Psalms 87: What the Passage Says

The Chapter in a Sentence

This short psalm is about Zion, the hill city of Jerusalem, which the LORD founded and loves above every other place where Israel lives. It names foreign nations (Egypt, Babylon, Philistia, Tyre, Ethiopia) and says of people from them, "This one was born in Zion," with the LORD himself keeping the register. It ends with singers and instrument players saying that all their springs are in her.

Claim by Claim

1. 87:1
   • This psalm is attributed to the sons of Korah.
   • It is titled both a psalm and a song.
   • His foundation is on the holy mountains.
   • The verse does not say whose foundation it is or what was founded.
2. 87:2
   • The LORD loves the gates of Zion.
   • The LORD loves the gates of Zion more than all the dwelling places of Jacob.
3. 87:3
   • Glorious things are spoken of you.
   • The one addressed is the city of God.
   • Selah.
4. 87:4
   • The speaker says he will make mention of Rahab and Babylon.
   • The mention is made to those who know him.
   • The speaker calls attention to Philistia and Tyre together with Cush.
   • It is said that this one was born there.
   • The verse does not state who the speaker is or who the one born there is.
5. 87:5
   • It shall be said of Zion that this one and that one were born in her.
   • The Most High himself shall establish her.
6. 87:6
   • The LORD shall count when he registers the peoples.
   • In that reckoning it is said that this one was born there.
   • Selah.
7. 87:7
   • There are singers.
   • There are those performing alongside the singers, whether dancing or playing pipes.
   • The KJV states that they shall be there.
   • All my springs are in you.

Words Worth Explaining

Every language note in this chapter, gathered. These explain what a word meant, never what it means for the reader.

87:1

Zion is the hill in Jerusalem where the temple stood, and the name is used for the whole city. "The holy mountains" are the ridges Jerusalem was built on; the plural was a normal way of speaking of a hill city's high ground. The Hebrew of this line is unusually compressed, literally "his foundation on the holy mountains", and the words "the LORD" and "his city" are supplied to make an English sentence of it.

87:2

The gates were the wide open space just inside a walled city's entrance, where markets were held, courts sat and public business was done, naming the gates is a way of naming the living city. "Jacob" is the ancestor from whom the Israelites traced their descent, so "the places where Jacob's people live" means all the other towns and settlements of Israel.

87:3

Selah appears throughout the Psalms and its meaning is lost. It is usually taken as a direction for the musicians (a pause, or a swell in the accompaniment), rather than a word to be read aloud.

87:4

Rahab here is a poetic name for Egypt, not the woman of the same name in the book of Joshua. The word also names a sea monster of old stories, and Egypt is called by it much as a nation might be nicknamed after a beast. Babylon lay in what is now Iraq, Philistia on the coastal plain southwest of Judah, Tyre was a wealthy trading port on the coast of modern Lebanon, and Ethiopia translates "Cush," the region south of Egypt along the upper Nile. All five were foreign powers, several of them long-standing enemies. "Born there" is the language of a citizen register: to be recorded as born in a city was to be a native of it with full standing, as against being a resident foreigner.

87:5

"The Most High" is a title for God, used especially in older poetry. "This one and that one" renders a Hebrew idiom for counting off individuals one after another, the way a list is read out.

87:6

The register is a civic roll of citizens, the kind of list a city kept of who belonged to it by birth. Ancient cities and empires kept such rolls for taxation, military service and property claims.

87:7

"Springs" are sources of fresh water. In a dry country a spring meant the difference between a settlement surviving and not, so it stood naturally for the source of a person's life and gladness. The Hebrew of this verse is difficult and the second word for the musicians may mean either players of pipes or dancers; translators differ.