So glad you can join me for today's encouragement from Our Daily Bread.

Today's reading is titled United at Last, and it was written by Tim Gustafson.

In 1960, Otto Preminger provoked controversy with his movie Exodus.

Based on Leon Yuris' novel,

it provides a fictional account of Jewish refugees emigrating to Palestine after World War II.

The film concludes with the bodies of a young European Jewish girl and an Arab man, both murder victims, buried in the same grave in what would soon be the nation of

Israel. Preminger leaves the conclusion to us, is this a metaphor for despair, a dream forever buried?

Or is it a symbol of hope as two peoples with a history of hatred and hostilities come together

in death and in life?

Perhaps the Sons of Cora, credited with writing Psalm 87, would take the latter view of this scene.

They anticipated a peace we still await. Of Jerusalem, they wrote, glorious things are said of you,

City of God. They sang of a day when nations,

all with a history of warring against the Jewish people, will come together to acknowledge the one

true God. Rahab also called Egypt, Babylon, the Philistines, Tyre, Kush, all will be drawn to Jerusalem and to God.

The conclusion of the Psalm is celebratory.

People in Jerusalem will sing, all my fountains are in you.

Who are they singing of?

The one who is the living water, the source of all life.

Jesus is the only one who can bring lasting peace and unity.

The scripture reading from today's devotional is Psalm 87.

He has founded his city on the Holy Mountain. The Lord loves the gates of Zion,

more than all the other dwellings of Jacob. Glorious things are said of you, city of God.

...