Tag: psalm 125

Peace Be Upon Us (Psalm 125)

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality Blog, Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year BLeave a comment

Those who trust in the Lord are like Mount Zion,
    which cannot be moved but abides forever.
As the mountains surround Jerusalem,
    so the Lord surrounds his people
    from this time on and forevermore.
For the scepter of wickedness shall not rest
    on the land allotted to the righteous,
so that the righteous might not stretch out
    their hands to do wrong.
Do good, O Lord, to those who are good
    and to those who are upright in their hearts.
But those who turn aside to their own crooked ways,
    the Lord will lead away with evildoers.
    Peace be upon Israel! (New Revised Standard Version)

I am profoundly grateful that God is a rock solid mountain who is strong. The Lord is never altered in the basic divine character of merciful grace, steadfast love, and abiding security. The main reason I so deeply appreciate this about God is that this old fallen world is awfully fickle, terribly unreliable, and forever changing.

So, to trust in God is to tether oneself to the ultimate anchor for life. Relationships come and go. People have their own agendas and listen to other people who, in turn, have their own agendas. But God’s plan is purely good, always right, and consistently just. The divine agenda has our best interests at mind.

Being linked to the Lord in faith establishes divine protection, provision, and presence. It’s as if the righteous believer has an invisible security blanket wrapped around them at all times. We are kept in the gracious arms of a loving God.

None of this, however, means that we shall never face grueling circumstances that might even feel like a hellish existence. If the Christian’s Lord Jesus had to undergo suffering before experiencing glory, then how much more do his followers need to expect the same?

Having injustice and wrongdoing in this world is one thing; but having it come from those close to you is quite another thing altogether. Again, the Lord Jesus endured wicked betrayal from Judas Iscariot, one who was within the inner circle of disciples. Yet, the heavenly Father was continually there, surrounding Jesus like the mountain chain, even though it may not have felt like it at many points, especially in the final week of Christ’s life on this earth.

God is good, all the time. Therefore, God knows who is truly good, and who is not. The Lord sees the heart, and clearly discerns the intents and motivations of each person and every group of people on this planet. And since God understands the real nature of a person’s life, the Lord is not fooled by pious sounding and slick talking persons with darkness in their hearts.

The wicked will not endure. God shall eventually lead them away. Like a shepherd separating the sheep from the goats, the Divine Judge will divide the righteous from the wicked. Those who think they can have a secret agenda of crookedness will find out that it’s not so secret after all.

This world, with all it’s inhabitants and systems and societies, needs peace. Sometimes, it seems to me that everyone right now in our contemporary world is upset about something; and they have the rudeness to back it up.

Nations fight nations. People groups attack other people groups. One ethnicity accuses another, and vice versa. Family members are estranged. Lawsuits abound. The judicial courts are beyond full. Unethical practices masquerade within ethical systems and thrive in the shadows. And persons are harmed – lots of them. Lives are destroyed.

I once came home from a day of interacting with patients at the hospital and said to my wife, “You could never dream up the atrocities that one person can do to another.” The short of it is that there is no harmony, no mutual understanding, and thus, no peace, no fulfillment or wholesome way of life for so many.

In the New Testament, the Apostle Paul once cried out concerning the muck of sin, “Who will rescue me from this body of death?” He then went on to answer his own question by saying a simple phrase, “Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord.” (Romans 7:24)

Yes, for me it’s Jesus. And, for me, that is what this very season of the year is all about. I anticipate the birth of the Christ Child, who came willingly to save us from this manure pile of a situation that is without peace. He became the Prince of Peace, so that we might have the light of life. It was the Apostle John who let us know:

The Word became flesh and blood,
    and moved into the neighborhood.
We saw the glory with our own eyes,
    the one-of-a-kind glory,
    like Father, like Son,
Generous inside and out,
    true from start to finish. (John 1:14, MSG)

Humility, meekness, righteousness, purity, mercy, love, and peace-making – yes, peacemaking – were the hallmarks of Christ’s ministry. These characteristics surrounded him like the divine mountains and shaped every word and each action of Jesus.

It is the time for peace. In fact, it’s high time for it! We have gone long enough provoking others and being provoked. There is a way – the way of peace. And for me, peace is achieved through the ultimate Peacemaker, Jesus Christ, my Lord.

He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near. For through him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit. (Ephesians 2:17-18, NIV)

May you find peace this season because you have discovered the Peacemaker. Peace be upon Israel, and peace to all.

Soli Deo Gloria

Psalm 125 – Mountain Theology

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality Blog, Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year BLeave a comment
Photo by Saulo Zayas on Pexels.com

Everyone who trusts the Lord
    is like Mount Zion
    that cannot be shaken
    and will stand forever.
Just as Jerusalem is protected
    by mountains on every side,
the Lord protects his people
    by holding them in his arms
    now and forever.
He won’t let the wicked
rule his people
    or lead them to do wrong.
Let’s ask the Lord to be kind
to everyone
    who is good
    and completely obeys him.

When the Lord punishes
    the wicked,
he will punish everyone else
who lives a crooked life.
    Pray for peace in Israel! (Contemporary English Version)

Psalms 120-134 comprise a collection of short songs of ascent meant to guide Jewish pilgrims on their communal trek up to the city of Jerusalem, and ultimately to the temple mount. 

Ascending to the Light by Alex Levin

The rhythm of the pious ancient Israelites centered round particular festivals, seasons, and Sabbath. Taking the annual pilgrimage to the Holy City was an especially anticipated time of year. This yearly cycle brought both increased faith and needed spiritual stability to the people. It reminded them that, like the mountains themselves, God cannot be moved. God will always be there.

Robust understandings of God are good solid mountain theology. Mountains make up about one-fifth of the world’s landscape and 12% of the world’s population live on them. They are more than imposing and impressive statues of rock. About 80% of our planet’s fresh water originates in the mountains.

So, when the psalmist likens God to a mountain, it is a reference not only to protection and strength; it is also pointing us to the source of life. With God, every need is met and satisfied.

On a mountain, Noah settled, Moses was given the law, Jesus preached and died – and the beans from my morning coffee were grown. I have everything I need in the mountainous God of all.

The most fundamental truths about God is consistency and constancy in the divine nature. God is forever present with people. 

If God seems or feels aloof or unconcerned, it is not that the Lord is avoiding us or is distracted with other important matters of running the universe. It simply means God chooses to reveal divine character and the divine will whenever the appropriate time ensue, for our benefit.

A mountain looks like it never moves. Yet the slow but steady rains, the creeping of tectonic plates, and undiscernible changes within the earth shift mountain ranges over time. The Lord is most certainly responding to us, our movements and changes, in a way we cannot perceive with the naked eye.

Our responsibility in the entire affair is to engage in consistent rhythms of spirituality which place us in a position to receive grace when God decides to give it. If we are still, we can feel the movements of grace enveloping us with life.

Perhaps we need to become adept at being spiritual mountain goats, using our wide cloven hooves of faith to negotiate the immense crags and rocks of God. After all, we will spend an eternity getting to know God and never exhaust the exploration.

Therefore, we must not despair but anticipate meeting with God, just as the Israelites of old looked forward and upward to their annual worship at the top of the mountain. The truth is that God surrounds people, even when we do not always perceive it to be so. 

The sturdiness of God is able to handle and bear the weight of our heaviest burdens.

Throw all your anxiety onto him because he cares about you. (1 Peter 5:7, CEB)

If we will but look up, there is abiding help for the most vexing of problems.
I raise my eyes toward the mountains.
    Where will my help come from?
My help comes from the Lord,
    the maker of heaven and earth.
God won’t let your foot slip.
    Your protector won’t fall asleep on the job. (Psalm 121:1-3, CEB)

There is peace and settled rest when we call upon the God who surrounds us.

I call out to the Lord,
    and he answers me from his holy mountain.

I lie down and sleep;
    I wake again because the Lord sustains me. (Psalm 3:4-5, NIV)

It is through trust that we become mountains ourselves – strong in faith and giving life to those around us.

Ever-present God, there is no place where I can go where you are not.  Help me to so intuit your presence that it bolsters my faith and resilience for daily life in Jesus Christ.  Amen.

Psalm 125 – She Rocks!

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality Blog, Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year BLeave a comment
The God Who Surrounds Us by Irv Davis

The people who trust in the Lord
    are like Mount Zion:
    never shaken, lasting forever.
Mountains surround Jerusalem.
    That’s how the Lord surrounds his people
    from now until forever from now!
The wicked rod won’t remain
in the land given to the righteous
    so that they don’t use their hands to do anything wrong.
Lord, do good to people who are good,
    to people whose hearts are right.
But as for those people who turn to their own twisted ways—
    may the Lord march them off with other evildoers!

Peace be on Israel! (CEB)

Psalms 120-134 comprise a collection of short songs of ascent meant to guide Jewish pilgrims in their communal trek up to the city of Jerusalem, and ultimately to the temple mount.  The rhythm of the pious ancient Israelites centered round particular festivals, seasons, and Sabbath. 

Taking the annual pilgrimage to the Holy City was an especially anticipated time of year.  This yearly cycle bolstered their faith and gave the people some needed spiritual stability. The sameness of the routine and the ritual helped to remind the faithful of the solid theology that God cannot be moved and will always be there.

One of the most fundamental of all truths about God is divine consistency and constancy, that the Lord is forever present with God’s people. If God seems or feels distant or inattentive, it comes not from a place of uncaring. as though absent, aloof, or not listening.  It simply means the Lord self-reveals on a divine timetable, not a human one. Our responsibility in the entire affair is to engage in consistent rhythms of spirituality that place us in a position to receive grace when God decides to give it.

Therefore, we must not despair but anticipate meeting with God, just as the Israelites of old looked forward and upward to their annual worship at the top of the mountain. 

God continually surrounds people, even when we do not always perceive it to be so. 

Basic sound theology, as we possess abundantly in the psalms, is neither gender specific nor gender neutral. To have a full orbed understanding of the God of the psalms means we use both male and female pronouns in our descriptions.

To limit God as an old white guy, or only as male, truncates a strong view of true divinity.

What I am suggesting here is that we avail ourselves of the full compliment of metaphors to present a more complete picture of God. Language is our vehicle in communication about the Lord, so let us use it to its entire extent to present the Lord in all his/her grandeur, majesty, holiness, and strength.

For example, as the psalmist likens God to a mountain chain surrounding Jerusalem, if we only picture this in our imaginations as a man, we have not quite got an integral picture. Although a muscular Christianity might provide us with an understanding of God’s sheer brute power, a maternal Christianity gives us a strength of provision, care, and protection from a different angle.

When Jesus came to Jerusalem, the city surrounded by mountains, he did not use a masculine metaphor to communicate to the people; he used a maternal one:

“O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones God’s messengers! How often I have wanted to gather your children together as a hen protects her chicks beneath her wings, but you wouldn’t let me.” (Matthew 23:37, NLT)

When the Apostle Paul wanted to communicate to the Thessalonian Church his deep concern for them, he went for the maternal metaphor:

We could have thrown our weight around as Christ’s apostles (like a man). Instead, we were gentle with you like a nursing mother caring for her own children (like a woman). We were glad to share not only God’s good news with you but also our very lives because we cared for you so much. (1 Thessalonians 2:7-8, CEB)

Indeed, in my culture when we want to convey the ultimate protective behavior of another, we describe them as a “mother bear.”

The gist of theology is this: God cannot be tied down or limited to gender, race, ethnicity, class, etc. The Lord is God, and we are not. Therefore, it is perfectly appropriate, and I daresay necessary, to use both male and female pronouns and metaphors in describing God because the Lord of the universe created both male and female in his/her image. (Genesis 1:26-27)

This is neither taking liberal license of the psalms nor emasculating them; it is merely pointing out that God is Spirit, and we worship her/him in spirit and in truth. And the truth is that he is the mountains surrounding us as a manly sentinel over our lives; and she is the mountain chain encircling us with protective care for whom nobody better mess with us.

May the Lord do good to us, as the manly Rock of our salvation as well as the feminine Fortress of our souls, protecting us with the care of both a father and a mother.

Ever-present God, there is no place where I can go where you are not.  Help me to so intuit your divine presence that it bolsters my faith and resilience for daily life in Jesus Christ.  Amen.