Psalm LXXXVII

A Psalm or Song for the sons of Korah.

1 His foundation is in the holy mountains.

2 The Lord loveth the gates of Zion more than all the dwellings of Jacob.

3 Glorious things are spoken of thee, O city of God. Selah.

4 I will make mention of Rahab and Babylon to them that know me: Behold Philistia, and Tyre, and Ethiopia; this man was born there.

5 And of Zion it shall be said, This and that man was born in her; And the highest himself shall establish her.

6 The Lord shall count, when he writeth up the people, that this man was

born there. Selah.

7 As well the singers as the players on instruments shall be there. All my springs are in thee!

“A Psalm, a song, for the sons of Korah” — a title similar to many former Psalms. “Kepletus Spiritu Sancto” (says Augustine), “civis iste, et mnlta de amore et desiderio civitatis hnjus volvens secum, tanquam plura intus se meditans erupit in hoc. Multa secum in silentio de ilia civitate parturiens, damans ad Dominum erupit etiam in aures homimim, ‘Fundamenta ejus,” &c. He supposes this citizen of Zion, who sings of Zion, to be so rapt in soul, and filled with the Spirit, that he abruptly exclaims, as if giving unwitting utterance to his overflowing feelings —

“His foundations are on the holy hills!”
or as more exactly rendered —

“His founded city is upon the Iwly hills /”

We consider it a Psalm in which Jerusalem is celebrated as “the city of the Great King,“” and this in reference in some measure to the past, but in still fuller measure to the future, when Isa. xxxiii. 20-24 shall be fulfilled. “Look upon Zion,” says Isaiah — and here is one looking on — like John, gazing on New Jerusalem and examining its splendour. These mountains, Moriah, Zion, Olivet, long famous in Israel, they are adorned now with a city of which

“Glorious things are spoken
or as some render it —

“Glorious things in thee have been spoken.” The Lord loves it above all the other* dwellings of Jacob, or all his other cities, even as was announced of old, Deut. xii. 5. It is here he is to be for ever known as “Jehovah Shammah,” Ezek. xlviii. 35. And this is “a psalm, a song” of that glorious time,

* Though “other” is omitted, this is the sense, as in Psa. cxxxviii. 2, “Magnified thy word above all thy name,” i. e., thine other manifestations of thyself; so Psa. lxxxii.

Let us keep “Jehovah Shammah” before us as the key-note of the Psalm. The Psalmist says —

“/ icill bring RaJiab and Babel to the remembrance of all my acquaintance. Behold Philistia, and Tyre, icith Ethiopia V

Having said this, the wondering narrator of Jerusalem’s glory abruptly breaks off, as if to intimate to us that it is mere absurdity to speak of these in the same breath with Zion. As the Persian poet (see Dr Clark) introduces one saying, “What celebrity can Egypt or Syria, or any thing on earth or in the sea, pretend to, when compared to Shiraz? These are but villages; this alone is a city,” So the Psalmist here. Speak of Egypt, proud Egypt pH*]), speak of Babylon, speak of Philistia, speak of Tyre! Speak of the far-off Ethiopia! Speak of these in comparison — no, never! This is my boast to those that know me —

“I was born there’’ (Dli) yonder city, on the holy hills!

For ‘’this man” means no other than the speaker himself.* He goes on in his rapturous excitement, to tell more of the city’s renown, in such a strain as this: Well may I glory in being a citizen of Zion, for many shall be proud of their relation to it when the cities of the nations have long been forgotten, I boast of my connection therewith, and many shall take up my boast.

“Of Zion it shall be said,

This man and that man was born in her. (ti;’’^^’) ]iyVi).

And the Most High shall establish Iter.” (Ver. 5.) Yes, says the Psalmist, it shall be thus; and happy am I who belong to that happy city; for the Lord himself, and not men alone, shall proclaim its pre-eminence, and give me my place as one of its citizens.

“2’he Lord shall record, when he enrolls the nations,-f

TJiis man (that is, I who sing) was born there.” (Dli)-

* That “This man” may be the speaker himself, see Psalm xxxiv. 6. It is, q. d., I who am speaking thus, — as John ii. 19.

f In Num. i. 18,!)’1^T)^ “declared themselves to be born,” is an expression to be noted in connection with this Psalm. For here, as in Numbers i., the Lord is represented as taking the census of his Israel.

Happy nie! who am to dwell in that city. Thrice happy me! Then, still speaking with all the abruptness of deep excitement —

“And also singers, as well as players on imtrutnents,” shall be there, filling the city with praise and holy joy; and this shall be the burden of our everlasting song — “All my springs (fountains) are in Thee!” In thee, O Zion, where Jehovah Shammah for ever dwells! in thee I have found my rest, I have traced the streams of bliss up to their fountain-head! Such shall be Jerusalem redeemed, restored, made the metropolis of a redeemed and restored world, and the pattern or model of a holy capital to the nations. It may be taken as sung by the Lord Jesus himself, who said, “Salvation is of the Jews” (John iv. 22), not ashamed to call himself one of us, and glorying in the city built by God his Father — not in the world’s glory which Satan shewed him on the high mountain of temptation. In that case his “being born there” refers to his, “This day I have begotten thee” — his resurrection and glory. Or it may be taken up in the lips of any pilgrim and stranger who is looking for the “City that has foundations;” the city which God has prepared and thinks worthy of himself, to give to his weary ones for everlastingrest, and which they on their part receive with grateful wonder, conscious that even if it had been a Cabul (1 Kings ix. 13), they could not speak of having merited more. For the earthly Jerusalem restored, and become the place of the manifestation of the Lord on his throne, will be to the “new Jerusalem” as the outer courts leading to the inner shrine. Sing, then, pilgrims, — sing, O Church of God,

The glory of the place tuhere the Righteous One shall be manifested.