Born in Jerusalem
July 9, 2010And of Zion it will be said,
“This one and that one were born in her;
And the Most High Himself shall establish her. ”
The LORD will record,
When He registers the peoples:
“This one was born there.”— Psalm 87:5-6 (NKJV)
Orthodox Jews take note of those who are born in Jerusalem. The standard dress for an Orthodox man includes a black coat, but those born in Jerusalem wear a knee-length coat that is taupe (a moderate brownish gray) with black stripes. No one else is permitted to wear this coat. It is immediately obvious that “this one was born there”.
Is this the sense in which the Lord records those who are born in Zion? Isn’t He the God of all the peoples? Are not all men and women offered the same salvation, if they will come to Him through His Anointed?
Literally being born in Jerusalem, or not, is essentially an accident, certainly nothing we have control over. It has nothing to do with our faith. Mankind invests this kind of thing with superstitious significance, but God does not. So what is the psalmist getting at?
It surely brings much more significance to the passage if we consider that the writer is speaking of the new birth, and that it is the new Jerusalem to which he refers. Read these verses in this light, and they say in effect, “The Most High will establish the New Jerusalem, and He will take note of every person who was born anew as a child of the New Jerusalem. He will write them in His book of life, and everyone will recognize that they are the children of the New Jerusalem, for they will be His immortal ones.”
Verse 3 of this psalm says, “Glorious things are spoken of you, O city of God!” True enough of the literal Jerusalem, which will be the capital city of the whole earth, under the Kingship of Jesus Christ. And even more glorious things are spoken of the new Jerusalem.
In his letter to the Galatians (chap 5:22-31), the apostle Paul says that the Jerusalem that now exists is related to Mt. Sinai and the Law, and she and her children are in slavery. But the Jerusalem above is our mother, and her children are the heirs, the children of promise.
This is the Jerusalem we want to be “born” into! May it be said of you and I, “This one and that one were born in her”!
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