Good evening. My name is Jackson Taylor. For those of you who do not know me, I am a pastoral intern at Grace Church in Canton, Georgia, and it is my privilege to be here with you all tonight, and we're just thankful to gather on the Lord's day to worship him. Before we dive into God's word, I would like to pray and ask for God's help to understand his word, to apply his word, to believe his word, and to love his word. So let us go to the Lord now in prayer. Heavenly Father, we just praise you because you are gracious. We praise you for your word, for your condescension to relate to us by way of a covenant, to draw us to yourself and to reconcile us. Though we were sinners, you have delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of your beloved son. You have paid for our sins. and you have called us children. We pray now that as we come into your word that you would give us ears to hear, eyes to see, hearts and minds to understand and to believe your word. And it's in Jesus' name that I pray, amen. If you would stand for the reading of God's word, tonight will be in Psalm 125. And as you're getting there, I wanna give a little prefatory comment. The Psalm 125 is in a section of the Psalter known as the Song of Ascents. and it was a specific type of psalm that would have been sung, if you know anything about the geography and the topography, we're gonna talk about that a lot tonight, of Jerusalem. And you go up into the city of Jerusalem, and as the Israelites were traveling into the city of Jerusalem, going up into that city, during the several religious feasts, they would sing these psalms, and they have a tenor of confidence, psalms of praise to the God who has saved us, and coming into worship of him. So let us read now Psalm 125. 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. For the scepter of wickedness shall not rest on the land allotted to the righteous, lest the righteous stretch out their hands to do wrong. Do good, O Lord, to those who are good, and to those who are upright in their hearts. But those who turn aside to their crooked ways, the Lord will lead away with evildoers. Peace be upon Israel. This is the inerrant, infallible word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. You may be seated. So as I was beginning to study this psalm and reading and meditating and praying about it, I noticed one thing. At the very end of verse five, this little phrase, peace be upon Israel. It almost seems like it's kind of tacked on at the end. It almost seems like it doesn't really have anything to do with the rest of the psalm. It almost could be said, could the psalm have been done without it? Well, as I began to study and read and meditate, God showed me the importance of this little phrase and the peace being the central focus of this psalm. It is the crux and what all the other verses are pointing to and the point that the psalmist is trying to make. And I think all of us are familiar with peace. Peace is something that many of us, I dare say all of us, want in our lives, we want in our hearts and in our minds, but peace isn't something you can just snap your fingers or grit your teeth and have. It's something that we are aware that we want so badly when we go through those seasons where we do not have it. We live in a time where it seems like peace is difficult to come by. I'm sure you've heard this, people throw this saying out all the time, Our country is more divided than ever. I'm sure we've probably all said that at some point, and I think that there's some truth to that statement. But this lack of peace isn't just confined to the political sphere of our lives. Maybe you have a lack of peace in your marriage. Maybe you have a lack of peace in your families. Maybe you have a child or a family member that's estranged. Maybe you're the one who's estranged. Maybe there's a lack of peace in your workplace between you and your coworkers. Maybe there's a lack of peace in your relationship with the Lord. Maybe you struggle with knowing that God is real or that he is with you and that he has saved you from your sin. And I think when we have a lack of peace in our hearts and in our minds, this can cause us to do something. It can manifest itself. Whether it's anxiety, worry, stress, or just doubt in general, these are things that creep their head when we have a lack of peace in different parts of our lives, especially in our relationship with God. But what I want us to see tonight is that Psalm 125 seeks to remedy that problem. Psalm 125 reminds us that we as God's people can have peace in this life, no matter the circumstances we may face. The main idea that I want you to see from this text is simple. It is four words, but very profound. God is with us. If this is true, then we as people who are in Christ are the only people who can have peace in this life. One other way of saying it is that we can have peace because the Lord our God holds us fast in his hands. The first point that I want us to see is found in verses one and two. The point is this, is that God preserves his people. But how does God do this? Well, the psalmist gives us two ways to show us that. The first point being that God preserves his people by holding on to them. We see this in verse one. I'll read it again. Those who trust in the Lord are like Mount Zion, which cannot be moved, but abides forever. So this is a proclamation. This is a promise of God to his people. And if you know anything about Jerusalem or Mount Zion, it is all throughout the Old Testament as well as in the New. But Mount Zion is essentially the mountain or the hill upon which Jerusalem is built. And to an Old Testament saint, this would have been the picture of immovability. Eternal steadfastness. It would have never crossed anyone's mind that Mount Zion was going anywhere. It was the place where God's presence had come to dwell in the city of David. And the point that the psalmist is making is he's making a comparison. That those who trust in the Lord are like Mount Zion. They cannot be moved, but abide forever. That is the point that the psalmist is making is that those who trust in the Lord, we who have put our faith in Christ for salvation cannot be moved. We are immovable in a sense. We abide forever, but we are immovable not because we are good, we know the right things, we sing the right songs, we gather 52 Sundays a year, but this immovability, this truth and this proclamation is only because of God. It is God himself who holds us fast, and this is the promise he has given to us. Jesus, I think, makes a very similar point, if not the same point, in John chapter 10, when he is proclaiming to the people that he is the good shepherd. In John chapter 10, verse 28, Jesus says to them, I, talking about those who believe in him, I will give them eternal life, they will never perish, and no one can snatch them out of my hand. Now that one verse is worthy of many sermons, but I don't have that much time tonight, but I want us to not gloss over that. It says Jesus himself, God in the flesh, proclaiming that those who trust in him, as the psalmist says in verse one, those who trust in the Lord are given eternal life, they shall never perish, and the promise that nothing can snatch them out of his hand. This is the same point that Paul makes in Romans 8, that nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus, our Lord. And the way in which God preserves his people, he preserves them in faith. This is a grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and it is through his spirit working in and through us whereby we are enabled to continue to walk by faith. It's been said like this, if we cannot believe upon the Lord for one second on our own strength, why do we think that we can continue to believe on our own strength? We cannot. But it's important for us to know where the source of that preserving grace comes from. It doesn't come from the strength that we can muster up, but it comes from God's spirit at work within us. We see this in Philippians 1 and 2. Paul makes the point in Philippians 1 verse 6, he says, he who began a good work in you will carry it to completion on the day of Christ Jesus. So if we look at that for a second and it is God who is beginning this work, it is not us mustering it up in ourselves on our own strength, but it is God by the working of his spirit in our hearts to open our eyes to see our sinfulness and to the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. It's God who begins the work. It's God who carries out the work in the work of sanctification to the end on the day of Christ Jesus. This isn't God's gonna start a work and not finish it, but he, the sovereign one will see that which he begins will be completed all by his grace. And Paul tells us a little bit more about how God does that, how he continues to persevere us in his grace. He says in chapter two, it is God's spirit who wills and works according to his good pleasure within us. We are dependent upon the Spirit. Nonetheless, this promise is true that God preserves us, and He has given us His Spirit within our hearts to continue to help us to believe. It's not dependent upon our own strength. If it was, we wouldn't be able to hold fast for one second. but it is upon the sovereign work of redemption of our Lord who gives us that promise that those who trust are like Mount Zion. They cannot be moved, but abide forever. The second thing that we see in verse two is that God preserves his people by surrounding them with his presence. So he preserves us first and foremost in verse one by holding us fast, by causing us to be immovable in him. But the second thing is he surrounds us. We are not just sent out into the world alone to fend for ourselves. But the Lord, as the psalmist says in verse two, surrounds his people as the mountains surround Jerusalem. You know, again, anything about the city of Jerusalem is there are mountains that surround that city and they act as a natural defense mechanism in times of battle. And another word for defense is preservation of life. If you think about it, if somebody were to come into your home at night and attack you and you would respond in self-defense, why? In order to preserve your own life or the life of your loved ones with you. So we see the point that the psalmist is making is that, yes, indeed, the Lord surrounds his people. He never leaves them nor forsakes them. even though there are times in our lives where we could not feel like that is farther from the truth. But what the psalmist wants us to see in God through his word, by his spirit in us, we need to be reminded that even when we go through the muck and the mire, we are surrounded by the presence of the Lord. This is what Jesus says in Matthew 28. I am with you always to the very end of the age. Do we believe that? Do we actually believe the Lord our God is not only with us in those difficult times, but he is surrounding us. He is holding us fast in his hand. The point I want us to see is this, that if we have put our trust in the Lord, that we can be confident that we have been assuredly saved in and through Christ. Like I said earlier, that which God starts, that which He begins, the work that He has begun in us, He will not falter. He will not start it like a project you start at your house that seems to never be done. But He completes that which He begins. This is Paul's point in Romans chapter eight, verses 29. It says, those whom God foreknew, he also called. Those whom he called, he also justified, and those whom he justified, he glorified. And he's speaking about a future reality as if it has already been completed, because that is what our sovereign God is capable of doing. Those whom he predestined also be glorified, according to His sovereign purposes, not our works, not our efforts, not our striving, but His plan and preserving. This preserving and this holding fast made me think of my three-and-a-half-year-old daughter. I don't know what it is about parking lots, but she's pretty well-behaved anywhere else we go, but the second we get in a parking lot, she wants to run wild. I don't know why. But, what do I say? Being a parent, I say, hold my hand. So I hold... It takes some convincing, but I hold my daughter's hand, and about five seconds into the parking lot, what does she do? She lets go. But for some reason, my child isn't running off into the parking lot. How is that so? It's because though she lets go of me, I do not let go of her. And I think that there's, this is one way for us to view the preserving grace of God, whereby he enables us to continue in faith. There are times where we will falter in our faith. Scripture says, when we are faithless, he is faithful. There are going to be seasons where we feel like the Lord is not with us, or we doubt his goodness in our lives. But the thing that we must remember is this, is that his grip is stronger than ours. We might let go for a time that he will not. must take seriously the words of Christ when he says, no one can snatch them out of my hand. And what does this mean for us? What does this have to do with this theme and this point of peace? How does God's preserving us bring us peace in our lives? Well, it does this because we recognize as pilgrims on this journey towards heaven that our persevering in faith does not depend upon our own strength. Yes, we as Christians must continue in faith, we must walk by faith, we must pray for God to strengthen our faith, we are not passive in that, but we know that the final reality in which we will be in heaven forever, we will have that eternal life, we will never perish, we know that it is ultimately not dependent upon us. It depends upon the finished work of Christ for each and every one of those who trust in the Lord. If you have put your trust in him, the promise of verse one is true for you. You cannot be moved, but abide forever. The second point I want us to see is that God not only preserves his people, but he protects his people. Reading verse three, we see that God does not allow the scepter to rest over the land allotted to the righteous. This is an illustration, this is imagery that the psalmist is employing to make a point. And if we do not understand that imagery, we're going to miss his point. So a scepter would have been something that a king or a ruler would have held. It would have been a sign of sovereignty, sign of dominion, sign of power. And what the psalmist is saying is that The scepter of righteousness, the domain of darkness, that of wickedness shall not rest permanently over God's people. Victory is not evil's, but victory is ours in Christ. the land allotted to the righteous as the psalmist is referring to in this time of the Old Testament would have referred to the promised land, the physical land that Israel was given by God, eventually was exiled from, but eventually brought back to because of God's grace. But for us, we have not been necessarily promised a plot of land in the Middle East, but something greater, that which the land pointed to. the promises of God of a heavenly inheritance that is ours in Christ. Don't have time to go through it, but if you read Ephesians 1, it is full of the promises of God that are ours undeservedly because of our union with Christ. This heavenly inheritance that we have been given, Peter describes in 1 Peter 1 as imperishable, undefiled, and unfading. being kept in heaven for us, guarded in faith by the Lord our God. The point is this, is that the reign of wickedness shall not last forever. God restrains the evil in this world in order to protect his people. The irony of this is that the sovereign one, the wicked domains of this world, they hold the scepter as a sign of sovereignty. And they think that that is the end. They are the sovereign one. But in reality, there is a sovereign one over the man-made, self-proclaimed sovereign one. It is our God. And God does this. He restrains that evil. He gives us this promise for the reason in the second part of verse three. He does this lest the righteous stretch out their hands to do wrong. God does it because he knows that in times of pain, times of suffering, times of difficulty, it can be easy to be overtaken by sin, returning evil for evil. Think of the book of Job. Job asked God to strike him dead. His wife even said, look at all that's happened to you, curse God and die. And God knows this. He knows that the pains of this life can be overwhelming. But we see in this verse three that his protection is upon us. What I don't want you to see is this, is that God's protection, I'm not saying that it means that once you become a Christian, it's all sunshine and rainbows and everything will be great, all your problems will go away. That is not what I'm saying. And that is not what the psalmist is saying. But what I do want us to see is that God will not allow evil and wickedness, pain, suffering, death, to have the final word. Because we know that no matter what happens in our lives, chances are those things have either happened to you already, or they will happen to you in the future. Because we live in a fallen world. But we, as those who trust in the Lord, know how it ends. We know the end of our story because of what Christ has accomplished for us. Some would call it a heavenly mindset. We are able to look past what is directly in front of us because we can look to where we are going. One way that I can illustrate this is my father-in-law. He's a simple man and like most of us, he hates commercials. So in today's day and age, what do most people do? They record TV in order to skip commercials. So he does this with his favorite football team. And what he does is he records the game. Hours after the game is finished, he'll check the internet to see if they won. If they won, he'll watch the game. If they didn't win, he just saved three hours. So when they do win, he watches the game, puts it on, and he sees. First quarter, oh, they go down by a couple of points. You think he's stressed? Not at all. Halftime, they're losing big. He's not sweating at all. Why? Because he knows that his team wins in the end. The same is true for us as Christians. We may experience difficult trials, pain, and suffering, whether it be loss of job, sickness, loss of a loved one, whatever it may be, Those things are true and painful realities, but they do not change the fact that we have been redeemed by Christ. And that though we walk through the valley of the shadow of death, we know where our good shepherd is taking us. To be with him forever in a place where we are told in Revelation, every tear will be wiped away. There will be no more sin, no more pain, no more suffering. but the saints together in heaven proclaiming holy, holy, holy is the Lord. The last point I want us to see is that in verses four and five, God's people pray to him. The first three verses are affirmations about those who trust in the Lord. They're promises and truths that apply to you if you have put your trust in Christ. And verses four and five take a different shift. The psalmist begins to pray. And if you notice what he does, he is praying back to God, essentially saying, do what I just said that you would do. So we see God's people praying to him for two reasons here in the psalm in verse four. We see it first to build confidence. In prayer, like the psalmist, we are praying back to God that which he has promised to us. What more sure footing could we be on? than to ask the Lord our God to do what he has told us he would do. That is absolute sure footing and a cause for confidence in the Lord our God. But prayer too is a gift and God knows it's a gift and he calls us to do it, not just so that we would be obedient in that, but so that we would benefit from it as well. Prayer is a tangible form of trust Think about it, if you truly did not believe that God was able to do what you asked him to do, you wouldn't pray. Sadly, that's the reality that marks a lot of our lives. We don't pray because we don't believe that God is capable of doing that which we ask him to do. We doubt God. Our minds are so quick to forget the promises of God given to us in his word. But prayer helps us as God's people to grow in assurance that God will be faithful to that which he has said he would do. Because if we know our Bibles, we know that God cannot lie. And if God proclaims to us to do something, then we as believers in him can trust he will do what he says he will do. This is Paul's point in Philippians chapter four, he says, don't be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be known to God. Paul, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, knows what we need. He knows that you cannot worry and doubt and trust at the same time. They're antithetical to one another. So Paul employs us here and exhorts us, do not be anxious, but instead entrust, pray and cry out to the Lord that which he has commanded he would do. Helps shift our minds from doubt and anxiety to trust and peace. Which is what verse five, to have peace, We pray to the Lord so that we might have peace. Paul continues in verse seven of that chapter four. He says, don't be anxious about anything, but pray about everything. And he continues, and then the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. See, there's this connection. to peace with Christ, peace that we have in Christ, and peace in our hearts and minds. Because I think if we recognize and we understand and we comprehend the chasm which Christ has bridged between us and God, and we recognize that we are no longer enemies, but we are called children at peace with God, the only implication is peace in our hearts and our minds. Paul's not just saying, do this and do that. Paul was a man acquainted with many hardships. He's not saying, pull yourself up by your bootstraps and just try harder to have peace and you'll get it. No, he's telling the Philippians and us as well, reflect upon what Christ has done for you. How you stand in the presence of a holy God, blameless and holy. and recognize what he has done, and this will be occasion for peace in your heart and in your mind. When we understand this, when we see this peace that we have with God, we would be a people who proclaim with Paul and Romans, there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ. And the point is this, the Psalmist is making in verses four and five is that we grow in peace when we pray. This is what Paul is saying in Philippians four. When we go to the Lord in prayer, he eases our doubts. He casts them out and he brings assurance to replace them. And one tangible application step that we can be taking as God's people is something so simple, it's even free. Practice praying back to God his promises to us. We should be a people who proclaim the promises that he has given us to him daily, minutely, secondly sometimes. Because it does two things. One, it causes us to know the promises of God as we're constantly reminded of them. We cannot pray for that which we do not know. So it causes us to seek the Lord, seek and to learn and to meditate upon his promises to us so that we might be praying them back to him repeatedly. But it also grows us in confidence. that the God whom we are praying to is a covenant-keeping God, a God who cannot lie, and who always carries to completion that which he begins. Instead of seeking peace from all the places of the world that promise to give it to you, we need to be going to the Lord in prayer. Because there are many things that are going to vie for your attention. There are going to be many things, many idols that promise this peace in mind and heart that only Christ can bring us. We look to these things like our wealth, our reputation. Maybe we look to our job, our knowledge. Maybe we look to Netflix. Whatever these things that we run to instead of the Lord in prayer, they cannot give us the peace that they promised to give us. They numb us at best. We must go to the Lord in prayer on the sure footing that his words that he has given to us, he will fulfill. As I conclude, I ask a couple of questions. As we look and see what the psalmist is proclaiming about those who trust in the Lord, and he prays to God to do good to those who trust in him. I want us to ask, do you believe that God is preserving you in faith? When it's difficult to believe, do you believe that he is surrounding you with his presence? He does not leave you in the valley of the shadow of death. but is right there with you, with his rod and staff. If you do, you can have the peace of God that Paul says in Philippians four, that surpasses all understanding, incomprehensible. So as we look to Christ and to the Lord our God for this peace that only he can provide, let us never forget his gracious promises to us. Let us pray. Heavenly Father, you are greater than we deserve. We deserve condemnation. We deserve your just judgment for our sin, yet in and through Christ, it pleased you not to withhold your own son but to give him up for us. The one who loved us and gave himself up for us. May we be reminded that in you, we cannot be moved. We cannot be shaken. We cannot fall away because it is your hand that we're in and nothing can snatch us out of it. May this bring us peace in our hearts and minds. It's in Jesus' name that we pray.