Psalm 87

This is a terse prophetic song. The Hebrew is difficult to grasp if you read it literally, and you would be in good company. Toward the end before Babylon laid siege to the city, a great many shallow minds and closed hearts mistook such prophetic material as some kind of cheap guarantee that they had God over a barrel. They could do what they pleased, but as long as they hid in the City, God could not allow His House to be destroyed. How wrong they were, having forgotten the lesson of the Tabernacle at Shiloh. They forgot what God said to David, that He did not actually dwell in structures built by human hands. Rather, Solomon would build a house for God’s name, His earthly representation. This is not a song of Jerusalem the geographic spot on this earth; it is a song of Zion the heart of God.

So far as the record of Scripture shows, God first spoke personally to Abraham. On this Mount Moriah where Abraham was prepared to offer his only natural born heir, it is here that one can make some physical contact with the foundation of divine revelation and redemption. This act of Abraham was the symbolic foreshadowing of Christ, the final revelation of the Creator’s character. For the Sons of Korah, this is the place where God had been willing to found His personal reputation in the midst of fallen humanity.

He could have chosen any part of the Promised Land, but this is the spot to where He called David to build his capitol. It was honored by His choice, not by its own virtue. God could visit any Israeli in his home, but He called them as sovereign to appear before Him in a place they could learn to treasure for what it meant. While it would mean nothing but a burdensome ritual to some, to those whose heart was awake and focused on Jehovah, it was a sacred duty. They would come and be moved deeply at the sight of those symbols of imperial majesty.

And it was in this place where those with committed hearts could not remain silent, but would burst with praise and grateful thanksgiving for the high privilege of being God’s chosen voice to the world.

Someday, you would look around at all the foreigners who came to celebrate their Creator in this place. People from as far as Egypt in one direction and Babylon in the other. Philistia, once their implacable foe; Tyre who depended on them for food even as she controlled so much of the commerce coming into Israel; all colors of men, including those from Ethiopia — you will point to them and say that they were born here in Zion. This is where humanity’s redemption was born, and it will give everyone it touches a new identity. The Lord will count them as born in Zion. They will all be Children of Israel in the sense of God’s divine mission of revelation.

And the Sons of Korah singing and playing worship instruments will rejoice in this global redemption, welcoming everyone who seeks the Lord, proclaiming loudly that Jehovah is the source of their very existence.