A Psalm for Frank Sinatra and Mitzi Gaynor?

The Joker’s Wild is an incredibly good movie, maybe the best Frank Sinatra film I’ve seen. Not only does Frank sing, but he plays a singer whose vocal chords are damaged and returns to the stage as a stand-up comic. Sinatra has great timing. And, dare I say, this was the first movie in which I had seen Mitzi Gaynor star. She plays one of the dancers that opens for Sinatra’s comic routine. Talk about energy. (And by the way, seeing these old burlesque and night club acts helps make sense of those television variety shows I watched as a youth that feature dance numbers. I’m still a bit mystified why anyone would put girls in swimsuits and heels, dancing and singing, on prime time. But if you worked in vaudeville before television, it makes perfect sense.)

So maybe I have singing, dancing, and joke telling too much on my mind. But the other morning as my wife and I read the end of Psalm 87, my jaw dropped:

Singers and dancers alike say,
“All my springs are in you.”
(Psalm 87:7 ESV)

Calvin’s comments on the Psalm’s praise of Mt. Zion are fitting:

What we are taught in this psalm may be summed up in this, That the Church of God far excels all the kingdoms and politics of the world, inasmuch as she is watched over, and protected by Him in all her interests, and placed under his government; that, in the first place, amidst the violent commotions and dreadful storms with which the whole world is often shaken, she may continue safe; and, in the second place, and principally, that being wonderfully preserved by the protection of the same God, she may at length, after the toil and struggle of a protracted warfare, be crowned with the triumphant laurels of her high calling. It is in truth a singular benefit of God, and at the same time, a signal miracle, that, amidst the great and various revolutions of the kingdoms of this world, he enlarges her continually from age to age, and preserves her from destruction; so that in the whole world there is nothing enduring but the Church. As, however, it often happens, that whilst the wicked abound in riches, and have lavished upon them worldly possessions and authority, the afflicted Church is tossed amidst many dangers, or rather, is so overwhelmed with impetuous floods as to seem to be entirely shipwrecked, her happiness must be considered as consisting principally in this, that she has reserved for her an everlasting state in heaven.

But singers and dancers?

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