Psalm 87

Psalm 87  •  2 min. read  •  grade level: 6
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Encouraged as it were by this, she then appears to speak her own praise, as the mother of the family of God, giving the Lord Himself as a witness to this dignity of hers (Psa. 87:4-64I will make mention of Rahab and Babylon to them that know me: behold Philistia, and Tyre, with Ethiopia; this man was born there. 5And of Zion it shall be said, This and that man was born in her: and the highest himself shall establish her. 6The Lord shall count, when he writeth up the people, that this man was born there. Selah. (Psalm 87:4‑6)). And this will be so when the New Covenant comes to be dispensed in and from Zion. (See Isa. 2; Ezek. 47; Joel 3.) For the New Covenant is the Sarah, or the mother. In the present dispensation, no system or place on earth can be called the mother, because the blood and the Mediator of the New Covenant are in heaven. Therefore Jerusalem the mother is still “above” (Gal. 4). But in the coming dispensation she will be in Judea, and then the Zion of this Psalm may look on the right hand and on the left, towards Egypt and Babylon, and recognize her children everywhere.
The Lord Himself appears to sanction this, closing with an expression of Zion’s joy, and of His own delight in her (Psa. 87:77As well the singers as the players on instruments shall be there: all my springs are in thee. (Psalm 87:7)).
But this suggests some blessed truth. Jerusalem has destroyed herself; but in God is her help. She is stained with blood; but the blood will be cleansed (Joel 3). She is now desolate and rejected, because she rejected Jesus; but she shall be saluted by and by, as “the habitation of justice, and mountain of holiness,” and be called “the Lord is there” (Jer. 31:2323Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel; As yet they shall use this speech in the land of Judah and in the cities thereof, when I shall bring again their captivity; The Lord bless thee, O habitation of justice, and mountain of holiness. (Jeremiah 31:23); Ezek. 48:3535It was round about eighteen thousand measures: and the name of the city from that day shall be, The Lord is there. (Ezekiel 48:35)). Jesus has hitherto known her as the place of His tears and weeping (Luke 19); but here it has become the place of His fresh springs and of His singers. This change in the bearing and conditions of Zion is very blessed. “This is Zion whom no man careth after,” has been her reproach; “the joy of the whole earth,” shall be her praise. And in all this Zion is a sample of the earth. For as yet it has been the occasion of divine grief and repentance (Gen. 6:6-126And it repented the Lord that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart. 7And the Lord said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it repenteth me that I have made them. 8But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. 9These are the generations of Noah: Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations, and Noah walked with God. 10And Noah begat three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth. 11The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence. 12And God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth. (Genesis 6:6‑12)), it shall be the scene of divine delight and glory (Psa. 8; Psa. 24; Psa. 104:3131The glory of the Lord shall endure for ever: the Lord shall rejoice in his works. (Psalm 104:31)).