Ps. 87.5b (creation to marital and the consummation of Zion)

Yhwh recorded / in the register of the peoples,
“This one / was born there.” 

Following the previous reflection on Yhwh’s fruitful establishment of Zion, we again move into the realm of Yhwh’s activity as it relates to Zion. We have alluded to this throughout the reflections but it probably deserves more focus. Zion’s power to be the ‘mother of all the living’ is not a power she has simply within herself. Yhwh acts on Zion’s behalf from the beginning to the end. Zion is “his foundation” (vs. 1); Yhwh loves the gates of Zion (vs. 2); Zion is the “city of god” (vs. 3); Rahab and Babylon do not ‘know Zion’, but ‘know me’ (vs. 4), which is rooted in what Yhwh declares (vs. 4); the Most High “establishes her” (vs. 5). Indeed, the only ‘action’ taken by Zion is as an object of beauty to Yhwh (vs. 2) and her ‘giving birth’ to ‘everyone’. The point of all this is fairly clear: Zion’s ‘radiance’ and power is grounded, solely, in Yhwh’s love for her. In this way she is like Eve to Adam—on her own she possesses a beauty, but she has no power to give life unless and until Adam ‘turns toward her’ and ‘knows her’. Once this occurs, however, she takes into herself his power and actively appropriates it in her womb and gives life. Without Adam, Eve is barren; without Eve, Adam is alone and unable to procreate. 

This points to a deeply significant point in light of our previous reflections, but we need to move slowly. One of the first things we noted was how when Yhwh elects Israel or Zion he demonstrates his mastery over time. He does so by, within time, ‘starting again’ or ‘starting for the first time’. For example, Israel is elected as his chosen people not at the origin of time, but ‘in the midst of time’; she is ‘late in the game’. Zion, likewise is chosen and taken ‘later’. They both, in the midst of time, become the ‘source’ of God’s blessing to the world. They are like a ‘second, greater creation’. A second thing we noted was how, in verse 4, the ‘birth of the nations’ comes about by the dual action of Yhwh and Zion: they come to know Yhwh through their birth from Zion. What we saw was that this progression mirrored the ‘marriage’ relationship. First, the husband loves the beauty of the wife and then that love between the two becomes the power of fruitfulness for children. 

With these two observations in mind, and with the Adam and Eve analogy, we can begin to see something remarkable. God’s first act of creation is without the aid of anything. He creates by his own divine speech. In this way God is profoundly different than Adam, who can only ‘create’ with the aid of Eve. However, when Yhwh acts in time, in the second ‘greater act’ of creation, he incorporates an aspect of creation into it. In other words, it tracks the marital act. Zion, like Eve, becomes a mediator and participant in this second act of creation. That said, this ‘second act of creation’ is grounded in and founded upon the ‘first act of creation’. We might put it this way: the ‘marital’ relationship of Yhwh with Zion is grounded on Yhwh’s prior act of election and creation (which, in turn, is an expression of the Trinitarian relationship(s)). But, the marital is the consummation of Yhwh’s action and desire. This establishes in Zion a truly remarkable, even astounding, dignity akin to Eve (even, greater than Eve’s for now she is the mother of Yhwh’s children and not just Adam’s).   

Mary. We can’t conclude this without pointing toward Mary. In the gospel of John, on the ‘seventh’ day of creation, at a wedding in Cana, Jesus shows deference to Mary’s commands (Mary is already participating in and mediating Christ’s ‘hour’ to the world). Then, at the foot of the Cross, as Christ ‘pours himself out in love’ (just as Yhwh ‘loves Zion’ in vs. 1), he makes Mary the mother of his children (the beloved disciple ‘taking Mary’ into his home and her becoming his mother). Then, in Revelation, when Mary is revealed as the ‘queen of heaven’, and the ‘arc of the covenant’, she is described as giving birth not just to Christ but to ‘all the faithful’. All the images of ‘one greater than Eve’, the woman who participates in and mediates God’s love for the world and her utterly astonishing fruitfulness, are found, as consummated, in Mary—this “Bride-Mother”—not as symbolic, but as real as (in fact, more real than) Zion. Mary is the consummation of Zion.