Psalm 87:1 ¶
«A Psalm or Song for the sons of Korah.» His foundation is
in the holy mountains. 2 The LORD loveth
the gates of Zion more than all the dwellings of Jacob. 3 Glorious things are spoken of thee, O city of
God. Selah.
The Psalmist says here that God’s foundation,
His base of operations, is in the Holy mountains. As we discussed in my
comments on Revelation Jerusalem, like Rome, is also set upon seven hills or
mountains.[1]
This Psalm begins with glorifying Jerusalem,
where God chose to place the worship from His people, the Israelites. Jerusalem
is the city of God.
Prophetically, the New Jerusalem, which
descends from Heaven is the eternal city of God. And yes, glorious things are
spoken of it. I will now review comments I made on the New Jerusalem in my
study on Revelation.
Revelation
21:10 And he carried me away in the
spirit to a great and high mountain, and shewed me that great city, the holy
Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God,
This
city, coming down from space, which may already be on its way, is physically
visible so this is not simply a spiritual event.
Revelation
21:11 Having the glory of God: and her
light was like unto a stone most precious, even like a jasper stone, clear as
crystal; 12 And had a wall great and
high, and had twelve gates, and at the gates twelve angels, and names written
thereon, which are the names of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel:
13 On the east three gates; on the north
three gates; on the south three gates; and on the west three gates. 14 And the wall of the city had twelve
foundations, and in them the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.
So
far, this is pretty obvious although one would presume that Paul was included
in the twelve and not Judas, of course.
Revelation
21:15 And he that talked with me had a
golden reed to measure the city, and the gates thereof, and the wall thereof.
16 And the city lieth foursquare, and
the length is as large as the breadth: and he measured the city with the reed,
twelve thousand furlongs. The length and the breadth and the height of it are
equal.
The
city is a cube with measurements of about 1500 miles on all sides. That is a
little on the high side but I wanted to make a point with an even number for
clarity. Note that its sides are not just 1500 miles but its height is 1500
miles so that consists of space inside of this cube is 1500x1500x1500 miles.
This is over 3 billion cubic miles of space available within this cube. That
seems like plenty of room for anything you can imagine. This is God the
Father’s house.
John
14:2 In my Father’s house are many
mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for
you.
Our
modern understanding of a mansion is a large manor house. An older definition
is a luxury apartment in a manor house. It is clear in the New Jerusalem there
is room for anything you can imagine.
Revelation
21:17 And he measured the wall thereof,
an hundred and forty and four cubits, according to the measure of a man, that
is, of the angel.
The
city has a wall and I don’t know how that works out with a cube so that may be
an argument against the cube or either way you see it the wall may be evident.
It is around 225 feet high depending on the length of a cubit, as there are
small variations in the measurement. Here is further evidence of what an angel
looks like as it is likened to a man. There are no angels with wings in the
Bible and the phrase, “angelic creatures,” does not exist either except in the
imagination of some. I defined angel from the Bible, early on.
Revelation
21:18 And the building of the wall of it
was of jasper: and the city was pure gold, like unto clear glass.
The
wall is jasper. In antiquity jasper was usually considered to be green and
likened to an emerald while today it includes a stone of red, yellow, and brown
as well. Other mentions of jasper in Revelation are;
Revelation
4:3 And he that sat was to look upon
like a jasper and a sardine stone: and there was a rainbow round about the
throne, in sight like unto an emerald.
Revelation
21:11 Having the glory of God: and her
light was like unto a stone most precious, even like a jasper stone, clear as
crystal;
Revelation
21:19 And the foundations of the wall of
the city were garnished with all manner of precious stones. The first
foundation was jasper; the second, sapphire; the third, a chalcedony; the
fourth, an emerald;
Pure
and clear are synonyms in this verse giving us the meaning of both. See again
that this is done later.
Revelation
22:1 And he shewed me a pure river of
water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the
Lamb.
The
city is pure gold, without imperfection. Here are other references to pure
gold.
2Chronicles
3:4 And the porch that was in the front
of the house, the length of it was according to the breadth of the house,
twenty cubits, and the height was an hundred and twenty: and he overlaid it
within with pure gold.
2Chronicles
9:17 Moreover the king made a great
throne of ivory, and overlaid it with pure gold.
A
glass that you can see through is also without imperfections.
Revelation 21:19 And the foundations of the wall of the city
were garnished with all manner of precious stones. The first foundation was
jasper; the second, sapphire; the third, a chalcedony; the fourth, an emerald;
20 The fifth, sardonyx; the sixth,
sardius; the seventh, chrysolite; the eighth, beryl; the ninth, a topaz; the
tenth, a chrysoprasus; the eleventh, a jacinth; the twelfth, an amethyst.
Precious
stones like these cover the priest’s breastplate of judgment in Exodus 28 and
in Satan/Lucifer’s clothing in Ezekiel 28.
Exodus
28:17 And thou shalt set in it settings
of stones, even four rows of stones: the first row shall be a sardius, a topaz,
and a carbuncle: this shall be the first row.
Ezekiel
28:13 Thou hast been in Eden the garden
of God; every precious stone was thy covering, the sardius, topaz, and the
diamond, the beryl, the onyx, and the jasper, the sapphire, the emerald, and
the carbuncle, and gold: the workmanship of thy tabrets and of thy pipes was
prepared in thee in the day that thou wast created.
Be
careful, if studying what these individual stones might represent in reading
back modern definitions of them into the Bible, which would have defined them
by ancient definitions as I explained regarding jasper. Think of them as
precious stones like rubies and emeralds and remember that quibbling over
definitions today and reading them back into the Bible like reading Linnaeus’
taxonomic classifications of creatures back into the Bible, which are modern
definitions, will lead to a dead end. The great fish or whale, because of its
large size, was a specially prepared creature and in the Bible whale does not
refer to a marine mammal of the order, Cetacea, but to a large sea
creature. Read Jonah 1:17; Matthew
12:40; and Genesis 1:21. Keep that in mind when you try to read back modern
definitions into the Bible. God couldn’t care less about your labeling and
definitions created for your own benefit.
This
also brings to mind some of the problems with modern science. Such designations
and classifications are merely social constructions designed to place things in
categories in our own minds and do not have a necessary reality in the physical
universe. In the same regard philosophers of science have noted that for some
experimental scientists who deal in real, tangible evidence that some things
that cannot be seen with the naked eye like photons and electrons might not
even exist but are, “fictions, logical constructions, or parts of an
intellectual instrument for reasoning about the world.”[2]
My
point is when you are reading the words mammal or reptile, do not read them
back into the Bible, written before they came into use for science. Also, do
not read the modern definitions of a precious stone and presume that the Bible
must conform to what we have decided to use as a label or classification after
the Bible was penned and translated.
Revelation
21:21 And the twelve gates were twelve
pearls; every several gate was of one pearl: and the street of the city was
pure gold, as it were transparent glass. 22
And I saw no temple therein: for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are
the temple of it. 23 And the city had no
need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it: for the glory of God did
lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof.
In
the ancient world, starting with Cain’s son, Enoch, in Genesis 4:17 the city
was a religious entity, a type of church, started all at once with invited
families who would share in the same worship and the same gods, although the
individual family would have its own singular worship and gods which
represented their lars familiaris or familiar spirits, the guiding divinities
of ancestor’s dead.[3] The saints are the invited
ones here with earthly historical comparisons as in the Roman biographer and
historian Plutarch’s explanation of how Romulus founded Rome and Theseus
Athens.
Each
home in the ancient world was to have a sacred flame which was the religious
center of the home and must not be permitted to go out.[4]
This eternal flame like the lamp in the tabernacle in Exodus 27:20 must never
go out. In God’s city He is the light and the glory of it and there is no need
for any other. In this passage we can see the religious significance of the sun
and the stars as evidence of God’s sacred handiwork, placing in our temporal
tabernacle lights that reflect on earth that never go out.
Revelation
21:24 And the nations of them which are
saved shall walk in the light of it: and the kings of the earth do bring their
glory and honour into it. 25 And the
gates of it shall not be shut at all by day: for there shall be no night there.
26 And they shall bring the glory and
honour of the nations into it. 27 And
there shall in no wise enter into it any thing that defileth, neither
whatsoever worketh abomination, or maketh a lie: but they which are written in
the Lamb’s book of life.
Now,
clearly, here in eternity, there will be people inhabiting the earth. Some
commentators believe the Jews will inherit the earth and grow to a great number
as mankind was originally intended to populate the universe. Although we don’t
have enough evidence to declare this as being the case it is clear that there
will be people on earth and their leadership will have to bring glory and honor
to the New Jerusalem. Only those persons whose names are written in the Lamb’s
book of life will have a presence apart from the Lake of Fire.
Psalm 87:4 ¶
I will make mention of Rahab and Babylon to them that know me: behold
Philistia, and Tyre, with Ethiopia; this man was born there. 5 And of Zion it shall be said, This and that
man was born in her: and the highest himself shall establish her. 6 The LORD shall count, when he writeth up the people,
that this man was born there. Selah. 7 As well the singers as the players on
instruments shall be there: all my springs are in thee.
This is not Rahab of Jericho. Rahab is a name
for a dragon and can be likened to Satan.
Psalm 89:9 Thou rulest the raging of the sea: when the
waves thereof arise, thou stillest them.
10 Thou hast broken Rahab in pieces, as one that
is slain; thou hast scattered thine enemies with thy strong arm.
Isaiah 51:9 Awake, awake,
put on strength, O arm of the LORD; awake, as in the ancient days, in the
generations of old. Art thou not it that hath cut Rahab, and wounded the
dragon?
It is symbolic of Egypt according to Strong’s dictionary and John
Gill, among others.
Ezekiel 29:3
Speak, and say, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I am against thee,
Pharaoh king of Egypt, the great dragon that lieth in the midst of his rivers,
which hath said, My river is mine own, and I have made it for myself.
Many from these countries mentioned will come
to Jerusalem, to Zion, and as a prophetic statement many from around the world
will come to the New Jerusalem, having been born again. They are acknowledged
by God to be born in a new place, the Jerusalem of God that descended from
Heaven. We are born physically as children of one place but born again as
children of another.
Galatians 4:26 But Jerusalem which is above is free, which
is the mother of us all.
[1]
Ernest L. Martin, “The Seven Hills of Jerusalem,” on Associates for Scriptural
Knowledge, http://askelm.com/prophecy/p000201.htm.
(updated February 1, 2000).
[2]
Ian Hacking, Representing and
Intervening: Introductory Topics in the Philosophy of Natural Sciences (New
York: Cambridge University Press, 1983), 27.
[3]
Numa Denis Fustel De Coulanges, The
Ancient City: A Study of the Religion, Laws, and Institutions of Greece and
Rome (1864, repr. Mineola, NY: Dover Publications, 2006), 134.
[4]
Ibid., 25.
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