Psalm 87 is something of a puzzle. It starts out straightforwardly enough: God loves Jerusalem. This is the city in which he has chosen to live, the city where he has settled down and set up his house. Jerusalem, then, is the capital of the world. Of course, that gets complicated with the details of history; God has “moved out” in anger on many occasions. But still, Jerusalem holds a special place in his heart. And that love points toward God’s ultimate desire for a city where he and his people dwell together in harmony.

But then it gets really weird; it seems to indicate that pagan nations have come to know God and even that they have in some sense been “born there.” Weirder still, the nations mentioned are Israel’s classic arch-enemies; Egypt (Rahab is an old way of referring to Egypt), Babylon, Philistia, et al. The enemies of God have come to believe in the God of their enemies and when they do so, they become citizens of Jerusalem.

This came about historically when the people of God were scattered in judgment to the nations. There, other nations came to believe in the God of Israel. Think of the throngs of crowds at Pentecost in Acts, think of the Ethiopian Eunuch, think of Cornelius, think of Xerxes. Somehow God’s loving judgment upon Israel draws the attention of the nations who then come to believe in God.

Yes, they are from Egypt (or America or Russia) but trust in God binds them in a higher, more important way to Jerusalem. Their citizenship there relativizes all their other citizenships and loyalties. So, this psalm is a kind of baptism psalm. It celebrates the enrollment not just of Jews in God’s city but also of people from every tribe and tongue.

As the psalm draws to a close it gets downright exuberant. Singing, dancing, and shouting are the overflow of joy that comes from knowing God and being citizens of a higher city. “All my streams are in you.” We are to guard our heart above all else, for out of the heart are the issues of our lives. We live from the heart and when we come to faith in the God of Israel we learn to set our affections and joys on that city that has God as its center. All our springs flow from the throne that is in the garden that is in the midst of that city. It is a spring of living water, drawn from the side of our Lord, and it flows to us, and out of our bellies into the desert of this world. Let it flow and let it make the desert of this world a garden.

But of course, as Augustine taught us long ago, the City of God and the City of Man are intermingled now and it is not always easy to detect where one begins and the other ends. We can often make mistakes about those boundaries. But as we set our hearts to look for the city that Abraham sought, and move ceaselessly toward it, our vision will be clearer and we can allow God to divide those cities in the end.