Psalm 87: City

I struggle with both patriotism and politics. I do not think either of them are wrong or even bad, but I am often uncomfortable with the place that country, policy, and platform take in our hearts. I have been asked recently if I love our country and I must be honest, I struggle to answer to that question. In fact, the question posed to me has caused more questions to rise in me. What does it look like to love your country? How is that love defined, how is it displayed? Is any of this defined in Scripture and if so, how is it defined? 

God so loved the world, but He also chose Israel for Himself. Jesus came for the lost sheep of Israel, but He also gave Himself and took His gospel beyond Israel. We are born not just who we are, but where we are by the sovereign hand of God. He does not only fit us in the womb, but He also chooses the womb in which we are fit. That means that God does not only form our humanity, He determines every aspect of our being. It is God that assigns gender, race, nationality, and family. None of these things are reasons for pride, but rather thanksgiving, gratitude, and appreciation. I am not only who I am, but I am where I am by the hand of God, but also for the glory of God. It is important to love our country, but we do not love it for what it is, for what we hope it will be, for our way of life or for our system of politics; we must love our country because God put us here, because God established it (as He has all nations), because God desires it and most of all because Jesus died for all those living in it. 

Psalm 87 begins as a song about Jerusalem, more specifically about God’s love for Jerusalem. The Sons of Korah called it “the city that God founded” and then said, “the LORD loves the gates of Zion more than all the dwelling places of Jacob.” It is not that there was something about Jerusalem that stood above the others that caused God to choose it, God loved what He had chosen to do in that city and what He had chosen that city to be to Him and for Him. God’s love for a city or a nation is not about the nation, it is about God’s desire for, His glory in and most of all from that place. God formed Israel, His own people, His own nation, by miraculously providing a son to a couple that had been barren until that time. In Genesis 12, when God made His promise to Abram He said, “And I will make you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing . . . in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” What we see is that Isaac was not simply a blessing to Abraham and Sarah, he was also not just how God was going to build the nation of Israel, he was how God was going to bless every nation of the earth. God’s love for Israel was because of how He would use Israel to bless every nation. 

This takes us back to verse 2, why did God love Jerusalem more than any other city in Israel? It was because of what happened there, what He would do in that place. Jerusalem was the city where God established His house, where He called His people to gather together in His name, to seek His face, to praise His wondrous works and to make their sacrifice for the forgiveness of sins. It was in Jerusalem where God called His people to come together and remember His goodness, to remind each other of His promises and to wait for His redemption. But we also cannot forget that it would be in Jerusalem where Jesus would pay the debt of sin, where He, as the great High Priest, would offer Himself as the sacrifice once for all. The Passover promise would be fulfilled, the Lamb would be slain, the veil would be torn, death would be defeated, salvation would be purchased in Jerusalem. And it is in Jerusalem where Jesus will return and where He will rule and reign. God did not love Jerusalem over the other places in Israel or even the earth, He would love all the earth from the work that was done in Jerusalem. 

The psalm takes a bit of a turn after the second verse and we realize that it is not really about the city but how God would be glorified from that city. Verse 4 lists five other nations, nations that do not seem to fit the narrative of Zion. It says,  “Among those who know me I mention Rahab (an Old Testament name for Egypt) and Babylon; behold, Philistia and Tyre, with Cush—‘This one and that one were born in her;’ for the Most High himself will establish her.” Egypt and Babylon were Israel’s greatest enemies of the Old Testament. The Philistines were a constant source of contention and were disinterested in Israel completely. Cush, which is an Old Testament name for Ethiopia, was so far away that it must have felt like the ends of the earth. What do these far off places have to do with Jerusalem? God was showing that because of what He would do in that city those who were far off would be brought near to Him and become citizens of His kingdom. Michael Wilcock wrote that Psalm 87 is about “the grace that brings in undeserving outsiders, and blesses them with the privileges of citizenship.” God did something beautiful in Jerusalem so that He could do something powerful from Jerusalem. His love for the city was about how His love would be shown from the city. 

Colossians 1:16 tells us that all things were created by Jesus and were created for Jesus. God is gracious in that He gives us good gifts, but those gifts are not only for our good, they are for His glory and they are for the redemption of those that do not yet know Him. I believe we are called to love our country, our city, our community, but we are called to love them not for what they afford us but for what God desires for them. We must love them enough to be different, to be pilgrims and strangers, to live in these places as citizens of heaven. We must love our city and our country enough to live in it the way Abraham lived, “For he was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God.” Our calling is not patriotism it is evangelism, it is not to pledge allegiance it is to share the gospel, it is not to make this world great, it is to always point to Someone and someplace greater. We are here by God’s hands and we are here for God’s heart. If we truly love where we live, we must live for God’s kingdom so that those around us can come to know God’s love.