Psalm 87:2

2 The Lord loves the gates of Sion, more than all the tabernacles of Jacob.

Psalm 87:2 Meaning and Commentary

Psalms 87:2

The Lord loveth the gates of Zion
Which the Targum interprets of the schools, as preferable to the synagogues: the Lord loves Zion herself; that is, the church, and therefore has chosen it for his habitation, took up his rest and residence in it, has founded it, and set Christ as King over it, and by whom he has redeemed it; and he loves her gates, the public ordinances; he loves them that come to Zion's gates, and wait and worship there, and who enter in and become members thereof; and he loves what is done there, he being there publicly prayed unto, and publicly praised by a large number of his people; where his word is faithfully preached, and reverently attended to, and his ordinances truly administered, and the graces of his saints exercised on him: wherefore, because all this is done socially, and in a public manner, and so much for his own manifestative glory, he esteems these

more than all the dwellings of Jacob;
the private habitations of his people; yet he has a regard to these, the bounds of which he fixed from eternity, and where he was delighting himself before they were in being; and he loves the persons that dwell in them, and what is done there in a right manner, as closet and family worship; but when these are put in competition with public worship, the latter is preferred unto them, because done by more, and more publicly; Zion and its gates, the church and its ordinances, are preferable to all the dwellings of Jacob put together.

Psalm 87:2 In-Context

1 His foundations are in the holy mountains.

2 The Lord loves the gates of Sion, more than all the tabernacles of Jacob.

3 Glorious things have been spoken of thee, O city of God. Pause.

4 I will make mention of Raab and Babylon to them that know me: behold also the Philistines, and Tyre, and the people of the Ethiopians: these were born there.

5 A man shall say, Sion is my mother; and such a man was born in her; and the Highest himself has founded her.

6 The Lord shall recount it in the writing of the people, and of these princes that were born in her.

7 The dwelling of all within thee is as the dwelling of those that rejoice.