Read Judges 4, Jeremiah 50, Psalms 87-89.
This devotional is about Psalm 87.
Some people love a city so much that they will sing a song about it. New York City has New York, New York by Frank Sinatra, New York State of Mind by Billy Joel, and Englishman in New York by Sting. Tony Bennett sang, I Left My Heart in San Francisco. Our own worship leader here at New Arbor, Nick Slayton, has written a song about Ludington–a place his family loves to visit every summer on vacation.
Here in Psalm 87, the Sons of Korah cranked out a song about the city of Jerusalem. They must have loved it or they wouldn’t have written a song about it. But more importantly than their love for it, God loved Jerusalem. Verse 2 says, “The Lord loves the gates of Zion.” Zion is another name for Jerusalem. The word “Zion” is a name Jerusalem had before David captured it when it was an elevated fortress. Although it was founded by non-Jews and developed from a citadel into city by David and Solomon, this song says that God founded this city in verse 1. Verse 2 tells us that God loves it more than anywhere else in Israel and verse 3 calls it the “city of God.” So the city of Jerusalem was a place that God loves, the place where he showed his presence when the tabernacle was moved there and the temple was established there.
But what’s so great about Jerusalem, exactly? Verse 3 says “Glorious things are said” of Jerusalem, but what are these glorious things and why are they said of Jerusalem? That’s all answered in verses 4-6 and those verses tell us over and over again in different ways that God is going to take people from Israel’s enemies and treat them as if they were native-born citizens of Jerusalem. That’s what is great about Jerusalem! It was going to be a place where God transformed his enemies and treated them just as well as his very own people, the people of Israel. Verse 4 references Rahab–a reference to Egypt–and Babylon. Both of those places were enemies of God and of Israel, yet this song says that God will treat the Egyptian and the Babylonian as people who know him. Verse 4 continues by saying that the Philistines of all people, along with people from way up north in Tyre and way down south in Cush will be treated as if they were natural-born citizens of Jerusalem. That means they’ll receive the kinds of rights and blessings that native Jewish people get from God.
How is it possible that God’s city–the one that he loves–records as citizens a group of people who came from Israel’s enemies? The answer is that this Psalm looks forward to when Jesus returns. When Jesus returns, the Bible says that he will establish his kingdom in Jerusalem as the ultimate and final king in David’s line. When that happens, Gentiles like us whom God has saved in this era will be given every right and every privilege that any Jewish man ever born in Jerusalem had. So these enemies that are going to be treated like citizens are representative of people all over the world whom God is going to save and is saving in this era as the gospel spreads around the world. In other words, this Psalm is blessing Jerusalem because, some day, it will be the capital of Jesus’s kingdom and all of us who have been saved by Jesus will participate in the blessings of that kingdom.
Verse 7 caps off the song by saying, “As they make music they will sing, ‘All my fountains are in you.'” That means that when Jesus gathers us in his kingdom, we will find it to be a place of joy and refreshing–the greatest place to live the earth has ever had.
The city of Jerusalem still exists today and it is a cool place to visit because of all its history. But Jerusalem as a place where Gentiles are considered citizens still awaits the return of Christ. But this is what we are living for as Christians. This is what we have to offer non-Christians who come to Jesus in faith.
God has an incredible future planned for you in his kingdom when Jesus returns. Are you living for his kingdom now? Use the life that you have to invest in that place. The blessing of living there with the Lord will make you want to sing.