The Unshakeable Kingdom and the Surrounded Saints Text: Psalm 125
Introduction: A Song of True Assurance
We come this morning to another of the Psalms of Ascent, these songs that the pilgrims would sing as they made their way up to Jerusalem for the great feasts. As they walked, with their eyes on the hills of Zion, they sang about the God who made those hills. This particular psalm, Psalm 125, is a psalm of assurance. But we must be careful here. This is a song of true assurance, which means it is a song for true men. A false man can only ever have a false assurance. But a true man, one who has placed his trust in the Lord Jesus, can have a rock solid, mountain-like assurance. And in a world of sand, a world of sinking foundations and political earthquakes, this is a very precious thing indeed.
Our culture is built on the shifting sands of sentiment, emotion, and autonomous reason. Men build their houses of meaning on the beach, and then act surprised when the tide of reality comes in and washes it all away. They trust in their political party, or their 401k, or their own supposed goodness, and these things are reeds that will break and pierce the hand of any who lean on them. The world offers a thousand false assurances, a thousand paper-thin securities that cannot bear the weight of a man's soul for eternity, or even for a Tuesday afternoon when things go sideways.
Into this flimsy and fragile world, the Word of God speaks of a different kind of stability. It speaks of a geological, tectonic stability. It speaks of a security that is as firm as the very mountains God Himself has planted. This psalm contrasts the man who trusts in Yahweh with all other men. It tells us what our position is, what God's posture toward us is, and what our prayer should be in light of these glorious realities. It is a song for a people on the move, marching upward to Zion, surrounded by enemies, but more truly surrounded by God.
The Text
A Song of Ascents.
1 Those who trust in Yahweh
Are as Mount Zion, which will not be shaken but will abide forever.
2 As the mountains surround Jerusalem,
So Yahweh surrounds His people
From now until forever.
3 For the scepter of wickedness shall not rest upon the land of the righteous,
So that the righteous would not send forth their hands in unrighteousness.
4 Do good, O Yahweh, to those who are good
And to those who are upright in their hearts.
5 But as for those who turn aside to their crooked ways,
Yahweh will lead them away with the workers of iniquity.
Peace be upon Israel.
(Psalm 125 LSB)
Unshakeable Saints, Unshakeable Savior (v. 1)
The psalm begins by establishing the nature of the believer's security.
"Those who trust in Yahweh Are as Mount Zion, which will not be shaken but will abide forever." (Psalm 125:1)
The central condition here is trust. This is not about ethnicity, or religious performance, or moral effort. The kind of person who is unshakeable is the one who trusts in Yahweh. This is the faith that receives the grace of God in Jesus Christ. And what is the result of this trust? The one who trusts is like Mount Zion. Not like a sturdy tree, not like a well-built house, but like the mountain on which the very temple of God was built.
This is a staggering comparison. The believer is made to be as stable as the mountain of God. He "will not be shaken but will abide forever." This is the doctrine of the perseverance of the saints in poetic, geological form. Some people get nervous about this doctrine. They say, "Well, what if someone trusts in the Lord for a time and then falls away?" The Bible's answer to that is found in 1 John. "They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us" (1 John 2:19). Genuine trust, the kind of trust that God Himself gives as a gift, cannot be ultimately shaken because it is fixed to an unshakeable object. When you are saved by Christ, you are as secure as He is. You are not secure because your grip on Him is so strong, but because His grip on you is unbreakable.
The Divine Encampment (v. 2)
The psalmist then shifts the camera angle. He zooms out from Mount Zion to the surrounding topography, and in it, he sees a greater theological reality.
"As the mountains surround Jerusalem, So Yahweh surrounds His people From now until forever." (Psalm 125:2)
First, the believer is like a mountain. Second, the believer is surrounded by God in the way that Jerusalem is surrounded by mountains. The security is doubled. We are made of rock, and we are garrisoned by rock. The reason God's people are like mountains which cannot be moved is that they are surrounded by the mountains of God, which cannot be moved.
This is a picture of total, comprehensive, 360-degree protection. God is not just in front of us like a shield, or behind us as a rear guard. He is "round about" His people. He is our perimeter. There is no angle of attack that the enemy can devise that is not covered by the Lord Himself. And this is not a temporary arrangement. He surrounds His people "from now until forever." This is a permanent, eternal encampment. The world, the flesh, and the devil may lay siege, but they are laying siege to a fortress whose walls are the infinite God Himself.
The Limits of Wicked Power (v. 3)
This assurance is not a promise of a life free from trouble. Wickedness is real, and it has a scepter, a symbol of rule and authority. But that authority has limits.
"For the scepter of wickedness shall not rest upon the land of the righteous, So that the righteous would not send forth their hands in unrighteousness." (Psalm 125:3)
The "scepter of wickedness" refers to the rule and dominion of ungodly men. The "land of the righteous" is literally the "lot" of the righteous, their inheritance, their portion from God. This can refer to their physical property, their estates, but it also extends to their entire station in life. The promise is that the dominion of evil will not be a permanent fixture in the lives of God's people. It may visit, it may afflict, it may press down for a time, but it will not "rest" there. God has set a boundary on the authority of tyrants and persecutors.
Notice the reason given. God limits the oppression of the wicked in order to protect the righteous from temptation. He will not allow His people to be pressed beyond their ability to endure, lest they be tempted to despair and "send forth their hands in unrighteousness." This is an incredible statement of God's pastoral care. He knows our frame. He knows that under extreme, unrelenting pressure, even the righteous might be tempted to compromise, to make a deal with the devil, to fight unrighteousness with unrighteous methods. So God, in His mercy, governs the governors. He holds the leash of every tyrant, and He will not allow them to push His children past the breaking point. He is managing our trials for our sanctification, not our destruction.
A Prayer for the Good, A Warning for the Crooked (v. 4-5)
In light of these truths, the psalmist turns to prayer. The confidence in God's protection does not lead to passivity, but to active petition.
"Do good, O Yahweh, to those who are good And to those who are upright in their hearts." (Psalm 125:4)
This might strike our modern ears as a bit self-righteous. "Do good to the good people." But we must understand what biblical goodness is. It is not a claim to sinless perfection. We know that if God were to mark iniquities, no one could stand (Ps. 130:3). Rather, this refers to those who are genuinely regenerate, those whose hearts have been made "upright" by the grace of God. We are not saved by our good works, but we are most certainly saved unto good works (Eph. 2:10). This prayer is asking God to be true to His covenant promises, to bless the very character that He Himself has created in His people. It is a prayer that God would cause the righteous to flourish, which is a perfectly biblical thing to pray.
But there is another category of people.
"But as for those who turn aside to their crooked ways, Yahweh will lead them away with the workers of iniquity. Peace be upon Israel." (Psalm 125:5)
This is the fate of the apostate, the one who was among the people of God but whose heart was never truly upright. They "turn aside to their crooked ways." Their path is not straight; it is warped and twisted by their rebellion. And what is their end? God will "lead them away" with the openly wicked, the "workers of iniquity." They thought they were on a clever detour, a third way, but all crooked paths ultimately lead to the same destination: the garbage dump of the universe. God sorts the wheat from the chaff, the true from the false, and He leads each to their proper end.
And so the psalm concludes with a benediction: "Peace be upon Israel." This is not a sentimental wish. It is a declaration of the result of God's sovereign protection and righteous judgment. True peace, true shalom, is only possible for the Israel of God when the wicked are judged and the righteous are secure in their God-given inheritance. Peace is a fruit of righteousness.
Surrounded by the Gospel
As with all the psalms, we must read this through the lens of the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the ultimate man who trusted in Yahweh. He is the true Mount Zion, the rock of our salvation, the cornerstone of the new creation. And on the cross, He was not shaken. He endured the ultimate pressure, the full weight of the scepter of wickedness, the very wrath of God against our sin, so that we would not have to.
Because of His steadfastness, we who are in Him are now constituted as the true Jerusalem, the church of the living God. And what is our security? It is that God the Father surrounds us for the sake of His Son. The mountains that surround us are the finished work of Christ, the invincible power of the Holy Spirit, and the unshakeable promises of the Father.
Therefore, we can face the scepters of wickedness in our own day, whether they come from overreaching governments, a hostile culture, or the whispers of the evil one. We know that their power is limited. We know that God is using their impotent rage to refine us, not to destroy us. Our task is to remain upright in heart, to pray for the good, and to trust in the God who surrounds us.
The world may look like it is surrounded by problems, by chaos, by threats on every side. But the man of faith looks at the same scene and sees something different. He sees that he is surrounded by God. And that changes everything. That is the foundation of true peace, the peace that God pronounces upon His Israel, His church. We are an unshakeable people, in an unshakeable kingdom, surrounded by an unshakeable God. Amen.