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Psalm 87 is a hymn celebrating Zion — Jerusalem, the city of God. It is also prophetic, foreseeing the ingathering of the nations into Zion as fellow citizens with Israel in the kingdom of God. Andrew walks through its three movements, including a verse that has divided interpreters for centuries.
Verses 1–3 — The LORD loves Zion. On the holy mount stands the city he founded. Yahweh loves the gates of Zion more than all the dwelling places of Jacob. "Glorious things of you are spoken, O city of God."
Verses 4–6 — The mystery. Rahab, Babylon, Philistia, Tyre and Cush are named, with the words "this one was born there." The traditional reading takes those nations as the object of God's recording: Gentiles who come to Zion to worship are entered in God's book as having been born there, made one with the Jews. Some English versions add "I will record" to make that reading explicit. But the verse may instead be addressed to those nations in the vocative — God speaking to them rather than about them. Andrew explains why Hebrew poetry can carry both senses at once, and why the ambiguity may be intentional.
Verse 7 — All the praise and worship, the singers and dancers who assist in worship, are in Zion. All my springs are in you.
Wherever you land on verse 4, the destination is the same: a kingdom in which Jew and Gentile alike are citizens. As Andrew puts it, some are natural-born and some are naturalized — but the rights of citizenship are identical.
Season 2 of Biblical Reflections — a week-by-week walk through the Psalms to shape our prayer and our praise.
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Biblical Reflections is a Christ-centered Bible teaching podcast from Cogworks Media, hosted by Andrew.
🔗 More shows and ways to give: cogworksmedia.org
Cogworks Media is a 501(c)(3) public charity — gifts are tax-deductible.
Music: The Inspiration by Keys of Moon | https://soundcloud.com/keysofmoon
Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) | https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Music promoted by https://www.chosic.com/free-music/all/
Verses 1–3 — The LORD loves Zion. On the holy mount stands the city he founded. Yahweh loves the gates of Zion more than all the dwelling places of Jacob. "Glorious things of you are spoken, O city of God."
Verses 4–6 — The mystery. Rahab, Babylon, Philistia, Tyre and Cush are named, with the words "this one was born there." The traditional reading takes those nations as the object of God's recording: Gentiles who come to Zion to worship are entered in God's book as having been born there, made one with the Jews. Some English versions add "I will record" to make that reading explicit. But the verse may instead be addressed to those nations in the vocative — God speaking to them rather than about them. Andrew explains why Hebrew poetry can carry both senses at once, and why the ambiguity may be intentional.
Verse 7 — All the praise and worship, the singers and dancers who assist in worship, are in Zion. All my springs are in you.
Wherever you land on verse 4, the destination is the same: a kingdom in which Jew and Gentile alike are citizens. As Andrew puts it, some are natural-born and some are naturalized — but the rights of citizenship are identical.
Season 2 of Biblical Reflections — a week-by-week walk through the Psalms to shape our prayer and our praise.
—
Biblical Reflections is a Christ-centered Bible teaching podcast from Cogworks Media, hosted by Andrew.
🔗 More shows and ways to give: cogworksmedia.org
Cogworks Media is a 501(c)(3) public charity — gifts are tax-deductible.
Music: The Inspiration by Keys of Moon | https://soundcloud.com/keysofmoon
Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) | https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Music promoted by https://www.chosic.com/free-music/all/
Creators and Guests
Host
Andrew
Andrew is a master storyteller. Having flown multiengine, bomber planes; practiced law; and earned a seminary degree, he draws upon a deep bank of experience and knowledge. Yeah, he is one of those guys who knows Greek. But coming out of a working-class home, he speaks plainly and clearly. His podcasts are thought-provoking and entertaining. His passion for God’s Word comes out in every episode.
What is Biblical Reflections?
Biblical Reflections is a Christ-centered Bible teaching podcast that journeys through Scripture with host Andrew — a storyteller at heart who happens to know his Greek.
Andrew came up in a working-class home, and it shows in the best way: he'll take you into the depth of the text, then explain it plainly and clearly, the way a good storyteller does. The result is teaching that's thought-provoking and genuinely engaging — his passion for God's Word comes through in every episode.
Each season takes on a new focus. Season 1 traced the gospel across Scripture — every place the good news of Jesus breaks through. The current season walks through the Psalms, one at a time, with Proverbs up next.
Wherever you're joining from — deep in study or just along for the journey — there's a place for you here. New episodes weekly.
A podcast from Cogworks Media, an independent, interdenominational media ministry amplifying faithful voices for the Great Commission. Find all our shows at cogworksmedia.org.
Greetings and welcome to Biblical Reflections. This is your host, Andrew. We are in our second series, and today we are looking at Psalm 87 to inform us on the types of prayers, how to praise God, and to give us some more depth in how we worship and and honor and seek God. Psalm 87 is sort of a follow on of 86. It is a hymn that celebrates Zion, that is Jerusalem, the city of God.
Speaker 1:The Psalm is also prophetic in that it foresees the in gathering of the nations into Zion as fellow citizens with Israel in the kingdom of God. The superscript here says, a Psalm of the sons of Korah, a Psalm. Let me read verse one through three. This too goes in three parts. Verse one, on the holy Mount stands the city he founded.
Speaker 1:This of course would be Jerusalem. The Yahweh loves the gates of Zion, another name for Jerusalem, more than all the dwelling places of Jacob. Glorious things of you are spoken, o city of God, Shelah. Martin Luther has certainly incorporated those words in some of his hymns. Glorious things of you are spoken.
Speaker 1:The Yahweh, the covenant God loves Zion. Let's now go to four through six. Among those who know me, I mentioned Rahab, Babylon, behold Philistine and Tyre with Cush. This one was born there, they say. And of Zion it shall be said, this one and that one were born in her.
Speaker 1:For the most high himself will establish her. The Yahweh records as he registers the people. This one was born there. The traditional interpretation is, as I mentioned at the beginning in the introduction, This is a Psalm that is prophetic and it foresees the in gathering of the nations into Zion as fellow citizens with it with Israel in this new kingdom of God. But there's some controversy here.
Speaker 1:Now, it doesn't matter where you fall out on this issue, we're gonna get to the same place and I'm going to talk about it because it brings up an interesting issue of the problems not the problems, the challenges we have in interpreting scripture. So the mystery and the key is in this Psalm is verse four. Among those who know me, I mentioned Rahab and Babylon. Behold, Philistine Tyre was Cush. This one was born there, they say.
Speaker 1:Well, what does that mean? Does it mean that the Gentiles from the listed nations who came to Zion to worship God are the direct object of God remembering them? Now, I am reading from the English Standard Version, other versions of the English Bible like the international version, incorporate the words I will record and then list these Gentile nations. So I believe those words were put in to try to explain how to, well, how to interpret this because obviously, again, this is poetry, it's sung, and it's it's a challenge to interpret. So the translators put in in some versions, I will record and then list these Gentile nations that they were born there.
Speaker 1:K? Well, what exactly does that mean? Are the nations that are listed, are they the object of the recording? K. I will record these nations.
Speaker 1:They're the direct object of the verb there. Well, that is possibility and that may mean that they will be recorded as having been born in Zion. They will be recorded as Jews even though they were born somewhere else. So they will be made fellow citizens with Israel. That works.
Speaker 1:So most Jewish scholars and many traditional Christian scholars have interpreted it that way. However, there is another interpretation and this revolves around what is known as the evocative case. Maybe verse four is not talking about these nations, maybe verse four is talking to these nations. Let me give you an example in English. If I was to say now, just listen to this short little sentence, and when I say it, what do you think it means?
Speaker 1:I don't know John. I'll say it again. I don't know John. So, the first interpretation, the traditional interpretation, would say John is the direct object of I don't know. So this would be somebody talking to a friend saying, nah, I don't know your buddy John.
Speaker 1:Or if it was an evocative case, I don't know John could be simply, yeah, I I don't know what you're talking about John. So there, John is not the subject, but rather John is the person that the speaker is talking to. In that case, if we go back to to chapter four, it could mean or excuse me, verse four, It could mean that of those people who are showing up to worship God, who happen to be Gentiles, and now he talks to them, even though you're here and you're citizens of God, I'm going to report record or or know you as one who was born in a different country. I mean, you're not born Jews but we make you fellow citizens. Now, the end, I don't know that it matters which one of these you go to and I'm gonna give you an example that I think will help you see this.
Speaker 1:My wife and I both have passports. We have American passports. It says on there this is American. And we have the same rights. We have the right to vote, the right to pay taxes, and you know those sort of things.
Speaker 1:But on our passport, it says where we're born. I was born in The United States, In a city in Upstate New York near Buffalo. I'm a natural born citizen. My wife is also a citizen, but she was born in a different city in a different country and she is a naturalized citizen. But we both have the same rights of citizenship.
Speaker 1:So, you know, that may be the second interpretation. But here here's the point. Regardless of what is stamped on your passport in the kingdom of God in the future, the point is you are a citizen of that kingdom. So a very interesting Psalm. Why did I go through all this?
Speaker 1:Doesn't really make a difference. If you've listened to maybe my earlier series, we talk about how in the Bible there are several forms of methods or modes of communication. Let's call it modes. There's prose, there's poetry, there's symbols, there's types, and perhaps parables. Most of the Old Testament is written in poetry.
Speaker 1:Now, poetry, as we said before, you can do things with poetry, you can't do with prose or some of the other modes of communication. And one of the things that poetry does is allows you to say two things at the same time. In other words, it's intentionally ambiguous. And and I think that's what's going on here. They're really saying both things at the same time.
Speaker 1:It's intentionally ambiguous. I wanna point this out because as we study scripture, there are times when we come to something that could be interpreted one way, could be interpreted another way, but either way, it all should go to the same place, which is to Jesus. Right? Let's go to the last verse, verse seven. Singers and dancers alike say, all my springs are in you, meaning Zion.
Speaker 1:Another way to say this is that all the praise and worship people, all the singers and dancers who assist in worship are in the temple in Zion. Again, this is a hymn that both celebrates Zion and does some prophetic talking about in gathering other nations into Zion in the future where all will be citizens with Israel. And notice that it follows Psalm 86 which I think says it much clearer. Alright. Let us pray.
Speaker 1:Gracious heavenly father, we thank you for your word. We thank you for how no matter how we interpret this, it takes us to the same place. The messianic kingdom in the future when both Jews and Gentiles, maybe some lost tribes of Israel will all be citizens, all be saved people in the kingdom of God. We thank you and praise you in Jesus name.
Speaker 2:Thank you for joining us on Biblical Reflections today. We're so grateful for listeners like you. Your encouragement helps us share God's truths worldwide. If inspired, support our mission with a donation at cogworksmedia.org. You can also catch our other podcasts like the bible in three d anywhere that you get your podcasts.
Speaker 2:Thank you, and God bless.