Psalm 87

Psalm Category: Song of Zion

Central Thought: The true birthplace of every believer is the church.

Your birthplace can be a hindrance in some people’s eyes. James McNeill Whistler, the artist, hailed from Lowell, Mass., which is a blue-collar town. At a Boston soiree, a society grand-dame asked him, “What possessed you to be born in a place like Lowell?” Quick as a flash, Whistler replied, “I guess it was so I could be near my mother.” So much for her snobbery!

Where Jesus was born is uniquely significant. “Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?” asked Nathanael (John 1:46). It was not snobbish prejudice but sound theology that prompted the question, for Scripture prophesied that the Messiah was to be from Bethlehem (Mic. 5:2). A Messiah from Nazareth was impossible. Nathanael was duly enlightened.

Psalm 87 makes great play of where people are born (vv. 4, 6). It is clear, however, that what is important is not our physical birthplace in the city of man, but whether we belong to the city of God. Put another way, this question asks, “Who is your true father? Do you have a Father in heaven? Is your citizenship in heaven?” This psalm is about how this citizenship is to be nurtured, tested and confirmed in the church—“the gates of Zion” (v. 2).

The Lord’s glory is in His church (vv. 1-3). The starting point is that God founded her, He loves her, and He says glorious things about her. “The Lord loves the gates of Zion more than all the dwellings of Jacob.” That is, He delights even more in the public worship of His people, gathered as His church, than He delights in our private worship as families and individuals. There is a glory peculiar to the church as church: “Out of Zion the perfection of beauty, God will shine forth” (Ps. 50:2). That glory centers in Christ who “loved the church and gave himself for her,” and has promised to be with her “always, even to the end of the age” (Eph. 5:25; Matt. 28:20). The glory of the gospel is most wonderfully witnessed to in the world when those whom Christ has saved are gathered as His church for worship. Hence, the Lord’s particular pleasure in the “gates of Zion.”1

The saints’ birthplace is the church (vv. 4-6). Three of the “glorious things” spoken of the church support this precious teaching.

First, we have a glorious gospel of grace (v. 4). The proof is that people from foreign nations, like “Rahab” (Egypt), Babylon, Philistia, Tyre and Ethiopia, have come to be regarded as if they were born in Zion. Isaiah prophesied of “the Lord’s house” in the gospel age that “all nations shall flow into it” (Isa. 2:2). Rahab means “bully” and, in using this of Egypt, the psalmist is highlighting God’s transformational salvation. “This,” says J. G. Murphy, “must refer to the new birth, by which they were incorporated into the family of God” (Psalms, p. 466). The new birth transforms: “At that time you were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel…But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ” (Eph. 2:12-13).

Second, we have a glorious covenant of grace (v. 5). This verse essentially repeats the thought of verse 4, but adds the perspective of the covenant of grace when it says, “The Most High Himself shall establish her.” The conversion of the nations is God’s covenant come into its fullness, because these “strangers by birth” (John Calvin) are now as surely members of Zion as if they were descended from Abraham! (Isa. 44:5; 54:1-3). God covenanted to save a people from every nation to be what Paul calls, “the Israel of God” and the “body of Christ” (Gal. 6:16; 1 Cor. 12:27).

Third, we have a glorious salvation (v. 6). You have a birth certificate and/or a passport. These record where you came from and where your citizenship is held. God has His register of His people—a “book of remembrance” (Mal. 3:16)—that says, “This one was born there.” It is “the Lamb’s book of life” (Rev. 21:27). It records all who have been and will be effectually called into a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ and so “dwell in the house of the Lord forever” (Ps. 23:6).

The saints’ home is in the church (v. 7). “All my springs are in you” expresses the joy of coming home to the Lord. Here is my source, my life and my salvation. I have a soft spot for my birthplace (Edinburgh, Scotland). But in my office is a picture of Galashiels, the little town where, on May 20, 1962, I was born again into Zion, the city of God. Can you say of yourself—because you know the Lord Jesus as your Savior—“My citizenship is in heaven, from which I also eagerly wait for my Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ” (Phil. 3:20)? Are your springs in Zion?

Saviour, if of Zion’s city

I through grace a member am,

Let the world deride or pity,

I will glory in Thy name:

Fading is the worldling’s pleasure,

All his boasted pomp and show:

Solid joys and lasting treasure,

None but Zion’s children know.

(John Newton, 1725-1807)

1 For a full exposition of this theme, see David Clarkson, “Public Worship to be preferred before Private,” The Works of David Clarkson (Banner of Truth), Vol. III, pp. 187-209.