Psalms 87

Psalms 871. (Psalms 87:1) To (or by) the Sons of Korah. A Psalm. A Song. His foundation (is) in the hills of holiness. The first title decides nothing as to the date of composition. See above, on Psalms 42:1; Psalms 46:1; Psalms 48:1.

It is not only a psalm, a religious lyric, but a song, i. e. a song of praise or triumph. See above, on Ps.xiii. 1. This agrees well with the tone of the composition, which seems to indicate some great deliverance as its historical occasion. The only one that can be fixed upon with any great degree of probability is that of Hezekiah from the power of Assyria. See above, on Psalms 46:1; Psalms 75:1; Psalms 76:1. In view of some such signal intervention in behalf of Israel, the psalm celebrates the actual security of Zion, Psalms 87:1-3, and anticipates its future honours as the spiritual birth-place of the nations, Psalms 87:4-7.

His foundation, that which he has founded, meaning his sanctuary and his theocratical kingdom. The plural expression, hills of holiness, means Zion in the wide sense, including all the heights on which Jerusalem was built. It was peculiarly appropriate in this case, if the psalm was written in the reign of Hezekiah, because at that time Zion, in the strict sense, was no longer the exclusive residence of God on earth. At the same time, there is particular reference to Zion as the citadel, in which the strength of the royal city was concentrated.

2. (Psalms 87:2) Jehovah loves the gates of Zion more than all the dwellings of Jacob. This description of Jehovah’s choice of Zion as his dwelling-place is similar to that in Psalms 78:68. The gates of a walled city give access to it and power over it, and are therefore naturally here put for the whole. The Hebrew participle (loving) implies constant and habitual attachment.

3. (Psalms 87:3) Glorious things (have been) spoken in thee, 0 City of God. Selah. Glorious or honourable things, in the way of prophecy and promise, the fulfilment of which is here implied. As if he had said, the promises respecting thee are great, but they are or shall be fully verified. So too in the other clause the meaning is, thou art well called the city of God, for he is in thee, to protect and honour thee. See above, on Psalms 46:4; Psalms 48:1; Psalms 48:8. 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.

4. (Psalms 87:4) I will mention Rahab aad Babylon as knowing me. Lo, Philistia and Tyre with Ethiopia ! This (one) was born there. Interpreters are commonly agreed, that these are the words of God himself, though not expressly so announced. The first verb in Hebrew is a causative, I will make to be remembered, celebrate, commemorate. See above, Psalms 20:7), 45:17, 71:15, 77:11. It here means to announce or proclaim. To know God is to love him and to be his servant.

See above, on Psalms 36:10, and compare Isaiah 19:21. Those knowing him in this sense are his people. As knowing me, literally to those knowing me, i.e. belonging to their number. Or the sense may be, for knowers of me, I will recognise and reckon them for such. Compare the Hebrew of Exo 21:2, he shall go out free, literally for free, i.e. as free. The nations thus announced as belonging to God’s people are mere samples of the whole gentile world, those being chosen for the purpose, who were or had been most connected with the history of Israel, and were at the same time ruling powers of antiquity. Rahab is an enigmatical name given to Egypt by the Prophet Isaiah. See below, on Psalms 89:10, and compare my notes on Isaiah 30:7; Isaiah 51:9.

Babylon is named instead of Assyria, perhaps because in Hezekiah’s reign the former began to supersede the latter as the dominant power of Western Asia. See my note on Isaiah 39:1. Compare the prophecy respecting Egypt and Assyria in Isaiah 19:23-24. Philistia and Tyre are put together, as in Psalms 83:7. As to the latter, see above, on Psalms 45:12, and compare Isaiah 23:18. The conversion of Cush or Ethiopia had already been foretold by David, Psalms 68:31, and by Solomon, Psalms 72:10. The last words are obscure but may be rendered clearer by supplying before them, as to each of these it shall be said. The pronoun (this) is then to be referred not to individual men, but to the nations as ideal persons.

The idea of regeneration or spiritual birth, applied in the New Testament to individuals, is here applied to nations, who are represented as born again, when received into communion with the church or chosen people.

5. (Psalms 87:5) And of Zion it shall be said, (This) man and (that) man was born in her, and He will establish her, the Highest. The strict translation of the first words is to Zion, but the subsequent use of the third person (in her) shews that the act described is that of speaking of a person in his presence, yet not directly to him, or, as we sometimes say in English, talking at him. See above, on Psalms 3:2; Psalms 71:10. The idiomatic phrase man and man means every one or each one severally. See the Hebrew of Est 1:8, and compare that of Lev 17:10; Leviticus 17:13. The clause may then be understood as asserting of individuals what had just been said of whole communities, or as repeating the latter, in a more emphatic form, for the purpose of connecting it with an additional promise, namely, that the church thus enlarged by the accession of the Gentiles, shall be permanently established and secured.

The pronoun is emphatic, and is rendered more so by the epithet attached to it. He the Highest, or the Highest himself. The protector of the church is neither man nor angel, but the supreme and sovereign God. See above, on Psalms 47:2; Psalms 48:8.

6. (Psalms 87:6) Jehovah shall count, in enrolling the nations: This (one) was born there. Selah. The theme or idea of the whole psalm, that Zion should yet be the birth-place of all nations, is again repeated, under a new figure, that of registration. Compare Ezekiel 13:9. The meaning is that, as he counts the nations, he shall say of each, in turn or one by one, this one was also born there. In enrolling, literally writing, i.e. inscribing in a list or register. The common version (when he writeth up the people) not only fails to reproduce the plural form of the last word, or to shew in any way that more than a single nation is referred to, but ascribes the act of writing to the Lord himself, which, though not so inadmissible in a figurative passage as some writers think it, is not necessarily implied in the original, where the form of expression is in the writing, i.e. at the time or in the act of doing so, whether the act be that of God himself or merely done by his authority and under his direction.

7. (Psalms 87:7) And singers as well as well as players (shall be heard saying), All my springs are in thee. The construction in the first clause is peculiar, singers as players. See above, on Psalms 48:5. The image present to the Psalmist’s mind seems to be that of a procession or triumphal march, composed of the nations on their way to Zion. At the head of this procession are the minstrels, who, as the spokesmen of the rest, acknowledge that the source of their happiness is henceforth to be sought in Zion, not as a mere locality, but as the place where God was pleased to manifest his gracious presence. It matters little, therefore, whether the closing words (in thee) be referred to God directly, or to Zion, as the channel through which he imparted spiritual blessings to the gentiles.

Compare the figure of a spring or stream in Joe 3:18, Zechariah 13:1; Zechariah 14:8, Ezekiel 47:1, and see above, on Psalms 84:6. The word joined with singers admits of a twofold derivation, and may either mean players upon instruments, or still more definitely, pipers, as the players on stringed instruments are named in the same connection, Psalms 68:25; or as some of the latest interpreters prefer, it may mean dancers, as this indication of joy was commonly practised, in connection with singing, not only by women but by men. See above, on Psalms 30:11, and below, on Psalms 150:4. and compare Exodus 15:20, 2 Samuel 6:16. The Selah at the end of the preceding verse shews that the variations of the main theme are concluded, and separates the body of the psalm from this verse, which contains the words neither of the Psalmist nor the Church nor God himself, but of the converted Gentiles.