“Top of Mount Zion”
Description
"On the top of Mount Zion is a city" -- the city of salvation. The singer briefly describes it and makes plans to go there.
Notes
In secular usage, the name "Zion" and "Mount Zion" referred to the more eastern of the hills on which Jerusalem rested -- the name first occurs in the Bible in 2 Samuel 5:7, where David attacks the "stronghold of Zion," the key to the city of the Jebusites, which became the City of David -- i.e. the citadel of the Davidic capital. The term is generally used in the Psalms to include the broader area around the Temple -- i.e. the City on Mount Zion is the whole city of Jerusalem.
The name is not common in the New Testament, and six of the eight New Testament usages to be Old Testament citations -- most notably, Romans 11:16 (citing Isaiah) says that the deliverer comes from Zion. But the two uses of the name not derived from the Hebrew Bible are noteworthy: Hebrews 11:22 refers to coming to "Mount Zion and the city of the living God, while Revelation 14:1 says that the lamb stood on Mount Zion. Thus Mount Zion is an accepted, though not a common, name for the heavenly city. - RBW
Recordings
- Buna Hicks, "Top of Mt. Zion" (on USWarnerColl01)
References
- Roud #7133
- BI, RcToMZi