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COMMENTARY ON PSALM 87 For the sons ofKorah. A psalm. A song. HIS PSALM ALSO PROPHESIES the salvation of the nations, and foretells the religious way of life, which Christ the Lord taught by becoming man. Its foundations are on the holy mountains (v. 1). The divine teachings are foundations of religion; holy mountains, on which he fixed these foundations, are our Savior's apostles: of them blessed Paul said, "Built upon the foundation of the apostles and inspired authors, with Christ Jesus himself as the cornerstone";' and again, "Peter and James and John, who were acknowledged to be pillars."2 The Lord said to Peter after that true and divine confession, "You are Peter, and on this rock I shall build my church; Hades' gates will not prevail against it."3 And again, "You are the light of the world; a city situated on a mountain cannot be hidden."4 On these holy mountains Christ the Lord sunk the foundations of religion. (2) The Lord loves the gates of Sion beyond all the dwellings ofJacob (v. 2). Let the divinely inspired Paul explain what this Sion is: "You have come to [1564] Mount Sion and the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to countless angels, to a festal gathering and assembly of firstborn who are enrolled in heaven";5 and again, "The other woman corresponds to the Jerusalem above; she is free and is our mother."6 Speaking J. Eph 2.20. 2. Gal 2.9. 3. Matt 16.18. 4. Matt 5.14. Theodoret is determined to give the psalm an eschatological and Christological interpretation, as the opening rash of New Testament quotations suggests. He would therefore not be in sympathy with disparaging comments from moderns about the state of the text, to the effect that it is the most mangled and disordered of the Psalter (Beaucamp) or is devoid at first glance of a consistent sequence of thought (Weiser). 5. Heb 12.22-23. 6. Gal 4.26. 77 78 THEODORET OF CYRUS about the patriarch Abraham in the Epistle to the Hebrews, he added this as well, "He looked forward, you see, to the city that has foundations, whose architect and builder is God"; and again about the other saints, "Those who say such things make it clear that they are looking for a homeland. If they had been thinking of the one they left, they would have had the opportunity of returning; but as it is they aspire to a better one, that is, heavenly."7 Accordingly, we learn there is a heavenly city of some kind, called Jerusalem, with no towers and ramparts nor gleaming with sparkling stones, but conspicuous for choirs of saints and adorned with an angelic way of life. You would not be wrong to call the churches on earth the gates of this city, through which it is possible to enter it: in them we are instructed and trained, and learn the way of life of that city. The inspired word said these gates were dear to the God of all, and preferred to the Jewish dwellings. Glorious things are said ofyou, o city of God (v. 3): some wonderful and remarkable things are foretold ofyou, surpassing all human expectation. (3) Testimony to the fact that what is said in no way relates to the Sion below comes from what follows. I shall remember Rahab and BalJylon among those who know me. Behold, foreigners and Tyre, and people ofthe Ethiopians-they were there (v. 4). These things, he is saying, 0 divine city, have been said of you so that those formerly living a life of ungodliness and oppressed by the gloom of ignorance may be granted residence in you and a share in your way of life. The reason, to be sure, that he recalled the above-mentioned nations [1565] as the least law-abiding and held in the power of impiety was to suggest others by mention of them. Rahab, for instance, was a Canaanite and a prostitute;8 Babylon, ferocious and godless; the "foreigners" or Philistines (we have already indicated who they were) ,9 superstitious and lawless. The prophet Ezekiel denounced both the impiety and the licentiousness of Tyre.lO The inspired word gave the name 7. Heb 11.10, 14-16. 8. Cf. Josh 2, where in fact the Canaanite prostitute is presented favorably. The psalmist instead seems to have had in mind the Rahab of Isa 30.7, the monster that represents...

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