What is your gut-level response when you listen to the news each day? How do you feel about what you hear and read? I'll tell you how I feel: at times I get depressed over the influence of evil in our world. Last week the Supreme Court handed down another ruling on abortion. As a result, abortions are going to be cheaper and easier to get. In voiding restrictions on abortion imposed in Missouri and Ohio, the Supreme Court held that abortions may be performed: 1 ) in licensed clinics as well as in hospitals; 2) even if a minor's parents do not consent, so long as a judge approves; 3) without physicians' reading to patients a warning specified by law about the dangers of the abortion procedure; and 4) without waiting a required period of time. Reading that was devastating to me. I thought to myself, ''How long will it be before truth is in the majority again in this country?"
Going from the national to the local level, this news item appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle last week:
Ruling that police acted illegally, a judge has freed a man arrested in January by officers who seized more than 40 pounds of cocaine and a large sum of cash at his apartment in San Francisco's North Point area. Police had been watching the accused and his apartment near Pier 39 for two weeks before an informant told them on the night of January 18 that he had just bought drugs there. Officers approached the apartment just as a woman was entering. They said later that they could see the cocaine and a stack of money through the open door before they entered and arrested the accused. But the judge, after watching a videotape provided by defense attorneys. visited the apartment and decided that police at the doorway could not have seen the drugs and money on a table inside, as they had claimed. The charges were dropped.
A friend remarked, ''The courts don't guarantee justice, they only provide an opportunity for justice.'' Whether you're guilty or not is not the issue; it's how you got caught. The breadth and depth of evil is truly overwhelming.
What makes life even more painful is not just that we live in an evil environment, but when evil strikes so deeply that it begins to affect Christians. At our staff meeting last week one of our pastors shared how unsettling it is to him and his wife if to see that some of his close Christian friends are succumbing to divorce, some of them walking out on marriages of 15 and 20 years. Marion Recine, of Crisis Pregnancy Center, told me that the most devastating setback she experienced during the planning stages of the Center to provide an alternative to abortion was not the opposition she received from the world, but the lack of support from evangelical churches in our own area. The churches refused to take a stand on an issue as important as abortion. It makes you begin to wonder how long it will be until we ourselves sell out.
Where security can be found when darkness reigns, is the context of Psalm 125. Most scholars think that Israel was under foreign domination at the time the psalm was written. The scepter of wickedness was ruling in Israel. With foreign rule came idolatry, and with idolatry immorality What was painful to the Israelites was not just the evil environment in which they lived, but many Israelites were selling out to idolatry and immorality for the cause of peace. We do not know the actual historical setting of the psalm. I decided, therefore, to trace the history of Israel from the Davidic monarchy through the Kings, up through the time of Jesus Christ to see if I could find an historical setting where this psalm would have been particularly significant to the Jews. Do you know what I discovered? In 1,100 years of Israel's history there was almost no time when this psalm was not applicable. It seems that in Israel's history the scepter of wickedness always seemed to have more visible influence than the scepter of righteousness
After the time of Solomon, Israel was dominated by wicked kings. Even when there was a righteous king, he still had to face the influence of wickedness and idolatry around him. Take Hezekiah, for example. Hezekiah was a righteous king who gave his whole heart in obedience to the Lord. He cleansed the land of idolatry; he cleansed the temple, and renewed the temple worship. Following these righteous actions by Hezekiah, however, Assyria, the most powerful and wicked nation on the face of the earth at the time invaded Israel, destroyed all the cities of Judah, and even surrounded Jerusalem. Many false prophets advised Hezekiah, ''Don't trust the Lord. Make foreign alliances for peace: trust Egypt; make an alliance with Syria.'' So even when there was a righeous king, a foreign scepter seemed to hold power, dominance and influence.
Moving to New Testament times, darkness reigned supreme when Jesus Christ was born. Then Herod, the wicked king who slaughtered all the male babies of Bethlehem, was on the throne. Jesus' words were never held by the majority. He experienced apostasy on every level. The multitudes left him; disciples left him- even one of the twelve denied him. If you move from the gospels to the church age and open the book of Revelation you find the same exact circumstances. In the letter to the church at Pergamum, Jesus says, "I know where you dwell, you dwell where Satan's throne is." The concern of that letter was that Satan's influence was affecting many believers, and they were selling out to licentiousness. It you study church history you discover that the scepter of righteousness was never in the majority view except when it became carnal and compromised.
I say this so we might clearly understand that the times in which we live are not unique. The scepter of wickedness is always seen to have more influence than the scepter of righteousness. Such times have been faced by saints of all ages, but the true saints have found security in dark times in what has been written- the Word. May that be true of us also.
A Song of Ascents
Those who trust in the Lord
Are like Mount Zion which cannot be moved, forever established.
O Jerusalem, the mountains surround her,
So the Lord surrounds his people
From now until forever.
Surely the scepter of wickedness shall not rest upon the lot of the righteous,
In order that the righteous shall not extend their hands unto wickedness.
O Lord, do good to the good,
To those who are upright in their hearts.
But to those who are turning aside to their wicked ways,
The Lord will cause them to go with the doers of iniquity.
Peace upon Israel.
The first three verses speak of the psalmist's confidence regarding the security of the righteous; verses 4 and 5 are his prayer to the Lord regarding the righteous; finally, he states the fate of the wicked.
Verse 1:
Those who trust in the Lord
Are like Mount Zion which cannot be moved, forever established.
When our thoughts are under attack in this reign of darkness as pilgrims the first thing we need to do is anchor our souls in the truth. Truth enables us to see the invisible realities behind the visible realities. This pilgrim meditates on Mount Zion, but behind Mount Zion he sees a throne; he meditates on the mountains but behind the mountains he sees the Lord. That is what truth does does for us- it gives us a realistic view about life. You don't get this in the news media; it comes only through the Scriptures That's where confidence comes from.
So in verse 1 the pilgrim describes the stability of the righteous and says what causes that stability is the saints' trust in the Lord. Intimes of distress, when darkness reigns, stability is found by those who continually trust the Lord. 'The Hebrew word translated ''trust'' is a beautiful, graphic picture word. It means to extend one's self out fully totally letting go of everything. The word is used of' totally extending a bowstring; it is used of a baby laid back on a mother's breast, totally supported by the life of the mother and resting in nothing else. In the Psalms this trust is evidenced by a life that prays and then obediently waits for the Lord to answer.
Dr. Bruce Waltke told me once of a man who was attempting to cross the frozen St. Lawrence River in Canada. Unsure of whether the ice would hold, the man first tested it by laying one hand on it. The ice held, so he put his other hand on it. Then he got down on his knees. and gingerly began making his way across. When he got to the middle of the frozen river he heard a noise behind him. Looking back, he saw a team of horses pulling a carriage coming down the road toward the river. Upon reaching the river, they didn't stop, but bolted right across the ice, while he sat there on all fours, feeling a little embarrassed. That is the trouble with most of us; we're scared of giving the Lord our full weight, we're slow to give him our whole life. But we are to charge on ahead, blast on through. abandoning ourselves to the Lord.
Notice that those who trust are trusting a Person. They're not trusting ritual, religion or sacred objects; they are trusting a living Person, the Lord. The pilgrim says that those who trust the Lord have two attributes about them. First, they are unshakeable because they have deep foundations. The word ''moved'' is used of sudden calamities that hit, such as an earthquake, but those who trust the Lord will not be moved because their foundations are deep.
The second attribute of those who trust the Lord is that they have a stability that enables them to rule. They are like Mt. Zion- unmovable. The pilgrim saw that Zion was the place where the Lord descended. Zion was his throne; from there God would establish his rule. And Zion could not be overthrown any more than the throne of the Lord could be overthrown. When God's people trust the Lord they are unshakeable. Rather than being driven by circumstances they rule over them. Yesterday I had the privilege of doing the memorial service for little Marilouise McCrary, who was born prematurely and went home to be with the Lord on the day of her birth. Yet her parents, John and Linda, were not shaken by that because of their intimate relationship with Jesus Christ. Rather, they were ruling. They were concerned for others. They wanted to minister to their doctor, to share the love of Jesus Christ with others.
In verse 2, the pilgrim gives the reason which underlies the security of the saints:
O Jerusalem! The mountain surrounds her,
So the Lord surrounds his people
From now until forever.
Why are God's people secure? As the mountains surround Jerusalem, so the invisible Lord surrounds his people. Believers have an invisible wall of protection around them at all times. Occasionally God pulls back the veil and lets us see the invisible realities. Jacob saw the camp of angels around him on his way back to Bethel. When Elisha's servant panicked over the invading armies, Elisha said, '' Don't you know that those who are with us are more than those who are with them? " Then he prayed, 'Lord, open the eyes of this servant.' And the Lord opened the eyes of the servant and he saw, behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha."
Now don't be fooled just because we get only glances of what is really there. Don't think that when the veil descends again our protection vanishes too. The pilgrim says the wall that surrounds us never, ever disappears. And it will continue all through heaven. Zechariah' says that when we go home to be in the city of the Lord, ''Jerusalem will be inhabited without walls, for I will be a wall of fire around her, and I will be the glory in her midst.'' Evil will not end when we're in heaven, but it will be kept outside the city of God; hell will last forever, but God will be a fire around his people. Thus our protection will never end. What we need in these evil times is for God to open up our eyes to see these invisible realities. This pilgrim sees the true throne, he sees his true Ruler, and he sees his exceeding might.
Last week I received a letter from a Christian leader who was expressing his fears in this present evil age. Here is part of what he wrote:
I fear for the future of my children. I don't want them to be cremated in the blast of a nuclear warhead. Or die slowly from radiation burns. And also, I fear for the safety of your loved ones. If the "freeze-niks" have their way, this country is going to surrender its freedom to the Soviet Union. I for one refuse to sit back and wait for Russia to take us over or destroy us in a rain of nuclear missiles. And that's why I'm writing you this letter today. I believe you share my deep feelings. And perhaps you have asked yourself, "But what can I do? Who will listen to me?" I'll tell you who will listen- President Reagan. And the congress of the United States. They will listen! And what will happen if the President of the United States receives a call on the "hotline" some night and the Russians say, "Give up or be destroyed." It will be all over. America will no longer be the land of the free or the home of the brave.
In contrast here is what all TV news commentator said following the Pope's visit to Poland:
The Soviets' greatest fear is not the West, nor is it nuclear war It is the Church, the Church which was founded by a man who died 2,000 years ago. Since then it has been the rock which has withstood the rise and fall of dynasties: and is the only thing at has made it through the age whole
The commentator went to a better seminary than my Christian brother, here. Isn't that interesting that we get a truer voice from a secular commentator than from a religious spokesman?
In verse 3 we have what amounts to a State of the Union address by the pilgrim This double length line is the poet's way of telling us this is the theme the heart of his message:
Surely the scepter of wickedness shall not rest upon the lot of the righteous,
In order that the righteous shall not extend their hands unto wickedness.
Imagine the king, under the rule of Assyria, saying that in his State of the Union message? In the Old Testament, the staff (of scepter) is always a picture of the authority and power to rule. So when the pilgrim links that word with the wicked he is saying that the scepter of the wicked (the authority of foreign domination pagan rule with its immorality and idolatry), will not become the lot of the righteous. The word ''lot'' in Hebrew originally meant a pebble or stone And since stones were used to cast lots, therefore, by metonymy that meant your lot. In Joshua 14: 1 and 2 we discover that the Israelites used lots to determine each tribe's inheritance in the land. All tribal boundaries were set by lots. So the term developed, first, from a stone, to a lot, and finally, to inheritance. As the land was God's gift to Israel to possess, ultimately this meant their destiny. Your inheritance is your ultimate destiny in life. Do you see the development? What the pilgrim is saying is that foreign rule, the scepter of wickedness, the rule of evil, shall not come to rest on Israel's inheritance or its ultimate destiny.
When you study Israel's history you wonder how could that be true. The foreign scepter reigned in Israel more often than not. ''Rest'' is the key word here. Rest means ''being settled in a particular place"; the word has overtones of finality, of permanence. The pilgrim is saying yes, the foreign scepter may be in Israel, but it is only a temporary thing; the Lord will cut it short. Notice what he goes on to say in the second line. He says it will not come to stay, it is only temporary, in order that the righteous "not extend their hand unto wickedness.'' By wickedness he means deeds of violent oppression, such as partiality in judgment, robbery, murder, and dishonest trade dealings. He is saying that the scepter of wickedness will not affect the behavior of the righteous; their hands will not be given to oppression and wickedness; and it will not affect their ultimate destiny, their true inheritance. What insight this pilgrim had about life! He sees beyond the visible to the invisible reality, beyond the physical inheritance to his true inheritance, beyond the visual destiny to his true destiny. The foreign scepter will be broken. Isaiah 14:4-7 says,
"How the oppressor has ceased.
How fury has ceased.
The Lord has broken the staff of the wicked,
the scepter of rulers,
which used to strike the people in fury with unceasing strokes,
which subdued the nations in anger and unrestrained persecution.
But now the whole earth is at rest and is quiet;
they break forth in shouts of joy."
That is the promise the pilgrim held right before him.
The same is true of us. We live in an age dominated by evil, but the scepter of wickedness will never ever come to rest on our inheritance. For us, the scepter of wickedness, the power of sin, has been broken in our lives. Despite our being in the midst of evil, we ought not be affected because the rod of the oppressor has been crushed. No matter how much evil we're exposed to, it will not, can not, change our destiny. Our true inheritance in Jesus Christ will come to us untaxed by the IRS. It won't be defiled; the world can't take an iota of it away. It will come to us pure, complete, whole.
To drive this point home, let me ask you to consider something. Could all the power of Egypt and of Pharoah have affected the life of Moses and the destiny of Israel when that nation was first born? Could all the power of Assyria, the most powerful nation on the face of the earth at the time. affect the destiny of this motley King Hezekiah, and change his behavior unto wickedness. Could idolatrous and powerful Babylon get Daniel to sell out and change his behavior Could all of Rome, Herod, the Sanhedrin and Pontius Pilate affect the life and destiny of Jesus Christ, even though they committed him to death? Could all the Judaizers, and all of Caesar's palace get Paul to sell his soul to pervert the gospel? The answer is no, no, no! The scepter of wickedness will not come to rest on the inheritance of the righteous, lest the righteous "extend their hands to do evil." Then why do we fear the Russians? Why do we complain about an evil boss, a wicked landlord, difficult inlaws, an unrighteous mate, when we have the only secure throne, the true foundation, and walls of fire surrounding us? We are secure in the midst of an evil age.
So the pilgrim is confident. He sees reality as it really is. He sees the true Throne, the true King, all his power, and the fact that the righteous are secure.
But it is not enough to have confidence; the pilgrim goes on to pray. At our staff meeting last Wednesday we were commenting about the spread of evil and the effect it is having among our own people. Ray Stedman said, "You know what our people need? It is not more teaching. We need to pray for one another, because it is prayer that takes truth from the head to the heart and opens up our eyes to see reality as it really is."
So here is the pilgrim's petition. Verse 4.
Do good O Lord to the good and the upright in their hearts.
Here he recognizes that evil days require continued grace. Yesterday's victories do nothing for today's battles; we need a constant watchfulness to pray for each other. And he is praying for those who are good. Notice how he defines them. He doesn't include all those pilgrims who come with him to this feast and gave their offerings. He refers to those who are "upright in their hearts.
''Upright" here means to go in a straight or direct path. The word
is used of building superhighways. Highways are not only straight, they
are level; all obstacles are removed to make them smooth. Thus, ethically
speaking, those who are upright are those who have given their
whole hearts to the Lord. They are not devious. not crooked they are not
trusting the Lord plus their bank accounts and their assets. They are resting
solely on the Lord, giving the Lord all their weight, all their life. ''Good''
is what the pilgrim says the upright in heart need. What he is praying for
hearkens back to Deuteronomy, where the Israelites were told that if they
would give their whole heart to the Lord God would prosper them and enable
their- lives be lived to their full potential. Fruitfulness, WC would call
it. This is a recognition that as pilgrims we sometimes need not only to
be spiritually. but visibly refreshed; sometimes we need to see the harvest
of our toil.
Eleven years ago I got married by faith. I came to PBC by faith, to live as an intern by faith. My parents thought that I was crazy - and with good reason. Not only was I taking the program, but I was taking a new bride on the adventure. My mother asked me what would happen if my supporters didn't send in the monthly checks. I said. ''Well, I'll just have to trust the Lord.'' Yet I can say after eleven years that the Lord has been good to us. He has given us a harvest of life to demonstrate our trust. He has blessed us in our children. blessed us with a home, and blessed us financially. There is no way my parents can look at us now after all those years and deny the value of trust.
In verse 5 the pilgrim describes the fate of the wicked. This is not a prayer, it is just a description of reality.
But to those who turn aside to their wicked ways,
The Lord will cause them to go with the doers of iniquity.
The Lord will cause those who sell out and enter into a crooked path to go on in that crooked path and end up with the doers of iniquity. the point is. if you choose a crooked way (cf: Judges 5:6) the Lord will let you go to the end of the road. In other words, any devious choices you sow in your heart will be made public by your actions. Thus at the end you will not be seen merely as a lukewarm Christian who came to church faithfully, or as one who was never on fire; rather, you will be classes with the unrighteous and doers of inquity, those who commit perversions. This motivates the pilgrim to righteousness and purity. He knows that if he deviates and sells out he won't be getting ahead in life but he will end up where all doers of iniquity end up; the Lord will let him go down to the end of the path. This fear motivates his heart to remain steadfast. Christians sell out because they think that though the Lord sees their actions he won't do anything. However, the verb tense here is causative; God will cause them to go to the end of the path they choose. John Stott writes, "Sow a thought, reap an action; sow an action, reap a habit; sow a habit, reap a character; sow a character, reap a destiny.'' There is no way you can sow lust and fantasy and not reap fornication and adultery. There is no way you can sow anger and resentment and not reap a harvest of vicious words, slander and malice. The Lord will let you go to the end of the road.
The psalm closes with a word of peace.
Peace upon Israel.
Derek Kidner writes, "The psalm ends in peace. No doubt those who chose the crooked path wanted peace, but true peace comes not by compromise but by the only road that leads to it, the way of righteousness.'' So the pilgrim closes with his blessing upon Israel.
Notice that all through this psalm the pilgrim is saying that things are not what they seem. The visible powers are not the true powers. Those who seem influential are not the ones who have true influence. Now he is saying that those who seem to be the Lord's people are not in fact his people. The pilgrim redefines Israel. An Israelite is not one who is a descendant of one of the twelve tribes of Israel who happens to go to all the feast days, who studies the Torah, who offers up the proper offerings. A true Israelite is one who in the midst of evil refuses to compromise the truth in his heart. He develops his trust solely in the Lord. He will not sell out through deeds of wickedness even when the majority are doing such, even wilt n it would seem to be beneficial to him. A true Jew has the eye of faith to see behind the scenes to the unseen realities: the true Throne, his true inheritance, his true destiny, and the one true Lord.
So evil days are orchestrated by the Lord to sift out who is who. they show who have compromised in their hearts and take them to the end of that path they have chosen. Evil days also demonstrate the truly righteous who trust in the Lord. Such days deepen their intimacy and enrich their experience with Jesus Christ.
When I was a sophomore at Stanford I joined a fraternity. When I entered that fraternity I prayed, "Dear Lord, let me lead four guys to you this year." And four men came to know the Lord that year. Six months later I was distressed to see one of the brothers I had led to the Lord commit apostasy for a pagan girlfriend. He sold out, and rejected his commitment to Jesus Christ. The other two floundered; choked by worldly desires, they went nowhere Two weeks ago I met the father of the fourth man whom 1 led to the Lord. I asked him, "Mr. Quinn, how is Michael?'' "Michael has been through heavy times.'' he said. "He got married after he graduated from Stanford, and his wife died of cancer two years later. He has remarried. I want you to know something: Michael is trusting the Lord. He has quit his job as a schoolteacher and is studying to be a pastor. He couldn't be doing better. "
Evil days, though they are painful, are not to be feared if you are trusting the Lord. Your road will only be richer, deeper and more intimate with Jesus Christ as a result. But time will tell which road you've taken.
Catalog No. 3903
Psalm 125
Fourth message
Brian Morgan
June 26, 1983
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