Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Psalms 87:6
The LORD shall count, when he writeth up the people, [that] this [man] was born there. Selah.
6. Jehovah shall reckon, when he registers the peoples,
‘This one was born there.’
Jehovah holds His census of the nations, and writes their names down in His book. One after another of them He registers as ‘born in Zion.’ It is the official confirmation of their rights of citizenship. Allusions to the registers of citizens are found in Psa 69:28; Isa 4:3; Eze 13:9; and the importance attached to genealogical registers appears in Ezr 2:62.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
The Lord shall count – That is, God himself will honor those who are so born. In the previous verse, the effect of such a birth was described as securing honor from human beings. Here a higher honor is adverted to – that which will be derived from God himself.
When he writeth up the people … – The word rendered people here is in the plural number. At the time of making an enrollment of the people, or taking an account or a census of the nations, he would mark, or cause to be marked, with special honor the man that had his birth in Zion. Out of such would his own people be taken, and those thus born would have an honor which no one else would receive from him. He would not mark with any special approbation those who had been born in Egypt, in Babylon, or in Tyre, but he would mark with special interest those who had been born in Zion. The practical truth suggested here is, that God will in the main take his people from among those who have been born in the church. As a matter of fact, while it is true that others are converted and added to the church, the great mass of church-members consist of those who have been born of Christian parents; who have been early dedicated to God; and who have been trained up for his service. See the notes at Isa 44:3-5.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Psa 87:6
The Lord shall count, when He writeth up the people, that this man was born there.
The last census
I. When this dispensation shall come to its close, when the Lord Jesus Christ shall come in the clouds of heaven, then we believe the Lord shall write up His people. What will this writing be?
1. There will be written in this census nothing but personal matters. This man was born there. They are not taken in the plural–these men. They are not taken as a corporate body–this nation, this Church, this family–but one by one each mans name shall be found either written there or else left out. There is no truth which we need more frequently to hold up before the eyes of our people than the truth that nothing but personal godliness will ever avail.
2. Again, you will perceive that this great census deals not merely with personal matters, but with vital matters which concern a mans birth. Here you have it that this man was born there. Tis true the things we have thought and those we have done shall be mentioned at the last, but not for their own sakes. They shall be mentioned only as means of proving that we were born again, or else as evidence that regeneration had never taken place in us.
3. This census will be decisive–the last polling of the people, the last counting of the jewels and casting away of the counterfeits, the last bringing in of the sheep and banishment of the goats. Oh that we were wise to look into futurities!
II. Whose names will not be found written when the Lord counteth up His people.
1. The name of the hypocritical Church member will not be found there.
2. The man who is a mere hearer.
3. Those who are living in vice and open sin, and die as they live.
4. Moralists.
III. Whose name will be found there? We reply, there shall be the name of every soul that ever believed in the Lord Jesus Christ.
IV. Who is to make out the census paper? The Lord shall count when He writeth up the people. But why shall the Lord make out the census? Who else should do it? God is only wise. We will not question this man or that, this denomination or that. It is not for us to use our fingers to count the brands plucked from the burning, but to use our hands to pluck them from the fire, and we will pass the roll to the only wise God, and He shall at the last decide whether they be His or no.
V. Why will the census be taken at all? The Lord counts up His people–
1. To show His value of them.
2. To show to Satan his entire defeat.
3. To let all men see that the great riddle which has distracted human intellect was no riddle but a fact. God is glorified, and man free. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
The correct census
I. The counting. A census is no new thing. Refer to the history of Jacob, the time of Pharaoh, etc. Churches have their census. This describes the final census–
1. It will be an individual counting. This man was born there. The question not one of reformation, but of regeneration.
2. It will be unalterable. It will be final (Rev 22:11). It is of supreme importance to have our name written in the Lambs Book of Life. Seek to have it registered now.
II. The counter. The Lord shall count. What a mercy. Man might accidentally omit, or through partiality insert some name, but it is well that the Lord should be the Presiding Officer because of–
1. His intimate acquaintance with every one. The Lord knoweth them that are His. He cannot therefore be deceived. To Him all hearts are open. We may profess and call ourselves Christians, but our profession will be worthless unless our name be inserted in the heavenly register.
2. His unfailing accuracy. No name omitted or inserted in error. The totals will agree. Man may err, but His accuracy none can call in question.
III. The counted. Whose name will be found in the register? Only his who has been born again, i.e. born from above. I may be the weakest of them that love Him, but if I have been born there, I shall not be disowned. If we share in the bond of the covenant, we shall also share in the blessedness of the covenant. Will He count me? Except a man be born again, etc. (Samuel Oliver.)
God takes the census
Why should the Lord make out the census? The reason is–who else could do it? Imagine for a moment that the pen could be given to the Pope of Rome. I am sure he would omit yours and mine, because we are not obedient to the Pontifical See; and even if he were under authority and command, I am sure he would make a great splutter in trying to write the name Martin Luther, and he would throw down his pen and utterly refuse to obey if he had to write the glorious name of John Calvin. Suppose, now, we put the pen into the hand of Bigotry–Bigotry who lives not quite so far off as Italy, but takes up her residence in our own land, and hard by our abode. I think I see her, with her face bitter as wormwood, and with her eyes full of darkness, and she, having written all the names down, reads, There be few that shall be saved; they be so few that a child can count them.. . . God, and God only–God the only wise–shall have the writing up of the people, for there is no one to be found but God who could do it. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 6. The Lord shall count, when he writeth up the people] bichthob ammim, in the register of the people. When he takes account of those who dwell in Jerusalem, he will particularly note those who were born in Zion.
This has an easy spiritual meaning. When God takes an account of all professing Christians, he will set apart those for inhabitants of the New Jerusalem who were born in Zion, who were born again, received a new nature, and were fitted for heaven.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
The people; or, his people. So it is only a defect of the pronoun his, which is very frequent, and easily understood out of the foregoing word,
the Lord. The sense is, when God, the Maker and Governor of this city, shall take a survey of all his citizens and subjects. It is an allusion to princes or governors of cities that use to write and keep a register of all their people. Hence holy then and true Israelites are said to be written among the living in Jerusalem, Isa 4:3; or, in the writing of the house of Israel, Eze 13:9.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
6. The same idea is set forthunder the figure of a register made by God (compare Isa4:3).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
The Lord shall count when he writeth up the people, ]. Not in the Lamb’s book of life for that was written from eternity, Re 13:8 but in the writing of the house of Israel, among the living in Jerusalem, and with his righteous ones; which is done at effectual calling, and when admitted members of Gospel churches, whereby they openly appear to be the children of God, and are taken into the list and catalogue of saints; see Eze 13:9 or in the last day, when the Lord will take the number of his people,
and cause them again to pass under the rod of him that telleth them; and will make up his jewels, complete the number of them in conversion, and collect them all together; and his counting and writing them may denote his exact knowledge of them, and his care that he lose none; but this will only concern regenerate persons; the Lord will not count nor make any account of any others, as follows:
that this man was born there; and the man that is born in Zion, even every regenerate man, will be counted and numbered by him, and declared to be his, when he makes a general survey and muster of his saints another day.
Selah. [See comments on Ps 3:2].
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
6 The Lord will recount, when he writeth the peoples. The meaning is, that Zion will acquire such renown as to excite all men with the greatest earnestness to desire to be admitted into the number and rank of her citizens. It is a highly honorable condition which is spoken of, the language implying, that when God shall take a census of the people on whom he will be graciously pleased to confer the highest honor, he will write them as belonging to Zion, rather than to Babylon or any other cities; for to be one of the common people among the citizens of Zion, will be a greater distinction than to be invested with the highest rank anywhere else. We are, at the same time, taught that the cause to which we are to trace the sudden elevation of these aliens to so great honor, is the favor of God. Those who are the bondslaves of Satan and of sin will assuredly never be able to obtain, by any efforts of their own, the right of citizenship in the heavenly Jerusalem. It is the Lord’s peculiar work to divide people into their respective ranks, distinguishing one from another, as seemeth good to him, all men being on a level by nature. This passage is to be understood as referring to effectual calling. God, it is true, wrote the names of his children in the Book of Life before the creation of the world; but he enrols them in the catalogue of his saints, only when, having regenerated them by the Spirit of adoption, he impresses his own mark upon them.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(6) The proud boast of the preceding verse is repeated here with allusion to the census or birth-register of citizens. (See Eze. 13:9; Isa. 4:3; Psa. 69:28, Note.) No doubt these lists were often produced or appealed to in triumph to mark the superiority of a native of Jerusalem over those born at a distance.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
6. The Lord shall count, when he writeth up the people The allusion is to the civic book, or census roll, in which the nationality or tribe of each person was entered, the children, or the childless family, recorded, (Jer 22:30,) and from which the dead and the excommunicated were erased. Exo 12:33. Jehovah himself should keep this book, and each entry should be made under his inspection. When he shall pass through the nations (as Jos 18:8) to take the account of their converts, in writing them down he will enter each as a Zion-born citizen. The worship of Zion’s God should be accounted as the privilege of birthright citizenship. The whole is to be construed of the spiritual Church and the conversion of the nations. Compare “book of life.” Rev 20:12-15; Luk 10:20
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Psa 87:6. The Lord shall count, &c. Jehovah shall record it when he registers the nations: This man was born there. The Psalmist here describes the peculiar regard of God to the inhabitants of Jerusalem; and figuratively represents him as keeping a register of all the nations of the earth, and marking as it were in that register every one who was a citizen of Jerusalem, as thereby intitled to his distinguished favour and protection.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
As Jesus is the first-born among many brethren, so when Zion’s sons are registered, Jehovah himself, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, shall record it indeed, it hath been recorded, that here was the man born. In Jesus redemption began; in Jesus redemption is completed; and in Jesus the people, his people, are beheld and blessed forever.
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Psa 87:6 The LORD shall count, when he writeth up the people, [that] this [man] was born there. Selah.
Ver. 6. The Lord shall count when he writeth up the people ] When he maketh his cease book (called the writing of the house of Israel, Eze 13:9 , the Lord’s book of remembrance, Mal 3:16 , the register of the living in Jerusalem, Isa 4:3 ), he shall muster them in the roll of his soldiers, number them in the catalogue of his citizens, call them in the nomenclature of his disciples, &c. A glorious privilege surely.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
writeth up = enrolleth.
people = peoples.
That. Instead of “That”, supply “[and say] this one”, &c.
Selah. Connecting the last repetition of the alternation, and completing the Structure. Thus, both the Selahs in this Psalm are structural.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
when: Psa 22:30, Isa 4:3, Eze 9:4, Eze 13:9, Luk 10:20, Phi 4:3, Rev 13:8
this man: Jer 3:19, Gal 4:26-31, Rev 20:15
Reciprocal: Num 3:40 – General Rom 9:8 – are counted
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Psa 87:6. The Lord, shall count, when he writeth up the people In the book of life, that register of heaven, kept by God himself, in which mens names are entered, not as born of flesh and blood, by the will of man, but as born of the Spirit, by the will of God; that this man was born there By a spiritual birth, and therefore, that he is a genuine and free citizen of Zion, that is, God shall esteem such a one, though of Gentile race, a true member of his church, when he takes a particular account and survey of all his citizens and subjects. The psalmist alludes to the custom of princes or governors of cities, who used to write and preserve a register of all their people. Observe, reader, the birth here spoken of, the second birth, the birth from above, not of water merely, but of the Spirit, producing love to God, deadness to the world, and holiness of heart and life, (1Jn 4:7; 1Jn 5:4; 1Jn 3:9; 1Jn 5:18,) is the only birth we ought to value ourselves upon, because this alone gives us a title to the inheritance of the saints in light. Such, and only such, are written among the living in Jerusalem, Isa 4:3. Or, written in the writing of the house of Israel, Eze 13:9. Or, in the language of the New Testament, such only have their names in the Lambs book of life, Php 4:3. And we know the consequence of not being found written there: see Rev 20:15.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
87:6 The LORD shall count, when he {f} writeth up the people, [that] this [man] was born there. Selah.
(f) When he calls them by his word into the Church, whom he had elected and written in the book.