Psalms 87 - Introduction

LXXXVII.

According to the common interpretation of this obscure psalm, it is unique not only in the Psalter but in Hebrew literature. Not even in Isaiah is Jewish exclusiveness so broken down. A nameless poet goes beyond the prophetic visions of the forceful submission of the Gentile world to anticipate the language of the Gospels and the spirit of St. Paul. Zion becomes in his song the “mother of us all” — Gentiles as well as Jews.
How far such a splendid hope really appears in the psalm may be gathered from the Notes. Here it is necessary to observe that a first glance at the song sees in it little more than a grand eulogy on the Holy City as a birthplace, which is declared dear to Jehovah not only above heathen countries, but above any city of Jacob — a city in which to have been born is a privilege and a boast far above what the fondest patriotism of a Philistine, a Tyrian, nay, even an Egyptian or Babylonian can claim. Possibly, after all, exclusiveness even more rigid than usual appears here, and we must see in the poem the exultation of a native of Jerusalem over all other Israelites, or of a Palestinian Hebrew over those who share the same blood but have the misfortune to date their birth from some Jewish colony rather than Jerusalem.

As to the time of composition the suggestion ventured on above would of itself bring it down to a very late date, a supposition supported in some degree by the fact that not Assyria but Babylon is mentioned in Psalms 87:4. The parallelism is very lax, and the structure uncertain.

Title. — See Title, Psalms 42