If you'll turn with me to the
126th psalm, Psalm 126 and with the Lord's help I'd like to pass
on a few thoughts from this psalm looking at the psalm as a whole
and then if we have time to look a little at verse 3 The Lord
hath done great things for us, whereof we are glad." We were
singing that hymn by Samuel Medley, the work of grace in the heart
of the believer, of the Christian believer, and he ends every verse,
every stanza of that hymn by saying, My Jesus hath done all
things well what a mercy it is if we can sing if we can sing
from the heart that the Lord Jesus Christ is ours that the
Lord Jesus Christ is my Jesus the one who gave himself a ransom
for many but gave himself a ransom for me for we believe that the
Lord Jesus Christ gave his life a ransom not only for many but
that many is the whole of the election of grace and every one
of those they will be saved with an everlasting salvation but
this psalm is one of that group of psalms that begins at Psalm
120 and runs through to Psalm 134 which are all headed with
the phrase Song of Degrees now these psalms were psalms that
were sung by the Jews as they were on pilgrimage when they
were going up to Jerusalem at least once a year on the Day
of Atonement and sometimes for other of the feast days to make
sacrifice unto God and they would walk from from wherever they
lived in Palestine in the land of Canaan and they would as they
joined together in groups they would sing these songs these
songs and they would sing them in praise to God as they walked
up to Jerusalem taking their journey for to worship and praise
Almighty God in the sacrifice that they made well it was a
sacrifice of the Lamb but of course the sacrifices have now
been abolished they've been fulfilled all the types and shadows of
the ceremonial law have been fulfilled in the Lord Jesus Christ
no longer do we go on a literal pilgrimage but we are on that
pilgrimage if we are a child of God from earth to heaven through
this veil of tears coming to the throne of grace coming to
the throne of God on high when we pass through death one thing
I like about Medley's Hymns is that he always finishes up in
heaven in those hymns and the child of God has that hope of
heaven itself that where I am says the Lord Jesus remember
how the Lord Jesus Christ spoke to his disciples about his going
away about his being taken and crucified but he says in my father's
house and many mansions if it were not so I would have told
you I go to prepare a place for you and that preparation was
undertaken by the Lord Jesus Christ upon the cross in his
dying as a substitute for sinners in his dying for rebels and for
sinners having fulfilled the law in every jot and tittle he
fulfilled it for his election of grace and every one of those
for whom he died will be saved with an everlasting salvation. And if you look at these Psalms,
you'll see how that they deal with the work of grace, the progress
of grace in the hearts of the Christian believer. First of
all, Psalm 120, it speaks of the beginnings of the work of
grace. that he was in distress, in my
distress I cried unto the Lord and then Psalm 121 he speaks
about the help that is desired from God I will lift up mine
eyes unto the hills from whence cometh my help because we are
unable to help ourselves we are unable to save ourselves the
hymn writer says not what these guilty hands have done we're
all sinners and we cannot appease the wrath of God the wrath of
Almighty God because we have rebelled against God we have
lifted our hands up against Almighty God and we said concerning the
Lord Jesus Christ we will not have this man to reign over us
but our help comes from God he it is who came down from the
glories of heaven he it is who was found in fashion as a man
who humbled himself and became obedient unto death even the
death of the cross and he gave his life a ransom for many he
who knew no sin Our Lord Jesus Christ was holy, harmless, undefiled
and separate from sinners. He who knew no sin was made sin,
that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. And he took upon
himself the guilt and the punishments of a broken law. for a multitude,
for that election of grace, for the church, for Christ loved
the church and gave himself for it, for the church. Now Psalm
122, there is that desire to worship. If you are a child of
God, then you have that desire to enter into the courts of the
Lord on the Lord's day and to worship and praise our great
and glorious and holy God. I mentioned in prayer when we
commenced this service that we offer sacrifices of praise and
thanksgiving, the fruit of our lips. Not a literal blood sacrifice. That blood sacrifice has been
made once and forever. But this man, after he had made
one sacrifice for sins, sat down at the right hand of God from
henceforth expect him to all his enemies be made his footstool
but the child of God desires to enter into the courts of the
Lord I was glad when they said unto me let us go into the house
of the Lord and so we can go on through all these 15 Psalms,
the Psalms of Degrees speaking about the work of grace in the
heart of the Christian believer drawing him away from the world,
drawing him away from sin drawing him away from self and pointing
him to the Lord Jesus Christ. Indeed, the Apostle Paul says,
let us run with patience the race that is set before us, looking
unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith. You see, we are
a pilgrim people. we are a people that are strangers
in this world Peter writes in his epistle as he addresses the
elect scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and
Bithynia he says he greets them as the strangers that are scattered
he calls them the strangers they're strangers from the world and
then later on in that same epistle he exhorts them, dearly beloved
I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims outstained from fleshly
lusts which war against the soul we are strangers and pilgrims
in this world this world is not my home writes the negro spiritual
I am just a passing through my treasures are laid up somewhere
beyond the blue We are strangers in this world. Kelly puts it
like this. From Egypt, lately come. And
Egypt, as in the scripture, is a picture of this dying world. For this world is dying. all
the scientists and the political pundits and others that think
they know everything they say that this world is going to use
all its natural resources and it's getting warmer by the minutes
and so on through climate change and so on Well, this world is
passing away. Peter tells us that the elements
shall meld with fervent heat when it is the day of the Lord. So, when we read of Egypt in
the scriptures, we have that as a picture of
this world William Kelly says these words from Egypt lately
come where death and darkness reign we seek our new our better
home where we our rest shall gain we are seeking that heaven
we are seeking that place where the Lord Jesus Christ is we are
following on that narrow way there are just two ways in this
world there is the broad way the broad way leads downwards
the broad way leads to destruction and if you go downhill if you're
walking downhill or running downhill you pick up your speed and you
hasten on that downward path and it is true in our pathway
through this world if we're walking according to the principles of
this world we are speed hastens and we become more and more corrupt
more and more ready for a lost eternity but says the Lord Jesus
Christ there is that narrow path there is that narrow way and
that leads upwards that leads upwards to heaven and the psalmist
says in another place thou shalt guide me with thy counsel and
afterward receive me to glory so we turn to psalm 126 and it
is it is a psalm that deals with
the deliverance of the child of God he is delivered when the
Lord turned again the captivity of Zion we were like them the
first clause or the first two clauses of this verse when the
Lord turned again the captivity of Zion it speaks of deliverance
it speaks of the hand of God the mighty hand of God, it was
the Lord that turned the captivity of Zion. And I would remind you
again, as I've reminded you many times before, when you see the
word Lord in our authorised version, it is referring to the covenant
God of Israel, the covenant God of the spiritual Israel. It is
referring to that almighty God, Jehovah, the one that is high
and lifted up. the one that inhabits eternity,
the Trium God. It is Almighty God that turns
the captivity or delivers his people from their sins. What a mercy it is that there
is deliverance in the Lord Jesus Christ. But we are born under
sin. the psalmist says in Psalm 51
as he speaks about his own sinfulness he says behold I was shapen in
iniquity and in sin did my mother conceive me what he is saying
there is that when we are born we possess a sinful nature we
possess a corrupt nature we possess a nature that is at enmity with
Almighty God and God is a purer eye than to behold iniquity God
is a holy God or how shall I, whose native sphere is dark,
whose mind is dim, before the ineffable appear, and on my naked
spirit bear the uncreated being? how can I approach unto God?
how can I come into the presence of God who am a sinner? how dare I approach unto a holy
God? well, there is only one way whereby
we come before God and that is in and through the Lord Jesus
Christ the Lord Jesus Christ is speaking to his disciples
in the upper room before he is taken and brought before the
Sanhedrin before he is brought before Pilate the Roman governor
before he is crucified he is speaking to his disciples he
is speaking his farewell to them and he says and if I go and prepare
a place for you I will come again and receive you unto myself that
where I am there ye may be also and whither I go ye know and
the way ye know and Thomas he couldn't understand what the
Lord Jesus Christ is saying he says we don't know where you're
going we don't know the way where you're going and Jesus
answered those most famous of words Jesus saith unto him I
am the way the truth and the life no man cometh unto the father
but by me and notice how the Lord Jesus Christ uses the particular
particle in that verse the way the truth the life it is used
in an emphasis to exclude any other ways there is no other
way to God but by the Lord Jesus Christ oh says the world I can
choose my own religion I can choose my own way but that way
there is a way that seemeth right unto a man but the ends thereof
are the ways of death. It is a particular way, the way,
the truth, the life. There is no other way to God,
there is no other truth but in the Lord Jesus Christ. The late
Aneurin Bevan used to say to his political opponents, Aneurin
Bevan died, what, 40, 50 years ago? He was a long-serving member
of the Labour Party in the House of Commons and he used to say,
you show me your truth and I will show you my truth. well that
might apply to worldly philosophies but it does not apply to the
things of God there is but one truth and that is the truth of
the Lord Jesus Christ and he is the life if we would know
life, that is true life, spiritual life if we would be quickened
from spiritual death it is in the Lord Jesus Christ but the
apostle Paul says and you have he quickened who were dead in
trespasses and sins and then the Lord Jesus goes on to emphasize
that which he has just said no man cometh unto the Father but
by me there is no other way through God but through our Lord Jesus
Christ so when the psalmist here says when the Lord turned again
the captivity of Zion he is speaking of that deliverance the historical
context of course is that of the return from the exile the
children of Israel in the southern kingdom had been taken into exile
they had been taken into exile to Babylon by the armies of Nebuchadnezzar
for 70 long years they were in Babylon 70 in scripture refers
to the length of life in psalm 90 the psalmist says
thou hast set our iniquities before thee our secret sins in
the light of thy countenance for all our days are passed away
in thy wrath we spend our years as a tale that is told the days
of our years are three score years and ten and if by reason
of strength they be four score years yet is their strength labour
and sorrow for it is soon cut off and we fly away seventy years
there have been medical advances of course and people do live
longer but sooner or later we come to an end of this life and
the children of Israel were in Babylon for a lifetime those
who went into exile, the vast majority of them perished and
died in the land of Babylon but the children of Israel were returned
we read how at the end of the book of Chronicles how that Cyrus
the king of Persia made a decree thus said Cyrus king of Persia
all the kingdoms of the earth hath the Lord God of heaven given
me and he has charged me to build him a house in Jerusalem which
is in Judah who is there among you of all his people the Lord
his God be with him and let him go up there is that deliverance
and it was by the hand of God the hand of God that was a strong
arm and the hand of God that brought Israel out of Egypt as
a result of the plagues Pharaoh thrust out the children of Israel
Likewise, the child of God is delivered. Delivered by the strong
hand of the Lord Jesus Christ, as it were. Their Redeemer, says
Jeremiah, is strong. Their Redeemer is strong. Who
else could take upon himself the guilt and the punishment
of sin? who else could die as a ransom
for sinners? who else could be the savior
of sinners? their redeemer is strong he holds
his people just as the high priest in the old testament on the day
of atonement took the whole of the nation into the presence of God when
he dressed in those robes that are described in the book of
Leviticus he put on the breastplate of righteousness with the 12
stones to represent the tribes of Israel and he went into the
most holy place on that day of atonement to make atonement for
the people 7 times he sprinkled blood before the mercy seat 7
times he sprinkled blood on the mercy seat but our Lord Jesus
Christ is a sacrifice of better blood and nobler name than they
he gave his life at ransom once and for all for a multitude that
no man can number the Church of Rome tells us in its official
documents that it repeats the sacrifice of Calvary it continues
the sacrifice of Calvary as it says a mass as the priest says
mass every time and it is a continual sacrifice because as one priest
finishes the mass so another commences the mass and so it
is continuous what blasphemy what utter travesty of the truth
of the gospel but this man as we've already quoted that this
man after he had made one sacrifice for sins forever sat down at
the right hand of God from henceforth expecting to all his enemies
be made his footstool and you notice as you read the scriptures
that in the tabernacle first of all and then in the temple
that was erected in Jerusalem there was no seat there was nowhere
to sit the priest always stood because his work was never finished
the sacrifices went on and on they were a continual sacrifice
but this sacrifice that was made by the Lord Jesus Christ was
finished never to be repeated and so he having finished his
work he sat down in the courts of heaven itself sat down waiting
till all his enemies they made his footstool waiting till all
his people are brought to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ Well, the psalmist goes on to say,
not only speak about the Lord turning the captivity of Zion,
but he goes on to say that we were like them that were in a
dream, that they were in a dream. It was something that they couldn't
believe. it was something that they couldn't really expect they'd
forgotten how the Prophet Jeremiah prophesied that for 70 years
the land would lay fallow and then they would be returned but
they returned they were they returned to the land of promise
they returned to Israel and the temple in Jerusalem was rebuilt
by Nehemiah the walls were built by Nehemiah Ezra and Nehemiah
led the company of the children of Israel and they were able
to go back you know the Lord's people Christian people they
are delivered and they cannot believe it can God have mercy
upon me? God is a holy God and I am such
a sinner remember how the prodigal son in Luke's gospel he came
to himself and he went back home he had gone all the way back he'd gone away
from his family he'd gone away from his father he'd squandered
his inheritance on riotous living we're told and then he came to
himself when he was sat in the pigsty feeding the swine thinking
of the servants in his father's household and he went back with
the words I am not worthy to be called thy son make me as
one of thy servants and can you imagine the amazement of that
prodigal son who received a rope the rags that he was wearing
were taken from him he was given the best rope in the house a
ring was put on his finger to show that he was back in the
family he was given shoes the servants would have been barefooted
but he was given shoes so that he was not a servant but he was
part of the family can you imagine the amazement what me? well I deserve I don't deserve
such things and you and I are exactly the same we do not deserve
the mercy of God but God says to the Apostle John is love God
is love or he says in his gospel for God's soul of the world that
he gave his only begotten son that whoso believeth in him should
not perish but have everlasting life that we don't deserve these
things we deserve to hear the words depart from me I never
knew you, but instead, if we're a child of God, if we come by
faith to the Lord Jesus Christ, if we come to an end of ourselves,
an end of our endeavours, and remember how Top Lady writes,
not the labour of my hands can fulfil thy law's demands, could
my zeal no respite know, could my tears forever flow, all for
sin could not atone, all that thou must save, and thou alone
and the Lord Jesus Christ saves his people he saves everyone
and he washes them in that fountain for sin that has been opened
for the house of Israel for the city of Jerusalem for the house
of David for the church of God they are washed clean and they
are made clean in the blood of Christ oh what a mercy it is
the Lord our God is merciful to our unrighteousness and so
we have that hope then we have that hope of eternal life. Paul
writes about that hope in the fifth chapter of his epistle
to the Romans he says therefore being justified by faith we have
peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ by whom also we
have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand and rejoice
in hope of the glory of God we rejoice in hope now what does
it mean to rejoice in that hope? these days the word hope has
completely changed its meaning from what it was originally when
our Bible was translated when we speak of hope we speak of
things of uncertainty we hope tomorrow that we will do this
or that many last evening bought their lottery ticket with the
hope that they would win a fortune but the word hope as it properly
means in the English language is something that is certain.
it is that which is definite just as this building has a sure
foundation it is built upon a solid foundation and we are certain,
we hope we have that hope that the building will not collapse
upon us because it has that sure foundation well hope has that
foundation that true foundation of certainty the certainty of
our Lord Jesus Christ you see he rose from the dead the Lord
Almighty God accepted the sacrifice that was made the substitutionary
atonement that was made by the Lord Jesus Christ and so we rejoice
in hope of the glory of God we are going to partake of that
glory Paul goes on to say because the
love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost
which is given unto us and we glory in those things through
which the child of God passes we glory in tribulations also
knowing that tribulations work of patience and patience experience
and experience hope there you have that word again, we have
that hope it's not an empty dream then we were like them that dream
it's not an empty dream you dream in the night when you are fast
asleep during the hours of darkness and you have vivid dreams then
you wake up and the dream dies it goes it passes away we can't
remember the dream but this dream of the children of Israel we
were like them that dream it was a pleasant reverie it was
not just an empty dream it was something that had a basis it
was something that had a basis and the basis was this and we
read it a few minutes ago the basis was the decree of Cyrus
thus says Cyrus king of Persia the decree was that those children
of Israel could go back to Jerusalem Well, our hope has a sure and
certain foundation in the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. We
have that pleasant reverie in the Lord Jesus Christ thinking
on things eternal, thinking and singing in our worship and praise
of the things of God and knowing full well that we will partake
of those things the unknown writer that added that verse to John
Newton's hymn Amazing Grace he says when we've been there ten
thousand years bright shining as the sun with no less days
to sing God's praise than when we first begun or again to quote
another hymn writer through all eternity to Thee a grateful song
we'll raise but oh, eternity is too short to utter all Thy
praise and so it goes on and time is hasting on very quickly
then was our mouth filled with laughter and our tongue with
singing then said them on the heathen the Lord hath done great
things for them the Lord hath done great things for us whereof
we are glad what a mercy it is that we as a child of God we
can say that the Lord has done great things for us Oh, look
back. Look back to Calvary. Look back
2,000 years, and you see the incarnation of our Lord Jesus
Christ. You can see the person of Christ. You can see the work that He
undertook. You can see the obedience of Christ, dying there upon the
cross. Father, if it be possible, let
this cup pass from me, He said. Nevertheless, not what I will,
but what Thou wilt. The obedience of Christ, obedient
unto death. we can read the prayer of the
Lord Jesus Christ Father I will that they are all they whom thou
hast given me be with me where I am that they may behold my
glory we can see the great things that our God in Christ has done
we can see the great things he has done in our lives how he
has led us all the way my Saviour leads me what have I to ask besides? we've been led in his providential
mercies and he has brought us safe to this hour of this day
he has brought us to this place he has brought us to hear the
word of God we wouldn't if we were left to ourselves of our
own volition no, he works in our hearts and he gives us that
desire and it is he who guides our steps and he will do great
things for us he will bring us safe to glory I and the children
says the Lord Jesus which thou has given me everyone everyone
there saved with an everlasting salvation well our time has gone
so we'll leave it there and maybe on another occasion we'll continue
with the remainder of this psalm where the psalmist prays turn
again our captivity O Lord as the streams in the south they
that sow in tears shall reap in joy He that goeth forth and
weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with
rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him." Well, the Lord Jesus
Christ will bring all his sheaves in the glorious harvest of the
last day. He will bring all his sheaves
in. They will be gathered in. All will be safely gathered in
to the glory of Him. Well, the Lord add His blessing
to these few thoughts for His name's sake. Amen.