Temple Baptist Church - 12-29-2024
Psalm 124
Introduction.
A. Psalm 124 is another “Song of Degrees.” A marching Psalm to be sung by God’s people while traveling to Jerusalem on the Feast Days (Exodus 23:14-17 Unleavened Bread - Feast of Harvest – Feast of Ingathering) when all males were to appear before God in Jerusalem. These Psalms of Degrees were to encourage the people of God as the closer they got to Jerusalem, the more dangerous their plight.
B. The Psalm is Davidic. King David knew as much as anyone who ever lived about the spiritual side of warfare. There is a physical side but there is also a spiritual side. We have been in Deuteronomy for quite a while: the Second (Deuter) Law (onomy). This was the last book of Moses and was a reiteration of the Law given to Moses on Mt. Sinia. The reasons for the book were twofold:
1. To make sure that this new generation that about to cross Jordan knew what God gave to Israel through the mediation of Moses.
2. To teach Israel to learn to worship before they went to war.
3. Look at the beginning of verse one. “If it had not been the LORD who was on our side!”
4. Look at the beginning of verse two. “If it had not been the LORD who was on our side!”
5. May these verses press to our hearts the truth set forth in these two verses!
C. Now, look at the last four words of verse one. “NOW may Israel say!” Not “Israel said” but “NOW may Israel say!” An important truth is found here in the use of the present tense instead of the past tense. Israel should have responded in the day of trouble instead of David responding in retrospect.
D. Have you ever thought what it would be like if the LORD was not on our side? What a horrible scenario! What if the LORD was not on our side? Our position in war with our spiritual enemies would be deplorable. The world has no idea of what the LORD means to the child of God. That He is with us; that He is among us; that He is for us.
1. He is there to assist us.
2. He is there to support us.
3. He is there to supply us.
4. He is there to strengthen us.
5. He is there to shelter us.
6. He is there to settle us.
7. He is there to secure us.
E. With the LORD on our side, we have nothing to fear! No one to be afraid of! No mountain too high to climb! No problem too complex to figure out! No enemy or war too big to conquer!
Isaiah 59:19 So shall they fear the name of the LORD from the west, and his glory from the rising of the sun. When the enemy shall come in like a flood, the Spirit of the LORD shall lift up a standard against him.
F. He is our Friend. He is our Captain. He is our King. He is our High Priest. He is our Intercessor. He is our Advocate. He is all that we need and everything that we are not!
G. This is what this Psalm is all about. “NOW may Israel say!”
1. It is important to know that the LORD is on our side in the present instead of seeing that He was on our side in retrospect!
2. Someone once said that hindsight was 20/20, but I have found that often looking back still doesn’t get the right perspective.
H. It is of the utmost importance that we have a right perspective of the protection of God before we begin to war.
1. There is Positional Protection - 1 John 4:15-16 Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in him, and he in God. (16) And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him.
Nothing can touch us without touching Him!
Colossians 3:3 For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God.
2. There is Personal Protection - 1 John 4:4 Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world.
“Beloved, Now are we the sons of God!”
3. There is Providential Protection - Romans 8:31 What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us?
Whatever comes is ordained or allow of God.
J. What if God was not on our side when men rose up against us? Verses 2-5:
1. Verse 3. They would have “swallowed us up quick!” You and I would have no hope in this world without the LORD on our side. The battle would be over in a heartbeat!
2. Verse 4. The waters would have overwhelmed us both physically (overwhelmed us) and spiritually (over our soul).
3. Verse 5. “The PROUD waters had gone over our soul.” Doubt would turn into Discouragement and Discouragement into Defeat!
4. Without the LORD on our side, the Foundation of our Faith upon which all things are built would Fail!
Psalms 11:3 If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do?
K. BUT the LORD is on our side, “NOW may Israel say!”
1. Verse 6. “Blessed be the LORD, who hath not given us as a prey to their teeth.” God would not allow Satan’s crowd to take His children down! When a shepherd boy named David faced the giant, Goliath:
1 Samuel 17:45-47 Then said David to the Philistine, Thou comest to me with a sword, and with a spear, and with a shield: but I come to thee in the name of the LORD of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom thou hast defied. (46) This day will the LORD deliver thee into mine hand; and I will smite thee, and take thine head from thee; and I will give the carcases of the host of the Philistines this day unto the fowls of the air, and to the wild beasts of the earth; that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel. (47) And all this assembly shall know that the LORD saveth not with sword and spear: for the battle is the LORD'S, and he will give you into our hands.
2. Verse 7. “Our soul escaped … and we are escaped.” Notice with me that the LORD allowed Israel to escape spiritual destruction as well as physical destruction.
Ephesians 6:10-12 Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might. (11) Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. (12) For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.
3. Verse 8. “Our help is in the name of the LORD, who made heaven and earth.” Virtually the same wording as Psalm 121, another “’Song of Degrees:”
Psalms 121:1-8 A Song of degrees. I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help. (2) My help cometh from the LORD, which made heaven and earth. (3) He will not suffer thy foot to be moved: he that keepeth thee will not slumber. (4) Behold, he that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep. (5) The LORD is thy keeper: the LORD is thy shade upon thy right hand. (6) The sun shall not smite thee by day, nor the moon by night. (7) The LORD shall preserve thee from all evil: he shall preserve thy soul. (8) The LORD shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in from this time forth, and even for evermore.
L. “If it had not been the LORD” is a sobering thought. Where would we be tonight had not the LORD been there with us and on our side. “Nevertheless I will never leave thee nor forsake thee” is a promise that our Lord Jesus Christ will certainly keep!
Hebrews 13:5-6 Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee. (6) So that we may boldly say, The Lord is my helper, and I will not fear what man shall do unto me.
M. Our strength is not in the “arm of flesh” but our strength in the Lord God and in the power of His might!
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