Today’s Reading: Psalm 87

The Lord records, as he registers the peoples, “This one was born there.”
Psalm 87:6

Where are you from? 

It’s such a common question! Often, when meeting someone for the first time, we get this question. For me, that’s a loaded question at the moment. We feel we live in two places at once, as we seek to sell our home in Macon, Georgia, and gradually transition to North Carolina. 

But on a deeper level, “where are you from” asks us to consider where did we come from, where did we originate? Sometimes, when we get that question, I answer, “Rome,” as I grew up and spent my formative years in Rome, Georgia. For my wife, who grew up in a variety of places, she will often answer, “all over!” 

The Psalmist rhetorically asks this question and notes that God registers those who were born of Zion. Mount Zion is a name for the Temple Mount, where the Temple of Solomon was, but in the Old Testament it’s much more than that. Zion refers to Jerusalem, refers to the dream of God establishing the people, refers even to the covenant God established with the people. In the way saying, “America,” can refer to a geographic location and simultaneously to an ideal, Zion refers to the ideal of the people of God. 

And for the Psalmist, he is from Zion! Not so much the Temple Mount, but from the ideal, from the nation established by God himself! He tells of this to neighboring peoples, the list in verse 4, and celebrates that he, and others like him, are from Zion. God has registered the people there! 

So it is for us. All of us are from God. We are registered among the people God claims, and we can rightly say we are co-heirs with Christ, as the Apostle Paul would later put it. We are fearfully and wonderfully made. We are from God. 

Where are you from?

Think
What does it mean for me to be “from God.” 

Pray
However you have answered the question, turn that into a prayer to God, either verbalizing it or sitting in silence with your answer.

Do
Don’t do today; simply be with your answer. 

Think, Pray, Do. As we respond in faith to scripture, God moves in power through our minds, hearts, and bodies. We are the people of God. Thanks for reading today. Go in peace. Amen.

Think, Pray, Do devotionals by Ted Goshorn follow the suggested bible reading plan from his website and book, Prayer Changes Us. Find this Bible reading plan at tedgoshorn.org/biblereading. If you have found today’s devotion helpful, don’t forget to subscribe for daily emails at tedgoshorn.org and share with others that we may think, pray, and do faithfully.