This is one of the shortest psalms in the book, only seven verses, and it makes one of the most surprising claims — that citizens of Israel’s oldest and most hostile enemies will one day be registered as native-born residents of Zion itself.
A study in Psalm 87 · Arthur Baldwin · StandUp4Jesus.Org · 7 min read
The LORD Loveth The Gates Of Zion
“His foundation is in the holy mountains. The LORD loveth the gates of Zion more than all the dwellings of Jacob. Glorious things are spoken of thee, O city of God. Selah.”
Psalm 87:1-3
“More than all the dwellings of Jacob” is a pointed comparison — Zion is singled out even above every other place Israel itself occupied, the specific location God chose for His own name to dwell.
This Man Was Born There
“I will make mention of Rahab and Babylon to them that know me: behold Philistia, and Tyre, with Ethiopia; this man was born there.”
Psalm 87:4
“Rahab” here is a poetic name for Egypt, and every nation named alongside it — Babylon, Philistia, Tyre, Ethiopia — represents a historic enemy or rival of Israel, the very list of nations already named in Thou Hast Led Captivity Captive. “This man was born there” makes a startling claim about each: citizens of these nations will one day be counted as native to Zion itself.
“And of Zion it shall be said, This and that 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. Selah.”
Psalm 87:5-6
“When he writeth up the people” pictures an official registry, God Himself keeping the record — and the citizenship recorded there is not determined by ancestry or birthplace in the ordinary sense, but by something the psalm leaves God alone to decide.
All My Springs Are In Thee
“As well the singers as the players on instruments shall be there: all my springs are in thee.”
Psalm 87:7
The psalm closes on this single image of a spring — the actual source of everything the writer has, everything worth having, located entirely in this one city. A short psalm, but its final claim is total: nothing genuinely life-giving is found anywhere else.
