Sermon Notes: Stand Sunday – Psalm 121

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Goal: Today for “Stand Sunday”, the goal is to let the Scriptures fill you with the hope that this work, with a thousand other domain-engaging labors, will come to completion and we will see the kingdom of God come and his will done. 

If you are provoked by sin and evil, and if you do more than pontificate about the state of things, and if you are a disrupter like Moses who puts your mind, soul, and body in the fight, then you are probably bruised, tired, have to fight the temptation to quit in frustration many days, fight multiple fears, and probably compassion fatigued. 

Victory is sure. 

Colossians 1:15-20. 

Colossians 1:15-20 (ESV) 15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. 16 For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. 17 And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. 18 And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. 19 For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, 20 and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.

However, it’s easy to lose sight of the victory because of the immense number and sheer violence of the battles. 

The battles we face as disrupters in most of our lives likely don’t escalate to physical violence, but the battles dadgum sure have an emotional, mental, and physical toll. 

We may find ourselves asking, “What are we supposed to do?”, “What can we do?”, “Is this thing we are doing the right thing?”, “Why not just quit?”

We don’t ask these questions out of unbelief in the Lord. We ask these questions because we’ve done all we can, and are left having to wait, and “waiting” faith is different from “doing” faith. 

Jesus will reconcile all things back to himself because he has purchased the restored peace of all creation for himself through his work on the cross. 

In the meantime, before we see all things practically restored and put to perfect peace, what can we do to persevere when we are weak?

Let’s read Psalm 121 together. 

Psalm 121

  1. Fear not, the Lord, Creator of heaven and earth, is your helper. V. 1-2
    1. It sounds strange to call our Creator, the holy and mighty and Triune God of the Bible our helper.
      1. It almost feels wrong and demeaning. 
      2. Yet, that is exactly what he tells us about his attitude toward those who love him and follow after him in faith.
        1. To resist the Lord’s revelation of himself as a servant to his people is the height of arrogance and pride.
        2. That we would resist the Lord’s desire to be our helper shows we believe ourselves greater than him and not in need of his assistance. 
      3. We humble ourselves and receive this kind of love and mercy from the One who loves us. 
    2. Psalm 121 is viewed as a Psalm of dismissal as one is departing the temple from their travel to Jerusalem for worship.
      1. The weary traveler might see the hills surrounding the city and dread the journey or even wonder if it’s worth it to come and worship in light of the physical cost of coming and going. 
      2. The weary traveler also had the dread of the evil “gods” who were worshiped on hills by their worshipers. The nations around Israel worshiped their Canaanite “gods” on these hills they had to traverse. 
    3. We take two encouragements from verses 1-2.
      1. The Lord is your strength as your helper. 
        1. We are the temple of the Lord now because of Jesus’ work on the cross. 
        2. The local church, among many glorious things, is gathered temples of the Lord that make a covenanted fellowship that is on mission to see the name of the Lord exalted among all nations beginning from right where that local church is gathered.
        3. Our work to be present with each other on mission is empowered by the Holy Spirit because the Lord is your helper. 
      2. Don’t fear the spiritual forces that come against us because the Lord is our helper. 
        1. Ephesians 6:10-12 (ESV) 10 Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. 11 Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. 12 For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.
          1. Colossians 2:13-15 (ESV) 13 And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, 14 by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. 15 He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him.
        2. Although we wrestle these forces of evil in the heavenly places, we have been given the help of the Lord through his authority to employ the keys of the kingdom of God and overcome the dark forces. 
  1. Believe the Lord will not let you be moved. V. 3
    1. The Lord does not let his people fall flat on their faces.
      1. Psalms 94:17-18 (ESV) 17 If the LORD had not been my help, my soul would soon have lived in the land of silence. 18 When I thought, “My foot slips,” your steadfast love, O LORD, held me up.
        1. Notice the text never says we won’t get tired or bruised or even experience despair. 
        2. It does affirm that the Lord is the one who keeps our foot hold solid. 
      2. The language seems to imply two truths.
        1. The Lord will not let us be moved from our faithful walk with him.
        2. The Lord will not let circumstances keep us from all he gives us to do with and for him. 
      3. Doing the work of disrupting the dark forces and their systems is guaranteed to bring about opposition, and our faith in the Lord will be tested and our staying power will be tested.
        1. Yet, the Lord promises that opposition will not rip us from his hands, and he can see us through all circumstances when we walk with him in righteousness by faith.  
  1. Believe the Lord is always on guard. V. 3-4
    1. “…He who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep.”
    2. In 1 Kings 18:27 Elijah mocks the prophets of Baal by wondering why the demonic entity named “Baal” might not be answering them. Perhaps he was relieving himself or on a journey or taking his rest. The reason is that the dark forces of evil are creatures, not the Creator, and are not like the Lord.
      1. They are not ever-present, all-knowing creatures, and they are defeatable. 
    3. In contrast, the Creator, the Lord Jesus, is always on alert as the ever-present and ever-alert King of the universe, and he is always working for his people.
      1. Because the Lord is always on guard, we can close our eyes in rest knowing that while we Sabbath in sleep, the Lord’s kingdom reign is advancing, and he is doing more than we can imagine to see that his kingdom comes and his will is done.
        1. This is why we are encouraged to get on his plan and work in his way in righteousness and holiness.
          1. When we hear and obey, we are stepping into a supernatural stream of disrupting labor that cannot be stopped. 
          2. And part of the fun is that it’s not like when we were kids and an adult let us hold the lever on something like we were helping but not really.
            1. The Lord made us co-regents to labor for real with work that matters and volition that counts.
            2. Yet he allows us to rest because when we need to sleep, he keeps the work going. 
  1. Believe the Lord is your keeper. V. 5
    1. It’s likely the Psalmist has a passage from Joshua in mind as he encourages the worshiper to not fear and depend on the Lord.
      1. Joshua 24:16-17 (ESV) 16 Then the people answered, “Far be it from us that we should forsake the LORD to serve other gods, 17 for it is the LORD our God who brought us and our fathers up from the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery, and who did those great signs in our sight and preserved us in all the way that we went, and among all the peoples through whom we passed.
      2. What does it mean that the Lord is our keeper?
        1. It means that the Lord is the one who sees that we get where we are supposed to get and sees that we get there through all the challenges.
          1. He preserves us all the way that He sends us and we go in obedience. 
  1. Believe the Lord is your covering. V. 5-6
    1. The language of verses 5-6 is that of the traveler who is going to worship in Jerusalem.
      1. Among the challenges they might face are the heat of the day and the dangers of bandits at night under the cover of night.
      2. The Psalmist encourages the worshiper that the Lord would keep them through the heat and protect them from the dangers of the night. 
    2. The Lord covers us!
      1. Covering is oversight. We are watched over. 
      2. Covering is protection. We are protected by the Lord’s power. 
      3. Covering is authority. We are under and empowered by the Lord’s authority.
      4. Covering is identity. We are the Lord’s. 
  1. Believe the Lord will preserve his people. V. 7-8
    1. The Psalmist encourages the worshiper with the truth that the Lord as our keeper will keep us from evil, preserve our lives, and watch over our going out and coming in forever. 
    2. The Lord preserves his people. 
  1. Believe Psalm 121 is true and that these truths are still true when they don’t feel true. 
    1. We need to state something obvious to those who have been in and through some battles. 
    2. It is a HUGE QUALIFICATION: The Psalmist does not write these encouragements from an ivory tower of the theory that nothing will ever go wrong and we should be living in constant hallelujah victory if we love the Lord.
      1. Psalm 121 is NOT an absolute promise of no hardship ever. 
      2. The Psalmist is well aware of Job and a host of other examples where the faithful follower of the Lord is assaulted by dark forces in the heavenlies and on earth not because of anything they did wrong but because they are followers of the Lord trying to do right and are in a titanic battle for the fame of Jesus. AND this is precisely why they need Psalm 121 and fully understand the qualifications.
        1. We have to be careful and not read and interpret the Psalms and other Bible passages like Satan.
          1. Satan quotes Psalm 91 to Jesus on the pinnacle of the temple as though there were no qualifications in the text of Scripture at all.
            1. Qualification: Unless the Lord deems it necessary for our good and his glory. 
        2. What the Psalmist is doing is letting the people know we have nothing to fear with and in the Lord and we can depend on the Lord as we do the disrupting work he has given us to do as his co-regents on earth.
        3. AND that as we get tired, get hammered by dark forces, and suffer setbacks it is NOT because the Lord has failed or because we’ve necessarily done anything wrong. 
      3. When we are walking by faith and disrupting the dark forces and their systems, we are going to get hit, and the Psalmist wants us to not let the counter punches of darkness make us disbelieve the goodness, power, and surety of the kingdom of God. 
        1. Hard circumstances will befall the people of God, but that does not change the fact that the Lord is trustworthy and going to see us through. 
        2. Paul even takes this truth from passages like Psalm 121 and relays it to the Corinthians like this from his own life and ministry by example:
          1. 2 Corinthians 1:8-11 (ESV) 8 For we do not want you to be unaware, brothers, of the affliction we experienced in Asia. For we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself. 9 Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death. But that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead. 10 He delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us. On him we have set our hope that he will deliver us again. 11 You also must help us by prayer, so that many will give thanks on our behalf for the blessing granted us through the prayers of many.
          2. Why were they allowed to be brought to the place of despairing of life itself?
            1. So they would be made to not rely on themselves but on God who raises dead people. 
      4. We are going to be brought to places of despair as worshipers and followers of the Lord Jesus because we are in a battle as the Lord’s agents of truth, and we face a real enemy.
        1. The Lord himself will allow hard things, and he will do it so that we learn to depend on him to even raise the dead if need be. 
        2. The Lord is faithful, and we don’t tally the score in the middle of the fight. We count up the score at the end.
          1. Job 42:5 only happens after all the stuff in the middle. 
          2. Psalm 121 will be fully kept by the Lord, and we’ll see it all at the end of the journey.
            1. Don’t lose heart. 

Application

  1. Expect that as you worship the Lord and follow him it will come with times of difficulty and times of amazing victory. 
  2. Don’t let the hardship cause you to turn back.
    1. Keep on believing all the good things Psalm 121 tells us to keep on believing.
      1. Fear not, the Creator of heaven and earth is your helper. 
      2. Believe the Lord will not let you be moved.
      3. Believe the Lord is always on guard.
      4. Believe the Lord is your keeper.
      5. Believe the Lord is your covering.
      6. Believe the Lord will preserve his people.
  3. Worship!

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