Psalm 125 - Chambers, Oswald
1. The fastnesses of the godly
They that trust in the lord shall be as mount zion which cannot be removed, but abideth for ever. (psalm 125:1)
The security of the eternal god is what we are to have confidence in, and the psalmist likens that security to the mountains, because a mountain is the most stable thing we know. There is nothing so secure as the salvation of god; it is as eternal as the mountains, and it is our trust in god that brings us the conscious realisation of this. The one thing satan tries to shake is our confidence in god. It is not difficult for our confidence to be shaken if we build on our experience; but if we realise that all we experi- ence is but the doorway leading to the knowledge of god, Satan may shake that as much as he likes, but he cannot shake the fact that god remains faithful (see 2 timothy 2:13), and we must not cast away our confidence in him. It is not our trust that keeps us, but the god in whom we trust who keeps us. We are always in danger of trusting in our trust, believing our belief, having faith in our faith. All these things can be shaken; we have to base our faith on those things which cannot be shaken (see Hebrews 12:27). Our consciousness of god is meant to introduce us to god, not to our experience of him. Jesus said, . . . No man is able to pluck them out of my fathers hand ( john 10:29). No power, however mighty, is able to pluck us out of the hand of god, so long as that power is outside us. Our lord did not say, how- ever, that his sheep had not power to take themselves out. The devil cannot take us out, neither can man; we are absolutely secure from every kind of enemy, saving our own wilfulness. God does not destroy our personal power to disobey him; if he did, we would become mechanical and useless. No power outside, from the devil downward, can take us out of gods hand; so long as we remain faithful, we are as eternally secure as god himself.
2. The frontiers of god
as the mountains are round about Jerusalem, so the lord is round about his people from henceforth even for ever. (psalm 125:2)
There are margins beyond which the spirit of god does not work. Nightingales will not sing out- side certain geographical areas, and that is an exact illustration of the frontiers of god. There is a place where god reveals his face, and that place has moral frontiers, not physical. We can blind our minds by perverse thinking; blind our moral life by crooked dealing in business, or by sin. We can never get away from god geographically, but we can get away from him morally. The writer to the hebrews mentions the moral frontier, let thy conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have (Hebrews 13:5). Outside that moral frontier, god does not reveal his face. Let me become impa- tient, let me fix my heart on gain, and i do not see god. If i enthrone anything other than god in my life, god retires and lets the other god do what it can. The majority of us do not enthrone god, we enthrone common-sense. We make our decisions and then ask the real god to bless our gods decision. We say, it is
Common-sense to do this thing, and god leaves us, because we are outside the frontier where he works. Keep yourself from the love of money, and be content. Think of the imperative haste in our spirit to wish we were somewhere else! That danger is always there, and we have to watch it. When i wish i was some- where else i am not doing my duty to god where i am. I am wool-gathering, fooling with my own soul; if i am gods child i have no business to be distracted. If i keep myself from covetousness, content with the things i have, i remain within the frontiers of god. If i have the spirit of covetousness in my heart i have no right to say, the lord is my helperhe is not, he is my destroyer. I have no right to say i am content and yet have a mood that is not contented. If i am ill-tempered, set on some change of circumstances, i find god is not supporting me at all; i have worried myself outside the moral frontier where he works and my soul wont sing; there is no joy in god, no peace in believing. We have to watch that we are not enticed outside the frontier of our own control, just as soldiers have to watch. If they get outside the frontier of their strategy they will probably be killed, and so we have to watch that we are not enticed outside gods frontier. Remember, no man can take us outside, it is our own stupidity that takes us out. When we realise that we have got outside the moral frontier, the only thing to do is to get back again and realise what the apostle Paul says in Philippians 4:1113.
3. The faithfulness of godliness
for the rod of the wicked shall not rest upon the lot of the righteous; lest the righteous put forth their hands unto iniquity. (psalm 125:3) the rod means two things it is used in counting in the sheep, and it is used to destroy the wild beast that suddenly springs out on the sheep (see psalm 23:4).
The man of sin will have his rod, he will do clever tricks, he will put the mark of the beast on every business system that he sanctions, and those who do not have that mark on them can never do business under the regime of the man of sin. Suppose you find that the people who are counted in under the mark of the beast succeed, and you do not succeed, you may be tempted to negotiate the thing and say, well, i dont know, if i did this thing it would save me; i had better just compromise a bit. We must never do that. The rod of the wicked shall not rest on the righteous, god says. There is no need to fear, if we keep within the moral frontiers of god we can say boldly, the lord is my helper. We do not need to mind how the wicked bluster and say, if you dont do this and that, you will starve. Be faithful, make holiness your aim, holiness in every relationship money, food, clothes, friendship then you will see the lord in all these domains.
4. The fitness of goodness do good,
O lord , unto those that be good, and to them that are upright in their hearts. (psalm 125:4) our lord warned the disciples that they would be put out of the synagogue, and be killed (see john 16:2).
But he says, dont mind about that, beware only of not doing your duty according to my commandments, because that will destroy both soul and body in hell (see Matthew 10:28; revelation 2:10). We are apt to make salvation mean the saving of our skin. The death of our body, the sudden breaking-up of the house of life, may be the salvation of our soul. In times of peace honesty may be the best policy, but if we work on the idea that it is better physically and prosperously to be good, that is the wrong motive; the right motive is devotion to god, remaining absolutely true to god, no matter what it costs.
5. The futility of godlessness
but as for such as turn aside unto their crooked ways, the l ord shall lead them forth with the workers of iniquity. (psalm 125:5 rv )
There is no reference in the bible to natural law. We talk of certain things as the inevitable result of what a man does: the bible says, god. The psalmist says, the l ord shall lead them forth. God is active in every relationship; it is not natural law or mathematical logic, but god working all through. No man has a fate portioned out to him; a mans disposition makes what people call his fate. The course of deliberately remaining independent of god ends in damnation, by gods direct decree, not as an inevitable happen- ing; and the course of dependence upon god ends in heaven, by gods decree, not by chance. Either course has god behind it. It is the glorious risk of the christian life. The apostle peter gives the warn- ing, beware lest, being carried away with the error of the wicked, ye fall from your own stedfastness (2 peter 3:17 rv ). God does not save us from facing the music, or shelter us from any of the requirements of sons and daughters (see 1 john 4:4). As long as we remain within the moral frontiers of god, watching our hearts lest we give way to ill-content, to covetousness, or self-pity, the things which take us outside gods frontier, then god says, i will in no wise fail thee, neither will i in any wise forsake thee (rv).