So if you would turn to the text in your Bibles, the Pew Bible, this is page 585. We'll be looking at Psalm 87. It's not a lengthy psalm, only seven verses, but we'll be using those seven verses as our text for this morning. If you're able, out of reverence and respect for the reading of God's inerrant, infallible, and inspired word, would you stand with me as I read? On the holy mount stands the city he founded. The Lord loves the gates of Zion more than all the dwelling places of Jacob. Glorious things of you are spoken, O city of God. Among those who know me, I mention Rahab and Babylon. Behold, Philistia entire 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. For the Most High himself will establish her. The Lord records as he registers the peoples, this one was born there. Singers and dancers alike say all my springs are in you. This is the reading of God's Word. May He bless it to our hearts. Please be seated. So in Psalm 87 where we find ourselves this morning we find another psalm by the sons of Korah. It is a psalm, it is a prayer, but it's also a song. It's a song of real delight, great joy, rejoicing, even, in this psalm. As we work our way through this brief psalm, we want to seek to see and understand why it's true that this is such a psalm of such rejoicing, and in doing so, to seek to understand the true identity of this Zion that God loves so much. And so in doing that, we will examine this psalm in basically three sections. The first three verses will be focused on the city of God. The verses 4 through 6 will be looking at that city as a mother. And finally in verse 7, a city of rejoicing. We have verses 1 through 3, the city of God. The psalmist begins this psalm by saying, on the holy mount stands the city he founded. Other translations, your King James Version, that NASB, the New King James Version, they translate it more like his foundation is in the holy mountains, plural. Well, the word for mountain here is, as I understand it, in the plural, and perhaps that is suggesting what has been said about Jerusalem, that Jerusalem is not truly built on a mountain, but instead is built in the mountains, and in fact is surrounded even, some say, by seven mountains. The word that we find there, the city he founded or his foundation, is also a word that can be translated as established. There's a sense in which in the Hebrew, this verse really begins by saying, he, God established. That's the primary emphasis of this verse. God is the one who is establishing here. It is established in the holy or on the holy mountain. So what is it that makes this mountain holy? Well, the word here does mean holy in the sense of being sacred, but it also carries with it the idea that it is sacred because it is set apart by God for that sacred purpose. So what God has established here is indicated by the ESV and sort of adding in this word, the city, which he founded. And they add that word in basically on the basis of what you find in verses two and three, as you continue to work through these verses. In verse two, we're told that the Lord, and that's Yahweh, the covenant name of God, the Lord loves the gates of Zion. Well, gates are part of a city. Gates are the entrance into the city. They're the primary place where judgment and official business take place. The Lord loves the gates of Zion more than all the dwelling places of Jacob. Jacob here referring not to the man, but again, to the people of Israel, the descendants of Jacob. whose name was changed by God to Israel. The Lord loves this place, the gates of Zion, more than all those other dwelling places. Understand that in Scripture, Jerusalem is often referred to as Zion. The temple, in fact, is built on what is called Mount Zion. As a city, Jerusalem, Zion, was also the place where a great number of the Jewish people, the people of Old Testament Israel, dwelt and lived. The question is, is that what makes this mountain holy? And the answer to that is no. What makes this mountain holy is the cumulative effect of everything that is being said in those first three verses, and particularly, especially made pointed and clear verse 3. Notice God didn't just happen to make his establishment on this mountain. He wasn't just wondering about one day and just came to this one and decided he didn't want to go any further and this was what he would establish. God chose to found it here. He elected, he made a choice to make the foundation here. He loves this dwelling place more than all the other dwelling places of his people. Why is that? It's because it's his dwelling place. It's where he has chosen to dwell in Jerusalem, in Mount Zion. Zion is, as this verse says, literally the city of God. It isn't just the city that follows God. It is the city where God dwells. Notice the word Sela at the end of that verse, calling on us to pause and reflect on that tremendous truth that the God of all creation has made a choice to dwell among his people here in Zion. That's what makes Zion holy. The fact that God dwells there as he dwells nowhere else on earth in this very special way of intimate communion with his people. The psalmist says, glorious, splendid, dignified, honorable things are spoken about you, Zion, city of God. So that's the city of God. Let's look at the city as a mother in verses four through six. Now, English teachers may accuse me of being redundant for saying it this way, but glorious things are things that are worthy of glory. You're not supposed to use the same word to define the word you're working on, but that just kind of fits, right? But what are these glorious things that are being spoken, and whose glory do they reflect? What is it that makes them glorious? And also, by the way, who is speaking these glorious things? Well, it's evident that God is the one who is speaking in these verses, in verses four through six. You can see the personal pronouns, me and I, there in verse four. You can also go into verse six where you find this person identified as the Lord, Yahweh, as the one who is keeping the records that are being spoken about in this passage. This is God who is speaking, and it's notable that the form in which this speaking takes is not just a casual way of speaking, but it's a very formal kind of declaration being made by God here. He talks about being known, and we should understand that it is because of what God has done in verses one through three, those ones we've already looked at, it was because of those things that God had become known in Israel to the people of Israel, to the descendants of Abraham. But notice as God is talking about those who know him here in this verse, he's not talking about the Jewish people. Notice in verse 4 he talks about Rahab. Rahab is considered by many to represent Egypt. And Rahab is listed along with Babylon. Together those are two of the great world powers that were enemies of God's people, attacking, oppressing, enslaving. Philistia and Tyre. Philistia, you can hear Philistines in that. The Philistines were Israel's enemy all throughout their history, living very close by, just on the western coast. Tyre, a very affluent business, merchant kind of city, but also one who took God's people and sold them into slavery. They're local, near enemies, whereas Babylon and Egypt were further off, and Cush, they're not sure of Cush. Many think it refers to Ethiopia, but it seems to carry the idea of a far distant place. Not just these ones right around us, but Cush is someone who's even further away, and yet is mentioned, as these other nations and peoples are many times in Scripture, as at times, and at certain points, enemies. oppressors of God's people. It would seem, if you look at the listing of these nations all together, that based on their location, they really represent the whole scope of the compass. Tyre in the north, Babylon to the east, Egypt and Kush in the south, and Philistia to the west. It sort of suggests to us the world. Everything outside of Israel. And also keep in mind, this idea that they have all been enemies, oppressors of God's people over the years is interesting because we are in the middle, in fact, near the very end of this third book of the Psalter, which is focused on the oppression and desolation of the northern and southern kingdoms of Israel and Judah by these kinds of enemies, and desiring, expressing a great desire that those enemies would be conquered instead of Israel and Judah. It's interesting that we find them listed here in this psalm in this place. And so we could ask ourselves, why do we find them here? Why do we find them listed here in this brief psalm that is about Zion and about the glorious things that are to be spoken about Zion? It's remarkable, remarkable here that in this formal declaration God is making, he is stating as plainly and clearly as you can do that these former enemies, the ones who had formerly attacked and oppressed Zion, are now actually part of Zion. And he's not saying that they are part of Zion in the sense that they finally decided Zion is the stronger side, the better side to be on, and they've just switched their allegiance. as if they weren't originally part of her. He's not speaking about them as if they're proselytes, people that Jews have gone out into those other nations and taught them about God's will and those people have become convinced that have decided to become Jews and join them. He's not talking about them in that way. You notice that. No, in fact, notice they are saying, these people are saying that they were born in Zion. It seems to be an odd thing to say if you're from Philistia or Tyre or Cush or Egypt or Babylon. Is this just their claim with no basis in fact? Are they just kind of wanting to be part of Zion? No. In fact, what we do is we move on through the next couple of verses, five and six, we find their claim to have been born in Zion actually affirmed in both of those verses. First of all, notice in verse four, God is the one who says that these people that he's gonna list here, he says, among those who know me. Now he doesn't mean among those who have heard about me, among those who have been told that I'm the God of Israel. When he uses this word know me, he means truly know me, those who are in communion with me. Much like Jesus said in John 17, I think 23, to know you is eternal life. God's the one who's saying about these people that they're among those who know him. And then in the first part of verse five, if you were to look up, we don't usually do that, but look up the very old Greek Septuagint translation of the Old Testament, In that translation, they actually, in the first part of verse 5, use the term mother here in reference to Zion. Zion will be called a mother where men of every race are born. Now, it is possible to look at verse 5 as a report of what others will say about these people who are making these claims, these former oppressors and foreigners, about being born in Zion. But again, when we consider the fact that verses four to six clearly seem to be this formal declaration by God himself, it seems likely that this is God saying this about these people. And the phrase that is used there, this one and that one were born in Zion, that doesn't just mean one or two people. This one and that one is a way of saying they all were. All these people that are coming here and making this claim were born in Zion. Now, if we think this is God speaking here, is there any reason to believe that God could be making such a declaration about these people that were former enemies? Well, to begin with, look again at how verse five ends. All of these, that verse says, will be part of Zion, born there. Why? For, because the Most High will establish her. Remember what I said about that word in the first verse, founded or foundation, meaning established. Here we have not only has Zion been established, Zion has been established so that these people will become those who are born her. She will be established as what? As sort of the supreme nation, as the goal to which people should be striving and wanting to be. And then look at verse 6 for even more of a reason. We're told there in verse 6 that the Lord, again Yahweh's covenant name, the Lord who dwells and reigns in Zion as its king and head, seems to be standing there with a book open. And as these people come into Zion claiming to have been born there, the king, the Lord, is writing in his book their name. And then notice what he's writing after their name. He doesn't write John Doe moved here from Philistia. He writes John Doe, he was born here. He was born here. God is the one who is declaring incredibly, as he writes each of these names in his book, that each one of them was born there in Zion. Again, we see that word, Sela, calling on us to stop and think about the profound nature of that. God is the one saying this. a city that is the mother of children who are born in her from all over. And finally in verse seven, we come to the city of rejoicing. Have you noticed as we've worked through this psalm, how quickly Zion sort of transforms from a place in or on the mountain to a city with the gates, and finally to a people who dwell and live and make up that city. All of those are Zion. Zion, Jerusalem, on earth, represented in its day the place of God's saving presence on earth. But it was never only about a place. That's why God, through the psalmist here in this Old Testament psalm, can refer to Zion as both a location and as a city and as a people. It was always about more than just a place. It was always about the covenant community of the people who belong to God, who truly are His. Why does Zion exist? And why is God found there with Zion? What we're told in those first three verses, it's because God loves Zion. It's his elective choice that he has made. It isn't that Zion was just so lovable that when God walked upon her and saw her, he just couldn't resist her. In fact, in the Old Testament, God says, I didn't choose you because you were the best people. We didn't choose you because you were the greatest people, the largest number of people. In fact, you were few and almost insignificant and not even worth noticing. I chose you because I set my great and everlasting love upon you. I chose to love you. Deuteronomy actually in chapter 7 verses 6 through 8 talks about God is talking about how he has taken them and set them apart as holy for himself. Again, set apart for him. He has set them apart to be his treasured possession, he says. And he says, I've done that because I've loved you with a steadfast love. And with that all in the background, we now finally come in verse seven to see the response of God's people, those who were born there. Again, not just Jews, those who were born there, their response to God's saving love and his sovereign care and his protection as part of being part of Zion. And notice these aren't people who are just going through the motions, their heart not really in it. It isn't as if they're filling out a line on the census form asking where you were born, and they're saying, yeah, I was born in Zion. Notice how the psalmist describes them. They're excited. They're joyful. They're celebrating. He calls them, in fact, singers and dancers alike, all of them. And as they sing and dance in their celebration, they give voice, expression, to the reason for their celebration. All my springs are in you. Remember where Palestine is, Middle East, often dry and hot. In a place that's dry and hot, springs are a source of life and blessing to people. You're making your way through a vast desert, You long to see that oasis on the horizon where you can finally get the drink of water and the coolness of that place. Springs are a source of life and blessing. And if you want to think about this in terms of the way the psalmist presents this here, on their journey here to Zion, these people from these distant places who were born in Zion would have needed a number of springs along the way to refresh them and to sustain their lives. But now, as they find themselves in Zion and find themselves in the presence of the Lord who loves them and has graciously listed them as members of his beloved city, notice that they now joyously and sincerely declare that the real truth is that all, not just the best, but all of their springs, all the springs that give them life and blessing are found in you. Well, here's the question. What does Ennu refer to? Does it refer to Zion? Or does it refer to the Lord who has blessed them so greatly? I would argue it applies to both. It is in Zion where they found all their springs. And why do they find all those springs of life and blessing in Zion? Because it is the Lord who dwells there and it is the Lord who provides those springs for them. But it is still in Zion that they are found. It's both that they're looking forward to here, that they're excited about and that they're rejoicing in. You see, the intent and purpose that is expressed in this psalm of the people of the world coming to God is not something unique to this psalm. It seems odd to find it here in this location, but it's not something unique to this psalm. It's actually always been a central part of God's covenant of salvation, of his covenant of grace. Remember the initial promise of the gospel? Genesis 3.15, who is that given to? Adam and Eve. And were they living in the land and people of Israel at that time? No, there was no land or people of Israel when that promise was made. It was made to the descendants, the seed of a woman. That promise was reiterated later to Abraham. When Abraham received that promise from God that through him and through his seed all the nations, people of the world would be blessed, there wasn't a nation or people of Israel yet. That was when they were being formed, begun. And God has reaffirmed that promise to bring the people of the world to worship him in a number of places all throughout the Old Testament. One in particular that maybe says it more succinctly and clearly than others is found in Isaiah chapter 2 verses 2 and 3 where God says, it shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the house of the Lord, sounds like the beginning of this psalm, shall be established on the highest of the mountains and shall be lifted up above the hills and all the nations shall flow to it. And many peoples shall come and say, come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob, that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths. Why? For out of Zion shall go forth the law and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. See, this has always been part of God's intent and purpose. There is a sense in which that's why he established Israel, was to be the fountain from which that would flow. But what is this psalm doing near the end of a collection of psalms that's focused on the oppression and desolation of Israel by foreign enemies, and desiring to see those enemies conquered instead of them? Why are we seeing this psalm that is rejoicing in those enemies being part of Zion? It seems odd. Unless you understand that it is actually because this psalm is a song, is a prayer for Israel's enemies to be conquered. But to be conquered, not militarily, but through conversion. So that as God works in their hearts to cause them to be born in Zion, they're no longer enemies of Zion. They are now Zion itself. Literally cease being enemies and become God's people. Well, good Old Testament scholars that you all are, I could ask you, when did this ever happen? in the history of that Old Testament nation of Israel. That all of their nations that were enemies came to them and said they had been born in Zion. Didn't ever happen in Old Testament Israel's time. In fact, if you remember that passage I just read to you from Isaiah chapter 2 verses 2 and 3, at the very beginning of that God explicitly says when it's going to happen. In the latter days, he says. In the last days. Again, in scripture language, that means in the days when the Messiah comes, when the Messiah finally comes to do away with the problem of sin and to restore my people to righteousness and to bring this everlasting kingdom of peace and righteousness on earth, that's when this is going to happen. You see, as we read this short psalm, we could read over it so quickly and say, boy, it sounds really nice. Not sure what it's all about, but because normally we'd be talking about Israel being the ones born there. But the fact is that this psalm is about nothing less than and nothing other than the church age that we live in. The time when Christ came and established the kingdom of heaven on earth. He came and said, the kingdom of heaven is among you. Here's how the kingdom citizens need to live. Those of you who don't follow are going to be put out of the kingdom. The kingdom is going to be removed from you. He died his atoning death on this earth. He was raised from the dead. He ascended to heaven to his throne. And it was then, think about this, again in line with this psalm and how it's laid out, it was then beginning with Pentecost that the word of the Lord went out from where? Jerusalem to Judea. to Samaria and to the outermost parts of the earth. Just as God and Isaiah said it would, the word of the Lord would go out from Jerusalem so that all these people would come to worship him. But how is it that all these people who were born and lived in all these distant places around the world, all over the church age, all throughout church history, come to be born in Zion. As God himself says, this isn't somebody else making it up, God himself says born in Zion. How does that happen? They are actually born entire, weren't they? Or Cush or Egypt or Babylon or Pennsylvania or wherever. Remember in John chapter 3 when a man named Nicodemus came to Jesus? Oh Lord, we know you're a great teacher sent from God because no one could do these things that you do unless God was with them. And Jesus just looks at him and says, hey Nicodemus, unless a man is born again, he can't see the kingdom of God. And then he repeats it again later and says, unless a man is born again, he can't enter into the kingdom of God. You don't even know there's a kingdom of God unless you've been born again, let alone be able to become part of it. And how does that happen? Jesus told Nicodemus, one must be born of the spirit. The wind is like, the Spirit's like the wind. It blows where it wants to blow. You can't see it. You don't know where it's coming from, where it's going, but you can see its effects. It's a spiritual kingdom. Zion is a spiritual kingdom, and one must be born again by the Holy Spirit in order to be part of it. But they aren't adopted in that sort of sense that you might think of it in these terms. They're born there. They're born again. You see, the kingdom of heaven, Zion, is the church of all the ages, Old Testament and New. The true people of God is Zion, the community of the faithful. Does this carry over into the New Testament, since we read about it in the Old? Well, the author of Hebrews in chapter 12, down toward the end of chapter 12, around verse 19 and further down, is talking to this church that is mostly Jewish, by the way, in its background, ethnic-wise, trying to get them to not go back to Judaism, but to stay in their faith in Christ and obedience to him, He tells them, you haven't come to, and he describes what is Mount Sinai, a place where thunder and lightning and threats of God's judgment and the possibility of being put to death for your sinfulness and so on. You haven't come there, he says, but in verse 22, I think it is, he says, but you have come to Mount Zion. They're not necessarily in Jerusalem, they're in the church. He says you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in, notice this, festal gathering, celebratory gathering, singers and dancers, festal gathering, and to the assembly of the firstborn who are Notice the words, enrolled in heaven. Enrolled usually means having your name written down on the rolls, right? And what was the king, what was the Lord doing in Psalm 87? He's writing their names down and next to it, you were born here. Along with that, you have come not just to that, but you've come to God, the judge of all, the spirits of the righteous made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of the new covenant. Yes, it carries over into the New Testament. In fact, this idea of the church being the mother where all these children are being born is an idea that Paul also picks up on and carries out in Galatians chapter four. This time, he's talking to a church that is primarily Gentile in nature, mixed, but probably primarily Gentile. And as he's talking to them about it and their temptation to go back and become Jews, to follow the law of Moses and keep it all strictly, he says, let me take you back to the Old Testament to Abraham and teach you an allegory that is there. Abraham had two women by which he had sons. Sarah, his wife, and Hagar, her slave. Paul says Hagar represents a mountain, Mount Sinai. Earthly Jerusalem, he says, where she and her children are still in bondage. They are not faithful and part of God's kingdom. Sarah, on the other hand, represents Mount Zion, the heavenly Jerusalem, the Jerusalem that is above, he says, and we, like Isaac, are born as children of the promise. He says that that earthly Jerusalem above is our mother. Yes, the doctrine carries over into the New Testament. See, this Psalm tells us, think about this too, the Lord, the King of Zion in Psalm 87 has a book in which he's recording the names of all those who were born in Zion and belong there. You can see this carrying over even into the New Testament where you go to the book of Revelation. The very end of things for the New Testament, right? Revelation chapter 20 verses 11 to 15 is talking about that great terrible judgment of God at the last day. When the great white judgment throne will be set up and the one who sits on that throne, which we know is Christ because he's been appointed as the judge of the world. He's going to be seated on his judgment throne, and that passage tells us that death and Hades are going to be cast into the second death, the lake of fire. But then after that, in verse 15, the last verse of that passage, verse 15 says, also anyone whose name isn't written in the book of life will also be cast into that lake of fire, into the second death. Names written in a book of life. Well, what about the true people of God? The ones whose names are written in the book that the Lamb, the King, was writing for Zion that you were born here. What happens to them? Well, the very next verse begins chapter 21 in Revelation. And I saw heavenly Jerusalem descending from God out of heaven, adorned as a bride for her husband. And it goes on to talk about all of the blessings that will be theirs because they will be with God and the Lamb forever. But also, if you go on to the next chapter, chapter 22, talking about that same heavenly Jerusalem on earth with God and the Lamb dwelling among them, when we talk about all your spring, all my springs are in you, Revelation 22 tells us that in that city, the people of God, there is going to be a river that flows out from the throne of God and the Lamb. That river is going to be a river of life. And it's going to be so life-giving that, in fact, on both sides of that river, it's going to be lined with the trees of life. A life-giving spring. The Holy Spirit. The blessings of the Holy Spirit will be ours fully and eternally in the glorified Zion. It all carries over into the New Testament. And so as those gathered here who are by God's grace through the work of his Holy Spirit and calling us to him and causing us to be born again, those of us who have been born again in Zion, in the church, remember that we too are supposed to be doing what verse 7 says. not necessarily singing and dancing. We don't do that in our worship services at least. You can do it at home if you want. We do sing, we just don't dance. We're to be celebrating. We're to be joyous, excited, and we too are to be excited because all of our springs are in you, Zion, the church, and in the God of the church. We're supposed to be rejoicing that the Lord has enrolled our names in the Book of Life. What are the springs? What are our springs that are in the church, in Zion, for us today? What are the things that are life-giving, refreshing, and sustaining to us as the members of Zion that we rejoice that all of our springs are in you? The Reformed have confessed consistently that in the church, those springs are the ordinary means of grace. Those things that have been instituted by Christ, when it's called means of grace, what it means is they are the channels that Christ has established in order to funnel, to pour out his grace on his people. And those means of grace are prayer, the sacraments, and the preaching and ministry of the Word. You may think they're just things we do. No, they're things that God does. He is actively using these as means to pour His grace out into your heart and your life. If you absent yourself from them, if you just don't pay attention to them and just half-heartedly be here, it's like you're closing the valve. and stopping God's grace from being poured out in your heart and life. You are causing yourself to be thirsty for the things that you need to sustain you and refresh you in this life. We need to be recognizing that we aren't people who just join the church. We are people that join the church because God caused us to be born again in the church. No matter where we come from, as the New Testament teaches us, there's neither Jew nor Greek, no Gentile, no slave, no free, rich or poor. We are all on the same spiritual footing in Zion. And God doesn't leave us to thirst. We can't find any of these blessings of grace out in the world. Not that there aren't some things that we benefit from and enjoy out there, but none of these life-giving, totally satisfying things are found out in the world. They are found in you, in Zion, in God, in Christ. We need to look at these things. What was great about Zion that was being described in the early part of the psalm? It was because God was in her. The people knew him. They were communing with him. They were in deep fellowship with him. That's what we obtain through the means of grace. That's what we seek after and obtain. Let's pray that they would be effective in our lives. Father, thank you for your tremendous grace. Thank you that we, yes, we understand there's a very true spiritual doctrine of our adoption as your children, but even in that adoption it's because we've been literally born again as your people. And it's because we're found in Christ. I would pray that you would cause these many springs the means of grace to be effective in our lives, to give us hearts of joy and rejoicing and celebration as we find all of our springs in you. We ask it in Christ's name and for his sake, Amen.