Psalms 87
Big idea: Seven verses that quietly rewrite citizenship. God keeps a register, and the entries are astonishing: Rahab (Egypt), Babylon, Philistia, Tyre, Ethiopia — Israel's oldest enemies — each recorded with the same three words, this one was born there. Not naturalised. Born. And the last line is what people say when they get there, singers and dancers together: all my springs are in you.
Psalm 87 registers the nations as native-born. Psalm 88 is one man who feels registered among the dead.
87:1–7 — This one was born there
Seven of the strangest verses in the Psalter, and their subject is a birth register. God is pictured writing up the peoples, and beside the names of Israel's oldest enemies — Egypt, Babylon, Philistia, Tyre, Ethiopia — he records 'THIS ONE WAS BORN THERE', meaning Zion. Citizenship is being granted by birth to people who were born somewhere else, which is either a clerical error or the whole point.
1 A Psalm by the sons of Korah; a Song. His foundation is in the holy mountains. 2 Yahweh loves the gates of Zion more than all the dwellings of Jacob. 3 Glorious things are spoken about you, city of God. Selah. 4 I will record Rahab and Babylon among those who acknowledge me. Behold, Philistia, Tyre, and also Ethiopia: “This one was born there.” 5 Yes, of Zion it will be said, “This one and that one was born in her;” the Most High himself will establish her. 6 Yahweh will count, when he writes up the peoples, “This one was born there.” Selah. 7 Those who sing as well as those who dance say, “All my springs are in you.”
Scripture text: World English Bible (public domain).