Our scripture reading today is going to come from Psalm 87, which is found on page 585 of the Pew Bibles. And it's always a delight to get to open God's Word with you. Sometimes it's more of a surprising delight than others, but it's a great joy to be able to open up this psalm together with you this morning. And it really is a psalm of delight, and I hope that you capture that as we read it, and as we meditate on it together. So hear now God's word from Psalm 87. On the holy mount stands the city he founded. The Lord loves the gates of Zion more than all the dwelling places of Jacob. Glorious things of you are spoken, O city of God, Selah. Among those who know me, I mention Rahab and Babylon. Behold, Philistia and Tyre with Cush. This one was born there, they say. And of Zion it shall be said, this one and that one were born in her. For the Most High himself will establish her. The Lord records as he registers the peoples, this one was born there. Selah. Singers and dancers alike say, all my springs are in you. Thus far the reading of God's holy word. Would you join me as we pray? A gracious and loving Heavenly Father, we ask now that by your Spirit you would help us open our minds, illumine us, so that we might understand and receive your word with joy and with gladness. And would you comfort us and give us great delight thereby. We pray this in Christ's name. Amen. We'll keep Psalm 87 open in front of you if you would. We're going to work our way through this this morning. And as we do so, I hope that you'll be able to see what a beautiful picture we have in this psalm. It really is a striking image. It's a portrait of a celebration that takes place, a celebration that takes place on the very top of a mountain. And what we're going to see as we look at this psalm more closely is that the citizens of Zion celebrate in the city of their God. The citizens of Zion celebrate in the city of their God because at the top of this mountain there's a city full of people and if you listened carefully you realized these are people from many different nations speaking many different languages born into places where they have many different ethnicities and cultures and customs and yet in this psalm they are all together praising the Lord God who is the gracious king of this city. And the name that this psalm gives to the city is Zion. So we have to begin by asking, where? Where is Zion? And what is this little psalm all about? Well, Psalm 87 may have been a processional song. That is, it might have been used in ancient Israel by the people as they were going to Jerusalem. And if you've ever been to the Middle East, you know Jerusalem sits atop a hill. And so as you go up to Jerusalem, and that's the way they always speak about it, you go up on festival days to the temple at the top of the hill. And as you go up, you are often singing psalms to one another. And that's perhaps what Psalm 87 was for the Old Covenant people. As they're heading up the hill of Jerusalem, they might have been singing or chanting this song. There are other songs or psalms of Zion as well. If you've read your Psalter, you know this. Psalms like Psalm 46, Psalm 48, Psalm 84, there are quite a few of them. But there's something really special about this psalm, Psalm 87, this particular psalm of Zion. Because in all of those earlier psalms, Psalm 46, Psalm 48, and the rest I just mentioned, What we see is that the nations do gather to Zion, but they gather to surround God's holy mountain and to wage war against him and his people, to try to attack the Lord God Almighty. But it's a different story in this psalm. In Psalm 87, the nations are gathered, the nations are here, but they are not surrounding the city as enemies. Instead, there are peoples from those nations within the very walls of Jerusalem singing the praises of the God of Israel. It's a very different approach in this particular psalm of Zion. This psalm shows us that people from many nations can be included in God's people as citizens of Zion. In fact, it speaks of them in wonderful terms. They are those who are counted as being born in Zion. So Psalm 87 really does teach us this, that the citizens of Zion celebrate in the city of their God. Let's see how this can be as we work our way through the text. As I read this, I repeated that little word twice that you see in italics. Did you see it? That little selah word. I think that's one clue. It's not the only one, but it's one clue that helps us know how this text divides itself. So here's how I'd like us to work through the text. First of all, verses 1 to 3, where we hear a description of this mountain city of Zion. And then, verses 4 to 6, which tell us about the children or the citizens of Zion. And finally, this last verse 7, where I think what we hear is the praises of God resounding in Zion, the celebration in Zion. So let's start with verses 1 to 3. Would you come with me? It's an invitation, I think, in this psalm for us to ascend this mountain, to ascend the holy hill of God and to see what we might see. And the first thing that we see is that God loves this city. There is a great love that God has for Zion. Verse 1, look at it, says that this is a city established by God. The foundations of this city of God are on the holy mountain. There's a little bit of an emphasis on that word foundations. What does this mean? It means that this city, Zion, is the safest city. It's the most stable city. It is the city above all cities that is firmly established because the Lord himself has established this city. We're still relatively new to California. And, you know, when we were getting ready to move here, we were warned about fires and about politics and about earthquakes. Evidently, you have earthquakes from time to time in California. We haven't really felt very much of that since we've been here. But I know there are earthquakes, and I know there was a large earthquake last week in Mexico. You might have seen this in the news. I know about it because we have some Mexican students who are studying at the seminary, and their family and many of their friends were very shaken by a strong earthquake in Mexico last week. Well, what do we know about this city, the city of Zion, presented to us in Psalm 87? This is a city whose foundations are so secure that it can never be shaken. There is nothing that can threaten this city because this is the city designed and built and guarded and protected and loved by the very god of heaven psalm 46 that other psalm that i mentioned the song of zion says this it says that the reason for this stability in zion is that god himself is inside the city that's why the city will never fall psalm 48 adds that god protects the city it says this within her citadels god has made himself known as a fortress it's a city where there's there's no crime, a city where there is no danger. In this city, perched on God's holy mountain, there is only peace and stability. And that is one of the reasons why those who dwell in the city sing the praises of their God. Verse 2 says that the city of Zion is the Lord's most favored place. Do you see it? The Lord loves the gates of Zion more than all the dwellings of Jacob. The gates here represent the whole city. And by extension, I think we include all of the people who dwell in that city. This city, above all cities and all places, is the city that God loves. And the people who dwell there are his beloved people, whom he loves, whom he favors, upon whom he pours out blessing upon blessing. Okay, but we still haven't really answered the question, have we fully? Where is this city of Zion? Where is it exactly? If you were asked that after having heard this sermon so far, what would you say? Where is Zion? Well, the first time we hear about Zion in the Old Testament is actually all the way back in 2 Samuel 5, verse 7. You don't have to turn there. I'll tell you about it. But it's 2 Samuel 5, 7. And in that text, we learn that David, King David, took, he captured the stronghold of Zion, that is, the city of David. This was a city that belonged to the Jebusites, a pagan people in Old Testament times. David captured it and made it his capital city. And you know this city by the name Jerusalem. So Zion in the Old Testament and the Old Covenant initially is the city of Jerusalem. It's an earthly city on a hill located in the Middle East. And that's the city, of course, where King Solomon, the son of David, builds the great temple. And that's the temple to which the peoples gathered to worship the Lord. It was the temple of the Lord on the mountain of the Lord in the city of God. And it was a very special place because only there had God chosen to dwell in this way among his people so that his blessing was poured out upon them. But there were already signs, even in the Old Testament, that Zion as Jerusalem, as earthly Jerusalem, was not the full story. that Zion on Jerusalem was a little bit like a scale model to teach us about the greater Zion, the heavenly Zion. Let me show you, even in the Old Testament, there were anticipations that this was the case. So the prophet Isaiah writes in chapter 2, in the power of the Holy Spirit, that it shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be established as the highest of all mountains and shall be lifted above all hills and all the nations shall flow to it. And many people shall come and say, do you see what we're talking about here? A mountain established with a city on top and the nations are flowing. It's as if gravity is reversed and the nations are flowing uphill to this holy city atop the mountain. And as they go up that mountain, this is what they say, according to Isaiah chapter 2, verse 3, Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob, that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths. And Isaiah goes on and he reveals to us the name, the name of this mountain of the last days. It is called Zion. The nations would come, writes Isaiah, for out of Zion shall go forth the law and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. You see, earthly Zion was not all there was. There was going to be in the last days a greater Zion. And Psalm 48, verse 2 reinforces this. It says that God's holy mountain, beautiful in elevation, is the joy of all the earth. Mount Zion in the far north, the city of the great king. So what do all of these texts really tell us if we put all of the pieces together? What they teach us is this, that the true Zion, even from the beginning in the Old Testament, was meant to be understood as larger than just that hilltop city of Jerusalem. The Zion of the prophets, the Zion of the Psalms is ultimately too big, too high, too majestic, too glorious, too impenetrable to merely be Jerusalem. In fact, the true Zion, where is it? Here's the answer. You've been very patient. Where is the true Zion? The true Zion is the heavenly city of God, the heavenly city of the great king. And so how do we gain entry as citizens to Zion in this age? Well, no longer do we have to pick up, pack our bags, fly to Israel, get through customs and questioning, and make our way on a tour bus to Jerusalem. You can do that, and it's a wonderful experience. But that does not take you to Zion. Instead, we come to Zion when we gather like this. When on the Lord's day, as the Lord's people, we are gathered in the Lord's church, his place, and we are dressed by our great king. And he pours out upon us all of the benefits that he offers to us in his son and by his spirit. Listen to what Hebrews chapter 12 says. By faith you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering, and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled, registered in heaven, and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, and climactically, Hebrews 12, 24. And you have come, when you come to Zion, you have come to Jesus, the mediator of a better covenant, a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel. So of course we can't fully enter into this heavenly Zion yet in this age, but we are invited, we are summoned, we are welcomed to enter in part, to enter to have a foretaste of what it's like as citizens of Zion to be in this secure city of peace and love and grace and blessing when by faith in Jesus Christ we gather and we are gathered into God's heavenly Zion breaking into this age with his people in the church. So by repentance of our sins and by faith in Christ we come to Zion even here, even now, even this morning. And when we understand Zion this way, we have to understand this. Zion is the city of good news. This is the place where good news is announced. Look again at verse 3, if you would, in Psalm 87. It speaks of wonderful things, glorious things that are proclaimed. We're going to sing in response later after we're finished looking at the text. Glorious things of thee are spoken, Zion, city of our God. And, of course, that's taken from this very verse. Glorious things, verse 3 says, have been said of you, city of God. But we could also understand this. We could also translate this this way. Glorious things are said in you. It's an announcement of good news right there within the city walls. And what is the announcement? What is the good news here? the announcement of the glorious things is what follows in verses 4 to 6 in the second section of the psalm. So we have to pause here. What have we done in verses 1 to 3? We've climbed this mountain and as we did so we surveyed a lot of scripture looking back backwards and forwards from Genesis to Revelation to realize what this heavenly city of Zion is like and we've glimpsed that. But now in verses 4 to 6, we peer through the gates so that we can see the people and we can hear the announcement that is made inside. And as we do that, we see these citizens of Zion and we hear this good news. We discover in these verses 4 to 6 something really special. Look at verse 4. Among those who know me, rather, I mention Rahab and Babylon. Behold, Philistia and Tyre with Cush. This one was born there, they say. Do you recognize the names of those nations in that list? Who's Rahab? Well, Rahab, if you know your Old Testament, is another name for Egypt. Egypt, where the people of Israel were enslaved before the Lord God, with his mighty arm, brought them out in the Exodus and led them to his holy mountain. Rahab. What about Babylon? Babylon, of course, that other world power that would take away the southern kingdom of Judah into captivity. And Philistia, who are the Philistines? You know the Philistines. Those are the sea peoples who settled along the coastal plain of Israel and who harassed and attacked and fought against Israel again and again. Who are these nations? These are the very enemies, the enemies of God's people in the Old Testament. And it goes on. What about Tyre? What about Ethiopia? Well, in some sense, I think what we've got here is Tyre all the way to the north and then Ethiopia all the way to the south. In other words, from north to south, from east to west, all of these nations, all of these peoples are now represented by those whom the Lord says were born here in Zion. Men and women and children of those nations, even those Gentile nations, the God of Israel now announces glorious things to them, that these are people who belong in this city because they are now citizens of Zion. This is God's international people. This is God's multi-ethnic, global people who share the same birth and the same citizenship. And I think this is a beautiful moment just to pause and consider. As you know, we're rather new in this congregation. We are learning more and more about the wonderful history of this congregation and how many of you and many of your parents and grandparents came to this place generations ago and built this church, literally and metaphorically. Of course, it's the Lord working through them who founded and built this church. And in the early days, I'm sure many of you who are older remember, it might have been a bit more monochrome in this congregation, maybe. You looked around and you see mostly Dutch folks, right? Dutch believers. But just look. I don't mean to make you uneasy. We don't often do this. But look to your left. Look to your right. If you're really brave, you might look over your shoulder. You might even look up in the balcony. It's not only Dutch Americans here, is it, anymore. And isn't that a beautiful thing? A beautiful thing when in a congregation you see how the Lord brings the nations and the languages and joins them together as the very people of God. When we were, I may have mentioned this to some of you before, when we were in our congregation in London for the last six or seven years before coming here, there were 22 different nationalities and languages represented in a congregation of 100, 110 that would gather on a Sunday morning. and it was a wonderful thing to look and see there's a deacon collecting the offering and he's from Nigeria and he's been brought into citizenship by the new birth granted to him by the Lord and there's a Brazilian brother who sits across from me at our session meeting and yes, we did have a Dutch elder actually. There's a Dutchman and here I am as a mongrel American, whatever I am. It's a beautiful thing. It's a beautiful thing to see that what this psalm speaks of is in fact what is taking place in churches across time and space as the Lord calls men and women from these nations to be his people. Of course, it's not all people without exception from all nations who become citizens of Zion. It's rather that, and this is what's emphasized in these verses in our psalm, that there are individuals that the Lord plucks, individuals and families from this nation and that, and that he brings to Zion as citizens. Look at the repetition in verses four to six. This one was born there, verse four. This one and that one are born in it, in her, verse five. This one, verse six, was born there. Do you hear that repetition? The Lord selecting his people, calling his elect from every nation. and granting them citizenship and new birth in his city. It's a beautiful image. Most of you know our family or are getting to know us. My wife, Kathy, who holds us all together. And we've got seven kids. And our oldest three, John, James, and Samuel, who are in high school now, were born in the U.S. They were born in Indianapolis, Indiana. But then we were living in Sydney, Australia for a while. And so children four, five, and six, Adam and Anna and Elizabeth, were born in Australia. But guess what? They're not citizens of Australia. There's not a dual citizenship offer. But they are citizens of the U.S. of A. And they have their passports. And they've got their birth certificates, even though they were born there. And then we had number seven, Mary Cordelia, in London. But she's not a British citizen. She has American citizenship, too. She's got a passport. She's got a birth certificate. So our family, with people born all over the world, all share one citizenship. And it's a wonderful citizenship. It's American citizenship, something that many in this world would love to have. And yet this psalm speaks of a citizenship that is how much greater, how much richer, how much more a blessing even than American citizenship. This is citizenship in Zion by new birth, granted graciously to men and women and children by the Lord, the King of Zion. There's a new birth that takes place. Galatians chapter four in the New Testament, Paul says that Zion is the heavenly Jerusalem that is free and she is our mother. In John's gospel, chapter three, verse three, Jesus is speaking to Nicodemus. You remember that story. What does he say to Nicodemus? He says, truly, truly, I say to you, unless you are born again, you cannot see the kingdom of God. Well, Psalm 87 teaches us that Zion is the place of new birth. As citizens of Zion, we have a new birth and thereby a new citizenship. And Paul, once again, in Philippians chapter 3, verse 20, puts it this way. He says, our citizenship is in heaven. And from there, we await a Savior, even the Lord Jesus Christ. Look at verse 6, back in Psalm 87, if you would, please. The language here in verse 6 is almost like the language of a census, isn't it? The Lord records as he registers the peoples. This one was born there. There was a lot of debate recently, if you picked up on it, about the census here in the United States. And there should be, right? Because on the basis of censuses, there's a lot that hangs on that. Political strategy, but also the distribution of limited public goods. A census is important. We need to know who's registered as a citizen and who is not. But this is a much, much more important census spoken of here in Psalm 87. This is a census that focuses on the result of the Lord's proclamation and his gracious action because he announces that these are those who are his sons and daughters born in Zion. And let me just be very clear. Zion is not, therefore, the United States, is it? It just can't be the way the psalm in its context and in the context of scripture is unfolded. Zion is not the United States. Zion's certainly not California, beautiful as this place is. Zion's not even the Netherlands. I've not been yet, but I would love to go someday. Zion is not Israel in the Middle East, is it? Zion is the heavenly city of God, which has founded a colony here on earth in this present age. And this gathering of God's people is us coming together as those who are citizens of that heavenly Zion. And therefore, we have new spiritual passports. It always was a cause of great anxiety to me when we were living overseas to try to keep nine passports up to date. So I had a spreadsheet with reminders and dates of when they would expire and when we would have to go down to the embassy in Sydney or in London and stand in the long line, pay lots of money to renew our passports. And that feeling was always such a comfort when they handed the passport across the desk and I had it and I put it in my pocket and we walked out of the embassy. Why? Because I knew that now we could leave the country and we could get back into our homeland if we needed to. That was the comfort the passport gave me. Well, as citizens of the heavenly Zion, we have new spiritual passports that are stamped with the very blood and the merits of the Lord Jesus Christ. Imagine this, imagine this. The Lord's standing in his city with his registration book and he's got a list and he's crying out names and he's writing them down. And he's saying, you, put your name in there. You, Doug, sorry, call you out in the front row. Doug, and he writes your name down and you're in the book. And you, Heidi, and he writes your name down and you're recorded and you are in and you are secure. And now you know that you are one who can receive all the privileges that come with this heavenly citizenship. Once again, I don't mean to belabor this, but it suggests itself as a helpful contrast to me. When we lived in the UK, our visas, which allowed us to be there for a limited time, were stamped. And the stamp was not a stamp that brought me comfort. It was stamped, no access to public funds because we got no tax benefits, no child tax credits, nothing. because we were not citizens but how wonderful when you have a new spiritual passport stamped with the name of Jesus Christ because you get all the benefits that he has won for you whatever is true of him is now true of you that's what citizenship in the heavenly Zion means that's what privileges our hours. So let's pause once more. We've seen the city on the mountain. We've glimpsed this beautiful picture of the citizens that fill the city. We've heard this glorious announcement that all those who turn by faith to Christ Jesus are recorded and registered as citizens in the city. And now we come to verse 7. Verse 7 is a little bit of a puzzle for the commentators. And if we could say that verses four to six were really kind of the center point with the repetition that we heard of this psalm, verse seven is the climax. This is not just the end, but it's really the high point of this psalm. And I think what it points us to is the celebration in Zion, the celebration of those who know that their citizenship is in the city of God. It says this, singers and dancers alike say, all my springs are in you. All my springs are in you. What's going on here? This is a celebration of the relationship that the citizens of Zion have with their new city, but especially with the Lord who is the king of this city of Zion. And you can, can you hear the celebration in the text? There are songs of joy. there's even dancing there's music there's praise there's delight there's joy why well it's all in that last that last clause all my springs are in you it is because of the springs in zion in this city on this mountain there is a spring a spring of water that bursts forth that overflows that tumbles down the mountainside. And everywhere that water goes, life springs up. Everywhere that water flows, there is blessing. This is really one of the great themes of redemptive history here that is drawn together for us in this psalm. The whole story of the Bible from Genesis to Revelation. That on this mountaintop, we have a glorious city. And in that city, there are the waters of life that burst forth for the people of God. And the source of this living water, of course, is the Lord God himself, the living God, the triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And wherever that Lord dwells, life flows from him. Here's how Psalm 36 puts it. They feast on the abundance of your house, and you give them drink from the river of your delights. For with you is the fountain of life. In your light do we see light. And the New Testament, of course, reveals to us that the Lord Jesus Christ himself and his spirit are the means by which we receive this living water that brings blessing for all who believe. You know the story in John 4, Jesus with the woman at the well. And what does he say to her? Everyone who drinks of this water that I offer will, sorry, of this water, that is the water she's drawing, will be thirsty again. But whoever drinks of this water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life. So this is the message with which we end with our psalm this morning in verse 7 of Psalm 87. When we live in God's presence by faith in Jesus Christ, it is as if there are fountains of water, spiritual blessings, blessings of peace, blessings of reconciliation to the God who made us, blessings of justification, of being able to be clothed with a righteousness that is not our own but was won for us by another, blessings of sanctification that were being made holy by God's grace. That's poured out upon us. Blessings of mercy that keep us going day by day. That these blessings flow to us from the springs that are found in this city. Have you ever noticed the same kind of liquid metaphor in Romans chapter 5 verse 5 where Paul says this, God's love, God's love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us so ultimately this morning brothers and sisters I hope that you leave encouraged I hope that you leave comforted I hope that you leave with a sense of how much greater it will be on that last day when we are gathered into the true heavenly Zion of our God our great king but I also hope that you'll return this evening because on this day the Lord's day when we gather to worship him is when we experience chiefly throughout our week the blessings that are poured forth from heavenly Zion through our Lord Jesus Christ. We are citizens of Zion who celebrate and who should celebrate in the city of our God. Let's give thanks and turn to him in prayer as we close. Almighty God, you who are the great king of this city, we praise you and we magnify your name, that you in your wonderful and mysterious sovereign plan have ordained in love, in love, that you would call us, that you would call even us to be your sons and daughters, and that you would grant us new birth and new citizenship and new privileges only for the sake of your Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. We pray that you would fill our hearts with joy and delight today, and that you would even now, as we close this service of worship, help us to sing from our hearts words of praise to you and to cry out that all of our springs are in you. We ask this in Christ's name. Amen.