Quoth The Writer “Forevermore” (Psalm 121)

Amazon gives you the option, before you add the item to your cart. “Add a protection plan.”

I’m always uncertain if I should buy a separate protection plan for a new device or appliance. I find it extremely stressful.

Some years ago I bought a protection plan for a cell phone. I don’t want to disparage the company by mentioning them by name, but it rhymes with ‘horizon.’ My phone went on the fritz. Good thing I had purchased the protection plan. It guaranteed me a replacement phone.

When it came in the mail, I quickly learned that ‘replacement’ did not mean ‘new.’ It was a previously owned, much used, Motorola flip phone. It broke coming out of the box.

The car I’m driving now, that Toyota CHR with all the rear-window decals, has a three-year factory warranty. It’s a lease, so I will turn it in at the end of three years. In stereotypical behavior, the salesman added an extended five year warranty to the invoice. When I caught it, he said, “O, sorry; I don’t know what I was thinking.” I do. (I did get the undercoating).

There is a Hebrew word, shaw-mar, used six times in Psalm 121. You might miss the repetition because different Bible’s have chosen quite a few English words to translate it, e.g., “keep,” “protect,” “guard,” “keep watch,” “preserve,” and “watch over.”

The NKJV, for instance, translates it using three English words, “keep,” “keeper,” and “preserve,” even though it is the same Hebrew word.

If you read Psalm 121 with a single translation of the word, let’s use “protect,” it sounds like this: “… He who protects you… He who protects Israel… The LORD is your Protector… The LORD shall protect you from all evil; He shall protect your soul… The LORD shall protect your going out and your coming in From this time forth, and even forevermore.”

Psalm 121 celebrates Israel’s divine protection plan.

It’s a lifetime warranty. In fact, as we will see, it is a promise of eternal, “forevermore” protection to the believer.

I’ll organize my comments around two points: #1 Your Protection Plan Is Guaranteed, and #2 Your Protection Plan Is Grace.

#1 – Your Protection Plan Is Guaranteed (v1-2)

Psalms 120 through 134 are the Psalms of Ascent. They were sung as the Israelites travelled from all over the land to ascend to the Temple Mount in Jerusalem to attend the three major annual feasts.

Travel was mostly on foot. Jesus, for example, for most of His earthly life would have traveled one-hundred fifty miles round trip, at a speed of roughly 18mph, to attend the feasts of Unleavened Bread (Passover), Pentecost, and Tabernacles.

Travel was dangerous. The Parable of the Good Samaritan highlights one of the dangers – from robbers. A travelln’ man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho. He encountered a band of robbers. They robbed him, beat him, and left him for dead.

You should immediately raise your hand and ask, “If the LORD has promised to protect a believer, how is it that the man could be robbed, beaten, and left for dead?”

Regarding His protecting His followers, Jesus prayed for us in the Gospel of John. He said to His Father, “While I was with them in the world, I kept them in Your name. Those whom You gave Me I have kept… I have given them Your word; and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world… I do not pray that You should take them out of the world, but that You should keep them from the evil one… As You sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world” (John 17:12-22).
Jesus’ understanding of divine protection of “keeping” us – does not exclude being left in a hostile world ruled by “the evil one,” who goes about like a ravenous lion seeking whom he may devour.

Jesus told His followers, “These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world” (16:33).

Jesus’ guarantee of protection is not a promise you will be free from trouble. In fact, He promises that you will encounter lots of trouble. Jesus protects you in and through your trouble.

When the apostle Paul was first saved, he was told how much he must suffer for the sake of the Gospel. Man, did he suffer; but he declared that no suffering could separate him from the love of Jesus. The Lord kept him… Protected him.

I think of Jesus’ words to Paul as something unique, because he would have such a profound ministry. But, really, Jesus spoke those same words, in a different fashion, to every believer, when He said we would have tribulation in this world.

We live in the church age when God is glorified in our weakness. He keeps us in and through terrible troubles. The world sees a deep and abiding love.

Psa 121:1  A Song of Ascents. I will lift up my eyes to the hills – From whence comes my help?

As a child, I would anticipate that one spot on the freeway from which you could excitedly see the Matterhorn from the car.

At some point, the road weary traveler to the Temple could lift his head and excitedly see the city on the hill.

“From whence comes my help” seems more of a rhetorical than actual question. Of course your help will come from the Lord.

Simba told Zazu, “I laugh in the face of danger.” We look our dangers in the face, and remind them, “From whence comes my help.”

Psa 121:2  My help comes from the LORD, Who made heaven and earth.

Why appeal to creation? For sure, it shows God’s raw power. If He can speak the universe into existence, He can help us.

There is something more than power; there is providence. This is a reminder that God has always had a plan for creation. He created the universe… The earth… The Garden of Eden on the earth… So that we would be loved by Him.

Because love requires choice, God gave the angels, and Adam and Eve, free will to disobey Him.

Creation was ruined by that disobedience; but God immediately promised He would redeem both creation and mankind.

We would return to His original plan to love Him freely, only in the end with a sanctified free will incapable of sin.

God’s plan is guaranteed by both His power and His providence. We see it being fulfilled, and provided for, in the progressive revelation in the Bible. The plan was for God to come to earth as a man to pay the penalty for our sins by dying on the Cross. And that is precisely hat unfolds on the Bible’s pages.

A plan like that – it requires time. As we wait for its completion, evil has reign over the earth, over the hearts of men. God protects us in this world of turmoil and tribulation in order to represent His love to sinners.

The number one argument people have against God is that, if He is all-loving and all-powerful, why does He allow suffering? And terrible suffering at that. You hear it all the time in media. Usually the believer has no response, or a weak one, like, “God works in mysterious ways.”

The answer is this: God allows suffering because He is longsuffering, not willing that any should perish, but that all would come to eternal life in a relationship with Jesus. His longsuffering waits.

Maybe it waits for you?

Mean time, God’s protection of the believer is guaranteed. It doesn’t mean you won’t be robbed on the road homeward. It means that, like Job, you will say, Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him.

Or like my favorite trio from the Old Testament – Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego. When threatened with being executed in the fiery furnace, they said to King Nebuchadnezzar, “Our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and He will deliver us from your hand, O king. But if not, let it be known to you, O king, that we do not serve your gods, nor will we worship the gold image which you have set up” (Daniel 3:17-18).

They saw no contradiction in God’s protection one way or the other. It was win-win either way.

#2 – Your Protection Plan Is Grace (v3-8)

We defer to folks who are experts in their field. Their knowledge and experience put things into proper perspective.

Pretty much every A-list Bible character is an expert in tribulations and sufferings. A great summary statement is found in the chapter in the Bible that we fondly refer to as The Hall of Faith – Hebrews 11.

Heb 11:33  who through faith subdued kingdoms, worked righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions,
Heb 11:34  quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, became valiant in battle, turned to flight the armies of the aliens.
Heb 11:35  Women received their dead raised to life again. Others were tortured, not accepting deliverance, that they might obtain a better resurrection.
Heb 11:36  Still others had trial of mockings and scourgings, yes, and of chains and imprisonment.
Heb 11:37  They were stoned, they were sawn in two, were tempted, were slain with the sword. They wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, tormented –
Heb 11:38  of whom the world was not worthy. They wandered in deserts and mountains, in dens and caves of the earth.

Admittedly, the idea that being “sawn in two” is protection sounds like a hard sell. But that’s because we limit our appreciation of Heaven in favor of earth. It’s a natural thing to do; but we are of the supernatural.

Psa 121:3  He will not allow your foot to be moved; He who keeps you will not slumber.
Psa 121:4  Behold, He who keeps Israel Shall neither slumber nor sleep.

Notice the change of speaker. The remaining verses are spoken to the traveler. They are a lyrical, poetic way of describing the Lord’s protection along the road home. Meant for the pilgrim headed for Jerusalem, true. But not without application for us, pilgrims headed for the New Jerusalem.

On earth, Jesus slept in the storm. The disciples freaked. They awoke Him, and He quieted wind and waves. No need to awaken Jesus anymore.

(I might mention that the disciples were in no real danger in the storm. They ought to have slept as well).

You are Job One with Jesus. He began a good work in you, and He will be faithful to complete it.

“He will not allow your foot to be moved.”

We read this, and the following promises, and conclude that the road will be well maintained, clearly marked, and without danger. We’ve seen that is not true in the life of a believer.

Over all of these promises I would write the famous quote from Iron Mike Tyson, “Everybody has a plan until they get punched in the mouth.” Your plan needs to be tested and proven.

I can’t be certain God is faithful to keep me from stumbling unless I encounter a stumbling block in my path. It is theoretical until I get spiritually punched.

Those of us in Christ love to quote First Corinthians 10:13, “No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it. ”

It presumes we will have trouble. It promises God’s grace is sufficient in our trouble.

Psa 121:5  The LORD is your keeper; The LORD is your shade at your right hand.
Psa 121:6  The sun shall not strike you by day, Nor the moon by night.

The “sun” I can understand because we live in the Central Valley. How can the “moon” strike us?

An Israelite would immediately understand the reference. In their wilderness journey, God manifested Himself to Israel as a pillar of cloud by day, and as a pillar of fire by night. The Holy Spirit takes that reality and applies in to each Jew individually. God will similarly be with each of them.

Jesus said He would never leave us; never for a sake us. Then He left! But He didn’t leave us alone. He gave us the Promise of the Father, the gift of the indwelling Holy Spirit.

We tend to think of God the Holy Spirit as a spiritual battery that can diminish in power over time. He is a Person – the third Person of the triune God. While it’s true that we can experience refreshing of the Holy Spirit, He is always at max power in us.

In the Book of Acts, we read, “And when they had prayed, the place where they were assembled together was shaken; and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and they spoke the word of God with boldness” (4:31). It almost sounds like a prayer to be refilled. They prayed this after Peter and John were used by God to heal a lame beggar; after being arrested; after being warned by the Jewish leaders to quit talking about Jesus.

Seems like they were pretty “full” of the Holy Spirit already. They didn’t exhaust Him.

You old comic book fans will remember the JSA – the Justice Society of America. They were the precursors to the Justice League.
The JSA had guys like Dr. Mid-Nite, Spectre, the Atom, Starman, and Black Canary. They also had Hourman. A scientist, Rex Tyler (his alter ego) developed a pill, Miraclo, which gave him superhuman strength – but only for one hour.

The power of the Holy Spirit isn’t a formula. Devotions and spiritual disciplines are necessary for a disciple to grow. But they aren’t a formula to increase the Holy Spirit. You always have the Spirit at full strength.

Our relationship to God the Holy Spirit needs to switch from begging for Him to believing Him.

Psa 121:7  The LORD shall preserve you from all evil; He shall preserve your soul.

“Soul” is better translated as “life.” The simple yet profound truth is that, because of Jesus, Satan, sin, and death are defeated.

The apostle Paul understood this when he said, “For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain” (Philippians 1:21).

The martyrs understand this as they go calmly to their horrific deaths.

We have victory over these evils, but you can only experience it when one of them punches you in the mouth.

We who are in Christ will one day be resurrected or rapture and forever be in the likeness of our Lord

Psa 121:8  The LORD shall preserve your going out and your coming in From this time forth, and even forevermore.

Great words of comfort for someone almost to the Temple facing a return journey.

Albert Barnes points out the eternal when he writes:

Through this life and for ever. This is the gracious assurance which is made to all who put their trust in God. At home and abroad; in the house, in the field, and by the way; on the land and on the ocean; in their native country and in climes remote; on earth, in the grave, and in the eternal world, they are always safe. No evil that will endanger their salvation can befall them; nothing can happen to them here but what God shall see to be conducive to their ultimate good; and in the heavenly world they shall be safe forever from every kind of evil, for in that world there will be no sin, and consequently no need of discipline to prepare them for the future.

In a nutshell, a Christian always has grace sufficient for the journey. You don’t need some extended warranty in terms of a program recommended by the latest book, or video series. You need to realize who, and what, you are, and will become.

Forevermore. It is a one-word key that unlocks the wisdom of God with regards to our journey. If I’m thinking “forevermore,” I will live my life now as a “forevermore.”

Psalm 120 – Liar, Liar, Appointed For Fire

Traveling is better with a playlist:

You might create a playlist of your favorite artist or artists.

Maybe your favorite songs by various artists.

You might put together a playlist based on a theme.

Your playlist may be based on your destination, say, if you are going on vacation.

Star Trek fans will recall that before he would embark on the first successful warp flight, Zefram Cochran insisted on playing Born to Be Wild.

When we first meet Starlord in Guardians of the Galaxy, he switches on his Walkman to play Awesome Mix Volume 1.

When we are on our way to the Happiest Place on Earth, we have a playlist of all the ride and attraction theme songs. There’s nothing quite like Grim Grinning Ghosts to help get you in the mood.

Israel had a national “playlist.” They are the Psalms of Ascent – Psalms 120 through 134.

These psalms received this title because the Israelite pilgrims sang them as they traveled from their homes all over the land and ascended to the Temple in Jerusalem for the annual feasts.

If you are in Christ, it should not come as a surprise that You are a pilgrim:

The apostle Peter twice labels all believers “pilgrims” (First Peter 1:1 & 2:11).

The writer to the Hebrew Christians, in chapter eleven, identifies us with previous generations of pilgrims “looking for a [heavenly] city whose builder and maker is God” (v10).

Since we are fellow travelers, the Psalms of Ascent are a great playlist for us, too.

And let’s not forget that our Lord, Jesus, sang them many, many times in His incarnation, in His epic journey from Heaven to earth and then back to Heaven.

John Wayne once asked, “Think you can make it, Pilgrim?” The road is not easy. It is fraught with perils. When describing the road, the apostle Paul wrote, “in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils of my own countrymen, in perils of the Gentiles, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren; in weariness and toil, in sleeplessness often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness…” (First Corinthians 11:26-27).

Yes, you can, and you will make it, Pilgrim, because He who began a good work in you will be faithful to complete it, bringing you all the way home.

I’ll organize my comments around two points: #1 You Are Imperiled By Liars And Lies, #2 You Can Be Impervious To Liars And Lies.

#1 – You Are Imperiled By Liars And Lies (v1,2 & 5-7)

The Psalms of Ascent begin with the pilgrim describing a primary peril. It is in verse two: “lying lips, and… a deceitful tongue.”

Seriously? Liars and their lies were the peril he was most concerned about?

Perhaps this will put it in perspective. In the Gospel of John, Jesus described the Devil as a “liar,” and as “the father of” lies” (8:44). It was his lying in the Garden of Eden that tempted Adam and Eve to overthrow the authority of God, thinking they would be like God.

All of the disease, destruction, and death that we experience on the earth are the consequences of a liar telling a lie.

In Revelation 12:9, the Devil is called, “the deceiver of the whole world.”

In the Book of Acts the apostle Peter says to a lying disciple, “Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit” (5:3).

When the psalmist talks about liars and their deceitful tongues, he isn’t only talking about people mistreating you. Sure, that is part of it. He’s also talking about something far more sinister: The fact that demonic lies surround you on your pilgrimage.

Maybe this will connect. If you have conflict in your marriage, it stems from the selfishness of the original lie our parents believed in the Garden of Eden. You remember that Adam blamed Eve – even though he was equally, if not more, responsible.

The help you need for your marriage is biblical truth – not another of the Devil’s lies.

Today his lies have undermined biblical marriage. Marriage is heterosexual and monogamous between one biological man and one biological woman. The obliteration of this standard is a major reason why human society is crumbling.

Psalms 120:1  A Song of Ascents. In my distress I cried to the LORD, And He heard me.

The cry that the “LORD” “heard” was verses two through seven. That was the psalmist’s prayer.

In our “distress,” I’d wager that most of us do go first to the Lord. We cry out to Him.

But it can be difficult to wait on the Lord. That is when we might be tempted to seek a worldly solution, or settle for non-biblical help. You need to develop a healthy caution to counsel and advice. Even if it sounds biblical, think hard on it.

The psalmist knew that the Lord “heard” him. Jesus hears you the first time, and every other time you cry out. This is a statement of spiritual contentment. You can be content, and rest, in the fact that God hears you. Any believer always has immediate access to the throne of God, to receive grace and mercy in your time of need.

I’m glad that the Keep Calm craze is (mostly) over. “Keep Content” doesn’t sound as poetic, but it is what the psalmist is saying to us. “Keep Content and Wait for Jesus.”

Psalms 120:2  Deliver my soul, O LORD, from lying lips And from a deceitful tongue.

This speaks to us on a few levels:

For one thing, we are reminded that, on our pilgrimage, we will be distressed by other people, even by believers. To put it simply, you will be hurt; and some of the wounds may never completely heal. Like Frodo, after he was stabbed by the Witch King of Angmar on Weathertop, it will always hurt.

But, for another thing, all of us could pray, “Lord, keep me from having lying lips and a deceitful tongue.” You will hurt others.

For a third thing, we could interpret these words as the psalmist asking the Lord to shield him from being interfered with, or influenced by, a world ruled by Satan that is full of liars and lies.

Skip to verse five.

Psa 120:5  Woe is me, that I dwell in Meshech, That I dwell among the tents of Kedar!

“Meshech” was to the far north of Jerusalem; “Kedar” was in the south.

This was the psalmists way of saying, “from coast to coast.” It was a lyrical way of saying that he was surrounded.

We are on the earth, in unredeemed bodies which still have propensities to sin. The world system, as a whole, is ruled by the god of this world. His lies, the doctrines of demons, assail us on every side, seeking nothing less than our destruction on the road homeward.

The assaults may be pleasant. By that I mean, the Devil may offer us wealth, or power, or popularity. All we need to do is disobey Jesus – but just a little, and He will forgive us anyway – won’t he?

He may instead launch a Job-like assault, robbing us of family, or health.

While we are on the topic of his liars, we could name the founders of every religion. Zoroaster, Siddhartha, Confucius, Mohammed, Joseph Smith, Charles Taze Russell, L. Ron Hubbard, Sun Myung Moon, and Ajunta Pall (the first Dark Lord of the Sith).

All godless philosophies are lies propounded by liars: Nihilism, Existentialism, Stoicism, Hedonism, Marxism, Taoism, Rationalism, Humanism, Relativism, Atheism, and any “isms” that are not biblical Christianity.

There is a seemingly endless list of lying psychotherapies: Gestalt, Freudian, Behaviorism, Maslovian, Psychodynamic, Cognitive, etc., etc. They were proposed by godless men like Carl Rogers, B. F. Skinner, Sigmund Freud, and Abraham Maslow.

Following these liars and lies will lead a person not to spiritual contentment, but to a greater selfishness.

Following these liars and lies will lead a person not to the heavenly city, but to eternal, conscious punishment.

The apostle Paul insisted that, “… The weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds…” (Second Corinthians 10:4). Our thoughts go to spiritual warfare against the Devil and his allies. But Paul clarified what he meant, saying,”Casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ…” (Second Corinthians 10:5).

Liars and their lies are what we are casting down. It is the doctrine of demons we need be fighting – not the demons.

Psa 120:6  My soul has dwelt too long With one who hates peace.

In Psalm 35:20 we are informed that the world around us is inhabited by nonbelievers who “do not speak peace, but they devise deceitful words against those who are quiet in the land.”

Today this idea illustrates itself. Or maybe I should say that it is being illustrated all around us. Violence is rampant. No matter what stand you take on the current turmoil in the world, Psalm 35:20 summarizes it.

Psa 120:7  I am for peace; But when I speak, they are for war.

I want to preface my next remarks with this statement. Being a Christian does not mean you must always ignore wrongs, and always surrender your rights.

Having said that – Being a Christian does invite you to “speak” “peace” to the world at war. It starts with promoting, and supporting, the Gospel.

In our natural state… In our first birth… We are hostile enemies of God. While we were yet in this natural state, in our sins, He came as a man in order to offer us a second birth, a spiritual birth.

Only if we are at peace with God, through Jesus, can there be peace in the world. It’s old; it’s worn; but it’s a true saying: There is no peace apart from the Prince of Peace.

The mythological Sirens sang to passing ships.

Their song mesmerized the sailors, drawing them into the rocks upon which they would be dashed and destroyed.

Liar’s lies are a siren call, seeking to shipwreck your faith. In our case, the sirens aren’t confined to one location. Their songs surround us. Their songs are a worldly playlist, playing on a continuous loop.

Ulysses had his men tie him to the mast, then put wax in their ears. That way he could enjoy the Siren’s songs, but the ship and crew would be saved.

Are you tied to some mast? Indulging in something, thinking you are safe from shipwreck?

#2 – You Can Be Impervious To Liars And Lies (v3-4)

You have been tripped-up by lies. You have lied. You are not impervious to liars and lies; but you can be, to the extent you yield to the indwelling Holy Spirit.

As we teach or read God’s Word, we should concentrate more on who and what we already are. Too much of evangelical Christianity sounds like self-help steps so we can achieve God’s goals for us.
Peruse the shelves of a Christian bookstore and it seems like you are on an expedition to summit a spiritual Everest.

The apostle Paul insisted, “But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus” (Ephesians 2:4-6).

He also noted, “God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ… has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ” (1:3).

Listen to this insightful paraphrase of Romans 6:11 from the Message Bible: “From now on, think of it this way: Sin speaks a dead language that means nothing to you; God speaks your mother tongue, and you hang on every word. You are dead to sin and alive to God. That’s what Jesus did. ”

Psa 120:3  What shall be given to you, Or what shall be done to you, You false tongue?
Psa 120:4  Sharp arrows of the warrior, With coals of the broom tree!

The title of epic finale to the Avengers saga came from something Dr. Strange said in Infinity War. He said, “We’re in the endgame now.”

He saw what was going to happen over the next few years, and the only scenario in which humanity would ultimately triumph.

In order to get to that victory, humanity must wait. Half of the population of the universe was turned to dust by the snap. Much suffering ensued until our relentless surviving heroes found the one way to reverse the snap.

Beloved, We are in the endgame now. We know, in quite a bit of detail, what is going to happen in the future: The resurrection and rapture of the church… The Seven-Year Great Tribulation… The Second Coming of Jesus… The Millennial Kingdom of God on earth… The Great White Throne Judgment of God… The creation of a new earth and new heavens… Eternity with Jesus in the New Jerusalem.

It is God’s endgame, but as we wait, it is preceded by much suffering.

I’m going to go off on a slight tangent. Many Bible teachers, and pastors, are telling their people the prophecies of the endgame are spiritual; that they are allegorical; or that they have mostly been fulfilled in the first century. Especially under attack is the Pre-Tribulation rapture of the church.

One argument I keep hearing is that no one ever spoke of the rapture of the church until a guy named John Darby in the 1800’s. One critic said, “Rapture doctrine did not exist before John Darby invented it in 1830AD. Before it “popped into John Darby’s head” no one had ever heard of a secret rapture doctrine.”

Also this: “The fact that John Nelson Darby invented the pre-tribulation rapture doctrine around 1830AD is unquestionably true. All attempts to find evidence of this wild doctrine before 1830 have failed…”

I’m going to read something: “And therefore, when in the end the church shall suddenly be caught up from this, it is said, “There shall be tribulation such as has not been since the beginning, and neither shall be.” ”

Those words were written by Irenaeus, Bishop of what is now Lyon in France, in his work, Against Heresies. It wasn’t written in the 1800’s but in the 180’s – in 180AD. A mere one-hundred fifty years after Jesus rose from the dead… About one hundred years after the apostle Paul was martyred… Sixty-five years after the apostle John died… The church was teaching the rapture.

When someone tells you the early church had no doctrine of the rapture, at best they are ignorant.

Let’s read verses three and four again:

Psa 120:3  What shall be given to you, Or what shall be done to you, You false tongue?
Psa 120:4  Sharp arrows of the warrior, With coals of the broom tree!

The psalmist sees the end of the Father of lies, and of lying. He will be defeated. He will be burned by fire that cannot be quenched.

Those who have resisted the grace of God to save them will join the Devil and his angels in the Lake of Fire.

The more I focus on earthly things, elevating their importance, the more susceptible I am to the world of lies surrounding me. The psalmist was suggesting that I focus on end-things, on endings. That I focus on my destination more than anything else, allowing my heavenly future to dictate my decisions.

We read in the Revelation, “And [the angel] carried me away in the Spirit to a great and high mountain, and showed me the great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God” (21:10).

In the Old Testament we read, “The LORD your God in your midst, The Mighty One, will save; He will rejoice over you with gladness, He will quiet you with His love, He will rejoice over you with singing” (Zephaniah 3:17). In context, the prophet was talking about God singing over Israel in the Millennial Kingdom.

I don’t think it is wrong to think God sings over the church; and over each of us who are in Christ.

I can’t wait to hear that playlist as I approach the “holiest city above the earth.”

Rebel Yell (Psalm 2)

Yay-hoo. Woo-hoo. Yee-haw. You may have used one of those in a text thread recently, but it might surprise you to learn that they are descriptions of the once-famous “rebel yell” that Confederate soldiers would shriek out as they rode into battle.

In a 1905 edition of Confederate Veteran Magazine, Confederate Colonel Keller Anderson described it this way: “[The yell was a] do-or-die expression, [a] maniacal maelstrom of sound; [a] penetrating, rasping, shrieking, blood-curdling noise…whose volume reached the heavens.”

The rebel yell wasn’t unique to the Southern States. It had similar counterparts in Native American war calls and the screams of Scottish Highlanders. But, more than that, God tells us that it is the natural expression of every human heart and every human society. A blasphemous howl, angry and violent, the noise mankind makes in rebellion against our Creator God, who rules heaven and earth.

When you go to the book of Psalms you discover many different types of songs. Songs for pilgrims and songs for kings. Songs for the temple and songs for the wilderness. Songs for victors and songs for the oppressed. At the very entrance to this wonderful book, after being told in Psalm 1 the key to living a happy life, full of purpose and growth, we’re then given something remarkable: Not a song for servants or for the faithful, but a song for rebels. The people of God aren’t addressed at all. Instead, heaven sings a melody of invitation to the treasonous enemies of God, hoping that they will lay down their arms in surrender and be saved from certain defeat.

Along the way we are introduced to the most important character of all human history: Christ the Messiah. The King, whose rule is sure, whose coming is unstoppable and who will destroy all who stand against Him. But then, we also see that this King of fierce wrath is also a King of matchless love. He’s a King who can be approached, even by traitors, and receive forgiveness.

There’s a lot of talk these days about being on “the right side of history.” Psalm 2, the song for rebels, confronts you with the question of whether you are on the right side of eternal history. The King is coming. Have you attached yourself to Him?

Our song has no introduction, but we’re told in the book of Acts that it was written by David. Though it may have been used in coronation ceremonies, it’s clear that this Psalm looks far beyond any mortal monarch to the King of all kings, the Only Begotten Son of God. It’s quoted at least 7 times in the New Testament, 3 of those in the Revelation of Jesus Christ. As it opens, we’re not shown a King on His throne, but an angry mob coming together hoping to overthrow Him.

Psalm 2:1-2 – 1 Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain? 2 The kings of the earth take their stand, and the rulers conspire together against the Lord and his Anointed One:

Having seen the goodness of God and His rich promises in Psalm 1, having seen how kind God is to individuals and nations who will repent from sin and give themselves to Him, whether it’s a man like Abraham or a city like Nineveh. Having seen what God is willing to do on behalf of those He loves, it is bewildering to see this reaction of the human heart to the Lord. David was bewildered. “Why?!?” That’s a question that keeps ringing like a bell in our hearts, isn’t it? Why is there so much unrest and violence and destruction laying waste to our cities and our relationships and our institutions? Why is there so much anger? Why is there such a refusal to turn from evil and embrace good?

The rage around us is not new. In fact, the Bible says it’s normal. This is the regular operation of the human heart in its unredeemed state.

Isaiah 57 says it this way:

Isaiah 57:20 (NLT) – Those who still reject [God] are like the restless sea, which is never still but continually churns up mud and dirt.

The human heart cannot stay passive when it comes to God. There are many who say they are ‘agnostic,’ they don’t know if God exists or doesn’t, but it doesn’t matter. But that’s not good enough for sin. Sin must rebel. It must destroy. It must tear down and drive a person away from God and His gentle call to reconcile. God’S desire is to heal and comfort those who do not deserve it, yet so many refuse Him and therefore find no peace.

This isn’t just an individual problem, it becomes compounded when fallen human beings group together into nations. Of course, we know that, at His second coming, all the nations of the world will literally take a stand against the Lord, but all of human history has shown this type of behavior. Whether it’s like the people there at the Tower of Babel:“Let’s make for ourselves a great tower so that we can show we have no need of God.” Or whether it’s a more modern example like the Soviet Union: “Let’s kill God in our society, and tens of millions of people along with Him.” Human rebellion churns and transforms into a purpose to fight against God.

What these kings and rulers don’t realize is that all their resistance is futile. But they are determined. And here’s their mission statement:

Psalm 2:3 – 3 “Let’s tear off their chains and throw their ropes off of us.”

The human heart is convinced that God’s desire is to enslave us and to beat us down. It’s the very first lie we fell for back in the Garden of Eden. Here we see these rebels yelling about how God is trying to tie us up and put us in chains.

Like most of Satan’s lies there is a kernel of truth. God does want to tie us, but to what and with what?

God says in Hosea that He led His people with ropes of kindness and bonds of love. His desire is to attach us to Himself, that He might bear our burdens and transform our lives and keep us from spiritual shipwreck. To save individuals and families and even nations by His grace.

It’s true, that God’s kind bonds of love include limits and boundaries. What we find in Scripture is that these do not confine us in some prison, but they protect us. They are good and beneficial. They show the way the life more abundantly. They’re described in Psalm 1 as a pathway to delight, fulfillment and purpose. These guiding lines are given to us for our personal life, our family life, our life in work and society and the wider world. And they are not simply suggestions or one potential way of getting where you want to go, they are commands from the King. A good and gracious King, but the King nonetheless.

Recently we’ve seen a dramatic and tragic real-world example of the rebel heart of man seeking to throw off all authority. It was called CHAZ. The Capital Hill Autonomous Zone. A group of rebels raging in the streets. 3 weeks, 4 shootings, 2 dead. Untold property damage. Ruined lives. The outworking of rebellion living in the heart of unredeemed man.

In the 1960’s, many young people in the counter-culture Hippie movement embraced what they called “free love.” It was a throwing off of God’s boundaries and guidelines. One that still reverberates today. In 2007, NBC News reported on the longterm fallout of this choice to tear off the chains of chastity and embrace the destructive license of sin. The article writes: “From idealism to despair…There was a price for all that free love. From 1964 through 1968, the rates of syphilis and gonorrhea in California rose 165 percent. Dr. David Smith, who founded the Haight-Ashbury Free Clinic said ‘It would be an understatement to say there was a spike in STDs. That’s like saying a hurricane is a strong wind.’” The article goes on: “Abortion was another issue that erupted during Summer of Love. By the end of the summer, many women, some of them young teenagers, needed treatment for botched abortions. Enthusiasts of the 1960s…[discovered]…that the free-love train was not going to be a smooth ride.”

The human heart, since the fall in the Garden, is ready to choose death rather than life. Which is why we have to take a careful look at who rules on the throne of our hearts. Is it King Jesus, or is it some other? The New Testament calls on us to crucify that other king and instead bow our knees to Jesus Christ, the Anointed One, and welcome Him to lead us in bonds of love, tethered to Him under His easy yoke.

This Psalm also brings out the reality that personal wickedness leads to national wickedness. Today so many leaders of so many nations have taken up the causes of rebellion against God and His ways. It’s not just in some far off land. Look at our own nation. The idols we worship. The values we promote and protect. As Christ-loving Christians, we find ourselves not in David’s Jerusalem, but Nebuchadnezzar’s Babylon. A realm of hatred, violence, anger and sacrilege. We can see it all around us. And God sees it too. Here’s His response:

Psalm 2:4 – 4 The one enthroned in heaven laughs; the Lord ridicules them.

God has a sense of humor. He created humor, of course, but it’s sometimes good to remind ourselves that God does express emotion. He does so perfectly and in line with His unchanging character, but our God feels. Here He is poetically described as laughing at these conspiring kings who are in such an uproar against Him.

If that seems like a distasteful image to you, remember this: This is the God who one commentator points out could “with one word or look destroy all His enemies.” And yet, He doesn’t. Because, despite their wickedness and their rage and their traitorous rebellion, God loves these people. He takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked. At the same time He does truly hate our sin.

But, from heaven’s perspective, you can’t help but laugh. Imagine, for a moment, that the dust bunnies you were sweeping up from your floor somehow communicated to you that they were going to overthrow you and become the rulers of their own domain.

As the nations rage we see God sitting. He doesn’t pace the halls, wringing His hands. Isaiah 18 says:

Isaiah 18:4 (NLT) – “I will watch quietly from my dwelling place— as quietly as the heat rises on a summer day.

God is attentive, patient and full of mercy. But one day the offers He has made to mankind will expire, His long-suffering will come to an end.

Psalm 2:5 – 5 Then he speaks to them in his anger and terrifies them in his wrath:

Even this is grace. Again and again God reaches out to this world, to nations, to individuals, trying to save them from themselves and the path of destruction they are rushing down. If they will not respond to His creation or His compassion or His communications, they will be finally consumed by His wrath. It is a just wrath against the foul obscenity of man’s sin. He cannot overlook it. To do so would be an unforgivably immoral act.

Psalm 2:6 – 6 “I have installed my king on Zion, my holy mountain.”

God is not simply reacting to things happening on earth. He is working out an eternal plan. Here He makes it know to these rebels that He already has a King in place. They may wear crowns, but they are not in charge. There is one, true King: Jesus Christ.

The term God uses in this verse for installed is one that means “poured out.” That’s an interesting image. This eternal, holy plan, included the pouring out of Jesus’ life on the cross so that He might deal with our sin once and for all. The work continued as God poured out His Holy Spirit on His people in the Church age. And now, day after day, the King’s work continues as He pours out His grace along with faith and love in us and through us. At the end of human history, the Lord will pour out His terrible fury on those who will not surrender and repent of their sin.

The King has been poured out. He has been installed. But this King is not aloof or withdrawn. He’s accessible to anyone. You are welcome to come, at any moment, and bow before Him in worship and service. That’s not just for you and me, but for even the great leaders of the world. All of us can be like Prince Jonathan, the son of Saul, who was happy to acknowledge that the throne belonged to David. No protest. No anger. No rebellion. Instead he pledged his love to God’s anointed and said, “I’ll be there beside you to lift high your kingdom.”

Psalm 2:7 – 7 I will declare the Lord’s decree. He said to me, “You are my Son; today I have become your Father.

Christ Himself joins the song here and speaks until the end of verse 9. When it says that God and Messiah became Father and Son, or perhaps your version says, “today I have begotten You,” that doesn’t mean that Jesus was created or had a temporal beginning. No, it means that, in the plan of God, the Son was set in place and position. The idea is used in a similar way in Revelation chapter 1. There Jesus is identified as the “firstborn from the dead.” It’s a position and title.

Here in verse 7 Jesus takes up the duty of declaring the Father’s decrees. Of course, as Christ’s body on the earth, we Christians are now commissioned to do the same. There is a message to be proclaimed. A plan to be explained. A God of mercy to be revealed to the rebels of the earth.

Psalm 2:8 – 8 Ask of me, and I will make the nations your inheritance and the ends of the earth your possession.

All of heaven and earth belongs to the Lord. Not just the land and the air and the water, but your life and your very breath, your future and your soul. It belongs to Him. And He has asked for you to become His. What a beautiful thing to learn. In John 17 we see our Lord, in love, asking for us, that we might be made one in Him and given access to the glories of His inheritance.

We see in this verse that despite all the plotting and rage in verses 1 and 2, the Lord will be the winner. No one can take what is rightfully His. And there’s nothing too broken for Him to restore. He alone can take the scroll and make right what we and the nations of the world have made wrong for these thousands of years of human history. But the earth, from one end to the other, will be redeemed, filled with His glory, and made new.

Seeing the wide lens of God’s plan here we must accept the truth that only Christ can solve the problems of our nation. Donald Trump can’t. Black Lives Matter can’t. Christ alone is able to save.

Psalm 2:9 – 9 You will break them with an iron scepter; you will shatter them like pottery.”

One day the waiting will end and final judgment will arrive. Whether that’s for an individual unbeliever at their death, a nation at its fall or the whole world at the second coming, judgment will arrive and there will be no escape for those who will not own Jesus Christ as King.

As the Seattle police swept through CHAZ, they made about 30 arrests. There were, undoubtedly, some people who had committed crimes of one sort or another who dispersed, went back home and will not be held accountable in Washington court of law. But there is no flying under the radar of God’s judgment. Derek Kidner writes: “There is no refuge from Jesus, only in Jesus.”

But if a person will turn to Christ in surrender, if they will, by faith, repent and believe, then the Messiah will take their heart, stained and ruined with sin and wash it with His own blood, making it white as snow. When a person believes on Jesus, their guilt is removed. They are born again, not only into a new life, but into a new Kingdom. They become citizens under His throne, with all its privileges and protections, safe from the wrath to come. Are you safe?

Now, knowing what God has explained about the world and about His plan, what can a person or a nation do to be made right with God?

Psalm 2:10 – 10 So now, kings, be wise; receive instruction, you judges of the earth.

After seeing all that these ragers have done – all their hate, all their treason, all their rebellion – God comes to them with an offer of peace!

He says, “Here’s what’s coming, but here’s hope. Here’s how to avoid what you so rightly deserve.” And what a comfort it is to know that no one is too far gone to be saved by the power of the Gospel. No prodigal, no politician, no criminal or cynic is outside His loving reach if they will but lay down their weapons and receive what is being offered.

In an amazing moment of irony we remember that, these kings, who were so full of rage and who demanded to be enthroned instead of the rightful King, these very individuals are offered the chance to rule and reign along with Jesus in His future Kingdom. What a God of amazing grace!

Psalm 2:11 – 11 Serve the Lord with reverential awe and rejoice with trembling.

The Lord isn’t just looking for a ceasefire. He doesn’t just want them to submit politically, but personally. What God desires is a true love relationship with you. One in which we worship Him and serve Him, not begrudgingly but in celebration. A true, living faith which recognizes all that God is.

Psalm 2:12 – 12 Pay homage to the Son or he will be angry and you will perish in your rebellion, for his anger may ignite at any moment. All who take refuge in him are happy.

We’re invited to pay homage to this King with a kiss. It’s an intimate, personal act of embrace. It’s the closeness He wants with each of HIs people. Though this verse speaks of God’s anger against sin and the required penalty for it, the Bible makes it clear that God does not want anyone to perish, but for all to come to repentance. That all would be made His by grace through faith.

Your sin deserves death, but the price has already been paid for it. Don’t pay it a second time. And don’t live a life enslaved to sin. A slave to the rage and the destruction it brings to you and your community. Instead, choose to bow your heart to the King of kings, Jesus the Messiah. You do not know when your final day is. Your rebellion may cost you everything at any moment. Instead, take refuge in Christ. Trust in Him. Believe Him. Tie yourself to Him in love and obedience, taking the way of the righteous and happy man in Psalm 1. ALL who take refuge in Him are happy.

During the Civil War the rebel yell was a source of pride and identity for many Confederate soldiers. In some cases, it was intimidating to the opponents on the battlefield. But it could do little to change the course of history. One article says it was simply “noise…[used] in a doomed attempt to overcome the Union’s overwhelming advantages in men and resources.”

That didn’t stop some confederates from holding out, even after all had been decided. The sailors on the CSS Shenandoah sailed the Atlantic for 6 months after the war ended, refusing to come home. Many of their fellow fighters had laid down their weapons and been once again folded in to the United States. But the captain and her crew thought they wouldn’t receive amnesty or mercy for the war they had waged against the North, though there’s reason to believe they would have. Instead, with Union ships in hot pursuit, the Shenandoah fled 9,000 nautical miles from home. Ultimately surrendering in Liverpool.

Psalm 2 is a song for rebels. One that shows us what the condition of our unregenerated hearts but also God’s profound mercy. This is the God who wants to take enemy conspirators, same them from themselves, make something beautiful with their lives, use them to benefit the world and then bring them into His own forever Kingdom and allow them to rule and reign there. When we talk about the power of Jesus and the goodness of God, that’s what we’re talking about. That kind of grace and ability and kindness. That level of transformation. We need God to have His way and His rule in our hearts, in our homes, and in the halls of our government.

Psalm 144:15b – Happy are the people whose God is the Lord.

Psalm 33:12a – 12 Happy is the nation whose God is the Lord

I’ve Just Had an Antiphony (Psalm 118)

If you have a Roman Catholic heritage, you’ll know how to respond. Ready?

“The Lord be with you.”

Who said, “And also with you?”
Who said, “And with your spirit?”

They made the change from, “And also with you,” to “And with your spirit,” around 2008. I’m guessing that there was, and still is, a lot of confusion in the pews:

Lapsed Catholics who find themselves at a Mass for a funeral or a wedding are going to be confused for sure.
So probably were some Chreasters. They’re the folks who only attended twice a year, on Christmas and Easter. (They are also called CEO’s – Christmas Easter Only).

This kind of participation by the congregation is technically called either responsorial, or antiphonal:

It’s responsorial when each statement is followed by a response from the congregation.
It’s antiphonal when it is spoken or sang alternately.

I get confused on the precise use of each word. Let’s just say that there is a participatory response from the congregation.

In Psalm 118 we find participatory responses for the congregation of Israel on their annual festival day, Passover.

One of the response passages is in verses two, three, and four. Someone invited a response, asking them to “now say,” then three different groups in the assembly answered:

“Let Israel now say, “His mercy endures forever.
“Let the house of Aaron now say, “His mercy endures forever.
“Let those who fear the LORD now say, “His mercy endures forever.”

“His mercy endures forever” opens the psalm… “His mercy endures forever” ends the psalm (v29). We’ll focus on mercy as we enjoy this psalm.
I’ll organize my comments around two points: #1 “Mercy Forever” Is God’s Promise To You, and #2 “Mercy Forever” Is God’s Plan For You.

#1 – “Mercy Forever” Is God’s Promise To You (v1-13)

There are several passages in Psalm 118 that are lifted directly from the Book of Exodus. The Israelites would recognize this immediately as a Passover song.

One scholar notes, “Verse 14 quotes Exodus 15:2, and the repeated “right hand” in verses 15-16 matches the three occurrences in Exodus 15:6 & 12. Not surprisingly in this regard, Psalm 118 concludes the Hallel (Psalms 113-118), which is used at Passover, a celebration that recalls and recounts the deliverance from Egypt.”

We don’t annually celebrate Passover. The apostle Paul told us that, in the Church Age, Jesus Himself is our Passover.

The Passover symbolism is fulfilled in Jesus, the Lamb of God Who takes away the sin of the world.

Psa 118:1  Oh, give thanks to the LORD, for He is good! For His mercy endures forever.

This is responsive, each sentence spoken or sang by different people. The entire psalm is responsive – drawing the congregation into the celebration.

You could spend a long time thinking about how the Lord was merciful to Israel throughout their history. The Exodus could have as a sub-title, God’s Marvelous Manifold Mercies in the Wilderness. Though the Israelites rebelled over-and-over, God preserved them in His mercy.

See how far they’d come – here they were worshipping in the Temple, keeping the Passover as prescribed, and doing it joyfully.

BTW – God’s mercy towards the nation of Israel in the past guarantees He will be merciful to them in the future. He has not, and cannot, abandon the descendants of Abraham. In the end, they will be saved.

Psa 118:2  Let Israel now say, “His mercy endures forever.”
Psa 118:3  Let the house of Aaron now say, “His mercy endures forever.”
Psa 118:4  Let those who fear the LORD now say, “His mercy endures forever.”

Three groups were present: (1)Israelites by birth, (2)priests, and (3)non-Jews who feared the Lord, i.e., who were believers.

Salvation was exclusively through Israel. But anyone could be saved who came to God in His prescribed way. In His mercy, God has always made a way for anyone, anywhere, to be saved.

The leader, let’s call him the soloist, would sing verses five through nine:

Psa 118:5  I called on the LORD in distress; The LORD answered me and set me in a broad place.
Psa 118:6  The LORD is on my side; I will not fear. What can man do to me?
Psa 118:7  The LORD is for me among those who help me; Therefore I shall see my desire on those who hate me.

Time and again, after Israel rebelled, the Lord would hear their cries, and in His mercy, He would restore them. When they returned to Him, and trusted in the Lord, there was a godly confidence that victory was certain.

Israel could only be defeated by Israel. By drifting away from God, they earned His discipline.

We, too, can be our own worst enemy, if we grow apathetic, and set ourselves adrift.

With COVID-19 still affecting churches, it is an especially dangerous time.

Psa 118:8  It is better to trust in the LORD Than to put confidence in man.
Psa 118:9  It is better to trust in the LORD Than to put confidence in princes.

Do we ever “put confidence in man?” This would be a confidence in things other than the Lord and in His wisdom where He has clearly spoken.

Sure we do. We remain in unredeemed bodies, with their propensity to sin. Our minds are not totally renewed, and we don’t always set our affections on things above.

As far as putting our confidence in man, Christians and churches often adopt worldly methods, e.g., in their fund raising.

Do we ever “put confidence in princes,” i.e., in government? Sure we do. The US Supreme Court recently astonished us. Those ‘princes’ ruled that the 1964 Civil Rights Act protects gay, lesbian, and transgender employees from discrimination based on sex. The ruling was 6-3, with Justice Neil Gorsuch, President Trump’s first appointee to the court, writing the majority opinion. The opinion was joined by Chief Justice John Roberts and the court’s four liberal justices. In an article titled, Gorsuch vs Gorsuch, the Wall Street Journal noted, “An alien legal being seems to have captured… Justice [Gorsuch].”

I’m pretty sure the writer meant that last comment, about the alien, as sarcasm. But I wouldn’t be so sure.

Verses ten through thirteen – also responsive:

Psa 118:10  All nations surrounded me, But in the name of the LORD I will destroy them.
Psa 118:11  They surrounded me, Yes, they surrounded me; But in the name of the LORD I will destroy them.
Psa 118:12  They surrounded me like bees; They were quenched like a fire of thorns; For in the name of the LORD I will destroy them.

Three times the congregation exclaimed, “In the Name of the Lord I will destroy them.” His “Name” isn’t a magic word that defeats our foes. We don’t repeat it over-and-over to get a result. We don’t say “AbracaJesus.”

“In the Name of the Lord” means that we have His authority. We act on His behalf.

Acting on His behalf can get us imprisoned, or martyred. But that isn’t a defeat. It is a “W” in the cosmic struggle against God’s enemies.

Can you think of a time in Israel’s history that these words might describe? When “all nations” surrounded Israel.

The only one I can suggest for our consideration is in Israel’s future history. If you approach this passage with the Great Tribulation in mind, it makes a lot of sense.

Specifically, this could depict the Second Coming, when Jesus will be “surrounded” at Armageddon, but will easily defeat the nations of the world gathered there.

The Tribulation itself is mercy, albeit a severe mercy. By it, God offers those on earth salvation in Jesus, not willing that any should perish, but rather that they would receive eternal life.

Psa 118:13  You pushed me violently, that I might fall, But the LORD helped me.

The picture here is of someone being pushed off the edge of a cliff. No matter how violent the pushing, throughout history, Israel stands.

Do you use the expression, “push back?” It’s used when you’ve had it with some policy or practice; you push back instead of accepting it.

The Great Tribulation is God’s push back against sinners. But, always remember, it is a measured push back, because God also extends mercy to save.

#2 – “Mercy Forever” Is God’s Plan For You (v14-29)

Incidentally, Psalm 118 was Martin Luther’s favorite – “My own beloved psalm,” as he put it. Luther considered verse seventeen to be “a masterpiece,” and he asserted that “all the saints have sung this verse and will continue to sing it to the end.”

If the songs we sing are any indication, the Church likes Psalm 118. Hymns, choruses, and performance songs based on it abound. You’ll for sure recognize three of them: verse fourteen, verse nineteen, and verse twenty-four.

Psa 118:14  The LORD is my strength and song, And He has become my salvation.

People are looking for some kind of “strength.” Trouble is, they’re mostly looking within themselves by listening to so-called, self-appointed experts. Self-help is an $11B industry – mostly without regulation. Anyone can present themself as a life-coach. Each guru attracts you with his or her particular siren-song.

All the while, God is ready to declare you righteous and give you the Holy Spirit. I won’t cheapen the Gospel by calling Jesus your ultimate “life-coach,” but you get the idea.

Psa 118:15  The voice of rejoicing and salvation Is in the tents of the righteous; The right hand of the LORD does valiantly.
Psa 118:16  The right hand of the LORD is exalted; The right hand of the LORD does valiantly.

“Valiantly” could also be translated, “is victorious” (ISV). We know from the complete revelation of the Word of God that Jesus sits at God’s right hand. He was victorious over Satan sin, and death. That is real “strength.” The “song” is the wooing of the Holy Spirit.

Psa 118:17  I shall not die, but live, And declare the works of the LORD.
Psa 118:18  The LORD has chastened me severely, But He has not given me over to death.

Israel, as a nation, endured much disciplining by God for her many willful failures. Yet God did not destroy His chosen nation. They endured; they endure.

Psa 118:19  Open to me the gates of righteousness; I will go through them, And I will praise the LORD.
Psa 118:20  This is the gate of the LORD, Through which the righteous shall enter.
Psa 118:21  I will praise You, For You have answered me, And have become my salvation.

There is a wrong way of reading this. It is not saying that you must be self-righteous to enter God’s presence. You don’t deserve for the gate to be opened for you. No, you enter because righteousness is given to you by believing in Jesus. He becomes your salvation when you receive Him as your Substitute on the Cross.

Charles Spurgeon put it in plain language when he said, “You stand before God as if you were Jesus, because Jesus stood before God as if He were you.”

Psa 118:22  The stone which the builders rejected Has become the chief cornerstone.
Psa 118:23  This was the LORD’s doing; It is marvelous in our eyes.

Jesus is the foundation upon which God’s household of faith must be built. When He came the first time, the leaders of Israel – the “builders” – rejected Him. Today He is the foundation of the Church, built upon by the apostles and prophets of the first century. He will yet “become the chief cornerstone,” as Israel is saved through the Great Tribulation.

Psa 118:24  This is the day the LORD has made; We will rejoice and be glad in it.
Psa 118:25  Save now, I pray, O LORD; O LORD, I pray, send now prosperity.
Psa 118:26  Blessed is he who comes in the name of the LORD! We have blessed you from the house of the LORD.

We recognize this from the description of Palm Sunday given in the Gospels. The “day” had come… But the Jews refused to recognize their Messiah, plunging them into another time of discipline.

Psa 118:27  God is the LORD, And He has given us light; Bind the sacrifice with cords to the horns of the altar.

Remember, it was Passover. The procession had arrived at the altar of sacrifice. It was time to kill the sacrificial lamb. Lamb after lamb after lamb was slain.

There are incredible estimates of how many lambs were slain annually in the Second Temple period. One site said 1million. If they worked for ten hours, that’s 100,000 per hour. I don’t think so. But, still, multitudes of little lambies died annually, and throughout the Old Testament era. It was bloody.

Psa 118:28  You are my God, and I will praise You; You are my God, I will exalt You.

Once the sacrifice was complete, there was an acknowledgement of intimacy. The lamb took our place so that we could approach God as “my God.”

Mankind lost this intimacy in the Garden of Eden. God promised He would restore it. He established the temporary sacrifice of lambs until He could come and die Himself, for us. It is His plan of redemption, kept moving by God’s providence.

Psa 118:29  Oh, give thanks to the LORD, for He is good! For His mercy endures forever.

It ends where it began – with mercy. In a previous study, I challenged you to look up verses regarding mercy, and especially different types of mercy that are described in the Bible. God’s mercy is something that is better seen, or experienced, than simply defined; one way to do that is to see it active on the pages of the Bible.

God alone is “good.” Because of Jesus, He can justify the believing sinner, and remain righteous. It is an amazing plan, inspiring gratitude.

The word endures, in italics, isn’t part of the text scholars translated from. It should read, “Mercy forever.”

If you’re a fan of the MCU, you remember T’Challa (the Black Panther) sending his forces into battle with the cry, “Wakanda Forever.”

Jesus has sent us into the fray. Hear Him say, “Mercy Forever.”

Crush To Judgment (Psalm 110)

They are the two most iconic images from the Second World War caught on film:

Fifty years after the picture was taken, the Associated Press wrote that “the raising of the flag on Iwo Jima was the world’s most reproduced.”
“VJ Day in Times Square” is a photograph by Alfred Eisenstaedt that portrays a jubilant sailor embracing and kissing a stranger on Victory over Japan Day (“V-J Day”) in New York City’s Times Square – August 14, 1945. The photographer wrote, “I was walking through the crowds on VJ Day, looking for pictures. I noticed a sailor coming my way. He was grabbing every female he could find and kissing them all – young girls and old ladies alike. Then I noticed the nurse, standing in that enormous crowd. I focused on her, and just as I’d hoped, the sailor came along, grabbed the nurse, and bent down to kiss her.”

The two photographs capture a different type of victory in the war:

It was victory on Iwo Jima, but the war would go on another six months.
In Times Square, the victory was final.

Psalm 110 is about warfare and victory:

It is set in a time of ongoing conflict. “Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet.”
It promises final victory. “The Lord is at your right hand; He will crush kings on the day of his wrath.”

The conflict is cosmic. It spans all the time from the creation of the earth, and especially mankind, until the Revelation of Jesus Christ at His Second Coming. It is ongoing; and that means we on earth are currently immersed in the conflict.

Here is what I want to get to. The psalm captures an iconic image. It’s in verse seven: “He will drink from a brook along the way, and so he will lift his head high.”

What is it we say about a picture – that it’s worth a thousand words? Well, this is the picture of cosmic victory that’s worthy of ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands, of words.

The iconic image of the kneeling, brook-drinking, King of kings holding His head high should elicit hope and produce strength.

I’ll organize my comments around two points: #1 The King Drinking From The Brook Is Your Hope For Tomorrow, and #2 The King Drinking From The Brook Is Your Strength For Today.

#1 – The King Drinking From The Brook Is Your Hope For Tomorrow (v1-6)

You should always read Scripture in several translations. Today I’m going with the NIV for the teaching. It is better in capturing the poetry (IMHO).

Psalms 110:1  Of David. A psalm. The LORD says to my lord: “Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet.”

David is credited as the author, but the psalm is not about him, or his immediate kingdom on the earth. We are at once transported to the heavenlies where David’s “Lord” has been welcomed by God to occupy the place of sovereign authority over the universe.

The Lord is, of course, Jesus. The writer of Hebrews makes that clear, applying Psalm 110 to Jesus, saying, “After [Jesus] had provided purification for sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven… To which of the angels did God ever say, “Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet?” (1:3 &13).

The “enemies” of God are defeated. It happened at the Cross upon which Jesus died. Because Jesus died in our place, as our Substitute, God can remain just while He justifies believing sinners.

You may be familiar with this quote, credited to Charles Spurgeon: “You stand before God as if you were Jesus, because Jesus stood before God as if He were you.”

There’s a word of pause in verse one: “Until.” It tells us that the defeated enemies of God are still at large, still resisting, still fomenting rebellion. These supernatural foes blind humans from God’s truth. In one place we are told that Satan holds them captive, to do his will. The Last Days in which we live are full of the doctrines of demons.

If you’re wondering why the conflict is ongoing, wondering why God doesn’t end it, it’s because He is longsuffering, not willing that anyone perish eternally, but rather that they would believe on Jesus and be justified.

There is another important doctrinal message here. William MacDonald reminds us,

One day when Jesus was speaking to the Pharisees in Jerusalem, He asked them what they believed concerning the identity of the Messiah. From whom would the Promised One be descended? They answered correctly that He would be the Son of David. But Jesus showed them that according to Psalm 110 (which they acknowledged to be messianic) the Messiah would also be David’s Lord. How could He be David’s Son and David’s Lord at the same time? And how could David, the king, have someone who was his Lord on earth? The answer of course was that the Messiah would be both God and Man. As God, He would be David’s Lord. As Man, He would be David’s Son. And Jesus Himself, combining in His Person both deity and humanity, was David’s Master and David’s Son.

Between verses 1 and 2 we have what H. A. Ironside called “the great parenthesis.” It is the Church Age, a mystery revealed, which extends from the Ascension of Jesus to the Second Coming described in verse two.

Psalms 110:2  The LORD will extend your mighty scepter from Zion, saying, “Rule in the midst of your enemies!”

We have the full revealing of these future events. We know, from the last book in the Bible, that verse two is looking ahead to Jesus ruling the earth from David’s throne in Jerusalem. The entire reign lasts one thousand years; thus it is commonly called “the Millennium.”

In that glorious Kingdom of God on the earth, there will be children born who will not believe Jesus – even though they see Him. Even though they see us – ruling with Jesus, in glorified, sinless, human bodies. The nonbelievers will eventually be led in rebellion by Satan, who will be released from his prison on his own recognizance. Their rebellion is easily overcome.

Psalms 110:3  Your troops will be willing on your day of battle. Arrayed in holy splendor, your young men will come to you like dew from the morning’s womb.

This probably depicts the Second Coming, when the saints of the Church Age return with Jesus. Or I suppose it could describe the final rebellion at the end of the Millennium being crushed. Either way, we are described as “arrayed in holy splendor.” That is how the Revelation describes our uniform of the day as well: “And the armies in heaven, clothed in fine linen, white and clean, followed Him on white horses“ (19:14).

One commentator paraphrased the last words of verse two, “… as dew is born of its mother the morning, so Thy army shall come to Thee numerous, fresh, bright and powerful.”

We will be an unusual army in that future time in that we never fight; we never engage any supernatural being. Our weapon is our holiness, our righteousness – granted by grace. Human beings on the earth will see us, and we will reveal to them the glory of God and His plan to redeem and restore mankind.

Our weaponry today is the same. It is our holiness, our righteousness. It is walking with the Lord, in humility, surrendered to Him as living sacrifices, led and empowered by the indwelling Holy Spirit.

At the Second Coming, we follow a victorious Jesus, and He conquers.

Today, we follow a victorious Jesus, and He conquers. But today we follow His example in His first coming. Victory is in our weakness being made strong by Him to confound the wisdom of our enemies. Today we are martyrs, not monarchs.

That photo of raising the flag on Iwo Jima… Three of the six soldiers who participated were killed during the last six months of the war. We are martyrs, not monarchs.

Psalms 110:4  The LORD has sworn and will not change his mind: “You are a priest forever, in the order of Melchizedek.”

Mysterious Melchizedek appears in Genesis out of nowhere to Abraham. We learn of him that he was appointed by God to be the Priest and King over Salem, which was ancient Jerusalem.

The phrase “in the order of Melchizedek” is interpreted for us in Hebrews chapters five through seven. There the priesthood of Melchizedek is compared and contrasted with the Aaronic or Levitical priesthood established in the Law of Moses.

Under the Law, you must be of the tribe of Levi, descended through Moses’ brother, Aaron, in order to be a priest. And there were no priest-kings.

Jesus descended from David, of the tribe of Judah. His priesthood isn’t less than the one in the Law; it is superior, by far. His kingly priesthood was established by the sovereign eternal decree of God, and since He lives in the power of an endless life, His kingly priesthood will never end.

There will be no separation between secular and spiritual. Worship will be the very atmosphere of the Millennium.

Psalms 110:5  The Lord is at your right hand; he will crush kings on the day of his wrath.

The last book of the Bible is The Revelation of Jesus Christ. The word “revelation” is apocalypse. Because the book tells of the myriad of judgments coming upon the earth, apocalypse has come to mean the end of the world; or some global event that nearly wipes-out mankind.

The word means, to reveal, to unveil. The book reveals, it unveils, Jesus Christ as He is today, and as He will be for eternity.

Further, the world doesn’t end. It is redeemed, restored, made new. We’re not headed for the end of the world, but for the world’s new beginning.

The seven-year Great Tribulation described in chapters six through eighteen of the Revelation is a time in which God is pouring out His wrath against sin upon the whole earth. We refer to it as the Grace of Wrath, because each judgment is designed to draw mankind to salvation in Jesus.

I hesitate to call it “Tough Love,” because the judgments are awful. But they pale in comparison to a single soul being committed to an eternity of conscious punishment in the Lake of Fire.

Psalms 110:6  He will judge the nations, heaping up the dead and crushing the rulers of the whole earth.

“Crush,” “crushing the rulers,” sounds a great deal like the Battle of Armageddon. Rather than describe it, I can read it to you:

Revelation 19:11  Now I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse. And He who sat on him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He judges and makes war.
Revelation 19:12  His eyes were like a flame of fire, and on His head were many crowns. He had a name written that no one knew except Himself.
Revelation 19:13  He was clothed with a robe dipped in blood, and His name is called The Word of God.
Revelation 19:14  And the armies in heaven, clothed in fine linen, white and clean, followed Him on white horses.
Revelation 19:15  Now out of His mouth goes a sharp sword, that with it He should strike the nations. And He Himself will rule them with a rod of iron. He Himself treads the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God.
Revelation 19:16  And He has on His robe and on His thigh a name written: KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS.
Revelation 19:17  Then I saw an angel standing in the sun; and he cried with a loud voice, saying to all the birds that fly in the midst of heaven, “Come and gather together for the supper of the great God,
Revelation 19:18  that you may eat the flesh of kings, the flesh of captains, the flesh of mighty men, the flesh of horses and of those who sit on them, and the flesh of all people, free and slave, both small and great.”
Revelation 19:19  And I saw the beast, the kings of the earth, and their armies, gathered together to make war against Him who sat on the horse and against His army.
Revelation 19:20  Then the beast was captured, and with him the false prophet who worked signs in his presence, by which he deceived those who received the mark of the beast and those who worshiped his image. These two were cast alive into the lake of fire burning with brimstone.
Revelation 19:21  And the rest were killed with the sword which proceeded from the mouth of Him who sat on the horse. And all the birds were filled with their flesh.

It might be the final, end-of-the-Millennium battle:

Revelation 20:7  When the thousand years are over, Satan will be released from his prison
Revelation 20:8  and will go out to deceive the nations in the four corners of the earth… and to gather them for battle. In number they are like the sand on the seashore.
Revelation 20:9  They marched across the breadth of the earth and surrounded the camp of God’s people, the city he loves. But fire came down from heaven and devoured them.
Revelation 20:10  And the devil, who deceived them, was thrown into the lake of burning sulfur, where the beast and the false prophet had been thrown. They will be tormented day and night for ever and ever.

There’s a great, big, beautiful tomorrow. But not until the Second Coming. “Now may the Lord direct your hearts into the love of God and into the patience of Christ” (Second Thessalonians 3:5).

#2 – The King Drinking From The Brook Is Your Strength For Today (v7)

As iconic images of the apocalypse go, the king drinking from a brook wouldn’t come to mind. It doesn’t seem as exciting as Jesus breaking through the clouds on His great steed at His Second Coming. It almost seems out of place in Psalm 110.

Of course, it isn’t out of place. It is one of the powerful iconic images the Holy Spirit wants us to see.

Psalms 110:7  He will drink from a brook along the way, and so he will lift his head high.

How are we to take this? Commentators are split into at least four interpretations:

Some commentators see the sufferings of Jesus, compared to a brook, a flow of waters, because of the abundance of them. For support, they cite Scripture in which His partaking of sufferings is expressed by drinking.

Other commentators see it as Jesus’ victory over Satan, sin, and death – mostly on account of the context of the first six verses.

Other commentators think the allusion is to the eagerness of a captain pursuing a routed army, and pushing on his conquest; who coming across a brook by the way, takes a drink of it, and hastens his pursuit of the enemy. This is the eagerness of Jesus to finish the great work of man’s salvation, they say, and the conquest of all His and their enemies.

Others see the joy, and comfort which Jesus has in the presence of God at his right hand, having finished the work of our salvation. The drinking is symbolic of His being satisfied.

I want to suggest to you that there may not be one ‘correct’ interpretation. There doesn’t need to be. The verse isn’t teaching doctrine or duty. There is nothing to agree with, or to disagree with. The very variety of possible interpretations tells us we have some liberty.

The first six verses – those have obvious connections to specific biblical persons and events. They are not symbols; they are not allegories. They anticipate the persons and the events of the Revelation.

We have an image of Jesus pausing somewhere along His journey to refresh Himself. The Holy Spirit is holding it up for us to see Jesus in a unique snapshot. It is for each of us to draw strength for the conflict that is all around us – “until” we are with the Lord.

Here is something the Lord ministered to me. Jesus stops to drink from a brook of running water. Running water is also called living water. Like my Lord, I need living water – the refreshment of the indwelling Holy Spirit to fill me, to lead me. I can’t simply keep going, on my own, is I am to share in His victory. Having begun in the Spirit, I cannot make progress in my flesh.

It’s the pause that refreshes.

In the image, Jesus lifted His head high. There are more than a few verses in which Jesus lifted His head toward Heaven or in which He looked intently:

Jesus “lifted up His eyes” before some of the miracles He performed, e.g., before feeding the multitudes, and before raising Lazarus from the dead.
Jesus “lifted up His eyes to Heaven” when He prayed for His disciples before His crucifixion.
He “looked up” and saw Zacchaeus high in a tree before inviting Himself to a meal that would change that tax collectors life.

Jesus still “looks up,” and “lifts His eyes,” so to speak, for you & for me. I’m reminded that He is praying for me; that He could do a miracle if it was in my best interest; and that He can save me when I’m far out on a limb.

Think about this iconic image, won’t you? It can bring you strength for the battles in the parenthesis of the Church Age when sharing in the sufferings of Jesus is our mandate.

My God’s Better Than Your gods; My God’s Better Than Yours (Psalm 82)

The Walking Dead is not about zombies.

On the surface, the hit AMC television series tells how people stay alive after the zombie apocalypse. And, yes, there are lots and lots of slow-walking zombies in various states of decay.

It’s amazing, by the way, how many ways you can kill a zombie – considering it must always involve beheading, or a wound through the skull into the brain.

Killing zombies is merely a backdrop for the real story. After the collapse of human society, groups form, and the show explores how they struggle with establishing a “new normal” in their post-apocalyptic world.

The way societies regroup after what is commonly, but mistakenly, called “the apocalypse” is a time-tested SyFy plot point. They usually regroup badly. A recent film example would be Snowpiercer:

After an attempt to stop global warming via climate engineering catastrophically backfires, creating a new ice age in 2014, the remnants of humanity have taken to a circumnavigational train, the Snowpiercer, run by recluse transportation magnate Wilford. By 2031, the passengers on the train have become segregated, with the elite in the extravagant front cars and the poor in squalid tail compartments controlled by armed guards.

Today we are talking incessantly about the “new normal.” Folks want to redo society. In the secular and in the spiritual, wholesale changes are being suggested, or made.

Maybe we should take a deep breath and look to the One Who established human society on bedrock foundations.

Psalm 82 is important in that regard:

First of all, we will see a direct statement about how human society is to behave. In the middle of the psalm, it says, “Defend the poor and fatherless; Do justice to the afflicted and needy. Deliver the poor and needy; Free them from the hand of the wicked.”

Second of all, we will meet supernatural beings who oppose God by influencing humans to ruin the foundations of society. This supernatural interference is almost never factored in.

We must be careful not to read anything into this psalm. It wasn’t written for 21st century America.

It is applicable to us, however, because God never changes. It does indeed speak to our current national and international turmoil.

I’ll organize my comments around two points: #1 There Are ‘gods’ Who Encourage Society’s Ruin, and #2 There Is God Who Establishes Society’s Righteousness.

#1 – There Are ‘gods’ Who Encourage Society’s Ruin (v1-2 & 5-8)

“gods?” Where did I come up with that? Bear with me. This psalm needs a longer introduction than most.

I’m going to read verses 1&2, and verses 5-8, in the English Standard Version (ESV).

Psa 82:1  A Psalm of Asaph. God has taken his place in the divine council; in the midst of the gods he holds judgment:
Psa 82:2  “How long will you judge unjustly and show partiality to the wicked? Selah

First thing that is clear to anyone: There is a “divine council” of beings called “gods” (with a little “g”). They have some oversight, or at least involvement, with mankind because they are to “judge.” In their judging, they prefer the “wicked.”

Psa 82:5  They have neither knowledge nor understanding, they walk about in darkness; all the foundations of the earth are shaken.

Second thing to note that is clear to anyone: Whoever these “gods” are, their wisdom is limited, and their walking in “darkness” affects the social “foundations of the earth” negatively.

Psa 82:6  I said, “You are gods, sons of the Most High, all of you;
Psa 82:7  nevertheless, like men you shall die, and fall like any prince.”

Third thing to note which is clear to anyone: Whoever they are, they are not human beings. The divine punishment that they will “die” “like men” can only mean they are not men.

Turn to chapter ten in the Gospel of John. In verse twenty-four, the Jews ask Jesus if He is the Messiah. Answering them, He says in verse thirty, “I and My Father are One.”

Joh 10:31 Then the Jews took up stones again to stone Him.
Joh 10:32. Jesus answered them, “Many good works I have shown you from My Father. For which of those works do you stone Me?”
Joh 10:33. The Jews answered Him, saying, “For a good work we do not stone You, but for blasphemy, and because You, being a Man, make Yourself God.”
Joh 10:34 Jesus answered them, “Is it not written in your law, ‘I SAID, “YOU ARE GODS” ‘?
Joh 10:35 If He called them gods, to whom the word of God came (and the Scripture cannot be broken),
Joh 10:36 do you say of Him whom the Father sanctified and sent into the world, ‘You are blaspheming,’ because I said, ‘I am the Son of God’?

The Jews wanted to stone Jesus for claiming to be God. In His defense, He quoted from Psalm 82.

Jesus’s quotation of Psalm 82 is not an argument for His deity if He and the Jews thought that the “gods” in Psalm 82 were merely human judges. Think about it. How could Jesus claim to be God by comparing Himself to human beings?

We’ve talked about the Hebrew word, elohim. Turns out, it is not a name for Almighty God. Other beings
are called elohim in the Bible. It describes any being who is what we call supernatural:

Archangels, Cherubim, Seraphim, and the ‘good’ angels are elohim.

Satan, the fallen angels, demons, “principalities… powers… the rulers of the darkness of this age… spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places” (Ephesians 6:12) are elohim.

Because Almighty God is supernatural, and dwells in that normally unseen realm, He, too, is an elohim. But note: While the Almighty God is an elohim, no elohim is the Almighty God. They are part of His creation.

One very important point that people are failing to take into account in today’s turmoil is that there are supernatural beings involved in human affairs. Many of them are wicked influencers. Any discussion that does not recognize the supernatural is senseless. One pastor compared it to rearranging the furniture in a burning house.

Psa 82:1  A Psalm of Asaph. God has taken his place in the divine council; in the midst of the gods he holds judgment:

Asaph had a long run as one of the lead worship guys. He worshipped in the Tabernacle, but also in Solomon’s Temple.

(Sort of like us, at the “Y” and then here!).

This “divine council” is directly mentioned, or it is alluded to, in other passages: Psalm 89:5-7, and Daniel 7:9-10 (for example).

I’m not sure if it was a “divine council” meeting, but you get a hint at what our Almighty God’s “place” is among these elohim when you read the first two chapters of the Book of Job.

“Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan also came among them. And the LORD said to Satan, “From where do you come?” So Satan answered the LORD and said, “From going to and fro on the earth, and from walking back and forth on it.” Then the LORD said to Satan, “Have you considered My servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, one who fears God and shuns evil?” (1:6-8).

Satan was identified as one of the “sons of God,” in that God created him. It is a common designation for angels. God, the Almighty God, God in Three Persons, is Sovereign and infinitely superior.

In Psalm 82, as in Job, God sits in judgment over the elohim. One thing He judges them for are their dealings with human beings.

Psa 82:2  “How long will you judge unjustly and show partiality to the wicked? Selah

I should tell you that the mainstream, evangelical interpretation of this psalm is that the “gods” are really human judges, or government officials, whom God holds accountable. Jesus let us know, by His use of the Scriptures, that they were supernatural.

OK, but in what sense do these wicked elohim “judge unjustly, and show partiality to the wicked?”

Book of Daniel… Chapter Ten. Daniel had been praying, and had received a heavenly vision he did not understand. God dispatched His angel, probably Gabriel, to speak with Daniel. He was delayed:

Daniel 10:13  But the prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me twenty-one days; and behold, Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me, for I had been left alone there with the kings of Persia.

Gabriel, then the mighty archangel, Michael, were “withstood” by what could only be another elohim, called the Prince of Persia.

Wicked elohim have some limited rulership over human governments; or at least they interfere with human beings:

Ancient Persia had a wicked elohim prince.
In the Revelation of Jesus Christ, we read that Satan once had a throne in the city of Pergamum.

The Almighty God grants them free will, but oversees them, and moves His plan forward through history by His providence.

Jump to… Psa 82:5  They have neither knowledge nor understanding, they walk about in darkness; all the foundations of the earth are shaken.

The wicked elohim haven’t the purity or the power of God. Their “knowledge” and “understanding is not only insufficient, it comes from a place of moral “darkness.” The result: The very “foundations of the earth are shaken.”

Want an example? Early on, in Genesis, God established the foundation of all human societies: Marriage – which He instituted as monogamous, heterosexual, and binding for life. Those “foundations” are certainly being “shaken” today.

I came across an article in the Washington Times where the writer said, “If I wanted to destroy a society,I would destroy the family, the fabric of society. I would tear apart the nuclear family, that produced stable children.”

Human societies will continue to be influenced by wickedness. Satan is, after all, called “the god of this world.” This world was described by the apostle John as being in darkness, with Jesus its only light.

We’re not saying judges and government officials are possessed. But those who do not know Jesus are prone to wickedness by nature. Add to that the influence of elohim and you can understand why unrighteousness is rampant on the earth.

Psa 82:6  I said, “You are gods, sons of the Most High, all of you;
Psa 82:7  nevertheless, like men you shall die, and fall like any prince.”

The elohim held a majestic place in God’s creation. We read of Satan, “You were an anointed guardian cherub. I placed you; you were on the holy mountain of God; in the midst of the stones of fire you walked” (Ezekiel 28:14).

Some exercised their free will to disobey God. They therefore will be judged alongside human beings. They, too, will be thrown alive to spend eternity in conscious torment. In fact, we’re told that the Lake of Fire was prepared especially for them.

Psa 82:8  Arise, O God, judge the earth; for you shall inherit all the nations!

Reading the Revelation, you understand that in the Great Tribulation God “judge(s) the earth.”

Next, in the Millennial Kingdom God “judges the earth.”

Next, at the Great White Throne God “judges the earth.”

You also read, “Then the seventh angel sounded: And there were loud voices in heaven, saying, “The kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ, and He shall reign forever and ever!” (11:15).

We win! That is huge. And we win with our giving no special attention to the wicked elohim. We don’t need to identify territorial spirits; or engage in any direct warfare against them.

We simply live-out a simple, normal Christian life. A Daniel-like life of obedience and living sacrifice.

#2 – There Is God Who Establishes A Society’s Righteousness (v3-4)

What happens when we leave God out of our redo’s of society? In the Book of Romans, we read, “And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind, to do those things which are not fitting; being filled with all unrighteousness, sexual immorality, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, evil-mindedness; they are whisperers, backbiters, haters of God, violent, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, undiscerning, untrustworthy, unloving, unforgiving, unmerciful; who, knowing the righteous judgment of God, that those who practice such things are deserving of death, not only do the same but also approve of those who practice them” (1:28-32).

Chip away at the biblical foundations for human society and you end up in a Romans One death spiral. I think there is abundant evidence to support that our great nation has been in this downward spiral for quite some time.

As believers, we are empowered by Jesus to address any social crises by two things, at least: Worldview, and Mission:

Our Worldview is John 3:16-18, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.”

Our Mission is to take that message into the world of lost men and women: “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:19-20).

I’m not sure who first said, “The heart of the problem is the problem of the heart,” but it is profoundly true. Hearts must change.
Only God has the power to change them. And that power, we are promised, is the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Whether it’s your marriage or a monarchy, a relationship with Jesus is the answer.

Early Christian rocker, Larry Norman, had a song, Why Don’t You Look Into Jesus, He’s Got the Answer. As Stan Lee would say, “Nuff said.”

Psalm 82 expresses one of God’s foundational principles for human society: Compassion.

Psa 82:3  “Give justice to the weak and the fatherless; maintain the right of the afflicted and the destitute.
Psa 82:4  Rescue the weak and the needy; deliver them from the hand of the wicked.”

In the context of the psalm, these are the areas in which the wicked elohim – guys like the Prince of Persia – were influencing mankind.

Their influence was to withhold justice from the weak and the fatherless, to eliminate the right of the afflicted and destitute, to abandon the weak and the needy, and to deliver them to the hand of the wicked.

We are to have compassion upon all, and especially the weakest, the most destitute, the most needy.

Too simplistic, you say, for the complex problems of modern societies? The Jewish legal system was quite complex. Not to Jesus. He was asked if He could summarize the law into one commandment.

Mat 22:37 Jesus said to him, ‘YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND.’
Mat 22:38 This is the first and great commandment.
Mat 22:39 And the second is like it: ‘YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.’
Mat 22:40 On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.”

It sounds so profound, so powerful in church; yet out in the world, it is dismissed as overly simplistic, wishful thinking.

Remember your worldview… Commit to your Mission… Do it all with Compassion.

I’m Pitted By Fools (Psalm 69)

1.82 seconds.

It is the current pit stop record time in Grand Prix Racing. The feat was accomplished by the Aston Martin Red Bull Racing Crew, in Brazil, in November 2019. It was the third time they had set a new record.

(In case you were wondering, the average pit stop takes 2.4 seconds).

Pit stops are essential. Just ask Lightning McQueen. His refusal to pit cost him the Piston Cup and forced another race.

There is a “pit” stop in Psalm 69. Listen as I read a selection from the verses: “I sink in deep mire, Where there is no standing; I have come into deep waters, Where the floods overflow me. Deliver me out of the mire, And let me not sink; Let me be delivered… out of the deep waters. Let not the floodwater overflow me, Nor let the deep swallow me up; And let not the pit shut its mouth on me.”

It sounds like he was thrown into a hollowed-out rock reservoir called a cistern. Run-off and rain water would collect in it, creating mud, muck, and mire on the bottom. The sides were too slimy to climb. If the water was deep enough, a person thrown in would drown.

I’m guessing none among us has been thrown into a cistern. Nevertheless, we often use these images to describe our troubles:

We say, “I’m drowning in debt.”
We say, “I’m stuck in the mire.”
We say, “I feel like I’m sinking.”
We say, “I’m in deep waters.”
We say, “I’m being swallowed up.”
We say, “I’m up to my neck.”

When you find yourself “in the pits,” Psalm 69 will be a sustaining read. I’ll organize my comments around two points: #1 You Can’t Avoid Your Pit Stops, but #2 You Will Arise From Your Pit Starts.

#1 – You Can’t Avoid Your Pit Stops (v1-12)

There is a thread of research among scholars that this psalm was not written by David about an incident in his life. They say it was written much later, about an incident involving the prophet Jeremiah.

In the 6th century BC, Jeremiah delivered God’s Word to rebellious Judah – “Surrender to Babylon.”

It wasn’t received. Among his many persecutions, Jeremiah was thrown into a cistern. One of those scholars I alluded to points out,

This whole psalm could certainly be prayed in Jeremiah’s voice. It seems to be a summary of Jeremiah’s suffering. He was thrown into a cistern and sank in its muck. His own family plotted against him. He suffered shame and disgrace for God’s sake. He plead for God’s vengeance against his enemies.

The collected psalms span centuries. They were not compiled as we know them until after the Babylonian captivity, in the 3rd century BC. We can’t say for certain, but I lean towards Psalm 69 being about Jeremiah. If not, his experience in the pit is exemplary of anyone’s.

Psa 69:1  To the Chief Musician. Set to “The Lilies.” A Psalm of David. Save me, O God! For the waters have come up to my neck.

The designation, “A psalm of David,” is traditional, and important; but it is not inspired. Someone else could have written this song to the popular tune of “The Lilies.”

He was “neck deep,” no exaggerating. He thought he was going to drown.

Whether it was Jeremiah, or David, or some other saint, our first lesson is that in the world we will have tribulation. Expect it. It isn’t some strange thing.

Psa 69:2  I sink in deep mire, Where there is no standing; I have come into deep waters, Where the floods overflow me.

The “mire” was so deep that his feet could not touch anything solid.

One translation uses the term “swamp water” instead of “floods.” He was treading thick, murky water.

Psa 69:3  I am weary with my crying; My throat is dry; My eyes fail while I wait for my God.

His crying was that whole-body sobbing you do in deep sorrow. Throat dry from loudly crying out. “My eyes fail” in that they’d be full of muck.

There was no escape from a cistern. Only God could “save” him; so he must “wait.”

Psa 69:4  Those who hate me without a cause Are more than the hairs of my head; They are mighty who would destroy me, Being my enemies wrongfully; Though I have stolen nothing, I still must restore it.

A lot of powerful people opposed him. He was in the right, but was treated as a criminal.
It was as if he were being accused of robbery but, being innocent, he had nothing to restore.

Psa 69:5  O God, You know my foolishness; And my sins are not hidden from You.
Psa 69:6  Let not those who wait for You, O Lord GOD of hosts, be ashamed because of me; Let not those who seek You be confounded because of me, O God of Israel.
Psa 69:7  Because for Your sake I have borne reproach; Shame has covered my face.

God was using him despite his own shortcomings. Your shortcomings – they are no excuse for tapping out of the spiritual battle.

In his pit, he was genuinely concerned that believers not be stumbled, but that they would understand it was for the Lord that he was afflicted. Testimony is important.

Psa 69:8  I have become a stranger to my brothers, And an alien to my mother’s children;
Many of you, upon being born-again of the Spirit, were rejected by those you are related to by your first, physical birth. It’s a deep-pit experience.

Psa 69:9  Because zeal for Your house has eaten me up, And the reproaches of those who reproach You have fallen on me.

Jeremiah often preached just outside the Temple. It was his spot, so to speak.

When Jesus drove the moneychangers out of the Temple courts at the beginning of His ministry, His disciples remembered this very passage (John 2:17).

Jesus had Jeremiah-like sorrows. His family rejected Him, at one point thinking Him insane.

Psa 69:10  When I wept and chastened my soul with fasting, That became my reproach.
Psa 69:11  I also made sackcloth my garment…

“Fasting” was prompted not by discipline but by distress. He didn’t feel like eating.

“Sackcloth” was a goats-hair outer garment signifying mourning.

Psa 69:11 … I became a byword to them.
Psa 69:12  Those who sit in the gate speak against me, And I am the song of the drunkards.

Think of “byword” as an ancient meme. The Jews would apply this man’s name or his words to things to have a good laugh. Men sat “in the gate” for a time each day to hear quarrels or to conduct business. The singer of this song was derided there. At night, the “drunkards” sung crude lyrics about him.

Three pit-points emerge:

Only God can “save” you.
You’re asked to “wait” for God to “save” you.
You “bear [His] reproach” by maintaining your testimony while you “wait” for God to “save” you.

#2 – You Can Arise From Your Pit Starts (v13-36)

Lightning McQueen had an odd pit crew in the Piston Cup showdown. The other crews made fun of them. After a bump by Chick Hicks caused two flats, McQueen had to pit under a yellow flag. He limped in.

Guido was up for the task, completing the 4-tire change in what announcer Bob Cutlass called “the fastest pit stop I’ve ever seen.”

McQueen then made the most of his pit start… And so will we if we rely upon the Lord.

Psa 69:13  But as for me, my prayer is to You, O LORD, in the acceptable time; O God, in the multitude of Your mercy, Hear me in the truth of Your salvation.

There is a time for prayer to be answered by God. However long, or short, it should be “acceptable” to the saint praying.
Because we are saved, God will answer out of the “multitude of [His] mercy.”

Have you discovered that God has different mercies? Or we could say, mercy is revealed to us in many different ways:

Jeremiah wrote, in Lamentations, “Through the LORD’s mercies we are not consumed, Because His compassions fail not. They are new every morning; Great is Your faithfulness” (3:22-23). We’ll call these “new-every-morning mercies.”

There are tender mercies: Psalm 25:6, “Remember, O LORD, Your tender mercies and Your lovingkindnesses, For they are from of old.” Tender mercies occurs twenty-four times in the Bible.

Nehemiah 9:19 says, “Yet in Your manifold mercies You did not forsake them in the wilderness. The pillar of the cloud did not depart from them by day, To lead them on the road; Nor the pillar of fire by night, To show them light, And the way they should go.”

There are great mercies – Isaiah 54:7, “For a mere moment I have forsaken you, But with great mercies I will gather you.”

Isaiah 55:3 mentions “sure mercies.”

God’s various mercies cannot be understood apart from experiencing them. How many have you experienced?

Some mercies may not be listed in the Bible. C.S. Lewis spoke of “severe mercies.” He coined the term in reference to the Lord allowing a believing wife to die in order that her nonbelieving husband might see beyond earthly love to God’s agape.

Psa 69:14  Deliver me out of the mire, And let me not sink; Let me be delivered from those who hate me, And out of the deep waters.
Psa 69:15  Let not the floodwater overflow me, Nor let the deep swallow me up; And let not the pit shut its mouth on me.

Good pit prayer. One thing that struck me: The lyricist had become intimately acquainted with life in a cistern. He could describe it to the proverbial “T.” Get to know your troubles. Experience them fully. As some would say, own them. Lewis also said, “Where we find difficulty we may always expect that a discovery awaits us.”

I was going to title this message, Pit Boss. Learn to live in your pits like a boss.

Psa 69:16  Hear me, O LORD, for Your lovingkindness is good; Turn to me according to the multitude of Your tender mercies.
Psa 69:17  And do not hide Your face from Your servant, For I am in trouble; Hear me speedily.
Psa 69:18  Draw near to my soul, and redeem it; Deliver me because of my enemies.

God’s “lovingkindness” is not simply “good.” It is better than life, we are told elsewhere.
Again with His “tender mercies.”

Psa 69:19  You know my reproach, my shame, and my dishonor; My adversaries are all before You.
Psa 69:20  Reproach has broken my heart, And I am full of heaviness; I looked for someone to take pity, but there was none; And for comforters, but I found none.

Can you stand alone in your troubles? Can I? Avengers: Endgame builds to that terrific epic scene when a battered Captain America snaps on his shattered shield to stand alone against the forces of evil.

Can you stand alone? With only the Lord as your shield? You can’t know until your after-pit restart.

Psa 69:21  They also gave me gall for my food, And for my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink.

As a prisoner prior to the pit, this saint was treated poorly.

This is another line in Psalm 69 that is referred to in the New Testament. On the cross they gave Jesus vinegar to drink. This is described in Matthew 27:34; John 19:28-29 is even more clear with John adding that this was done that the Scripture might be fulfilled.

Psa 69:22  Let their table become a snare before them, And their well-being a trap.
Psa 69:23  Let their eyes be darkened, so that they do not see; And make their loins shake continually.
Psa 69:24  Pour out Your indignation upon them, And let Your wrathful anger take hold of them.
Psa 69:25  Let their dwelling place be desolate; Let no one live in their tents.
Psa 69:26  For they persecute the ones You have struck, And talk of the grief of those You have wounded.
Psa 69:27  Add iniquity to their iniquity, And let them not come into Your righteousness.

Once again we find ourselves dealing with an imprecatory – the calling down of curses on enemies. Our approach is to see these statements as confirming the final destiny of nonbelievers. They won’t “come into [God’s] righteousness” in the after life. In this life, they are like Pharaoh in the Exodus – hardening their hearts despite God’s mercies.

Psa 69:28  Let them be blotted out of the book of the living, And not be written with the righteous.

In Revelation chapter twenty we’re told that, at the resurrection of the wicked dead, “Then I saw a great white throne and Him who sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away. And there was found no place for them. And I saw the dead, small and great, standing before God, and books were opened. And another book was opened, which is the Book of Life. And the dead were judged according to their works, by the things which were written in the books. And anyone not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire.” (v11&12&15).

There are various ways to understand “The Book of the Living,” or “The Book of Life.” It seems to be the census of every human life. All names of all people are in it. If you die in unrighteousness, having not believed God, your name is removed. You are then judged according to your works. Your works cannot save you; you must be cast into Hell.

Psa 69:29  But I am poor and sorrowful; Let Your salvation, O God, set me up on high.

In contrast to the nonbeliever, the believer knows their wretchedness before God. They trust in His “salvation,” in God declaring us righteous thanks to Jesus. We are “set up on high” – now and forever.

Psa 69:30  I will praise the name of God with a song, And will magnify Him with thanksgiving.
Psa 69:31  This also shall please the LORD better than an ox or bull, Which has horns and hooves.

You emerge from pits a better living sacrifice.

Your relationship with the Lord is more intimate after the pit. You realize that what God wants is not your works, but to walk with you.

Psa 69:32  The humble shall see this and be glad; And you who seek God, your hearts shall live.
Psa 69:33  For the LORD hears the poor, And does not despise His prisoners.

The apostle Paul, when in prison, called himself the prisoner of the Lord. If God was willing to let him stay incarcerated, so be it.

If God is willing to leave you in the pit, you are the pitted of the Lord.

Psa 69:34  Let heaven and earth praise Him, The seas and everything that moves in them.

One day this will be our reality. The real “new normal.”

The plan God announced in Genesis to save mankind and to restore creation comes to completion in the Revelation. By His providence, God keeps the plan progressing.

Psa 69:35  For God will save Zion And build the cities of Judah, That they may dwell there and possess it.
Psa 69:36  Also, the descendants of His servants shall inherit it, And those who love His name shall dwell in it.

Verse thirty-five: Sounds like the Millennial Kingdom. Jesus ruling the earth from David’s throne in Jerusalem.

Verse thirty-six: Sounds like Eternity. “Descendants” of believers, both Jew and Gentile, dwelling forever in the restored earth, with New Jerusalem as the brilliant gem of a city.

Maybe you’re having a hard time relating your troubles to a cistern. You’ve got lots of other such figurative spots:

Noah had the Ark.
Moses floated in a basket with crocs.
Daniel had the lions den.
Daniel’s three companions had the fiery furnace.
Belly of a great fish more to your liking?
In the Book of Hebrews we read of believers hiding in dens and in caves

No pit; no pit start:

There would be no intimate experience of God’s lovingkindness and of His mercies.
There would be no opportunity for the unrighteous to see themselves as God does.
You would never be sure that God is your sufficiency.
There would be no song to sing.

Ark Tales (Psalm 68)

Strongholds of Men; strongholds of Elves; strongholds of Dwarves; strongholds of Evil.

The Lord of the Rings trilogy is full with them. Helm’s Deep; Rivendell; Moria; Mordor.

Especially Mordor, also called The Black Land, and The Land of Shadow. It was the realm of the dArk lord, Sauron.

When Boromir heard that the plan was to take the One Ring to Mordor, to destroy it, he uttered these chilling words:

One does not simply walk into Mordor. Its Black Gates are guarded by more than just Orcs. There is evil there that does not sleep, and the Great Eye is ever watchful. It is a barren wasteland, riddled with fire and ash and dust, the very air you breathe is a poisonous fume.

There is a stronghold of evil in Psalm 68. It is named twice in verse fifteen, and then once in verse twenty-two. Bashan.

We don’t immediately see it, both because we’re not Hebrew, and because we aren’t up on supernatural Jewish geography.

The Old Testament says that Bashan was controlled by two kings, Sihon and Og.

They both were associated with the ancient giant clans, the Rephaim and the Anakim (Deuteronomy 2:10-12; Joshua 12:1-5).

Og, for example, slept in a bed that was made of iron, thirteen feet long and six feet wide.

One scholar writes:

According to Jewish tradition, [this region of Bashan] was the location where the divine sons of God had descended from Heaven – ultimately corrupting humankind via their offspring with human women [as reported in Genesis 6:1-4]. These offspring were known as Nephilim, [precursors] of the Anakim and the Rephaim (Numbers 13:30-33). In Jewish theology, the spirits of these giants were demons (First Enoch 15:1-12).

Any mention of Bashan would remind a Jew of the Nephilim, and of a demonic stronghold.

What if I told you there was another stronghold in Psalm 68? Again, it isn’t immediately obvious but, as we will see, it is the Ark of the Covenant, where the presence of the Lord dwelt among His people.

With that in mind, I’ll organize my comments around two points: #1 God’s Presence In Israel Prevailed & Will Prevail Against The Enemy, and #2 God’s Presence In You Prevails & Will Prevail Against The Enemy.

#1 – God’s Presence In Israel Prevailed & Will Prevail Against The Enemy (v1-34)

The Ark of the Covenant, that amazing box that was in the Holy of Holies, where God dwelt among Israel, is definitely what this psalm is about:

Verse seven hints at it, saying, “When You went out before Your people, When You marched through the wilderness…” The Ark preceded the Israelites on their journey.

Verses twenty-four and twenty-five make it clear this song is about the Ark, “They have seen Your procession, O God, The procession of my God, my King, into the sanctuary. The singers went before, the players on instruments followed after; Among them were the maidens playing timbrels.”

William MacDonald comments,

This is Israel’s national processional, in which the journey of the Ark of the covenant from Mount Sinai to Mount Zion is seen as symbolizing the march of God to ultimate victory. To the Jewish mind, the Ark rightly represented the presence of God; when the Ark moved, God moved. It is quite generally believed that the song was composed to celebrate one particular incident in the history of the Ark – the return to [Jerusalem] after its inglorious capture by the Philistines and after its stay in the house of Obed-Edom (Second Samuel 6:12-18).”

This song tells of the Ark’s march through the wilderness, into the Promised Land, to Jerusalem, then far beyond that to God’s ultimate triumph over the enemy.

The song has a six verse prelude.

Psa 68:1  To the Chief Musician. A Psalm of David. A Song. Let God arise, Let His enemies be scattered; Let those also who hate Him flee before Him.

The first verse gives us a clue that the movements of the Ark in the wilderness are the subject. These are almost exact words which Moses used when the Ark first started off from Sinai, in Numbers 10:35.

Psa 68:2  As smoke is driven away, So drive them away; As wax melts before the fire, So let the wicked perish at the presence of God.

The power of the Ark is compared to wind and fire. The enemies of God were like smoke and wax. They never had a chance.

Psa 68:3  But let the righteous be glad; Let them rejoice before God; Yes, let them rejoice exceedingly.

“The righteous” is a name for believers. You believe God and He declares you righteous. He grants you a right standing with Him because of what Jesus did on the Cross: “He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him” (Second Corinthians 5:21).

A believer can therefore “be glad… rejoice… rejoice exceedingly,” knowing they are righteous, and that Heaven awaits after a relatively short time of trouble in this life.

It isn’t wishful thinking to focus on the ultimate triumph of God and His people. The Bible is one book in which you want to read the ending first. We typically tell new believers, or seeking nonbelievers, to start by reading the Gospel of John.

Lately I’ve thought we ought to recommend they read the Revelation of Jesus Christ. At least chapters nineteen through twenty-two.

Psa 68:4  Sing to God, sing praises to His name; Extol Him who rides on the clouds, By His name YAH, And rejoice before Him.

God’s Old Testament presence was a cloud by day during the Exodus. “YAH” as a name of God first appears in the Song of Moses. Again, it is a clue that this a song commemorating the Ark’s journey through Hebrew history.

Psa 68:5  A father of the fatherless, a defender of widows, Is God in His holy habitation.
Psa 68:6  God sets the solitary in families; He brings out those who are bound into prosperity; But the rebellious dwell in a dry land.

Israel became a nation. The test of a nation is how it treats its most vulnerable.
God intended Israel to show compassion to the “fatherless,” to “widows,” to the “solitary.” He intended them to free captives by converting them.

His promise to Israel was “prosperity,” both economic and emotional.

Economically; emotionally… Folks aren’t currently (or should we say, COVIDLY) doing very well:

Hertz Car Rental announced its bankruptcy; 17,000 employees are out of work.

Suicide and domestic violence are increasing alarmingly. Australia, for example, says suicide is up 50%.

According to a recent study, “A third of Americans are showing signs of clinical anxiety or depression, the most definitive and alarming sign yet of the psychological toll exacted by the coronavirus pandemic.”

How are we doing? Hard to say.

But I did see this article, in the Christian Post: “Nearly half of churchgoers say they haven’t watched any online service in past 4 weeks.”

It is a time to be rich in faith, and to rejoice in eternal life in Jesus. Being out of fellowship will take its toll if we are not vigilant.

Psa 68:7  O God, when You went out before Your people, When You marched through the wilderness, Selah
Psa 68:8  The earth shook; The heavens also dropped rain at the presence of God; Sinai itself was moved at the presence of God, the God of Israel.

God’s creation responded to the march of the Ark. God’s dealings with Israel are not some localized belief system. They are cosmic, affecting all the universe, and all mankind. They are momentous, magnificent. They are awesome and amazing.

In verses nine through fourteen, the Ark entered the Promised Land.

Psa 68:9  You, O God, sent a plentiful rain, Whereby You confirmed Your inheritance, When it was weary.
Psa 68:10  Your congregation dwelt in it; You, O God, provided from Your goodness for the poor.
Psa 68:11  The Lord gave the word; Great was the company of those who proclaimed it:
Psa 68:12  “Kings of armies flee, they flee, And she who remains at home divides the spoil.
Psa 68:13  Though you lie down among the sheepfolds, You will be like the wings of a dove covered with silver, And her feathers with yellow gold.”
Psa 68:14  When the Almighty scattered kings in it, It was white as snow in Zalmon.

When Israel crossed the Jordan River into the Promised Land, the Ark was carried before them, leading the way.

The song describes changes in the weather patterns that brought abundant rain, greening the wilderness, to make it the land flowing with milk and honey.

The Lord “gave the word,” meaning He was their military captain as the armies of Israel captured city after city from the enemy.

The Jewish women stayed back, secure, tending the sheep. Their victorious men brought home spoils. As they tried on the beautiful clothes and jewelry, they resembled “the wings of a dove covered with silver,” or, when the light hit at a different angle, they gleamed like “feathers with yellow gold.”

Enemy kings scattered like a snowfall.

I’d like to remind us that giants like Sihon and Og were deeply entrenched in the Promised Land. The main reason that Israel initially refused to enter the land, the one given by the ten faithless spies, was giants:

Num 13:31  [The ten spies said], “We are not able to go up against the people, for they are stronger than we.”
Num 13:32  And they gave the children of Israel a bad report of the land which they had spied out, saying, “The land through which we have gone as spies is a land that devours its inhabitants, and all the people whom we saw in it are men of great stature.
Num 13:33  There we saw the giants (the descendants of Anak came from the giants); and we were like grasshoppers in our own sight, and so we were in their sight.”

If you think I’m making too much of giants, it might be because most make too little. There are more than thirty verses about the Nephilim, or the Rephaim, or the Anakim; and they are ‘huge’ in Jewish history. Bible commentators prefer to downplay their role.

The next several verses serve as an interlude as the psalm discusses victory over Bashan.

Psa 68:15  A mountain of God is the mountain of Bashan; A mountain of many peaks is the mountain of Bashan.

Wait. If it is “a mountain of God,” how can Bashan be an evil stronghold? The word translated “God” is the plural form of elohim. Bashan is “a mountain of elohims.” You can verify that by consulting Strongs Concordance.

The word elohim is not a name of the triune God. The word elohim describes a class of beings. All supernatural beings – God, archangels, Cherubim, Seraphim, the obedient angels… Satan, the fallen angels – all are elohims. All supernatural beings are elohims; but no other supernatural being is God.

Bashan is said to be “a mountain of many peaks.” One of those peaks is Mount Hermon. One researcher wrote:

In the apocryphal Book of Enoch, Mount Hermon is the place where the Grigori (“Watcher”) class of fallen angels descended to Earth. They swore upon the mountain that they would take wives among the daughters of men and then return (Enoch 6), an act corresponding to description of the Nephilim of Genesis 6, which speaks of sexual relations between the “sons of God” and the “daughters of men.” …Ridding the Earth of these Nephilim was one of God’s purposes for flooding the world in [the days of Noah].

Psa 68:16  Why do you fume with envy, you mountains of many peaks? This is the mountain which God desires to dwell in; Yes, the LORD will dwell in it forever.

Clearly there is an unresolved conflict between those in Bashan and the Lord. “God desires to dwell in it” means He will conquer His enemies there.

The supernatural conflict was resolved by the Cross of Jesus. There Jesus triumphed over all agents of evil, once-for-all.

Psa 68:17  The chariots of God are twenty thousand, Even thousands of thousands; The Lord is among them as in Sinai, in the Holy Place.

This is likely a poetic rendering of the march of the Ark into Jerusalem. Bashan looked on, and could do nothing to stop the glory of the Lord from resting in the Tabernacle.

Psa 68:18  You have ascended on high, You have led captivity captive; You have received gifts among men, Even from the rebellious, That the LORD God might dwell there.

Despite the best efforts of Bashan, and the rebellion of the Jews themselves, God, by His providence, was accomplishing His plan to redeem mankind and creation. The Ark’s arrival in the city God loves was a huge moment in the furtherance of the plan to redeem humanity, and creation.

The apostle Paul applies this verse to Jesus in his letter to the church at Ephesus. It is thus a Messianic psalm.

The Lord Jesus ascended into Heaven, is seated there in glory, and in power. It was another great victory brought to pass by the providence of Almighty God.

Psa 68:19  Blessed be the Lord, Who daily loads us with benefits, The God of our salvation! Selah

“Benefits” is not in the Hebrew. The Lord daily loads us. It could read, “the Lord daily burdens us.” If you were here last week, we saw this concept in Psalm 55. It means God sustains us in our lot in life. Salvation is only the beginning of His work in us.

Psa 68:20  Our God is the God of salvation; And to GOD the Lord belong escapes from death.

There is no other way to be saved but to believe the God of the Bible.
In Him alone can a person “escape from” the penalty of sin, which is “death” – eternal, conscious suffering in the Lake of Fire.

Psa 68:21  But God will wound the head of His enemies, The hairy scalp of the one who still goes on in his trespasses.
Psa 68:22  The Lord said, “I will bring back from Bashan, I will bring them back from the depths of the sea,
Psa 68:23  That your foot may crush them in blood, And the tongues of your dogs may have their portion from your enemies.”

This is a song; it is poetry. This is a picturesque description of God’s final dealings with supernatural evildoers. One thing to glean: God will “bring them back from Bashan” declares His intent to save mankind, who have been taken captive by Satan.

Psa 68:24  They have seen Your procession, O God, The procession of my God, my King, into the sanctuary.
David comes back to the event at hand: The arrival of the Ark in Jerusalem for the first time.

Psa 68:25  The singers went before, the players on instruments followed after; Among them were the maidens playing timbrels.
Psa 68:26  Bless God in the congregations, The Lord, from the fountain of Israel.
Psa 68:27  There is little Benjamin, their leader, The princes of Judah and their company, The princes of Zebulun and the princes of Naphtali.
Psa 68:28  Your God has commanded your strength; Strengthen, O God, what You have done for us.
This reads like you are flipping through pictures taken at an event. Each tells part of the whole story.

Next the song jumps future, beyond even our time.

Psa 68:29  Because of Your temple at Jerusalem, Kings will bring presents to You.

This is a future Temple, what we call the Millennial Temple.

It will exist in Jerusalem after the Second Coming of Jesus to the earth, to establish the Kingdom of God on the earth for one thousand years.

Psa 68:30  Rebuke the beasts of the reeds, The herd of bulls with the calves of the peoples, Till everyone submits himself with pieces of silver. Scatter the peoples who delight in war.

Beasts and bulls; these refer to evil elohims. For example: In Psalm 22, the psalmist says, “Many bulls have surrounded Me; Strong bulls of Bashan have encircled Me” (v12).

“Calves of the people” can be translated “flocks of people.” It might refer to the armies of the earth who turn on Jesus at His Second Coming. In a sense, those nonbelievers are the flocks of evil entities.

“Till everyone submits himself with pieces of silver” would remind a Jew that, under the Law, a firstborn son is symbolically redeemed by silver coins.
In context here, it is promising the Millennium as a time of salvation.

Psa 68:31  Envoys will come out of Egypt; Ethiopia will quickly stretch out her hands to God.
Psa 68:32  Sing to God, you kingdoms of the earth; Oh, sing praises to the Lord, Selah
Psa 68:33  To Him who rides on the heaven of heavens, which were of old! Indeed, He sends out His voice, a mighty voice.
Psa 68:34  Ascribe strength to God; His excellence is over Israel, And His strength is in the clouds.

Peace will prevail. Nations will come to Jesus, in Jerusalem, to kneel before Him with gifts. His glory will fill the earth as clouds fill the sky.

The Ark was lost to history before the Babylonian captivity. No biggie. Jesus is coming.

#2 – God’s Presence In You Prevails & Will Prevail Against The Enemy (v35)

We are big on context when teaching God’s Word. We don’t want to read into the text something that is not there. At the same time, we benefit from having the full revelation of God. It gives us freedom to see things in the text that the original human author did not yet understand. It would be silly to ignore them.

I can’t help but see us in the final verse:

Psa 68:35  O God, You are more awesome than Your holy places. The God of Israel is He who gives strength and power to His people. Blessed be God!

Without taking anything away from the celebration at hand, David explained that God was “more awesome” than His presence dwelling in the Ark. There is a hint that God wanted to dwell not just with His people, but in them. He “gives [us] strength and power.”

Jesus told the church, “But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you” (Acts 1:8). He then gave the church the gift of the Holy Spirit, a birthday gift, on the Day of Pentecost. (Which just happens to be today).

I came across a quote this week. It’s only four words, but insightful: “We are sacred space.”

Individually, and collectively, believers are the Temple – the “sacred space” – of the Holy Spirit. No enemy – natural or supernatural – can prevail against us, either now or in the future.

Let me share something that will encourage you. In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus took His disciples to “the region of Caesarea Philippi” (16:13). It was there He uttered a favorite phrase of believers, “… I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it (v18 KJV).

We typically think of Satan and his forces attacking us.
But “gates” are not for offense; they are defensive. Jesus was describing His assault on the powers of dArkness and evil. He would triumph over them, and because of it, we are assured we will prevail.

Now here is the kicker: Caesarea Philippi was located at the base of Mount Hermon, in the region of Bashan.

His disciples would have understood He meant that He would destroy the enemy, and that they would prevail.

At the Cross Jesus “disarmed principalities and powers, [making] a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it” (Colossians 2:15).

The ultimate end of evil you can read about in the Revelation. Mean time… We prevail by taking up the Cross.

We prevail the way Jesus did: in humility, in weakness, trusting in the wisdom of God, preferring others more than ourselves, seeking to see that those held captive receive salvation.

When Doves Cry (Psalm 55)

There are more than a few remarkable mice:

Mickey & Minnie
Jerry (of Tom & Jerry)
Speedy Gonzales
Speedy’s cousin, Slowpoke Rodriguez
Pinky & the Brain
Gus (from Cinderella)
Fievel Mousekewitz
Mighty Mouse
Stuart Little
Mrs. Brisby (from The Secret of NIMH)
Pixie & Dixie

(Pikachu is often thought of as a mouse, but the character was originally inspired by a squirrel).

Did I mention Timothy Q. Mouse? One of his greatest moments in the animated feature, Dumbo, ended up on the cutting room floor. In the deleted scene, Timothy tells a dejected Dumbo that his grandpa used to say, “Now listen here, you little tyke; lots of things are going to happen that you won’t like.”

Then Timothy sang the song, Are You a Man or a Mouse?

When the going’s getting rough
An’ old man trouble’s getting tough
Stand right up and call his bluff
Are you a man or a mouse?

You won’t find any mice in Psalm 55, but there is a dove. David said, “Oh, that I had wings like a dove! I would fly away and be at rest. Indeed, I would wander far off, And remain in the wilderness… I would hasten my escape From the windy storm and tempest” (v6-8).

David was expressing his desire to flee from his troubles, rather than have to face them.

As is so often the case, God did not give David “wings like a dove” in his troubles. He instead promised to sustain him in them.

No other animal is directly named. But if you look at verse twenty-two, you’ll see the word “burden.” The ver word suggests another animal, to the Hebrew mind.

The main animal of burden in the Bible was the donkey.

In the 74 or so times they are mentioned, they are always depicted as work animals or riding animals. That is their lot. They plow fields and carry loads.

David the dove wanted to escape his lot in life.

David the donkey would be sustained in his troubles.

I’ll organize my comments by asking you: #1 Are You A Dove?, or #2 Are You A Donkey?

#1 – Are You A Dove? (v1-15)

Don’t be thinking of “dove” as a symbol of God the Holy Spirit. Or as the symbol of the Democratic Party. Or as a label for pacifists. The dove in our song is a common bird who has the benefit of independent flight in order to escape its troubles; nothing more.

David thought he could fly away.

Psa 55:1  To the Chief Musician. With Stringed Instruments. A Contemplation of David. Give ear to my prayer, O God, And do not hide Yourself from my supplication.

Trivia question: How many guitars on Hotel California? Although it varies, the usual answer is 8.

David put his contemplation of his troubles to music, writing it for multiple stringed instruments to perform.

“Give ear to my prayer” sounds OK; but “do not hide Yourself from my supplication” seems to diminish God. It doesn’t. Look at verse two:

Psa 55:2  Attend to me, and hear me; I am restless in my complaint, and moan noisily,

It’s a repeat of verse one with some insight. He again asked to be heard. Then he described the character of his supplication: It was a noisy, restless, moaning, complaint.

When David asked God to not hide Himself from his supplication, it was because David knew he was whining.

In The Godfather, a weeping Johnny Fontane complains to Don Corleone about a movie role he wanted. The Don gets up, slaps him, saying, “You can act like a man.” David allowed himself to deteriorate into self-pity. He deserved a slap.

People like to point out that God is OK with your doubts, or complaints. That isn’t the point. The point is this: Are you OK with them? Do you want to be the kind of believer that doubts and complains? The kind who needs a slap to act like a man or woman of God? No; of course not. Slap yourself.

Psa 55:3  Because of the voice of the enemy, Because of the oppression of the wicked; For they bring down trouble upon me, And in wrath they hate me.
Psa 55:4  My heart is severely pained within me, And the terrors of death have fallen upon me.
Psa 55:5  Fearfulness and trembling have come upon me, And horror has overwhelmed me.

If you’ve been to the doctor recently, did they give you a depression screening? These verses we just read were David’s answers.

Have you felt these ways? Probably; I know I have. In fact, in one sense, I hope you have felt some of these – because then you are equipped to “weep with those who weep,” without giving them shallow counsel.

David – the so-called “man after God’s own heart” – knew heartache.

Psa 55:6  So I said, “Oh, that I had wings like a dove! I would fly away and be at rest.
Psa 55:7  Indeed, I would wander far off, And remain in the wilderness. Selah
Psa 55:8  I would hasten my escape From the windy storm and tempest.”

David did not have “wings,” and neither do we. Ah, but we sometimes think we can be capable of independent flight. We can look to the so-called wisdom of the world, or to its resources, as our “wings” – attempting flight.

When troubles come upon me… I try to exercise independent flight, to avoid them. I waste a lot of time until realizing I can’t escape my lot. We’re not doves.

The particular troubles David wanted to fly from are described next.

Psa 55:9  Destroy, O Lord, and divide their tongues, For I have seen violence and strife in the city.
Psa 55:10  Day and night they go around it on its walls; Iniquity and trouble are also in the midst of it.
Psa 55:11  Destruction is in its midst; Oppression and deceit do not depart from its streets.

Someone, or someones, were causing serious dissent against David’s rule in Jerusalem.

Their “deceit[ful]” “tongues,” meaning their lying words, were fomenting “strife,” “violence,” “iniquity,” “trouble,” “destruction,” and “oppression.”

It sounds a lot like the time when David’s son, Absalom, was laying the groundwork for his hostile takeover of the kingdom. He did it using lying words.

Psa 55:12  For it is not an enemy who reproaches me; Then I could bear it. Nor is it one who hates me who has exalted himself against me; Then I could hide from him.
Psa 55:13  But it was you, a man my equal, My companion and my acquaintance.
Psa 55:14  We took sweet counsel together, And walked to the house of God in the throng.

If David was describing the rebellion of Absalom, the “companion” of his he was speaking about would be his court counselor, Ahithophel. He changed loyalties, to Absalom.

Ahithophel’s counsel was disregarded. He went home and promptly hanged himself.

We see in this a Messianic prophecy. It very obviously looks forward past Ahithophel and David to Judas and Jesus.

O, what comfort it must have brought our Lord, Jesus, to recall this song. Just as David would go through his troubles and remain king, so Jesus would endure the Cross and reclaim the kingdom.

Psa 55:15  Let death seize them; Let them go down alive into hell, For wickedness is in their dwellings and among them.

This is one of those “imprecatory” statements, in which people are cursed with destruction and death.

In fact, David did not feel this way about Absalom. He cautioned his men to not kill his son. Jesus certainly did not feel this towards Judas.

These are statements that reveal the ultimate future of any and all who remain in their wickedness, in sin:

“Death” will seize them

They will “go down alive into Hell

Are you a dove? We all try independent flight from our troubles. It’s our natural reaction. We do not want to react naturally; we want to react supernaturally.

#2 – Are You A Donkey? (v16-23)

Jesus wasn’t alone in loving this psalm. The apostle Peter borrowed from verses twenty-two, “Cast your burden upon the Lord, and He will sustain you.”

“Burden” is a word with negative connotations. It’s a heavy load; a grief; an anxiety. It is something that slows us.

In this psalm, we mustn’t think of “burden” as a bad thing.

Derek Kidner says, “The word burden is too restrictive: it means whatever is given you, your appointed lot (hence in New English Bible, ‘your fortunes’). And the promise is not that God will carry it, but that he will sustain you.”

My unscholarly paraphrase: God will sustain you in your appointed lot in life. In that sense, you are to be like a donkey – taking on whatever load, sustained by Him to do so.

G. Campbell Morgan wrote, “The experience of suffering was not taken away from the servant of God, but he was sustained, and so made strong enough to resist its pressure, and through it to make his service more perfect. This is how God ever sustains us in the bearing of burdens.”

Psa 55:16  As for me, I will call upon God, And the LORD shall save me.
Psa 55:17  Evening and morning and at noon I will pray, and cry aloud, And He shall hear my voice.

Big change in David’s attitude and approach. Instead of whining, David visited the Tabernacle three times a day, for prayer, as was the custom of the Jews. Instead of crying like a baby, he cried like a man, at the prescribed times.

He knew the Lord would “save” him. David understood that to mean the current troubles would not lead to his destruction and death. The Lord would keep His unconditional promises to David.

Praying three times a day. Maybe that’s what the apostle Paul meant when he said he prayed three times for his affliction. God’s answer was to sustain Paul in his affliction. Very similar to what we are learning from David.

We are under no obligation to pray three times a day, either in Jerusalem, or looking East toward it.

Psa 55:18  He has redeemed my soul in peace from the battle that was against me, For there were many against me.
Psa 55:19  God will hear, and afflict them, Even He who abides from of old. Selah. Because they do not change, Therefore they do not fear God.

These two verses look back on David’s trouble. God sustained him; David was now at peace; God would be the One to mete out justice upon those who did not fear Him.

Psa 55:20  He has put forth his hands against those who were at peace with him; He has broken his covenant.
Psa 55:21  The words of his mouth were smoother than butter, But war was in his heart; His words were softer than oil, Yet they were drawn swords.

This described Ahithophel. What an awful legacy. He definitely did not finish well.

The apostle Paul wanted both he, and us, to finish well:

1Co 9:24  Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may obtain it.
1Co 9:25  And everyone who competes for the prize is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a perishable crown, but we for an imperishable crown.
1Co 9:26  Therefore I run thus: not with uncertainty. Thus I fight: not as one who beats the air.
1Co 9:27  But I discipline my body and bring it into subjection, lest, when I have preached to others, I myself should become disqualified.

Double-down on discipline. Don’t let your liberty in Jesus turn to something that weights you down. Run, Christian, run.

We said this psalm looked forward, prophetically, to Judas’ betrayal of Jesus. It has another, further, fulfillment.

It speaks of violating the covenant and making war with those that were at peace with him. This is where things are leading to for the nation of Israel today. A man is coming who will arise on the global stage with whom the nation of Israel will enter into a covenant – a peace agreement. This man will betray the nation of Israel.

He has more than thirty names in the Bible. We know him best as the antichrist. He is the Beast of the Revelation.

And look at the description given here of this man: His speech was smoother than butter, but his heart was war. His words were softer than oil, yet they were drawn swords. When the Bible speaks about the coming antichrist, the most common attribute that it speaks of concerns his speech and words.

Notice also the instruction to “cast your burden upon the Lord for He will sustain you.”

This will apply to the nation of Israel once, through the terrible Great Tribulation, they turn their eyes again to their Messiah. The Revelation specifically states God will sustain Israel to the end of that terrible time.

Psa 55:22  Cast your burden on the LORD, And He shall sustain you; He shall never permit the righteous to be moved.

We’re saying that this means something a little deeper than Footprints in the Sand. Remember the apostle Paul. He cast his thorn in the flesh on the Lord, Who sustained him.

The Bible version called The Message translates the end of the verse, “He’ll never let good people topple into ruin.” Any ruin – we do that to ourselves. It isn’t that the Christian life is too hard. It’s that our hearts may harden; we may leave our first love.

Psa 55:23  But You, O God, shall bring them down to the pit of destruction; Bloodthirsty and deceitful men shall not live out half their days; But I will trust in You.

David saw both the ultimate, and the immediate, destiny of the wicked:

Ultimately, eternally, they would be brought to what he called “the pit of destruction.” The Bible is progressive in its revelation. We know more than David did about the final destination of the lost. They will be consigned to the Lake of Fire, forever in conscious torment.

Immediately, God would vindicate David. His enemies would be dealt with.

If this was a contemplation of David’s upon Absalom’s rebellion, his son was killed, “not living out half his days.” It isn’t a promise to claim against those who might be opposed to you.

Your enemies will be dealt with:

At the Second Coming of Jesus, the antichrist and his cohort, a man called the false prophet, will become the first two permanent residents of the Lake of Fire.

Satan will be thrown into something called the Bottomless Pit.

After the one-thousand year reign of Jesus on the earth, Satan and the fallen angels will be thrown into the Lake of Fire.

All the wicked dead, from all of time, will be raised, and likewise cast alive into the Lake.

Donkey. Not the animal we would ordinarily want to identify with. But if your other choice is a dove, donkey is the spiritual alternative.

It won’t catch on… But when our brothers and sisters in Christ are in trouble, we might ask them, “Are you a donkey, or are you a dove?”

Don’t ask others until you ask yourself.

Pray For Keeps (Psalm 121)

Martin Luther once said, “As long as we live, there is never enough singing.” While are not the most sing-song culture, there are many occasions where only a song will do. Once a year, Happy Birthday will be dedicated to you. And, only once a year is Auld Lang Syne allowed to come out to be heard.

If you go to a ballgame you know there’s a moment coming – in the seventh inning stretch – where bitter rivals join together to sing about the joys of America’s past-time. You don’t have to be a baseball fan to enjoy Take Me Out To The Ballgame. Sure, you’re singing about going to a place where you’re already at, and you’re singing about a popcorn treat no one actually wants to eat, you sing about never leaving the park and that you and all the rest of the crowd are happy to be found in the stands. It may be idealized, but it’s just the right song for the time and the setting.

Dory, everyone’s favorite Pacific Blue Tang, swam into our hearts singing: “Just keep swimming, just keep swimming.” It was that song that not only helped her and Marlin though many trials, but ended up saving the lives of a large school of grouper who were caught in a fisherman’s net.

Songs have the ability to cheer our hearts or steel our resolve. They can also help us to remember things we’ve once learned but have a hard time recalling. If I were to ask you what the capital of New Hampshire was, or the order of the books of the Bible, a lot of you would start scrolling a song in your head.

In the Psalms, we’ve seen many kinds of songs that God has given us to sing through life. Songs of hope and songs of praise. Songs of lament and songs of sorrow. They’re given to us, not just so that we have some sort of emotional vent, but so we will learn the heart of God and how to live in closeness to Him.

Inside the Psalter there are 15 songs that were specifically used by Jewish pilgrims on their trips to the Temple in Jerusalem 3 times a year. They’re Psalms 120 through 134 and they’re called Songs of Ascent. Jerusalem was built on a hill, and so, from wherever you were traveling, you would go up the road, elevating up Mount Zion until finally you arrived in the Temple courts where you would worship God among His people.

These songs were meant to be sung as they took their trip. Probably the most famous among them is Psalm 121. You heard it at the start of our service this morning. When we look at the words, we may be tempted to say, “Now, wait a minute – The Lord will protect you from all harm? The sun won’t strike you? My foot will never slip?” Is this some Biblical version of I Believe I Can Fly? Or were the pilgrims just meant to sing something frivolous to pass the time, a sort of Take Me Out To The Ballgame on their long stretch from tent to Temple?

We’ll find this wonderful song is not shallow. It’s not unrealistic. It is a precious melody we can take with us as we make our own pilgrimage from here to heaven.

A little context might be helpful. The very first Song of Ascents, Psalm 120, is full of distress. The singer takes a look around and finds himself among violent and hate-filled people. He finally comes to the conclusion that he has “dwelt too long” in this place so far from God. And so he calls out to the Lord who is faithful to immediately answer. That’s the first song in the pilgrim journey. Some Bible scholars see an analogy of the moment that a person realizes that they are sinners and call out to God for salvation. He does not withhold it, He answers. And now the pilgrim begins their long walk with Him.

So, our pilgrim has made the decision to go and now, setting out, we find ourselves at the start of Psalm 121.

Psalm 121:1 – A song of ascents. 1 I lift my eyes toward the mountains. Where will my help come from?

There are several ways to look at this opening verse. Are we looking at mountains standing between the traveller and the Temple? Are we looking at the hills surrounding Jerusalem? Or, are we looking at the Temple Mount itself? All three would be mountains that the pilgrims would encounter and all three have their own implications.

Whichever it was, the singer looks up and quickly comes to the conclusion that he needed help. We’ll find he’s concerned about the elevation and the elements and potential enemies lurking about.

If we’re looking at mountains on the road, standing between him and Jerusalem, they would be foreboding, indeed. Even if there weren’t thieves hiding in the cliffs, mountain trails are much more hazardous and difficult than those on the level plain.

If we’re looking at the mountains surrounding Jerusalem, chances are the singer would also see the pagan shrines on the high places, stocked with shamans and temple prostitutes. They’d be selling themselves and selling charms and potions, promising help and protection, if you would only leave the path and linger for awhile with them.

If we’re looking at the hill of Jerusalem, the sight wouldn’t be frightening, but encouraging. There is the place where he’s headed. But, even then the singer does well to focus his attention, keeping himself from making the mistake of the Pharisees, who thought that their city and their traditions and their buildings was what kept them safe. This pilgrim must not going to make the mistake of Samson, who let his mind and his morality wander, thinking that his strength came, not from the Lord, but from his hair, leading to his destruction.

Psalm 121:2 – 2 My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth.

No matter who the pilgrim was, what year they were traveling, where they were coming from or how needy they were, this was and is true. God, the Creator, has made Himself available to us.

He offers more than just a bus ticket or a walking stick. The help described here means acts of supplying what is needed in abundant measure. To support and further the one being helped. We’re talking more than a simple guide here. Before the modern era, these long trips were often supplied with a guide to help those who hadn’t been before. Like how Sacagawea helped Lewis and Clark. Sometimes those guides did a great job. In 1843, a missionary named Elijah White led a caravan of 100 wagons carrying 1,000 people down The Oregon Trail. He had made the trip the year before and so knew a bit of how to handle it.

On the other hand, sometimes those guides don’t do so well. Lansford Hastings promised the 89 members of the Donner Party that he knew a shortcut to California.

The Psalmist reminds us that God is not simply a guy who has been down the road once before. He’s the One who made the heavens and the earth. He placed the stars throughout the galaxies so that they might form particular constellations from our vantage point. He hangs the planets on nothing and keeps them in motion. He gives life to the universe. And why did He do all of it? So that He might interact with you and me. So that He might walk with us as He walked with Adam and Eve in the cool of the day.

This reminder is both humbling and invigorating. As we look at our surroundings or down the road of life and find ourselves thinking, “I need help.” We’re immediately met with the truth that not only will God help, but also the that God fashioned the cosmos so He could love us.

Our singer, seeing the mountains, takes the next step forward, still singing. Trials and temptations most certainly lay ahead, but God would not fail to help. In verse 3, the voice changes from I/my to you/your. Remember: The pilgrims were singing this as they went. And so it seems best to see this as them singing to themselves what they know to be true.

Psalm 121:3 – 3 He will not allow your foot to slip; your Protector will not slumber.

God’s providence extends to you. It’s not just for the great movements of history. He has numbered the hairs of your head. He has prepared a path for your life so that you can discover the good works He has set before you.

But we’ve come here to a phrase we must reconcile. Is this song telling the truth? I’ve sprained my ankle, after all. Many around us are, right now, enduring suffering greater than a slip of the foot.

Eugene Peterson writes, “At no time is there the faintest suggestion that the life of faith exempts us from difficulties. What it promises is preservation from all the evil in them.”

That is what’s promised to us in the Scriptures. That God will sustain us. That He will complete us. That He will keep us. In fact, we lose something when the song is taken from Hebrew into English. Six times a certain word is used – the word “keep.” God, the Keeper, will keep us. And He will not get tired of performing that gracious work.

We may twist our ankle walking down the steps today, that’s just part of life in a sin-ruined world. But God is on record, promising that He will not allow our enemies to overcome us or temptation to overwhelm us.

Psalm 121:4 – 4 Indeed, the Protector of Israel does not slumber or sleep.

The longest recorded time of sleeplessness in humans is 264 hours. That’s 11 days. But, even then, the subject was experiencing significant cognitive and behavioral problems due to lack of sleep.

Not so with our Lord. He never tires of His work and He never tires of us. He never looks down as an exasperated Father and says, “I just need a break!”

It’s a very good thing that our Lord stays awake and attentive to us and to the nations of this world. There is a realm around us that we cannot see. There are strains and pressures that exist around the clock, even when we need to sleep. What hope would we have if we had no help from heaven? Or if our God needed to take naps?

It reminds me a scene from the classic Disney movie Swiss Family Robinson. The family has been marooned on a strange island. There, on the beach, with a little make-shift shelter, the wife and boys are sleeping while the father tries desperately to stay awake, musket in hand. He’s exhausted and keeps nodding off. All the while, there’s a tiger lurking in the underbrush. Pirates are sailing close. All sorts of dangers they don’t even know about.

We’re not left on our own like the Robinsons, stranded on a beach. God takes the watch of our lives.

Psalm 127:2b – God gives rest to his loved ones.

He is always ready, keeping watch, keeping us.

Psalm 121:5 – 5 The Lord protects you; the Lord is a shelter right by your side.

The pilgrim, concerned about the path ahead, comes to a wonderful realization here: The Lord is already there beside him. He hasn’t been walking alone. The Lord is by his side, doing His work.

What sort of protective work does the Lord promise to us? As Christians in the Church age the physical blessings in God’s covenant with Israel do not apply. So, what protection is given now?

1 Corinthians 1:8 – 8 He will keep you strong to the end so that you will be free from all blame on the day when our Lord Jesus Christ returns.

2 Thessalonians 3:3 – 3 But the Lord is faithful; he will strengthen you and guard you from the evil one.

Galatians 5:10a – 10 I am trusting the Lord to keep you from believing false teachings.

Revelation 3:10 – 10 “Because you have obeyed my command to persevere, I will protect you from the great time of testing that will come upon the whole world to test those who belong to this world.

Jude 24 – 24 [The Lord] is able to protect you from stumbling and to make you stand in the presence of his glory, without blemish and with great joy,

God’s protective work was not only for Jewish road trips. He walks with you today.

Psalm 121:6 – 6 The sun will not strike you by day or the moon by night.

From here out the song makes it a point to ensure that God’s got it covered. Morning, noon and night, in every place, in every way. There is no trap door He isn’t aware of that we might fall into while we walk with Him. There is no complication He hasn’t considered.

Whether it’s the heat of day or the cold of night, the Lord is able to meet our needs. This is demonstrated literally for us when we read about God’s presence in the wilderness with the Israelites. God’s glory was a cloud by day to give them shade and a fire by night to light the way.

Commentators talk about the dangers of the desert sun and then the ancient belief that the light of the moon could make you “insane.” That’s where the word lunatic came from, by the way. But in a general sense the song is reminding us of the all-encompassing nature of God’s care for you. And it reminds us that God cares about all of you. Mind, body and spirit.

Psalm 121:7 – 7 The Lord will protect you from all harm; he will protect your life.

One of the images of God’s keeping us is of a hedge preserving us from evil. I was reminded of Guardians of the Galaxy, where the heroes are about to be killed, and Groot, who is sort of made of living branches, starts growing himself as a protective shell all around his friends. He gives his life to keep them safe. This is what Christ did for us at the cross. He bore the weight of our sin and took on himself what we could never withstand. And then God raised Him from the dead in power. Now we are His, held safe in His hand as He continues the good work He began in each of us, hedged in His powerful love.

Though bodily hurt is part of life on this side of eternity, we know that we cannot be snatched from the fold of God. Even in the Old Testament, God’s people weren’t exempt from death. So we recognize that this song is speaking here of something much deeper, something much more important. As Psalm 66 says: Our lives are in His hands and He keeps us from stumbling.

Paul said it this way:

Romans 8:35, 37-39 – 35 Who can separate us from the love of Christ? Can affliction or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? 37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Verse 8:

Psalm 121:8 – 8 The Lord will protect your coming and going both now and forever.

The setting of the song is a pilgrim on the road to to the Temple. But then, of course, they’d have to return home one day. They’d have to pass those same mountains, those same dangers. Once home, they’d have other paths to take. Many comings and goings. God goes with you. Actually, He invites us to go with Him. To follow Him as He leads us through life, knowing what is best for us. Knowing perfectly well how to accomplish His good work in us.

This tender, powerful care isn’t just for the worship service. It’s not even just for this life, but evermore He will be with us, our Keeper, our Shield, our Faithful Savior.

There are a lot of different kinds of Psalms. There are praise Psalms and lament Psalms, royal Psalms, Psalms of thanksgiving. This one would be called a trust Psalm. But that doesn’t mean it’s wishful thinking. This song was given to God’s people, both ancient and modern, to help remind us of what is true. We’re told in Philippians chapter 4 that we need to think on things that are true.

Looking at the world around us, looking down the roads of life, we see a lot of dangers, a lot of uncertainly. But of this we can be certain: God is with us. He is our Keeper. He isn’t asleep on the job, but has all the care and all the power that we read about in His word.

Peterson, once again, said, “Everyone who travels the road of faith requires assistance from time to time. We need cheering up when our spirits flag; we need direction when the way is unclear.”

Psalm 121 would have us sing. Not something inane or something unrealistic, but to sing the truths of God, which will not only bring us cheer, but will help us correct course when necessary. A mixture of request and reminder, that God is not unconcerned. He is deeply attentive in every phase and every circumstance of our lives. And so, the comfort of this song can be a melody in our heart, not just once a year like Happy Birthday or in one particular type of situation like Take Me Out To The Ballgame, but it can be like the song that played during the credits of the old Lamb Chop show. Remember that? “This is the song that doesn’t end…yes it goes on and on, my friends.” This is a song for us to sing every day as we travel toward the New Jerusalem.

Apply these truths to your hearts. Remember that the Lord is our ever-present help. And, as Virgil said, “Let us go singing as far as we go: the road will be less tedious.”