Psalm Reflection - Week 10

Psalm 87 - " Zion…In you all find a home"

"Home" is a word that conjures up memories of things dear and familiar. Home is a place of stability and security, where we are accepted and loved, where we grow and learn, where we are nurtured and where we nurture others. It is the welcome place we return to at the end of our travels. It is where we share life with other, where we discover our own identity. It is a place we must care for and tend to. It is where we can be at peace. Someone once said that home is a state of mind.

In Psalm 87, Jerusalem/Zion is "home". Many of the psalms selected for reflection this summer have focused on this most amazing place in all the world: Jerusalem. It may be because memories live in my heart having just visited there in June. I imagine that anyone who experiences the life that pulses within Jerusalem, life of the past and the present, would be similarly moved. It is worth the time we will spend in her shadows as we ponder this beautiful psalm. It's words and images will take on new meaning for us today. Life extends beyond the insights of our psalmist. This prayer is the living and inspired word of God. In antiquity, the city was a feminine noun. Ancient cities were surrounded by walls for protection like the protective womb of a mother, securing the life of her child. So the walls of Jerusalem stand in testament to such a tender image of God.

Vs 1-3 speak of "the holy mountain", the "gates of Zion" the "city of God." The reference here is to the geographical place identified with the ancient hill of Jerusalem. Jerusalem becomes a central place when David captured this fortress city from the Jebusites and made it the capitol of his empire (2 Sam:5). It was a hill set off by the Tyropean Valley on the west and the Kidron Valley to the east, making it a defensible location. It had its own reliable source of water, the Gihon Springs. Toward the end of his life, David purchased the threshing floor of Araunah. This was a higher hill just to the north of his city. Here he erected an altar (2 Sam 24: 15ff). David's son Solomon later erected the temple here. This temple on the hill of Zion/Jerusalem becomes the place, as the psalmist says, chosen by God in preference to all the older shrines in the North where God had appeared to the ancient ancestors: eg. Shechem (Gen 12: 6-7) Bethel (Gen 28:10ff).

Beyond geography, there is a theology of Jerusalem that transcends its mere historical and political significance. In biblical writing, "Zion" and "Jerusalem" represent not so much the political center of the Davidic dynasty, it does in some cases, but careful reading draws us to reflect on Jerusalem as the dwelling place of God (see 1 Kings 8-9). All the traditions of Exodus, of the wilderness wandering where God directed the people by means of the cloud and fire come to settle here at Zion. It becomes a symbol of the invincible strength of the God of Israel, a place of stability and of the ever-faithful presence of God (see our reflection on Psalm 46 - week 3).

It is amazing to ponder how biblical religion has survived the threats to its existence! Mighty empires threatened and conquered the nation of Israel, destroying Jerusalem and exiling her people. Where are these nations? Where, indeed are the Babylonians and Assyrians, the Egyptians and the Philistines? What we know of them is to be found in tablets of stone! Something makes a difference in the story of the people whose God dwelt in their midst - in Zion! Destruction did not mean the departure of God or abandonment. Inspired by God, Israelite religion held on to the core of its identity. To revision faith during times of change gives evidence of God's dynamic and abiding presence. The ability of the people to adapt and trust in this God is its strength. Though the city of Jerusalem lay in ruins, God remains in the midst of the people. Ezekiel speaks of God who departs the temple and goes into exile with his people! Isaiah of the Exile whose words we find in ch 40-55, beautifully gives living voice to this great hope. God will bring them back in a new Exodus!

Such radical revisioning of ideas keeps Israel grounded in the basics of their faith. This is the task of the prophetic spirit that guided Israel during times of transition, encouraging them to hold onto what is important to their identity and embrace the dynamic way the old is renewed and lives in continuity with the past. We might ask, is this why the faith of Israel survives when the religion of other more powerful nations crumbled as their mighty empires crumbled? Is this how we might sustain ourselves during radical transitions in life? The unbending seems to break. Acceptance is where new life (and God) is found!

This process is observable in the Bible. We find in this living word, various strands of tradition that balance each other. One of these ideas describes the relationship of Israel with the nations. At times this was a very narrow vision that excluded outsiders (during times of danger and threat to their existence). The warning is loud and clear at such times: "Close the gates of Zion to outsiders lest these tarnish the purity of the faith and threaten it"! (EG: Ezra).

But such attitudes do not fit each moment of time. We can find other texts that are clear about the acceptance of outsiders in God's plan and intention for Israel. Isa Ch. 66 throws the gates of Jerusalem wide open to all the nations similar to the words of Psalm 87. All are welcome! All find a home in her. She is "Mother" to all! Such an inclusive vision is heard in God's summons to Abraham and Sarah to leave their land and "go to the place I will show you." Abraham is also told that: "in you all the nations of the earth shall find blessing." At a later time, God's Servant in the Book of Isaiah is called to be "a light to the nations." Imagine in the Book of Jonah, the suggestion that God's mercy might be extended even to the people of Nineveh (the Assyrians)! In the early chapters of Isaiah we are given an image of all nations streaming to the Lord's mountain to be instructed by the Lord (Ch 2) . In Chapter 11 of Isaiah we find the familiar vision of peace that brings the whole world together, united in the knowledge of the Lord. Such inclusive visions must have stretched the views of many! How could God's preferential love bestowed on Israel be shared with others? How often do such limitations shadow our relationships and our thinking, keeping us very small and unable to accept the enormity of God's vision and love!

In Ps 87: 4-5, Egypt (Rahab) and Babylon (places of oppression and Exile) and Philistia and Tyre (perennial enemies of Israel) and Ethiopia (Cush) a far distant place of dark-skinned people, claim to have been born in Jerusalem!. Jerusalem is mother to all these! For sure, this was thinking outside the box! To have been born or cradled there suggests these too are natural heirs! We might imagine this birth to be a spiritual birth and Jerusalem the spiritual home of all the nations. Hopefully this opens many avenues for you to amble down in prayer and reflection.

We mentioned how biblical religion lives on. We speak and read of "the New Jerusalem", the heavenly city coming down from God and the voice that proclaims: "This is God's dwelling place among humankind" (Rev 21:1-4). The writer of the Letter to the Hebrews declares: " …you have drawn near to Mount Zion, the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to myriads of angels in festal gathering, to the assembly of the first-born, enrolled in heaven, to God, the judge of all, to the spirits of the just made perfect, to Jesus the mediator of a new covenant and to the sprinkled blood which speaks more eloquently than that of Abel" (Heb 12:22-24). The ability for images and words to live and break their boundaries is a key to finding in this word of God an eternal spring of life. "God with us" carries the link between ancient biblical religion and our belief today. It is the same AND it is amazingly different!

Psalm 87 is selected to be read on feasts that honor Mary, the Mother of God. Here is yet another example of the enormous richness of the word of God! It is yet a different way of reading and understanding the symbolism associated with "Jerusalem" - the place where God dwells among us! May she who "pondered all things in her heart" give you a spirit of quiet and peacefulness to grow in prayer and in the sure knowledge of the God who dwells within you.

This is the last of our psalm reflections for this summer. It is time to prepare for another year of teaching and study in the Biblical School. It is my prayer that you to grow in prayer by PRAYING! Stay with it even if you feel like it is pointless…especially then! This is when God can lead!

May God be praised in all things! And may the prayer and work of our hands rise to God as a pleasing offering for those for whom we pray. AMEN