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.
Psalm 87 v 3 “Glorious things are spoken of you, O city of God. Selah.”
Glorious things? What glorious things? Pause and think about it. The psalmist would be shocked today to hear what awful things are spoken about Jerusalem and the utter mess the place is in. Like so many things in God’s “it will come to pass” list, Jerusalem languishes, waiting its ultimate exaltation. Very sadly it will have to pass through many sad events until its day of glory will come and that day shall be an everlasting glory right down through eternity, when all her sorrows are gone and all memory of failure will be blanked out forever.
However the psalmist was not permitted to see our days of Jerusalem’s sorrow and failure. He knew only of the glorious things spoken about this city. The word rendered "are spoken" may mean either "have been spoken," or "are to be spoken;" that is, either, such things have been said, or they may be said. It may be past or it may be present. They have been placed on record; or, they may now be put on record concerning Zion.
About Jerusalem, Horne said - “Pleasant for situation, and magnificent in its buildings, it was the delight of nations, the joy of the whole earth. There was the royal residence of the kings of Judah; there were the temple, and the ark, and the glory,” and then looking ahead to the time of Christ, he continued, “and the King of heaven dwelling in the midst of her: her streets were honoured with the footsteps of the Redeemer of men; there he preached and wrought his miracles, lived, died, and rose again; to there he sent down his Spirit, and there he first laid the foundation of his church.”
The glorious position of Jerusalem in prophecy. As part of the bible study in Zechariah chapter 8, we looked at the names for Jerusalem. These are some of the glorious names that will be conferred on the City after the Lord returns to the land – There are glorious things, glorious names that are spoken of the City -
Psalm 48 v 8 - the city of the LORD of hosts, in the city of our God. God will establish her forever. Selah.
Isaiah 1 v 26 - Then I will restore your judges as at the first, and your counsellors as at the beginning. After that you will be called the city of righteousness, A faithful city."
Zechariah 8 v 3 - Thus says the LORD, “I will return to Zion and will dwell in the midst of Jerusalem. Then Jerusalem will be called the City of Truth, and the mountain of the LORD of hosts will be called the Holy Mountain.”
Isaiah 60 v 14 - and they will call you the city of the LORD, the Zion of the Holy One of Israel.
Lamentations 2 v 15 -, 'The perfection of beauty, A joy to all the earth'
Jeremiah 33 v 16 - In those days Judah will be saved and Jerusalem will dwell in safety, and this is the name by which she will be called: the LORD is our righteousness.'
Ezekiel 48 v 35 - the name of the city from that day shall be, “The LORD is there”.
To look at Jerusalem today, the divided city, and all its troubles, and the barrenness, you’d be pardoned for thinking that something glorious will emerge in the days to come, but it shall, for the Lord God will take control. When He returns at the Second Coming and sets up His Kingdom, then will come to pass that the descriptions given above will happen. We can’t imagine it today. There are enemies all around and the American Democrats are one of the vilest enemies of Israel and Jerusalem. Obama did his best to destroy the Jewish nation and he has enormous power under Biden.
Psalm 87 v 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 v 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.
I do believe these verses are prophetic, that is, they will be fact in the future, actually when the Lord Himself returns to Jerusalem. We will look at them in more detail. You notice there “Rahab” but this has nothing to do with the woman who hung the scarlet cord from the window in the days of Joshua. Rahab is a term used in scripture for Egypt. Here are two references - Isaiah 51 v 9 “Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm of the LORD; awake, as in days of old, the generations of long ago. Was it not you who cut Rahab in pieces, who pierced the dragon?” and Psalm 89 v 10 “You crushed Rahab like a carcass; you scattered your enemies with your mighty arm.” Both these verses speak of the time that the Lord crushed Egypt and delivered His people Israel right back almost 3500 years ago.
We shall return to Egypt soon, but let us move to Babylon. Babylon began this way - Genesis 10 v 9-10 “He was a mighty hunter before the LORD, therefore it is said, “Like Nimrod a mighty hunter before the LORD.” The beginning of his kingdom was Babel and Erech and Accad and Calneh in the land of Shinar.” One of the most wicked men ever, began Babylon whose origins was Babel, meaning confusion. The Babylonian system has networked all the legal, political and religious systems of the world. It has infiltrated for evil everywhere and will grow from bad to worse until you have the great monstrosity of Babylon the Great, the Mother of Harlots in Revelation 17 and 18, which the Lord will crush just before His Second Coming. Today the old area of Babylon covers roughly Iraq, and the old Assyria overlaps Iraq and Syria.
The other three mentioned, “Philistia and Tyre with Ethiopia” all had an impact on Israel and still do. Philistia today is the Gaza Strip, a very troublesome terrorist region for Israel. Tyre is on the coast of current Lebanon and Ethiopia was known because of the Queen of Sheba.
Doom is to come on those who oppose the Lord and in the lead up to Armageddon, the Moslem nations around Israel, especially to the north, and Ethiopia will be part of Gog and Magog that attack Israel but God will destroy them. God will punish Egypt and then He saves them.
Take a look at verse 4 again. Do you see the expression “among those who know Me.” Those nations will know the Lord. What a change from today! All those names and territories there will be special to the Lord. What brings this about? We are going to read in Isaiah a remarkable prophecy, which is how it will all happen. Isaiah 19 v 16-25.
Isaiah 19 v 16 In that day the Egyptians will become like women and they will tremble and be in dread because of the waving of the hand of the LORD of hosts which He is going to wave over them. Isa 19:17 The land of Judah will become a terror to Egypt. Everyone to whom it is mentioned will be in dread of it because of the purpose of the LORD of hosts which He is purposing against them.
Isaiah 19 v 18 In that day five cities in the land of Egypt will be speaking the language of Canaan and swearing allegiance to the LORD of hosts. One will be called the City of Destruction.
Isaiah 19:19 In that day there will be an altar to the LORD in the midst of the land of Egypt and a pillar to the LORD near its border, Isa 19:20 and it will become a sign and a witness to the LORD of hosts in the land of Egypt for they will cry to the LORD because of oppressors, and He will send them a Saviour and a Champion, and He will deliver them. Isa 19:21 Thus the LORD will make Himself known to Egypt, and the Egyptians will know the LORD in that day. They will even worship with sacrifice and offering and will make a vow to the LORD and perform it. Isa 19:22 The LORD will strike Egypt, striking but healing so they will return to the LORD, and He will respond to them and will heal them.
Isaiah 19:23 In that day there will be a highway from Egypt to Assyria and the Assyrians will come into Egypt and the Egyptians into Assyria, and the Egyptians will worship with the Assyrians. Isa 19:24 In that day Israel will be the third party with Egypt and Assyria, a blessing in the midst of the earth, Isa 19:25 whom the LORD of hosts has blessed saying, “Blessed is Egypt (Rahab) My people, and Assyria (Iraq/Babel) the work of My hands, and Israel My inheritance.”
It will be an honour to have it said of you, “This one was born there” (in one of those places). However, in verse 5, which is looking at Zion itself, it is said, “This one and that one were born in her, and the Most High Himself will establish her.”
That is all about inheritance. When Israel gains all its territory on the Lord’s return it will have all the land from the Nile to the Euphrates. Blessed are those who are born there, but extra special blessings to those who are born in Zion.
Psalm 87 v 6 The LORD shall count when He registers the peoples, “This one was born there.” Selah.
Isn’t this interesting. The Lord will have a register of all those in His Jewish Kingdom. The place of birth is noted. He counts all his own. I suppose also it is noted, “Those born there” and the special one, “Those born in her”. The Lord keeps the account of all His. What does that remind you of? Can you think of two applications from that?
Well here they are. The first is that everyone who is born again will have his and her name in the Lamb’s Book of Life. It is the register the Lord keeps. The lord will note that you were born again, “there”! He will know the place where you became one of His children. Rejoice for your names are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life. He keeps that register and knows everyone written in it.
The second great thought comes from the gospel of John where there is a very special relationship spelled out - John 10 v 3 “To him the doorkeeper opens, and the sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. John 10:4 When he puts forth all his own, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him because they know his voice.”
John 10 v 27 “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them and they follow Me, John 10:28 and I give eternal life to them, and they shall never perish, and no one shall snatch them out of My hand.”
Do you see verse 6 ends in “Selah”? That word means to pause and it was for a musical interlude. It means pause and think about it. We ought to pause and think about us being in the Lord’s flock, each known by name, and rejoice that our names are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life.
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.”
What is the outcome of all this? The verses we have read from this psalm, where are they leading us? They lead us into expression of joy, whether by voice, of musical instrument and they cause us to sing and play, “All my springs of joy are in you.” Some of us might be a bit more morose than others because of pain or concerns, but within each of us there should be springs of joy to our Saviour, even if unexpressed.
If you want to find things to sing about, check out the Psalms and the references to “sing”. If you want to find things to rejoice about, check out both the Psalms and New Testament for the word “rejoice”.
The stringed instruments were very common in the Psalms but here flutes is used. Some settings in the psalms were set for the flute. Flute in “Easton's Bible Dictionary” - “a musical instrument, probably composed of a number of pipes.” Flutes were in common use among the ancient Egyptians.
Job 21:12 says, “They sing to the timbrel and harp, and rejoice at the sound of the flute.” However in the New Testament, flutes are not always used in a good sense. Matthew 9:23 “When Jesus came into the official’s house and saw the flute-players and the crowd in noisy disorder.” There they made a great racket at the death. And one other reference - 1Corinthians 14:7 “Even lifeless things, either flute or harp, in producing a sound, if they do not produce a distinction in the tones, how will it be known what is played on the flute or on the harp?”
Jerusalem, along with Israel has a glorious future though it must pass through great tribulation.
ronaldf@aapt.net.au
