this psalm and others literally to mean that Gentiles had to come to Jerusalem, become Jews, before they could become saved. That is exactly what prompted the Council of Jerusalem of Acts 15. Some men came to the church at Antioch and said “unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved”. (Acts 15:1) The council rejected that idea. 

We see that James, the head of the Jerusalem church, understood this concept. Upon hearing about Gentiles coming to faith in Christ, James said it fulfilled the prophecy that God would rebuild the fallen tent of David and restore it, that the remnant of mankind may seek the Lord. (Acts 15:15-17) James was referring to Amos 9:11-12. But it showed James understood the evolution of the concept of Israel, or God’s kingdom, to include Gentile believers. 

Paul sets this out to the Galatians, writing “Know then that it is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham. And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying ‘in you shall all the nations be blessed’”. (Galatians 3:7-8) 

Here is Psalm 87, these Gentiles who are justified by faith are those who know him, as verse 4 says, from all nations. 

Exalted by the Testimony of the Redeemed

87:7

 

All of those who have been saved, who have come into the kingdom, will make music and sing “all my fountains are in you”. Fountains of water in desert lands brought refreshment and life. Jesus told the woman at the well that he could give her living water and that whoever drinks his water would have in himself or herself a spring of water welling up to eternal life. (John 4:10-14) Revelation 22:1-5 describes a river whose streams make glad the city of God.

All believers praise God for giving them this living water of eternal life and presence of the Holy Spirit. In the New Earth, we will do the same. This is the ultimate fulfillment of this psalm. The New Jerusalem, the city God has prepared for believers in the new creation, will contain those whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life. (Revelation 21)