DCLM Daily Manna Thursday 28 December 2023

TOPIC: God Is Keeping the Record

TEXT: Psalm 87:1-7 (KJV) 

87 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.

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.

KEY VERSE
“And of Zion it shall be said, This and that man was born in her: and the highest himself shall establish her.”
(Psalm 87:5)

DCLM Daily Manna 28-12-2023 MESSAGE

On the doorpost of an old building in Jerusalem, Israel, is a German inscription, “The LORD loveth the gates of Zion more than all the dwellings of Jacob”. Culled from Psalm 87, it was etched on the structure in 1948 when the modern Jewish nation came into existence after centuries of statelessness of the descendants of Jacob.

The psalm itself is believed to have been composed after the captivity of the children of Israel in Babylon. While it is a solemn celebration of the power of the Lord to restore hope to the dispersed, it also reveals God as the supreme Deity who sits in the “holy mountains” with a firm foundation that cannot be rocked by the moves of man.

READ DCLM Daily Manna Wednesday 27 December 2023 – Shun Their Feasts

Man must, therefore, speak of Him and His habitation in exalted terms. Prophetically, the writer says although He has picked Zion as the point of His earthly reign in the future, He will, in His mercy, accommodate the Gentiles (Rahab, Babylon, Philistia, Tyre, Ethiopia) in the final spiritual Zion in heaven. The record-taking of the nations and their citizens in this heavenly abode of the Trinity and the holy angels will be done by the Lord, “the highest himself”.

He shall do the enumeration. “He shall count, when he writeth up the people”. These are those who have sought the forgiveness of their sins and have been washed clean for entry into the palace of the King of kings. Nothing that defiles or offends shall be allowed to walk on its golden routes. The psalm closes with a mention of the presence of “singers…players on instruments” in this final home of the saints of God. To be sure, there will be great joy in heaven to usher in the chosen servants; but the celebrations would be of the Scriptural prescription: “Serve the LORD with fear, and rejoice with trembling” (Psalm 2:11).

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY: Endeavour to work out your salvation with trembling and fear.

BIBLE IN ONE YEAR: Revelation 12-14