The City of God

Second, God says, “The Most High himself will establish her” (v. 5). This composition of such a diverse and undeserved privilege of citizenship in Zion is his doing. While the great city was founded as a literal and historical city, God says he’s orchestrating its true establishment and will ultimately open its gates to the nations and “peoples will stream to it” (Mic 4:1; cf. Isa 54:1-2; 62:4-5; 65:18-24). That’s when Jerusalem will fulfill its ultimate purpose (Goldingay, Psalms 42–89, 639).

Third, God claims himself to be the one that’s actually recording names in the citizenship registry (vv. 5-6; cf. v. 4). It’s the cosmic clerk of the universe who’s logging people into the archives (see Exod 32:32-33; Ezek 13:9; Mal 3:16), and he’s the one who’s guaranteeing these foreigners their rightful position as citizens. Because God is the one keeping the roll, they will be as natural-born citizens forever, as if they had been so from the beginning.

The obvious emphasis in these verses is the citizenship that results from one’s newly declared birth. Regardless of the location and nationality of a person’s physical birth, citizenship in Jerusalem comes about when God declares him or her to have been born there. This declaration is similar to the conversation Jesus had with Nicodemus, who came to Jesus apparently wanting to know how someone gained citizenship in God’s kingdom (John 3:1-21). Jesus said you had to be “born again,” or “born from above” (CEV). In other words, you have to have two births—one that’s physical and one that’s spiritual. The physical birth comes about by “water” and is fleshly. The spiritual birth comes about by “the Spirit” and is spiritual. The physical birth grants one citizenship in an earthly kingdom. The spiritual birth makes one a citizen of God’s heavenly kingdom.

Nicodemus had a hard time processing this dual citizenship about which Jesus spoke. So Jesus told him,

“Do not be amazed that I told you that you must be born again. The wind blows where it pleases, and you hear its sound, but you don’t know where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.” (John 3:7-8)

In other words, people don’t question where the wind comes from when they see, hear, and feel its effects. Any good Jew simply attributed it to Yahweh, the Creator of the universe. So it is with spiritual birth, Jesus told Nicodemus. We see its effects, but we can’t necessarily wrap our limited mind around its divine mystery. Years later Peter would declare this sovereign and mysterious work of God:

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Because of his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead and into an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you. You are being guarded by God’s power through faith for a salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. (1 Pet 1:3-5)

The new birth is the effect of the sovereign and mysterious grace of God on humanity, and that effect gives us a glorious hope!

A second birth is the only way a person can become a citizen of God’s heavenly city. God must declare a person to have been born there. He has to record their name in his registry. That’s what John said about “the holy city, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God” (Rev 21:10; cf. 21:2). He said, “Nothing unclean will ever enter it, nor anyone who does what is detestable or false, but only those written in the Lamb’s book of life” (Rev 21:27; cf. Phil 4:3; Rev 3:5; 13:8; 20:12,15). God’s book is called “the Lamb’s book of life” because therein are recorded the names of those who have become citizens through the shed blood of Jesus Christ, “the Lamb who was slaughtered” (Rev 13:8; cf. Gen 22:7-8; Exod 12:3; Num 28:3-10; Isa 53:7; John 1:29,36) for the sins of the world. Acknowledging Jesus as this Lamb and throwing yourself at his mercy is the only way for your name to be written in this book.

True to God’s promise to Abraham (Gen 12:1-3) and true to Israel’s stated assignment as God’s nation of priests who were to lead all people to worship him (Exod 19:5-6), the population of the New Jerusalem will comprise natural-born citizens from every nation on the planet. John says, “The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it. . . . They will bring the glory and honor of the nations into it” (Rev 21:24,26). Into this heavenly city people from every nation will come with their gifts and sacrifices of praise to our Lord. This will be the gathering John saw earlier: “a vast multitude from every nation, tribe, people, and language, which no one could number, standing before the throne and before the Lamb. They were clothed in white robes with palm branches in their hands” (Rev 7:9). Finally, God’s plan for a far more glorious Zion will be a reality, and his holy city will be the center of life and worship for all humanity.

The Septuagint includes the word mother in the first part of Psalm 87:5, the translation of an additional two-letter Hebrew word that may have been eliminated accidentally. The NEB renders it, “Zion shall be called a mother in whom men of every race are born.” Paul seems to have this understanding in mind when contrasting slavery to the law and freedom in Christ: “Now Hagar represents Mount Sinai in Arabia and corresponds to the present Jerusalem, for she is in slavery with her children. But the Jerusalem above is free, and she is our mother” (Gal 4:25-26). Citizenship merely in the earthly Jerusalem leaves one in bondage to sin, while citizenship in the heavenly Jerusalem through Christ Jesus means one has been set free. This citizenship is no longer defined by circumcision (Gal 6:12-16) or limited to those who are from the bloodline of Abraham (Gal 3:7-9). It’s now available to all who will trust Christ, regardless of where they were born or their ethnic heritage.

As believers, this truth compels us to several responses. First, this text should make us—of all people—most thankful. We are these outsiders! We are the people of Egypt and Babylon, the citizens of Philistia and Tyre and Cush. The easiest thing to do in this passage is to see ourselves as the natural-born citizens of Jerusalem and to see everyone else as people who need to experience the grace of God. Remember, however, the Jews are the natural-born citizens. They are God’s chosen people. Everyone else—including most every one of us reading this passage—are the Gentiles. We are the outsiders, the enemies of God. Paul reminds us that

God proves his own love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. How much more then, since we have now been declared righteous by his blood, will we be saved through him from wrath. For if, while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, then how much more, having been reconciled, will we be saved by his life. (Rom 5:8-10)

We were God’s adversaries, standing on the outside of his kingdom and defiantly looking in. Yet through Christ and the grace of the gospel, we’re “born again” into the citizenship of his kingdom. This passage should prompt a gush of gratitude in all of us.

A second response to this glorious truth should be for us—as newborn citizens of God’s kingdom—to leverage our entire lives to get this gospel to every person on the planet, regardless of geographic location or skin color. This demands that we see immigration issues as more than political policies that benefit us. This motivates us to fight hard against racism and social injustice. The gospel is for everybody, and our Lord has called us to make disciples from among all people groups (Matt 28:19-20) because that’s what’s going to characterize his holy city. Heaven is going to be made up of all kinds of people because our God is worthy of their worship. So we’d better start practicing for that kind of diversity by making the church on earth look like it’s going to look in heaven.

The Celebration of God’s City

Psalm 87:7

The adoption of people from every tribe, nation, and tongue into the citizenship of God’s glorious city will prompt a big party! This festivity is represented by “singers and dancers,” icons of two of Israel’s most cheerful forms of celebration (cf. 68:25; 150:4). The city will pull out all the stops to rejoice in this amalgamation of individuals from so many different backgrounds into the makeup of God’s people.

This celebration, however, isn’t prompted merely by the diversity of people in God’s city. The gladness ultimately is the result of the sustenance and blessing these citizens get to experience as a result of being in God’s presence. In the Old Testament springs are metaphorical images for true life, the life that only God can give (e.g., 36:9; Jer 2:13). Here the psalmist acknowledges Zion as the “source” of both physical and spiritual sustenance that comes from him. The psalmist previously said of the city, “There is a river—its streams delight the city of God, the holy dwelling place of the Most High. God is within her; she will not be toppled. God will help her when the morning dawns” (Ps 46:4-5; cf. Ezek 47:1-12). The true reason for celebration is that people from every nation get to experience the true life that only God can give!

The image of a water source and fountains as representing the true, eternal life that comes only from God continues in the New Testament with our Lord. Jesus tells the Samaritan woman at the well, “If you knew the gift of God, and who is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would ask him, and he would give you living water” (John 4:10). Then a while later, on the last day of one of the Jews’ treasured feasts, Jesus interrupts the festivities by standing up in the middle of the crowd and crying out, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. The one who believes in me, as the Scripture has said, will have streams of living water flow from deep within him” (John 7:37-38). Jesus clearly and confidently claims to be the source and supplier of the true life from God.

The description of these events that the psalmist declares of the earthly Jerusalem find their ultimate fulfillment in the New Jerusalem, God’s heavenly city. Revelation 4–5 contains mysterious descriptions of the awe-inspiring praise God will receive from elders, living creatures, tens of thousands of angels, and every creature in the universe. Then in Revelation 7 John sees,

. . . a vast multitude from every nation, tribe, people, and language, which no one could number, standing before the throne and before the Lamb. They were clothed in white robes with palm branches in their hands. And they cried out in a loud voice: Salvation belongs to our God, who is seated on the throne, and to the Lamb!

All the angels stood around the throne, and along with the elders and the four living creatures they fell facedown before the throne and worshiped God, saying, Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and strength be to our God forever and ever. Amen. (Rev 7:9-12)

As with the “singers and dancers” (Ps 87:7) in historic Jerusalem, there will be a great celebration of worship at the throne of God and of our Lord Jesus Christ in the heavenly city.

Furthermore, as in the earthly Jerusalem, the celebration in the celestial city will be fostered by the new life the redeemed of mankind get to experience in God’s presence. This time the life is forever. Here God’s children will experience his redemption and restoration in Christ in its fullness. Not only will he “wipe away every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; grief, crying, and pain will be no more” (Rev 21:4), but he will provide them with something that is curiously reminiscent of the psalmist’s reference to a “source” in Psalm 87:7. John says,

Then the one seated on the throne said, “Look, I am making everything new.” He also said, “Write, because these words are faithful and true.” Then he said to me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. I will freely give to the thirsty from the spring of the water of life.” (Rev 21:5-6)

In Jesus Christ, God freely restores to his children the life he created them to have (Gen 1:25-26), a life that had been forfeited because of sin, and a life that none of us deserved to get back.

God isn’t finished. John says,

Then he showed me the river of the water of life, clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb down the middle of the city’s main street. The tree of life was on each side of the river, bearing twelve kinds of fruit, producing its fruit every month. The leaves of the tree are for healing the nations, and there will no longer be any curse. The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and his servants will worship him. (Rev 22:1-3)

The eradication of sin and its effects among people from every tribe, nation, and tongue will mark the DNA of the New Jerusalem, a nature the old Jerusalem could only foreshadow. In God’s heavenly city people from every nation will experience healing from sin forever, and they will worship him accordingly.

Conclusion

John appropriately concludes the record of his glimpse into eternity with a passionate invitation: “Both the Spirit and the bride say, ‘Come!’ Let anyone who hears, say, ‘Come!’ Let the one who is thirsty come. Let the one who desires take the water of life freely” (Rev 22:17). That’s what the gospel does. It gives all people—regardless of ethnicity, geographic location, track record, family upbringing, skeletons in the closet, or any other thing that characterizes their physical birth or life history—the opportunity to drink from the fountain of God’s true life. The gospel provides the only sure hope of the forgiveness of sins and true life forever in God’s presence. It makes heavenly citizens out of all kinds of people from all kinds of earthly kingdoms.

One line in Psalm 87—“Glorious things are spoken of thee, O city of God” (v. 3 KJV)—was the inspiration for John Newton’s great hymn, “Glorious Things of Thee Are Spoken,” which he published in 1779 as part of the Olney Hymns hymnal. Although Newton wrote other great hymns like “Amazing Grace,” this particular one is considered by many to be his best composition. Why? The songs in that hymnal were written for use in the Anglican clergyman’s rural parish, which was made up of relatively poor and uneducated congregants. “Glorious Things of Thee Are Spoken” is the only joyful hymn in the hymnal. Newton apparently understood that expressing the wonders of God’s city and anticipating its habitation served a special purpose in lifting the spirits of the hopeless. That same hope of the New Jerusalem gives us a song to sing that God doesn’t ever want us to get out of our heads. He doesn’t ever want us to forget that our citizenship is not on earth but in heaven. So with that tune stuck in our heads, let’s spend our lives telling others the good news that participation in this heavenly city of God is not by ethnicity or socioeconomic status but by faith.

Reflect and Discuss