Psalm 87 is a short Psalm with enormous reach. It begins with Sion’s foundations, then names Raab, Babylon, the Philistines, Tyre, and the people of the Ethiopians. The city of God is not a tribal possession. It is the mother-city of those whom God counts as born in her.
The Church receives this song as more than civic poetry about Jerusalem. Read in Christ, it opens toward the Church and the heavenly Jerusalem, a home in which the nations are gathered without the story of Israel being discarded.
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 or historical incident is given. The Psalm praises Sion as the city loved and founded by God. |
| Christ prophecy status | Ecclesial and Christological. Sion points to the Church and heavenly Jerusalem; the nations born there point to people brought into Christ. |
| Coptic lectionary/service use | References include the Agpeya Sixth Hour, Transfiguration Liturgy, the Palm Sunday station for the Holy Virgin St Mary, and annual fixed-day Vespers and Liturgy selections. |
| Numbering issue | This study embeds Brenton LXX Psalm 86. The service references below retain their printed Psalm numbers. |
Historical and Scriptural Context
The superscription names the sons of Core, or Korah, but gives no date for the song. It praises Sion as a place God loves and founds. The surprise is the breadth of the city’s family: people associated with distant lands are spoken of as born there.
The Psalm stands beside Isaiah’s vision of nations coming to the mountain of the Lord (Isaiah 2:2-3), the promise that all nations will be blessed in Abraham’s Seed (Genesis 22:18), and Paul’s teaching that Gentiles have become fellow citizens with the saints (Ephesians 2:19-20). Paul also calls the Jerusalem above our mother (Galatians 4:26).
Geographical Significance ⛰️
Sion is both real and typological. Earthly Jerusalem matters in the history of God’s people; Christian hope does not require us to forget it. Hebrews speaks of the city with foundations whose builder and maker is God, and of the heavenly Jerusalem (Hebrews 11:10; 12:22-23). The Psalm gives us a way to long for that home without treating its earthly image as unimportant.
The Characters 👥
The sons of Korah. The group named in the Psalm’s superscription.
Sion, the city of God. The beloved city. Augustine and Theodoret read its image in relation to the Church and the heavenly Jerusalem.
Raab, Babylon, the Philistines, Tyre, and the people of the Ethiopians. Names brought into the Psalm’s surprising speech about birth and belonging.
The Highest. God Himself, who founds the city and recounts the people and princes born in her.
🕯️ Light from the Word
The passage headings and verse labels below use Brenton’s LXX Psalm 86.
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 almost in mid-thought. Whose foundations? The Lord is named in verse 2, and the Highest is named as Sion’s founder in verse 5. Before we hear about the city’s people, we hear that its foundation is His work.
The Lord’s love for Sion’s gates is set above the tabernacles of Jacob. This praises His choice of a place within the life of Israel; it is not a rejection of Jacob or permission to despise the people of Israel.
St Augustine, a wider Christian exegetical witness, hears a song of longing. Christians already belong to the city, yet are still traveling toward the rest that awaits them. Christ Himself makes the way home.1
Theodoret of Cyrus connects the mountain image with Christ’s apostles and sees teaching received from God as the city’s support. He turns to Ephesians 2:20 and Christ the cornerstone.2 The Church is not founded on human sentiment. She receives the apostolic witness and rests upon Christ Himself.
Lesson Guide
- Key phrases: His foundations; “Glorious things have been spoken of thee, O city of God.”
- 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.
The first-person speaker will mention Raab and Babylon to those who know the speaker, then also names the Philistines, Tyre, and the people of the Ethiopians. Then comes the startling declaration that these were born there. The language is no longer merely that of distant peoples looking toward a city. It is the language of home.
Theodoret sees people from the nations sharing the city’s life through the Incarnation and joining churches throughout the world, with hope of Sion above.3 Augustine brings the Psalm together with Paul’s words about fellow citizenship and Jerusalem above. He includes both the Jewish people and the nations in the city.4
In verse 5, a person calls Sion mother. Augustine reads the man born in the city as Christ Himself, the Highest who founded it. He writes: “As He created a mother of whom He would be born, so He founded a city in which He would be born.”5 This is his theological reading of the Psalm, not a claim that the verse establishes Jesus’ geographical birthplace. The Creator does not remain distant from those He gathers: in the Incarnation, He enters the life of His people.
In verse 6 the Lord Himself does the recounting, in the writing of the people and of the princes born there. The verse does not identify the princes by name. Its emphasis is on the Lord’s act, not on a pedigree we can grant or withhold. Earthly rank and inherited ethnic membership do not give us ownership of His city.
This is not mere inclusion language. It is new birth. The Gospel does not merely tolerate outsiders. It makes them children. That invitation gives no license to despise Jewish people or any other nation. The Psalm’s city is the beloved Sion of Israel, and the Church’s hope grows from God’s faithfulness to His promises.
Lesson Guide
- Key phrases: “these were born there.”; Sion as 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 final verse brings us inside the city. It speaks not simply of possessing a place there, but of dwelling with rejoicing. Theodoret sees here the lasting joy of life in heaven.6 Augustine also looks toward the joy still to come, while recognizing that our praise now is mingled with lament.7
A person living with grief, anxiety, or depression is not less a member of the Church, nor does sorrow prove a lack of faith. The promised joy is not a demand to feel happy. It is communion with God, sometimes tasted in fragile ways now and awaited in fullness. Until then, the Church has room for tears as well as song.
Lesson Guide
- Key phrases: dwelling; “The dwelling of all within thee is as the dwelling of 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 📖
In the Agpeya Sixth Hour, the city Psalm is prayed with the other Psalms of the hour; the indexed Gospel is Matthew 5:1-16. The Sixth Hour litany recalls the Cross. At midday the Church prays of God’s city while remembering Christ crucified, who opens the way to life for all peoples. The Agpeya’s English wording is not identical to Brenton’s.8
A dated Transfiguration Liturgy reading prints Psalm 87:1,2,5, selecting the foundations, the gates, and the establishment of the city, alongside Mark 9:2-13. Its English begins, “His foundation is in the holy mountains.”9 The paired mountain images invite us to contemplate the glory of Christ, not to claim that the mountain of the feast is literally Sion.
At the Palm Sunday procession station for the Holy Virgin St Mary, Nadian’s printed service gives Psalm 87:3,5,7 with Luke 1:39-56. Its selection includes “Glorious things are spoken of you, O city of God!” and “And the Most High Himself shall establish her forever for the dwelling of all who rejoice is within you.” It does not recite the maternal words found in Brenton 86:5; those belong to the wider Psalm we have studied. The Marian connection is a resonance, not a replacement of Sion: the Theotokos bore the Word in the flesh and is an image of the Church that receives Christ. A separate UK Midlands edition prints Psalm 87:2,5,7 at this station and ends, “All my springs are in you.”10
Annual selections also differ. The dated Kiahk 3 Vespers text prints Psalm 87:3,5,7 and ends with the springs. The Mesra 16 Vespers text carries the same label but includes the nations and ends with the Most High establishing the city, without the verse 7 words of rejoicing. Both are paired with Luke 10:38-42. The cycle also lists a Baramhat 21 Liturgy reference and a Bashans 1 Vespers reference, though their exact word boundaries cannot be settled from those labels alone.11
Iconography Connection 🖼️
In a lesson, an icon of the Transfiguration or the Theotokos may help a class contemplate Christ’s glory and His Incarnation alongside this Psalm. These are teaching resonances, not a claim that the Psalm prescribes a particular icon.
Spiritual Fruit 🍇
- Pray like a citizen, not a wanderer. If you belong to Christ, your deepest home is not exhausted by your career, nation, ethnicity, or reputation. These need not be despised, but none has to carry the weight of your ultimate belonging. Pray: “Lord, teach me to live as one born in Your city.”
- Let the Church be mother, not merely event. In her worship and sacramental life, God gathers, nourishes, teaches, and corrects us. Look for someone who needs a welcome in the congregation.
- Do not despise those God may count as born in Sion. The Psalm names peoples, not stereotypes. Offer welcome to someone you are tempted to see first as an outsider.
- Seek joy as a fruit of communion. Pray, sing, and stay near those who weep. You need not manufacture a feeling; the hope of the city can be carried together.
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: Brenton Psalm 86:5, where Sion is called 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. Reading Sion as type and fulfillment does not permit contempt for Jewish people or any nation.
Glossary
- Sion / Zion: The holy city and mountain of Jerusalem, read by Augustine and Theodoret in relation to the Church and heavenly Jerusalem.
- Raab: Brenton’s spelling in Psalm 86:4. Augustine reads Rahab as the woman of Jericho and sees her as a type of the Church from the nations; that interpretation does not settle the name’s referent in this Psalm.4
- Heavenly Jerusalem: The city of God in Hebrews 12 and Revelation 21.
- Sons of Korah: The group named in the superscriptions of 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).
- Service references below identify particular printed or dated witnesses. A printed verse number does not by itself establish identical English wording or endpoints in every edition.
- Augustine is quoted from the New Advent English text. Theodoret’s commentary is paraphrased from Robert C. Hill’s translation.
Sources
Primary sources
- Brenton Septuagint, Psalm 86.
- St Augustine of Hippo, Exposition on Psalm 87, §§1-2, 5-6, 8, New Advent.
- Theodoret of Cyrus, Commentary on the Psalms, Psalms 73–150, translated by Robert C. Hill, Fathers of the Church 102 (2001), Commentary on Psalm 87, pp. 77-80.
- Isaiah 2:2-3; Genesis 22:18; Ephesians 2:19-20; Galatians 4:26; Hebrews 11:10 and 12:22-23; Revelation 21.
Coptic Orthodox / liturgical sources
Dated Coptic Church readings for the Transfiguration Liturgy and annual Vespers selections cited below.
Nadian, Palm Sunday procession, station 2 for the Holy Virgin St Mary, p. 126; UK Midlands printed Sunday lectionary, Palm Sunday procession, p. 571.
Katameros cycle references for Baramhat 21 Liturgy and Bashans 1 Vespers.
Footnotes
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Augustine, Exposition on Psalm 87, §1, New Advent. ↩
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Theodoret, Commentary on Psalm 87, opening paragraph, in Hill, pp. 77-78; see also §2 on Sion and the heavenly city. ↩
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Theodoret, Commentary on Psalm 87, §3, in Hill, pp. 78-79. ↩
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Augustine, Exposition on Psalm 87, §§2 and 5, New Advent. ↩ ↩2
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Augustine, Exposition on Psalm 87, §6, New Advent. ↩
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Theodoret, Commentary on Psalm 87, §5, in Hill, p. 80. ↩
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Augustine, Exposition on Psalm 87, §8, New Advent. ↩
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Agpeya, Sixth Hour, Psalm 86 (87) and the Sixth Hour litany; the indexed Gospel is Matthew 5:1-16. ↩
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Coptic Church readings, 19 August 2023, Transfiguration Liturgy, Psalm and Gospel. ↩
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Nadian, Palm Sunday procession, station 2, p. 126; UK Midlands printed Sunday lectionary, Palm Sunday procession before the icon of the Virgin St Mary, p. 571. ↩
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Kiahk 3 Vespers, 12 December 2022; Mesra 16 Vespers, 22 August 2023; Katameros cycle references for Baramhat 21 and Bashans 1. ↩