Psalm 87 presents a vision of the glorified city of Jerusalem (Zion) becoming the destination of nations, even for traditional enemies, such as Babylon, Egypt (Rahab) and Tyre. The psalm is a prophetic celebration of the ingathering of the nations into God’s Kingdom. God’s love and choice here in Psalm 87 is not so much for an actual city but for the people of God who lived there. The city became a symbol of God’s covenant people. Paul, in Galatians 4:26, says that “the Jerusalem that is above…is our mother.” The writer of Hebrews says about believers in Jesus: “But you have come to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem” (12:22). In Revelation, the New Jerusalem is depicted as a symbol of God’s people, his ‘bride’ (Revelation 21:2). In Isaiah 60:3 God says to his people: “Nations will come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your dawn.” This, again, is the vision that the psalmist is working with here in Psalm 87. To be part of God’s people is the highest mode of life. To be a child of the heavenly city is the ultimate blessing. We tend to act according to how we see ourselves. If that identity is tied to this world, so we will act accordingly. But, if that identity is found in God and his family, then we can begin to transcend the concerns and agendas of this world that stifle our potential. Remember who you belong to and what you are part of. Let your life be drawn upward.
Commit yourself to God and ask him to draw you into his purpose.
Read Psalm 87
