Psalms 87 KJV
The City of God
About This Psalm
Zion is God's favorite city - and people from all nations will be 'born' there. A vision of global inclusion.
1is 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, with 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.
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Did You Know?
The psalm's inclusion of traditional enemies like Rahab (Egypt) and Babylon as having citizens 'born' in Zion presents an unusually expansive vision of Gentile incorporation into God's people, distinct from more exclusive tones in surrounding psalms.
As a Korahite psalm, it likely served in temple liturgy performed by descendants of the rebellious Korah, transforming a narrative of judgment into one of musical praise for Zion's universal reach.
The phrase 'when he writeth up the people' alludes to ancient royal censuses but reorients them toward a divine enrollment of foreigners, prefiguring later Jewish and Christian ideas of a heavenly citizen registry.
Zion is depicted as founded on 'holy mountains' in a way that subtly echoes Canaanite mythology of divine abodes while asserting Yahweh's supremacy over all other sacred sites.
The closing focus on singers and pipers 'in thee' positions music not merely as response but as the very medium through which the nations' new birth in Zion is proclaimed and enacted.