Psalm 87:4

First, take it for natural or acquired abilities; men of parts, and knowledge, and wisdom, and improved understandings; the church is not without these: this man, i.e., this learned man, or this wise man was born in Sion. All are not idiots who are Christians; no, but there are some of very rare and admirable accomplishments in all kinds and pieces of learning and secular knowledge, which are graciously qualified. There's Paul with his parchments, and Peter with his fisher's net. So also secondly, take it for civil or secular qualifications; men of dignity, and power, and estate: "this man", i.e., this honourable man, ~ynp awfn, eminent in countenance, as he is called, Isaiah 3:2 , he is likewise born in Sion; the mighty man, and the man of war. The Syriac interpreter was so far sensible of this, as that he expresses it in the very text; and therefore instead of saying, "This man was born there", he says, "A potent man was born there, `and he has established it;'" whereby (as I conceive), he takes in the word highest, which follows afterwards in the verse, and refers it here to this place ... And again, the Chaldee paraphrast in the text, "This King was born there", understanding thereby Solomon, as most conceive and apprehend it.

Thirdly, take it for spirituals, and for these accomplishments especially; This man, i.e., this godly man; this is that which is most proper and essential to Sion, and to the being born in it; yea, it is that which makes Sion itself, in the sense we now take it. It is the highest perfection of it, and the greatest commendation to it of any thing else. This is the great honour of the church, that it forms men to such qualities and dispositions as those are, which no other place does beside...As for other places, they may perhaps now and then reach to some other principles, and those likewise very glorious in the eyes of the world -- morality, and civility, and ingenuity, and smoothness of behaviour. The school of nature and common reason may sometimes come up to these, and that in a very great measure; yea, but now go a little higher, to brokenness of heart, to self denial, to love of enemies, to closing with Christ, the frame and spirit of the gospel; this is to be found nowhere but only in Sion. And here it is: "This man was born there."

Behold Philistia, and Tyre, with Ethiopia; this man was born there. Here's the excellency of the ordinances, and that power and energy which is stirring in the Church of Christ; that it is able to work such a miraculous alteration as this; to bring men from darkness to light, from Satan to God, from a state of sin and corruption and unregeneracy, to a state of grace and holiness and regeneration; yea, from the lowest degree of the one to the highest degree of the other. That Philistia should turn into Palestina, Tyre into, Jerusalem, Ethiopia into Judea; here's the wonder of all; the reconciling of these two opposite terms thus both together. That "princes should come out of Egypt", and that Ethiopia should stretch out her hands to God, as it is in Psalms 68:31 ; that the blackamoor should change his skin, and that the leopard should change his spots; and that this Ethiopian should become this Christian; "that he which was born there, should be born here." Thomas Horton, in "Zion's Birth Register unfolded in a Sermon to the native citizens of London." 1656.

Verse 4-6. -- Foreign nations are here described not as captives or tributaries, not even as doing voluntary homage to the greatness and glory of Zion, but as actually incorporated and enrolled, by a new birth, among her sons. Even the worst enemies of their race, the tyrants and oppressors of the Jews, Egypt and Babylon, are threatened with no curse, no shout of joy is raised at the prospect of their overthrow, but the privileges of citizenship are extended to them, and they are welcomed as brothers. Nay more, God himself receives each one as a child newly born into his family, acknowledges each as his son, and enrols him with his own hand on the sacred register of his children. It is the mode of anticipating a future union and brotherhood of all the nations of the earth, not by conquest, but by incorporation into one state, and by a birthright so acquired, which is so remarkable. In some of the prophets, more especially in Isaiah, we observe the same liberal, conciliatory, comprehensive language towards foreign states, as Tyre and Ethiopia, and still more strikingly toward Egypt and Assyria ( Isaiah 19:22-25 ). But the Psalm stands alone amongst the writings of the Old Testament, in representing this union of nations as a new birth unto the city of God ... It is the first announcement of that great amity of nations, or rather of that universal common citizenship of which heathen philosophers dreamt, which was "in the mind of Socrates when he called himself a citizen of the world", which had become a common place of Stoic philosophy, which Judaism tried finally to realize by the admission of proselytes, through baptism, into the Jewish community; which Rome accomplished, so far as the external semblance went, first by subduing the nations, and then by admitting them to the rights of Roman citizenship. But the true fulfilment of this hope is to be found only in that kingdom which Christ has set up. He has gathered into his commonwealth all the kingdoms of the earth. He has made men one, members of the same family, by teaching them to feel that they are all children of the same Father. He has made it evident that the hope of the Jewish singer is no false hope; that there is a Father in heaven who cares for all, whatever name they bear. Thus the Psalm has received a better and higher fulfilment than that which lies on the surface of its words. It was fulfilled in Christ. --J. J. Stewart Perowne.

Verse 4-7. -- The main thought is that contained in Psalms 87:4-7 , the glorifying of Sion by the reception of the heathen into the number of its citizens; and a well defined form and arrangement of this thought forms the proper kernel of the Psalms 87:1-7 , "Sion, the birth place of the nations", which occurs in every one of the three verses ( Psalms 87:4-6 ), which are bounded by a Selah behind and before. --E. W. Hengstenberg.

HINTS FOR PASTORS AND LAYPERSONS

Verse 4. (last clause).

"was born there", i.e. new born in Zion.

Verse 4-5.

(b) Because it is a nobler place; the residence of the Highest, and established for ever.

(c) Because it brings nobler rank and privileges. --G.R.

Verse 4-7.

Verse 4-7.