URBAN SAINTS
Opening Prayer
Lord, on this Your day, I come for rest and refreshment in You. Lift my burden of cares, ambitions and fears.
Read PSALM 87
1 He has founded his city on the holy mountain.
2 The Lord loves the gates of Zion
more than all the other dwellings of Jacob.
3 Glorious things are said of you,
city of God:
4 “I will record Rahab and Babylon
among those who acknowledge me—
Philistia too, and Tyre, along with Cush—
and will say, ‘This one was born in Zion.’”
5 Indeed, of Zion it will be said,
“This one and that one were born in her,
and the Most High himself will establish her.”
6 The Lord will write in the register of the peoples:
“This one was born in Zion.”
7 As they make music they will sing,
“All my fountains are in you.”
New International Version (NIV)
Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Reflect
Jerusalem (Zion) is more than a city with a fascinating history. It is also a symbol of our hunger for God, home and immortality.
See how God takes something devalued, mismanaged and abused, carrying heavily negative connotations, and through grace transforms it into something bright and beautiful. In this passage, it is the concept of the city that undergoes God’s recreating process. The city, a symbol of human arrogance, self-sufficiency, exploitation and license, becomes in God’s hand a place of glory (3) and refreshment (7).
The city can be a synonym for human rebellion: the Tower of Babel; Abraham’s call out of the sophistication of Ur, Sodom and Gomorrah; Corinth; and, probably most notably, Babylon, so often the archetypal place of evil—“a haunt for every evil spirit” (Rev. 18:2). God, however, also has a city, the earthly city of Jerusalem, foreshadowing the permanent city whose “architect and builder is God” (Heb. 11:10): The Holy City, the New Jerusalem, which comes down from heaven (Rev. 21:2). The Sons of Korah pen a song to celebrate God’s version of the urban
landscape and, while glorying in the future, it gives us cause to work and pray for true, if incomplete, urban renewal.
Glorious things are said about God’s city, but the psalm celebrates the citizens rather than the superstructure. They are people welcomed from every nation, many with a record of hostility to God—such as Rahab (Egypt) and Babylon of all places (4). These foreigners are afforded a birthright (4–6). Refugees, asylum seekers and second-class citizens are given the full rights of sons (cf. Gal. 4:5). The Lord alone has done this (6), breaking down hostilities as he confers status on the undeserving. The church displays what God can build; bringing diverse people into harmony. It is to be a light in the city; a haven for the lost, the foreigner and the displaced.
Apply
How does your church demonstrate how God can reconcile people to himself and to others? That is the light God wants to shine in your city and world.
Closing prayer
Mighty God, my prayer is that the Church and my church will demonstrate the difference Jesus Christ makes in relationships, to Your glory.
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