And there is no more glorious
place to stand than in the righteousness of Christ. I was thinking about
something last night. We went, our family, most of
us, to a restaurant over in Lake City in honor of Jack, my grandson's
birthday. And when we got there, his mother
had already made reservations in this restaurant. And somebody
else had already set the table. And they called us and said, your table is ready. And I went and sat down at that
table. I didn't make the reservation. I didn't pay for the meal. But I was blessed to be there. Such is the sovereign grace of
God who has made a reservation for
his people. He said to his disciples, I go
to prepare a place for you. that where I am, there ye may
be also. What a glorious thing it is to
be found seated at the table of the Lord and to eat the food
that He has prepared. We're looking at Psalm 121. Psalm
121, this is another one of the Song of Degrees. I will lift up mine eyes unto
the hills, from whence cometh my help. My help cometh from
the Lord, which made heaven and earth. He will not suffer thy
foot to be moved. He that keepeth thee will not
slumber. Behold, he that keepeth Israel
shall neither slumber nor sleep. The Lord is thy keeper. The Lord
is thy shade upon thy right hand. The sun shall not smite thee
by day nor the moon by night. The Lord shall preserve thee
from all evil. He shall preserve thy soul. The Lord shall preserve thy going
out and thy coming in from this time forth even forevermore. This is a glorious psalm, a testimony
of Christ. And of course, the testimony
of David as well. I will lift up mine eyes unto
the hills from whence cometh my help. Now, the natural man,
and there's more than one way to look at this psalm. I believe
there's, I believe this, the truth of the psalm is found in
the emphasis of the second verse. Some have said that this is a
reference to looking to the hills for solace. As a natural man, if you've ever
been to the mountains, I imagine most people have, and there's
a grandeur and a beauty as you look out over those mountains
and you see that spreading out before you. And the natural man
in his mind, he finds some comfort and beauty in that, and he might
rejoice in it and his ability to be there. A lot of people
like to retire to the mountains and go there and spend time and
all of that, and that's a good thing. I mean, the Lord gave
that just like he gave the ocean. A lot of people like to spend
time by the ocean, and it's relaxing and all that stuff, and that's
good for the mind of a man. But I believe that the testimony
here is that there are the hills that we look unto for our help,
but it's not those hills. When we say we'll look unto the
hills, from whence cometh our help, the place, the hills from
whence our help cometh is the Lord. He's that one who's our
helper. And that's what this psalm is
about. You know, it's the hills of the Lord. The place, the mountain
of the Lord's house, the place where the Lord dwells on high. That's the place to which we
look. And we will not look to the hills of the earth. While
we get some benefit in viewing those things, they're certainly
not our help. It's not the place where we find
our comfort and our rest. I will lift up mine eyes unto
the hills. From whence cometh my help? My
help cometh from the Lord, which made the heaven and the earth. He made all these things in his
own time, according to his own purpose. And it's amazing, of
course, in the Grace Gazette this week, I was writing there
about the mountain of the Lord's house and the fact that Jerusalem,
as he says in one of the Psalms here, that the mountains, as
the mountains surround Jerusalem, so the Lord does surround His
people. and uh... you know the the lord
has made jerusalem as a uh... natural city to be typical of
that city of god the true city of god the city which john saw
coming down from heaven that new jerusalem that jerusalem
which is from on high and a lot of people want to uh... they think there's some spiritual
benefit in going to the physical city of Jerusalem and I'm not
saying that you couldn't be blessed in some ways by visiting that
part of the world just to kind of see what it looks like and
the things that went on and you have you know a love for the
things of God and these things would be precious to you and
a measure but the natural city of Jerusalem is not a holy city
it's a city inhabited by sinners I mean, there's nothing holy
about the city of Jerusalem, but there is something holy about
the city of God, that new Jerusalem, that city which is purchased
by the blood of Jesus Christ, and the mountain of the Lord's
house into which the scripture says that all the nations shall
flow into it. Well, the Lord has prepared it
for His people. He knows those that are His and
He calls them unto Himself. My help cometh from the Lord
which made heaven and earth. He will not suffer thy foot to
be moved. He that keepeth thee will not
slumber. Now this was the strength that
the Lord Jesus confessed and received the promise of the lord
the father to the son was that he would give his angel charge
over him and that he would keep him and he would not that uh... so that not even a a stone uh... could harm him and is it not
amazing that uh... he was protected throughout his
whole life no man could do anything to him at all they couldn't harm
one hair on his body until such time as the Lord was pleased. And at the appointed time he
was given over into the hands of wicked men to crucify him.
How many times did he walk away from wicked men who had intentions
of destroying him? And I've mentioned this to you
before, I've often pondered exactly the physical aspects of what
went on when they took him up on that cliff to cast him down. And the scripture says that he
just passed through the midst of them. I mean, they couldn't
do anything. Even at the moment when they took him when he was
in the garden and they came to take him. Now you would envision
this, they just came and rushed upon him and took him. But no,
they didn't do that. They said, we look for Jesus
of Nazareth. He said, I am. Now, of course, in the King James
Version it says, I am he, but the he is added in there. And
he perhaps maybe did say, I am he. I don't know in how the context
of the language is and all of that. But he said, I am. The
very same thing that he said to Moses, I am. And when he said
that, the scripture says that they all fell backwards. I mean,
they couldn't stand in the presence of the glory of Him. And they
couldn't take Him. They couldn't have any more took
Him if they'd had brought the whole Roman army out there, if
He had not submitted Himself to them. But He commanded them. He didn't request. You know,
our politicians, they tell us about all these things that they
do and threats that they make and all of this. The Lord Jesus,
He just commanded them. He said, let these go. They couldn't
have arrested any of them. There was no way. They couldn't
have harmed a hair on their head. He said, let these go. And they
did. Because they were powerless to
do any different. Because him, who's the one who
is the help of his people, even in the midst of this, but the
Lord would demonstrate that no man stood with him, but yet,
The strength of the Lord in his life was not in himself, but
was in his trust in the Lord, his Father. As he called upon
him, as he went to a mountain, many times late into the night,
a great while before day, and he prayed. And the Lord gave
him strength. and he rested in him who would
not suffer his foot to be moved. And he that keepeth thee will
not slumber. The Lord does not take time off. Sometimes we think that the Lord
has abandoned us, or we get to thinking, well, man, all this
stuff's happening, where's the Lord in all of this? The Lord's
always right there, just like He was on the seashore when the
disciples were fishing and they couldn't catch anything and he
was watching from the shore. And he'd already prepared a meal
for them. And it just wasn't quite time for him to come and
eat of that meal. But he was, he already had it
ready. I don't know when he had it ready.
I often think about this and I wonder, I mean, did he actually,
you know, catch those fish and clean them and put them on the
fire there? How did that happen? Or did he
just walk up there and said, let there be fish? And there
was fish on the grill. I don't know how that happened.
But it's an amazing thing to consider that regardless of how
it happened, the Lord was the one that caused it to happen.
And it happened in real time.