Psalm 87 - A Psalm Of The Sons Of Korah – The Lord Loves The Gates Of Zion The City Of God Series

PSALM 87 - A PSALM OF THE SONS OF KORAH – THE LORD LOVES THE GATES OF ZION THE CITY OF GOD

PSALM 87 - A PSALM OF THE SONS OF KORAH - A SONG

Psalm 87 v 1 “His foundation is in the holy mountains.”

This abrupt commencement to the Psalm could almost be a title for the Psalm. This is in praise for the glory of Zion, or if you like Jerusalem, and may also include the surrounding area. Zion is the object of Jehovah’s love where He will manifest His glory, and when He will manifest His glory. The great praise to the LORD arises from Zion.

The verse says “His foundation” and that is not meaning any base on which the area sits as a support. It is far more precious than that. The word relates to its founding, to its establishment, to its origin. In other words, God has created its origins in the holy mountains. This gives rise to praise and joy from the psalmist for the hand of God in establishing what is great joy and glory. Those who enter in will know.

It was God who founded Jerusalem (often equivalent with Zion) even though the Jebusites owned it before the Israelites settled there, and David established his capital there. 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." In the eternal counsel of God, Jerusalem was always going to be Israel's capital and the city of the Great King, the place of refuge for the afflicted. Christians too, have their own Zion where they find refuge, and that is the Lord.

Psalm 48 v 1 “Great is the LORD and greatly to be praised in the city of our God! His holy mountain.” Psalm 43 v 3 “O send out Your light and Your truth, let them lead me; let them bring me to Your holy hill, and to Your dwelling places.” Psalm 2 v 6 "But as for Me, I have installed My King Upon Zion, My holy mountain." Be certain of one thing. Jerusalem will always belong to the LORD God, not to the PLO, and not even to Israel. It is God’s own, and He has installed His earthly people there. President Trump was absolutely correct to make Jerusalem the capital of Israel, and build the US embassy there.

Stanley said, “The plural mountains may be merely poetical, or it may refer to the different hills upon which Jerusalem stood, or generally to the mountainous region in which it was situated. Jerusalem was on the ridge, the broadest and most strongly marked ridge of the backbone of the complicated hills, which extend through the whole country from the Desert to the plain of Esdraelon. Like Rome and Constantinople, it stood upon an assortment of hills and rises.” What it does mean is that the whole area is marked out by God and established by Him. It is the earthly City whose maker is God. We have a heavenly City.

Psalm 87 v 2 “The LORD loves the gates of Zion, more than all the other dwelling places of Jacob.”

We already know that God selected His holy mountains for Himself, the area where today the city of Jerusalem and its surrounds are. If you visit there today, it is not an attractive place, barren and rough looking, dominated by the greatest eyesore in the whole of the Middle East, that is, the Mosque of Omar. No one can conceive of the beauty and glory it will have when Jesus the Messiah will reign there as King - Zechariah 14:16 “Then it will come about that any who are left of all the nations that went against Jerusalem will go up from year to year to worship the King, the LORD of hosts, and to celebrate the Feast of Booths.” It will all be changed, for Jesus stands on the Mount of Olives at the Second Coming, and it splits in two and all the geography will change.

What’s the difference between loving Zion and loving the gates of Zion? I like to think of it this way. When you are on a journey (and in those days it was on foot, or a donkey) and you have been travelling for ages, eventually the destination is upon you and the first thing you’d come to would be the gates. What a joy, for firstly, you have arrived, and secondly, you are going to enter the city of the great King, for this is Emmanuel’s city.

The Lord loves all His land of Israel, every part, but Zion is extra precious, because it is there He has placed His name. He loves Jerusalem above all other places in Israel, and to enter the gates is to be in the very city of the King Himself. Of course we know today that is not so, at least not right now, but it was so, back some 3 000 years and it will be so again - extraordinarily so, in the future when Israel is redeemed, and the Lord is among His own people.