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August 13, 2025

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Psalm 87-88

Psalm 87^[a]

Zion, Home of All Nations

¹A psalm of the sons of Korah.^[b] A song.

The Lord has founded a city^[c]
    on the holy mountains.
²He loves the gates of Zion
    more than^[d] any dwelling in Jacob.
³Glorious things are said of you,
    O city of God. Selah
⁴^[e]“I number Rahab and Babylon
    among those who acknowledge the Lord,
as well as Philistia, Tyre, and Ethiopia;
    concerning them it can be said,
    ‘This one was born there.’ ”^[f] Selah
⁵However, of Zion it will be said,
    “They were all born there,
    for the Most High himself establishes her.”^[g]
⁶The Lord records in the register^[h] of the peoples,
    “This one was born there.” Selah
⁷And as they play, they all sing,^[i]
    “In you are all my fountains.”

Psalm 88^[j]

Prayer in Affliction

¹A song. A psalm of the sons of Korah.^[k] For the director. According to Mahalath. For singing. A maskil of Heman the Ezrahite.

²^[l]O Lord, the God of my salvation,
    day and night I cry out to you.
³Let my prayer come before you;
    give ear to my cry for help.
⁴^[m]For my soul^[n] is filled with misery,
    and my life draws near to the netherworld.
⁵I am numbered among those who go down to the pit;^[o]
    all strength has failed me.
⁶I have been abandoned among the dead,
    like the slain who lie in the grave,
like those whom you remember no longer
    and whom your hand has abandoned.^[p]
⁷^[q]You have lowered me into the depths of the pit,
    into the darkest regions of the abyss.
⁸Your wrath lies heavy upon me;
    all your waves engulf me. Selah
⁹You have caused my closest friends to shun me
    and made me hateful in their sight.
I am shut in with no means of escape,^[r]
¹⁰    and my eyes grow dim^[s] with my suffering.
^[t]Every day I call out to you, O Lord,
    and spread out my hands to you.
¹¹Do you perform wonders^[u] for the dead?
    Do the shades rise up and give you praise? Selah
¹²Is your kindness^[v] celebrated in the grave,
    or your faithfulness in the tomb?
¹³Are your wonders known in the region of darkness,
    or your righteous deeds in the land of oblivion?^[w]
¹⁴^[x]But for my part, I cry out to you, O Lord;
    in the morning my prayer rises before you.
¹⁵Why do you cast me away, O Lord?^[y]
    Why do you hide your face from me?
¹⁶Since infancy I have been wretched and close to death;
    I have borne your terrors
    and have now reached the point of exhaustion.
¹⁷Your wrath has weighed down upon me;
    your terrors have destroyed me.
¹⁸All day long they surround me like a flood;
    they encircle me completely.
¹⁹You have caused my friends and neighbors to shun me;
    my sole companion now is darkness.^[z]

Footnotes

Psalm 87:1 The psalmist here paints a picture of Jerusalem as the spiritual mother of all peoples and thus prefigures the Church of Christ (see Acts 2:5ff; Gal 4:26). No other canticle has given greater exaltation to the holy city, Zion, the chosen city of God. Not only is she at the heart of Israel, but in her, God lays the basis for the spiritual rebirth of all peoples, even the sworn enemies of Israel, such as Egypt and Chaldea, through their worship of the true God (see Ps 45:15f; Zec 2:15; 8:23). All will be admitted into her bosom, and God will declare her mother of all peoples.
After having encountered the conflicts of peoples and the persecution of Israel in so many psalms, here is a symphony with unforgettable melodies. We are enchanted by this universalist aspect and the perspective of a humanity reunited by God in his presence, in accord with the vision of the Prophets (see Isa 2:2-4; 19:19-25; 25:6; 45:14, 22-24; 56:6-8; 60:3; 66:23; Dan 7:14; Mic 4:1-3; Zec 8:23; 14:16). Such is also the vocation of the Church, the new Jerusalem, to be a leaven for the ingathering of all peoples.
Thus, in praying this psalm, Christians keep in mind not only the earthly Zion with its fulfillment, the Church, but also the heavenly Jerusalem, the heavenly Church, which is our true and definitive home, the source of eternal life and perfect blessedness. At the end of time, this new Jerusalem will come down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride for her husband (see Rev 21:2, 24).
Psalm 87:1 Sons of Korah: see note on Ps 42:1.
Psalm 87:1 Lord has founded a city: it is the Lord himself who has made Zion his city (see Isa 14:32) and the temple his dwelling. Mountains: see note on Ps 2:6.
Psalm 87:2 Loves . . . more than: Zion is more cherished by the Lord than any other Israelite city or town (see Pss 9:12; 78:68; 132:12-14). The gates of Zion: a common Hebrew idiom for the city. Jacob: i.e., Israel (see Gen 32:28-29).
Psalm 87:4 These verses foresee a wholesale conversion to the Lord on the part of peoples who were longtime enemies of God and his kingdom (see Isa 19:21).
Psalm 87:4 The Gentiles will be incorporated into the People of God and adopted by Zion, their religious homeland. As the representatives of all the Gentile nations, the psalmist mentions the arrogant Egypt (Rahab—the name of an ocean monster used poetically for Egypt) and Babylon, the two world kingdoms on the Nile and Euphrates, both of which had fought for centuries for the possession of Palestine. We also hear of the Philistines, archenemy of Israel, wealthy Tyre proud of its independence, and the ambitious Ethiopians.
Psalm 87:5 The privileges of the holy city and her spiritual motherhood are divine in origin and hence indefectible. The eschatological community of the faithful is established by the Lord (see Ps 48:9; Isa 14:32; 28:16; 54:11f).
Psalm 87:6 Here it is a case simply of a list (register) of the citizens of Zion (see Isa 4:3; Ezek 13:9) rather than the apocalyptic book of destinies (see Ps 69:28). Each people will thus have two homelands—one material and one spiritual. The basis for the people’s security and inclusion in Zion lies in the promise of the Lord and the fact that he is its builder (see Heb 11:10, 16).
Psalm 87:7 Zion is associated with “the fountain of life” (Ps 36:10), of “salvation” (Isa 12:3), “a river whose streams bring joy to the city of God” (Ps 46:5; see Ezek 47; Rev 22:1-5). As they play, they all sing: an alternative translation is: “As they make music, they will sing.” Hence, the peoples will be admitted to the official liturgical worship (see Isa 66:21) and will at least be able to participate in the ritual dances (see Pss 149:3; 150:4; 2 Sam 6:5).
Psalm 88:1 The anguish of death has rarely found expression in such touching images as those of the present psalm: prison, shipwreck, solitude, and darkness. The suppliant has experienced the depths of misfortune. Has God abandoned him? Despite the depths of his distress, the believer refuses to admit such a thing; he puts down all thought of rebellion within himself. For although no expressions of hopeful expectation (as in most psalms) are present and the last word speaks of darkness as “my closest friend,” the psalmist firmly believes that the Lord is “the God of [his] salvation.”
This psalm illustrates the hazy ideas that the ancients harbored about life after death before they arrived at faith in the resurrection: in the netherworld (“Sheol”), in the subterranean pit, the dead have no more communication with God; they are no more than dull shadows of themselves in the land of no recall. It is a prayer of a man who experiences the depths of human misery, a prayer of Israel at the edge of collapse, but also a prayer of everyone on the brink of hopelessness.
This psalm furnishes Christians with a prayer during times of spiritual dryness as well as human calamities of all kinds. We can then express to the heavenly Father our sufferings and distresses in the face of hostility, the weight of our spiritual and human solitude, and our fear in the light of his persistent silence. It will enable us to accept our cup without recrimination and to renew our trust in our God.
Psalm 88:1 Sons of Korah: see note on Ps 42:1. For the director: these words are thought to be a musical or liturgical notation. According to Mahalath: possibly a tune. Maskil: see note on Ps 32:1a. Heman the Ezrahite: he is thought to be the son of Zerah (hence, Ezrahite) and member of the tribe of Judah (see 1 Chr 2:6) as well as leader of the Korahite guild (see 1 Chr 6:33, 37).
Psalm 88:2 The psalmist, despite his wretched state, has not lost hope; he believes that the Lord is the God who saves and so he cries out to him for help.
Psalm 88:4 His soul is full of troubles; indeed, he is accounted as one already in the grave and cut off from God (see Ps 143:7; Job 10:15; 17:1).
Psalm 88:4 Soul: see note on Ps 6:4. Netherworld: see note on Ps 6:6.
Psalm 88:5 The psalmist is alive but dead (see Pss 6:6; 107:18) as to his contemporaries (see Pss 22:30; 28:1; 143:7; Prov 1:12). Pit: see note on Ps 30:2.
Psalm 88:6 As far as the psalmist is concerned, he is already in the pit (see note on Ps 6:6), where he cannot call upon God to remember him and come to his aid (see Pss 25:7; 74:2; 106:4).
Psalm 88:7 For some reason God has let a flood of troubles overwhelm the suppliant so that he remains deprived of all human consolation (see Ps 142:7; Lam 3:7).
Psalm 88:9 Friends interpret the suffering of the suppliant as a punishment from God and remain aloof from him lest they also be struck with it.
Psalm 88:10 Eyes grow dim: see note on Ps 6:8.
Psalm 88:10 The psalmist prays to be saved in order to continue to praise the Lord for his wondrous deeds, for those in the grave can no longer do so (see notes on Pss 6:6; 9:2).
Psalm 88:11 Wonders: see note on Ps 9:2. Rise up: i.e., a simple act of rising to give praise in the kingdom of the dead (see Isa 14:9)—not a bona fide resurrection from the dead.
Psalm 88:12 The psalmist would be unable to render praise to God if he were to go to the grave, also known as the “pit.” Kindness . . . faithfulness: see notes on Pss 6:5; 36:6f. The tomb: literally, “destruction,” another name for the grave or the pit; in Hebrew it is Abaddon (see Job 26:6; 28:22; Prov 15:11; Rev 9:11).
Psalm 88:13 The psalmist speaks of death as a place of total darkness, also known as the land of oblivion, in contrast with the “land of the living” (Pss 27:13; 52:7; 116:9; 142:6), because those who die are quickly forgotten by the living (see Pss 6:6; 31:13; Eccl 9:5).
Psalm 88:14 Even when human consolation is lacking, suffering can still be bearable if God gives his perceptible consolation; however, the psalmist also feels himself abandoned by God.
Psalm 88:15 Why . . . ?: see note on Ps 6:4. Hide your face: see note on Ps 13:2.
Psalm 88:19 The lamentation ends on a cry of sadness, like Ps 39. However, it is not a cry of despair, for God cannot remain deaf to the prayers of his faithful ones (see Ps 79:9-11; Job 16:18-20).

Romans 13

Chapter 13

Obedience to Authority.^[a] ¹Let everyone submit himself to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which derives from God, and whatever authorities exist have been instituted by God. ²Consequently, anyone who resists authority is rebelling against what God has appointed, and those who so resist will bring judgment upon themselves.

³Rulers are a source of fear not to those who do good but rather to those who do evil. Do you wish to be free of fear from someone in authority? Then continue to do what is right and you will receive his approval. ⁴For he is acting as God’s representative for your welfare. But if you do what is evil, then be afraid for he does not wear a sword for nothing. People in authority are God’s servants to mete out punishment to wrongdoers.

⁵Therefore, you are obliged to submit, not only because of fear of punishment but also because of conscience. ⁶That is why you also pay taxes, for the authorities are God’s servants, and they devote themselves to this service. ⁷Pay to each person what is rightfully his—taxes to the one to whom taxes are due, tolls to the one to whom tolls are due, respect to the one to whom respect is due, honor to the one to whom honor is due.

Love Is the Fulfillment of the Law.^[b] ⁸Owe nothing to anyone except the debt of love you owe one another. The one who loves others has fulfilled the Law. ⁹“You shall not commit adultery, You shall not kill, You shall not steal, You shall not covet,” and every other commandment are all summed up in this: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” ¹⁰Love cannot result in any harm to the neighbor; therefore, love is the fulfillment of the Law.

¹¹Live Honestly As in the Light.^[c] Do this knowing that the hour has come. It is time for you to awaken from sleep. For our salvation is nearer to us now than it was when we first began to believe. ¹²The night is nearly over, and the day is at hand.

Let us therefore cast aside the works of darkness and put on the armor of light. ¹³Let us behave honorably as in the day: not in orgies and drunkenness, not in debauchery and licentiousness, not in quarreling and jealousy. ¹⁴Rather, put on the Lord Jesus Christ and allow no opportunity for the flesh to gratify its sinful desires.

New Catholic Bible (NCB)

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Old/New Testament

Psalm 87[a]

Zion, Home of All Nations

Psalm 88[j]

Prayer in Affliction

Footnotes

Chapter 13

Footnotes

Psalm 87^[a]

Psalm 88^[j]