READING THE BOOK OF PSALMS
PART LX
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Psalm 87
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Psalm 87 is textually difficult and has problematic syntax, as commentaries explain in detail. I note those matters for the sake of thoroughness and move along to the point of the psalm.
Psalm 87, which prompts me to start humming “Glorious Things of Thee are Spoken, Zion, City of Our God,” extols Jerusalem as the chosen city of God and the Temple as the physical dwelling of God. Jerusalem is the center of the world, according to the text. And Gentiles who convert to Judaism join the people of God. The nations of the known world will acknowledge the sovereignty of God, we read.
I am a Gentile and a Christian. I also affirm that God lives everywhere. God is as present in southwestern Georgia as in Jerusalem. So, the psalmist and I have some differences of opinion. Yet we agree more often than we disagree.
The psalmist’s known world was much smaller than the world as I know it. Nevertheless, the claim of divine sovereignty over the world reminds us that, for the author of Psalm 87, YHWH was no mere tribal of national deity. No, for the psalmist, YHWH was the sole deity. That claim makes sense to me. However, it sounds as ridiculous to a host of people in 2023 as it did to many people in antiquity. The more things change, the more they stay the same.
My faith does not depend on God being resident in a particular place, above all others. In fact, I prefer a Sufi saying:
God is closer to you than your jugular vein.
And, despite all appearances to the contrary, God is sovereign. Many people–as in antiquity–are oblivious, though. So, the hope Psalm 87 expresses awaits fulfillment; all the world will acknowledge divine sovereignty eventually.
KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR
FEBRUARY 3, 2023 COMMON ERA
THE FEAST OF SAINTS ANSKAR AND RIMBERT, ROMAN CATHOLIC ARCHBISHOPS OF HAMBURG-BREMEN
THE FEAST OF ADELAIDE ANNE PROCTER, ENGLISH POET AND FEMINIST
THE FEAST OF SAINT ALFRED DELP, GERMAN ROMAN CATHOLIC PRIEST AND MARTYR, 1945
THE FEAST OF SAINTS JAMES NICHOLAS JOUBERT AND MARIE ELIZABETH LANGE, FOUNDERS OF THE OBLATE SISTERS OF PROVIDENCE
THE FEAST OF JEMIMA THOMPSON LUKE, ENGLISH CONGREGATIONALIST HYMN WRITER; AND JAMES EDMESTON, ANGLICAN HYMN WRITER
THE FEAST OF SAMUEL DAVIES, AMERICAN PRESBYTERIAN MINISTER AND HYMN WRITER
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BLOGA THEOLOGICA 
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