Psalm 125

Sermon preached at Barclay Church, Edinburgh by Rev D. Graham Leitch
23 June 2002

When I was a child there were two television programmes I seldom missed. I gazed in wonder at “Bill and Ben the Flowerpot Men” - but didn’t see it very much because we didn’t have a TV until I was about 8. When my parents became the proud owners of the luxury of a TV set my favourite programmes were “Whirlybirds” and “Dr Who.” Those of you who are old enough will remember the Daleks - the thing about the daleks was that they were robot beings - computerised and identical. Line Daleks up side by side and they’re all exactly the same.

God, the Bible tells us, has made humankind in his image but, thank God, that doesn’t mean that we are all identical!

WE ARE ALL DIFFERENT!
In my first parish an elderly couple- husband and wife - lived in one of the cottages on the farm road - they were both well on in their 80’s. I was talking to him over the garden fence one day and asking how she was keeping. He described her morning’s work from rising at five and all she did and I expressed surprise at here energy and abilities: “Ay,” he said, puffing on his pipe and then shaking his head, “there’s nae mony like her in a pund!” Which was his way summing up her uniqueness.

One of my favourite phrases in the entire Bible was written by the apostle Peter who talks of “God’s varied grace.” The word “varied” really means something like “multicoloured” - it could even be translated “variety-loving” Our is a “variety loving” God!! Not for him computerised and identical - and therefore characterless - men and woman. He makes us ALL different.

AN IMPORTANT “LIKENESS”
Yet it is equally clear from the Bible that, in creation, God intended every man and woman - and intends every single person to reflect his image - to be “like” Him - for example to be honest, straight, true, and to love even the least as He does.

In the same way the Bible give a very full picture of what the Christian believer - the person of faith - not just some believers but every believer - is meant to be like. God recognises and respects many of the differences amongst us - indeed He is their Author! But he still expects to find certain characteristics or qualities in the life of every Christian.

One of the features common to the species “believer” in the Bible is steadfastness, unshakeability - what one author calls “leisured security.”

Look at the description in the first verse of Psalm 125, the Psalm which will guide our thinking this morning - of people of faith, not just the saints of the Old Testament but the saints of the New too and therefore of Christian believers:

“Those who trust in the Lord are like Mount Zion, which cannot be shaken but endures for ever.”

BUT......!
Of course when we look around us, when we look at each other - when we see everywhere (in the church as much as outside it) people who are rushed, busy, disorganised, stressed and uncertain, fearful about life and unpredictable in their behaviour, the evidence suggests that when it comes to calmness, security, unflappability, constancy, stability, Christians aren’t really different from anyone else.

And when we look at ourselves, there are times when any comparison of our state of heart with Mount Zion “which cannot be shaken but endures forever.” is almost laughable.

When the Bible compares those who “trust in the Lord” to “Mount Zion which cannot be shaken but endures for ever.” is it wrong then?

No, IT isn’t wrong - WE ARE!!

WHAT ARE WE LIKE?
The Bible is realistic about what people are like. Some people are steady as rock.Wasn’t the story Jesus told about the wise and foolish house builders meant to teach as much? Some people are as shifting and treacherous as sand. We’ve met them and we know them?!

Some people are like sand. Some are like the sea. In James 1:6, James compares those who doubt to “waves of the sea, blown and tossed...” There are some whose lives are well summed up by the words “restless” and “unsettled.”

Some people are like the wind. In the Christian world novelty too often triumphs over truth. Peoples sometimes seem to queue up to believes the latest new-fangled doctrines and experience the latest spiritual “kick.” Paul speaks in Ephesians of Christians“blown here and there” by every wind of teaching.

But here in the opening verse of Psalm 125 the writer presents a picture of what God intends his saints to be like:

“Those who trust in the Lord are like Mount Zion, which cannot be shaken ...”

1. A SECURITY BORN OF FAITH
The important thing to see is that the leisured and lasting security spoken of here is a SECURITY born of faith. It is “Those who trust in the LORD” who are described as being like Mount Zion.

We’ve all met folk we secretly envy because we have seen and see in their lives this unshakeability. They impress us. There’s a steadiness and stability, combined with serenity, that we covet - when bad things happen to us we go to pieces, our head drops - but when bad things happen to them they take it on the chin and seem to cope and continue to hold their head high. And the secret of their composed lives and sense of assurance that “all must be well” is FAITH. Not blind faith! Not credulity! Not just “wishful thinking!”

It is those who “trust in the Lord” who are compared to MOUNT ZION:

It’s easy to trust God when everything’s going well - but whether our faith is genuine or not is revealed not by our attitudes and behaviour - the way we act and react when everything’s going well, but by our attitudes and behaviour - the way we act and react when everything seems to be going wrong.

Do we remain composed and and quietly confident or do we crack and crumble? The Bible’s realistic about our weaknesses, but by pointing us to the strength and dependability of God and above all his goodness and wisdom. it points us to someone we can rely on and put our trust in completely.

THE LEISURED SECURITY OF THE CHRISTIAN
The leisured security of the Christian believer rests on three facts:

1. THE ABSOLUTE POWER OF GOD.
The fact of the absolute POWER of God. That great 18th century Scottish saint of God Samuel Rutherford once declared “my faith has no bed to sleep upon but omnipotency” The only thing God cannot do is sin! If God is all powerful we may be sure that in even the most trying situations he is not UNABLE to act. The leisured security of the Christian believers rests, first, upon the absolute power of God.

2. THE UNCHANGEABLE GOODNESS OF GOD.
Second, it rests upon the unchanging GOODNESS of God. When the rich young ruler came to Jesus inquiring about eternal life and began “Good teacher...” Jesus told him “There’s only one who is good - GOD! If God is unchangeably good we may be sure that even in the most difficult and disturbing circumstances he is not UNWILLING to act.

3. THE SOVEREIGN WISDOM OF GOD.
The leisured security of the Christian believers rests first upon the absolute power of God, second, upon the unchangeable goodness of God and, third, upon the sovereign WISDOM of God. He is the God whose thoughts are not our thoughts and whose ways are not our ways - “As the heavens are higher than the earth so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than yours.....” God has said. The sovereign wisdom of God! As one of Isaac Watts hymns says:
“His wisdom’s vast and knows no bound,
a deep where all our thoughts are drowned.”

As a God of absolute power he is by no means unable to act. As a God of unchangeable goodness he is by no means unwilling to act. But as a God of sovereign wisdom, who knows all things and see the end from the beginning of every situation, He sometimes chooses not to.

There’s no faith involved in walking by daylight, when your eyes are open and you can see clearly. But in the darkness, when all is hidden, faith means putting your hand into the hand of God - not to hold on for grim life but to let HIM hold YOU!!

ALWAYS...ALTOGETHER....IN ALL THINGS
The leisured and lasting security of the Christian is not blind optimism but assured faith. A reliant trust and entire confidence in the dependable God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. He is to be trusted because he is trustworthy. And we are called upon to trust Him:
ALWAYS - not just at some times but at all times.
ALTOGETHER - not just partly (tentatively) but completely.
IN ALL THINGS - not just in good time but in bad times.

That’s the essence of faith - and serenity peace and security - an unshakeable person is its product:
“Those who trust in the Lord are like Mount Zion, which cannot be shaken but endures for ever.”

What’s the secret? The secret is that the believer’s eye is not on his circumstance, his dependence is not on his own abilities (or the abilities of others) - the difference is this, that the believer’s eye is set firmly on GOD.

A REAL DIFFERENCE!
And what a difference it makes. Paul speaks in 2 Corinthians 4 about God’s “all surpassing power” and then continues by describing the outcome of his faith in God and in his “all surpassing power”

“we are hard pressed on every side but not crushed; perplexed but not in despair; persecuted but not abandoned; struck down but not destroyed......”
(2 Corinthians 4:8-9)
“When I am weak” Paul is able to say elsewhere (even when I am weak - at my weakest humanly) “then I am strong.”

“Those who trust in the Lord are like Mount Zion, which cannot be shaken...”

THE SHAKING TIMES
But, of course, there are times when the leisured security of the Christian is challenged and may be shaken: We pray for something eagerly, faithfully, imploring God to do as we ask, but the opposite happens. We are convinced that God has shown us what He’s about to do - we become 100% certain of his will and then it doesn’t work out as we’d thought. We know what justice demands but see the innocent suffering and the guilty getting off scot-free. Or some tragedy affects our own family or robs us of someone near or dear to us.

2. A PROTECTION OFFERED TO FAITH
At such times the second verse of Psalm 125 provides encouragement. If verse 1 speaks of A SECURITY BORN OF FAITH: “Those who trust in the Lord are like Mount Zion, which cannot be shaken but endures for ever,” verse 2 speaks of A PROTECTION OFFERED TO FAITH: “As the mountains surround Jerusalem, so the LORD surrounds his people both now and forevermore.”
The ancient city of Jerusalem was surrounded by mountains - not towering peaks, to be sure, but a garland of hills standing on all side as the sentinels of its gates Just as the hills garrison Jerusalem - so the protection of God, the Bile tells us, will garrison His children. Those who trust in Him are sure to be attacked, but they need never be defeated.

A Christian ought never to be cock-sure, but he ought always to be confident and unafraid. Why? Certainly not because he is persuaded his own resolve, energy or courage is sufficient for the day. Nor because he believes he will be immune from the pressure or trials of life. But rather because GOD is his everlasting Protector.

NOT A FEELING BUT A FACT!
At times we may not FEEL protected. We may feel extremely exposed and vulnerable. There are times when we’re very aware of our own weaknesses - our failure to resist sin or to, or to trust God or to do what we know we ought to do. Yet, as long as we fix our heart’s eye on Him, looking to Him and relying on Him, we remain protected by the power of God’s name.

It may not SEEM so at the time but if we could but see the whole story we would rejoice that it IS so!!

There are times when a hillwalker tracking along the side of a hill feels extremely exposed - buffeted by the wind. It appears that the hill is offering no protection from the elements whatsoever. But then turning the corner in to the valley he meets the full force of a gale which practically sweeps him off his feet and realises how protected he had been.

“Those who trust in the Lord are like Mount Zion, which cannot be shaken but endures for ever.As the mountains surround Jerusalem, so the LORD surrounds his people both now and forevermore.”

But third, end extremely briefly, Psalm 125 points us not only to:
A SECURITY BORN OF FAITH
A PROTECTION OFFERED TO FAITH.
but also to A REWARD BESTOWED ON FAITH

3. A REWARD BESTOWED ON FAITH
Look at v.4. In it the writer offers a prayer: “Do good O Lord to those who are good, to those who are upright in heart.” In the Bible the good and upright person isn’t merely the person who keeps God’s commands and lives a pure life, but the person who place his trust in the Living God.

The prayer of v.4 asking God to do good to those who ARE good is therefore is a prayer asking God to reward the very same people mentioned in v.1 - those who TRUST IN HIM.

The clear message of the many healing incidents recorded in the Gospels is that God rewards faith. Indeed this is the greatest work to which God calls us - not to conquer the world for him, not to run a successful church, not even to live holy lives but TO BELIEVE. Or, if you like, TRUST Him!

When the crowds asked Jesus“What must we do to do the works that God requires” - He didn’t set before them the Law of God. He didn’t even toll them to flee sin. No!! Instead he told them to believe: “This is the work of God - to believe in the one He has sent.”

He recommended FAITH.

“Do good O Lord to those who are good, to those who are upright in heart.” is always a powerful, irresistible argument that God cannot but heed.

May God give us not just faith but the ability to enjoy the rewards of faith and the security and peace of those who who trust in Him.
AMEN