Psalm 125

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0:00 We've been working through the Psalms of Ascent, and I think I really like this little section of the Psalms. It's grouped together. There's 15 of them. I like that most scholars think that these Psalms of Ascent were used as, been used liturgically once they got to the temple, that they followed this progression.

0:30 If you read them and pay attention to the position of the speaker, the author, they follow this progression of someone moving from a grading, what it means to be there in the presence of God, receiving the gifts of the presence of God and heading back out. I feel like it's a good time of year for us to think about that. In one sense, in this time of year, so often it feels like we're starting new things, like

1:03 we're headed out on a journey towards something new. I like us looking in that time, whether you are or you're not starting something new, looking at what it looks like for groups of people from our history, from the people of Israel, moving together towards new things and towards the people of God. We've been looking at the Psalms. I'm skipping over two of them. This week we've done Psalm 120, 121, 122.

1:37 This morning I will look at Psalm 125. If you have a paper copy of the scriptures, the Psalms are pretty close to the middle, maybe a little bit to the left of the middle. There's nothing wrong with Psalms, so 123 and 124. It's just 125 really grabbed me for us for this morning. That's why we're going to look at it. It starts out like this. Those who trust in the Lord are like Mount Zion, which cannot be moved but abides forever.

2:13 As the mountains surround Jerusalem, so the Lord surrounds his people from this time forth and forevermore. For the scepter of wickedness shall not rest on the land allotted to the righteous, lest the righteous stretch out their hands and do wrong. Do good, O Lord, to those who are good and to those who are upright in their hearts. But those who turn aside to their crooked ways, the Lord will lead away with the evil doers

2:46 in peace be upon Israel. I like the way that this starts out. If we're following the story of the traveler setting out to Jerusalem for the high feast days, by now, last week when we looked at Psalm 122, they had made it to Jerusalem. And it was like this place where God is, where all Israel is assembled. We had this phrase in unity without uniformity.

3:16 So Israel has always had diversity amongst it. It's not been a uniform group of people but a unified group of people. And this shared identity is being the people who let God be God. And so in Psalm 122 we found that they had made it through their journey, though it was dangerous. They looked at the hills, where does their help come from? Their help comes from the Lord who made heaven and earth. And they counted on God for safety in their journey.

3:47 And then they made it to Jerusalem and they stand in Jerusalem in the presence of God. And then now that they're there, they start with this affirmation, those who trust in the Lord are like Mount Zion, which cannot be moved but abides forever. This phrase trust in the Lord, those who trust in the Lord is with a kind of a group of phrases that occur and reoccur throughout the Old Testament. Trust in the Lord is one of them.

4:17 Fear the Lord. Love the Lord. Know the Lord. Trust the Lord. That can note a deep, not a passing relationship with God but a deep and committed relationship with God. So this is a subset of people. There are those who trust the Lord. This means they are fully in with God. They have committed their ways. They have submitted their future. They have trusted their provision. Those who trust the Lord. Are like Mount Zion, which cannot be moved but abides forever.

4:51 Mount Zion is one of these like archetypal mountains in the story of our people that represents the place where God is. You want to go see God? Go up to Mount Zion. He'll be there. And they say that the people of God, God, who are the people of God, who are the people of God, who are the people of God, who are the people of God, who are the people of God. Be there. And they say that the people of God, the ones who trust the Lord, are like that place.

5:21 A solid mountain, which cannot be moved and abides forever. At critical points in my life and Megan and I's life together, we have sat and made the decision that we're in a position where we just have to trust that God will work it out. Without being foolish or foolhardy.

5:56 Where you come to a course in making a decision. Where you do the best you can and then you trust that God will take care of the rest. Where you are anxious about a future outcome. But rather than rest in anxiety, you make a choice to trust that God can handle the future. Where you are regretful or remorseful about decisions you have made in the past, but rather

6:30 than dwell in your remorse and regret, you trust that the Lord can give you a new beginning. Start something fresh that you are not reduced to the sum of your worst choices. You trust in the Lord. You are someone who trusts in God, in the large and small decisions of your life. You trust in God. These ones it says, who trust in God in the small, quiet decisions that no one knows and

7:05 in the large decisions where huge things hang on the balance. These ones who trust in God are like the mountain where you go to meet God. Immovable and enduring forever. The image that popped into my head immediately thought, what does it mean to be a person or a people group that endure forever?

7:36 The first phrase that came to my mind, I had to like Google where to find it because maybe you have been around enough, you know, Bible verses, I retain Bible verses, scripture verses, but never their location, just their content, right? So I can, you can put quotes around a phrase and Google it and usually find it. And the one that popped into my head, now I have to find it. Again, I have the page. Just send John chapter 13 or 14.

8:08 Give me a minute. Oh, yeah. John chapter 14 at the very beginning. I was like meditating on this idea that there are people in the world and there have been since its beginning. And this group of people have existed unbroken in every country and under every rule since the beginning of time, through the time of Christ and down to today, there have been

8:43 ones who trust in the Lord. The world has never been without a group of people who trust in the Lord. And these ones, the psalmist says, are like Mount Zion immovable and endure forever. And I thought, what does it mean to be amongst a people that endure forever? And the first phrase that came into my mind is right at John chapter 14 where Jesus is speaking to a group of people who trust in the Lord. And he says, let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God. Believe also in me.

9:14 In my father's house are many rooms. If it were not so, I would have told you that I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go to prepare a place for you, I will come again and I will take you to myself that where I am, there you may be also. What does it mean to endure forever like Mount Zion? It means the ones who trust in the Lord have a place prepared for them and secure.

9:52 You and I have a place prepared just for us and secure, set aside and waiting. You and I trust in the Lord. We are among the people who trust in the Lord. And those ones endure forever. The other phrase that popped into my mind is this section in Matthew that has been really

10:33 an interesting comforting place for me. It's a kind of a bizarre little text where Jesus is describing what it looks like at his return. And he says, all the world we'll see at the same time, the Son of Man riding in on the clouds. It's ceremonially when a king conquered a country or a city, he would ride it with a big deal when the king then comes into the city to take control of the place. And Jesus says, there will be a day like that where all the world will see the Son of Man

11:07 coming in on the clouds. And then the part that I like says, as he's coming in on clouds, he will dispatch his angels to go to the corners of the earth and call his own to come with him. That he has to go to the corners of the earth. Because the ones who trust in the Lord are not always readily apparent. There is unity, but not uniformity.

11:40 That it is the quiet little ones in the corner as much as it is leaders out in front and that it might one day include me. That as the king comes in on the clouds, he doesn't forget to bring me with him. One who to the capacity that he has given has found opportunities to trust in the Lord.

12:16 And so endures forever. One of the reasons this Psalm grabbed me this morning is because of that. That it may seem as you make your decisions about what to count on in life that there is that no one else will know where you hang your confidence, what you put your trust in.

12:53 But there is great opportunity, even in small decisions, for those who trust in the Lord. These ones will not be missed or forgotten. There is a place prepared for them and the king will come get them to get to take them there. He will endure forever.

13:23 When I started taking seriously the opportunity to trust in the Lord, I decided that the best places were the smallest. To start figuring out how to love and serve the ones closest to me well, it started with like maybe washing the dishes or sweeping the floor. Find simple places to go. I will trust God. If he says love and service is the way to live, I will start living that way. No, I don't want to.

13:56 The ones who trust in the Lord are like Mount Zion, which cannot be moved but abides forever. And then verse 2 it says, as the mountains surround Jerusalem, so the Lord surrounds His people. From this time forth and forevermore, I have prepared a place for you and I am going there and I want to come back and I will take you there. But then look at verse 3. That is such a great affirmation side note and really comforting.

14:29 Oh great. Those who trust in the Lord, their future is secure. They cannot be moved. God will surround them with protection forevermore. And then the psalmist says, and I am saying this, that is what the fore means. I am saying this because I am affirming that those who trust in the Lord are like Mount Zion. They will endure forever and God's protection will surround them like these mountains surround us as protection even forevermore.

15:00 And I am saying that because the scepter of wickedness shall not rest forever on the land allotted to the righteous. He is saying, there is wickedness that seems to have the run of the place. Right? What, when you hear wickedness has the run of the place, is there anything that comes

15:38 to mind right away? Well yeah. I mean you could go to the like way, the like that politics seems to have completely lost its way and run off on the side of things and become infighting and partisan and ineffective. But you could look to the way cities are growing and leaving people behind.

16:10 You could think about the increasing wealth gap in our country that is like complex and fraught to think about where wickedness seems to be running amok. You could look at the way nations draw lines and try and keep people out as though the whole world doesn't belong to God.

16:40 But I think also when you think about where wickedness runs amok you might think about the conversations you have at the end of the night that seem so hard to communicate helpfully with one another. You might think about children who for the life of them can't seem to figure out how to make the right choice. You might think about parents who seem like they have not learned a thing the whole time they have been alive.

17:17 If you think about it for a little bit of time you need the affirmation that the scepter, the rod, the authority of wickedness will not rest on the people of God forever. You need the hope that those who trust in the Lord will be like Mount Zion and endure forever and wickedness will not.

17:51 If you and I can internalize that kind of hope we move through those conversations differently. We engage political realities differently. We advocate in our cities differently. We handle our money differently. If we have the hope of a future that is secure, if we know that those that us, that the ones who trust in the Lord like the generations before us have a future that is secure we can engage the wickedness around us differently because we know it is passing fleeting and

18:22 weak compared to the protection of our God. When we trust the psalmist says for the scepter of wickedness shall not rest on the land allotted to the righteous, the righteous stretch out their hands and do wrong. This is a kind of a difficult translation sitting around. There are some copies of the message which has a pretty cool translation of this. God won't let wickedness last so long that the ones who trust him respond in wickedness

18:57 respond in hasty anger or frustration. He won't let wickedness hang in your life so long that you respond in kind. It makes me think of the bruised read, he will not break somewhere. That's in the scriptures, Beverly. He won't put more on you than you can handle.

19:28 The psalmist says he won't let wickedness, the rod, the authority of wickedness, rest in the lot of the righteous so long that they respond with wickedness. Don't succumb to the tactics of the weak-minded and the world.

20:01 Hold on to your trust in the God. And then it finishes with this prayer. Do good, O Lord. To those who are good. Good's a loaded word. In here, good is aligned with the will of God.

20:36 Love, justice, mercy, faithfulness. Do good, O Lord, to those who are good and to those who are upright in their hearts. But those who turn aside to their crooked ways, the Lord will lead away with evil doers. Peace be upon Israel. The commentary I was looking at about this psalm points out that this call for peace

21:12 comes after a prayer that says, don't let those who trust in the God turn aside to the crooked ways of the wicked. That the peace of God comes not at compromise but in standing in the trust of God. That the peace of God doesn't come with capitulating to the ways of the world and giving in. But standing up for the character and the confidence in the God of Abraham,

21:46 Isaac, and Jacob, the God of Christ in the church. That in this place comes peace to the people of Israel who will endure forever. To the people of God who will endure forever. You and I live in a fraught world. To the degree that we are present and paying attention, we will encounter the kind of

22:17 scepter, the rod, the authority, the way of wickedness in the world. Out in the world and internally in our homes and lives, we will encounter the authority of wickedness. The way towards peace that transcends understanding. Is through fidelity to the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of Christ in the church.

22:47 His character, his love, justice, mercy, forgiveness, generosity. You and I like the Psalmist can find peace amongst the wickedness of the world. It lies in trusting God. I hope that this season of the year as you are moving into another school year, fiscal year, or

23:26 a new home or relationship, a new job, a new opportunity, that you remember what great benefit there is in trusting the Lord. Let me pray. Hey, Lord, would you make us people who trust you? That like the generations before us, we would find peace amongst wickedness as we trust in you.

24:03 Hey, Lord, and this morning as we worship, open our hearts and minds to places where we can trust you. Relationships or work or areas of the city where we can trust you. In Jesus' name we pray.