Psalm 125, another song of degrees,
the next on the children of Israel's journey up towards Zion, up towards
the temple of God, reads as follows. They that trust in the Lord shall
be as Mount Zion, which cannot be removed, but abide if forever. As the mountains are round about
Jerusalem, so the Lord is round about his people from henceforth
even forever. For the rod of the wicked shall
not rest upon the lot of the righteous, lest the righteous
put forth their hands unto iniquity. Do good, O Lord, unto those that
be good, and to them that are upright in their hearts, and
as for such as turn aside unto their crooked ways, The Lord
shall lead them forth with the workers of iniquity but peace
shall be upon Israel. They that trust in the Lord shall
be as Mount Zion which cannot be removed but abide if forever. This Psalm 125 following on from
the previous Psalm takes another view upwards towards the destination
of the people of God towards Mount Zion and looking up to
Mount Zion up in looking up to the city set upon the hill the
people are reminded of that to which they are journeying not
just physically upon the earth at that time but that eternal
city that everlasting heavenly city that Zion which is to come
that Jerusalem above and the view here becomes ever more confident
as it were in Zion and the steadfastness of that city having followed
on from the previous psalm which the psalmist wrote that if it
had not been the Lord who was on our side when men rose up
against us and they had swallowed us up quick when their wrath
was kindled against us then the waters had overwhelmed us the
stream had gone over our soul then the proud waters had gone
over our soul having followed on from this confidence of the
Lord's salvation from that which would overwhelm, from that which
would swallow up, from that which would drown us. Here we have
a view in that which is steadfast. The Lord will deliver us from
all these things. Because the Lord reigns in Zion
above. He is everlasting. He is from
everlasting unto everlasting. He rules over all. And his city
and his people in him are everlasting. They are as a rock set upon the
rock, Christ Jesus. As they are in him, He is, so
they are in this world. They that trust in the Lord shall
be as Mount Zion which cannot be removed but abide there forever. No storm that comes upon them,
no rage of their enemy, no hatred of man, No waters or tempest
or tumult that may come upon them will move them, because
they are set in Mount Zion. They are set as a mountain. They are steadfast because the
Lord has taken them and put them in His Son Christ. And they are
found in Him, found set upon a rock, as Mount Zion which cannot
be removed and abide if forever. No matter what comes upon them. We considered when we looked
at Psalm 124 of the storms, of the waters which would overwhelm
us, of those things which come in like a flood upon the people
of God. in them and outside of them.
The opposition of man, the hatred of men, the trials that they're
subject to in this world. The sin that is in man all around
them and the sin that is in themselves. All these things if they were
left to themselves would swallow them up, would flood them, would
destroy them, they would drown in the midst of it. except the
Lord took them and kept them and placed them upon the rock,
placed them in Mount Zion, put them in Christ. But in considering
the storm we considered, as it were, the picture there as it
is seen in Noah and his ark. God took Noah and his family
and he put Noah and his family in the ark which is Christ. And when the storms came upon
Christ, when the judgments of God were rained down upon heaven
upon his son, though they lash down upon the ark, though they
lash down upon Christ himself, those who were within, his chosen,
Noah who found grace in the eyes of the Lord. Not for anything
he had done or anything he was but purely because God had pleasure
to show grace unto that sinner Noah. Noah who found grace in
the eyes of the Lord was safe in the ark. And we may feel as
we journey through this world that we are anything but like
Mount Zion. as a mountain which cannot be
removed. and which abides forever. When
the storm lashes down upon us, when men pour out their hatred
upon us, when the tumults and tempests of the world around
us seem to shake us from left to right and up and down, when
trials come our way and we're cast down and filled with fear,
we may feel anything but Mount Zion. We may hear the storm we
may feel it lashing against us we may feel us tossing about
as Noah might have felt in that ark as it was lashed about upon
the waters as they rose up above the earth and as the storms rained
down upon it he heard the storms outside he heard the lightning
he felt the wind lashing against it. He felt himself being lashed
left and right but the arc kept him. The arc stood firm. The rain did not enter. The arc
felt the pain. The arc felt the rain and the
storm hitting it. And Noah and his house were safe
inside. And no matter what comes upon
us as believers, no matter what comes upon the church, upon God's
people, no matter how hard the trial, no matter how desperate
the way, no matter how tumultuous our journey might be, no matter
how strongly men may stand up against us and revile us and
reject our message and cast scorn in our face, no matter how desperate
things may appear at times, if we're in Christ we stand fast. If we trust in the Lord If He's
given us faith to trust in Him and look to Him, then we shall
be as Mount Zion, which cannot be removed, but abided forever. No matter how great the storm,
and no matter how many times we may, as it were, in our own
strength, be tossed to and fro, and look to the left and the
right, and to have doubts and fears, God will keep us. as he kept Noah and his house
in the ark. God will take the pain. God will feel the storm. Christ will take it. He has taken
it in order that we might be delivered, spared, saved, brought
through safely to the other side on dry ground. They that trust
in the Lord shall be as Mount Zion which cannot be removed
but abideth forever in spite of everything which may be set
against it. Mount Zion stands firm in spite
of everything that can be set against us. We, if we trust in
the Lord as Mount Zion, will stand firm because God has shut
us in. God has, as it were, like Noah,
taken us and put us in the ark and closed the door and shut
us in. We cannot be removed and we cannot
be touched. As Mount Zion stands firm, so
do those who trust in the Lord, because it's Zion who keeps them. It's the Lord who keeps them. They that trust in the Lord shall
be as Mount Zion, which cannot be removed, but abide if forever. This mount, Mount Zion, stands
tall. It stands up high. It's that
to which the people of God as they journeyed upward singing
these songs of degrees, these psalms of ascent, as they journeyed
upward looking up to God by faith, it's that which was set before
them, it stood up before them, they saw the city of Jerusalem
on high. And they saw the mount standing
on high. And as they look up, as the journey,
as the ascent gets steeper, as they get closer and the steps
get steeper, as they've left the foothills of the mountain
and they're coming up higher, and they're looking up higher,
their gaze is ever more up towards heaven. They look up towards
Zion and it reaches up before them to the heavens. to the Almighty,
to God on high. They see heaven and earth meeting
in this place set before them in Zion. And this mount before
them speaks of that righteousness without which no man can attain
unto God. Without righteousness we cannot
meet with God. Without righteousness we cannot
come into his presence. Without righteousness we cannot
enter glory. No one can enter heaven without
righteousness. Death comes upon everyone, male,
female, young and old. There comes a day when our sojourn
in this world is ended. and we come before our maker. Death is a continual reminder
every day that we are mortal and life is brief. Every generation
is born, it grows old and it goes into eternity. Every day there are those who
bury their dead. Every day, today even, there
will be those who have to bury their mothers, their fathers,
their brothers, their sisters, their sons, their daughters,
their friends. the sorrow it brings them. But
how many foolish people are there, who when death comes to their
door, hope vainly that if there be a heaven or a hell, that their
loved ones are heading to heaven. They have never sought God in
their lifetime, they've never cared for God, they've never
sought his righteousness, and yet when they lay that loved
one, that brother, that sister, that mother, that father, that
child in the grave, they vainly hope that they will enter heaven.
But God is playing. Without righteousness, without
perfection, no one can stand in his presence. No one can even
enter into his presence. We can't approach close unto
God without righteousness. Righteousness is the great need
of man. Death comes upon all men because
all have sinned. We are all far off from God. We were plunged into iniquity
when our forefather Adam turned against God, rebelled against
him, disobeyed. When he disobeyed, we in him
disobeyed. When death entered, death entered
into us. When we were born, we were born
as sinners. We have gone astray from the
womb, from the day we were conceived. And from the day we were born
we've gone astray speaking lies. Every day is a day full of sin. A day in which our crimes mount
up before God. A day in which the judgment increases
against our iniquity. If we come before God to stand
based upon what we have done, said or thought in this world,
all we can present is a lifetime of iniquity, a lifetime of sin,
a lifetime of crimes and guilt. This hour, this moment, you and
I are adding to our crimes, our unbelief, Our disinterest in
God, our turning aside, our seeking our own glory, our pride, our
arrogance. Every moment, every breath, our
crimes increase. We have no righteousness. We
have just sin and iniquity to present before a holy God. And yet sinners vainly hope that
when they die that God might be benevolent to them. for no
grounds other than the goodness of God himself. And ultimately,
that's the only thing that we can turn to. The goodness of
God, the graciousness of God, the mercy of God. But it's too
late when we're in the grave. It's too late to pray for another
when they're gone. Seek the Lord while he may be
found. Seek the Lord when you're young.
Seek the Lord when he comes unto you in the gospel and says unto
you in the gospel, behold the Lamb of God. Oh may our ears
be open to hear. Oh may our tongues be set free
to confess that God is God. that His Son the Lord Jesus Christ
is the Lord. O may we be given faith and a
cry from the heart to cry out unto this God for mercy and to
cry out that He might make us righteous because our need is
righteousness. If we're to stand before Him
we need righteousness and we have none. that which we think
is righteous, all the things we think that we may have done
which are good, the good deeds we've done, the kindness we've
shown to others, any attempt we've done to come unto God by
reading the Scriptures or listening to the Gospel or trying to pray
unto Him, all the things we think might be righteous. If God opens
our eyes we discover as filthy rags, they're unrighteous, they're
full of pride, they're done in our own strength for our own
glory. We have no righteousness but
this Mount Zion which stands before us as a picture of Christ
in the gospel which stands up high in our gaze, a gaze which
cannot be averted, we can't avoid it. There it stands, the mountain
in front of us, this Mount Zion extending up into the heavens,
speaks of righteousness. It speaks of that which we need
to enter glory. It speaks of that ladder that
was set before Jacob of old he saw a ladder extending into heaven
with angels ascending and descending it speaks of that which leads
us up it speaks of righteousness a righteousness which comes down
from heaven of God given unto his people freely by grace you
need righteousness I need righteousness. We need to be cleansed of our
sins. We need them to be washed away.
We need our sins to be blotted out. And we need to be as righteous
as God is righteous. And here this mount stands before
us. a picture of righteousness as it said in Psalm 36, thy righteousness
is like the great mountains, thy judgments are a great deep
O Lord, O Lord thou preservest man and beast. God's righteousness
extends up to heaven and it goes down into the deep, it's limitless,
it's infinite, It goes as high as it can go and as low as it
can go and as wide as it can go. That's the righteousness
we need, one without limits, one which is eternal, one without
beginning or end. Thy righteousness is like the
great mountains. Oh how Mount Zion, standing tall,
reaching up to the heavens, speaks of this righteousness. You need
righteousness. to ascend this mountain to come
unto God. But this mount, these mountains which speak of
righteousness, is that which the Lord's people are likened
unto. They that trust in the Lord shall
be as Mount Zion. They shall be as Mount Zion. They shall be righteous. They shall reach up to heaven. They shall have a righteousness
which is everlasting and eternal. They shall be as Mount Zion. Psalm 72 tells us of these mountains
of righteousness, the mountain shall bring peace to the people
and the little hills by righteousness. God has come down from the height
of glory, come down from the summit of Zion, down into the
depths of this world in the person of his son Jesus Christ. He's
come down to the valleys and the deep where all there is is
sin, where all there is is people like you and I, vile, wretched,
rebellious sinners. He's come down into the depths
of this world from the heights of glory and he's come down to
take the sins of his people, to bear the sins of his people. to be made sin, and to take that
sin to a place of execution, to a place of sacrifice, to a
place of judgment. Christ went to Golgotha. He went to the cross. He was
nailed to the cross. and the sins of his people were
nailed to him and the judgment of God in the law was nailed
to him. It was driven into him. It was poured out upon him. He
went into the darkness of hell when the three hours of darkness
came upon the earth and the light of the sun was taken away and
God's wrath poured out upon him. When the storms of judgment came
down upon him as it came down upon Noah in that ark, as it
came down upon the ark in which Noah was concealed, it came down
upon Christ upon that ark. He went into the darkness and
God in righteousness met the sin of his people. and judged
that sin and consumed it with the fires of his wrath and took
it away. Zion's judgment came down upon
Christ the Savior and came down upon all his people in him and
all their sin was blotted out. All their sin was taken away. When Christ's blood was shed,
it washed every sin away forever. At the end of those hours of
darkness when he cried, it is finished, every sin had been
blotted out. And when the spear was pierced
through his side and the blood came forth, blood and water came
forth, that was testament to the fact that every sin had been
judged. He had been slain, the sacrifice
had been offered up, and God was well pleased with the sweet-smelling
savour of Christ his Son. who was consumed and burnt as
a burnt offering in the place of his people to take away their
sin in righteousness and to bring in for them the righteousness
of God which lasts forever and ever. Did he suffer for you? Has he
led you to that mount to look up and to see Christ upon Zion
bringing in righteousness for you. The psalmist goes on, as the
mountains are round about Jerusalem so the Lord is round about his
people from henceforth even forever. As the mountains are round about
Jerusalem so the Lord is round about his people from henceforth
even forever. Oh what comfort there is in this.
The Lord is round about his people from henceforth forever. There is no one that can get
at them. There is no enemy that can come
upon them. There is no foe that can destroy
them or truly harm them. The Lord is round about His people
from henceforth even forever. He is as mountains surrounding
them. There they are in Jerusalem,
there they are in Zion, and He is as mountains encompassing
them about. He's around about His people,
He encompasses them, He protects them, He watches over them, He's
put them in the ark, and nothing can come upon them, the waters
cannot touch them, the storms cannot come upon them, from henceforth
even forever. If He's come unto you, believer
in the Gospel, and plucked you out of your sin, and plucked
you out of the grasp of hell and delivered you from the judgment
of God against your sin. If he's come unto you and shown
unto you mercy, he is around about you forever. There is nothing that can come
upon you today, tomorrow, next year, whatever may come in your
pathway, whatever trials may come your way, however hard those
trials may be, they are merely sent for your good, to make you
look up by faith to Mount Zion, to make you look up to Christ
your Saviour, to cause you to remember that the Lord is round
about you as the mountains are round about Jerusalem. None of
these things can touch you. He is watching over us. He's watching over you believer.
He is as a covering around about you. A covering of righteousness. The blood of Christ covers his
people. They are clothed from head to
foot. There is no gap in this covering. It is without seams, sewn from
top to bottom. It is eternal, it is everlasting. The righteousness which covers
us protects us from all. The Lord is round about his people.
We're in Christ. He is our rock. He is our fortress. He is our refuge. We are hidden
in him. He's everlasting. Numerous times
the psalmist speak, numerous times David speaks of the Lord,
his rock, the Lord, his refuge, his fortress, his stronghold. That's where he is, that's where
we are as believers, we're in Christ and he is as mountains
round about us. The wicked cannot touch us, Satan
and all his legions of angels cannot touch us. The wrath of
God will not touch us. because it's already been poured
out to satisfaction upon his son. So often when trials come
our way particularly when they are those trials which we may
feel we've brought upon ourselves as we do We stumble, we fall,
we grumble, we complain. We do this and we do that. And
sometimes the chastening hand of the Lord may come upon us
and we feel that perhaps the Lord is rough with us. Perhaps
His wrath is kindled against us. Perhaps His judgment is stood
up against us. But if we're His, this is merely
a chastening rod. to lead us back to the feet of
the Saviour. The judgment has been passed. The wrath of God was quenched,
was satisfied totally in the person of His Son. The blood
covers from all sin. He is as mountains round about
His people from henceforth forever. For the rod of the wicked shall
not rest upon the lot of the righteous, lest the righteous
put forth their hands unto iniquity. The rod of the wicked shall not
rest upon the lot of the righteous. There is a rod of judgment which
the Lord exacts against all sin. He is just, he is righteous.
There is not one sin committed by one sinner ever which will
not be judged, which the rod of God's wrath will not come
down upon. Every deed, every thought, every
sin of every child, woman, man that ever has lived and ever
will live will be judged by the rod of God's wrath. and it will
either come down upon you or I it will either come down upon
the wicked eternally everlastingly in hell from whence there is
no escape for we can never pay the price which our sin demands
it will either come down upon the wicked forever or it came
down upon Christ in the place of his people. There is a rod
of judgment. We've seen this throughout the
scriptures alluded to. Moses had a rod that the Lord
gave him when he led his people out of Egypt, the rod of God. That rod became a serpent when
Moses came unto Pharaoh. It speaks of that sin that came
from the serpent, the devil, when he tempted Eve in the garden. It speaks of that sin which brings
death unto all men. It speaks of that serpent whose
bite brings venom into our souls and which kills forever. And it speaks of that sin in
the serpent which was judged forever by Christ, who bruised
the serpent's head when the serpent bruised his heel, who crushed
the serpent's head and destroyed him. It speaks of that judgment
that meets when the rod of God comes upon the serpent and sin. Righteousness and mercy, judgment
and mercy meet when the rod of God came down upon Christ at
the cross. Moses with his rod smote the
river in Egypt and it turned to blood. The judgment was struck
upon the river and it turned to death, to blood. A picture
of what happened when Christ was struck by God's rod upon
the cross for his people and he was slain and his blood was
shed. Later in anger wrote Moses struck
the rock, a picture of Christ again with the rod and God's
anger was kindled against Moses because of what that pictured.
Because God can only judge sin once. Christ only had to suffer
once. He cannot be struck again and
that sin cannot be judged again. When Christ took away the judgment,
when Christ took away our sin at the cross, it was once forever. The Lord is round about His people
from henceforth even forever. The judgment came upon Christ
and when He said it is finished, it is finished. The rod struck
Him once, He died. The sin was taken away and that
sin will never be judged again. If your sin was judged in Christ,
it will never be judged in you. If your sin was taken away by
Christ's blood, your blood will never be demanded. We're saved
forever, eternally. This rod can only strike once.
It speaks of God's judgment of sin, of the judgment of sin,
of Satan's condemnation. Here is the righteousness of
Israel. pictured in the striking of the rod. Here is their covering,
pictured in the blood of Christ, seen in that river when Moses struck it with his
rod. The rod of the wicked shall not
rest upon the lot of the righteous, lest the righteous put forth
their hands unto iniquity. If you're in Christ, whatever
you do has already been judged. And this rod will never strike
you. This rod will never strike. Oh, has the rod of God been struck
upon Christ for you? Or is it still in God's hand,
waiting for that day when you, a rebel, breathe your last breath,
and come and stand before him. Psalmist goes on, Do good, O
Lord, unto those that be good, and to them that are upright
in their hearts. As for such, as turn aside unto
their crooked ways, the Lord shall lead them forth with the
workers of iniquity, but peace shall be upon Israel. Do good unto those that be good
and to them that are upright in their hearts. The psalmist
cries out here for the Lord's mercy, for blessing. Do good,
O Lord, unto those that be good and to them that are upright
in their hearts. Well, who is good? And who is upright? Is this a reward for our own
goodness or our own righteousness? No, we have none. This is a cry
from he who knows he's a sinner, who's been made righteous in
the blood of Christ. This is a cry that the Lord will
continue to be merciful and continue to bless. It's a cry borne out
of looking by faith unto Mount Zion. and look him by faith unto
he who was slain at Zion for his own. The psalmist cries out
because of what Christ did at the cross for him upon the mount. He looks and sees his Saviour
and says, Lord, be merciful unto me, a sinner. Do good, O Lord,
unto thy servant, unto those that be good in Christ. unto
those whom thou hast made upright in their hearts. Do good, O Lord,
unto us. Bless Zion. Bless the church. Watch over the church. Watch
over thy people. Send forth the light of the gospel
into the darkness of the world around. Preach the gospel, Lord. Deliver us from our sins. Turn us from iniquity. Comfort
Zion in the midst of the turmoil and the tumult and the tempest
of this world. When the storms come upon us,
Lord, watch over us. Have mercy upon us. Strengthen
our gates. Strengthen our hands. Do good
unto thy people. We read earlier from Psalm 48
Another psalm that speaks of Zion and the Lord's goodness
under Zion. Great is the Lord and greatly
to be praised in the city of our God, in the mountain of his
holiness. Beautiful for situation. The
joy of the whole earth is Mount Zion, on the sides of the north
the city of the great King. God is known in her palaces for
a refuge. For lo, the kings were assembled,
they passed by together, they saw it, and so they marveled,
they were troubled and hasted away. Fear took hold upon them
there, and pain as of a woman in travail, thou breakest the
ships of Tarshish with an east wind. As we have heard, so have
we seen in the city of the Lord of hosts, in the city of our
God. God will establish it forever,
say La. We have thought of thy loving
kindness, O God, in the midst of thy temple. According to thy
name, O God, so is thy praise unto the ends of the earth. Thy
right hand is full of righteousness. Let Mount Zion rejoice. Let the
daughters of Judah be glad because of thy judgments. Walk about
Zion and go round about her. Tell the towers thereof. Mark
ye well her bulwarks. Consider her palaces that ye
may tell it to the generation following. For this God is our
God forever and ever. He will be our guide even unto
death. Oh what a place Zion is. What
a God there is that reigns there. He will be our God. Is He your
God? Is He your Saviour? Or do you
yet turn aside unto crooked ways? As for such as turn aside unto
their crooked ways, the Lord shall lead them forth with the
workers of iniquity. But peace shall be upon Israel. We see a division set before
us here. As for those that turn aside
unto their crooked ways, the Lord shall lead them forth with
the workers of iniquity, but peace shall be upon Israel. There's a division. There's either
peace that comes upon you or there is judgment. This division is that which was
seen at the cross. at Mount Zion, outside the city,
when the enemies of God, when those that hated Christ led him
forth to be crucified, when he was taken and nailed and lifted
up upon the cross, when the judgment of God came down upon him, two
people were separated in him. There was a division. We see
this at the cross with the thieves crucified on each side. They both railed upon Christ
in the midst, but then God turned the heart of the one who said,
we suffer justly, rightly for our sins, but this man has done
nothing. O Lord, remember me, and thou
enter thy glory. And Jesus turned unto him, Today
thou shalt be with me in paradise. They were both sinners. They'd
both done the same. They were both lost like you
and I. Yet God turned the heart of one,
and that day he saved him. And the other went to the grave. railing against Christ you either stand on one side
crying out for his mercy or you rail upon him casting him aside
trampling him underfoot saying crucify him away with him there's
a division there are sheep on one side and goats on the other. There is Israel on one side and
the wicked, the crooked, on the other. The gospel divides. It offends because it leaves
us all in the dust as rebel sinners and the division between the
righteous and the wicked the saved and the lost, the sheep
and the goats, the one thief and the other thief, is at the
will, the decree and the command of God alone. He'll either come
unto you in this gospel and say unto you, look unto me and open
your hearts and lead you unto him and cause you to cry out
for mercy you with your will will say away with this man for
there is none willing no not one and there is none righteous
and there is none that have sought God you will either know the
mercy and the grace of God in salvation or you will go to the
grave railing against him. There's a division here a division which came upon the
cross, a division which came when God sent his rod of judgment,
as in Exodus when Moses was told to lift up his rod and stretch
it forth over the sea and divide it, and the children of Israel
went forth on dry ground through the midst of the sea. Moses lifted
up the rod and the sea divided and the people of God went through. But the same sea consumed the
Egyptians which followed. As God parted the waters before
you, as God said, come up unto Zion, and behold my Son, whom
I gave for you? Or do you simply pursue God's people
and God's Son to put Him and them to death, to silence them
and to silence the Gospel? This psalm ends on a solemn tone. What comes upon the crooked,
the wicked, the wrath, the never-ending wrath of God. Revelation 19 we read, that out
of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite
the nations, and he shall rule them with a rod of iron, and
he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty
God. Outside of Christ, We are as
those upon whom the storms and the rain came in Noah's day.
We cannot stand. But in Christ, we are as Israel. Peace shall be upon Israel. We are as those who were put
in the ark, upon which the storms cannot touch. If we're in Christ,
If he's given us faith to behold him, if he's made us trust in
him for salvation, then we are as Mount Zion, which cannot be
removed, but abided forever. Who makes us to differ? God does. Grace does. Mercy does. Do you know this grace? Do you
know this mercy? Do you care? Oh may God break
our hard hearts, our apathetic hearts, our careless hearts. May he give us a hunger and a
thirst after righteousness. May he open our blind eyes to
see and cause our deaf ears to hear. May he sound the alarm
within to know that the wrath of God is coming upon this world
which shall be burnt with fire. But that there is salvation,
there is hope, there is everlasting life and righteousness to be
found in that ark in which God shut Noah. There is everlasting
righteousness to be found in Christ the Saviour who shed His
blood for sinners, who loved them before they knew Him, who
loved them when they hated Him, who loved them throughout all
their days, who gave Himself for them. There is everlasting
righteousness to be found in Christ and to be found in Him
forever. And all who are given faith to
trust in Him shall be. as Mount Zion which cannot be
removed but abide if forever. Oh may he put us there that we
may in him abide forever. Amen.