Promises from Our Father

Psalm 125 - Riley Boggs

The gift of family is one of the greatest gifts God has given mankind. Sometimes we just assume that there was no other way, but that isn’t necessarily true. God didn’t have to create the family unit when created humans. He could have, in whatever way He desired, created a human race that exists without the idea of family as we know it, but He didn’t. In His kindness, God created the family. A place of love, companionship, loyalty, and  commitment. He created this thing where you can be out in about in the world, feeling tension and stress, and all of the things that the world may bring, and yet, when you come home to family, all is well. A place of comforting love.

Now in a broken world I know this isn’t always the case. Because of sin and tragedy, families are broken. Families have been, are being, and will be, torn apart. But even in that, for those who have been or are part of a broken family, there is a desire to see your future family not experience the version of family that you experienced. Even in the broken example you have experienced, you still see the value and blessing of family and you desire it. Family is a gift. It’s the bedrock of society and it something that we as Christians ought to protect and cherish deeply.

One of the reasons that I think God chose to create family in the way that He did is because He wanted it to play a pivotal role in the redemption story He planned to bring about. He knew that mankind would sin against Him, and He knew that He wanted to redeem a people for Himself. And one of the ways that He wanted to do this was through this idea of family. When He created the family unit, He was creating a wonderful imperfect example of something that He Himself would perfect. He knew that the love and comfort seen in family would be one of the greatest joys of mankind. And He also knew that the hurt found between family would be some of the greatest hurts of mankind. He knew all of this, and He wanted to redeem a people for Himself by redeeming this idea of family. He wanted all the joys in found in our earthly family to be a glimpse of the joys found in the family God was going to create. He wanted all the hurts found in our earthly family to be set on the scales against the hope of being a part of His perfected family. This was His plan.

And the way that He did this is through the beautiful picture of adoption. If you will, briefly turn with me to the book of Galatians. I want you to see just how amazing this picture is. Galatians 3, starting in the last verse, verse 29. It says, “29 And if you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's offspring, heirs according to promise. I mean that the heir, as long as he is a child, is no different from a slave, though he is the owner of everything, 2 but he is under guardians and managers until the date set by his father. 3 In the same way we also, when we were children, were enslaved to the elementary principles of the world. 4 But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, 5 to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. 6 And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” 7 So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God.”

Do you hear all of that family language? The Father sent His son, to be born from a woman, so that we might be adopted as sons. God created a family that is higher and better than even our earthly family. A family that we are not first born into, but born again into. A family where our Father in heaven brings us into His family, making us His own, truly. And it’s in this redeemed idea of family where we live and walk together, as the family of God, the church. In the church the fatherless have fathers, the motherless have motherless, the childless have sons and daughters, and all of us are brothers and sisters in Christ. We have all be adopted into a family and we are supposed to act like it. All of those wonderful realties of earthly families are supposed to be realized within the church itself. A place of commitment, love, grace, and care. A place still not perfected, but one that will be in eternity.

Family is also a place of promises. From the marriage ceremony on, there are all kinds of promises made between members of the family. Promises to do this and to not do that. I have already made lots promises to Thomas. I’ve told him that I love him and will protect him. And not only have I already made those promises, I’ve also already broken them. There have been times where I haven’t loved him well and times where I haven’t protected him like I should. And so I’ve even told him I’m sorry for the promises I made and haven’t kept, and I’ll be doing that as long as I’m alive. But that’s an earthly father to his son.

Our Father, who adopted each of us as sons and daughters, has also made us promises. He has looked down as us, as a Father to His children, and through His Word, made promises. Promises that will not be broken. He will never have to come back to us and apologize for not keeping His Word. All of the promises that He has made are promises that are sure. This morning, in our Psalm, I think we get to see some of these promises. As the family of God, we have gathered here this morning so that we might hear the words of our Father and be reminded of what He has said He will do for us.

Psalm 125 is the 6th Psalm of the Psalms of Ascents, you’ll likely have that as a subheading in your Bible. What this means is that it is in the collection of Psalms, Psalm 120 to Psalm 134, that were sung by ancient Israelites as made their to Jerusalem during their annual pilgrimages. They would have, as the people of God, sung through these songs as they made their way to the place of God. And as I mentioned a moment ago, this Psalm in particular is a Psalm of full of promises made to His people. Promises compared to the very things that the ancient Israelites would have been seeing as they journeyed to Jerusalem. They were, step-by-step, being reminded of what God said would be theirs in Him.

But these promises were not only for those who journeyed to Jerusalem during this time. These promises are for all who walked by faith, both then and now. We know this because of passages like Romans 4. There we see that Abraham was granted righteousness not because of his works, but because of his faith. And so it has been from the beginning. The people of God have always been those who believed by faith that a Messiah would come from God to save them. And now, the people of God are those who by faith believe that the Messiah, Jesus Christ, has come from God to save us. All of these are children of God by grace through faith, a work entirely of our Father who loved us, and saved us from our sins. In other words, yes, these promises were for those who walked to Jerusalem by faith believing and trusting in God then. And yes, these promises are for us, children of God who have been saved by Jesus.

In this Psalm, the promises being made aren’t direct as in the text doesn’t say, “I, God, have promised you this.” Rather, they are promises that have been drawn out of other places where God has spoken, and then put in this Psalm to sing. I say that because I don’t want you to see these as mere reminders. Reminders are good and necessarily. They are an invaluable aspect of the Christian life. However, I want you to see this Psalm as more than just a reminder. I want you to see it as promise. As children of God, I want us to hear the promises of our Loving Father. I think in approaching the text like this, we will actually find the true meaning of what it being conveyed here.

So, with all of that being said, I think we can draw out 3 promises from this Psalm. The first one is this. 

1.) God will protect us (vv.1-2)

In verses 1 and 2 we get that geography language that I mentioned a minute ago. The Psalmist compares the protection of God to the very things that they would have been seeing as they journeyed to Jerusalem. The Psalmist writes, “Those who trust in the LORD are like Mount Zion, which cannot be moved, but abides forever. As the mountains surround Jerusalem, so the Lord surrounds his people, from this time forth and forevermore.”

Jerusalem is situated in the middle of the Judean Mountains. When you read in the Bible of people “going up to Jerusalem”, that is a physical reality. You would have to ascend the surrounding mountains in order to get to the city that is nestled within. Among those mountains are many specific mounts that we read about in the Bible, such as the Mount of Olives. Among other things, that is the place where Jesus is betrayed and where He goes to ascend after His resurrection. Another one of those mounts is the one mentioned in this Psalm, Mount Zion.

So the picture that the Psalmist is painting here is one that you can see with your eyes, or for us, we can imagine in our minds. The Psalmist is saying, “Do you see that mountain right there, Mount Zion? That mountain is like those who trust in the Lord. They are immovable.” And then the Psalmist expands this even wider. You can imagine a question being posed like, “But why are God’s people immovable like the mountain?”. To which the Psalmist replies, “They are immovable because they are like the city that sits within all of these mountains. These mountains are the ever-present protection of the city. In the same way, the Lord is the ever-present protector of His people.

Our God has promised to surround us on all sides and to protect us. The hills served as a protection for Jerusalem. You could not get to the city without going through the mountains. The same is true of us. There is nothing that will ever come to us that God Himself has not allowed to come to us. The enemy never sneaks by our God without Him knowing in order to inflict us harm. The enemy cannot do that. On every side, our God is there, protecting us.

The image that always come to my mind when reading about God’s surrounding protection is the one of a parents trying to cover their children with their own body. The 4th of July is coming up and there’s always a chance of firework mishaps. And if you were at a firework show and something went wrong and all the fireworks started going off on the ground, then you can imagine what would happen. As soon as parents started to realize what was happening, they would all try to put themselves between the danger and their children. As they ran away, they wouldn’t let their child fall behind, but they would make sure that if something were to come their way, they would be there to keep it from hitting them. They would surround them with themselves.

I think that’s a helpful picture of what God does for us. God saved us and has promised to protect us. He surrounds us so that no matter where danger might come, He is there. Now of course the difference is that God is the Mighty Ruler of the Universe, and so He isn’t putting Himself in harm’s way. When He says go, things go. When He says stop, things stop. That is who surrounds us, so that we, His people, might be protected.

And the Lord’s protection is more than we will ever realize. When we are in our car driving along and another car runs a red light just in front of, we are quick to give God thanks for His protection. Maybe we think back to a previous time in that day where we got held up for just a few moments and begin to see that it was God who orchestrated all things so that we might be safe. But God’s protection is also so much more than that. Every day the Lord protects us from endless things. Things that we will never even realize simply because of His protection.

Don’t be fooled into thinking that God isn’t protecting you because you don’t see it. Instead realize that the very fact that you do not see many things is because of His protection. A son or daughter may never know that their parent killed the poisonous snake in the yard, and yet we know that to be an act of protection. Such it is with our own lives. God does indeed protect us, even, or especially, when we do not even realize it.

And not only does He protect us now, but He has promised to always protect us. You can see this at the end of verse 2 where the Psalmist says that the, “Lord surrounds his people, from this time forth and forevermore.” This lead us to our second promise, which is…

2.) God will keep us (v.3)

A protection that never ends is a keeping, and it what God has promised for us. Not only does He protect us, but He keeps us. He has promised to never leave us and has promised to strengthen us so that we would never leave Him. I think we can see this in verse 3. The Psalmist says, “For the scepter of wickedness shall not rest on the land allotted to the righteous, les the righteous stretch out their hands to do wrong.” Now I want us to pay close attention to what is being said here, because I think it is really important. The Psalmist is not saying that evil will never come upon the righteous. That is not what he says. The Psalmist says that evil will not rest upon the righteous so long that the righteous end up doing evil themselves.

In other words, God is telling us right here that as God’s people we are going to suffer. We are going to suffer because we live in a sinful world with sinful people. Evil will come to us. Hardship will come to us. We will suffer. But, God has promised that He will never allow evil and suffering to rest upon on so long that we must abandon our faith altogether. He is promising us here that He will never allow hardship to come our way in such a way or amount that we simply fall into the very evil things that are plaguing us.

It’s this same idea that Paul picks up on in his first letter to the Corinthains. After speaking of the many evil things we must flee from as followers of Jesus, he says this in 1 Corinthians 10:13 , “13 No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.” Do you see that? God is faithful and will not allow us to be tempted in such a way that we are left with no option but to sin. But rather, He will always provide a way of escape. The same is true regarding our experience with suffering and evil coming against us. We will experience it, but God has promised to always strengthen us so that we will not lose faith.

If you are His, you are His forever. Once you have truly been adopted into God’s family, you cannot later be cast off. Now, of course this isn’t to say that you can simply profess Christ and live your life with no regard to the Lord. That isn’t what is being conveyed here. What is being said is that those who are truly God’s will always be truly God’s. And it’s not because of our own strength to keep the faith, nor is it because life will be easy and free from suffering. No, the reason we will always be God’s is because He is going to keep us, by His own strength, no matter what comes our way, until the very end. If you are here and know Christ, hear the Word tell you this. God is going to keep you. He’s going to protect you until you are home. He’s promised that.

Matthew Henry commented on this Psalm and said this, “All those minds shall be truly stayed, that are stayed on God. They shall be as Mount Zion, firm as it is; a mountain supported by providence, much more as a holy mountain supported by promise. They cannot be removed from confidence in God. They abide forever in that grace which is the earnest of their everlasting continuance in glory. Committing themselves to God, they shall be safe from their enemies. Even mountains may moulder and come to nothing, and rocks be removed, but God’s covenant with his people cannot be broken, nor his care of them cease. Their troubles shall last no longer than their strength will bear them up under them. The rod of the wicked may come, may fall upon the righteous, upon their persons, their estates, their liberties, their family names, on anything that falls to their lot; only it cannot reach their souls. And though it may come upon their lot, it shall not rest thereon. The Lord will make all work together for their good. The wicked shall only prove a correcting rod, not a destroying sword; even this rod shall not remain upon them, lest they distrust the promise, thinking God has cast them off.”

I remember there was a time in my life where this truth really clicked with me. Before I didn’t think that God was going to abandon me or anything, but I did have this constant sense that I could mess things up, or that my faith was authentic. I remember struggling with this and often praying prayers to God like, “God, I think I’m saved, but if I’m not, will you save me now?” This sense ebbed and flowed, but it persisted all the way to college. And it wasn’t because I was taught that I could lose my salvation, I wasn’t. I had be showed the truth in the Bible. But for some reason, the idea that God was actually keeping me never really settled in my heart.

When I did get to college there were 2 things that helped me with this. First, I began to learn truths about who God was that helped me grow in my trust. My understanding of God’s sovereignty grew, and as a result of that I felt more secure in Him, knowing it wasn’t up to me. The second thing that I happened was that I began to hear and sing the song, “He Will Hold Me Fast”. Actually that is going to be the song we sing right after this. But those lyrics really resonated with me. The first line was just a confession of how I felt, “When I fear my faith will fail.” That was me. Then immediately followed with the truth I needed to hear, “Christ will hold me fast.” Over and over this theme repeats throughout the song, and it began to teach me how to trust in the One who saved me, and specifically trust that His promise to keep me until the very end is a promise that will be kept.

This morning if you are here and you are struggling with these same things, I want you to hear, from God’s Word, that He has promised to keep you. Don’t let your own mind or the enemy convince you otherwise. Christ died for you and His death was not in vain. You have been washed by the blood of Christ, forgiven of your sins, and stand righteous before God. Your security isn’t sure because of what you have done, but because of what Christ did on your behalf. You can joyfully and confidently believe that you will be kept until the end and that not be a boastful thing. Rather it is an act of trust and worship, because you are saying that Christ’s atonement for you was sufficient.     

God loves His children, and He has promised to protect and keep them safe until the end. And not only that, but He has also promised to bless them. That is the final thing I want us to see this morning, the third promise…

3.) God will bless us (vv.4-5)

In the final 2 verses the Psalmist petitions God to do good for those who are His. He says, “Do good, O Lord, to those who are good, and to those who are upright in their hearts!” And then he flips in and says what will happen to those who are not upright in their heart. He says, “But those who turn aside to their crooked ways the LORD will lead away with evildoers! Peace be upon Israel!”

Now the Psalmist isn’t saying that there is the divine retribution thing happening between us and God, where we do good, and then in response to this good, God blesses us. Rather, what I think the Psalmist is saying is that those who are in God’s family show that they are in His family by doing that which He has called good. And for those who are indeed in this family, God has promised to bless. R.C. Sproul puts it like this, “Doing good is an expression of faith in the Lord, not an alternative to faith or meritorious addition to faith.”

And I think this reading makes the most sense, especially when you consider verse 5. On one hand it is a warning to those who deny God and pursue evil, showing that the Lord will hand them over to that. But on the other hand it is actually part of the blessing for the people of God that is being promised in verse 4. Think about this with me. In verse 3 you have evil coming against God’s people, but a promise to keep them until the end. And then here in verses 4-5 you get a promised blessing in the eradication of all evil in the end, so that God’s people would truly be delivered once and for all, from all sin and suffering.

Again, I think the emphasis here is simply God’s intentional care for His people. Not only does He protect them and keep them, but He blesses them. He does to them and for them. And it’s not out of compulsion like we often think of for ourselves. Like sometimes we want to bless people, but like we really don’t want to at the same time. We want to cook a meal for people or watch their kids or something like that, but there’s a part of us that selfishly doesn’t want to do those things. We’d rather have a free evening to ourselves. But, out of compulsion to do something good for our brother or sister, we choose to bless them. That’s a good thing that we should do, even when we don’t feel like it.

But, what we shouldn’t do is think that God is like this. God blesses us, not out of compulsion just because He feels like He has to. No, He blesses us because we are His beautiful bride on whom He has set His affection. He loves His church. He loves you. And He wants to, and will, bless us continually throughout our lives, until one day the final blessing of ending all evil takes place.

Now this doesn’t mean that we always view blessings as blessings. We are sinful and limited and have a hard time understanding the true purpose for things, and so often times blessing are misinterpreted as something else. Nonetheless, God is doing what is best for you. He’s blessing you, continually, because He loves you. And He has promised to continue to do this.

This morning, it is my hope that you leave here feeling very loved by God, because you are. When we truly begin to believe the promises God has made for us, then further obedience and trust often follows. When you believe that He is protecting you and keeping you and blessing you, then you are more likely to take that step of obedience for Him that you didn’t think was possible. You are more like to cast your anxieties on Him and trust that He does indeed love you like He has said.

As the children of God, let’s trust what our Father has said to us, and let it move to love Him, and one another, all the more.