Faith

Psalm 125

Another step is taken in the ascent of the pilgrims.
The pilgrim praises God for past deliverance.
His faith now rises to a confident joy in the present and in the future safety of the believers.
They have the faith that they who trust the Lord will be secure forever.
This is a song:

Of holy confidence (Verses 1,2)
A promise (Verse 3)
Followed by prayer and note of warning (Verse 4)

In this Psalm our pilgrim is beginning to learn the lesson of faith.
As an unbeliever and as a learning Christian, he has lived by feeling.
He is now beginning to live by faith and not by sight.
He is learning to abide in Christ.
He is also learning that Christ abides within.
This experience occurred in the promised land.

Let's learn the spiritual experience it describes and the spiritual lesson it contains.
In verses 1,2, we see:

The believer's singularity: he trusts in Jehovah.
The believer's stability: "abideth forever."
The believer's safety: "as the mountains," etc.

Verse 4:

What it is to be good.
What it is for God to do us good.

Verse 5: temporary professors:

The crucial test: "They turn aside."
The crooked policy: " They make crooked ways their own."
The crushing doom: " Led forth with workers of iniquity. The Lord shall..."

In verse one, we see that the result of faith is not occasional and accidental.
Its blessings come not to some who trust but to all who trust in the Lord.
Those who trust in the Lord shall be as fixed, firm, and stable as the mount where David dwelt
and where the Ark was.
To move Mount Zion was impossible.
The mere suggestion that one could move Mount Zion was absurd.
("Which cannot be removed, but abideth forever.") Zion was the image
of eternal steadfastness.

So the trusting worshipper of God enjoyed a restfulness, for his hope is sure.
The believer sits enthroned in perfect peace with their trust in God.
We may rest assured that no believer shall ever perish either in life or in death, in time or in eternity.
We trust in an eternal God and our safety is eternal.
This is to be our portion.
We are, we have been, and we shall be as steadfast as the hill of God.
Paul declared, " I know in whom I have believed and..." (2 Timothy 1:12)

In verse two the hill of Zion is the type of the believer's constancy and the surrounding mountains
are emblems of the all-surrounding presence of the Lord.
These two verses set before us a double security.
First: established; then, enthroned.
Settled and then sentinelled: made like a mountain and then protected by the mountains.
The protection is forever.

The mountains safeguarded Jerusalem in ancient times.
Except for the southeast side, the city is literally ringed by a triangle of mountains.
Hilly Jerusalem was walled in on three sides by still higher hills and mountains.
From a distance a person cannot even see Jerusalem.
One must climb the surrounding triangle of mountain ranges in order to view Jerusalem.

The protection the mountains afford Jerusalem is a figure to describe the security of God's people.
God surrounds His own people and protects them from harm and evil from without.
Like Jerusalem within the circle of mountains, we are hidden in God Himself.
" Your life is hid with Christ in God." (Col. 3:3)
The Lord Himself is our wall.
We are defended by the Lord at all times against all dangers.
Verse 3 - " For the rod of...lot of righteous."

The people of God are not to expect immunity from trial because the Lord surrounds them,
for they may feel the power and persecution of the ungodly.
The saints abide forever; their troubles will not.
"The scepter of the wicked shall not rest upon the lot of the righteous; lest the righteous..."
It may come, but it cannot rest there.
The Lord shall deliver His own. (1 Cor. 10:13)

How perfect are His ways!
Here in truth is the steadfastness and the protection of the saints.
It is in Him that we find our stability and security.
He is our stability and security.
It is His restraining hand that protects and cares for us.

Verse 4 - Men to be good at all must be good of heart.

What it is to be good!
What it is for God to do us good.
When the rod of the wicked is gone; His rod and staff shall comfort us. (Psalm 23)

Verse 5 - Two kinds of men can always be found: the upright and those of crooked ways.
How sad it is when that person who once walked in the right way turns aside to walk a crooked path.

Observe the path of the false professors:

They look for crooked ways.
Then they choose that crooked way.

Temporary Professors:

The crucial test: "They turn aside."
The crooked policy: "They make crooked ways their own ways."
The crushing doom: "Led forth with workers of iniquity." "The Lord shall..."

He who has peace with God may enjoy peace concerning all things.
Bind the first and last verses together:
Israel trusts in the Lord. (Verse 1)
Israel has peace. (Verse 5)

This message is by Dr. Harold L. White