"A Psalm of the Sons of Korah. A Song.
On the holy mount stands the city he founded;
2 the Lord loves the gates of Zion
more than all the dwelling places of Jacob.
3 Glorious things of you are spoken,
O city of God. Selah
4 Among those who know me I mention Rahab and Babylon;
behold, Philistia and Tyre, with Cush—
“This one was born there”, they say.
5 And of Zion it shall be said,
“This one and that one were born in her”;
for the Most High himself will establish her.
6 The Lord records as he registers the peoples,
“This one was born there.” Selah
7 Singers and dancers alike say,
“All my springs are in you.”
Psalm 87
This is a short Psalm but its message is a striking and impressive one. The words in 3, 'glorious things are spoken of thee, O city of God' are well known and immortalized in John Newton's great hymn, and it is interesting and instructive to see their setting in context and therefore their true significance. Our concern must be with the Christian use and interpretation of the Psalms, and in seeking to extract a Christian meaning and significance here brings us immediately to the problem raised by the emphasis on the literal city of Jerusalem, for, of course, the relevance of this literal emphasis is called in question by the New Testament itself (cf John 4:20-24; Acts 6:13, 14). Clearly, the spiritual nature of worship as revealed in the New Testament makes the place of worship, whether city or temple, irrelevant. This we have already seen in our study of Psalm 48, whose language has affinities with this one (cf 48:2). This is not to say, however, that the emphasis on Jerusalem has nothing to say to us today. For the inner heart of that emphasis remains a constant, and has abiding relevance for us. As Maclaren puts it 'The one thing that made Mount Zion, Jerusalem, glorious, was God's presence in it.... It was because God dwelt there, and mani- fested Himself there, that it was a joy for all the earth'. 'Jehovah Shammah', 'The Lord is there''. It is an easy transition, therefore, from the city to the Church of God, for it was the glory of the Church, as it was the glory of Zion of old, that God dwells in her (cf Revelation 21:2, 9, 10). This, then, is the clear warrant for putting a Christian interpretation upon the Psalm, and taking its message regarding Jerusalem to apply to the Church of Christ.