This One Was Born There

2/16/25

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Sermon Transcript

Please open your Bibles to Psalm 87, 87th Psalm. We’re going to be spending our morning in Psalm 87. And I’d like to start this morning with a question.

Where were you born? Where were you born? You know, some people are very proud of the answer to that question. I was born in Fort Worth, so less so. town, but maybe you were born in a famous city or some exotic locale or maybe you’re a native Texan or maybe a native Houstonian. You know, one of my favorite answers to that question came from a court case in Harris County. Had an older gentleman on the stand, lawyer asking where he was born, he said, “I was born here in Houston.” The lawyer said, “Well, so have you lived in Texas all your life?” And he said, “Not yet.”

Let me ask the question again, where were you born? I have two answers to that question. You’ve heard one of them. Fort Worth and Houston. First I was born in Fort Worth, Texas, but then 10 years later, I was born in Houston, Texas, when my dad baptized me into Christ. I was born twice, and I know that’s true of most of you as well. If you’ve been added to the church, then you have two birthdays. You have been born twice. John 3:3, “Truly, truly, I say to you, lest one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”

Now, a moment ago, I said that my second birth was in Houston, and in a sense, that is correct. But in another sense, it is not correct. In another, more important sense, my second birth occurred elsewhere. I was born again, not in the city of Houston, but in the city of God. Why do I say that? Because when I arose from the watery grave of baptism, I was added to the Lord’s church, which is the city of the living God, Hebrews 12:22. When God adds you to the church, you become a fellow citizen with the saints and a member of the household of God, which is the church of the living God, Ephesians 2:19, 1 Timothy 3:15. And when that happens, when you arise from the waters of baptism, you arise a new creation. New creation. You become a part of God’s household the moment you’re born again.

So let me ask my question a third time. Where were you born? We have many different answers to that question when it comes to our physical birth, but we all have the same answer to that question. When it comes to our spiritual birth, we were all born the second time in the city of God. We have obeyed the gospel of Christ. And that is a wonderful truth about those who have obeyed the gospel of Christ. And today I want us to look at a wonderful prophecy about that wonderful truth. And that wonderful prophecy is found in the 87th Psalm.

Now, Psalm 87 has a bit of a reputation. Many consider it one of the most difficult Psalms. Some consider it the most difficult Psalm. Its language has been described as terse, cryptic, abrupt, and elliptical. But you know, if we have a problem understanding something in the Word of God, then our problem is just that, our problem. It is not a problem with the Word of God. And I think Psalm 87 is a perfect example of that fact. The reason why so many people have trouble understanding Psalm 87 is that they’re trying to make it fit to something it is not describing. They’re trying to make Psalm 87 make sense with physical Jerusalem. But Psalm 87 is all about spiritual Jerusalem. And when we understand that, when we recognize that, then all the puzzle pieces of Psalm 87 fall right into place.

Let’s see what Psalm 87 is all about. Verse one and two. “On the holy mount stands the city he founded. The Lord loves the gates of Zion more than all the dwelling places of Jacob.” You know, perhaps we should ask how we know that this Psalm is about the church. After all, Psalm 87 is not directly quoted in the New Testament. So how do we know? Well, we know this Psalm is about the church when we read it and when we compare it with other prophecies about the church. In fact, the similarities start with these opening verses that we just read. Anytime we see a holy mountain, anytime we see Zion in the Old Testament, we need to be asking ourselves whether we’re looking at the church in a prophecy about the church. Why? Because over and over again in the Old Testament, we find those terms applied, applied prophetically to the church. We see that in Isaiah 2, we see that in Zechariah 8, We see that in many places throughout the Old Testament. And yes, physical Jerusalem is sometimes described as the mountain of God, it’s sometimes described as Zion, but so is spiritual Jerusalem. And so when we see those descriptions in God’s word, we need to start asking ourselves the question, are we looking at the physical city of Jerusalem or are we looking at the city of God? And when we do that in Psalm 87, I think we’re gonna see today that we’re gonna find unmistakable descriptions of the church in Psalm 87. And in doing so, we’re gonna learn a great deal about the church from Psalm 87. “On the holy mount stands the city he founded.”

The first thing we learn about the church is that God founded it. God built it. God established it. That is why the church is called the church of God in Acts 20:28. That is why the church is called the Church of Christ in Romans 16:16. Not because those are our names, but because they are our descriptions. Church is the church of Christ because Christ bought it. Christ redeemed it, Christ ransomed it, Christ built it. We are called the Church of Christ because we belong to Christ. And here in the first verse of Psalm 87, we are told that God founded the church. Paul tells us that also in Ephesians 2:19-22. God founded the church.

And how does God feel about the church that he founded? Verse two tells us that. “The Lord loves the gates of Zion more than all the dwelling places of Jacob.” Let’s think for a moment about all the different dwelling places of God, dwelling places of God’s people that we find in the Old Testament, the places where God did great things for his people. We might think of Jericho or Bethel or Shechem or Shiloh or Hebron. What God is telling us here is that he loves the gates of Zion more than all those other cities. Why the gates? Why does God love the gates of Zion? Well, the gates of a city serve two main purposes, access and security. When they were closed, security, when they were opened, access. Well, which of those two functions explains why God loves these gates? I think it must be the access, the access. And when we get to the later verses in this Psalm, I think we’re gonna know for sure it’s the access. It’s these gates that make it possible for people to enter the city of God. The gates are open. These gates are open. We enter those gates when we obey the gospel of Christ. We’re added to the church by God. And those gates were opened by Christ. In fact, Christ suffered outside the gates of physical Jerusalem, so that the gates of spiritual Jerusalem would be wide open for us to enter. And verse two tells us God loves those gates. God wants people to live in His holy city. John 4:23 tells us, God is seeking people to worship Him. You know, I sometimes fear that we picture God as having His hand on a big trap door lever with us standing on the trap door, just waiting to open it up. First mistake, is that the God we see in this verse? Is that God we see in any verse? 1 John 3:1, “See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called the children of God, and so we are.” God loves us. God wants us to live with Him in His household as His children for all eternity. The gates of the church are open.

Verse three, “Glorious things of you are spoken, O city of God.” You know, I think we sometimes think of the church as a New Testament topic, but the church is also an Old Testament topic. We find prophecies of the church all throughout the Old Testament. In fact, the Old Testament tells us glorious things about the church, about the city of God. We’re looking at one right here in Psalm 87. There are many other examples. Psalm 2:6, “I have set my king on Zion, my holy hill.” Isaiah 2:2, “It shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be established as the highest of the mountain and shall be lifted up above the hills and all nations shall flow into it.” Daniel 2:44, “The God of heaven will set up a kingdom that shall never be destroyed, nor shall the kingdom be left to another people. shall break in pieces all these other kingdoms, bring them to an end, and it shall stand forever.” Each of those beautiful prophecies about the church is a glorious thing, a glorious thing spoken about the city of God all throughout the Old Testament. We could give many other examples. The church of Christ is the eternal kingdom of Christ, and that eternal kingdom of Christ was part of God’s plan for all eternity, Ephesians 1:4, before the foundation of the world, we’re told. Church of Christ is the body of Christ, Colossians 1:24. Church of Christ is the bride of Christ, Ephesians 5:25. Can there ever be any doubt about how God loves the church. Glorious things of you are spoken, O city of God.

Verse 4. “Among those who know me I mention Rahab and Babylon. Behold, Philistia, entire, with Cush. one was born there, they say.” Psalm 87:4 is one of the most incredible, wonderful, and amazing verses you’ll find anywhere in the Word of God. Why? Well, for starters, Look what’s happened to our pronouns here. Back in verse 1, we saw “he,” but here in verse 4, we see “I.” Back in verse 1, the psalmist was relaying the Word of God to us, but here in verse 4, God is suddenly the speaker. God in effect here in verse 4 briefly steps into this psalm to tell us something directly, not through the psalmist, but from his own lips. And what God says here is staggering, staggering. God enters his holy city and he’s describing for us what he sees. And who does he find there? What sort of people does God find living in His holy city? And how does God describe them? Well first God describes them generally. He describes them as those who know me. Well is that true of the church? Absolutely it is. In fact, that description is found verbatim in one of the greatest prophecies about the church. Jeremiah 31:34, "And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor "and each his brother saying, know the Lord, "for they shall all know me. “From the least of them to the greatest declares the Lord.” That’s the church. “They shall all know me.”

But God doesn’t just end there with that general description of who he sees in his holy city. Instead, God takes the time to look around and he gets very specific. “Among those who know me, I mentioned Rahab and Babylon, Behold, Philistia, and Tyre with Cush.” And again, the picture we see here is incredible. God is visiting his holy city and he’s just mentioning who he sees there. And God even uses the word behold, which might almost suggest surprise. It’s almost as if God discovers something there that he didn’t really expect to see. And no, I don’t think God is surprised in verse four. God was the one who added these people to his city. God knows who’s there. But I do think we’re supposed to be surprised here. And when we look at who’s listed here, we are surprised. In fact, we’re shocked when we see this list. Rahab? That word means arrogant boaster and it was a well-known nickname for Egypt. Egypt. Yes, Egypt, the great enemy of God’s people, the great enslaver of God’s people. Babylon? God sees someone from Babylon. You mean the nation that destroyed Jerusalem, the nation that destroyed the temple, the nation that exiled the people of God? Yep, right there. God sees a Philistine, the great enemy of King Saul, King David. God sees someone from Tyre, that famous city of the Phoenicians, that arrogant, warring, seafaring people. And God sees someone from Cush, a frequent ally of Egypt, in a place that was at the edge of the known world. Who might we have expected for God to see when he looked around in his holy city? Well, we might’ve expected Jews who lived in Jerusalem. And in fact, if this Psalm was all about physical Jerusalem, then that’s exactly who God would have seen. But is that who God sees? No, that’s not who God sees. Instead, when God shows up to visit his holy city here in verse four, He sees people from among the greatest enemies of the Jews from all around the known world. That’s who he sees. And yes, that’s shocking. That’s shocking.

But you know what? We haven’t yet gotten to the most shocking thing in verse four. We haven’t gotten there yet. The most shocking thing in verse four is not what God sees. The most shocking thing in verse four is what God hears. “This one was born there, they say.” What? This one was born there? I mean, maybe this Felicity just kind of wandered in for a visit. Maybe he’s part of a tour group. Maybe he’s planning on going on to see the pyramids next. Surely he doesn’t plan to stay, right? He’s not really gonna make himself at home, is he? Yes, he is. In fact, not only is this Philistine planning to stay, but others are saying, “Yeah, he was born here.” The same for the Egyptian, the same for the Babylonian. People are acting like they were born there. They’re even saying it, “This one was born there,” they say.

There are so many lessons in verse four, but let’s make two, let’s make two. One, the kingdom of Christ is a kingdom of peace, the kingdom of peace. And two, we are born into that kingdom of peace. Let’s look a bit closer at each of those facts that we’re learning here in verse four about the church. Number one, the kingdom of Christ is the kingdom of peace, peace. God created the church so that those in the church would be at peace with him and with each other. We see that great fact about the church in the prophecy of Isaiah two. And later we read about its fulfillment in Ephesians two. And we see that same great prophecy about the church here in Psalm 87. When God comes down to see those who know him, He finds ancient enemies from all across the world. But that enmity is gone. Instead, they all know God and God knows them. And together, they are worshiping God in the city of God. They’ve all been saved by the Prince of Peace. They’ve all been added to the Lord’s church by God. So am I saying that there are Philistines in the church? You’re looking at one, and if you wanna see another one, look in the mirror. God shows his love for us because while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Romans 5:8. While we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his son, Romans 5:10. The church is filled with Philistines. But the Philistines in the church are at peace with God and at peace with each other. Kingdom of Christ, kingdom of peace.

Second, we’re born into that kingdom. You know, I said earlier that Psalm 87 has a reputation for being a bit terse, But no one could ever accuse Psalm 87 of being terse when it comes to this point about being born there. Why not? Because that wonderful truth is repeated three times in seven verses. Verse four, verse five, and verse six. Yes, in one sense, we enter the kingdom through those open gates that we talked about. But in another sense, we are born there. We are born there. And so, yes, there are Philistines in the church, but they didn’t come in with a visa. They were born there. We, who have obeyed the gospel, were born there. There is no distinction between Jew and Gentile, Romans 10:12.

You know, I said earlier that Psalm 87 is not quoted directly in the New Testament, and that’s true. Is Psalm 87 ever alluded to in the New Testament? Think for a moment about Nicodemus in John chapter three. He comes to Jesus by night. Jesus says to him in verse three, "Unless one is born again, “he cannot see the kingdom of God.” Nicodemus has some trouble understanding that. And so finally in verse 10, Jesus just says, "Are you the teacher of Israel “and you don’t understand these things?” Jesus told Nicodemus he should have already known this. He should have already understood this. Why? Why should Nicodemus have already understood the need to be born again? Is Psalm 87 the answer to that question? Was Jesus thinking about Psalm 87 in John chapter three? You know, this short Psalm mentions three times what can only be described as a second birth. Was Psalm 87 the thing that Nicodemus should already have known about? Perhaps we have found Psalm 87 in the New Testament.

Verse five, “And of Zion it shall be said, But this one and that one were born in her, for the Most High Himself will establish her.” As I said, I was born in Fort Worth, so I can’t testify about this firsthand. But I’ve heard from others that being born in a famous city is a mark of distinction. And if you fall in that category, then I suspect on occasion you bragged about it. That was certainly true of the apostle Paul, wasn’t it? In Acts 21:39, Paul addressing a Roman tribune said, “I’m a Jew from Tarsus, a citizen of no obscure city.” But what about the place of our spiritual birth? Do we ever brag about that? Do we ever brag about being born in the city of God? Is that a mark of distinction? Is that a reason for us to feel exalted? Yes, it is, but not because of anything we’ve done, but because of what God has done for us. And what God has done for us is that he has exalted us. He has exalted us in the city of God. That’s what Paul tells us in Ephesians 2:6. God has raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. exaltation by God of His faithful people is what we’re seeing here in verse 5 of Psalm 87. James 4:10, “Humble yourselves before God, and He will exalt you.” We were born in the city of God, and that blessing is so wonderful that in verse 5, even others are remarking about it. This one and that one, they were born there. They were born in her. But why? Why is this city so special? Why is this city so special that those who were born there are viewed this way? Verse five answers that question. "For the Most High Himself will establish her. This city is unique. This city is not like any other city. This city was established by the Most High. And of course, there’s only one city that fits that description, and that’s the city of God, the church, the city of the living God. And the church is not a man-made organization. The church is made without human hands. We’ve seen that prophesied as well. Daniel 2:44-45 describes the church as a stone that was cut out from the mountain with no human hand. The Lord’s church is not man-made. The world today is full, full of man-made churches. Not a single one of them is the church we find in the pages of the Bible. How do we know that? We know that because we’ve read Daniel 2. We know that because we’ve read Psalm 87. No man-made church could ever be the stone cut by no human hand. And no man-made church could ever be the holy city established by the Most High in verse five.

Verse six, “the Lord records as he registers the peoples. This one was born there.” You know, I think we’re seeing a theme. And an ordinary kingdom, ordinary kingdom of this earth, everybody in the kingdom knows the king, but you know, the king can’t know everybody in his kingdom. But in the kingdom of Christ, in the kingdom of Christ, every person in the kingdom knows the king and the King knows every single person in his kingdom. No one goes unnoticed in the kingdom of Christ. 2 Timothy 2:19, “The Lord knows those who are his.” Verse six here is picturing God recording a census of his people. And you know what? That census does not have a check box for immigrant. They’re all born there. Every last one of them. That’s what God says about them here in verse six.

Verse seven, "Singers and dancers alike say, “all my springs are in you.” You know, if we were to summarize verse seven in a single word, that word would be joy. joy. There is great joy in the city of God. Everything in this verse would have been a symbol of great joy for the people in the Old Testament. Singers, dancers, springs of water, all symbols of great, great joy. And this promise of great joy for the people of God was fulfilled by Christ in His church. 1 Peter 1:8-9, “Though you have not seen him you love him though you do not now see him you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible.”

Wow we’ve reached the end of Psalm 87. What an incredible, beautiful, amazing Psalm it is. and we understand is talking not about physical Jerusalem, but about spiritual Jerusalem. Don’t all the pieces just click in place. Let’s end today by reading again what we heard earlier in our Scripture reading. First Peter 1:22-25. “Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart, since you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God. For all flesh is like grass, all its glory like the flower of grass. Grass withers, flower fails, the word of the Lord remains forever. And this word is the good news that was preached to you.” Is that describing you? Have you been born again? not of perishable, but of imperishable. Are you a citizen of the city of God, church of Christ, church that he built, church that he bought with his blood, church he redeemed, the church of Christ. If not, listen, listen to the good news, to the good news from God’s word. Obey the gospel your obedience to the truth Peter wrote obey the gospel be baptized into Christ with remission of your sins obey his gospel God will then add you to the church. God will add you to that city the city of the Living God and then and Only then can it be said of you “This one was born there” We can help in any way this morning. Please come while we stand, while we sing.