Devotional Short Note on Psalm 87: This Psalm is written in the typical style of Korag since in the other Psalms of relatives of Korag who collected his Psalms, Jacob also features prominently: 94:9b; 85:2b; and now in 87:2b. In this Psalm it is said that the dwelling place of God “His foundation is in mountains of Holiness” (87:1b). This is not the mount in Jerusalem or as most scholars are saying: ‘Jerusalem is situated on a high elevation’. This is the heavenly dwelling-place of God. It is heavenly Zion and heavenly Jerusalem. It is the heavenly Mountain of mountains as other prophets point out. In Psalm 46 a description is given of the Warrior Messiah Christ going out at the Hell event to destroy the enemy evil, and the saints are in the fortress city of Zion in heaven watching from there.

“The Lord loves the gates of Zion” (87:2a). It is not the Zion Gate in current Jerusalem. It is the New Jerusalem that is Zion. In fact, the Lord loves His dwelling “more than all the dwellings of Jacob” (87:2b). One of those dwellings was Bethel where the ladder was on the stone pillow and angels walking up and down. The Psalmist says that nothing on earth in the history of Jacob, nothing compares to the dwelling-place of God in His Sanctuary. The tabernacles and holy places in spiritual Israel’s history on earth cannot compare to the space of God. That is the truth here.

“Glorious things are spoken in you O city of God” (87:3a-b). Again it is heavenly Jerusalem or the New Jerusalem that John spoke of in Revelation 20. This will be during the 1000 years or millennium when the “Confirmatory Phase of the Judgment” will take place, during which people will recount their acts of joy in the Lord on earth to each other and with the Lord. This is the phase where the tears will be wipe off people’s eyes as they individually sit next to Christ on His throne.

The Psalmist wants to list empires of the past. “I will remember Rahab and Babylon. Babylon is an empire so Rahab must also here be an empire and not a person. The Egyptian word r3 hb means in Egyptian “God of the Nile” and Babylon is in New Sumerian always written with variants of course, KA.Dingir.RA meaning, “city of the portals of gods”. The subject matter for the Psalmist is the gate of God. Heavenly Zion is the gate of God (87:2a). Babylon city is the “portals of the gods” for the Babylonian empire. r3 hb is the gate of the Nile god for Egypt. The Psalmist say that the Egyptian empire and Babylonian empire “among them that know Me”. Of course, the faithful Abraham, Jacob, Josephs, Moses, has all interacted with Egypt, and the faith of faithful Israelites in Assyria and Daniel and his friends and others in Babylon has interacted with the empires. God always make sure there is a spiritual faithful “Daniel” in every empire. The reason is that they have no excuse that they did not know or could not have known.

Other empires are also mentioned: Philistia (87:4b) which is the time of the overrunning of the Mediteranean belt by Philistines following the waves of Mycenean and Minoan cultures bringing their fashions and cultures over the coastal areas even unto Egypt from the middle of the 12th century onwards. In fact, Ugarit or Rash Shamra came to a halt due to these invasions. They were a problem to the Judges and to Saul and David.

Tyre (87:4b) was an empire as well as the capital of Phoenicia. It functioned a long time together with Ugarit but became more prominent after the fall of Ugarit. During the period of the divided monarchy Phoenican religion and cultures were affecting the true religion of spiritual Israel continuously. It went on until the fall of Tyre, predicted by Isaiah in using the fall of Lucifer as symbol for that prophecy in Isaiah 14.

Ethiopia (87:4b) was also an empire that flourished in the last phases of the Late Egyptian period. It included Sudan, Somalia and wide areas of Egypt and elsewhere. Tirhaka who came to the rescue of Hezekiah (689 BCE) was one of the grandsons in this empire of kings like Shabako, Shabataka and so forth.

It was during such empires or strong nations that faithful people of God was migrated or migrated themselves to these nations and the Psalmist says: “This one was born there” meaning these spiritual and faithful ones was born in those countries. God has His faithful among all nations, says the Psalmist here in 87:4.

“And in Zion [during the millennium or 1000 years in heaven after the Second Coming of Christ with faithful also there from all nations] it shall be said: “This man and that was born in her” (87:5a). How are people “born in Zion”? To be born again is to the born in Zion. It is to become a son and daughter of God and to receive inheritance from Him, heirs of Zion. “And He [emphasized with independent pronoun when a pronominal affix to the verb already indicate the person, yet the writer adds an extra ‘he’] establishes her [Zion’s inhabitants and the city itself]” (87:5b). “I am going to prepare a place for you, and when I have prepared a place for you, I will come again to take you to where I am” (John 14:1-3). The source of this activity is the Lord and no-one else.

What the Psalmist indicates here is that when the Resurrection takes place at the Second Coming of Christ, the saints are transferred to heavenly Zion and there glorious things will be spoken of, in the New Jerusalem, the city of God. What things? “Where are you from?” I was born in Egypt, in Babylon in Philistia, in Tyre, in Ethiopia “This one was born there”. Interactive conversation will take place during the millennium and they will rehearse their own histories and spiritual walk on earth with each other. All heirs of Zion, born in heavenly Zion with a double citizenship, one on earth and one in heaven. It ties in with Christ promise in John 14:1-3.

Then the Lord is going to count in the register: “The Lord shall count in the register of the peoples ‘this one was born there’ (87:6). Charles Bradford preached a sermon on 3ABN “Bought the field” [see Youtube] of Jeremiah who had to buy the field. He also mentioned the case of the hymnal saying: “When the roll is called up yonder, I’ll be there”. It is about a young fellow that came to church meetings very faithful and then suddenly stopped. They went to his house and he had terminal cancer. They felt sad but he said: ‘When the roll is called up yonder I’ll be there”. Bradford said he does not know if it is a true story but it is good anyhow.

There is a citation mark Selah after this attendance checking of the Lord.

“Singers like dancers ‘all my thoughts are in You’” the faithful will sing that day in heavenly Zion (87:7). Will there be dancing in heaven? No, singers like dancers will sing. Some Jewish commentators understood the verse to mean that there will be singing and dancing but the kaph is a kaph of comparison without implying the reality of the action compared with. So they concluded: “The exact significance of this verse is obscure…” Not so. A historicist understanding of this verse gives us full understanding what it is all about.