Message – Sons Of Korah – Psalm 87 – God Loves Zion (Jerusalem) Series

MESSAGE – SONS OF KORAH – PSALM 87 – GOD LOVES ZION

ZION WILL BE BLESSED IN A COMING DAY

Psalm 87:0 A Psalm of the sons of Korah. A Song.

Psalm 87:1 His foundation is in the holy mountains.

Psalm 87:2 The LORD loves the gates of Zion more than all the other dwelling places of Jacob.

Psalm 87:3 Glorious things are spoken of you, O city of God. Selah.

Psalm 87:4 “I shall mention Rahab and Babylon among those who know Me. Behold, Philistia and Tyre with Ethiopia: ‘This one was born there,’”

Psalm 87:5 but of Zion it shall be said, “This one and that one were born in her”, and the Most High Himself will establish her.

Psalm 87:6 The LORD shall count when He registers the peoples, “This one was born there.” Selah.

Psalm 87:7 Then those who sing as well as those who play the flutes shall say, “All my springs of joy are in you.”

We come to another Psalm of Korah and not an easy one to speak from. You notice right at the start this is a song so in the Hebrew it is a poem set to music. There is nothing unusual about that as the sons of Korah were the singers and choir people in the Tabernacle and the Temple.

At first glance you may have noted the emphases in the psalm on the place of birth and we will look at that soon. Let us look at this psalm now.

VERSE 1. “His foundation is in the holy mountains.” The opening with the pronoun “His” we usually understand by “The Lord” or by Jehovah,” and it would not be wrong to think that. The verse is speaking of Zion as the following verses explain, and it is founded in the holy mountains.

This is what Isaiah 14 v 32 says – “How then will one answer the messengers of the nation? That the LORD has founded Zion, and the afflicted of His people will seek refuge in it.” The foundation of Zion comes from the LORD. He founded it. It belongs to Him, and beware, all those who have taken Israel away from God.

It is correct to say Zion is God’s foundation for God’s presence was there as many psalms would acknowledge, but that changed through Israel's sin. We can also say the “His” of verse 1 means Zion, so it can be applied both ways. Jerusalem is the city founded among the hills that were called mountains. Rome and Constantinople are also situated in the hills.

Dr. Horne a commentator wrote: “The psalmist having meditated on the strength, the beauty, and the glory of the holy city, and imagining the thoughts of his hearers or readers to have been employed on the same subject, breaks forth at once in this abrupt manner. “Is in the holy mountains” - the mountains of holiness; by which he means those mountains, or “hills of Judea, which God had chosen and separated to himself from all others, whereon to construct the highly-favoured city and temple, namely, mount Zion, mount Moriah, and other lesser hills. They are called holy mountains, or mountains of holiness, because the city and temple were, in a peculiar sense, consecrated to God, and because God in in special manner dwelt therein, the ark of his presence being fixed there.”

A place is deemed holy because of what it represents. Peter used the same expression when talking about the transfiguration - 2Peter 1 v 18 “We ourselves heard this utterance made from heaven when we were with Him on the holy mountain.” The hills of Jerusalem are holy because of the presence of the Lord then and in the past.

Let us move to VERSE 2. The LORD loves the gates of Zion more than all the other dwelling places of Jacob. This verse specifies the special place of Zion. The gates meant entry and safety. When the people entered through the gates they were entering a special city. That is especially so on the yearly pilgrimage to Zion/Jerusalem when the pilgrims were singing as they ascended the hills and at last before them, there were the gates of Zion. It generated a very special feeling. They were welcome. When in China I had a lesser but expectant experience when we went through the tunnel that led to the Forbidden City.

I said the second reason was safety inside Zion. That was God’s security and He kept the city, but when He was rejected by the people God, He removed His protection and Nebuchadnezzar marched in through the gates. When Jesus was rejected by His people, He was taken out through the gates to Calvary. Then some 40 years later Titus went through the gates in the overthrow of Jerusalem that resulted in over a million deaths recounted by Josephus.