Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Psalms 87:1
A Psalm [or] Song for the sons of Korah. His foundation [is] in the holy mountains.
1. The Psalmist’s heart is full of his theme. He states it abruptly in a verse of a single line (cp. Psa 18:1):
’
Tis his foundation upon the holy mountains:
which stands by itself as a kind of title to his poem or inscription on his picture. Zion is a city founded by God Himself (Isa 14:32). Its site is consecrated (Psa 2:6; Psa 43:3; Psa 48:1, and often) by the ownership and presence of Jehovah.
The plural mountains (cp. Psa 133:3) may be merely poetical, or it may refer to the different hills upon which Jerusalem stood, or generally to the mountainous region in which it was situated. “Jerusalem was on the ridge, the broadest and most strongly marked ridge of the backbone of the complicated hills, which extend through the whole country from the Desert to the plain of Esdraelon.” Like Rome and Constantinople, it stood upon a “multiplicity of eminences,” and “the peculiarity imparted to its general aspect and to its history by these various heights is incontestable.” Stanley, Sinai and Palestine, pp. 176, 177. Comp. note on Psa 48:2.
The brevity and abruptness of the verse have led some commentators to conjecture that the first line has been lost, and others to combine Psa 87:1-2 in construction (cp. R.V. marg.) thus:
His foundation upon the holy mountains doth Jehovah love,
Yea, the gates of Zion &c.
The conjecture is unnecessary, and though the combination of Psa 87:1-2 would give a good parallelism, the Ancient Versions support the division of the Massoretic Text, and the abrupt beginning is in accordance with the terse oracular style of the Psalm.
P.B.V. ‘ her foundation’ is untenable. The gender of the pronoun in the Heb. shews that it cannot refer to the city.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
1 3. The glory of Zion the city of God.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
His foundation – This is an abrupt commencement of the psalm. The adjective his has been supposed by some to refer to the psalm itself, and this expression has been considered to be a part of the title to the psalm, meaning that the foundation of the psalm is the holy mountain where the praises of God were celebrated; that is Zion. This, however, is a forced and unnatural interpretation. The most obvious explanation is to refer it to God, and the meaning is, that his foundation, or that which he had founded and established, to wit, the place for his worship, or for the institutions of religion, was in the holy mountains of Jerusalem. It would seem that the psalmist was contemplating the city – looking on its walls, and its palaces, and especially on the place which had been reared for the worship of God, and that he breaks out in this abrupt manner, by saying that this was what God had founded; that here he had established his home; that here was the place where he was worshipped, and where he dwelt; that this was the place which he loved more than all the other places where the descendants of Jacob dwelt.
Is in the holy mountains – The mountains of Jerusalem. Jerusalem is surrounded by hills, and within the city itself there were the hills of Zion, Moriah, Acra, and Bezethah; See the notes at Mat 2:1. These sacred hills God had selected as the place of his solemn worship – of his own abode. Compare the notes at Psa 48:1-2.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Psa 87:1-7
His foundation is in the holy mountains.
A material portrait of the spiritual Church
I. It is glorious in its elevation (Psa 87:1). The spiritual Church is a city set upon a hill. Though elevated it is safe; its foundation is in the everlasting mountains. Upon this rock, etc.
II. It is specially regarded by God (Psa 87:2). The infinitely loving One must be interested in all the works of His hand; even the sparrow that falls not to the ground without notice. But for those Christian men who constitute the true spiritual Church He has a special regard.
III. It is illustrious in its history (Psa 87:3). Many glorious things had been said of Zion. It was said that they should call Jerusalem the throne of the Lord, and they should call all the nations to it; it was said they should come to see the city of Zion, and flow together to the goodness of the Lord. It was said by God (1Ki 9:3; 2Ch 7:16). But what far more glorious things have been said of the true Church. Read what victories she has won, not only in the time of the apostles, but in every subsequent age. It has been said of the true Church, that it is a royal priesthood.
IV. It is superior to all other communities (Psa 87:4). Compare commercial, scientific, political, and other religious communities with it, and in all that is morally great and glorious, the brightest of their fires pales into dimness.
V. It is the birth-scene of the good (Psa 87:5). In the true spiritual Church, souls are born again.
VI. It is divinely registered (Psa 87:6-7). Jehovah kept a register of all that were born in Jerusalem, and so He does of all who are spiritually born in the true Church. When He writeth up the people. Ah I the time will come when He will write up a register of all true men. No others, however lofty in rank and illustrious in genius, will find a place in that book. No one shall enter heaven who is not found written in The Lambs Book of Life. VII. IT is infinite in its resources. All my springs are in Thee. This is what the poet says, as the representative of all that were born in Zion; and this is what all the members of the true spiritual Church can also say and most deeply feel. All my fountains are in Thee, in Thee, that is, in Zion or in God. If in Zion, it is from God. (Homilist.)
The city of God
I. Its foundation (Psa 87:1). Christs charactor, teachings, miracles, and merit.
II. Its favour (Psa 87:2). God canopies the city with His wing of covenant promise, and belts it with the attributes of His Being.
III. Its fame: (Psa 87:3), (2Ch 7:16; Psa 132:13-17; Zec 1:14; Zec 2:4-12).
IV. Its fraternity (Psa 87:4-6). Here are the true aristocracy of souls, the real nobility of earth.
V. Its future (Psa 87:5).
VI. Its fountains (Psa 87:7). (J. O. Keen, D. D.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
PSALM LXXXVII
The nature and glorious privileges of Zion and Jerusalem, 1-3.
No other city to be compared to this, 4.
The privilege of being born in it, 5, 6.
Its praises celebrated, 7.
NOTES ON PSALM LXXXVII
The title, A Psalm or Song for the sons of Korah, gives us no light into the author or meaning of this Psalm. It begins and ends so abruptly that many have thought it to be only a fragment of a larger Psalm. This opinion is very likely. Those who suppose it to have been made when Jerusalem was rebuilt and fortified, imagine it to have been an exclamation of the author on beholding its beauty, and contemplating its privileges. If this opinion be allowed, it will account for the apparent abruptness in the beginning and end. As to its general design it seems to have been written in praise of Jerusalem; and those who are for mystic meanings think that it refers to the Christian Church; and, on this supposition it is interpreted by several writers, both ancient and modern. To pretend to have found out the true meaning would be very absurd. I have done the best I could to give its literal sense.
Verse 1. His foundation is in the holy mountains.] Jerusalem was founded on the mountains or hills of Zion and Moriah. The after increase of the population obliged the inhabitants to inclose all the contiguous hills; but Zion and Moriah were the principal. We know that ancient Rome was built on seven hills.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
His foundation: whose foundation? Either,
1. The foundation, i.e. the argument or matter, of this Psalm or Song. So these words are thought to be a part of the title, the words lying thus in the Hebrew text,
For the sons of Korah, a Psalm or Song whose
foundation is in the Holy mountains. But,
1. The Hebrew word rendered foundation is no where used in that sense.
2. There is no example of any such like title in the Book of the Psalms. Or rather,
2. Of the city or temple of God, of which he speaks in the following verses. And whereas the beginning is somewhat abrupt, which seems to be the only ground of the foregoing exposition, that is no unusual thing in Scripture, and the pronoun relative, such as this is, is often put without any foregoing antecedent, and the antecedent is to be fetched out of the following words or verses, as Num 24:17, I shall see him, or it, to wit, the star, which follows afterward; Psa 105:19, his word, i.e. the Lords; Pro 7:8, to her house, i.e. the harlots, mentioned Pro 7:10; and especially Son 1:2, let him kiss, to wit, my beloved, who is there understood, but not expressed till Pro 7:14. And the ground of that abrupt and imperfect speech there seems to be the same with this here; for as the church was there in deep meditation and a great passion about her beloved, which caused that abruptness of speech, which is usual in such cases, so the psalmists thoughts were strongly fixed upon the temple and city of God; and therefore this relative his had a certain antecedent in his thoughts, though not in his words. The word foundations may possibly be emphatical, because this Psalm might probably be composed when the foundations of the second temple were newly laid, and the old men who had seen the glory of the former house were dejected at the sight of this, of which see Ezr 3:11,12. And so the meaning of this passage may be this, Be not discouraged, O ye Jews, that your temple is not yet erected and built, but only the foundations of it laid, and those too are mean and obscure in comparison of the magnificence of your former temple; but take comfort in this, that your temple hath its foundations laid, and those sure and firm; sure in themselves, because they are not laid in the sand, nor in boggy or fenny grounds, but in the mountains; and sure by Divine establishment, because those mountains are holy, consecrated to God, and therefore maintained and established by him. Or he may use this word foundations in opposition to the tabernacle, which was movable, and without foundations, to note the stability and perpetuity of this building.
In the holy mountains; or, among or within the holy mountains, to wit, in Jerusalem, which was encompassed with mountains, Psa 125:2, and in which were two famous mountains, to wit, Zion and Moriah. Or the plural number is here put for the singular, whereof we have seen examples formerly; and mountains are put for the mountain; either for Mount Moriah, upon which the temple stood; or for Mount Zion, which is mentioned in the next verse; which is often taken in a large and comprehensive sense, so as to include Moriah, in which sense the temple is said to be in Zion, Psa 74:2; 76:2; Isa 8:18.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
1. Histhat is, God’s
foundationor, what Hehas founded, that is, Zion (Isa14:32).
is in the holy mountainsthelocation of Zion, in the wide sense, for the capital, or Jerusalem,being on several hills.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
His foundation is in the holy mountains. The Jewish writers connect these words with the title of the psalm, and make the sense to be this; “the foundation” or argument “of it”, the psalm, “is concerning the holy mountains” of Zion and Jerusalem; so Aben Ezra, Jarchi, and Kimchi; and the Targum joins them together thus,
“by the hands of the sons of Korah is said a song, which is founded by the mouth of the fathers that were of old:”
but the words are a part of the song or psalm, which begins in an abrupt manner, just as So 1:2 and may be rendered either “its foundation”, or “his foundation”, and refer either to the church, or to the Lord, and the sense is the same either way; for the church’s foundation is also the Lord’s foundation, a foundation of his laying; see Isa 14:32 and is laid “in the holy mountains”; alluding to the mountains of Zion and Moriah, where the temple stood, a type of the church; or to the mountains about Jerusalem, by which also the church is frequently signified; and by those, in a mystical and spiritual sense, may be meant the purposes and decrees of God, which are as mountains of brass, Zec 6:1, they are like the ancient mountains for the antiquity of them, and are high, and not to be reached and searched into, and are firm, solid, and immoveable; and are also holy, particularly the decree of election, that source of all true holiness, which has sanctification for its end and means; and is the foundation of the church, which supports and secures it, and stands sure, 2Ti 2:19, also the covenant of grace, which is sure and immoveable, and in which are provisions for holiness, internal and external; and is the foundation and security of the church, and all believers; but especially Jesus Christ, the Rock of ages, is meant, the Holy One of Israel, the sure foundation laid in Zion: some interpret these holy mountains of the holy apostles, who were in an high and eminent station in the church, and were doctrinally foundations, as they ministerially laid Christ, as the only foundation; see Eph 2:20, it may be rendered, “among the holy mountains” w; and so may regard, as Cocceius explains it, the several kingdoms and provinces of the world in which the Gospel shall be preached; and the church shall be established and settled in the latter day even upon the tops of mountains, which shall become holy to the Lord, Isa 2:2.
w “inter montes sanctitatis”, Junius Tremellius so Ainsworth.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
The poet is absorbed in the contemplation of the glory of a matter which he begins to celebrate, without naming it. Whether we render it: His founded, or (since and are both used elsewhere as part. pass.): His foundation (after the form , poetically for , a founding, then that which is set fast = a foundation), the meaning remains the same; but the more definite statement of the object with is more easily connected with what precedes by regarding it as a participle. The suffix refers to Jahve, and it is Zion, whose praise is a favourite theme of the Korahitic songs, that is intended. We cannot tell by looking to the accents whether the clause is to be taken as a substantival clause (His founded city is upon the holy mountains) or not. Since, however, the expression is not , is an object placed first in advance (which the antithesis to the other dwellings of Jacob would admit of), and in Psa 87:2 a new synonymous object is subordinated to by a similar turn of the discourse to Jer 13:27; Jer 6:2 (Hitzig). By altering the division of the verses as Hupfeld and Hofmann do (His foundation or founded city upon the holy mountains doth Jahve love), Psa 87:2 is decapitated. Even now the God-founded city (surrounded on three sides by deep valleys), whose firm and visible foundation is the outward manifestation of its imperishable inner nature, rises aloft above all the other dwelling-places of Israel. Jahve stands in a lasting, faithful, loving relationship ( , not 3 praet. ) to the gates of Zion. These gates are named as a periphrasis for Zion, because they bound the circuit of the city, and any one who loves a city delights to go frequently through its gates; and they are perhaps mentioned in prospect of the fulness of the heathen that shall enter into them. In Psa 87:3 the lxx correctly, and at the same time in harmony with the syntax, renders: . The construction of a plural subject with a singular predicate is a syntax common in other instances also, whether the subject is conceived of as a unity in the form of the plural (e.g., Psa 66:3; Psa 119:137; Isa 16:8), or is individualized in the pursuance of the thought (as is the case most likely in Gen 27:29, cf. Psa 12:3); here the glorious things are conceived of as the sum-total of such. The operation of the construction of the active (Ew. 295, b) is not probable here in connection with the participle. beside may signify the place or the instrument, substance and object of the speech (e.g., Psa 119:46), but also the person against whom the words are spoken (e.g., Psa 50:20), or concerning whom they are uttered (as the words of the suitor to the father or the relatives of the maiden, 1Sa 25:39; Son 8:8; cf. on the construction, 1Sa 19:3). The poet, without doubt, here refers to the words of promise concerning the eternal continuance and future glory of Jerusalem: Glorious things are spoken, i.e., exist as spoken, in reference to thee, O thou city of God, city of His choice and of His love.
The glorious contents of the promise are now unfolded, and that with the most vivid directness: Jahve Himself takes up the discourse, and declares the gracious, glorious, world-wide mission of His chosen and beloved city: it shall become the birth-place of all nations. Rahab is Egypt, as in Psa 89:11; Isa 30:7; Isa 51:9, the southern worldly power, and Babylon the northern. , as frequently, of loud (Jer 4:16) and honourable public mention or commemoration, Ps 45:18. It does not signify “to record or register in writing;” for the official name , which is cited in support of this meaning, designates the historian of the empire as one who keeps in remembrance the memorable events of the history of his time. It is therefore impossible, with Hofmann, to render: I will add Rahab and Babylon to those who know me. In general is not used to point out to whom the addition is made as belonging to them, but for what purpose, or as what (cf. 2Sa 5:3; Isa 4:3), these kingdoms, hitherto hostile towards God and His people, shall be declared: Jahve completes what He Himself has brought about, inasmuch as He publicly and solemnly declares them to be those who know Him, i.e., those who experimentally (vid., Psa 36:11) know Him as their God. Accordingly, it is clear that is also meant to refer to the conversion of the other three nations to whom the finger of God points with , viz., the war-loving Philistia, the rich and proud Tyre, and the adventurous and powerful Ethiopia (Isa 18:1-7). does not refer to the individuals, nor to the sum-total of these nations, but to nation after nation (cf. , Isa 23:13), by fixing the eye upon each one separately. And refers to Zion. The words of Jahve, which come in without any intermediary preparation, stand in the closest connection with the language of the poet and seer. Zion appears elsewhere as the mother who brings forth Israel again as a numerous people (Isa 66:7; Psa 54:1-3): it is the children of the dispersion ( diaspora ) which Zion regains in Isa 60:4.; here, however, it is the nations which are born in Zion. The poet does not combine with it the idea of being born again in the depth of its New Testament meaning; he means, however, that the nations will attain a right of citizenship in Zion ( , Eph 2:12) as in their second mother-city, that they will therefore at any rate experience a spiritual change which, regarded from the New Testament point of view, is the new birth out of water and the Spirit.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
| The Glory of Zion. | |
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.
Some make the first words of the psalm to be part of the title; it is a psalm or song whose subject is the holy mountains–the temple built in Zion upon Mount Moriah. This is the foundation of the argument, or beginning of the psalm. Or we may suppose the psalmist had now the tabernacle or temple in view and was contemplating the glories of it, and at length he breaks out into this expression, which has reference, though not to what he had written before, yet to what he had thought of; every one knew what he meant when he said thus abruptly, Its foundation is in the holy mountains. Three things are here observed, in praise of the temple:– 1. That it was founded on the holy mountains, v. 1. The church has a foundation, so that it cannot sink or totter; Christ himself is the foundation of it, which God has laid. The Jerusalem above is a city that has foundations. The foundation is upon the mountains. It is built high; the mountain of the Lord’s house is established upon the top of the mountains, Isa. ii. 2. It is built firmly; the mountains are rocky, and on a rock the church is built. The world is founded upon the seas (Ps. xxiv. 2), which are continually ebbing and flowing, and are a very weak foundation; Babel was built in a plain, where the ground was rotten. But the church is built upon the everlasting mountains and the perpetual hills; for sooner shall the mountains depart, and the hills be removed, than the covenant of God’s peace shall be disannulled, and on that the church is built, Isa. lxiv. 10. The foundation is upon the holy mountains. Holiness is the strength and stability of the church: it is this that will support it and keep it from sinking; not so much that it is built upon mountains as that it is built upon holy mountains–upon the promise of God, for the confirming of which he has sworn by his holiness, upon the sanctification of the Spirit, which will secure the happiness of all the saints. 2. That God had expressed a particular affection for it (v. 2): The Lord loveth the gates of Zion, of the temple, of the houses of doctrine (so the Chaldee), more than all the dwellings of Jacob, whether in Jerusalem or any where else in the country. God had said concerning Zion, This is my rest for ever; here will I dwell. There he met his people, and conversed with them, received their homage, and showed them the tokens of his favour, and therefore we may conclude how well he loves those gates. Note, (1.) God has a love for the dwellings of Jacob, has a gracious regard to religious families and accepts their family-worship. (2.) Yet he loves the gates of Zion better, not only better than any, but better than all, of the dwellings of Jacob. God was worshipped in the dwellings of Jacob, and family-worship is family-duty, which must by no means be neglected; yet, when they come in competition, public worship (cteris paribus–other things being equal) is to be preferred before private. 3. That there was much said concerning it in the word of God (v. 3): Glorious things are spoken of thee, O city of God! We are to judge of things and persons by the figure they make and the estimate put upon them in and by the scripture. Many base things were spoken of the city of God by the enemies of it, to render it mean and odious; but by him whose judgment we are sure is according to truth glorious things are spoken of it. God said of the temple, My eyes and my heart shall be there perpetually; I have sanctified this house, that my name may be there for ever, 2 Chron. vii. 16. Beautiful for situation is Mount Zion, Ps. xlviii. 2. These are glorious things. Yet more glorious things are spoken of the gospel-church. It is the spouse of Christ, the purchase of his blood; it is a peculiar people, a holy nation, a royal priesthood, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. Let us not be ashamed of the church of Christ in its meanest condition, nor of any that belong to it, nor disown our relation to it, though it be turned ever so much to our reproach, since such glorious things are spoken of it, and not on iota or tittle of what is said shall fall to the ground.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
Psalms 87
Where God Meets His People
This is a Korahite-Jehovah Psalm much like the Korahite-elohim Psalms 46. It was written in, tribute or praise to Jehovah; either upon completion of the Temple in Jerusalem, known as Zion, the city of God, and Holy place where God met His people in worship, 2Co 7:15-16; or at the time of Jerusalem’s triumph over Shennacherib, during the rule of Hezekiah, Isa 30:7; Isa 51:9; Psa 89:10.
Scripture v. 1-7:
Verse 1 certifies that “His foundation,” that of Jehovah God, v. 2, is (exists) in the holy mountains, that of Zion and her whole mountain range. Zion was the sanctuary-chosen city of God; And as such was declared to be an holy, sanctified, or separated place where God pledged to meet His people in spiritual matters, 2Ch 7:12-16; just as He meets His holy people in and thru a special way in the church assembly, in power today, Joh 14:16-17; Act 1:8; Eph 3:21; Heb 10:24-25.
Verse 2 adds that “the Lord loveth (continually loves) the gates (entrances or approaches) of Zion, (His center of worship) more than all the dwellings (residences of Jacob),” His chosen people. The idea is a dedicated sanctuary, where God meets and communes with His people, is to be considered the most holy place of assembly among the chosen people of God, Joh 15:16-17; Joh 15:27; Eph 3:21; Psa 122:1; Isa 2:3; Zec 8:21. When the entrances (gates) of God’s city were guarded, it was safe from the enemy, Psa 78:68; Isa 60:18; Mat 16:18. So must the doors of the church be both open and guarded from entrance of the enemy. Only the saved, baptized, covenant-pledged, to follow the Master all the way, should become members of her assembly, Mar 8:34-37; Luk 9:23-46.
Verse 3 declares “glorious things are spoken (witnessed) of thee, O city of God. Selah;” Just meditate on them, draw spiritual strength from the things witnessed concerning this city of God! Psalms 46, 48 are samples of glorious things attributed to her, even by the heathen of the day. Once her glory was gone, “Ichabod,” vain, empty, or inglorious was her state or condition; So it is with the church, 1Sa 4:21; Her lukewarm, indifferent, or unholy moral, ethical or doctrinal state may lead to her candlestick’s removal, the spirit’s shekinnah withdrawal from her, Rev 1:5; or the Lord will spew her out of His mouth, reject her as a mouth-piece, a spokesman or witness any longer, lest she repent and do deeds of her first love, Rev 3:15-19. See also Isa 60:1; 1Pe 4:14; Luk 2:32.
Verses 4, 5 relate God’s intent to acknowledge Rahab and Babylon, to those who knew Him, came to know Him, even in Assyrian exile, as well as those of Philistia, Tyre, and Ethiopia of the Egypt area. For example, from where ever man received Him, He acknowledged them, as the Syrophoenican woman of Tyre and the Ethopian man of Queen Candace, Mat 15:22; Act 8:27-39; See also Psa 89:10; Isa 51:9. Almighty God the Highest Himself shall establish Zion and acknowledge her people forever, Psa 47:2; Eze 48:35; Mat 16:18.
Verses 6, 7 conclude with a note of certain triumph that the “Lord shall count, calculate, or compute, when He writes up (continually in all time) the people (the redeemed), that this man was born there,” with a record on high of his every decision and deed, “Selah,” digest it all, find nourishment in it, Psa 22:30; Psa 87:6; Eze 13:9; Gal 3:26-29. The witness of each shall be in heaven, on high, Ecc 12:13-14; Job 16:19; Psa 7:5. See also Isa 4:3; Jer 3:19.
Verse 7 verifies that in heaven, the New Jerusalem, city of God, “as well (surely) the singers as players on instruments (mechanical musical instruments) shall be there: All my hopes are in thee,” the Lord, not in ceremonies of earthly forms of worship, Pro 29:25.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
1 His foundations are in the holy mountains. Those who conceive that Jerusalem is here meant, as if it were said to be founded upon the holy mountains, are in my judgment mistaken; for the relative is in the masculine gender. Some learned men, I am aware, defend this opinion, by supposing that the words, the people, are to be supplied, although it is the capital of Judea which is specified. But it is unnecessary for me to say any thing to prove what is apparent to all, that this exposition is forced. Some Jewish interpreters have thought it most probable that this opening sentence is to be referred to the psalm itself; and, accordingly, they explain foundations as denoting metaphorically the theme, or subject of the poem, because it treats of the holy city Jerusalem, which was situated upon mountains. But I am surprised that they should have been mistaken in a matter so very obvious. It being quite a common thing among the Hebrews to put a relative without its antecedent, (495) this manner of speaking ought not to seem harsh or strange. The name of God is mentioned a little after; and we know that he is everywhere represented as having founded Jerusalem.
Some by the mountains understand Moriah and Zion, (496) which were the two tops of a mountain cleft into two, but this is too forced. As the country was mountainous, we are rather to understand the prophet as having in his eye the several neighboring and contiguous mountains which formed a chain around Jerusalem; for we will see in another place that Jerusalem was surrounded by mountains, (Psa 125:2.) The true and natural meaning then is, that God chose the holy mountains in order to found and erect his city in the midst of them. For a little after, in the prosecution of the subject, these words occur, “The Highest himself shall establish her.” He is indeed the founder of other cities also; yet we do not read of him saying with respect to any other city,
“
This is my rest for ever; here will I dwell; for I have desired it,” (Psa 132:14.)
There is this difference, which is always to be remembered, that while other cities were founded and built by the guidance and power of God, merely for the sake of civil government, Jerusalem was his peculiar sanctuary, and his royal seat. Isaiah also uses a similar form of expression, (Isa 14:32,) “The Lord hath founded Zion, and the poor of his people shall trust in it.” Besides, although the whole country of Judea was consecrated to God, yet he is said to have rejected all the other cities, and to have chosen this one for himself in which to reign. Here the question is not about earthly polity, but spiritual government; for the pure religion, and the true worship of God, and the doctrine of godliness, were at that time to be found nowhere but in Jerusalem.
(495) “ Il est advenu desja de pieca.” — Fr.
(496) As examples of this, see 2Sa 1:19; Psa 114:2; Son 1:2; Isa 23:1; Jer 33:2; Lam 3:1; Nah 1:8.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
INTRODUCTION
Superscription.A Psalm of Song for the sons of Korah. It so far combines the properties of a religious Psalm and a patriotic song that either of the names may with propriety be applied to it. For the sons of Korah, see Introduction to Psalms 42. The Psalm was either composed by them, or given to them to sing in the Temple service.
Occasion.Hengstenberg argues very forcibly, if not quite conclusively, that the occasion of its composition was the joyful events under Hesekiah,the destruction by the angel of the Lord of one hundred and eighty-five thousand Assyrians of the army of Sennacherib, which was before Jerusalem, and the consequent deliverance of Jerusalem from the siege and capture threatened by Sennacherib (2 Kings 19; 2Ch. 32:1-28).
THE GLORY OF THE CHURCH OF GOD
In this brief and joyous Psalm, the poet celebrates the praise of the Church of the Most High. In so doing, he shows us some of the things in which her glory consisted. The Church of God is
I. Glorious in her sanctity. His foundation is in the holy mountains. The sanctity of Mount Zion consisted in its being chosen by God as the abode of His Church; and the mountains (plural) are said to be holy because Zion is part of a mountain range. Zion was holy as being the dwelling-place of God. The Church of God upon earth is glorious in so far as she is holy, and she is holy in so far as God dwells in her. A glorious Church, not having spot or wrinkle, or any such thing, but holy and without blemish. God hath chosen the members of His Church that they should be holy and without blame before Him in love. Holiness is inward glory. Glory is conspicuous holiness. The Church is called to be separate from the world. Its members are called to be saints. Christ our great exemplar is perfectly holy. And His redemption is from sin to holiness. The blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin. Being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life.
II. Glorious in her security. His foundation is in the holy mountains. The Highest Himself shall establish her. Jerusalem was a mountain city, enthroned as compared with Jericho or Damascus, Gaza or Tyre, on a mountain fastness. In this respect, it concentrated in itself the character of the whole country of which it was to be the capital,the mountain throne, the mountain sanctuary of God. They that trust in the Lord shall be as Mount Zion, which may not be removed, but standeth fast for ever. God is in the midst of her, therefore shall she not be removed. It was emphatically the lair of the lion of Judah, of Ariel, the Lion of God. In Judah is God known; His name is great in Israel. In Salem is His leafy covert, and His rocky den in Zion. Thou art more glorious and excellent than the mountains of the robbers. And this wild and fastness-like character of Jerusalem was concentrated yet again in the fortress, the stronghold of Zion. That point, the highest in the city, the height which most readily catches the eye from every quarter, is emphatically the hill fort, the rocky hold of Jerusalemthe refuge where first the Jebusite and then the Lion of God stood at bay against the hunters.Stanley. The foundations of the holy city were high and firm, and on nearly every side it was guarded by the ancient mountains. So the Church of God is secure. The city of Zion has gone. The Temple at Jerusalem is no more; but the Church of God, which the Highest has established, remains and prospers. The Church is founded upon the rock of Divine truth, and all the raging storms of earth and hell cannot shake her. The Church is guarded by God Himself, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. Can infinite wisdom be baffled? Can Almightiness be overcome? Can the word of the Unchangeable fail? Then the Church of God is inviolably secure.
III. Glorious in being beloved by God. The Lord loveth the gates of Zion more than all the dwellings of Jacob. When Sennacherib and his host were encamped before the city, the Lord suffered them not to pass the gates though all the rest of the country was subject to their sway, and while the gates remained safe, the whole city was safe. God loved Jacob much, but He loved Zion more. He loves the worship of His people in their homes much, but He loves their worship in His sanctuary more. A father is glad to see any one of his children, and makes him welcome when he visits him, but much more when they come together; the greatest feast is when they all meet at his house. The public praises of the Church are the emblem of heaven itself, where all the angels make but one concert. This love of God for His Church should lead every believer
1. To seek union with the Church. 2. To esteem the worship of the Church a solemn duty and precious privilege.
3. To unite in that worship with deep humility, profound reverence, and great delight. He who loveth the gates of Zion more than all the dwellings of Jacob is present in His Church, and is well pleased to accept the spiritual worship of sincere worshippers.
IV. Glorious in her exalted reputation. Glorious things are spoken of thee, O city of God. Many glorious things were spoken of Mount Zion as to its situation. Beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth is Mount Zion, &c. As being inhabited by God. God is known in her palaces for a refuge. The Lord of Hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge. As to the diffusion of religion from it (Isa. 2:3). The city and temple passed away, but true religion has spread widely, and is still doing so. The Church of God has an exalted reputation
1. As possessing the highest intelligence. The revealed mind and will of God on the most important of all questions, as contained in the Sacred Writings, is given into her keeping. We have the mind of Christ.
2. As animated by the Divinest spirit. The true Church of God is composed only of those who have the spirit of Christ. He came not to be ministered unto but to minister, and to give His life a ransom. The spirit of self-surrendering love actuates every member of the Church of God.
3. As engaged in the most useful and glorious work. Its members, in their measure, go forth to seek and to save the lost. They labour to present every man perfect in Christ Jesus, to abolish sin and suffering, to establish holiness and joy, and to make the moral wastes break forth into beauty and fragrance and fruitfulness.
V. Glorious in her increase. This increase is
1. Variously composed. I will make mention of Rahab and Babylon to them that know me: behold Philistia, and Tyre, with Ethiopia; this was born there. Some regard these as the words of God Himself, and translate, I announce Rahab and Babylon as those that know Me, &c. But with either rendering the idea is, that converts to the Church of God would be added from those nations. Hengstenberg expresses what we regard as the true idea: At the time when these hopes were expressed, the number of the members of the Church of God had been very much melted down. The ten tribes had already been led away into captivity, and Judah remained alone in the land. In these circumstances, the longing after the fulfilment of the old promises of a posterity to Abraham as numerous as the stars of heaven and the sand of the sea, must have been awakened with peculiar power, and must have seised with especial ardour upon everything, such as the above-mentioned events in the time of Hezekiah, which furnished a foundation on which such a hope could rest, and brought into view a compensation for the loss of Israel in the coming in of the heathen. These foreign nations are here set forth as actually incorporated by a new birth into the Church of God. Even the worst enemies of the Jews, Egypt and Babylon, are regarded as citizens of Zion. God Himself acknowledges and registers them as such. The grand fulfilment of this splendid hope is found in the kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ. Many shall come from the east and the west, and from the north and the south, and shall sit down in the kingdom of God. They are coming from all nations into His kingdom, and they shall continue to come until all the nations of the earth loyally submit to Him.
2. Distinguished in character. This and that man was born in her. The word translated man is ==vir, a man of eminence. Men of distinguished ability and excellence shall be born in the Church. The most illustrious names in the annals of the world are those of men who have been members of the spiritual Zion. The Church of God has been, and still is, the abode of the men most renowned for knowledge and wisdom, for patience and courage, for tenderness and truth, for piety and usefulness, for independence and reverence.
3. Registered by God. The Lord shall count when He writeth up the people, that this man was born there. In the great census the Lord will clearly distinguish those who were born in Zion. The Divine registration is infallible. There are no mistakes in it. None but the true citizens of Zion will be found written in the Lambs book of life. And the name of no true citizen will be omitted.
VI. Glorious in the joy which her supplies produce. As well the singers as the players on instruments: all my springs are in thee. This verse is generally acknowledged to be a very difficult one. Various interpretations of it have been propounded. The idea seems to us to be that the citizens of Zion rejoice with music and song in the fountains of refreshment and blessing which are found in Zion. The streams which make glad the city of God are found there. How abundant and rich and free are the provisions which God has given to us in His Church! We have there the helpful communion of saints, the dispensation of the treasures of the truth of God by the Christian ministry, the exalting and sanctifying and blessed exercise of worship, and the participation in the Divine sacraments. In the work and worship of the Church of God with joy we draw water out of the wells of salvation.
CONCLUSION.
1. Are we born into the Church of God? Are we citizens of the spiritual Zion? Are our names in the heavenly register? Registration in the records of the Church on earth will avail us nothing, unless our names are written in the Lambs book of life.
2. If we are citizens of Zion, let us rejoice in the honour and privilege; for, at such, we are members of the most glorious society.
PUBLIC WORSHIP MORE ACCEPTABLE TO GOD THAN PRIVATE DEVOTION
(Psa. 87:1-2.)
Man has the capacity to worship God, and as God reveals Himself man is under obligation to worship Him. To be acceptable to God, this worship must be the tribute of free and sincere affection. Wherever such an offering is made, whether in the secret chamber, at the family altar, or in the public sanctuary, it is a spiritual sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God. It also sends back into the heart of the worshipper that joy and peace which are unspeakable and full of glory. But public worship is more lovely in the sight of God than private worship.
I. Adduce some facts in the Divine administration indicative of Gods-higher estimate of public worship.
1. The facts of the Divine institution of public worship. The Sabbath is favourable for all religious worship. But, when God gave special ordinances to His ancient people, conspicuous amongst them all was this solemn institution of public worship. Three periods in the year were assigned as seasons of holy convocation, &c. In addition to these more conspicuous solemnities, there were the public services for the new moons, the year of rest, and the year of jubilee. Moreover, each day at the Temple was the morning and evening sacrifice offered, &c. In the fact that God thus instituted public worship, we read His higher appreciation of it.
2. The fact that on special occasions public homage to God has been specially demanded, indicates His high pleasure in it. Many instances occur in the history of Gods dealings with His people when some special interposition was followed by as special a requisition for the public acknowledgment of His supremacy and authority as their Lord and Sovereign. On occasions like these the elders were commanded to proclaim a fast, to call a solemn assembly, &c. So also when there had been a special deliverance from pestilence, or famine, or, &c.; or when there had been remarkable providential bounties, the whole nation was called to public thanksgiving, &c.
3. The fact that the ordinance of public worship is perpetuated under the Christian dispensation. The example of inspired apostles and primitive saints is left on record, in relation to their frequent coming together in one place and with one accord; and the solemn injunction given as applicable to all ages not to forsake the assembling of ourselves together, &c. These facts abundantly indicate Gods higher regard for it.
II. State some reasons why, in the nature of the case, God should prefer public to private worship.
1. Public worship is attended with greater sacrifices. That piety is best which will make the greatest sacrifices. That faith or love is the strongest which will bear the greatest strain. In pro portion as the sacrifice of public exceeds that of private worship is the service of the former more acceptable to God than the latter. It is a higher expression of your piety. It is a brighter test of your faith and love.
2. It exerts a more powerful and extensive moral influence. The influence of regular secret prayer upon the heart and life of a Christian is very great. So also is the influence of morning and evening family worship. But, in the public courts of the Lord, there are many influences flowing in upon the soul, and many emotions are there awakened, which can never spring out of the devotions of the closet or the family. The sanctuary is emphatically the house of God and the gate of heaven. The Christians graces kindle anew in Christian communion, as the coals glow with increasing light and heat when brought into contact.
3. It stands connected with the most signal displays of the power of Divine truth. Nowhere upon earth has this two-fold work of the Spirit, in comforting the saint and convincing the sinner, been so signally effected as in connection with the solemnities of public worship. It is in the house of God, when the quick and searching words of Divine truth have been applied with wise discrimination, and urged upon the conscience with faithful and affectionate importunity, that the sinner has been the most thoroughly arrested in his course, and made the most to feel himself alone with his God, and most vividly to anticipate the coming scenes of the judgment and the awful issues of the final sentence. Yes, and here also the voice of mercy has fallen upon the ear of penitential sorrow, with the most melting, soothing tenderness, and filled the contrite bosom with new joys and peace, unknown in any other place but heaven.
4. It is the grand instrumentality for perpetuating and extending the Church. The light of this day of Christian activity and benevolence would go out in darkness, ere our generation had passed, were the sanctuary to be deserted, and all manifestations of devotion to be shut up within the family and the closet. How direct is the tendency to all that is good in the ordinances of public worship! Keep up this agency in its purity and strength, and civil and social and religious blessings abound; but, as you abolish this agency, religion droops and virtue fails, the dark passions of the depraved heart rage unchecked till the judgments of heaven cut short the rebellion and impiety in hopeless desolation.
5. It is most like heaven. The worship of heaven is pure and perfect, and also united and public, devotion. The place on earth the most like to heaven, is the house of God on the Christian Sabbath, filled with sincere and humble worshippers. Nowhere shall you come so near heaven in all its glory as when you enter the sacred courts of the Lord, and mingle your prayers and praises with His children, while He bows His ear to hearken.
INFERENCES.
1. All the arrangements for public worship should be amply and cheerfully provided.
2. A regular attendance upon public worship is demanded.
3. Yield to the influence and instructions here imparted.Rev. L. P. Hickok, D.D. Abridged from The Preachers Treasury.
GLORIOUS THINGS SPOKEN OF THE CHURCH
(Psa. 87:3.)
Here we have an expressive testimony in favour of the Church. Let us illustrate and improve the subject.
I. Let us illustrate it. What glorious things are spoken of her? She is commended
1. As having Jehovah Himself for her founder. She became a city through His love, mercy, wisdom, and grace.
2. As having the ark of His presence dwelling in her. To the saints He vouchsafes most delightful displays of His excellency and brightness; most captivating views of His glory.
3. As having the solemnities of His worship performed there. In this city, God is worshipped in spirit and in truth; worshipped in the beauty of holiness.
4. As having His laws to govern her. The laws of God are holy, just, and good; and all are found in the written revelation He has given us.
5. As having constant supplies from Him. The community is a great one; but they are richly clothed, well fed, and kindly nourished.
6. As having His immediate and constant protection. She is surrounded on every side by Him; and, guarding her night and day, the gates of hell shall not prevail against her.
II. Let us improve it. We may learn
1. In what light we ought to regard the Church. On account of the poverty of her members, and the fewness of their number, her glory is scarcely at all seen, but, notwithstanding her visible aspect, she is yet most beautiful, most glorious (Psa. 50:2; Isa. 60:18).
2. What reason for thankfulness we have if we are enrolled her citizens. In comparison of this all else should be esteemed by us as dung and dross.
3. How much we should exert ourselves to advance her interests. In reference to her, a glorious period is predicted (Isa. 60:1-14); and this we should long for and help forward by all means within our power to adopt (Isa. 62:1; Isa. 62:6-7).W. Sleigh.
REGENERATION
(Psa. 87:6.)
From these words we may derive some instructive and useful remarks. Let us attend to the following
I. It is highly important to every man to be regenerated. This will appear by considering the language of our Lord respecting it (Joh. 3:5-7) the degeneracy of our nature (Eph. 2:1); the nature and design of the Gospel dispensation; the relation of the present to another world; the capacity of the soul for enjoyment or suffering; and the unsuitableness of the character of an unregenerate person for future happiness (Luk. 16:24-25).
II. The present is the only state in which this momentous change can be accomplished. Death makes no change of a moral kind in man;his probation terminates on his leaving the present world (2Co. 6:2; Rev. 22:11), and all beyond is awarded according to character (Mat. 16:27; Rev. 22:12).
III. Regeneration is not a fancy or dream, but a reality. Its existence is evinced in the phraseology by which it is described (1Jn. 5:1; 2Co. 5:17); in the accounts given of the first Christians of their having actually undergone a spiritual birth (Rom. 6:11-13; Eph. 2:4-6); and in the present experience of all believers, who are themselves living witnesses to the truth of this doctrine (2Co. 5:17; Col. 3:1).
IV. The Holy Spirit is the agent in the regeneration of men. Our own state and character before the change takes place, the images used to describe it, and the positive declarations of Scripture if duly considered will convince us of this (Joh. 1:12; Joh. 3:4; Eph. 2:8-10; 1Jn. 3:9).
V. Though the Spirit can do this immediately, yet He generally does it in the use of the means. Those means are chiefly His written Word (Psa. 119:93; Jas. 1:18; the ministry of the Gospel (2Co. 5:18-20; 1Th. 1:5); and prayer (Isa. 45:19; Eze. 36:37).
VI. It is not every one that thinks he is regenerated that is really so. We are not spiritually born merely because we have been baptized, nor because we have correct views of religion, nor because we observe certain rites, nor yet because our lives are reformed. Regeneration is widely different from these things, and those who rest satisfied with these are mistaking the shadow for the substance.
VII. Zion, or the Church, is honoured as the birthplace of the saints. This is that to which our attention is called in the words of our text. It is because of this, amongst the many things spoken of her, that she stands so high in the estimation of God and man (Psa. 132:13-14; Psa. 137:5-6).
VIII. The work of regeneration is made apparent by its effects and evidences. Such aredeliverance from sin (1Jn. 3:9; 1Jn. 5:18); victory over the world (Rom. 12:2; 1Jn. 5:4-5); spirituality of mind (Joh. 3:6; Rom. 8:5; Rom. 8:14); love to the saints (1Jn. 4:7); submission to Christ (Joh. 6:45; 1Jn. 5:1); true obedience (1Jn. 2:29); and hope (1Pe. 1:3; 1Jn. 3:2-3).
And now, am I myself the subject of this change? Have I already experienced it? Am I born of God? Am I decidedly a new creature? If my best interests be deemed worthy of my attention, these questions cannot be improper; nor can I too seriously apply them to myself.W. Sleigh.
THE FOUNT OF BLESSING
(Psa. 87:7.)
All my springs are in Thee.
Consider
I. What is meant by the pronoun Thee. The Psalmist meant Zion. All his springs were in Zion. From the time of Constantine to the present the name Zion has been applied to the western hill on which the city of Jerusalem stands. But anciently, and down to the time of the destruction of the city by Titus, the name Zion was applied exclusively to the eastern hill on which the Temple stood. So it was in Zion as being the place on which the Temple stood that the Psalmist found his springs. In this light, the significance of the Psalm is at once manifest. To the devout Jew Zion was the abode of joy and blessing, the place of special Divine manifestation, and of special communion with God, who is represented as dwelling there (Psa. 81:1; Psa. 132:13-14).
In this Christian age, there is not one sacred place, for all places are sacred. Not one local mercy-seat, for Christ is the universal mercy-seat,the meeting-place between God and man. The Jew found all his springs in the Temple, because by means of its ordinances he realised the presence and obtained the blessing of God. To us, Christ is the true temple; all our springs are in Him, and from Him all our streams flow. But Christ is Himself the gift of God to us. So God is the primal fount of blessing. And through Christ we rise to God, commune with God, &c. So all our springs are in GOD. We trace all our blessings to the heavenly Father. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, &c.
II. The number and variety of the springs from which we are drawing. How numerous are they! The sun, the atmosphere, the earth, &c.; society, books, &c.; many spiritual ministries, the communion of saints, religious worship, the comfort, and guidance and sanctification of the Spirit, the example and sympathy and sacrifice of the Saviour, and the great love of our Father, which is the fountain from which all other blessings flow.
How various also are they! Varied to suit the many needs of our complex nature in all our various circumstances and moods. When the heart overruns with joy, the joyousness of the ever-blessed God is adapted to our need, and so we delight to approach Him. When the heart is crushed with grief, the tenderness and compassion of Him who pitieth as a father and comforteth as a mother are the balm that heals us.
The number and variety of our needs are evidence of the greatness of our nature. Only great natures have great requirements. God has made us for Himself, and nothing less than Himself can satisfy the cravings of our soul.
III. The blessedness of having all our springs in God. All my springs are in Thee; then, they are all-sufficient. They will meet every variety of need. For the perplexed student, conscious of ignorance, and crying for light, there is an inexhaustible spring of knowledge and guidance. For the worn and wearied sufferer, sighing for rest and comfort, there are springs of patience and solace, and even joy. For the Christian, conscious of weakness and imperfection, there are springs of power and inspiration and hope. For the penitent sinner, sorrowing over a dark past, mourning his sin, there are springs of pardon and peace and purity.
These springs are inexhaustible. They are as full and as fresh now as ever they were. Exhaust the solar fires, exhaust the ocean, &c. But you cannot exhaust the Infinite. Our springs are all in God, so they cannot fail; in God, then, they will meet all our thirst for evermore.
Our springs being in God, we may draw from them liberally and joyfully because God is infinitely generous. He giveth to all liberally, and upbraideth not. His generosity is as great as His resources: both are infinite as Himself. He delights in imparting joy and blessing to man. I rejoice that all my springs are in God. Let us learn to practise more fully than hitherto these two things
1. Adoring gratitude to God.
2. Joyous trust in God. Come what may, our resources cannot fail.
O God, the fount of blessing,
Our springs are all in Thee:
And though lifes cares are pressing,
Weakness our soul possessing,
Our prayers to Thee addressing,
And looking for Thy blessing,
We find our springs in Thee.
The Preachers Complete Homiletic
COMMENTARY
ON THE BOOK OF
Psalms
VOLUME II
Psalms 88-109
By the REV. WILLIAM JONES, D.D.
Author of Commentaries on Numbers and Ezra
Psalms 110-120
By the REV. J. W. BURN
Psalms 121-130
By the REV. GEORGE BARLOW
Author of the Commentaries on Kings, Lamentations, Ezekiel, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, Thessalonians, Timothy, Titus, and Philemon
Psalms 131-150
By the REV. WILLIAM JONES, D.D.
New York
FUNK & WAGNALLS COMPANY
LONDON AND TORONTO
1892
THE PREACHERS
COMPLETE HOMILETIC
COMMENTARY
ON THE BOOKS OF THE BIBLE
WITH CRITICAL AND EXPLANATORY NOTES, INDEXES, ETC., BY VARIOUS AUTHORS
HOMILETIC COMMENTARY
ON THE
PSALMS
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Psalms 87
DESCRIPTIVE TITLE
The Glorious Destiny of Zion as the Metropolis of the Nations.
ANALYSIS
Stanza I., Psa. 87:1-3, Jehovahs Preferential Love for Zion Declared. Stanza II., Psa. 87:4-6, The Glorious Things Spoken of Zion. A Chorus of Exultation.
(Lm.) PsalmSong.
1 (2)
His foundation, on the Holy Mountains 2 Jehovah loveth,[218]
[218] Or: (taking previous words as an abrupt heading) carry forward Jehovah loveth to next line.
the gates of Zion more than all the dwellings of Jacob.
3
Glorious things are spoken of thee O city of God!
4
I will mention Rahab[219] and Babylon as of them who know[220] me,
[219] That is Egypt, as in Psa. 89:11, Isa. 30:7; Isa. 51:9.
[220] Or: acknowledge, as in Psa. 1:6 and elsewhere.
lo! Philistia and Tyre with EthiopiaThis one was born there!
5
And of Zion it shall be saidOne after another was born in her!
and he himself will establish her as highest.[221]
[221] Cp. Deu. 26:19; Deu. 28:1.
6
Jehovah will record when enrolling peoples This one was born there.
7
As well singing as dancingAll my fountains are in thee!
(Lm.) To the Chief Musician.
(CMm.) For dancings to responsive songs.
PARAPHRASE
Psalms 87
High on His holy mountain stands Jerusalem,[222] the city of God, the city He loves more than any other!
[222] Literally, Zion.
3 O City of God, what wondrous tales are told of you!
4 Nowadays when I mention among my friends the names of Egypt and Babylonia, Philistia and Tyre, or even distant Ethiopia, someone boasts that he was born in one or another of those countries.
5 But someday the highest honor will be to be a native of Jerusalem! For the God above all gods will personally bless this city.
6 When He registers her citizens He will place a checkmark beside the names of those who were born here!
7 And in the festivals theyll sing, All my heart is in Jerusalem.
EXPOSITION
Two chief questions here present themselves: First, what city is this of which glorious things are said to be spoken? And, second, what is the sum of the glorious things affirmed of her?
I. The answer to the first question is easy, to the candid mind: The historical Jerusalem is the city meant,whether regard be had to the name she bears, to the description given of her, to the countries with which she is here associated, or to the book in which the psalm is found. She is called Zionone of the most familiar names of Jerusalem; she sits on holy mountainsa description of the hills of Palestine on which Jerusalem was built, and to no others; she is called the city of God, because Jehovah there took up his symbolical abode, and made her the seat of his Messianic King; she is brought into comparison with the dwellings of Jacob, as more loved than they,Jacob being a favourite name borne by the nation of Israel; she is related here in the psalm to Rahab (Egypt), Babylon, Philistia, Tyre, and Ethiopia: nations known to have existed in, the day of Jerusalems ancient story and to have had dealings with the Hebrew nation. Add the fact, that this psalm is found in a collection of Israelitish songs, and the evidence is as complete as the most exacting could wish: That Jerusalem is the city engemmed in this psalm.No objection can be raised against this conclusion, by merely alleging that the glorious things spoken of this city of God are too glorious ever to be made good of the earthly Jerusalem, unless we are quite sure that the glorious things are altogether beyond Jehovahs power and will to make her own. In fine, this psalm, if never yet fulfilled, itself implies that Jerusalem has a future;and why should she not? Numerous concurrent prophecies plainly teach the same thing: implies that Jerusalem will be made more glorious in the future than in the past,and why should she not? again, many prophecies point to the same conclusion.
II. What then is the sum of the glorious things spoken of Jerusalem?
1. Let us remember that we have here a word for Jehovah, the Living God, the God of all the earth: of whom we have lately read: All nations which thou hast made will come in and bow down before thee O Lord, and give glory to thy name; for great art thou, and a doer of wonders, Thou are God alone. It may be, then, that here we have an intimation of some of the wonders which he purposes to do for and with the nations of the earth.
2. A hint is here given, at the outset of this psalm, to expect something fundamental in Jehovahs dealings with Israel and the earth: His foundation on the holy mountains Jehovah loveth. Foundationof what? Not of his Church; for that has no earthly foundation, and is not an earthly structureits home is in the heavens. But of his Kingdomyes; seeing that the kingdom of the world is to become the Kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ (Rev. 11:15). The foundationof his kingdomJehovah loveth; and that foundation is Zion, the city of God.
3. It is clear that pre-eminence of some kind is here reserved for Zion. Other places are mentioned as well as Zion; but there is a manifest intention to place Zion higher than the rest. Egypt and Babylon are described as knowing or even acknowledging Jehovah, and that is much. Nevertheless, it is not regarded as a special privilege to have been born in Egypt, Babylon, Philistia, Tyre or Ethiopia. It is quite the contrary with Zion. For, although Jehovah is represented as taking a census of the peoples in general, and thereby shewing an interest in them all, yet it is only when he comes to the names of certain individuals among the rest, that he exclaimsas if with the joy of a proprietor discovering his own property, or of a father detecting the names of his own childrenThis one was born there. That is, not here in Egypt (or, as the case may be); but therein Zion. When, however, Zion herself is passed in review, the language is intentionally different: it is no longer This one; but, more sweepingly, (lit.) Man and man=man after man=one after anotherwas born in her. The multiplication of Zions children is the least that can be intended: their indefinite multiplication, as in a series ever running on, may very well be meant, as many critics suppose. In this concrete and dramatic way the preference of Zion to all other cities is plainly shewn.
4. But we are not left to inference in concluding this intention to be dominant: the second half of Psa. 87:5 appears to have been expressly intended to put this beyond doubt. If, with most critics, we render that clause, He himself, the Most High, will establish her,it is still obvious that this is said of no other city or nation. Even thentaking the clause at its minimum valueit seems expressly designed to guard against the fear of Zions supremacy being endangered by her very prosperity, by the very multiplication of her children: a natural fear, surely,if such children are adopted children, that is, Gentile converts counted as citizens of Zion; in which case, it might be feared that, with so many adopted children scattered throughout the nations of the earth, Zion herself would be de-Zionised, and made nearly as much Gentile as any avowed Gentile city. No! says this clause: the Most High himself will guard against that dangerwill see to it that she does not lose the pre-eminence he designs her to have: He will establish her in it. So much, at the least, this clause means. But it is now submitted with confidence that, rightly rendered, it says more: it saysAnd he himself will set her up (or establish her) as highest. This point could scarcely have been missed if it had been observed that the same word (elyon) is not only employed of the Messianic King in Davids line Highest (elyon) of (or to) the kings of the earth (Psa. 89:27) but is actually twice used of Israel as a nation in Deu. 26:19; Deu. 28:1Jehovah (hath avowed) that he will set thee (elyon) on high, above all the nations of the earth. There can therefore be no reasonable doubt, especially if the order of the words here in the psalm is consideredthat this clause should be rendered: And he himself will establish her as highest: namely, he will do that which the psalm as a whole attests to be his purpose; and so he will guard against the danger of Zions being lowered by the very multiplication of her citizen-converts. Jehovah intends her to be highest; and will take care that his intention in this respect is not frustrated.
5. But the more clearly this leading point in the psalm is discriminated, the more urgent does it become to grasp with firmness and tenacity a position already taken in passing: namely, that this psalm fully and directly, in its length and breadth, relates, not to the Church of Jesus, but more broadly to the Kingdom of God. For, let it be well observed, there is neither Jew nor Gentile in the Church; and, in the Church, certainly no such pre-eminence can be assigned to the literal Zion as is here assigned to her. Let us make up our minds. Does membership in the Church of Christ constitute us citizens of the earthly Jerusalem? So few will dare to say Yes to this question, that they may safely be disregarded. Practically, all Christians, with one voice, admit and proclaim that our new birth makes us citizens, not of the earthly Jerusalem, but of the heavenly. To abide by that conclusion, is no doubt to cut ourselves logically free from this psalm, since, as we have seen, IT unmistakably refers to the earthly Jerusalem. To be firm here, is to lose nothing of value, forasmuch as we can still use the psalm by analogy as a suggestion of things in the heavens. But, while we shall lose nothing of value, we shall lose much that is an encumbrance, apt to lead us continually into contradicting our heavenly standing and privileges. On the other hand, our gain will be immense: the Church of Christ being safe in her own New Testament rights, as based upon her peculiar promises, we can look beyond the completion of the present Church into the Kingdom which is to follow; and see a large territory of blessing in those regions beyond; and humbly claim a general right to those blessings in the name of our Heavenly Lord, who owns earth as well as heaven; and is the Redeemer of Israel and Jerusalems King-elect, as well as Head of his Ecclesia.
6. With the ground thus cleared of misconception, we can rejoice exceedingly in the prospect of blessings, in the coming Kingdom, which thus opens out before us. Jerusalem, restoredto her God, to her Messiah, to her Landthus becomes the spiritual Metropolis of the peoples that are spared to enter into this latter-day comity of nations, Citizens of the honoured city Jerusalem will be found scattered through the nations. Jerusalem will be their spiritual home: frequently will these citizen converts go up to Jerusalem to worship: the mountain of the Lords Housethe Temple restoredwill be lifted up above the hills, and all nations will flow unto it. The Messiah will reign there: his willhis lawhis instructions for the guidance of the nationswill be made known there, and propagated from thence. To fill out the picture would require the transcription of the prophecies in Isaiah and elsewhere. See especially Isa. 2:2-4, Isa. 4:2-6, Isa. 19:21-24, Isa. 25:6-9; Isaiah 54, 60, Isa. 66:7-22, Zep. 3:14-20; with respect to which it should be observedthat they have only to be taken in their natural and obvious sense to suit them for being set in the frame-work which this psalm affords:their natural and obvious senseas opposed on the one hand to the purely allegorical and prematurely spiritualised interpretation, from which nothing comes out as it goes in, nothing really means what it appears to mean; and, on the other hand, as opposed to the slavishly literal, which, for example, insists that this enumeration of nations (in Psalms 87) must be pressed just as it stands, although it had of necessity to be fitted to the time when the psalm was composed, and be intelligible then, and that it may not be taken as indicating generally the larger and smaller nations by whom Zion is surrounded in the latter day. Holding thus to the natural and obvious sense of this psalm, and of the prophecies which properly go with it and explain it,we can enter with appreciation into the concluding verse of the psalm.
7. Though other interpretations have been put upon Psa. 87:7, the following appears to be its meaning. We are allowed to catch a glimpse of a procession of Zions citizensif of such as ordinarily dwell in foreign lands so much the betterdrawing near to enter into her gates. They are full of joy: they sing and play and dance as they move along. And, looking to the city before them, they exclaim in their song, each speaking for himself: All my fountains are in theeall my sources of privilege, all my springs of delight are in thee, O city of God. Better than the dwellings of Jacob, better than our homes in Egypt, Babylon, Philistia, Tyre, Ethiopia, where we commonly live and labour,better far than all these, art thou, O Zion, object of Jehovahs especial love!
Logically, we thus close the psalm: analogically we still, for a moment, linger over it. This earthly Jerusalem reminds us of the heavenly; and it is the heavenly that is our mother (Gal. 4:26). Just as the earthly Jerusalem is constituted the Metropolis of the earth, so the heavenly Jerusalem is constituted the Metropolis of earth and heaven, brought into a higher unity, including angels and men. We who are now being born from above, are enrolled in Heaven (Heb. 12:23); we are called to become the Bride of the Lamb: all the rights and possessions of our espoused Lord are to be made our own. He is the Son of God as well as the Son of David; and therefore we are to inherit all things. The earthly enrolment lingers: the heavenly is proceeding. Earth, for the present, has refused her King; but Heaven has given him welcome (Act. 3:21); and now, for the present, the heavenly advance has taken the precedence of the earthly. Instead of looking forward into the future to discover our Mother-city, we look straight up into the skies, and there by faith we behold her, with open arms waiting to receive us. And, as we look up, we exclaim with ecstasyAll my fountainsGod, Christ, the Spirit, angels, the heirship of the Universeall my fountains are in thee.
QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION
1.
Is the reference to Jerusalem to be understood only as it means the physical city. Discuss.
2.
There seems to be some strong objections to relating the name Jerusalem (as here used) to the churchwhy? Discuss.
3.
Read Isa. 2:2-4; Isa. 4:2-6; Isa. 19:21-24; Isa. 25:6-9; Chapters Isaiah 54; Isaiah 60; Isa. 66:7-22; Zep. 3:14-20 and discuss their meaning for us and the future.
4.
Is there some Commonwealth of nations suggested in Psa. 87:4 through 7? Discuss.
5.
Do you agree with Rotherhams interpretation? Discuss.
Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series
(1) His foundation.This abrupt commencement with a clause without a verb has led to the conjecture that a line has dropped away. But this is unnecessary if we neglect the accents, and take gates of Zion in apposition with His foundation:
His foundation on the holy hill
Loveth Jehovah, (even) Zions gates,
More than all Jacobs dwellings.
Here His foundation is equivalent to that which He hath founded, and the gates are put by metonymy for the city itself. (Comp. Jer. 14:2.)
With regard to the plural, mountains, it is probably only poetical, though geographically it is correct to speak of Jerusalem as situated on hills. Dean Stanley speaks of the multiplicity of the eminences which the city shares, though in a smaller compass, with Rome and Constantinople (Sinai and Palestine, p. 177).
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
1. His foundation God’s foundation, the ground whereon he rests the temporal structure of his Church, and proposes to accomplish his covenant purposes.
Holy mountains Or, mountains of holiness, that is, Zion and Moriah, mountains within Jerusalem.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Psalms 87
Psa 87:1 (A Psalm or Song for the sons of Korah.) His foundation is in the holy mountains.
Psa 42:1
“But if it be necessary also from the ancient Scriptures to bring forward the three who made a symphony on earth, so that the Word was in the midst of them making them one, attend to the superscription of the Psalms, as for example to that of the forty-first, which is as follows: ‘Unto the end, unto understanding, for the sons of Korah.’ For though there were three sons of Korah whose names we find in the Book of Exodus, Aser, which is, by interpretation, ‘instruction,’ and the second Elkana, which is translated, ‘possession of God,’ and the third Abiasaph, which in the Greek tongue might be rendered, ‘congregation of the father,’ yet the prophecies were not divided but were both spoken and written by one spirit, and one voice, and one soul, which wrought with true harmony, and the three speak as one, ‘As the heart panteth after the springs of the water, so panteth my soul alter thee, O God.’ But also they say in the plural in the forty-fourth Psalm, ‘O God, we have heard with our ears.’” ( Origen’s Commentary on Mat 14:1) [94]
[94] Origen, Origen’s Commentary on Matthew, trans. Allan Menzies, in The Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 9, ed. Allan Menzies (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, c1896, 1906), 495.
Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures
The Church of God the Spiritual Birthplace of the Nations.
v. 1. His foundation, v. 2. The Lord loveth the gates of Zion, v. 3. Glorious things are spoken of thee, O city of God. Selah. v. 4. I will make mention of Rahab and Babylon to them that know Me, v. 5. And of Zion it shall be said, v. 6. The Lord shall count, when He writeth up the people, v. 7. As well the singers,
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann
EXPOSITION
THIS short psalm, opening with the praise of Zion, or of the Jewish Church (Psa 87:1-3), passes into a glorification of the Church universal, when all the nations have come into it (Psa 87:4-7). The glorification falls under two headsGod’s acknowledgment of those who flock into his Church (Psa 87:4-6), and their acknowledgment of the blessings which they receive through it. The two “selahs” divide the psalm into two stanzas, each of three verses, and a short epode consisting of a single verse.
Psa 87:1-3
The praises of Zion.
(1) She is built upon the holy mountains;
(2) God loves her pre-eminently; and
(3) a glorious future is assigned to her in the counsels of God.
Psa 87:1
His foundation is in the holy mountains. God’s foundationthe city which he has foundedis “in the holy mountains;” i.e. in the hill country of Judaea, a congeries of mountains, “holy,” since they surround the holy city and belong to the “holy land” (Zec 2:12).
Psa 87:2
The Lord loveth the gates of Zion (comp. Psa 78:68). More than all the dwellings of Jacob; i.e. “more than all the other dwellings”more than Shiloh, more than Kirjath-jearim, more than any other of the ark’s resting places.
Psa 87:3
Glorious things are spoken of thee, O city of God. The psalmist probably refers in part to the predictions of older prophets, but also in part to the revelations made to himself, which he is on the point of recording (Psa 87:4-7).
Psa 87:4-6
The Almighty is introduced as making a revelation to the psalmist. He will cause the Gentiles to flock into his Church, even those who have been hitherto the most bitter enemies of Israel (Psa 87:4), and will place these strangers on a par with such as have belonged to his Church from their birth (Psa 87:4, Psa 87:5, Psa 87:6), admitting them to every blessing and every privilege. The Church, thus augmented, shall be taken under his own protection, and “established,” or placed on a sure footing, forever. Compare our Lord’s promise to St. Peter,” On this rock will I build my Church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it” (Mat 16:18).
Psa 87:4
I will make mention of Rahab; i.e. of Egypt. The context requires this meaning, which is found also in Psa 89:10 and in Isa 51:9. Literally “Rahab” means “pride, arrogance.” And Babylon. The fitting counterpart of Egypt, equally antagonistic to Israel, and equally lifted up with pride and presumption. To them that know me; rather, among them that know me; i.e. as belonging to them, included in their number (comp. Isa 19:21, “And the Lord shall be known to the Egyptians, and the Egyptians shall know the Lord in that day;” and see also Psa 72:11, Psa 72:17; Psa 82:8; Isa 66:23). Behold Philistia, and Tyre, with Ethiopia. Other hostile nations (comp. Psa 83:7; 2Ch 12:3; 2Ch 14:9-13). This man was horn there. There is no “man” in the original, and it is better to understand “nation;” this, that, and the other nationall those mentioned, and othersare grafted into Zion, and have a second birth there.
Psa 87:5
And of Zion it shall be said, This and that man was born in her. A repetition, but emphatic, and perhaps intended to assert of individuals what in the preceding verse was said of nations. And the highest himself shall establish her; literally, and he, the highest, shall establish her (comp. Mat 16:18). The Church is “established” on a Rock, forever.
Psa 87:6
The Lord shall count, when he writeth up the people; rather, the peoples, (see Psa 87:4). That this man was born there. He shall enregister every individual among the converted nations as a true citizen of Zion, entitled to all covenant privileges.
Psa 87:7
As well the singers as the players on instruments; literally, and singers as well as dancers [shall say]. (On dancing as an element of religious service, see Exo 15:20; 2Sa 6:16; Psa 68:25; Psa 149:3; Psa 150:4.) The psalmist intends to represent the converted nations as coming in a grand procession, with songs and dances, to celebrate their admission to Zion, and there one and all exclaiming, All my fresh springsi.e. “all my sources of life, and joy, and happiness”are in thee. The verse is possibly but “fragment,” as Professor Cheyne supposes.
HOMILETICS
Psa 87:3
The glory of the Church.
“Glorious things,” etc. It is a glorious thing to be a real Christian. Glorious because of the relation such a one holds to God and to Christa child of God by faith in Christ Jesus (Gal 4:7; Rom 8:16, Rom 8:17). Glorious also because of his relation to the Church of Goda citizen of the heavenly city, a member of the fellowship of saints, the brotherhood of the faithful, the spiritual body of which Christ is the living Head (Col 1:18; 1Co 12:13). But it is a glory hid from worldly eyesone of “the things of the Spirit of God” which are “spiritually discerned” (1Co 2:14). Hence St. Paul’s prayer (Eph 1:18).
I. THE GLORY OF THE CHURCH‘S HISTORY. If we would earnestly and wisely study the history which the Scriptures record, the inspiration of the Scriptures would speak for itself. Because history is written on different principles here from anywhere else. In these points (to name no others):
1. Everywhere the hand of God is seen as the supreme factor in human affairs. Not in miracle, except at those special crises and occasions where miracles were the fittest means. These, not scattered at random, but ha groups, at certain junctures. But the constant presence and exercise of God‘s knowledge, purpose, power, goodness; like the pressure of the atmosphere, never felt, never absent.
2. Under God, character, personal and national, is seen to be the decisive force in human life. The great men of the world have been great by ability, force of will, genius, circumstances. Some distinguished men of genius, rulers, etc; have been eminent saints; but this is not the rule. Bible heroes are spiritual heroes. Their sins, faithfully portrayed, were their weakness; their victory was always the victory of faith, prayer, godly sincerity (see Heb 11:1-40.). “Faith”not opinion, creed, speculation, but undoubting trust in God, proved by and producing fearless obedience. This psalm refers, of course, in its first meaning to the earthly Jerusalem. But it is full of predictions to be fulfilled only by the gospel of Christ and the outpouring of the Spirit “on all flesh.” The great lesson of the history of ancient Israel is in reality not that which lies on the surface, in the political and national form of the Church, its rigid Jaws, the glories of David and Solomon, the priestly rites and material splendour of temple worship, but that which our Saviour taught, “My kingdom is not of this world.” Spiritual, not material forms govern human life.
II. THE LIVING, ABIDING PRESENCE OF GOD. (Psa 46:5.) Under the old dispensation, every possible means was used to impress and to symbolize this central truth; and at the same time to surround and guard it with an awe and majesty, without which it would have been vulgarized and rendered spiritually powerless. Israel was never suffered to forget that their God was also God of the whole earth, Almighty Creator, universal Lord. The New Testament doctrine and promise of the Divine Presence is given by our Saviour in a double form
(1) to individual believers (Joh 14:21, Joh 14:23);
(2) to his Church (verse 18; Mat 18:20).
In the New Testament there are, in fact, four antitypes or spiritual realities typified by the tabernacle or temple;
(1) our Lord’s human nature (Joh 2:19-21);
(2) the person of every true Christian (1Co 6:19);
(3) the Christian Church (Eph 2:20-22);
(4) heaven (Heb 9:11, Heb 9:12, Heb 9:24).
III. ITS MEMBERSHIP. Christians are citizens (Php 3:20, Revised Version; Eph 2:19; Heb 12:22; Gal 4:26). To an ancient Israelite, the glory of his citizenship was its exclusiveness; yet this psalm predicts the time when heathens and foes should become “fellow citizens,” not by national subjection, but individual regeneration. This truth, plentifully foretold by the Holy Spirit and the prophets, was yet so inscrutable to the Jewish mind, that St. Paul calls it “the mystery hid from the beginning” (Eph 3:4-6, Eph 3:9); and the Christian Church at Jerusalem was overwhelmed with amazement when these predictions were fulfilled (see Act 10:1-48; Act 11:1-30.; especially Act 10:10, Act 10:28, Act 10:45; Act 11:3, Act 11:18). It is a shame that Christians have such narrow, ignoble views of the Church of God. True views would be the death of sectarianism. The New Testament gives two canons of membership in the universal Churchone inclusive, one exclusive.
(1) “By one Spirit are we all baptized into one body;”
(2) “If any have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.”
IV. THE FINAL AND ETERNAL GLORY. (Eph 5:27.) Typified by “the bride of the Lamb,” “the holy city, New Jerusalem” (Rev 21:1-27; Rev 22:1-21.).
HOMILIES BY S. CONWAY
Psa 87:1-7
The habitation of God.
This psalm is true, whether we apply it
I. TO ISRAEL OF OLD, God’s ancient people. That the writer had them in his mind, there can be no doubt, whatever other applications we may make of his words. Like the other psalms “for the sons of Korah,” it most probably belongs to the days of Hezekiah. The sons of Korah were the keepers of those “gates” which in this psalm, as in Psa 84:1-12; they celebrate; and the triumph of which they tell harmonizes with the glowing predictions of Israel as to the spiritual power and supremacy of Israel.
1. This psalm speaks of the proud position of Zion, on the holy mountains, so elevated, sacred, secure.
2. Of the Divine delight in her. God was to be worshipped in all the dwellings of Jacob (see Le Psa 23:2); but his chief delight was in the united worship of all the people in his temple on Mount Zion, in the glorious feasts and festivals that were celebrated there.
3. Of her glorious hi story. It may have been, as some have supposed, that the psalm was sung at the public reception into the Jewish Church of a number of converts from heathen nations, and that, as our Lord saw in the coming of the Greeks to him (Joh 12:1-50.) the forerunners of the coming of all the Gentilesyea, of “all men”so the psalmist foresees the conversion of all the nations of whom he speaks to the Name of the Lord. And the change for them shall be so great that it shall be as a new birth; whatever their native country may have been, they were really “born” in Zion. And she shall produce many great and illustrious men. The word rendered “man” (Psa 84:5) denotes one of distinction and eminence, not an ordinary person. In the great day of manifestation and triumph of the people of God, the Lord himself shall own those born in Zion.
4. Of her great joy. The song and the dance and all kinds of mirth shall characterize her; she shall be a gladsome city.
II. TO THE CHURCH OF CHRIST. The psalm, read as part of the record of the Church, tells:
1. Of her foundation, which is Christ. He is the chief Cornerstone. “Other foundation can no man lay,” etc.
2. Her positionin the holy mountains; that is, she is conspicuousa city set on a hill, which cannot be hid; the mountain of the Lord’s house, high and lifted up, visible from afar and on all sides. Secure, likewise, as a mountain fortress mightily defended. Has not the Church ever been so? And holy. This is her main characteristic; she could not be the Church of Christ without this.
3. The Lord‘s delight in her. She is the purchase of his blood, the subject of his care, the reason of his providential rule. He who toucheth her toucheth the apple of his eye.
4. The glorious things spoken of her. How all forms of hostility yield to herRahab, the proud; Babylon, the cruel; Philistia, the fierce; Tyre, the greedy of gain; Ethiopia, the degraded;from all such she wins trophies for Christ. The Church’s mission is to gather in all nations for him. And see the heroes of the faith that are “born” in her: what a glorious roll call that is? And the Lord himself shall attest all this. What is the Epistle to the Ephesians but a full declaration of what the Church of Christ shall be and do and enjoy? And other Scriptures declare the same. And the history of the Church is evermore confirming this word.
5. Her abiding gladness. Real religion is the most gladsome thing this side heaven; it is a never-failing spring of pure and elevating joy. Finally, this psalm may be applied to
III. THE INDIVIDUAL BELIEVER. For he, too, is a habitation of God.
1. Founded on the one FoundationChrist.
2. Is as a holy mountainopenly confessed, not hiding out of sight, secure in God, holy.
3. Is the object of Divine delight. God loves our natural life, but our spiritual life is that which he loves mostto foster and develop and save that is the meaning of all the disciplines, trials, and varied Divine dealings with us.
4. Glorious things are spoken of him. As to the past, all his guilt put away. As to the present, the hostile forces of the worldpride, cruelty, inward corruption, ever worrying the soul, as Philistia did Israel, the lusts of the world, the horde of degrading propensitiesall these which war against the soul shall be subdued, and the varied powers they usurped shall be given to God. And as to the future, what hath God not promised for those who love him? And God will make such heart the means of blessing to many others, and will own what has been done.
5. And he willfill such heart with joy.S.C.
Psa 87:2
The principles of the Divine preference.
These are seen
I. IN THE GREATER LOVE OF GOD FOR ZION THAN FOR ALL THE DWELLINGS OF JACOB. Not a few of those dwellings were spacious, magnificent, wealthy, adorned, and inhabited by men who feared God; but yet, because in Zion God’s glory was more revealed, his grace seen, his truth declared, his people blessed, and because there that in man which God ever most of all delights inthe spiritual life, the life of trust, of love, of devotion to Godfound its chief nourishment, expression, and delight, therefore the Lord loved the gates of Zion more, etc.
II. IN THE CHARACTERS GOD APPROVES. The name of Jacob suggests one of these at first sight apparently strange preferences. “Jacob have I loved, and Esau have I hated.” How many people have been puzzled over that statement, endorsed as it is by the actual dealing of God with the two men? Esau was a man richly endued with gifts such as men everywhere have highly esteemed. He had courage, affection, generosity, strength; whilst Jacob too seldom shows any quality which wins our admiration, and far too often he is guilty of that which excites contempt. And yet the Lord preferred him. The reason was that in him, however encrusted with what was sordid, base, and mean, there was yet the germ and seed, the potency and promise, of the life of God in his soul. There were reverence of and trust in God, and the yearning after the better life; there were the seeds of the life eternal, and they so sprang up at last that God’s chosen name for himself was, “I am the God of Jacob.” But in Esau, with all his magnificence, courage, and other virtues, there does not seem to have been anything of the kind.
III. IS THE COMPOSITION OF THE SCRIPTURES. What large space is given to what in human esteem seems the chronicling of very small affairs; whilst of the great empires, events, and personalities of the world, scarce any note is takennone at all, except when and because they are brought into contact with the people of God! But for that they would have been passed over in complete silence. Palestinewhat a little shred of the earth’s surface it is! The Jewswhat an insignificant people they have always been! Their great menAbraham, Joseph, Moses, David, and the resthow small to ordinary human sight they appear! But how colossal were Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Greece, Rome, and their heroes! Yet we learn scarce anything of them from the Bible. And the explanation is the same: in the little land, and amongst the despised people, the life of God was to be found as it was not in all the mighty ones of the world.
IV. IN OUR LORD‘S PREFERENCE OF GRACE TO GIFTS. (See Luk 10:20.) His disciples were exultant over their gifts, but he tells them to rejoice rather in that grace which was the common inheritance of every faithful disciple. Gifts did not, and do not necessarily, carry along with them the life of God in the soul; but grace always does.
V. IS THE ORDERING OF GOD‘S PROVIDENCE. What a series of changes does the history of the world show! Empires rising, falling, disappearing. What a fragment of the history of the whole is all that the most learned know! Oblivion has covered the records of well nigh all peoples. They had their day; were doubtless thought much of by their contemporaries, and more of by themselves; they did, we may be sure, many thingsmany of them, probably, great exploits, notable deeds. But who knows anything of them now? They all have “waxed old, like a garment, and as,” etc. (Heb 1:12). But of the Church of God, the company of people who in all ages have loved and feared his Name, there has been no disappearance, their name has endured as none other has. God has preserved them alive, as it is this day.
VI. IN THE DOCTRINE OF THE CROSS. How contemptible that seemed in the apostolic age, and, to many, seems so still! Yet to it has been given power to effect a moral change in mankind that nothing else has ever been capable of. Philosophy has done her best; but she left, notwithstanding all her teachings, the whole world lying in wickedness. But “Christ and him crucified” was preached, and we know the result of that. It was, as it is, “the power of God unto salvation unto every one that believeth.” Therefore has God put honour upon that preaching such as he has given to none other. Divine life is in it, as myriads of saved souls know, and it is not found elsewhere.
CONCLUSION. Remember that God acts upon these same principles in our own individual life. He loves everything, however mean it may seem, which leads our souls to him; he cares for nothing, however much esteemed, that leads them away from him.S.C.
Psa 87:6
The Lord shall count.
There shall be a Divine census, a numbering of the people by God, such as never yet has taken place. Nothing in Hezekiah’s reign, the probable date of this psalm, ever fulfilled the glorious promises here given. But it shall be when Christ shall come again. Consider
I. THE FACT OF SUCH “WRITING UP” OF THE PEOPLE.
1. It shall be national. (Psa 87:4.)
2. But individual also. The counting will be of this one, and that, and the other; there will be no passing in a crowd.
3. It is attested by many witnessesScripture, reason, history, conscience.
II. ITS PURPOSE. The gathering together of his own true people; the making up of his jewels; the manifestation of the sons of God. This is not done now, but shall be.
III. THE WRITER. The Lord himself.
1. He only can really know where to find his people; they are often found in strange places (Psa 87:4).
2. He only can be trusted. Bigotry, superstition, dislike, would shut many out. Partiality, fondness, love of sin, would let many in. God alone can judge.
IV. THE NAMES IN IT. Those only who have been “born” of God. Shall we be there?S.C.
HOMILIES BY R. TUCK
Psa 87:2
The Divine interest in Zion.
Taking Zion as a poetical name for Jerusalem, the temple city, and as the representative of every place where public and united worship is offered to God. Zion is still, for us, the pious name for God’s house. The point prominent is thisthat we should love God’s house and worship is not in any sense surprising; but it is a surprise of condescension and grace that God should love our sanctuaries, and find his pleasure in our worship. Yet even this we are permitted to realize, and this the saints of God have realized. The historical associations of this psalm cannot be fixed. It certainly does not belong to the Davidic age, for its outlook is too wide, its spirit too liberal and too comprehensive. It may reflect the more hopeful feeling of the returned exiles; it does match precisely the feeling expressed in some of the later chapters of Isaiah, notably the sixtieth. But it must be admitted that a rigid exclusiveness rather than a liberal inclusiveness characterized the returned exiles; and the psalm is altogether too generous for them. The suggestion that it belongs to the time of Hezekiah is certainly to be preferred. When the Assyrian power was humbled by the overthrow of Sennacherib, it seemed, to excited feeling, that Judah was to be the world’s deliverer, and Jerusalem was likely to become the centre of a confederacy of delivered nations. That was the hope of Hezekiah; it was the promise of the moment, which gains expression in the psalm. In 2Ch 32:22, 2Ch 32:23, the events immediately following on the deliverance from Assyria are indicated. “And many brought gifts unto the Lord to Jerusalem, and presents to Hezekiah King of Judah; so that he was magnified in the sight of all nations from henceforth.” Hezekiah piously recognized that all the honour coming to him was really due to God, who had showed such favour to his servant, his city, and his people.
I. GOD IS INTERESTED IN ZION BECAUSE OF WHAT HE HAS DONE FOR IT. Illustrate how those whom we tend and care forthe babe, the invalid creep into our very hearts. So if we join in raising a new church building, how dear it becomes to us! God had given ages of care to his Zion, so it had become inexpressibly dear to him. See the pathetic pleadings, which reveal deep feeling, as in Hosea.
II. GOD IS INTERESTED IN ZION BECAUSE OF WHAT HE CAN BE TO IT. We specially love those for whom we feel we can do all they need. Illust.: mother’s feeling for her babe. God can “supply all our need,” and it must be infinitely pleasant to be able to make “all grace abound.”
III. GOD IS INTERESTED IN ZION BECAUSE OF WHAT IT CAN BE TO HIM. Zion can need, and so draw out his fulness. Zion can trust, and so respond to his trustworthiness. Zion can worship, and so glorify him. Zion Can be beautiful, and so show forth his praise.R.T.
Psa 87:3
What can be said for our Jerusalem?
“Glorious things are spoken of thee, O city of God.” In this joyous exclamation the poet of Hezekiah’s time gathers up the joy of the kingdoms round Palestine, which were relieved of their anxiety by Jehovah’s humiliation of Assyria. Jerusalem became the praise of everybody. It had become the champion deliverer of the nations. Its God had brought it glory. To it every eye was gratefully turned. We may think what things were then said; and let them suggest things that may rightly be said now of our “city of God.”
I. GLORIOUS THINGS WERE BEING SAID OF THE CITY ITSELF. Events had turned everybody’s eyes towards it, and everybody began to see that “beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth, is Mount Zion.” Give account of the very striking position of the city; its remarkable hills, precipices, and valleys; and, according to the taste of the age, the architectural grandeur of its temple, its palaces, and its towers. When we feel kindly towards a place or person, it is astonishing what excellent and lovely things we can find in them. The church building in which we worship may really be a very plain and poor building, but if it proves the house of God to us, we soon think it beautiful, and almost worship its very stones.
II. GLORIOUS THINGS WERE BEING SAID OF THE GOD OF THE CITY. Recall the idea of the age, that the gods were limited to particular cities and countries. So outsiders associated Jehovah with Jerusalem and the Israelites, and, in recognizing the deliverance which came to them through Israel, recognized it as the work of Israel’s God. See by way of illustration, how Nebuchadnezzar demands praise of Jehovah, when some mighty work has shown his superiority to all surrounding gods. Work out what things the nations round were likely to say of the God of Hezekiah. His power was declared. His concern for his people was declared. His sovereign rights were declared. His mercy was declared. God as Deliverer and Redeemer was declared. So now, if the attention of men is directed to us, to our example, our enterprise, our energy, our success, it should be our supreme anxiety that the glorious things they say of us should really be said of our God, and of his grace in us. Observe this, too, that the triumph over Sennacherib was not something which Hezekiah’s people had accomplished in their own strength, but something which Jehovah had accomplished through them and for them. They had, therefore, no right to take the “glorious things that were spoken” to themselves. Nor have we. Look as we may on what has been accomplished, we are compelled to say, “What hath God wrought?” And all the glorious things spoken of us we turn away, and have spoken of him.R.T.
Psa 87:6
Privileges of a birthplace.
Keeping the associations with the times of Hezekiah, we may see, in this verse, a poetical representation of the revival of the nations, when the dread of Assyria was lifted off them. It was like a new birth to them. They entered on a new experience, and on new relations. And as Zion was regarded as the centre and source of the deliveranceJehovah from Zionthe nations are, in a poetical way, said to have their birth in Zion. It was thought of as the city of the new birth of the nations. This figure may be applied to the spiritual birth of individuals. Be they white or black, bond or free, from whatever clime they come, they may properly be thought of as horn in Zion, where
“Our dear Lord was crucified,
Who died to save us all.”
The Zion birthright belongs to every redeemed soul. “Salvation is of the Jews.”
I. THE PRIVILEGES OF OUR NATURAL BIRTHPLACE. Curious is the admiration men have for the town and neighbourhood in which they saw the light. And the places of our birth have more to do with disposition, and with genius, than we are wont to think. Our early surroundings may waken poetic or artistic instincts. Our town and country may enjoy peculiar liberty, special advantages of education, etc. Illustrate by the claims of seven towns to be the birthplace of the poet Homer, partly because it honoured them to provide the first formative influences that reached the poet.
II. THE PRIVILEGES OF OUR ADOPTED BIRTHPLACE. If actual life begins where we were born, our individuality, our life work, our success, often begins somewhere else. We begin again, in some place of our selection and adoption. And as we look back in life, we can see how our surroundings and associations, in that new birthplace, have been privileges, helping to make us what we have become. Many of us, giving our birthplace, feel that we want to say, “We began to breathe at A, but we began to live at B, and B we think of as our true birthplace.” Like these nations which felt they began really to live from the time of the Zion deliverance.
III. THE PRIVILEGES OF OUR SPIRITUAL BIRTHPLACE. The place where we began to live unto Godbegan to live the soul life. Many keep in dearest memory the time, the place, the incidents, of their first realization of the redeeming love and sufficiency. For us that is Zion. The place where God met with us is our Zion. And, in one sense, it is always Zion, for it is always in the presence of the cross on which Jesus died. We feel we live by his “decease accomplished at Jerusalem.”R.T.
Psa 87:7
Various powers used in God’s service.
“As wall the singers as the players on instruments.” This expresses admiration of the services and ceremonies in connection with Jehovah’s temple; and it suggests the thought that Divine worship ought to be made in every way delightful. But another thought is suggested by the marked distinction made between the “singers” and the “players.” It is that the gifts and endowments of men are very various, but whatever may be their variety, they can all be taken up into the service of God and the service of God’s people. Some can sing; then encourage them to sing. Some can play; then use their skill in playing. Find. what a man can do, and accept, for God, just the service he can render.
I. THE REMARKABLE VARIETY OF HUMAN GIFTS. Examine them first as simply human gifts. Poetry, eloquence, art, science, government, do but, in the large, represent the thousandfold lesser forms of endowment which fit men for their varied places in life. Yet in common everyday life there is a place and a work forevery one. Show that this includes kinds of gifts with which we may have no personal sympathy, such as mimicry, satire, humour, etc. Then examine those particular gifts which were granted to the early Churchestongues, prophecy, interpretation, etc. Bring out that while each man has much in common with his fellows, each man also has something special to himself, something which constitutes his individuality. In the line of the use of that speciality will be found to lie his life mission.
II. THE POSSIBLE USE FOR HUMANITY OF ALL HUMAN GIFTS. There is a danger of religious people unduly limiting the service of humanity. Sometimes, in an exclusive spirit, pious persons speak as if there were no real service to humanity save that which their religion sanctions. We may hold that all conceivable endowments may be sanctified, and ought to be sanctified, by being used for Godconsciously in God’s service. But we had better be more generous in our thinking, and say that everything that helps lift a human burden, cheer a human soul, brighten a human life, relieve a human strain, or perfect the human brotherhood, is the service of God. Some gifts bear a character, or are so small in measure, that men think of them as the one talented man thought of his talent. But he thought wrongly, and so do they. In God’s earth there is nothing that has not its use. In God’s world of men there is no gift without an answering sphere. Singers and players shall both be there,R.T.
Psa 87:7
Joy fountains in God.
Prayer book Version, “All my fresh springs shall be in thee.” Jennings and Lowe render,” All my well springs [of delight] are singing aloud like instrument players because of [literally, ‘in’] thee.” The springs are evidently our springs of gladness; and the sentence is best given thus: “Both they that sing and dance, all my fountains of delight are in thee;” with this as the meaning, “every source of pleasure, song, music, dancing, etc; was to be found ha Zion.” The psalmist is praising Zion, not directly praising God: so his figures are naturally taken from the pleasures of the holy city, and especially of the sacred temple and its services. Remember that David had devoted genius and skill to the improvement of worship; had introduced music and poetry, until the old sombre ritual of Mosaism had become glorified. The joy of God’s everyday service ought to be illustrated by the brightness, attractiveness, and holy joy of our sanctuary services. Men ought to feel that it must be a joy to serve God always, because it is such an evident joy to serve God sometimes.
I. JOY FOUNTAINS IN GOD‘S WORSHIP.
II. JOY FOUNTAINS IN DAILY LIFE.
III. JOY FOUNTAINS IN WHAT GOD HAS DONE FOR US.
IV. JOY FOUNTAINS IN WHAT GOD IS DOING FOR US.
V. JOY FOUNTAINS IN GOD HIMSELF. “When all created streams are dried, his fulness is the same.”
Impress that true religion cannot be gloomy and depressing. Its atmosphere of trust is an atmosphere of gladness. We are saddened if we look down upon the path of our feet; or in upon our frail selves; we need never be saddened if we look up”look off unto Jesus, the Author and Finisher of our faith.” We may find ever fresh flowing springs of delight in God, and in this world of God’s which is his Zion for us.R.T.
HOMILIES BY C. SHORT
Psa 87:1-7
The glory of the Church.
I. IN ITS FOUNDATION. “In the holy mountains.”
1. It is founded in the nature of God. In the Divine love. “The Lord loveth the gates of Zion,” etc.
2. It is founded also in the nature of man. In his spiritual nature, affinities, and needs. The Church, therefore, has sacred foundations: “and the gates of hell shall not prevail against her.”
II. IT IS CALLED THE CITY OF GOD.
1. It Consists of the highest social relationships. Love, the bond that unites the citizens.
2. And of the Divinest order. Protected and maintained by the constant presence of God.
3. And of the truest wisdom. (Psa 87:4.) “Them that know me.”
III. TO BECOME A CITIZEN THERE A MAN MUST BE SPIRITUALLY BORN INTO IT. The new birth is the condition of citizenship. “This man was born there.”
1. Else it can never become a home to us. Not a congenial place to us.
2. We should not else be able to enter into its highest privileges, rights, and obligations.
IV. IT IS THE HOME OF THE NEW BORN MAN, IRRESPECTVE OF NATIONAL DISTINCTION Jew and Gentile, bond and free, king and peasant, may find a home there.
V. IT IS THE FOUNTAIN OF ALL DIVINE AND HUMAN GOOD. (Psa 87:7.) All the truest and most real blessedness.S.
Fuente: The Complete Pulpit Commentary
Psalms 87.
The nature and glory of the church. The increase, honour, and comfort of the members thereof.
A Psalm or Song for the sons of Korah.
Title. libnei korach mizmor shiir. The inscription of this psalm does not attribute it to David, nor is the occasion on which it was penned particularly mentioned. It is certain that it was written in praise of Jerusalem, and of the particular privileges of which it could boast above all other the most celebrated cities in the world: and by the manner of its beginning, I should think it was written when the author had completed his design in the repairing, enlarging, beautifying, and fortifying Jerusalem: and therefore I ascribe it to David, and think it was sent by him to the sons of Korah, to be sung by them on the solemn festival which was appointed to celebrate the foundation and building of the city. This conjecture is in some measure countenanced by the Chaldee paraphrast, who makes this psalm begin at the second verse: The Lord loveth the gates of Sion; and the first verse, His foundation is in the holy mountains, to be part of the inscription or title, which, according to him, must have been: “A song of the foundation in the mountains of holiness.” Houbigant thinks the psalm was first sung upon laying the foundations of the temple in Mount Sion. But it is the city, and not the temple, which is spoken of as being founded in these mountains. The beginning of this psalm is striking, and, what a sudden exclamation of wonder and joy should be, abrupt and short: The ending, what every citizen of Jerusalem who knew and valued the privileges he was entitled to, would joyfully sing: All my springs are in thee. These circumstances, together with his glorying over it, for the preference which God gave it to all the other cities of Judah; his representing it as a greater honour to be born in, and an inhabitant of it, than to be a citizen of any of the most celebrated cities in the world; his assurance that God would protect and establish it: God’s keeping a register of all the nations, and marking therein the citizens of Sion as his favourite people; and the joy and triumph of the inhabitants upon a review of their peculiar privileges, are beauties which will not be overlooked by a careful reader. See Dr. Chandler.
Psa 87:1. His foundation is in the holy mountains, &c. It is his foundation in the mountains of holiness: that is, “Sion is of God’s founding.” So Isa 14:32. The Lord hath founded Sion, &c. See Psa 132:13. And as Jerusalem was built on several hills, mount Sion, mount Moriah, and other lesser ones, they are called holy mountains or hills, the whole city being consecrated to God; and the city itself the holy city, because God dwelt more especially therein, as it was the fixed abode of the ark of his presence. If we imagine the Psalmist to be surveying the new-built city from some eminence, or from the terrace on the roof of his palace, just as he had finished it, how natural was it for him to cry out with pleasure and gratitude to God, who had enabled him to complete this great design; It is his foundation in the mountains of holiness! Chandler.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Psalms 87
A Psalm or Song for the sons of Korah
1His foundation is in the holy mountains.
2The Lord loveth the gates of Zion
More than all the dwellings of Jacob.
3Glorious things are spoken of thee,
O city of God. Selah.
4I 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.
7As well the singers as the players on instruments shall be there:
All my springs are in thee.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
Contents and Composition.In the introduction, the glory of Jerusalem is praised as that of the city founded by God, loved by Him with especial affection, and blessed with a glorious promise (Psa 87:1-3). The promise is then presented in its Messianic aspect (Psa 87:4-6); and, finally, in one concluding verse, expression is given to the grateful joy which the promise excites. It is peculiar to this Psalm, that the conversion of nations previously strange and hostile to Israel, and their union with Gods people, are described, not as the homage of subjected foes, Psa 68:30; Psa 72:9, &c. in agreement with the prophecies of the second part of Isaiah, but as an entering into the relations of children and citizens, resembling in many points Isa 2:2; Isa 2:4; Isa 11:10-16; Isa 19:24 f.; Isa 20:23. But our Psalm cannot be older than these passages, and therefore cannot be assigned to the time of David, as alluding by the idea of founding to the removal of the sanctuary to Jerusalem (Clauss). In Psa 87:4, Egypt is designated by the symbolical name Rahab, which occurs first in Isa 30:7, and that as alluding to vain-glorious presumption, while the word itself denotes a mythical sea-monster, Job 9:13; Job 26:12 (Sept. ), and is thus employed as an emblem of Egypt (Isa 51:9; Psa 89:11), as the beast of the reeds in Psa 68:31. The modes of expression, condensed even to obscurity (Flaminius, Olsh.), bear in their pregnant conciseness and imagery a great resemblance to Psalms 21; Psa 22:14; Psa 30:6 f. The time of Hezekiah has therefore been fixed upon (Venema, Dathe, Tholuck, Hengstenberg, Vaihinger, Delitzsch). For, after the destruction of the Assyrian army under Sennacherib, Assyria appears no longer along with Egypt as a representative of the world-power; but Babylon has already stepped forth into the theatre of history (Isaiah 39; Mic 4:10; 2Ch 32:33). We have no convincing ground for fixing the date of composition as late as the return from exile (Calvin, Ewald, Hupfeld), or still later in the days of the Maccabees (Hitzig) from a supposed reference to the Jews, who dwelt in large numbers in the countries named, and to their pilgrimages to the great feasts in Jerusalem. We can say no more than that a date must be assigned at which the power of Babylon was not immediately felt, because the language does not reveal the excitement and bitterness which are to be found in Isaiah 14, 47The Rabbins have quite misunderstood this Psalm, and Luther also has given many false renderings. The denial of the Messianic character (Hitzig) is at the opposite extreme to the opinion that there is no historical back-ground, but that the glory of the Church is all that is referred to.
Psa 87:1. His foundation.The form of the word, and its union with the suffix, make it probable that it is not a passive part.=His founded (city) as Hengst. and others maintain. But the masc. suffix is undoubtedly to be referred to God; for Zion, as the name of a city, occurs afterwards as feminine. We must neither supply a verb: is (De Wette), or: consists (Baur), or, by repeating the principal idea: is founded (Hengst.); nor can we assume gratuitously that an introductory clause has fallen out (Ewald, Olshausen). It is just as improbable that this verse of a single stich belongs to the superscription and announces the subject of the Psalm (Chald., Kimchi, and others). Nor is it a vocative, as most suppose, but an accusative, preceding its subject, depending in thought (J. D. Mich.) on the verb of the following verse. Nor is it necessary, in order to make the formal arrangement of the whole sentence regular, to complete the sense by uniting it to the first words of the next verse (Schnurrer, Hupfeld, Hofmann [so Perowne.J. F. M.].
Psa 87:2-3. The gates of Zion are mentioned with reference not to the invincible security newly assured by God (Hengst.), but to their accessibility to the many new inhabitants promised to the holy city.That which is spoken of or in Zion, is not Gods word proclaimed in the Church generally, but the promise relating to Zions increasing glory. As this promise is cited in the form of a declaration of God, it is not proper to take the part. pass, impersonally=they speak (Ewald, Maurer, Olsh., Hengst.). The use of the part. in the sing. and that in the masculine, though construed with a fem. plural, is due either to the singular meaning of the plural form employed as an abstract, or to the conception of the part., as being a kind of noun-neuter (Hupfeld). [Alexander: Instead of in thee, some read of thee, but the former is entitled to the preference; first, because it is the strict sense, and therefore not to be rejected without reason; then, because it really includes the other, but is not included in it; lastly, because it suggests the additional idea of the holy city as the scene, no less than the theme of the prophetic visions.J. F. M.]
Psa 87:4-6. I will proclaim Rahab and Babylon as those that know me.[E. V.: I will make mention of Rahab and Babylon to them that know me.] The first word denotes a public and solemn acknowledgment. This, probably, is not directly an announcement to or among those who know the name of Jehovah already, that a new accession is made to their numbers, but it is the two world-powers to the north and south, hitherto hostile, who are mentioned as knowing Him. Jehovah will name them publicly, and acknowledge them as belonging to those who know Him. And the Church is further directed to look at other nations, near and far, who are made conspicuous in the world as examples of this relation by the pointing finger of God, and upon whom, successively, God fixes His gaze, as He declares them one by one to be children of Zion. As the nations are to have appellations with the forms of personal proper names, it is better not to limit the term this to individual men in these nations (Ewald) who became proselytes there, that is, in the countries named (Hitzig.) It brings these nations before us as individualities, and their separate existence as nations is indicated by their being pointed out, and also by the representation that these individualities are regarded, man by man, as born in Zion, the city preserved for ever by God Himself. The same thing is also indicated by numbering up in a record (Eze 13:9). They are thus made Zions citizens. Zion does not lose her peerless preeminence, no matter how great this accession may be, or how dissimilar the natural characteristics of her new citizens. There is here a forecast of the New Testament idea of the second birth. Yet it is not this idea itself, and it is very different from the conception according to which Zion should regain her dispersed inhabitants (Isa 60:4), and thus become the mother of a countless people (Isa 54:1; Isa 54:3; Isa 66:7). No contrast is drawn here between Zion and the other places peopled by descendants of Jacob, the settlements of Jews in all parts of the world. According to this view, only individuals, this man and that man belong to the church of Israel, whether by birth or conversion, while in Jerusalem all the inhabitants, man by man, are designated Jews (Hitzig). The interpretation which assumes that for the other nations the enumeration was made collectively, but in Zion by individuals (Hofmann), is equally false.
Psa 87:7. Singers as well as dancers.[E. V.: As well the singers as the players on instruments.] The forms of the words do not indicate professions or positions, but actions. There is no occasion for doing away with the dancing as an expression of praise (2Sa 6:16; Psa 149:3; Psa 150:4). It destroys the connection to translate: pipe-players instead of: dancers (Symmachus, Theodotion, Kimchi, Flaminius, Calvin, and others). The rendering: The singers as in rows (Aquila, Jerome, Luther), is incorrect. It is possible to resolve the participles into finite verbs (Isaaki, Dathe), but it is unsuitable, and only necessary if the pointing of the last stich is changed with the following sense: all thy inhabitants (Schnurrer, Bttcher) or neighbors (Hupfeld) sing as well as dance. It is undoubtedly a procession of the Gentiles, who offer their thanksgiving to God and the Church, as Israel once did after the passage through the Red Sea (Hengst.). There is no reason why the concluding words should not be placed in the mouths of those who, according to the custom of the orientals, give a lively expression to their joy. Only we must not restrict the sense, and understand by springs specially the fountain of salvation (Isa 12:3). The expression all my springs is itself opposed to this restriction, and includes all means of refreshment. Yet we may be specially reminded of the prophetic representation of a fountain rising in the house of God, from which flows the water of life (Psa 36:9; Joel 4:18; Eze 47:1; Zec 14:8).
[Hupfeld, following a line of conjecture begun by the Sept. rendering , assumes that the word is the Hiph. part. from =dwellers. This is the best of all the emendations proposed; but against it there is not only the traditional reading, but also the fact that the natural sense: all (are) dwellers with thee, would require an unusual construction of the construct. If a suffix of the 1 sing. be attached, the sentence is wanting in simplicity. Yet the conjecture is worthy of consideration, from the altogether unexpected thought afforded by the received reading.J. F. M.]
The explanation: all my eyes, that is, glances or thoughts, are on thee (Calvin and others), is against the form of the words. The interpretation according to a supposed Arabian cognate form: my whole heart is in thee (Isaaki) is unnecessary. An arbitrary conjecture, with still more violent changes in the text, gives the following sense: masters as (numerous as) servants, all my eyes (overseers) are in thee (Hitzig).
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
1. God is bound by lasting love to the city in which He has His earthly dwelling, and from which grows the kingdom which He erects among men. He has, for this reason, an essential interest in those foundations, upon which He has established the city, and by means of which He extends His kingdom, and makes this His zeal in their behalf known by word and deed in the worlds history. By His word of promise, He maintains among His people the remembrance of His choosing them, keeps alive the thought of their calling, and gives them a wider view of their destiny. And by deeds of deliverance He strengthens the faith of His Church, excites its love, directs its hopes, pledges and secures, in general, its preservation in the world. Yet its particular condition depends upon the conduct of its members.
2. The praise of Zion is justified because of the Gods beloved city, built upon the rock which He has made the foundation of His dwelling, wherein those fountains are opened by which the powers of the world to come are afforded to believers from the wells of salvation, that they may prove themselves in this world to be the children of God. But these believers shall be gathered out of the whole earth, both far and near. And therefore will God open the gates of His city, that access may be afforded to those fountains, so that children may be born to Him in His city from all nations. And these are acknowledged by Him to be of the number of those who know Him, though before they were ignorant of Him, and they now rejoice with those who praise Him. But if Zion would remain Gods city and enjoy His protection, she must as established by God, ever build herself up on this foundation, and prove herself a mother to His children by her administration and use of those fountains. It happens often that cities which rise the most rapidly to a conspicuous place in the world, are the most rapid in their fall. In order that the prosperity of the Church may not be thought to be so frail as this, the prophet adds that she is established by the Highest. As if he had said: It is no wonder that other cities nod to their destruction, for they are shaken with the worlds commotions, and have none who can be their everlasting guardian. (Calvin).
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL
It is one and the same God, who has established the Church upon earth, who maintains it as a peculiar institution, and rules it after His holy and loving will.The foundation which God has laid for the Church, the end to which He has appointed her, and the way which He has pointed out to her.The destiny assigned the Church as the city of God for all the nations of the earth.What does the present condition of the Church seem to be, when we consider her Divine founding, and the part assigned her in the world?The house of God among the dwellings of men; (1) its origin; (2) whither it directs us; (3) how it realizes its aim.The acknowledgment which God demands, and the acknowledgment which God vouchsafes, are mutually related and mutually conditioned.The missionary work of the Church: (1) according to its Divine institution; (2) in its actual extent; (3) with the means ordained.The conversion of the heathen: (1) as Gods will; (2) as the work of the Church; (3) as the delight of the pious.He who is not a child of God need not expect to be reckoned among the citizens of His kingdom.God opens to men in the city in which He dwells, three fountains: (1) that of the true knowledge of Him; (2) that of eternal salvation; (3) that of blessed joy.The Church founded by God, and His dwelling, as the mother of His children.The best security for the prosperity of a city is the piety of its inhabitants.There is nothing better for men than to have God as their Defender, Guardian, and Father.God, the Founder and Master-builder of His city, is also the Father and King of His children.
Starke: If the Church is the city of God, who would be so neglectful as not to seek to obtain its citizenship?God is (he Master-builder of His Church. Well for him who helps to build; but ill for him who seeks to injure or destroy that structure.He who is taught the language of the Holy Spirit, is learned in the things of God.The mutations and increase of languages have become, under the New Testament, a blessing; though under the Old, at the Tower of Babel, they were a punishment.
Selnecker: Gods people are united to Gods word; where, therefore, that word is, the Church of Christ is.Renschel: A description of the Church of the New Testament, after the type of the earthly Jerusalem.Rieger: In building the city of God, let us not think so much about the present feeble beginning and the difficulties still to be overcome, but rather upon the sure ground of the Divine promises and the great Master-builder, who has in His own hands the plan of the city.Gnther: It is only those who are born there that are in the city of God; and it is the Highest who has founded that city.Schaubach: Would that the Lord in His mercy would keep us true to His Church, His word, and His sacraments, kindle this lamp for those among whom it has expired, and in His mercy supply the needs of those that have it, until at last there be one flock and one Shepherd.Diedrich: Zion, out of which proceeds the word of grace, is the fountain of many nations, and the birth-place of a new humanity.Taube: It is Gods hand, and no partial human hand, that writes down in the book of life those who are born in the city of God; and just for that reason sharp tests are employed to decide the right to a place there.Mller: The firm foundation of the Evangelical Church, her sure covenant, and her joyful words.
[Scott: It should especially be remembered here, that almost all the sacred writers belonged to Zion, or to that despised nation which met to worship at Zion; and no nation on earth, or part of a nation, has been preserved or delivered from idolatry, except through the revelations which God made through the prophets and apostles of Israel.
Bishop Horne: In the book of life, that register of heaven kept by God Himself, our names are entered, not as born of flesh and blood by the will of man, but as born of water and the Spirit by the will of God; of each person it is written that he was born there, in the Church and city of God.J. F. M.]
Fuente: A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures, Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical by Lange
CONTENTS
This Psalm hath been very justly considered as a beautiful ode on the Incarnation of Christ; and, as such, contains the outlines of that glorious event, and of the happiness and welfare of the church in it.
A Psalm or Song for the sons of Korah.
Psa 87:1
The very title of this Psalm leads the Reader to expect the discovery of some more than ordinary blessings in it. And what can be more blessed than to sing of him who was born, and lived, and died, and rose again, for the redemption of sinners? The title may be justly read, A Psalm or Song for the sons of miserable man; for such was Korah: and the late Mr. Romaine so translated it. Hence, according to his view of the words, in this first view, it is of Jesus the Psalm speaks, in whom the church shall be established. And there is a great beauty in this verse, that He, of whom the Psalm sings, is not mentioned by name! because everyone, taught by his Spirit, knows who it is. So the church, Son 3:3 . And let the Reader remark another beauty; the church is founded on Christ, the Rock of ages; whereas the world, the scripture saith, is founded upon the seas, and established upon the floods. Psa 24:2 . Pause, Reader, and consider how eternally safe and secure the one: how precarious and fluctuating the other.
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
The City of God
Psa 87:1
I. It is a remarkable circumstance that the splendid hopes of the Prophets and Psalmist of the Old Testament are always directed to a regenerated society in the future as the greatest blessing of the expected coming of the Messiah. The pious Israelite looked forward to the future of his people, that seed of Abraham which God has chosen for Himself; he did not contemplate his own future apart from theirs. And at times it almost seemed as if the sense of his personal destiny in the world beyond the grave were lost in his conviction of the great destiny of the nation to which he was so proud to belong. So it is with the kingdom of God which was to realize the brightest dreams of the Psalmist. Its blessings are for individual men and women; but they are given to them in virtue of their citizenship in the heavenly kingdom of Jesus Christ our Lord. The New Jerusalem like the Jerusalem of which the Psalmist wrote is the city of God.
II. And therefore surely it is a holy city. That is easy to believe of the Church in heaven; it is not so easy to believe of the Church on earth. For it is the perpetual reproach of Christians that the citizenship which they have inherited is too often despised and abused. We dare not measure the greatness of God’s gifts to us His children by the eagerness and loyalty of our response. It is not our feeble faith but God’s strong love that has laid the foundations on which this city is built.
J. H. Bernard, Via Domini, p. 305.
Reference. LXXXVII. 2. G. Brooks, Outlines of Sermons, p. 249.
The Anniversaries Kept in Heaven
Psa 87:6
I. I understand the meaning of the passage to be that the anniversaries of the future will be held for the righteous. We observe at present the anniversaries of the intellectually great of the poet, of the statesman, of the distinguished general, of the scientific discoverer. But without disparaging these, the Psalmist looks forward to a time when the birthdays observed will be on the ground of goodness. We hold the natal days of the heroes of history. What a surprise it would create if it were to be announced that a commemorative service was to be held t’5 keep the centenary of some humble woman historically unknown! And yet it is not too much to say that in the large majority of cases the distinguished have been indebted to the unknown. Many a man who has had his theatre in the world has had his metropolis in the nursery; the crucial hours of his life have been the hours the world never saw the hours spent at a mother’s knee and brightened by a mother’s teaching. Many a great thinker has got his wisdom from some obscure schoolmaster ‘never heard of half a mile from home’ from one who had all the thought in his soul but just lacked the gift of expression. Many a successful candidate for life’s favour has owed his power of endurance to the cheering words of some optimistic Christian who met him at a time of despondency and prevented him from giving in. Many a toiling wrestler for the cure of human disease was first taught to love humanity by witnessing the holy patience of some humble sufferer who bore without repining, who was afflicted and murmured not, who carried the cross and made no sign. II. The man who has reached the top of the mountain has been stimulated by the cry, ‘Excelsior’; but it has been oftener the voice of another than of himself. It has come from the valley, from the place of the lowly, from the scene of the undistinguished. The deeds of silent sacrifice, the homes of humble piety, the acts of covert kindness, the words of unrecorded righteousness, the examples of unpublished purity these have been the sources of human greatness.
G. Matheson, Messages of Hope, p. 7.
References. LXXXVII. 6. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. vii. No. 382. LXXXVII. International Critical Commentary, vol. ii. p. 239. LXXXVIII. 1, 3. Archbishop Alexander, Bampton Lectures, 1876, p. 133. LXXXVIII. 7. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xix. No. 1090.
Fuente: Expositor’s Dictionary of Text by Robertson
PSALMS
XI
AN INTRODUCTION TO THE BOOK OF PSALMS
According to my usual custom, when taking up the study of a book of the Bible I give at the beginning a list of books as helps to the study of that book. The following books I heartily commend on the Psalms:
1. Sampey’s Syllabus for Old Testament Study . This is especially good on the grouping and outlining of some selected psalms. There are also some valuable suggestions on other features of the book.
2. Kirkpatrick’g commentary, in “Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges,” is an excellent aid in the study of the Psalter.
3. Perowne’s Book of Psalms is a good, scholarly treatise on the Psalms. A special feature of this commentary is the author’s “New Translation” and his notes are very helpful.
4. Spurgeon’s Treasury of David. This is just what the title implies. It is a voluminous, devotional interpretation of the Psalms and helpful to those who have the time for such extensive study of the Psalter.
5. Hengstenburg on the Psalms. This is a fine, scholarly work by one of the greatest of the conservative German scholars.
6. Maclaren on the Psalms, in “The Expositor’s Bible,” is the work of the world’s safest, sanest, and best of all works that have ever been written on the Psalms.
7. Thirtle on the Titles of the Psalms. This is the best on the subject and well worth a careful study.
At this point some definitions are in order. The Hebrew word for psalm means praise. The word in English comes from psalmos , a song of lyrical character, or a song to be sung and accompanied with a lyre. The Psalter is a collection of sacred and inspired songs, composed at different times and by different authors.
The range of time in composition was more than 1,000 years, or from the time of Moses to the time of Ezra. The collection in its present form was arranged probably by Ezra in the fifth century, B.C.
The Jewish classification of Old Testament books was The Law, the Prophets, and the Holy Writings. The Psalms was given the first place in the last group.
They had several names, or titles, of the Psalms. In Hebrew they are called “The Book of Prayers,” or “The Book of Praises.” The Hebrew word thus used means praises. The title of the first two books is found in Psa 72:20 : “The prayers of David the son of Jesse are ended.” The title of the whole collection of Psalms in the Septuagint is Biblos Psalman which means the “Book of Psalms.” The title in the Alexandrian Codex is Psalterion which is the name of a stringed instrument, and means “The Psalter.”
The derivation of our English words, “psalms,” “psalter,” and “psaltery,” respectively, is as follows:
1. “Psalms” comes from the Greek word, psalmoi, which is also from psallein , which means to play upon a stringed instrument. Therefore the Psalms are songs played upon stringed instruments, and the word here is used to apply to the whole collection.
2. “Psalter” is of the same origin and means the Book of Psalms and refers also to the whole collection.
3. “Psaltery” is from the word psalterion, which means “a harp,” an instrument, supposed to be in the shape of a triangle or like the delta of the Greek alphabet. See Psa 33:2 ; Psa 71:22 ; Psa 81:2 ; Psa 144:9 .
In our collection there are 150 psalms. In the Septuagint there is one extra. It is regarded as being outside the sacred collection and not inspired. The subject of this extra psalm is “David’s victory over Goliath.” The following is a copy of it: I was small among my brethren, And youngest in my father’s house, I used to feed my father’s sheep. My hands made a harp, My fingers fashioned a Psaltery. And who will declare unto my Lord? He is Lord, he it is who heareth. He it was who sent his angel And took me from my father’s sheep, And anointed me with the oil of his anointing. My brethren were goodly and tall, But the Lord took no pleasure in them. I went forth to meet the Philistine. And he cursed me by his idols But I drew the sword from beside him; I beheaded him and removed reproach from the children of Israel.
It will be noted that this psalm does not have the earmarks of an inspired production. There is not found in it the modesty so characteristic of David, but there is here an evident spirit of boasting and self-praise which is foreign to the Spirit of inspiration.
There is a difference in the numbering of the psalms in our version which follows the Hebrew, and the numbering in the Septuagint. Omitting the extra one in the Septuagint, there is no difference as to the total number. Both have 150 and the same subject matter, but they are not divided alike.
The following scheme shows the division according to our version and also the Septuagint: Psalms 1-8 in the Hebrew equal 1-8 in the Septuagint; 9-10 in the Hebrew combine into 9 in the Septuagint; 11-113 in the Hebrew equal 10-112 in the Septuagint; 114-115 in the Hebrew combine into 113 in the Septuagint; 116 in the Hebrew divides into 114-115 in the Septuagint; 117-146 in the Hebrew equal 116-145 in the Septuagint; 147 in the Hebrew divides into 146-147 in the Septuagint; 148-150 in the Hebrew equal 148-150 in the Septuagint.
The arrangement in the Vulgate is the same as the Septuagint. Also some of the older English versions have this arangement. Another difficulty in numbering perplexes an inexperienced student in turning from one version to another, viz: In the Hebrew often the title is verse I, and sometimes the title embraces verses 1-2.
The book divisions of the Psalter are five books, as follows:
Book I, Psalms 1-41 (41 chapters)
Book II, Psalms 42-72 (31 chapters)
Book III, Psalms 73-89 (17 chapters)
Book IV, Psalms 90-106 (17 chapters)
Book V, Psalms 107-150 (44 chapters)
They are marked by an introduction and a doxology. Psalm I forms an introduction to the whole book; Psa 150 is the doxology for the whole book. The introduction and doxology of each book are the first and last psalms of each division, respectively.
There were smaller collections before the final one, as follows:
Books I and II were by David; Book III, by Hezekiah, and Books IV and V, by Ezra.
Certain principles determined the arrangement of the several psalms in the present collection:
1. David is honored with first place, Book I and II, including Psalms 1-72.
2. They are grouped according to the use of the name of God:
(1) Psalms 1-41 are Jehovah psalms;
(2) Psalms 42-83 are Elohim-psalms;
(3) Psalms 84-150 are Jehovah psalms.
3. Book IV is introduced by the psalm of Moses, which is the first psalm written.
4. Some are arranged as companion psalms, for instance, sometimes two, sometimes three, and sometimes more. Examples: Psa 2 and 3; 22, 23, and 24; 113-118.
5. They were arranged for liturgical purposes, which furnished the psalms for special occasions, such as feasts, etc. We may be sure this arrangement was not accidental. An intelligent study of each case is convincing that it was determined upon rational grounds.
All the psalms have titles but thirty-three, as follows:
In Book I, Psa 1 ; Psa 2 ; Psa 10 ; Psa 33 , (4 are without titles).
In Book II, Psa 43 ; Psa 71 , (2 are without titles).
In Book IV, Psa 91 ; Psa 93 ; Psa 94 ; Psa 95 ; Psa 96 ; Psa 97 ; Psa 104 ; Psa 105 ; Psa 106 , (9 are without titles).
In Book V, Psa 107 ; III; 112; 113; 114; 115; 116; 117; 118; 119; 135; 136; 137; 146; 147; 148; 149; 150, (18 are without titles).
The Talmud calls these psalms that have no title, “Orphan Psalms.” The later Jews supply these titles by taking the nearest preceding author. The lack of titles in Psa 1 ; Psa 2 ; and 10 may be accounted for as follows: Psa 1 is a general introduction to the whole collection and Psa 2 was, perhaps, a part of Psa 1 . Psalms 9-10 were formerly combined into one, therefore Psa 10 has the same title as Psa 9 .
QUESTIONS
1. What books are commended on the Psalms?
2. What is a psalm?
3. What is the Psalter?
4. What is the range of time in composition?
5. When and by whom was the collection in its present form arranged?
6. What the Jewish classification of Old Testament books, and what the position of the Psalter in this classification?
7. What is the Hebrew title of the Psalms?
8. Find the title of the first two books from the books themselves.
9. What is the title of the whole collection of psalms in the Septuagint?
10. What is the title in the Alexandrian Codex?
11. What is the derivation of our English word, “Psalms”, “Psalter”, and “Psaltery,” respectively?
12. How many psalms in our collection?
13. How many psalms in the Septuagint?
14. What about the extra one in the Septuagint?
15. What is the subject of this extra psalm?
16. How does it compare with the Canonical Psalms?
17. What is the difference in the numbering of the psalms in our version which follows the Hebrew, and the numbering in the Septuagint?
18. What is the arrangement in the Vulgate?
19. What other difficulty in numbering which perplexes an inexperienced student in turning from one version to another?
20. What are the book divisions of the Psalter and how are these divisions marked?
21. Were there smaller collections before the final one? If so, what were they?
22. What principles determined the arrangement of the several psalms in the present collection?
23. In what conclusion may we rest concerning this arrangement?
24. How many of the psalms have no titles?
25. What does the Talmud call these psalms that have no titles?
26. How do later Jews supply these titles?
27. How do you account for the lack of titles in Psa 1 ; Psa 2 ; Psa 10 ?
XII
AN INTRODUCTION TO THE BOOK OF PSALMS (CONTINUED)
The following is a list of the items of information gathered from the titles of the psalms:
1. The author: “A Psalm of David” (Psa 37 ).
2. The occasion: “When he fled from Absalom, his son” (Psa 3 ).
3. The nature, or character, of the poem:
(1) Maschil, meaning “instruction,” a didactic poem (Psa 42 ).
(2) Michtam, meaning “gold,” “A Golden Psalm”; this means excellence or mystery (Psa 16 ; 56-60).
4. The occasion of its use: “A Psalm of David for the dedication of the house” (Psa 30 ).
5. Its purpose: “A Psalm of David to bring remembrance” (Psa 38 ; Psa 70 ).
6. Direction for its use: “A Psalm of David for the chief musician” (Psa 4 ).
7. The kind of musical instrument:
(1) Neginoth, meaning to strike a chord, as on stringed instruments (Psa 4 ; Psa 61 ).
(2) Nehiloth, meaning to perforate, as a pipe or flute (Psa 5 ).
(3) Shoshannim, Lilies, which refers probably to cymbals (Psa 45 ; Psa 69 ).
8. A special choir:
(1) Sheminith, the “eighth,” or octave below, as a male choir (Psa 6 ; Psa 12 ).
(2) Alamoth, female choir (Psa 46 ).
(3) Muth-labben, music with virgin voice, to be sung by a choir of boys in the treble (Psa 9 ).
9. The keynote, or tune:
(1) Aijeleth-sharar, “Hind of the morning,” a song to the melody of which this is sung (Psa 22 ).
(2) Al-tashheth, “Destroy thou not,” the beginning of a song the tune of which is sung (Psa 57 ; Psa 58 ; Psa 59 ; Psa 75 ).
(3) Gittith, set to the tune of Gath, perhaps a tune which David brought from Gath (Psa 8 ; Psa 81 ; Psa 84 ).
(4) Jonath-elim-rehokim, “The dove of the distant terebinths,” the commencement of an ode to the air of which this song was to be sung (Psa 56 ).
(5) Leannoth, the name of a tune (Psa 88 ).
(6) Mahalath, an instrument (Psa 53 ); Leonnoth-Mahaloth, to chant to a tune called Mahaloth.
(7) Shiggaion, a song or a hymn.
(8) Shushan-Eduth, “Lily of testimony,” a tune (Psa 60 ). Note some examples: (1) “America,” “Shiloh,” “Auld Lang Syne.” These are the names of songs such as we are familiar with; (2) “Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing” and “There Is a Fountain Filled with Blood,” are examples of sacred hymns.
10. The liturgical use, those noted for the feasts, e.g., the Hallels and Hallelujah Psalms (Psalms 146-150).
11. The destination, as “Song of Ascents” (Psalms 120-134)
12. The direction for the music, such as Selah, which means “Singers, pause”; Higgaion-Selah, to strike a symphony with selah, which means an instrumental interlude (Psa 9:16 ).
The longest and fullest title to any of the psalms is the title to Psa 60 . The items of information from this title are as follows: (1) the author; (2) the chief musician; (3) the historical occasion; (4) the use, or design; (5) the style of poetry; (6) the instrument or style of music.
The parts of these superscriptions which most concern us now are those indicating author, occasion, and date. As to the historic value or trustworthiness of these titles most modern scholars deny that they are a part of the Hebrew text, but the oldest Hebrew text of which we know anything had all of them. This is the text from which the Septuagint was translated. It is much more probable that the author affixed them than later writers. There is no internal evidence in any of the psalms that disproves the correctness of them, but much to confirm. The critics disagree among themselves altogether as to these titles. Hence their testimony cannot consistently be received. Nor can it ever be received until they have at least agreed upon a common ground of opposition.
David is the author of more than half the entire collection, the arrangement of which is as follows:
1. Seventy-three are ascribed to him in the superscriptions.
2. Some of these are but continuations of the preceding ones of a pair, trio, or larger group.
3. Some of the Korahite Psalms are manifestly Davidic.
4. Some not ascribed to him in the titles are attributed to him expressly by New Testament writers.
5. It is not possible to account for some parts of the Psalter without David. The history of his early life as found in Samuel, 1 and 2 Kings, and 1and 2 Chronicles, not only shows his remarkable genius for patriotic and sacred songs and music, but also shows his cultivation of that gift in the schools of the prophets. Some of these psalms of the history appear in the Psalter itself. It is plain to all who read these that they are founded on experience, and the experience of no other Hebrew fits the case. These experiences are found in Samuel, 1 and 2 Kings, and 1 and 2 Chronicles.
As to the attempt of the destructive critics to rob David of his glory in relation to the Psalter by assigning the Maccabean era as the date of composition, I have this to say:
1. This theory has no historical support whatever, and therefore is not to be accepted at all.
2. It has no support in tradition, which weakens the contention of the critics greatly.
3. It has no support from finding any one with the necessary experience for their basis.
4. They can give no reasonable account as to how the titles ever got there.
5. It is psychologically impossible for anyone to have written these 150 psalms in the Maccabean times.
6. Their position is expressly contrary to the testimony of Christ and the apostles. Some of the psalms which they ascribe to the Maccabean Age are attributed to David by Christ himself, who said that David wrote them in the Spirit.
The obvious aim of this criticism and the necessary result if it be Just, is a positive denial of the inspiration of both Testaments.
Other authors are named in the titles, as follows: (1) Asaph, to whom twelve psalms have been assigned: (2) Mosee, Psa 90 ; (3) Solomon, Psa 72 ; Psa 127 ; (4) Heman, Psa 80 ; (5) Ethem, Psa 89 ; (6) A number of the psalms are ascribed to the sons of Korah.
Not all the psalms ascribed to Asaph were composed by one person. History indicates that Asaph’s family presided over the song service for several generations. Some of them were composed by his descendants by the game name. The five general outlines of the whole collection are as follows:
I. By books
1. Psalms 1-41 (41)
2. Psalms 42-72 (31)
3. Psalms 73-89 (17)
4. Psalms 90-106 (17)
5. Psalms 107-150 (44)
II. According to date and authorship
1. The psalm of Moses (Psa 90 )
2. Psalms of David:
(1) The shepherd boy (Psa 8 ; Psa 19 ; Psa 29 ; Psa 23 ).
(2) David when persecuted by Saul (Psa 59 ; Psa 56 ; Psa 34 ; Psa 52 ; Psa 54 ; Psa 57 ; Psa 142 ).
(3) David the King (Psa 101 ; Psa 18 ; Psa 24 ; Psa 2 ; Psa 110 ; Psa 20 ; Psa 20 ; Psa 21 ; Psa 60 ; Psa 51 ; Psa 32 ; Psa 41 ; Psa 55 ; Psa 3:4 ; Psa 64 ; Psa 62 ; Psa 61 ; Psa 27 ).
3. The Asaph Psalms (Psa 50 ; Psa 73 ; Psa 83 ).
4. The Korahite Psalms (Psa 42 ; Psa 43 ; Psa 84 ).
5. The psalms of Solomon (Psa 72 ; Psa 127 ).
6. The psalms of the era of Hezekiah and Isaiah (Psa 46 ; Psa 47 ; Psa 48 )
7. The psalms of the Exile (Psa 74 ; Psa 79 ; Psa 137 ; Psa 102 )
8. The psalms of the Restoration (Psa 85 ; Psa 126 ; Psa 118 ; 146-150)
III. By groups
1. The Jehovistic and Elohistic Psalms:
(1) Psalms 1-41 are Jehovistic;
(2) Psalms 42-83 are Elohistic Psalms;
(3) Psalms 84-150 are Jehovistic.
2. The Penitential Psalms (Psa 6 ; Psa 32 ; Psa 38 ; Psa 51 ; Psa 102 ; Psa 130 ; Psa 143 )
3. The Pilgrim Psalms (Psalms 120-134)
4. The Alphabetical Psalms (Psa 9 ; Psa 10 ; Psa 25 ; Psa 34 ; Psa 37 ; 111:112; Psa 119 ; Psa 145 )
5. The Hallelujah Psalms (Psalms 11-113; 115-117; 146-150; to which may be added Psa 135 ) Psalms 113-118 are called “the Egyptian Hallel”
IV. Doctrines of the Psalms
1. The throne of grace and how to approach it by sacrifice, prayer, and praise.
2. The covenant, the basis of worship.
3. The paradoxical assertions of both innocence & guilt.
4. The pardon of sin and justification.
5. The Messiah.
6. The future life, pro and con.
7. The imprecations.
8. Other doctrines.
V. The New Testament use of the Psalms
1. Direct references and quotations in the New Testament.
2. The allusions to the psalms in the New Testament. Certain experiences of David’s life made very deep impressions on his heart, such as: (1) his peaceful early life; (2) his persecution by Saul; (3) his being crowned king of the people; (4) the bringing up of the ark; (5) his first great sin; (6) Absalom’s rebellion; (7) his second great sin; (8) the great promise made to him in 2Sa 7 ; (9) the feelings of his old age.
We may classify the Davidic Psalms according to these experiences following the order of time, thus:
1. His peaceful early life (Psa 8 ; Psa 19 ; Psa 29 ; Psa 23 )
2. His persecution by Saul (Psa 59 ; Psa 56 ; Psa 34 ; Psa 7 ; Psa 52 ; Psa 120 ; Psa 140 ; Psa 54 ; Psa 57 ; Psa 142 ; Psa 17 ; Psa 18 )
3. Making David King (Psa 27 ; Psa 133 ; Psa 101 )
4. Bringing up the ark (Psa 68 ; Psa 24 ; Psa 132 ; Psa 15 ; Psa 78 ; Psa 96 )
5. His first great sin (Psa 51 ; Psa 32 )
6. Absalom’s rebellion (Psa 41 ; Psa 6 ; Psa 55 ; Psa 109 ; Psa 38 ; Psa 39 ; Psa 3 ; Psa 4 ; Psa 63 ; Psa 42 ; Psa 43 ; Psa 5 ; Psa 62 ; Psa 61 ; Psa 27 )
7. His second great sin (Psa 69 ; Psa 71 ; Psa 102 ; Psa 103 )
8. The great promise made to him in 2Sa 7 (Psa 2 )
9. Feelings of old age (Psa 37 )
The great doctrines of the psalms may be noted as follows: (1) the being and attributes of God; (3) sin, both original and individual; (3) both covenants; (4) the doctrine of justification; (5) concerning the Messiah.
There is a striking analogy between the Pentateuch and the Psalms. The Pentateuch contains five books of law; the Psalms contain five books of heart responses to the law.
It is interesting to note the historic controversies concerning the singing of psalms. These were controversies about singing uninspired songs, in the Middle Ages. The church would not allow anything to be used but psalms.
The history in Samuel, 1 and 2 Kings, and 1 and 2 Chronicles, and in Ezra and Nehemiah is very valuable toward a proper interpretation of the psalms. These books furnish the historical setting for a great many of the psalms which is very indispensable to their proper interpretation.
Professor James Robertson, in the Poetry and Religion of the Psalms constructs a broad and strong argument in favor of the Davidic Psalms, as follows:
1. The age of David furnished promising soil for the growth of poetry.
2. David’s qualifications for composing the psalms make it highly probable that David is the author of the psalms ascribed to him.
3. The arguments against the possibility of ascribing to David any of the hymns in the Hebrew Psalter rests upon assumptions that are thoroughly antibiblical.
The New Testament makes large use of the psalms and we learn much as to their importance in teaching. There are seventy direct quotations in the New Testament from this book, from which we learn that the Scriptures were used extensively in accord with 2Ti 3:16-17 . There are also eleven references to the psalms in the New Testament from which we learn that the New Testament writers were thoroughly imbued with the spirit and teaching of the psalms. Then there are eight allusions ‘to this book in the New Testament from which we gather that the Psalms was one of the divisions of the Old Testament and that they were used in the early church.
QUESTIONS
1. Give a list of the items of information gathered from the titles of the psalms.
2. What is the longest title to any of the psalms and what the items of this title?
3. What parts of these superscriptions most concern us now?
4. What is the historic value, or trustworthiness of these titles?
5. State the argument showing David’s relation to the psalms.
6. What have you to say of the attempt of the destructive critics to rob David of his glory in relation to the Psalter by assigning the Maccabean era as the date of composition?
7. What the obvious aim of this criticism and the necessary result, if it be just?
8. What other authors are named in the titles?
9. Were all the psalms ascribed to Asaph composed by one person?
10. Give the five general outlines of the whole collection, as follows: I. The outline by books II. The outline according to date and authorship III. The outline by groups IV. The outline of doctrines V. The outline by New Testament quotations or allusions.
11. What experiences of David’s life made very deep impressions on his heart?
12. Classify the Davidic Psalms according to these experiences following the order of time.
13. What the great doctrines of the psalms?
14. What analogy between the Pentateuch and the Psalms?
15. What historic controversies concerning the singing of psalms?
16. Of what value is the history in Samuel, 1 Kings and 2 Chronicles, and in Ezra and Nehemiah toward a proper interpretation of the psalms?
17. Give Professor James Robertson’s argument in favor of the Davidic authorship of the psalms.
18. What can you say of the New Testament use of the psalms and what do we learn as to their importance in teaching?
19. What can you say of the New Testament references to the psalms, and from the New Testament references what the impression on the New Testament writers?
20. What can you say of the allusions to the psalms in the New Testament?
XVII
THE MESSIAH IN THE PSALMS
A fine text for this chapter is as follows: “All things must be fulfilled which were written in the Psalms concerning me,” Luk 24:44 . I know of no better way to close my brief treatise on the Psalms than to discuss the subject of the Messiah as revealed in this book.
Attention has been called to the threefold division of the Old Testament cited by our Lord, namely, the Law, the Prophets, and the Psalms (Luk 24:44 ), in all of which were the prophecies relating to himself that “must be fulfilled.” It has been shown just what Old Testament books belong to each of these several divisions. The division called the Psalms included many books, styled Holy Writings, and because the Psalms proper was the first book of the division it gave the name to the whole division.
The object of this discussion is to sketch the psalmist’s outline of the Messiah, or rather, to show how nearly a complete picture of our Lord is foredrawn in this one book. Let us understand however with Paul, that all prophecy is but in part (1Co 13:9 ), and that when we fill in on one canvas all the prophecies concerning the Messiah of all the Old Testament divisions, we are far from having a perfect portrait of our Lord. The present purpose is limited to three things:
1. What the book of the Psalms teaches concerning the Messiah.
2. That the New Testament shall authoritatively specify and expound this teaching.
3. That the many messianic predictions scattered over the book and the specifications thereof over the New Testament may be grouped into an orderly analysis, so that by the adjustment of the scattered parts we may have before us a picture of our Lord as foreseen by the psalmists.
In allowing the New Testament to authoritatively specify and expound the predictive features of the book, I am not unmindful of what the so-called “higher critics” urge against the New Testament quotations from the Old Testament and the use made of them. In this discussion, however, these objections are not considered, for sufficient reasons. There is not space for it. Even at the risk of being misjudged I must just now summarily pass all these objections, dismissing them with a single statement upon which the reader may place his own estimate of value. That statement is that in the days of my own infidelity, before this old method of criticism had its new name, I was quite familiar with the most and certainly the strongest of the objections now classified as higher criticism, and have since patiently re-examined them in their widely conflicting restatements under their modern name, and find my faith in the New Testament method of dealing with the Old Testament in no way shattered, but in every way confirmed. God is his own interpreter. The Old Testament as we now have it was in the hands of our Lord. I understand his apostle to declare, substantially, that “every one of these sacred scriptures is God-inspired and is profitable for teaching us what is right to believe and to do, for convincing us what is wrong in faith or practice, for rectifying the wrong when done, that we may be ready at every point, furnished completely, to do every good work, at the right time, in the right manner, and from the proper motive” (2Ti 3:16-17 ).
This New Testament declares that David was a prophet (Act 2:30 ), that he spake by the Holy Spirit (Act 1:16 ), that when the book speaks the Holy Spirit speaks (Heb 3:7 ), and that all its predictive utterances, as sacred Scripture, “must be fulfilled” (Joh 13:18 ; Act 1:16 ). It is not claimed that David wrote all the psalms, but that all are inspired, and that as he was the chief author, the book goes by his name.
It would be a fine thing to make out two lists, as follows:
1. All of the 150 psalms in order from which the New Testament quotes with messianic application.
2. The New Testament quotations, book by book, i.e., Matthew so many, and then the other books in their order.
We would find in neither of these any order as to time, that is, Psa 1 which forecasts an incident in the coming Messiah’s life does not forecast the first incident of his life. And even the New Testament citations are not in exact order as to time and incident of his life. To get the messianic picture before us, therefore, we must put the scattered parts together in their due relation and order, and so construct our own analysis. That is the prime object of this discussion. It is not claimed that the analysis now presented is perfect. It is too much the result of hasty, offhand work by an exceedingly busy man. It will serve, however, as a temporary working model, which any one may subsequently improve. We come at once to the psalmist’s outline of the Messiah.
1. The necessity for a Saviour. This foreseen necessity is a background of the psalmists’ portrait of the Messiah. The necessity consists in (1) man’s sinfulness; (2) his sin; (3) his inability of wisdom and power to recover himself; (4) the insufficiency of legal, typical sacrifices in securing atonement.
The predicate of Paul’s great argument on justification by faith is the universal depravity and guilt of man. He is everywhere corrupt in nature; everywhere an actual transgressor; everywhere under condemnation. But the scriptural proofs of this depravity and sin the apostle draws mainly from the book of the Psalms. In one paragraph of the letter to the Romans (Rom 3:4-18 ), he cites and groups six passages from six divisions of the Psalms (Psa 5:9 ; Psa 10:7 ; Psa 14:1-3 ; Psa 36:1 ; Psa 51:4-6 ; Psa 140:3 ). These passages abundantly prove man’s sinfulness, or natural depravity, and his universal practice of sin.
The predicate also of the same apostle’s great argument for revelation and salvation by a Redeemer is man’s inability of wisdom and power to re-establish communion with God. In one of his letters to the Corinthians he thus commences his argument: “For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent. Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this world? Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? -For after that in the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preach-ing to save them that believe.” He closes this discussion with the broad proposition: “The wisdom of this world is foolishness with God,” and proves it by a citation from Psa 94:11 : “The Lord knoweth the thoughts of the wise, that they are vain.”
In like manner our Lord himself pours scorn on human wisdom and strength by twice citing Psa 8 : “At that time Jesus answered and said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent and hast revealed them unto babes. Even so, Father: for so it seemed good in thy sight” (Mat 11:25-26 ). “And when the chief priests and scribes saw the wonderful things that he did, and the children that were crying in the temple and saying, Hosanna to the Son of David; they were sore displeased, and said unto him, Hearest thou what these say? And Jesus saith unto them, Yea; have ye never read, Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings thou hast perfected praise?” (Mat 21:15-16 ).
But the necessity for a Saviour as foreseen by the psalmist did not stop at man’s depravity, sin, and helplessness. The Jews were trusting in the sacrifices of their law offered on the smoking altar. The inherent weakness of these offerings, their lack of intrinsic merit, their ultimate abolition, their complete fulfilment and supercession by a glorious antitype were foreseen and foreshown in this wonderful prophetic book: I will not reprove thee for thy sacrifices; And thy burnt offerings are continually before me. I will take no bullock out of thy house, Nor he-goat out of thy folds. For every beast of the forest is mine, And the cattle upon a thousand hills. I know all of the birds of the mountains; And the wild beasts of the field are mine. If I were hungry, I would not tell thee; For the world is mine, and the fulness thereof. Will I eat the flesh of bulls, Or drink the blood of goats? Psa 50:8-13 .
Yet again it speaks in that more striking passage cited in the letter to the Hebrews: “For the law having a shadow of good things to come, not the very image of the things, can never with the same sacrifices year by year, which they offer continually, make the comers thereunto perfect. For then would they not have ceased to be offered? because that the worshipers, once purged should have no more consciousness of sins. But in those sacrifices there is a remembrance made of sins year by year. For it is impossible that the blood of bulls and goats should take away sins. Wherefore when he cometh into the world, he saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldst not, But a body didst thou prepare for me; In whole burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin thou hadst no pleasure: Then said I, Lo, I am come (In the roll of the book it is written of me) To do thy will, O God. Saying above, Sacrifice and offering and whole burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin thou wouldst not, neither hadst pleasure therein, (the which are offered according to the law), then hath he said, Lo, I am come to do thy will, O God. He taketh away the first, that he may establish the second” (Heb 10:1-9 ).
This keen foresight of the temporary character and intrinsic worthlessness of animal sacrifices anticipated similar utterances by the later prophets (Isa 1:10-17 ; Jer 6:20 ; Jer 7:21-23 ; Hos 6:6 ; Amo 5:21 ; Mic 6:6-8 ). Indeed, I may as well state in passing that when the apostle declares, “It is impossible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins,” he lays down a broad principle, just as applicable to baptism and the Lord’s Supper. With reverence I state the principle: Not even God himself by mere appointment can vest in any ordinance, itself lacking intrinsic merit, the power to take away sin. There can be, therefore, in the nature of the case, no sacramental salvation. This would destroy the justice of God in order to exalt his mercy. Clearly the psalmist foresaw that “truth and mercy must meet together” before “righteousness and peace could kiss each other” (Psa 85:10 ). Thus we find as the dark background of the psalmists’ luminous portrait of the Messiah, the necessity for a Saviour.
2. The nature, extent, and blessedness of the salvation to be wrought by the coming Messiah. In no other prophetic book are the nature, fullness, and blessedness of salvation so clearly seen and so vividly portrayed. Besides others not now enumerated, certainly the psalmists clearly forecast four great elements of salvation:
(1) An atoning sacrifice of intrinsic merit offered once for all (Psa 40:6-8 ; Heb 10:4-10 ).
(2) Regeneration itself consisting of cleansing, renewal, and justification. We hear his impassioned statement of the necessity of regeneration: “Behold, I was shapen in iniquity and in sin did my mother conceive me. Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward parts,” followed by his earnest prayer: “Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me,” and his equally fervent petition: “Wash me thoroughly from mine iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. Purge me with hyssop and I shall be clean; wash me and I shall be whiter than snow” (Psa 51 ). And we hear him again as Paul describes the blessedness of the man, unto whom God imputes righteousness without works, saying, Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, And whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not reckon sin Psa 32:1 ; Rom 4:6-8 .
(3) Introduction into the heavenly rest (Psa 95:7-11 ; Heb 3:7-19 ; Heb 4:1-11 ). Here is the antitypical Joshua leading spiritual Israel across the Jordan of death into the heavenly Canaan, the eternal rest that remaineth for the people of God. Here we find creation’s original sabbath eclipsed by redemption’s greater sabbath when the Redeemer “entered his rest, ceasing from his own works as God did from his.”
(4) The recovery of all the universal dominion lost by the first Adam and the securement of all possible dominion which the first Adam never attained (Psa 8:5-6 ; Eph 1:20-22 ; Heb 2:7-9 ; 1Co 15:24-28 ).
What vast extent then and what blessedness in the salvation foreseen by the psalmists, and to be wrought by the Messiah. Atoning sacrifice of intrinsic merit; regeneration by the Holy Spirit; heavenly rest as an eternal inheritance; and universal dominion shared with Christ!
3. The wondrous person of the Messiah in his dual nature, divine and human.
(1) His divinity,
(a) as God: “Thy throne, O God, is forever and ever” (Psa 45:6 and Heb 1:8 ) ;
(b) as creator of the heavens and earth, immutable and eternal: Of old didst thou lay the foundation of the earth; And the heavens are the work of thy hands. They shall perish, but thou shalt endure; Yea, all of them shall wax old like a garment; As a vesture shalt thou change them, and they shall be changed. But thou art the same, And thy years shall have no end Psa 102:25-27 quoted with slight changes in Heb 1:10-12 .
(c) As owner of the earth: The earth is the Lord’s and the fulness thereof; The world, and they that dwell therein, Psa 24:1 quoted in 1Co 10:26 .
(d) As the Son of God: “Thou art my Son; This day have I begotten thee” Psa 2:7 ; Heb 1:5 .
(e) As David’s Lord: The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand, Until I make thine enemies thy footstool, Psa 110:1 ; Mat 22:41-46 .
(f) As the object of angelic worship: “And let all the angels of God worship him” Psa 97:7 ; Heb 1:6 .
(g) As the Bread of life: And he rained down manna upon them to eat, And gave them food from heaven Psa 78:24 ; interpreted in Joh 6:31-58 . These are but samples which ascribe deity to the Messiah of the psalmists.
(2) His humanity, (a) As the Son of man, or Son of Adam: Psa 8:4-6 , cited in 1Co 15:24-28 ; Eph 1:20-22 ; Heb 2:7-9 . Compare Luke’s genealogy, Luk 3:23-38 . This is the ideal man, or Second Adam, who regains Paradise Lost, who recovers race dominion, in whose image all his spiritual lineage is begotten. 1Co 15:45-49 . (b) As the Son of David: Psa 18:50 ; Psa 89:4 ; Psa 89:29 ; Psa 89:36 ; Psa 132:11 , cited in Luk 1:32 ; Act 13:22-23 ; Rom 1:3 ; 2Ti 2:8 . Perhaps a better statement of the psalmists’ vision of the wonderful person of the Messiah would be: He saw the uncreated Son, the second person of the trinity, in counsel and compact with the Father, arranging in eternity for the salvation of men: Psa 40:6-8 ; Heb 10:5-7 . Then he saw this Holy One stoop to be the Son of man: Psa 8:4-6 ; Heb 2:7-9 . Then he was the son of David, and then he saw him rise again to be the Son of God: Psa 2:7 ; Rom 1:3-4 .
4. His offices.
(1) As the one atoning sacrifice (Psa 40:6-8 ; Heb 10:5-7 ).
(2) As the great Prophet, or Preacher (Psa 40:9-10 ; Psa 22:22 ; Heb 2:12 ). Even the method of his teaching by parable was foreseen (Psa 78:2 ; Mat 13:35 ). Equally also the grace, wisdom, and power of his teaching. When the psalmist declares that “Grace is poured into thy lips” (Psa 45:2 ), we need not be startled when we read that all the doctors in the Temple who heard him when only a boy “were astonished at his understanding and answers” (Luk 2:47 ); nor that his home people at Nazareth “all bear him witness, and wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth” (Luk 4:22 ); nor that those of his own country were astonished, and said, “Whence hath this man this wisdom?” (Mat 13:54 ); nor that the Jews in the Temple marveled, saying, “How knoweth this man letters, having never learned?” (Joh 7:15 ) ; nor that the stern officers of the law found their justification in failure to arrest him in the declaration, “Never man spake like this man” (Joh 7:46 ).
(3) As the king (Psa 2:6 ; Psa 24:7-10 ; Psa 45:1-17 ; Psa 110:1 ; Mat 22:42-46 ; Act 2:33-36 ; 1Co 15:25 ; Eph 1:20 ; Heb 1:13 ).
(4) As the priest (Psa 110:4 ; Heb 5:5-10 ; Heb 7:1-21 ; Heb 10:12-14 ).
(5) As the final judge. The very sentence of expulsion pronounced upon the finally impenitent by the great judge (Mat 25:41 ) is borrowed from the psalmist’s prophetic words (Psa 6:8 ).
5. Incidents of life. The psalmists not only foresaw the necessity for a Saviour; the nature, extent, and blessedness of the salvation; the wonderful human-divine person of the Saviour; the offices to be filled by him in the work of salvation, but also many thrilling details of his work in life, death, resurrection, and exaltation. It is not assumed to cite all these details, but some of the most important are enumerated in order, thus:
(1) The visit, adoration, and gifts of the Magi recorded in Mat 2 are but partial fulfilment of Psa 72:9-10 .
(2) The scripture employed by Satan in the temptation of our Lord (Luk 4:10-11 ) was cited from Psa 91:11-12 and its pertinency not denied.
(3) In accounting for his intense earnestness and the apparently extreme measures adopted by our Lord in his first purification of the Temple (Joh 2:17 ), he cites the messianic zeal predicted in Psa 69:9 .
(4) Alienation from his own family was one of the saddest trials of our Lord’s earthly life. They are slow to understand his mission and to enter into sympathy with him. His self-abnegation and exhaustive toil were regarded by them as evidences of mental aberration, and it seems at one time they were ready to resort to forcible restraint of his freedom) virtually what in our time would be called arrest under a writ of lunacy. While at the last his half-brothers became distinguished preachers of his gospel, for a long while they do not believe on him. And the evidence forces us to the conclusion that his own mother shared with her other sons, in kind though not in degree, the misunderstanding of the supremacy of his mission over family relations. The New Testament record speaks for itself:
Son, why hast thou thus dealt with us? behold, thy father and I sought thee sorrowing. And he said unto them. How is it that ye sought me? Knew ye not that I must be in my Father’s house? And they understood not the saying which he spake unto them Luk 2:48-51 (R.V.).
And when the wine failed, the mother of Jesus saith unto him, They have no wine. And Jesus saith unto her, Woman, what have I to do with thee? Mine hour is not yet come. Joh 2:3-5 (R.V.).
And there come his mother and his brethren; and standing without; they sent unto him, calling him. And a multitude was sitting about him; and they say unto him. Behold, thy mother and thy brethren without seek for thee. And he answereth them, and saith, Who is my mother and my brethren? And looking round on them that sat round about him, he saith, Behold, my mother and my brethren) For whosoever shall do the will of God, the same is my brother, and sister, and mother Mar 3:31-35 (R.V.).
Now the feast of the Jews, the feast of tabernacles, was at hand. His brethren therefore said unto him, Depart hence, and go into Judea, that thy disciples also may behold thy works which thou doest. For no man doeth anything in secret, and himself seeketh to be known openly. If thou doest these things, manifest thyself to the world. For even his brethren did not believe on him. Jesus therefore saith unto them, My time is not yet come; but your time is always ready. The world cannot hate you; but me it hateth, because I testify of it, that its works are evil. Go ye up unto the feast: I go not up yet unto this feast; because my time is not fulfilled. Joh 7:2-9 (R.V.).
These citations from the Revised Version tell their own story. But all that sad story is foreshown in the prophetic psalms. For example: I am become a stranger unto my brethren, And an alien unto my mother’s children. Psa 69:8 .
(5) The triumphal entry into Jerusalem was welcomed by a joyous people shouting a benediction from Psa 118:26 : “Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord” (Mat 21:9 ); and the Lord’s lamentation over Jerusalem predicts continued desolation and banishment from his sight until the Jews are ready to repeat that benediction (Mat 23:39 ).
(6) The children’s hosanna in the Temple after its second purgation is declared by our Lord to be a fulfilment of that perfect praise forecast in Psa 8:2 .
(7) The final rejection of our Lord by his own people was also clear in the psalmist’s vision (Psa 118:22 ; Mat 21:42-44 ).
(8) Gethsemane’s baptism of suffering, with its strong crying and tears and prayers was as clear to the psalmist’s prophetic vision as to the evangelist and apostle after it became history (Psa 69:1-4 ; Psa 69:13-20 ; and Mat 26:36-44 ; Heb 5:7 ).
(9) In life-size also before the psalmist was the betrayer of Christ and his doom (Psa 41:9 ; Psa 69:25 ; Psa 109:6-8 ; Joh 13:18 ; Act 1:20 ).
(10) The rage of the people, Jew and Gentile, and the conspiracy of Pilate and Herod are clearly outlined (Psa 2:1-3 ; Act 4:25-27 ).
(11) All the farce of his trial the false accusation, his own marvelous silence; and the inhuman maltreatment to which he was subjected, is foreshown in the prophecy as dramatically as in the history (Mat 26:57-68 ; Mat 27:26-31 ; Psa 27:12 ; Psa 35:15-16 ; Psa 38:3 ; Psa 69:19 ).
The circumstances of his death, many and clear, are distinctly foreseen. He died in the prime of life (Psa 89:45 ; Psa 102:23-24 ). He died by crucifixion (Psa 22:14-17 ; Luk 23 ; 33; Joh 19:23-37 ; Joh 20:27 ). But yet not a bone of his body was broken (Psa 34:20 ; Joh 19:36 ).
The persecution, hatred without a cause, the mockery and insults, are all vividly and dramatically foretold (Psa 22:6-13 ; Psa 35:7 ; Psa 35:12 ; Psa 35:15 ; Psa 35:21 ; Psa 109:25 ).
The parting of his garments and the gambling for his vesture (Psa 22:18 ; Mat 27:35 ).
His intense thirst and the gall and vinegar offered for his drink (Psa 69:21 ; Mat 27:34 ).
In the psalms, too, we hear his prayers for his enemies so remarkably fulfilled in fact (Psa 109:4 ; Luk 23:34 ).
His spiritual death was also before the eye of the psalmist, and the very words which expressed it the psalmist heard. Separation from the Father is spiritual death. The sinner’s substitute must die the sinner’s death, death physical, i.e., separation of soul from body; death spiritual, i.e., separation of the soul from God. The latter is the real death and must precede the former. This death the substitute died when he cried out: “My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me.” (Psa 22:1 ; Mat 27:46 ).
Emerging from the darkness of that death, which was the hour of the prince of darkness, the psalmist heard him commend his spirit to the Father (Psa_31:35; Luk 23:46 ) showing that while he died the spiritual death, his soul was not permanently abandoned unto hell (Psa 16:8-10 ; Act 2:25 ) so that while he “tasted death” for every man it was not permanent death (Heb 2:9 ).
With equal clearness the psalmist foresaw his resurrection, his triumph over death and hell, his glorious ascension into heaven, and his exaltation at the right hand of God as King of kings and Lord of lords, as a high Driest forever, as invested with universal sovereignty (Psa 16:8-11 ; Psa 24:7-10 ; Psa 68:18 ; Psa 2:6 ; Psa 111:1-4 ; Psa 8:4-6 ; Act 2:25-36 ; Eph 1:19-23 ; Eph 4:8-10 ).
We see, therefore, brethren, when the scattered parts are put together and adjusted, how nearly complete a portrait of our Lord is put upon the prophetic canvas by this inspired limner, the sweet singer of Israel.
QUESTIONS
1. What is a good text for this chapter?
2. What is the threefold division of the Old Testament as cited by our Lord?
3. What is the last division called and why?
4. What is the object of the discussion in this chapter?
5. To what three things is the purpose limited?
6. What especially qualifies the author to meet the objections of the higher critics to allowing the New Testament usage of the Old Testament to determine its meaning and application?
7. What is the author’s conviction relative to the Scriptures?
8. What is the New Testament testimony on the question of inspiration?
9. What is the author’s suggested plan of approach to the study of the Messiah in the Psalms?
10. What the background of the Psalmist’s portrait of the Messiah and of what does it consist?
11. Give the substance of Paul’s discussion of man’s sinfulness.
12. What is the teaching of Jesus on this point?
13. What is the teaching relative to sacrifices?
14. What the nature, extent, and blessedness of the salvation to be wrought by the coming Messiah and what the four great elements of it as forecast by the psalmist?
15. What is the teaching of the psalms relative to the wondrous person of the Messiah? Discuss.
16. What are the offices of the Messiah according to psalms? Discuss each.
17. Cite the more important events of the Messiah’s life according to the vision of the psalmist.
18. What the circumstances of the Messiah’s death and resurrection as foreseen by the psalmist?
Fuente: B.H. Carroll’s An Interpretation of the English Bible
XV
PSALM AFTER DAVID PRIOR TO THE BABYLONIAN EXILE
The superscriptions ascribed to Asaph twelve palms (Psa 50 ; 73-83) Asaph, Heman, and Jeduthun presided over the Levitical singers in the time of David. Their sons also directed the various bands of musicians (1Ch 25 ). It seems that the family of Asaph for many generations continued to preside over the service of song (Cf. Ezr 3:10 ).
The theme of Psa 50 is “Obedience is better than sacrifice,” or the language of Samuel to Saul when he had committed the awful sin in respect to the Amalekites. This teaching is paralleled in many Old Testament scriptures, for instance, Psa 51:16-17 . For thou delightest not in sacrifice; else would I give it: Thou hast no pleasure in burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: A broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.
The problem of Psa 73 is the problem of why the wicked prosper (Psa 73:1-14 ), and its solution is found in the attitude of God toward the wicked (Psa 73:15-28 ). [For a fine exposition of the other psalms of this section see Kirkpatrick or Maclaren on the Psalms.]
The psalms attributed to the sons of Korah are Psa 42 ; Psa 44 ; Psa 45 ; Psa 47 ; Psa 48 ; Psa 49 ; Psa 84 ; Psa 85 ; Psa 87 . The evidence that Psalms 42-43 were one poem is internal. There are three stanzas, each closing with a refrain. The similarity of structure and thought indicates that they were formerly one psalm. A parallel to these two psalms we find in the escape of Christian from the Castle of Giant Despair in Pilgrim’s Progress .
Only two psalms were ascribed to Solomon, viz: Psa 72 and 127. However, the author believes that there is good reason to attribute Psa 72 to David. If he wrote it, then only one was written by Solomon.
The theme of Psa 72 is the reign of the righteous king, and the outline according to DeWitt, which shows the kingdom as desired and foretold, is as follows: (1) righteous (Psa 72:1-4 ) ; (2) perpetual (Psa 72:5-7 ); (3) universal (Psa 72:8-11 ); (4) benign (Psa 72:12-14 ); (5) prosperous (Psa 72:15-17 ).
Psa 127 was written when Solomon built the Temple. It is the central psalm of the psalms of the Ascents, which refer to the Temple. It seems fitting that this psalm should occupy the central position in the group, because of the occasion which inspired it and its relation to the other psalms of the group. A brief interpretation of it is as follows: The house here means household. It is a brief lyric, setting forth the lessons of faith and trust. This together with Psa 128 is justly called “A Song of Home.” Once in speaking to Baylor Female College I used this psalm, illustrating the function of a school as a parent sending forth her children into the world as mighty arrows. Again I used this psalm in one of my addresses in our own Seminary in which I made the household to refer to the Seminary sending forth the preachers as her children.
The psalms assigned to the era of Hezekiah and Isaiah are Psa 46 ; Psa 47 ; Psa 48 . The historical setting is found in the history of the reign of Hezekiel. Their application to Judah at this time is found in the historical connection, in which we have God’s great deliverances from the foreign powers, especially the deliverance from Sennacherib. We find in poetry a description of the destruction and desolation of Jerusalem in the Lamentations of Jeremiah and in Psa 74 ; Psa 79 .
The radical critics ascribe Psa 74 ; Psa 79 to the Maccabean period, and their argument is based upon the use of the word “synagogues,” in Psa 74:8 . The answer to their contention is found in the marginal rendering which gives “places of assembly” instead of “synagogues.” The word “synagogue” is a Greek word translated from the Hebrew, which has several meanings, and in this place means the “place of assembly” where God met his people.
The silence of the exile period is shown in Psa 137 , in which they respond that they cannot sing a song of Zion in a strange land. Their brightening of hope is seen in Psa 102 . In this we have the brightening of their hope on the eve of their return. In Psa 85:10 we have a great text:
Mercy and truth are met together;
Righteousness and peace have kissed each other.
The truth here is God’s law demanding justice; mercy is God’s grace meeting justice. This was gloriously fulfilled in Christ on the cross. He met the demands of the law and offers mercy and grace to all who accept them on the terms of repentance and faith.
Three characteristics of Psa 119 are, first, it is an alphabetical psalm; second, it is the longest chapter in the Bible, and third, it is an expansion of the latter part of Psa 19 . Psalms 146-150 were used for worship in the second temple. The expressions of innocence in the psalms do not refer to original sin, but to a course of conduct in contrast with wicked lives. The psalmists do not claim absolute, but relative sinlessness.
The imprecations in the psalms are real prayers, and are directed against real men who were enemies of David and the Jewish nation, but they are not expressions of personal resentment. They are vigorous expressions of righteous indignation against incorrigible enemies of God and his people and are to be interpreted in the light of progressive revelation. The New Testament contains many exultant expressions of the overthrow of the wicked. (Cf. 1Co 16:22 ; 2Ti 4:14 ; Gal 5:12 ; Rev 16:5-6 ; Rev 18:20 .) These imprecations do not teach that we, even in the worst circumstances, should bear personal malice, nor take vengeance on the enemies of righteousness, but that we should live so close to God that we may acquiesce in the destruction of the wicked and leave the matter of vengeance in the hands of a just God, to whom vengeance belongs (Rom 12:19-21 ).
The clearest teachings on the future life as found in the psalms, both pro and con, are found in these passages, as follows: Psa 16:10-11 ; Psa 17:15 ; Psa 23:6 ; Psa 49:15 ; Psa 73:23-26 . The passages that are construed to the contrary are found in Psa 6:5 ; Psa 30:9 ; Psa 39:13 ; Psa 88:10-12 ; Psa 115:17 . The student will compare these passages and note carefully their teachings. The first group speaks of the triumph over Sheol (the resurrection) ; about awaking in the likeness of God; about dwelling in the house of the Lord forever; about redemption from the power of Sheol; and God’s guiding counsel and final reception into glory, all of which is very clear and unmistakable teaching as to the future life.
The second group speaks of DO remembrance in death; about no profit to the one when he goes down to the pit; of going hence and being no more; about the dead not being able to praise God and about the grave as being the land of forgetfulness ; and about the dead not praising Jehovah, all of which are spoken from the standpoint of the grave and temporal death.
There is positively no contradiction nor discrepancy in the teaching of these scriptures. One group takes the spirit of man as the viewpoint and teaches the continuity of life, the immortality of the soul; the other group takes the physical being of man as the viewpoint and teaches the dissolution of the body and its absolute unconsciousness in the grave.
QUESTIONS
1. How many and what psalms were ascribed to Asaph?
2. Who presided over the Levitical singers in the time of David?
3. What is the theme of Psa 50 , and where do we find the same teaching in the Old Testament?
4. What is the problem of Psa 73 , and what its solution?
5. What psalms are attributed to the sons of Korah?
6. What is the evidence that Psalms 42-43 were one poem and what the characteristic of these two taken together?
7. What parallel to these two psalms do we find in modern literature?
8. What psalms were ascribed to Solomon?
9. What is the theme of Psa 72 ?
10. What is the outline according to DeWitt, which shows the kingdom as desired and foretold?
11. When was Psa 127 written and what the application as a part of the Pilgrim group?
12. Give a brief interpretation of it and the uses made of it by the author on two different occasions.
13. What psalms are assigned to the era of Hezekiah and Isaiah, and what their historical setting?
14. What is their application to Judah at this time?
15. Where may we find in poetry a description of the destruction and desolation of Jerusalem?
16. To what period do radical critics ascribe Psalms 74-79; what is their argument, and what is your answer?
17. Which psalm shows the silence of the exile period and why?
18. Which one shows their brightening of hope?
19. Explain Psa 85:10 .
20. Give three characteristics of Psa 119 .
21. What use was made of Psalms 146-150?
22. Explain the expression of innocence in the psalms in harmony with their teaching of sin.
23. Explain the imprecations in the psalms and show their harmony with New Testament teachings.
24. Cite the clearest teachings on the future life as found in the psalms, both pro and con.
Fuente: B.H. Carroll’s An Interpretation of the English Bible
Psa 87:1 A Psalm [or] Song for the sons of Korah. His foundation [is] in the holy mountains.
A Psalm or Song ] Made, likely, by David, after that he had settled the ark in Mount Sion, 2Sa 6:1-23 , and understood that the temple should be built in Mount Moriah; in which two mountains (or rather one mountain with two tops) the Rabbis say that this psalm was composed, and thereunto they draw the next words, “His foundation,” or the argument of this psalm, is in and of those holy mountains. But this seemeth not to be the sense.
Ver. 1. His foundation is in the holy mountains ] Which cannot be removed, but abide for ever, Psa 125:1 . Some read it, The foundation thereof, viz. of the temple, but especially of the Church universal, that spiritual temple (built of living stones by God, the best architect, Christ himself being the chief cornerstone), is in the holy mountains; for out of Zion went forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem; which is therefore called the mother Church, and , the chief Church, the reef of the Gentile Churches, Rom 11:1-36 , the conversion whereof is here foretold, Psa 87:1 , and perpetual happiness promised (Damasc. l.
4. c. 13).
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
This is “For the sons of Korah, a psalm, a song.” As Christ the Lord is the sole key to the preceding psalms, which bring together Israel poor and needy looking to Him, and all nations coming to worship before Him, so it explains the divine spring of Israel’s patriotism. For all others it is self, the first man. Mere justice might and must have cut all down: grace counts that This man was born (not crucified!) there. But grace indeed can recall many an elder that obtained a good report through faith. Zion is Jehovah’s foundation, he loves its very gates. In vain do the seats of the world’s power, wisdom, and wealth, exalt themselves.
Fuente: William Kelly Major Works (New Testament)
NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Psa 87:1-7
1His foundation is in the holy mountains.
2The Lord loves the gates of Zion
More than all the other dwelling places of Jacob.
3Glorious things are spoken of you,
O city of God. Selah.
4I shall mention Rahab and Babylon among those who know Me;
Behold, Philistia and Tyre with Ethiopia:
This one was born there.’
5But of Zion it shall be said, This one and that one were born in her;
And the Most High Himself will establish her.
6The Lord will count when He registers the peoples,
This one was born there. Selah.
7Then those who sing as well as those who play the flutes shall say,
All my springs of joy are in you.
Psa 87:1 foundation This Hebrew root (BDB 414) has several connotations.
1. used in Ezr 7:9 as the beginning of something
2. foundation of a city – Psa 137:7; Lam 4:11; Mic 1:6
3. laying a foundation in a figurative sense – Isa 28:16
4. creation of the earth – 2Sa 22:16; Psa 18:16; Psa 78:69; Psa 82:5; Isa 24:18; Isa 40:21; Jer 31:37
5. imagery related to mountains – Deu 32:22; Psa 18:7
6. from the day of the foundation of the temple – 2Ch 8:16 or its side chambers – Eze 41:8
the holy mountains Mountains symbolize
1. permanence
2. stability
3. closeness to God (Psa 121:1)
4. pillars of the earth
In this context it obviously is imagery connected to
1. Jerusalem/Zion (cf. Psa 2:6; Psa 48:1)
2. the temple
3. the covenant people
The plural may relate to the fact that Jerusalem was built on seven hills. For Zion see notes online at Psa 2:6; Psa 9:11; Psa 20:2.
YHWH is linked to several mountains.
1. Mt. Sinai/Horeb (Exodus 19-20)
2. Mt. Seir/Paran (Deu 33:2; Hab 3:3)
3. Mt. Moriah (Genesis 22; Eze 20:40)
4. a mountain in the north (cf. Psa 48:2; Isa 14:13; Eze 28:14; Eze 28:16)
Psa 87:2 This refers to Jerusalem/Zion and Judah (cf. Psa 78:67-68). Judah was to be the tribe of the Messiah (cf. Gen 49:8-12). Jacob refers to all the tribes that descended from Jacob/Israel. It became a collective term for the covenant people.
The Lord loves YHWH’s love for Jerusalem is also specifically stated in Psa 78:68. It is His chosen place (cf. Psa 132:13).
city of God This refers to Jerusalem (cf. Psa 46:4; Psa 48:8). See Special Topic: Jerusalem.
Selah This term seems to close a literary unit, see Psa 87:6. For full note on the suggested meanings see Psa 3:2.
Psa 87:4 I shall mention This verb (BDB 289, KB 269, Hiphil imperfect) can be understood as record (BDB 271, #4, as the title of a public officer who records (cf. 2Sa 8:16; 2Sa 20:24; 1Ki 4:3; 2Ki 18:18; 2Ki 18:37; 1Ch 18:15; 2Ch 34:8; Isa 36:3; Isa 36:22), thereby linking it to the idea of a city registry (Psa 87:5-6).
among those who know Me This implies that Gentiles from these countries have become believers and followers of YHWH. They are now citizens of the new eschatological city of God, New Jerusalem (cf. Revelation 21).
See Special Topic: Know .
Psa 87:4-5 The psalmist lists several nations.
1. Rahab (i.e., Egypt, cf. Psa 89:10; Isa 30:7)
2. Babylon (one wonders why Assyria is not mentioned, possibly giving an indication of the date of the Psalm’s composition)
3. Philistia
4. Tyre (i.e., Phoenicia)
5. Ethiopia (i.e., Cush)
The purpose of their being mentioned is to compare their origins. In a sense all the nations came from God’s sovereignty (cf. LXX, Deu 32:8), but Israel was His special people (cf. Exo 19:5-6; Rom 9:4-5).
Psa 87:5 The first line of Psa 87:5 is difficult but in context of the universal emphasis of Psa 87:4, I think it refers to believers in YHWH having their citizenship transferred to God’s holy cityZion.
Psa 87:6 registers The imagery is that of the list of citizens kept by ANE cities. In a symbolic way it will show Israel was from Zion, God’s special city, the unique place of the worship of YHWH (cf. Psa 87:7).
See SPECIAL TOPIC: THE TWO BOOKS OF GOD of God.
Psa 87:7 springs The term (BDB 745) is used in the symbolic sense of origins or the source of God’s people (cf. Deu 33:28).
Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley
Title. A Psalm. Hebrew. mizmor. App-65.
Song. Hebrew. shir. App-65.
for the sons of Korah: i.e. of or by them. This title is repeated in the sub-scription after Psa 87:7, to emphasise the occasion of its use in bringing up the Ark to Zion by David (951BC, a Sabbatic year). See note there, and on Title of Psalm 24.
His: i.e. Jehovah’s (which He has laid in Zion).
holy. See note on Exo 3:5.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Psa 87:1-7 :
His foundation is in the holy mountains. The LORD loves the gates of Zion more than all of the dwellings of Jacob ( Psa 87:1-2 ).
So it’s sort of a psalm which extols the city of Jerusalem which is known as Zion also.
Glorious things are spoken of thee, O city of God. I will make mention of Rahab and Babylon to them that know me: behold Philistia, and Tyre, with Ethiopia; this man was born there ( Psa 87:3-4 ).
Now I don’t understand that particular verse, so no comment.
And of Zion it shall be said, This and that man was born in her ( Psa 87:5 ):
I guess these people were born in other cities and so forth, but of Zion it will be said, “This man was born in her,”
and the Highest himself shall establish her. The LORD shall count, when he writeth up the people, that this man was born there. As well the singers as the players on instruments shall be there: all my springs are in thee ( Psa 87:5-7 ).
Now that last part is the thing that inspires me. “All my springs are in Thee.” God, You are the source of life. All of my springs are in Thee. And I draw my life, Lord, from Thee. The source-giver of life. “
Fuente: Through the Bible Commentary
Psa 87:1-3
GLORIOUS THINGS OF THEE ARE SPOKEN
The title we have chosen here is the title of a famous hymn which is founded upon this psalm. It is set to the music of the Austrian National Hymn, composed by Franz Joseph Haydn, and the words are those of John Newman.
Glorious things of thee are spoken.
Zion, City of our God!
He whose word cannot be broken
Formed thee for his own abode.
On the Rock of Ages founded,
What can shake thy sure repose?
With salvation’s walls surrounded,
Thou mayest smile at all thy foes.
“This marvelous little psalm is a prophecy of the glorification of the Church universal, when all the nations of the world have come into it. “It is a Korahitic psalm; it is also prophetic of the time when God’s chosen and beloved city shall become the birthplace of all nations.
What a wonderful way of saying that “The word of the Lord shall go forth from Jerusalem,” and that souls of every nation under heaven will be born into the New Jerusalem of God’s Church. Born in Jerusalem? Indeed yes, by means of the New Birth.
There are only two divisions in the psalm: (1) Psa 87:1-3, and (2) Psa 87:4-6, with a final exclamation in Psa 87:7.
The occasion for this psalm is unknown, but some have suggested that it might have been following the destruction of the Assyrian Army in the days of Hezekiah, following which, all the nations of the world of that era sent gifts and presents to Hezekiah in honor of the occasion.
Psa 87:1-3
ZION IS GOD’S DWELLING PLACE
“His foundation is in the holy mountains.
Jehovah loveth the gates of Zion
More than all the dwellings of Jacob.
Glorious things are spoken of thee, O city of God.
(Selah)”
“In the holy mountains” (Psa 87:1). God’s foundations are there in the holy mountains. Their holiness is due to God’s presence there, not the other way around. God is not there because the mountains are holy, but they are holy because God is there.
“God loveth the gates of Zion” (Psa 87:2). This choice of Zion as God’s dwelling place on earth is as inscrutable as his choice of the “Seed of Abraham” through whom God would bring the Christ and salvation to all men.
“Glorious things are spoken of thee, O city of God” (Psa 87:3). These words announce that God Himself is about to speak “glorious things of the city of God,” the wonderful words spoken in the next three verses.
E.M. Zerr:
Psa 87:1. His refers to the Lord who was named in the last verse of the preceding chapter. Holy mountains is figurative, meaning that the Lord has founded his institutions on a high plane, far above the characteristics of the world.
Psa 87:2. This is another use of contrasts similar to that in ch. 84:10. The words contrasted are gates and dwellings, and Zion and Jacob. Gates would ordinarily be inferior to dwellings, and Jacob (the people in general) would be inferior to Zion which is the capital of the nation. David means that the Lord prefers the capital of the nation above the nation aside from the capital. That is appropriate, for a nation without the right kind of capital would be weak.
Psa 87:3. Things is not in the original as a separate word. Glorious is from KABED, and Strong defines it, “numerous, rich, honorable; to make weighty.” City of God refers to Zion, the capital of the nation, and headquarters of the religious activities of God’s people. The verse means that many and important things may, and have been said of that wonderful city of God. See comments at Psa 3:2 for Selah.
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
This is a prophecy. The singer is looking on. The order of the earthly realisation of the Kingdom of God is seen as established. First, the city is contemplated at the centre of everything, with Jehovah as its God. Then the peoples of the earth are seen in their true relation to that city.
It is a most remarkable utterance. Though brief, it is as comprehensive and full of beauty as any of the inspired predictions. Without specific statement, the sovereingty of God is taken for granted. There is no argument given for this. It is a fact beyond dispute and needing no proof. Thus God has the city of His chosen people as the centre and foundation of His administration. His love is set upon the city, and her fame is wide-spread; glorious things are spoken of her. The outcome is seen in the effect produced upon the surrounding peoples. Her ancient enemies are finally to be born, that is realise their true life, through this governing city of God.
This is the highest function of the chosen people according to the purpose of God. Under His government they are to bring the other nations to Him, so that they also shall find their highest in His Kingdom. This is not a story of Israel conquering by force of arms, but of that higher victory not yet won, when by manifestation and administration of the Divine government, the peoples shall dance and sing in the finding of their fountains and fulness in God.
Fuente: An Exposition on the Whole Bible
Citizens of Zion
Psa 87:1-7
This psalm blends in one great congregation the ancient foes of Israel and the Chosen People. It is a vision of the Holy Universal Church. The Selahs divide it into three parts:
Psa 87:1-3
This is an outburst of rapturous praise. Zions foundations are in the mountains, and her gates are dear to God. Far and wide men recount her glories and triumphs. But how much greater is the glory of the Church, which is founded on Christs finished work and ruled by Him from heaven. The Church is indwelt by the Holy Spirit, and a light shines from her into all the world.
Psa 87:4-6
The ancient enemies of Zion contribute their children to the Church. Egypt or Rahab no longer dreaded and despised; Babylon no longer detested for its tyranny; Philistia and Ethiopia, once far off, now made nigh. They come from the East and West, and sit down at the feast of fat things of which Isaiah sang, Isa 25:6.
Psa 87:7
A triumphal procession passes before us, confessing that the springs of the true life are to be found in the Church, because they are fed from the great depths of Eternal Love and Life.
Fuente: F.B. Meyer’s Through the Bible Commentary
Psalm 87
Zion and Its Coming Glories
Another Korah Psalm. Zion is the object of Jehovahs love where He will manifest His glory. Glorious things are spoken of the city of God. This we learn from many visions of the prophets. When these prophecies are fulfilled and the glory has come, then Rahab (pride–Egypt) and Babylon shall know, as well as Philistia, Tyre and Cush. Nations will be born again and turn to the Lord and share the blessings of the kingdom. Then the singers will sing All my springs are in Thee, in Him who dwelleth in Zion. The Christian believer gives now this testimony and knows its blessed truth, that Christ is all and in Him we have all our resources. But what will it be when nations with Zion shall know this!
Fuente: Gaebelein’s Annotated Bible (Commentary)
for: or, of
His: 2Ch 3:1, Isa 28:16, Mat 16:18, 1Co 3:10, 1Co 3:11, Eph 2:20-22, 1Pe 2:4-8
the holy: Psa 48:1, Psa 48:2, Psa 68:16, Psa 121:1, Isa 2:2, Isa 2:3, Isa 56:7, Zec 8:3, 2Pe 1:18
Reciprocal: 1Ki 14:21 – the city 2Ch 32:19 – the God Psa 15:1 – holy Psa 68:15 – of God Psa 99:9 – his holy Psa 122:2 – General Isa 14:32 – the Lord Jer 31:23 – and mountain Dan 9:16 – thy holy Joe 2:1 – in my Zep 3:11 – because of my holy Joh 4:20 – and ye
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
THE HOLY HILLS
Her foundations are upon the holy hills.
Psa 87:1 (Prayer Book Version)
The Psalmist, in his lovely songs, speaks to us sometimes as an historian, at other times as a prophet. There is yet another mode of interpretation, which belongs, indeed, to all Scripture, but especially to the Psalms, that which is called mystical: namely, where the reference may be either historical or prophetical, or both, according as each devout soul loves to understand it. The text is an instance of this latter kind. The occasion and origin of this psalm being doubtful, no man can positively say what was the exact train of thought passing through the mind of the sweet singer of Israel when he thus expressed himself. There were many holy hills of sacred association in the history of Gods people of old to which he may have referred. There was Ararat; there was the hill of Moriah; the Mount of Horeb; Hor, where Aaron the High Priest was stripped of his garments and died; Nebo, from whose summit Moses saw the promised land and died in solemn solitude, God burying him; and many others which might fairly come under the description of holy hills, and which might with equal truth and spiritual significance be described as the foundations of Zion.
I. For what is meant by Zion?Surely, here there can be no doubt. By Zion is meant Gods Church, whether the Church of the Patriarchs, the Church of the Wilderness, the Church of the Prophets, or later still, the Church of Christ. And when the Holy Spirit tells us that the Lord loveth the gates of Zion more than all the dwellings of Jacob, I see here an allusion to the sad divisions which rend Christendom to-day. Fortunately, as has been often said, Men are better than their systems, and doubtless many Dissenters will be saved and many Church people cast out when the great day of reckoning comes. But this does not justify either the corporate or the individual separation from Gods Zion (that is, His Church) which is the one great sin of schismatic bodies. This, however, by the way. Let us look at the gradual formation of the Catholic Church, and see whether she too has not, in even greater prominence than the Churches of old, her Holy Hills; nay, further, whether these Holy Hills be not the very foundations of that city of which its Founder hath said that being set on a hill it cannot be hid.
II. You must have noticed that nearly all the chief acts of Christs life and work are connected with mountains or hills.Nay, before that precious life was manifested unto men, at the very instant, as it were, of its first conception; scarcely had the Angel of God announced to Mary the wondrous message, and that message had been accepted in the words of bewildered compliance, Behold the handmaid of the Lord, be it unto me according to Thy word; scarcely had all this taken place when we read (St. Luk 1:39), And Mary arose in those days, and went into the hill country with haste. Yes, truly, it was a hill country to which Jesus came when He graciously vouchsafed to tabernacle among men.
Rev. J. Harry Buchanan.
Illustration
The words that pious Jews spoke of Jerusalem may be addressed by us to the Church of the Lord Jesus, using that term as the Apostle Paul uses it, of all those who believe in Him, and hold Him as their Head.
The Church is founded on the mountains of Gods righteousness and power, raised above the mists that brood in the valleys, in close converse with heaven.
Glorious things of thee are spoken,
Zion, City of our God!
He whose word cannot be broken,
Chose thee for His own abode.
To that city all nations shall send their tributary streams.
Fuente: Church Pulpit Commentary
His testimony to His servants.
A psalm-song of the sons of Korah.
The eighty-seventh psalm, short as it is, is by its very conciseness open to different interpretations, and is essentially a “deep saying” -a problem to be resolved by the spiritual mind alone. Almost any translation of it must have more or less of the character of interpretation: as, for instance, if we only translate in verses 4 and 6, “that [man],” man is not in the original, and most, perhaps, would rather understand for it, “nation.” The result would be to make the psalm a celebration of the conversion of the world to God: each people named being assigned to Zion as its spiritual birth-place. Similarly the ascription of the seventh verse would be to Zion. Cheyne says: “Born there is of course to be explained by the familiar Jewish saying that a proselyte is like a new-born.” In this way of considering it, there would be a certain connection with the previous psalm in its ninth verse: “all nations whom Thou hast made shall come and worship before Thee.” But there are two objections to this: the first, that the connection here seems rather incidental than essential; the second, that (according to the prophecies of the period referred to) there is no promise of Babylon and Philistia being converted to God; but the reverse, as we may see directly. We shall have, however, to take up the psalm; as is evident, with more than ordinary care.
The seven verses have an unusual division into 3. 3. 1: which seems however to be that of the very first seven in Scripture, -the creative days (Gen 1:1-31; Gen 2:1-3).
1. The first three verses plainly speak of Zion as the object of Jehovah’s love, Zion itself means “fixed:” and that is what stands out clearly as to the time contemplated. Like Jerusalem which is above, it is the “city which has foundations”; and these are in the holy mountains, images of the fixed, enduring holiness of God Himself. The foundations of the heavenly city are like the jeweled breast-plate of the high-priest, the Urim and Thummim, the “lights and perfections” of Him who is Perfect Light. The stability of the city depends upon there being in it the display in glory of all that God is. It exists because He exists. It abides because He abides. So, on its lower level, with the city below. It is the place of His rest; and rest He never can, except as the requirements of His nature are met and satisfied: there is nothing to produce a note of discord. On the holy mountains is His foundation.
There then His heart is free; and, being so, is poured forth in love: “Jehovah loveth the gates of Zion more than all the dwellings of Jacob.” His love is active; and these gates are the symbol of activity, -the place of ingress and egress, -the place where wisdom cries and justice is transacted, and which stands for all its busy life, -the city itself, as it were. Zion the royal city is in closest connection with those “dwellings of Jacob” which also -every one of them -Jehovah loves, and therefore loves most of all what is their supremest expression. The “dwellings of Jacob” imply, as we know, not human righteousness but divine grace; and Zion is royalty in grace, as the seventy-eighth psalm has pointed out to us (68-70). “Glorious things” may indeed well “be spoken” therefore of the “city of God.”
2. The second section now speaks of a certain testimony which God is giving: “I will make mention of Rahab (pride) and Babel (confusion) to them that know Me: behold Philistia and Tyre, with Cush: this [man] was born there.” Here comes, however, the question of interpretation before pointed out. Moll with others would translate, “as those that know Me,” which it is allowed it may be rendered; and Delitzsch similarly remarks that the meaning is “for what purpose, or as what these kingdoms, hitherto hostile towards God and His people, shall be declared: Jehovah completes what He Himself has brought about, inasmuch as He publicly and solemnly declares them to be those who know Him, i.e. those who experimentally know Him as their God. Accordingly it is clear that ‘This one was born there’ is also meant to refer to the conversion of the other three nations to whom the finger of God points. . . . This one, does not refer to the individuals, nor to the sum-total of these nations, but to nation after nation; by fixing the eye upon each one separately. And ‘there’, refers to Zion . . . nations which are born in Zion. The poet does not combine with this the idea of being born again in the depth of its New Testament meaning: he means, however, that the nations will attain a right of citizenship in Zion as in their second mother-city, that they will therefore at any rate experience a spiritual change which, regarded from the New Testament point of view, is the new birth out of water and the Spirit.”
This is happily not a question of the language used; and therefore all are capable of deciding it by plain Scripture. The first of these nations, Rahab, is Egypt; and of Egypt God has indeed prophesied blessing as well as of Assyria. These will be, in days to come, conterminous with Israel’s territory; and in that day shall there be a highway out of Egypt to Assyria, and the Assyrian shall come into Egypt, and the Egyptian into Assyria, and the Egyptians shall serve with the Assyrians. In that day shall Israel be the third with Egypt and with Assyria, even a blessing in the midst of the land: whom Jehovah of hosts shall bless, saying, Blessed be Egypt My people, and Assyria the work of My hands, and Israel Mine inheritance” (Isa 19:23-25).
Thus Scripture predicts with perfect plainness the blessing of Egypt; and had it been Assyria that we found connected with her, there could have been no question raised as to the suitableness of the interpretation given by the writers mentioned, as far as these two were concerned. But where we might have expected Assyria, we find Babel, and a very different future is assigned to Babel: “For I will rise up against them, saith Jehovah of hosts, and cut off from Babylon the name and remnant and son and nephew, saith Jehovah. I will also make it a possession for the bittern and pools of water, and I will sweep it with the besom of destruction; said’ Jehovah of hosts” (Isa 14:22-23). The definiteness of the prediction in the one case shows that this in the psalm is not one.
Philistia is also threatened to be destroyed without inhabitant (Zep 2:5; Amo 1:8), her land to be possessed by Judah. This is another witness that the psalmist does not prophesy the conversion of these nations to God. This interpretation being purely conjectural and opposed to other scriptures, cannot be maintained; while to apply it merely to individuals out of these nations in the same way would be to deprive it of any particular importance, and from another side destroy it as a prophecy.
But if not a prophecy, then it can only be a contrast that is drawn here, between the countries named and their great men; and Zion and hers in the next verse; and this is perfectly natural, after dwelling upon the glory of Zion itself. The world boasts its heroes, and has ever boasted: the fame of the men of Egypt and Babylon is in our ears today -of kings, conquerors, builders, who speak to us in perished languages, from their uncovered monuments. Really, it would seem as if God were permitting all these nations to tell their own story of the men born in them, and that we may contrast it with the voices of the men of Zion, men of a feeble, despised, and scattered people, which yet strangely move us as no others do. On the one hand, the dead past speaks to us from its unsealed sepulchre, a memorial of doom which its own words justify and we cannot regret: there is in it no title to resurrection. On the other, there are voices that never die, -living and life-giving, -that proclaim not their own praise, but ascribe greatness unto God, and live eternally by their own hold of the Eternal. On the one hand, the voice is single -in each generation but a single voice; some king for whom his kingdom seems alone to have existed, and who tells us how many he has slaughtered, that he might have room to dwell in. On the other, the voice of many in chorus, the king of Israel with the gatherer of sycamore fruit, each having his part in a strain which, though it may be often sad, is never discordant, and which ends in triumphant harmony. Aye, “of Zion it may be said that this man and that was born in her, and the Highest Himself establisheth her.” How else, indeed, can the mystery of this be explained? And it shall be fully seen in the day to which the psalm looks on.
But this is not all; nay, all would be left out, if this were to be taken as all. Jehovah’s voice has not been heard directly yet; and plainly we shall never get a perfect knowledge of things, except He guide us. He too is the One who “writeth down the peoples,” -takes account of all with no mere local or national partiality, but in absolute righteousness and truth. Strange then it may seem that now, when we have His reckoning of things, even Zion’s count of her great men is gone. In all history there seems now but One Name. One Person takes the place of every other. “Jehovah counteth, when He writeth down the peoples, that THIS Man was born there.”
3. An enigma, is it? Couched in abrupt, enigmatical language, indeed: but as a secret which expects that we should fathom. And suddenly there bursts out as from a multitude, in songs and with instruments to swell the melody, another voice as enigmatical, and yet with the same appeal to our intelligence, -as if there were no possibility of going wrong in the interpretation of it; a voice which is one and individual, and yet the voice of all; a response echoing Jehovah’s claim for the One Man of His approval: “All my springs are in Thee.”
The Christian heart can translate this, and the Christian only. It is not that the Lord whom they have served does not appreciate the service of His people. It is not that their names can be forgotten with Him. But it is the Old Testament version of what has come out in full reality in the gospel of our salvation; -the truth that, for salvation, the cross of Christ had to be our all: death and judgment had to do their awful work upon our Substitute and Saviour; and thus God pronounced upon man; thus He had to put him away from His sight, that He might show us mercy. Those who believe are now therefore by the cross “dead with Christ” and “buried with Christ,” so as to be accepted in Another raised from the dead, His work accomplished.
How plain, therefore, that there is but One Man; whom God sees, the perfect Servant of His perfect will; and that Zion’s great men can only come in before God thus. How well may they sing, and how surely they know to Whom they sing, “All my springs are in Thee”! The glory of Zion; the dwelling-place of God in Israel, is found in Him.
Thus the two psalms here come into their place with one another. The servants’ path in the one finds its recognition from God in the other; and the One perfect Servant is distinguished from, while seen to be the sufficiency and boast, of every other. Thus the work of salvation is seen once more to be for holiness.
Fuente: Grant’s Numerical Bible Notes and Commentary
Psa 87:1. His foundation Namely, the foundation of the city, or temple of God, of which he speaks in the following verses. The psalmists thoughts, we may suppose, were strongly fixed upon the temple and city of God; he had them full in his view, and was contemplating the glories of them, and at length breaks out into this abrupt expression, which has a reference, though not to what he had written before, yet to what he had deeply thought of; nor was his meaning obscure to any one who knew what had been the subject of his meditation. Thus Dr. Horne: The psalmist having meditated on the strength, the beauty, and the glory of the holy city, and imagining the thoughts of his hearers or readers to have been employed on the same subject, breaks forth at once in this abrupt manner. Is in the holy mountains Hebrew, , beharree kodesh, the mountains of holiness; by which he means those mountains, or hills of Judea, which God had chosen and separated to himself from all others, whereon to construct the highly-favoured city and temple, namely, mount Zion, mount Moriah, and other lesser hills. They are called holy mountains, or mountains of holiness, because the city and temple were, in a peculiar sense, consecrated to God, and because God in an especial manner dwelt therein, the ark of his presence being fixed there. The doctrines, and merits, and laws of Christ are those holy mountains on which his church, here typified by the city and temple of Jerusalem, is built; for it is built on Christ our Prophet, Priest, and King, and other foundation than this can no man lay. It is founded in and on holiness; Christ is a holy Prophet, a holy Priest, and a holy King; his doctrine, and merits and laws are all holy. And holiness is the strength and stability of his church; that, and that alone, will support it, and keep it from sinking: not so much, says Henry, that it is built upon mountains, as that it is built on holy mountains; upon the word and promise of the holy God, for the confirming of which he hath sworn by his holiness; upon the mediation of his holy Son, who was manifested to take away our sins, and gave himself for his church, that he might sanctify and cleanse it; and upon the sanctifying influence of his holy Spirit and holy laws, all which, taken together, secure both the holiness and happiness of its members.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Psa 87:1. His foundation is in the holy mountains. The hills of Zion and Moriah were both holy. The exordium is bold and abrupt. Mystically, the spiritual Zion, built on the foundation of the prophets and apostles, is understood.
Psa 87:2. The dwellings of Jacob; that is, the synagogues, to whom the temple was the common parent, and centre of unity. Respecting the levites it is said, 2Ch 35:3, that they taught all Israel; the existence of the synagogues must therefore have been coval with their order.
Psa 87:4. Rahab. An ancient name for the middle district of Egypt, which among the Arabians is called Rib, or Rif, because of its strength and pride. So Psalms 89. Thou hast broken Rahab in pieces, as one slain. So Job 26:12. He smiteth through the proud. The Hebrew is, Rahab. St. Peter, by the like figure, calls Rome, Babylon. 1Pe 5:13.Ethiopia. The Hebrew, both here, and in all other passages where this word occurs, is Cush. Psa 68:3. He was the firstborn of Ham, whose posterity inhabited Africa, Gen 10:6, westward of Egypt.
Psa 87:6. This man was born there. The Jews had been of the lowest repute in the great cities, but hereafter a record should be kept of illustrious men born in Zion; and it would speak of apostles, martyrs, and confessors in the church.
Psa 87:7. All my springs are in thee. See on Psa 46:4. 2Ch 32:30. Jerusalem, being in the bosom of mountains, was a well-watered city, which is understood of the fountains of living water opened in the heart. Joh 7:38.
REFLECTIONS.
This beautiful and favourite psalm celebrates, as does also Psalms 48., the glories of Zion. The rock on which the city stood, her walls, and her towers, all show that God is the rock of his church; and that the glory of his dwelling, and throne of his holiness, are in the midst of Zion. Hence, the foundation of God standeth sure. Of all the dwellings of Jacob, the Lord gave Zion the preference; for Zion, Moriah, and the sanctuary, are regarded as one. Here Isaac was presented to God on the altar, here JEHOVAH covenanted with a worm, here the destroying angel stayed his hand, here fire fell from heaven, and the divine glory fixed its residence in the holy place. Hence, when we enter the Lords house, ten thousand sacred subjects should strike the mind, and warm the affections. His temple is full of glory, and his hands are loaded with blessings for a needy people.
Glorious things are spoken of Gods Zion. In this place will I give peace, saith the Lord of hosts; in this place will I meet with thee and bless thee. I will fill it with my glory, and here will I dwell for ever.
The next part of Zions glory is the conversion of the whole gentile world. He will make mention in his records of Rahab, the proud Egyptian; of the black Ethiopian, who shall soon stretch out his hands to God; of Babylon, as head of the oriental nations; and of Tyre, whose commerce was a key to the nations of the north, and to the gentiles in the west.
Zion shall be so glorious that all nations, when converted, shall glory in their spiritual birth. The Messiah confers the privilege of being born from above, on those who believe on his name. Then they are nobly born, they are free indeed, and heirs of the promises. Of this family he is himself the firstborn, that in all things he might have the preminence. He keeps a register of their names, and when he opens his book of life, he shall from the heavenly genealogy make it manifest that this man, and that man, were born there, of water and of the Spirit.
All Gods springs are in Zion. Hence also when the thirsty soul pants for grace, as the hunted hart for the water brooks, God shall refresh it with the sweet fountains of life. Public ordinances, and private fellowship with his people, shall open the wells of salvation to the believing heart.
Fuente: Sutcliffe’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
LXXXVII. Zion the Mother of all Yahwehs People.When this Ps. was written, the Jews were scattered everywhere in the known world. But every true Jew recognised Jerusalem as his mother city. The glory of Zion was due to the establishment there of Davids court and to the great principle of the Deuteronomic reform, one Yahweh and one altar, viz. at Jerusalem. Attempt was made by interpolation in ancient records (see Gen 14:18-20* and Gen 22:2*) to carry the consecration of Jerusalem back into patriarchal times.
Psa 87:3. are spoken: read, he speaketh.
Psa 87:4-5 a. A short speech by Yahweh. Render, because of them that know (or acknowledge) me, i.e. the Jews who are settled there. Rahab (Job 9:13*, Job 26:12, Isa 51:9*) was a mythical sea-monster, identified here with Egypt (cf. Isa 30:7*). Many Jews had been born in Egypt, Babylon, etc., but their spiritual birthplace was in Jerusalem.
Psa 87:5 a. Read I call Zion mother; every one was born there (LXX), whatever the place of his physical birth may have been, if he be a true Jew.
Psa 87:6. when he writeth up: read, in the register of peoples (LXX).
Psa 87:7. The dance and song are sacred, and the springs are metaphorical.
Fuente: Peake’s Commentary on the Bible
PSALM 87
The glory of Zion established as the city of God.
(vv. 1-3) The psalm opens with celebrating the glory of Zion. Men may found other cities; but Zion is the city of Jehovah’s foundation. Not only is it thus firmly established, but its foundations are secure because built on the mountains of holiness. It is established on a righteous foundation. Being holy Jehovah loveth its gates – the place of concourse and government, and therefore the symbol of the active life of the city. Glorious things are spoken of this city. It is not simply a place where great events have happened, but a city of which a glorious future is foretold. In contrast to all other cities it is the city of God.
God is its builder; God has given it a firm foundation; God has established it in holiness; God delights in Zion; God has spoken glorious things of Zion; it is the city of God.
(vv. 4-5) Jehovah appears to be the speaker in verses 4 and 5. Amongst them that know Him, He calls attention to the great cities of earth, and the nations that had surrounded Israel. Rahab (or Egypt Psa 89:10; Isa 51:9), Babylon, Philistia, Tyre and Ethiopia, had their great men in whom they boasted. But the fame of Jehovah’s people would be that they belong to Zion, the city established by the Most High.
(v. 6) The godly, responding to Jehovah, say, Jehovah will count, when he inscribeth the peoples, This man was born there (JND). The godly realize that, in the day to come, those connected by grace with Zion will have a place of pre-eminence above all the peoples.
(v. 7) The closing verse indicates that all earthly joy will have its centre and spring in Zion.
Fuente: Smith’s Writings on 24 Books of the Bible
87:1 [A Psalm [or] Song for the sons of Korah.] His {a} foundation [is] in the holy mountains.
(a) God chose that place among the hills to establish Jerusalem and his temple.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
Psalms 87
This psalm speaks about the glories of Zion, where the temple stood. The presence of God reigning among His people at this site constituted a blessing to them and to all other nations. John Newton’s great hymn "Glorious Things of Thee Are Spoken" is a commentary on this psalm.
"The language of the poet is anything but flowing. He moulds his brief sentences in such a daring and abrupt manner that only a few characteristic features are thrown into bold relief while their inner connection is left in the dark." [Note: Weiser, pp. 579-80.]
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
1. The importance of Zion 87:1-3
God chose Zion as the place where He would meet with His people in a special sense. He met with them by residing in the temple and having fellowship with them through His priests. Among all the mountains near Mt. Zion, this one was His choice for habitation, and as such was the foundation of His dealings with the Israelites. There were some beautiful hilly sites in Israel, but this one was the best because God chose to make it His abode. Other ancient Near Eastern nations believed their gods lived in beautiful high mountains such as Mt. Carmel and Mt. Hermon. Zion was the city of God because God chose to make His earthly residence there in the temple.
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
Psa 87:1-7
ONE clear note sounds in this remarkable psalm. Its single theme is the incorporation of ancestral foes and distant nations with the people of God. Aliens are to be enrolled as home-born citizens of Jerusalem. In modern words, the vision of a universal Church, a brotherhood of humanity, shines radiant before the seer. Other psalmists: and prophets have like insight into the future expansion of the nation, but this psalm stands alone in the emphasis which it places upon the idea of birth into the rights of citizenship. This singer has had granted to him a glimpse of two great truths-the universality of the Church, and the mode of entrance into it by reception of a new life. To what age of Israel he belonged is uncertain. The mention of Babylon as among the enemies who have become fellow citizens favours the supposition of a post-exilic date, which is also supported by resemblances to Isa 40:1-31; Isa 41:1-29; Isa 42:1-25; Isa 43:1-28; Isa 44:1-28; Isa 45:1-25; Isa 46:1-13.
The structure is simple. The psalm is divided by Selah into two strophes, to which a closing verse is appended. The first strophe bursts abruptly into rapturous praise of Zion, the beloved of God. The second predicts the gathering of all nations into her citizenship, and the closing verse apparently paints the exuberant joy of the festal crowds, who shall then throng her streets.
The abrupt beginning of the first strophe offends some commentators, who have tried to smooth Psa 87:1 into propriety and tameness, by suggesting possible preliminary clauses, which they suppose to have dropped out. But there is no canon which forbids a singer, with the rush of inspiration, either poetic or other, on him, to plunge into the heart of his theme. Psa 87:1 may be construed, as in the A.V. and R.V. (text), as a complete sentence, but is then somewhat feeble. It is better to connect it with Psa 87:2, and to regard “His foundation upon the holy mountains” as parallel with “the gates of Zion,” and as, like that phrase, dependent on the verb “loves.” Hupfeld, indeed, proposes to transfer “Jehovah loves” from the beginning of Psa 87:2, where it now stands, to the end of Psa 87:1, supplying the verb mentally in the second clause. He thus gets a complete parallelism:-
His foundation upon the holy mountains Jehovah loves,
The gates of Zion before all the dwellings of Jacob.
But this is not necessary; for the verb may as well be supplied to the first as to the second clause. The harshness of saying “His foundation,” without designating the person to whom the pronoun refers, which is extreme if Psa 87:1 is taken as a separate sentence, is diminished when it is regarded as connected with Psa 87:2, in which the mention of Jehovah leaves no doubt as to whose the “foundation” is. The psalmists fervent love for Jerusalem is something more than national pride. It is the apotheosis of that emotion, clarified and hallowed into religion. Zion is founded by God Himself. The mountains on which it stands are made holy by the Divine dwelling. On their heads shines a glory before which the light that lies on the rock crowned by the Parthenon or on the seven hills of Rome pales. Not only the Temple mountain is meant, but the city is the psalmists theme. The hills, on which it stands, are emblems of the firmness of its foundation in the Divine purpose, on which it reposes. It is beloved of God, and that, as the form of the word “loves” shows, with an abiding affection. The “glorious things” which are spoken of Zion may be either the immediately following Divine oracle, or, more probably, prophetic utterances such as many of those in Isaiah, which predict its future glory. The Divine utterance which follows expresses the substance of these. So far, the psalm is not unlike other outpourings in praise of Zion, such as Psa 48:1-14. But, in the second strophe, to which the first is introductory, the singer strikes a note all his own.
There can be no doubt as to who is the speaker in Psa 87:4. The abrupt introduction of a Divine Oracle accords with a not infrequent usage in the Psalter, which adds much to the solemnity of the words. If we regard the “glorious things” mentioned in Psa 87:3 as being the utterances of earlier prophets, the psalmist has had his ears purged to hear Gods voice, by meditation on and sympathy with these. The faithful use of what God has said prepares for hearing further disclosures of His lips. The enumeration of nations in Psa 87:4 carries a great lesson. First comes the ancient enemy, Egypt, designated by the old name of contempt (Rahab, i.e. pride), but from which the contempt has faded; then follows Babylon, the more recent inflicter of many miseries, once so detested, but towards whom animosity has died down. These two, as the chief oppressors, between whom, like a piece of metal between hammer and anvil, Israels territory lay, are named first, with the astonishing declaration that God will proclaim them as among those who know Him. That knowledge, of course, is not merely intellectual, but the deeper knowledge of personal acquaintance or friendship-a knowledge of which love is an element, and which is vital and transforming. Philistia is the old neighbour and foe, which from the beginning had hung on the skirts of Israel, and been ever ready to utilise her disasters and add to them. Tyre is the type of godless luxury and inflated material prosperity, and, though often in friendly alliance with Israel, as being exposed to the same foes which harassed her, she was as far from knowing God as the other nations were. Cush, or Ethiopia, seems mentioned as a type of distant peoples, rather than because of its hostility to Israel. God points to these nations-some of them near, some remote, some powerful and some feeble, some hereditarily hostile and some more or less amicable with Israel-and gives forth the declaration concerning them, “This one was born there.”
Gods voice ceases, and in Psa 87:5 the psalmist takes up the wonderful promise which he has just heard. He slightly shifts his point of view: for while the nations that were to be gathered into Zion were the foremost figures in the Divine utterance, the Zion into which they are gathered is foremost in the psalmists, in Psa 87:5. Its glory, when thus enriched by a multitude of new citizens, bulks in his eyes more largely than their blessedness. Another shade of difference between the two verses is that, in the former, the ingathering of the peoples is set forth as collective or national incorporation, and, in the latter, -as the expression “man after (or by) man” suggests, -individual accession is more clearly foretold. The establishment of Zion, which the psalmist prophesies, is the result of her reinforcement by these new citizens. The grand figure of Psa 87:6 pictures God as taking a census of the whole world; for it is “the peoples” whom He numbers. As He writes down each name, He says concerning it, “This one was born there.” That list of citizens is “the Book of the Living.” So “the end of all history is that Zion becomes the metropolis of all people” (Delitzsch).
Three great truths had dawned on this psalmist, though their full light was reserved for the Christian era. He had been led to apprehend that the Jewish Church would expand into a world wide community. If one thinks of the gulfs of hatred and incompatibility which parted the peoples in his day, his clear utterance of that great truth, the apprehension of which so far transcended his time, and the realisation of which so far transcends ours, will surely be seen to be due to a Divine breath. The broadest New Testament expression of Universalism does not surpass the psalmists confident certainty. “There is neither Greek nor Jew, barbarian, Scythian,” says no more than he said. More remarkable still is his conception of the method by which the nations should be gathered in to Zion. They are to be “born there.” Surely there shines before the speaker some glimmering ray of the truth that incorporation with the people of God is effected by the communication of a new life, a transformation of the natural, which will set men in new affinities, and make them all brethren, because all participant of the same wondrous birth. It would be anachronism to read into the psalm the clear Christian truth “Ye must be born again,” but it would be as false a weakening of its words to refuse to see in them the germ of that truth. The third discovery which the psalmist has made, or rather the third revelation which he has received, is that of the individual accession of the members of the outlying nations. The Divine voice, in Psa 87:4, seems to speak of birth into citizenship as national; but the psalmist, in Psa 87:6, represents Jehovah as writing the names of individuals in the burgess roll, and of saying in regard to each, as He writes, “This one was born there.” In like manner, in Psa 87:5, the form of expression is “Man after man,” which brings out the same thought, with the addition that there is an unbroken series of new citizens. It is by accession of single souls that the population of Zion is increased. Gods register resolves the community into its component units. Men are born one by one, and one by one they enter the true kingdom. In the ancient world the community was more than the individual. But in Christ the individual acquires new worth, while the bands of social order are not thereby weakened, but made more stringent and sacred. The city, whose inhabitants have one by one been won by its King, and have been knit to Him in the sacred depths of personal being, is more closely “compact together” than the mechanical aggregations which call themselves civil societies. The unity of Christs kingdom does not destroy national characteristics any more than it interferes with individual idiosyncrasies. The more each constituent member is himself, the more will he be joined to others, and contribute his special mite to the general wealth and well-being.
Psa 87:7 is, on any interpretation, extremely obscure, because so abrupt and condensed. But probably the translation adopted above, though by no means free from difficulty or doubt, brings out the meaning which is most in accordance with the preceding. It may be supposed to flash vividly before the readers imagination the picture of a triumphal procession of rejoicing citizens, singers as well as dancers, who chant, as they advance, a joyous chorus in praise of the city, in which they have found all fountains of joy and satisfaction welling up for their refreshment and delight.