Study

a Bible passage

Click a verse to see commentary

Select a resource above

87. Psalm 87

¹ He has founded his city on the holy mountain.
² The LORD loves the gates of Zion
more than all the other dwellings of Jacob.

    ³ Glorious things are said of you,
   city of God: The Hebrew has Selah (a word of uncertain meaning) here and at the end of verse 6.
⁴ “I will record Rahab A poetic name for Egypt and Babylon
   among those who acknowledge me—
Philistia too, and Tyre, along with Cush That is, the upper Nile region—
   and will say, ‘This one was born in Zion.’” Or “I will record concerning those who acknowledge me: / ‘This one was born in Zion.’ / Hear this, Rahab and Babylon, / and you too, Philistia, Tyre and Cush.”
⁵ Indeed, of Zion it will be said,
   “This one and that one were born in her,
   and the Most High himself will establish her.”
⁶ The LORD will write in the register of the peoples:
   “This one was born in Zion.”

⁷ As they make music they will sing,
“All my fountains are in you.”

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.