Jehovah loveth the gates of Zion more than all the habitations of Jacob.
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Glorious things are spoken of thee, O city of God. Selah.
Psalm 87 sings about a city, and this line is its burst of praise. Two questions follow: who is speaking, and why is this one city praised above every great capital of the ancient world?
The praise starts with who founded the city.
The psalm opens by celebrating the glory of Zion. Men may found other cities, but Zion is the city Jehovah founded. It is not only firmly established; its foundations are secure, because they rest on "the mountains of holiness." It stands on a righteous foundation. Because He is holy, Jehovah "loves" its gates — the place where people gather and where the city is governed, and so a picture of the city's active life. Glorious things are spoken of this city. It is not simply a place where great events have happened, but a city with a glorious future foretold. Unlike all other cities, it is the "city of God."
The verse does not say who spoke. The answer decides whether the promise stands.
It is the city of God (verse 3). It is also the city of the great King (Matt. 5:35). Glorious things are spoken of her. God, who spoke them, will surely fulfil His word. She will be the light and joy of the whole earth (Ps. 48; Isa. 62).
So what are these glorious things? The prophets describe them, and their picture is nothing like the city's history.
It refreshes the spirit to turn away from the Jerusalem stained with the blood of Jesus and with the blood of the prophets. That is the city the rejected Son of God wept over. Prophecy lets us look instead at "the city of the great King," once its judgments and its cleansing are complete. The psalmist wrote well: "Glorious things of you are spoken, O city of God" (Ps. 87:3). Many of the Old Testament prophets had the privilege of describing the glories of the city in its splendour during the thousand-year reign.
This praise is not whispered. It is sung where the proudest cities of the ancient world can hear it.
Psalm 87 views Zion as founded by God, a city that has foundations. Men had cities, and boasted of them; but God had a city He founded in the holy mountains... In the power of the Spirit the godly are not ashamed of it (glorious things are spoken of it) — not even in front of all the earth's seats of boasting. Egypt and Babylon boasted in vain; so did Philistia, Tyre, and Ethiopia, who had all had their day. The godly could talk of them without fear of comparison.
One writer turns this into a challenge to the world.
Rahab or Egypt was the first great power; it decayed and fell before the growing ambition and resources of Babylon. Choose, O world, your very best: Rahab and Babylon. And not only these, but Philistia, that busy land whose energy sent it out to every part of the world, and Tyre too, its rival at sea. Add Ethiopia as well, that distant land of wonders! In all these proud quarters of the old world, pick out the most respected and the best. Pick the men you have gloried in most, the geniuses who led others and won all the fame that a man can earn, and give, and boast of. But what is it? Undying fame, alas! Broken bits of pottery from the earth!
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The psalm speaks of one Man born in Zion. One writer sees Christ in those words, and mercy too: Jerusalem is the city that killed Him.
Christ the Lord is the only key to the psalms just before this one. They bring together Israel, poor and needy, looking to Him, and all nations coming to worship before Him. In the same way He explains the God-given source of Israel's patriotism. For everyone else the centre is self, the first man. Strict justice might and must have cut them all down. Grace counts instead that This man was born (not crucified!) there.
The city keeps a citizen list. Names go on it in more than one way.
On Christians who overcome, the Lord will write the name of the city of His God, which is New Jerusalem (Rev. 3:12). That shows they belong to it. Here the saint on earth will find his name on the citizen list of the city of God, even Zion, which will rise from the dust of ages and be dressed in her beautiful garments (Isa. 52:1).
- Founded — men founded other cities; God founded this one in the mountains of holiness. That is why it is the city of God.
- Spoken — the glorious things are God's word about her, not human praise. The One who spoke them will carry them out.
- Foretold — the prophets fill in the detail. They describe a cleansed and splendid city, not the one stained with the blood of Jesus and the prophets.
- Unrivalled — Egypt, Babylon, Philistia, Tyre and Ethiopia each had their day and their fame. Next to God's city, that fame is broken pottery.
- Born there — the glory rests at last on one Man whom grace counts as born in Zion. His people find their own names on her citizen list.