All right. Good morning, everyone. Happy Friday morning. It is January 22nd, 2021. So you've got 22, 2021. Interesting number combinations. Anyway, I'm Pastor Jason van Bemmel from Forest Hill Presbyterian Church, and we are gathered together this morning to look at Psalm 125 in our ongoing series, Psalms in the Mornings. And I've got my my name mug this morning that my wife has lovingly provided for me with fresh coffee in it. And I'm on day eight of isolation in my room with COVID. I think I've mostly, I'm mostly better. Just a little bit of congestion still, still get tired quickly and easily, but feeling pretty good. And I'm looking forward to looking at Psalm 125 this morning. It's a joy and a blessing to be able to look to God's word and to be able to hear from him. So let's pray and then we'll dig into Psalm 125 together. Heavenly Father, we thank you so much for this day that you've given to us. We thank you for loving us and forgiving us. Father, we thank you for giving us your word, which shows us who you are, your great and precious promises, which are life to us. We pray, Father, that you would speak to us through Psalm 125 this morning, you would write it on our hearts, and that you would be glorified as you remind us of who you are and reassure us of your love for us, and then remind us of our calling as well to be your holy people. We pray this in Jesus' name, amen. Amen, amen. Psalm 125. is a song of ascents. Yes, it is. Let's see, let's do that. 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. Short, direct, clear and wonderful psalm here this morning in Psalm 125. And there are really two parts to it, and it contains two really important truths for us to consider and to meditate on this morning. The first is just the security of those who belong to the Lord, those who trust in the Lord. Notice the word trust. God enters into a covenant relationship with his people, in which he makes very great and precious promises to us. And he promises to be our God, and to take us to be himself as his people, and to remove our sins from us as far as the east is from the west, and to adopt us as his children, and to work all things for good for those who love him, and are called according to his purpose. And what he asks of us is that we trust him. Trust him. It's not just by default because we're Christians and we go to church. So of course, we're going to be fine. It's trusting in the Lord. And that trust can be challenged at times when circumstances in our lives are not the way that we would want them to be. They're not the way that we would have predicted or anticipated or desired for them to be. But God asks us to trust him and he gives us ample reason to trust him. in his great and precious promises and in his powerful working of redemption for us. But it is those who trust in the Lord. It is those who trust in the Lord who are like Mount Zion, which cannot be moved but abides forever. And then he says, as the mountains surround Jerusalem, So the Lord surrounds his people. And what defines his people? Well, the parallelism here in the Hebrew poetry would tell us that those who are his people are those who trust in him. We are saved by grace alone, through faith alone, in God's precious promises fulfilled in Christ alone. And so by faith, we trust in the Lord and by faith we stand and cannot be moved. And by faith, the Lord enters into this covenant with us preciously to tell us that he surrounds us. He surrounds us from this time forth and forevermore. He is all around us. He goes before us. He is behind us. His presence is with us. He is our guard on our left hand and our right hand. The Bible uses all of these expressions. The Lord goes before us to prepare our way. The Lord is our rear guard. The Lord is with us. The Lord is our shield on our right hand. The Lord guards our left hand. So He surrounds us with His presence and His power. to keep us. So two promises here. One is that we ourselves will stand forever. I'm reminded of what 1 John 2 says about loving the world. It says, do not love the world or the things in the world. For everything that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, comes not from the Father, but from the world. The world and its desires are passing away, but the one who does the will of God abides forever. You see, one of the reasons why we're not to be worldly Christians, which is a contradiction in terms, why we're not to chase after the things of the world, is because those things pass away and we don't. If we trust in God, that's doing the will of God, we remain forever and the Lord surrounds us. So we remain forever and the Lord surrounds us. And what's his purpose in this? What should our response to this be? Well, here in the second half of Psalm 125, we get the purpose. It's not so that we can take a nap and feel good about ourselves. Although there is joy and there is peace in belonging to the Lord, for sure. There is comfort and there is security in belonging to the Lord, for sure. But this little word for tells us that this is the purpose, right, for or because the scepter of wickedness shall not rest on the land allotted to the righteous, lest the righteous stretch out their hands to do wrong. So verse three here is telling us that God's purpose is that we would be his holy people ruled by him and not controlled by the forces of wickedness that are at work in the world. So many times throughout church history, one of the benefits of studying church history is you can learn from the patterns of mistakes in the past. And so many times throughout church history, the church has desired, craved, accepted, compromised, settled for worldly power in one form or another. And this goes back to the days of Constantine the Great, the emperor who legalized Christianity and then immediately began to organize ecumenical councils like the Council of Nicaea. And many, many good things came out of those councils, things that I'm thankful for, like the Nicene Creed and some of the clarifications of the standards for Orthodox Christian doctrine. But many other things came out of that gift of Constantine of taking the church under his wing and becoming the patron of Christianity in the world. And that is that all of a sudden being being a person of prominence within the church being a bishop or an archbishop became a very powerful position within the empire. within the Roman Empire, and it became very desirable. And so people began to seek after those things. And then over time, as land was allotted to those bishoprics, and tithes were allotted to those bishoprics, it became very, very profitable to be a bishop or an archbishop within the church. And so people began to purchase these positions. Nobles began to purchase these positions for their sons. And you had a situation within Within a couple hundred years of Constantine's decision, you had a situation where you had 12-year-old boys who were bishops within the church, where they had to make rules that you had to be baptized as a believer before you could become a bishop. Now, why in the world would you have to make a rule that you'd have to be baptized to be a bishop? Because becoming a bishop was becoming a worldly political power play. And this was what happens, and that compromises this purpose of God. God says, I am your security. I am your defense. I am your establishment, the rock on which you stand. And I am that so that you won't trust in the world, so that the scepter of wickedness won't rest on the land allotted to the righteous. The other interesting side effect is that during those first 300 years of Christianity, when Christianity was illegal, the gospel grew and advanced into new lands at a very rapid pace. But once Christianity became identified with the Roman Empire, well, then there was a reluctance to sort of stretch beyond the bounds of the Roman Empire because, boy, it's awfully comfortable here within these safe boundaries. And so missions dried up and church planting and new frontier people groups dried up. And there were many, many negative effects. And so how do we see that today? What's the application to us? Okay, that's the early church. When we desire worldly power and influence, when we desire prominence, status, we are tempted to put the church the kingdom of God under the rule, the authority, the dominion of the world, of some aspect of the world. Because that world or that aspect of the world has promised things to us. And we must not do that. We must not do that. We must not be under the scepter of wickedness so that we will not stretch out our hands to do wrong. We're called by God to love our neighbors, to be salt and light, to do good in the world. We are to do good. We're to be do-gooders. Jesus was a do-gooder. Peter in his sermon to Cornelius, the centurion, in Acts 10, when he's telling him about Jesus, he said how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power and how he went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed of the devil. All. You see, we are to do good to all. So do good, O Lord, to those who are good, and that is those who are doing good in the world. And those who are upright in their hearts, those who say, I trust in the Lord and I'm not looking for power or influence in the world. But those who turn aside to their crooked ways, the Lord will lead away with evildoers. In ancient Israel's time, their temptation was always to make alliances with foreign powers. You know, let's rely on Egypt to be our defender. And God said, no, no, no, I'm your defender. They said, oh, let's make an alliance with the Syrians. They'll come to our help against. No, no, no, I will come to your help. Will we trust the Lord? If we will trust the Lord, then we get the blessing at the end of verse 5, peace be upon Israel. If we will trust in the Lord. But if we're going to trust in the things of the world, well then, we're going to put ourselves under the scepter of wickedness, and we're going to be tempted to stretch out our hands to do wrong. To lie, to slander, to attack, to try to defend ourselves. And that's not our place. Let's look really quickly at a couple of passages that reinforce these two truths, that we are secure in the Lord and not anything else, and that we need to make sure we're not trusting in man. First, Hebrews chapter 13. Keep your life free from the love of money. Let's just stop there for one second. Love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Because at the heart of it, love of money removes our trust from being in God and puts it in our wealth, in our bank account. Keep your life free from the love of money and be content with what you have. For he has said, I will never leave you nor forsake you. So we can confidently say, the Lord is my helper. I will not fear. What can man do to me? Remember your leaders, those who spoke to you the Word of God. Consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. You see the connection there? Don't trust in money, right? But trust in the Lord, for the Lord has told us, I will never leave you nor forsake you. So we can say, the Lord is my helper. I will not fear. What can man do to me? All they can do is take my life, which just ushers me into the presence of Jesus. I do not need to be afraid. I do not need to be afraid. Psalm 146. Put not your trust in princes, in a son of man in whom there is no salvation. When his breath departs, he returns to the earth. On that very day, his plans perish. Blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob. whose hope is in the Lord his God, who made heaven and earth, the sea and all that is in them, who keeps faith forever. So don't put your trust in princes. There's no salvation in the son of man. His breath departs, he returns to the earth. His plans perish. Someone else takes over and continues on. We see this in a very practical way. I'm just going to make one brief statement. about trusting in politics, right? Our guy gets elected and we're super excited because his first week in office, he signs all these executive orders that we're so excited about. And as soon as he is out and somebody else comes in, all those executive orders get turned on their heads. So don't put your trust in executive orders from the White House. Don't put your trust in the political party that's in power because it passes away. Hope in the Lord. Our help is in the Lord. Amen? Alright, Psalm 125. Let's read it one more time. 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. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you for your goodness to your people. We thank you that we have been established forever in Christ and that we cannot be shaken because we are in Jesus and Jesus the rock never fails. We thank you that you surround us with your loving presence. You are behind us as our rear guard. You go before us to prepare the way. You are our guard on our right hand, our left hand, and you are with us. Strengthen our trust in you. Show us the ways in which we're tempted to trust in money, or to fear because of a lack of money, or to not be content with what we have. Show us where we are trusting in politics or in our rights or freedoms as Americans. We're thankful for those things. You give them to us, but we should not trust in them. We should trust in you. We are secure in you. So Father, keep us. and guard us, and bless us. We ask, Father, that we would honor you, that we would not be under the scepter of wickedness, that we would not stretch out our hands to do wrong, but that we would do good to all those that you give us power to do good to today. In the name of Jesus and for the glory of your kingdom, we pray all these things, Father, in Jesus' name. Amen, amen. Well, Sunday morning, we're gonna be for online church again, because I'm still under COVID isolation, and there's a number of cases that have sort of been floating around the church. So we're gonna do online church again on Sunday, 10 o'clock. You'll see me preaching just like this, sitting right here in my bedroom, and look forward to that. We're gonna be in 1 Corinthians 13, the great love chapter. We're going to have our first of, I think, three messages in 1 Corinthians 13, Sunday morning at 10 o'clock. Hope you can join us for that. If not, Lord willing, we'll be back here Monday morning at 8.30 for Psalm 126 as we continue making our way through these beautiful songs of ascents. Have a blessed day in the Lord.