Psalm 87

Psalms 87:1-3

The Hebrew title, which the reader floor does not show, ascribes this psalm to the sons of Korah, the temple singers descended from the Korah whose company was swallowed in the wilderness rebellion though his own line did not perish with him. His foundation is in the holy mountains states in one line what the rest of the psalm will spend itself proving: the city's own ground belongs to God before any resident does. The Lord loveth the gates of Zion more than all the dwellings of Jacob sets one address above every family tent in the land, and glorious things are spoken of thee, O city of God gathers up what the following verses will specify by name.

Psalms 87:4-6

Rahab and Babylon: Rahab here is a poetic name for Egypt, paired with Babylon, Philistia, Tyre and Ethiopia as a roster of Israel's old enemies and distant strangers, and the psalm registers each of them as though born a citizen of Zion, this man was born there. Verse 6 repeats the formula as the Lord's own census, when he writeth up the people, the nations enrolled by name rather than merely admitted at the gate. The older commentators read this as the clearest anticipation in the Old Testament of Gentiles brought into the citizenship of God's city, a reading they hold by name and not a claim the psalm states as history already accomplished.

Psalms 87:7

The singers and the players on instruments close the psalm in worship, the city pictured full of music from the nations just registered as her citizens. All my springs are in thee turns Zion's citizens into a well the psalmist himself draws from, a figure the commentators set beside the river of Ezekiel 47 and the water of life named later in the canon, a reading they hold rather than a claim this verse states outright. The psalm that opened with a foundation of stone ends with a foundation of water, the city praised as the source her own people draw their life from.