Psalm 87 is a short Psalm with enormous reach. It begins with Sion’s foundations, then opens the gates of the city to Rahab, Babylon, Philistia, Tyre, and Ethiopia. The city of God is not tribal possession. It is the mother-city of those whom God counts as born in her.
The spiritual center is adoption into the city God Himself has founded. The Church reads this Psalm as more than civic poetry about Jerusalem. It becomes a prophecy of the heavenly Jerusalem, the Church, and the nations brought into Christ.
Psalm 87 (LXX 86) - Glorious Things Are Spoken of Thee
Psalm Metadata
| Field | Notes |
|---|---|
| NKJV / Masoretic numbering | Psalm 87 |
| Septuagint / Coptic numbering | Psalm 86 |
| Accepted author | Sons of Korah. Brenton: “A Psalm of a Song for the sons of Core.” |
| Period in author’s life | No precise individual life period is given. It belongs to the Korahite temple-song tradition and praises Sion as the city loved by God. |
| Christ prophecy status | Ecclesial and Christological. Sion points to the Church and heavenly Jerusalem. The nations being counted as born there points to the Gentiles made citizens through Christ. |
| Coptic lectionary/service use | Local rows verify Psalm 87 in the Agpeya Sixth Hour, Transfiguration Liturgy rows, Palm Sunday procession station for the Holy Virgin St Mary, and annual fixed-day rows including Psalm 87:3,5,7. |
| Numbering issue | This note embeds Brenton LXX Psalm 86. Local lectionary rows preserve printed Psalm 87 references. |
Historical and Scriptural Context
The Psalm belongs to the sons of Korah, a Levitical singing family connected with temple worship. It praises Sion, not as a political center only, but as the place God loves and founds. The surprise is that foreign nations are named as citizens born in her.
Scripturally, the Psalm reaches toward Isaiah’s vision of the nations streaming to the mountain of the Lord (Isaiah 2:2-3), the promise to Abraham that all nations will be blessed in his Seed (Genesis 22:18), Paul’s teaching that Gentiles are no longer strangers but fellow citizens (Ephesians 2:19-20), and the heavenly Jerusalem, “the mother of us all” (Galatians 4:26).
Geographical Significance ⛰️
Sion is both real and typological. Earthly Jerusalem matters because God chose to put His name there, but Psalm 87 does not stop at stones and walls. It looks to the city whose “architect and builder is God” (Hebrews 11:10), and to the heavenly Jerusalem of Hebrews 12:22-23.
The Characters 👥
The sons of Korah. Temple singers who give the Church a Psalm of Sion, worship, and holy citizenship.
Sion, the city of God. The beloved city, interpreted by the Fathers as the Church and the heavenly Jerusalem.
Rahab, Babylon, Philistia, Tyre, Ethiopia. Nations once outside Israel’s covenant life, now named among those who know God.
The Highest. God Himself, the founder of the city and the one who writes names among His people.
🕯️ Light from the Word
Psalm 86:1-3, the city founded by God
86:1 A Psalm of a Song for the sons of Core. His foundations are in the holy mountains. 86:2 The Lord loves the gates of Sion, more than all the tabernacles of Jacob. 86:3 Glorious things have been spoken of thee, O city of God. Pause.
The Psalm begins abruptly: “His foundations are in the holy mountains.” The city is not first described by its walls, markets, or power, but by its foundations. The Lord loves the gates of Sion because this city exists by divine choosing.
St Augustine hears here the song of a longing heart. He writes that the Psalm praises “a city, whose citizens are we, as far as we are Christians: whence we are absent, as long as we are mortal: whither we are tending.” The Christian is not rootless. He is an exile walking home.
Theodoret gives the Psalm a clear ecclesial reading: “The divine teachings are foundations of religion; holy mountains, on which he fixed these foundations, are our Savior’s apostles.” He then links this directly to Ephesians 2:20, Christ the cornerstone, and Matthew 16:18. The Church is not founded on human sentiment. She rests on apostolic teaching with Christ Himself as the cornerstone.
Lesson Guide
- Key phrases: “His foundations”; “Glorious things have been spoken of thee.”
- Emphasize: the Church is not a human club. She is a city founded by God.
- Avoid: reducing Sion to either geography alone or vague spirituality. The Psalm holds both history and fulfillment.
Psalm 86:4-6, the nations born in Sion
86:4 I will make mention of Raab and Babylon to them that know me: behold also the Philistines, and Tyre, and the people of the Ethiopians: these were born there. 86:5 A man shall say, Sion is my mother; and such a man was born in her; and the Highest himself has founded her. 86:6 The Lord shall recount it in the writing of the people, and of these princes that were born in her. Pause.
This is the shock of the Psalm. Rahab, Babylon, Philistia, Tyre, and Ethiopia are named among those who know God. Nations once remembered for pride, oppression, idolatry, commerce, and distance are now counted as born in Sion.
Theodoret says these nations stand for those “formerly living a life of ungodliness and oppressed by the gloom of ignorance” who are granted “residence” in the city and a share in her way of life. He adds that after the Incarnation of the Savior, they “inhabit that Jerusalem, fill the churches throughout the world, move to the Sion on high, and share in that blessed way of life.”
Augustine presses the same truth through the Apostle Paul. Gentiles “might not think they had no relation to Sion,” because they are now “no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints” (Ephesians 2:19). The line “Sion is my mother” becomes Christian language for the Church and the Jerusalem above.
This is not mere inclusion language. It is new birth. To be counted in Sion means the old identity is not the final word. Babylon can be born anew. Ethiopia can sing inside the city. The Gospel does not merely tolerate outsiders. It makes them children.
Lesson Guide
- Key phrases: “these were born there”; “Sion is my mother.”
- Emphasize: the Church is a mother because God gives birth to a new people in her.
- Avoid: making the nations anonymous. The Psalm names them to show how far mercy reaches.
Psalm 86:7, joy inside the city
86:7 The dwelling of all within thee is as the dwelling of those that rejoice.
The Psalm ends in joy: “The dwelling of all within thee is as the dwelling of those that rejoice.” The true city is not only correct. It is glad. Theodoret says the heavenly way of life is “removed from all despondency” and characterized by “joy and satisfaction pure and unalloyed.”
This matters spiritually. Many people want the city of God as safety, status, or belonging. Psalm 87 teaches something deeper: the city is communion with God, and communion becomes joy.
Lesson Guide
- Key phrases: “dwelling”; “those that rejoice.”
- Emphasize: citizenship in Sion produces worshipful joy, not religious pride.
- Avoid: treating the Church as an institution only. She is the mother-city where the redeemed learn joy.
The Church’s Voice in Worship 📖
Local Coptic rows verify Psalm 87 in several important settings.
In the Agpeya Sixth Hour, printed Psalm 87 appears among the prayers of the hour of the Cross. The city of God is prayed at midday, when the Church stands before the crucified Lord who opened the gates to the nations.
In Transfiguration Liturgy rows, Psalm 87:1 is used with the mountain imagery: “His foundations are in the holy mountains.” The Psalm fits the feast because the mountain reveals Christ’s glory and shows that the Church’s foundations are not earthly power but divine revelation.
In the Palm Sunday procession station for the Holy Virgin St Mary, local special-service data verifies Psalm 87:3,5,7. The words “Glorious things have been spoken of thee” and “Sion is my mother” fit the Marian station carefully: the Theotokos is not a replacement for Sion, but the personal holy place in whom the Word took flesh, and a living icon of the Church who bears Christ.
Iconography Connection 🖼️
This Psalm belongs visually with icons of the Heavenly Jerusalem, the Church gathered from all nations, the Transfiguration, and the Theotokos as a living image of the holy city. In a lesson setting, the iconographic contrast is strong: earthly cities define citizenship by borders, but the city of God receives those whom the Lord writes in His book.
Spiritual Fruit 🍇
- Pray like a citizen, not a wanderer. If you belong to Christ, your deepest home is not your career, nation, ethnicity, or reputation. Say plainly in prayer: “Lord, teach me to live as one born in Your city.”
- Let the Church be mother, not merely event. Psalm 87 asks us to receive the Church as the place where we are born, taught, corrected, fed, and made joyful.
- Do not despise those God may count as born in Sion. Rahab and Babylon are not soft examples. The Psalm stretches mercy beyond our instincts.
- Seek joy as a fruit of communion. The city ends in rejoicing because God Himself dwells there.
Teacher's Notes
- Timing: 10 minutes on Sion and the heavenly Jerusalem, 15 minutes on the nations born in Sion, 10 minutes on Coptic worship use.
- Where to linger: verse 5, “Sion is my mother.” This is the theological heart.
- Key phrase to say slowly: “The Gospel does not merely tolerate outsiders. It makes them children.”
- Pastoral warning: do not use this Psalm to flatten Jewish history or erase earthly Jerusalem. The Fathers move from type to fulfillment, not from contempt to replacement.
Glossary
- Sion / Zion: The holy city and mountain of Jerusalem, read by the Fathers as type of the Church and heavenly Jerusalem.
- Rahab: In this Psalm, a poetic name often associated with Egypt or hostile worldly power.
- Heavenly Jerusalem: The fulfilled city of God in Hebrews 12 and Revelation 21.
- Sons of Korah: Levitical temple singers associated with several Psalms.
Translation and Source Notes
- Embedded Scripture is Brenton’s English Septuagint, Psalm 86.
- The note title follows NKJV / Masoretic numbering first: Psalm 87 (LXX 86).
- Local lectionary rows preserve printed Psalm 87 references.
Sources
Primary sources
- Brenton Septuagint, Psalm 86.
- St Augustine, Exposition on Psalm 87, New Advent access text.
- Theodoret of Cyrus, Commentary on Psalm 87, Hill translation.
- Hebrews 11:10; Hebrews 12:22-23; Galatians 4:26; Ephesians 2:19-20; Revelation 21.
Coptic Orthodox / liturgical sources
- Local Agpeya passage index, Psalm 87 in the Sixth Hour.
- Coptic Orthodox lectionary reverse lookup rows for Transfiguration Liturgy and annual fixed-day rows.
- Local special-service passage index for Palm Sunday procession station of the Holy Virgin St Mary, Psalm 87:3,5,7.
Web pages and non-academic access points cited
- New Advent, St Augustine, Expositions on the Psalms.