In his most famous hymn ‘Amazing Grace’, John Newton marvelled at the grace of God which reaches out to undeserving sinners. Another of his ‘Olney Hymns’ takes its inspiration from the third verse of this psalm: ‘Glorious things of thee are spoken, Zion, city of our God.’

Mount Zion is the hill on which stood the citadel David captured and made his capital – it became a synonym for Jerusalem (2 Samuel 5:7; Psalm 126:1). This psalm celebrates Zion as the city where God lives with his people, but verses 4 to 7 hold a surprise: people from Egypt (Rahab), Babylon, Philistia, Tyre and Cush will be included as citizens of Zion. Each of these have, at some time, been enemies of Israel, but here the psalmist sees the time when even people from these places will become part of God’s people. 

Isaiah also looked forward to the time when people from all nations would come to God’s holy mountain (eg Isaiah 2:1–4) and become citizens of Zion. ‘… in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ’ (Ephesians 2:11–13).  

Praise the Lord, who ‘watches over the foreigner and sustains the fatherless and the widow … The Lord reigns for ever, your God, O Zion, for all generations’.¹

This psalm, with its strange names and baffling allusions, needs some explanation. With one voice, commentators describe it as enigmatic. (The NIV has smoothed out some of the difficulties in the Hebrew.)

The metaphor that stretches over it is a picture of God recording in his book the names of all the people who were born in Jerusalem and belong to him. But wait! These are people from far-flung nations. ‘Rahab’ refers to the sea-monster² (not the Rahab who sheltered the spies in Joshua 2), who is associated with Egypt, and Cush is the Upper Nile region. The people of these places were not exactly friendly towards the Jews. For much of the time they were at war. The notion of God recording them as those who acknowledge him is startling. God actually declares that these aliens – and enemies at that – were born in Jerusalem! 

That, however, is exactly what happened! Psalm 87 is more of an oracle than a psalm. Over time, many people living in places where Jews were scattered became proselytes and some even came to Jerusalem for the festivals. At Pentecost, Jews came to Jerusalem from ‘every nation under heaven’ and were baptised with the Holy Spirit.³ Paul, writing to the Galatians, took it further and declared that we are ‘all one in Christ Jesus’,⁴ adopted children of God and heirs of the promises made to Abraham. We who were once foreigners, ‘excluded from citizenship in Israel’,⁵ have been accepted through the cross and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Our names are written in the book of life.⁶ Read the psalm again. There we are, along with Rahab and Babylon, Philistia, Tyre and Cush! 

Give thanks for all that we, as Gentiles, inherit from the Old Testament.

¹ Ps 146:9,10  ² Job 9:13; 26:12  ³ Acts 2:5–11  ⁴ Gal 3:28  ⁵ Eph 2:11–13  ⁶ Rev 3:5