Friday, October 21, 2016
On the holy
mountain stands the city founded by the Lord. He loves the city of Jerusalem more
than any other city in Israel. O
city of God, what glorious things are said of you!
Interlude
I will
count Egypt and Babylon among those who know me—also Philistia and Tyre,
and even distant Ethiopia. They have all
become citizens of Jerusalem! Regarding
Jerusalem it will be said, “Everyone enjoys the rights of citizenship
there.” And the Most High will personally
bless this city. When the
Lord registers the nations, he will say, “They have all become citizens of
Jerusalem.”
Interlude
The people
will play flutes and sing, “The source of my life springs from Jerusalem!” Psalm 87:1-7(NLT)
There are so
many pictures that spring from reading this Psalm. Jerusalem is the city of God, built to exalt
the LORD, and draw all people to worship Him.
It is a city of hills, Zion, Moriah, Acra, and Bezethah. The two churches I currently serve are Mount
Zion and Pleasant Hill; extended hill-places of Jerusalem, meant
to honor JHWH.
But the geography
extends past the hills and into the depths.
Egypt, Philistia, and Tyre, places of hostility against God’s reign are
drawn in as citizens of Jerusalem. Even
Ethiopia, distant land of the stranger to the holy hills, is welcomed as a
daughter. They have all become citizens
of Jerusalem, says the Psalmist.
The last
verse gives the understanding of this strange Psalm which includes God’s
children and her enemies, pictured as friends, even siblings together:
The people
will play flutes and sing, “The source of my life springs from Jerusalem!” Psalm 87:7(NLT)
This is the
language of final things, of God’s new order for creation when the lion sits
down with the lamb[ii],
swords are melted down and reformed into plowshares[iii],
and eternity is characterized by worship, unhindered by sin, at Jehovah’s throne.
It is a new
song!
And they sang a new song…. Revelation 5:9(NLT)
I have served
a number of churches as pastor (9 in all), and not a single one was
perfect. (That’s ok, because they didn’t
have a perfect pastor either!) And in
each of those churches over the years I would pray that God would help us to
become what He wanted us to be…to move away from our imperfection, and move-on towards
God’s perfection.
Psalm 87, for
me, is the promise for that prayer – the church standing, holy and unblemished,
singing the new song of praise to the source of life, JHWH!
We may now be
living in a strange time, with confusing and fearful events occurring almost
daily, but one thing is certain: as
the hills of Jerusalem are much-loved by God, the promised gathering of all God’s
creation to offer the praise and adoration of a new song to creation’s
Sovereign Ruler is a lock; some day, at the trumpeting call of an arch angel, every
knee shall bow, and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is LORD.
And it will be
a glorious new song composed just for the occasion! God Himself is the composer, and He will
place it in our hearts and mouths.
For You Today
You may be like
me, unable to carry a tune in a bucket.
But when you lift your voice on that day you will add to the chorus of
praise, sweet and clear in the ears of Christ Jesus. Wouldn’t be a bad thing to warm up those
vocal cords and lift a song of doxology today!
Part of earth’s journey for us Pilgrims is practice for living tomorrow
in glory.
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NOTES
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