Psalm 124:8














The stamp of "impossible" cannot rest upon anything if we are able to say concerning it, "It has been done." And that we are able to say concerning every kind of strain or calamity that "turns up" in a religious experience. "There is no temptation ever overtakes us but such as is common to man," and God has had to deal with just such things - and even with just such things in relation to just such people - before now.

I. WHAT GOD HAS DONE.

1. Compassed all the features and forms of the commonplace of life. It is necessary to dwell on this, because of the frail human disposition to separate the thought of God from the little, and associate him only with the great. But life is in the main commonplace, ordinary, little. And we need to realize that God has had direct association with absolutely everything that can come into the commonplace of life. In dealing with the first race of men, it may reverently be observed that God had no experience of what men would be and do, to guide his ways with them. Experience was in the making. It is made now. Enough generations of men in diversified relations have passed to cover the whole circle of human possibilities. Man can only repeat himself; he never surprises God. And God has adjusted his gracious help and guidance to every kind of ordinary human circumstance and need. Therefore is the Bible given to us so largely in the biographical form. We are to trace the working of God in lives that are essentially like our own.

2. Efficiently adapted his grace to the unusual of life. There is perhaps, strictly speaking, no unusual in life. From the Divine point of view there are no exigencies, no surprises. "The thing which is hath already been." But for instructive purposes we may point out that the unusual, though it may not be in things, may be in the relation of things to persons. God has to deal with the disposition of each one, and with the effect of events on each disposition. But here again we may see that his experience of adjustments is so extensive that a new and bewildering set of complications for him is inconceivable.

II. WHAT GOD CAN DO. Be to us the Help which he has always been to his people. Do for us what he has always done for his people. What has he done in our lives? That he can still do. What has he done in the lives of others? That he can do in our lives if need be. What has he done in the vicissitudes of the ages? That he can do for our age and for us. We are "not straitened in God," seeing that he can "supply all our need." - R.T.

Our help is in the name of the Lord, who made heaven and earth.
I. GOD IS EVERYWHERE PRESENT. Sometimes those who would help us are afar off. Not so God; He is "a very present help in trouble" (Psalm 46:1).

II. HE HAS EVERYTHING WE WANT READY AT COMMAND. Is it money, grace, friends, comfort, guidance, strength? He has of these things more than we can possibly need.

III. HE IS A VERY WILLING HELPER. He invites us to call upon Him in the day of trouble (Psalm 50:15).

IV. HE IS A LOVING AND TENDER HELPER. His kindness is often called "lovingkindness" (Deuteronomy 33:27).

V. HE NEVER FAILS TO HELP HIS PEOPLE.

VI. HE IS AN EVERLASTING HELPER (Psalm 90:12).

(R. Brewin.)

The confidence here expressed by the Church is founded upon two things.

I. PAST DELIVERANCE. "Our help is in the name of the Lord." When placed in perilous circumstances, one's faith is much increased by thinking upon the times of old, and musing upon the years of the right hand of the Most High. We learn there that affliction is no strange thing, and that God can afford us all requisite aid. He has done so before, and He can do so again. As to Himself, He is "the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever." As to His agents, there is no diminution in their number, or decrease in their power.

II. THE DIVINE OMNIPOTENCE. He who defends the Church is the Creator of the universe. Yes! He who hung those stars in heaven, and filled their lamps with everlasting oil: He who made the earth, with its golden corn, and its purple grapes, and its dark olives. My Father made them all; and a single look at the green earth, and the swelling ocean, and the burning stars, is enough to rebuke our distrust, and to infuse a serene gladness into our troubled spirits. Would that we had more of this holy confidence; and how much of the peace and joy of heaven would be ours, even when travelling through the wilderness to the land that is afar off.

(N. McMichael.).

They that trust in the Lord shall be as Mount Zion.
I. TRUSTFULNESS IN ITS SUPREME OBJECT: "The Lord" (Jeremiah 17:5-8).

II. TRUSTFULNESS SECURING INESTIMABLE BLESSINGS.

1. Stability (ver. 1).

2. Divine nearness (ver. 2).

3. Protection from the power and oppression of wickedness (ver. 3).

III. TRUSTFULNESS SEEKING THE GOOD OF OTHERS (ver. 4). Its nature to do so, being unselfish, generous, and jealous for the glory of God. Others kept good for goodness' sake.

IV. TRUSTFULNESS PRONOUNCING THE FATE OF APOSTATES, AND THE TRANQUIL EXPERIENCE OF ITSELF AND COMPANIONS (ver. 5).

(J. O. Keen, D. D.)

Homilist.
I. THE SECURITY OF THE GOOD ENSURED (vers. 1-3). The good are "they that trust in the Lord." Such are —

1. Firmly established (ver. 1).

2. Safely guarded (ver. 2). (Isaiah 54:10; Zechariah 2:4-15).

3. Ultimately delivered (ver. 3).Rod here means sceptre, and the "lot of the righteous" the land of promise. The generic idea is that the power of the wicked shall not always extend to the good; one day the community of the good shall be out of the dominion of wickedness for ever and ever. "He shall bruise Satan under our feet."

II. THE PROSPERITY OF THE GOOD INVOKED (vers. 4, 5).

1. The invocation specifies the character of the good (ver. 4). "To be good" is to be "upright in heart," and to be "upright in heart" is to be right in our loves, our aims, and activities. The "goody" are common, the good are rare.

2. The invocation pictures the character, and foretells the doom of the wicked (ver. 5). (Judges 5:6; Psalm 58:8; Psalm 109:23; Matthew 7:22; Matthew 24:51.)

(Homilist.)

I. THE SECURITY OF THE PEOPLE OF GOD.

1. Between them and all evil is —

(1)The almightiness of God.

(2)His unerring wisdom.

(3)His unchanging love.

2. This Divine surrounding affects —

(1)The spiritual interests of His people.

(2)Their temporal necessities.

(3)All providential experiences.

(4)Their sorrows.

II. THEIR STABILITY. Mount Zion cannot be removed, but abideth for ever; even so, they that trust. Having a hold of God, they cannot be permanently injured in their highest and eternal relations. Moved they may be, but never removed; "perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed." "The Lord is round about them even for ever."

(J. M. Jarvie.)

This little psalm looks very much like a record of the impression that was made on the pilgrim as he first topped the crest of the hill from which he looked on Jerusalem. Two peculiarities of its topographical position are both taken here as symbols of spiritual realities, for the singularity of the situation of the city is that it stands on a mountain and is girdled by mountains. There is a tongue of land or peninsula cut off from the surrounding country by deep ravines, on which are perched the buildings of the city, while across the valley on the eastern side is Olivet, and, on the south, another hill, the so-called "Hill of Evil Counsel"; but upon the west and north sides there are Do conspicuous summits, though the ground rises. Thus, really, though not apparently, there lie all round the city encircling defences of mountains. Similarly, says the psalmist, set and steadfast as on a mountain, and compassed about by a protection, like the bastions of the everlasting hills, are they whose trust is in the Lord.

I. THE SIMPLE ACT OF TRUST IN GOD BRINGS INWARD STABILITY. The word here translated "trust" literally means to "hang upon" something. And so, beautifully, it tells us what faith is — just hanging upon God. Whoever has laid his tremulous hand on a fixed something, partakes, in the measure in which he does grasp it, of the fixity of that on which he lays hold; so "they that trust in the Lord" "shall be as Mount Zion," that stands there summer and winter, day and night, year out and year in, with its strong buttresses and its immovable mass, the very emblem of solidity and stability.

II. THIS SAME ATTITUDE OF REALIZING THE DIVINE PRESENCE, WILL, AND HELP, WILL BRING AROUND US THE ENCIRCLING DEFENCES. "As the mountains are round about Jerusalem, so the Lord is round about His people" — a very real defence, but a defence that it takes an instructed eye to see; no obvious protection, palpable to the vulgar touch, and manifest to the sensuous eye, but something a great deal better than that — a real protection, through which we may be sure that nothing which is evil can ever pass. Whatsoever does get over the encircling mountains, and down to us, we may be sure is not an evil but a very real good. Only we have to interpret the protection on the principles of faith, and not on those of sense. When, then, there come down upon us — as there do upon us all, thank God! — dark days, and sad days, and solitary days, and losses and bitternesses of a thousand kinds, do not let us falter in the belief that if we have our hearts set on God, nothing has come to us but what He has let through.

III. SIMPLE TRUST IN GOD, IN SOME MEASURE, ASSIMILATES THE PROTECTED TO THE PROTECTOR. Mountains girdle a mountain, and so my trust opens my heart to the entrance into my heart of something akin to God. It makes us "partakers of a Divine nature." The immovableness of the trustful man is not all unlike the calmness of the trusted God; and the steadfastness of the one is a reflex of the unchangeableness of the other. "As the mountains are round about Mount Zion," God is round about the people that are becoming Godlike. Mark further the significant repetition of the same expression in reference to the stability of the man protected, and the continuance of the protection. Both are "for ever." That is to say, if it is true that God is round about me, and that, in some humble measure, my heart has been opening to be calmed and steadied by the influx of His own life, then His "for ever" is my "for ever." And it cannot be that He should live and I should die. The guarantee of the eternal being of the trustful soul is the experience to-day of the reality of the Divine protection. And thus we may face everything — life, death, whatsoever may come, assured that nothing touches the continuity and the perpetuity of the union between the trusting soul and the trusted God.

(A. Maclaren, D. D.)

Homilist.
I. TRUST IN THE LORD IS THE CONDITION OF MORAL STABILITY. Such a soul is firm in its —

1. Love.

2. Faith.

3. Purpose.

II. TRUST IN THE LORD IS THE CONDITION OF DIVINE SECURITY. How often mountains protected nations! The free winds that sweep the summits, and thunder at the sides, seem to inspire the people with an invincible love of freedom. And mountains, too, have often proved the asylums of freedom. But no mountains have guarded a people as God guards those who trust in Him. The Eternal God is a refuge, and underneath are the "everlasting arms." He "is a fire round about" them, and their "glory in the midst" of them.

(Homilist.)

I. THE MOUNTAIN AS AN EMBLEM —

1. Of God's defence (Psalm 62:2, 6; Psalm 18:2; Psalm 71:3).

2. Of God's strength. Those who have stood at some great height amid the sloping snow-field, bristling barriers of ice, and peaks of untrodden rock in the higher Alps, far from organic life, even of the smallest kind of vegetation, have felt some thrill of perhaps inexpressible awe. The grandeur of the vastness and power of the scene proves our own utter helplessness and littleness. Looking from ourselves and our little finite limits of thought and act out into the large unrealized infinity of God's great power, written in earth and sea and sky, and in the mind of man, the soul feels lost. But remember that all this expression of power is but the symbol of the strength of a Father's love.

3. Of God's everlastingness.

II. TRUST IN GOD GIVES —

1. An inspiration of success.

2. A happy heart, in spite of everything.

3. Submissive decision of character.There is something supremely exhilarating and sublime in the spectacle of the good man who, in the strength of what he believes to be Heaven-sent guidance, goes intrepidly forward, noting little of what opposes and may attack, though death itself hang its sword above his head, though the world seem to shake in ruins around him. Though, as it were, the very earth be moved and the mountains be carried into the heart of the seas, the regular, constant, unwavering pursuit of his ideal is the one motive of life. So Daniel braved in quiet reverence the decree which opened the den of lions; the three witnesses to God argued not a moment, though the flames and heat of the fiery furnace were in front of them.

(C. E. Harris.)

The metaphor in the text was drawn by the pilgrims from the hill before them; or, if the psalm does not belong to pilgrims, but to all Israel, they took the comparison from that mountain with which they were best acquainted. If they might not all see Lebanon, which lay at the northern extremity of the land, if they might not all behold the excellency of Carmel, or gaze upon the heights of Hermon, yet once in the year they must all look upon Zion, "whither the tribes go up, the tribes of the Lord, unto the testimony of Israel." The emblem was therefore a familiar one, and I wish sometimes that we were more apt at sanctifying to holy uses the common objects which are round about us: these streets and houses, our own country, and our own home. I am afraid our eyes are open when we seek emblems of sadness and we find them on every hedge and in any garden-plot; but we should also look at home when we want metaphors of thanksgiving with which to set forth our security and our comfort in the Lord.

I. A LOWLY PEOPLE. They "trust in the Lord." A very simple thing to do. It needs no effort of intellect to trust, and it needs no laborious education to learn the way; trusting in the Lord is simply depending where there is unquestionable reason for reliance, believing what is assuredly true, and acting upon it. Trusting in the Lord is taking at His word One who cannot lie, or change, or fail; and certainly this is no great feat if we look at it from the carnal man's own point of view. At the same time, it is very right. Should not a man trust in his own Creator? Does He not deserve to be trusted? Has He not always been faithful? Moreover, is it not wise? What can be wiser? Those of us who have tried trusting in God have never found it fail, whereas when we have trusted in men we have been disappointed.

II. THE SECURITY OF BELIEVERS. God's children undergo a variety of experiences. To-day their hearts are a place of sacrifice, and to-morrow a battle-field; by turns their soul is a temple and a threshing-floor; but whatever their ups and downs may be, they shall never be removed from their ordained and appointed place: by the grace of God they are where they are, and where they shall be. They shall never be effectually removed from that place before the Lord in which infinite love has fixed them.

III. THE EVIDENT REASON FOR ALL THIS. Why is it that they that trust in the Lord shall not be moved?

1. Because they are trusting in the truth. They have not believed a lie, and therefore they shall not be swept from their foundation. They are trusting in One who will not deceive them and cannot fail them. They have laid their foundation on a rock, have they not?

2. They are trusting where their reliance is observed and welcomed. God loveth to have many dependants about Him. It is His way of revealing Himself and manifesting His glory. If this is what He desireth, if He seeketh such to worship Him, who believe that He is, and that He is the rewarder of them that diligently seek Him, why should He reject their suit?

3. It is not the nature of God to cast away any who rely upon Him; on the contrary, He is very careful that faith should never have less than she has expected. He respects the courage of faith: He never confounds it.

( C. H. Spurgeon.)

Believers are too often tossed about in their minds, and suffer great shakings and movings of heart because they do not trust in the Lord as they should. These things ought not to be, for we ought to be steadfast and immovable; but by reason of infirmity and immaturity many are tossed to and fro as with a tempest. Still, even in these, deep in their soul their faith is earnestly keeping its hold, and does not permit them altogether to drift. At the back of a great deal of grievous unbelief, when we are in a depressed condition, there lives a faith which is not moved, but in secret takes hold as for dear life, biding its time till better days shall come. It is only by realizing the everlasting, abiding love of God that they that trust in the Lord shall come to feel steadfast as Mount Zion which shall never be removed. The man of God may know that he is safe, and yet there may be such a rush and tumult in his experience that he may not be able to understand himself or realize his true position. This may happen even to more advanced believers; but as we grow in grace the tendency is to reach a more even and equable condition. Experienced believers are not to be put about by every puff of wind; nay, they come at last to hold on their way in the teeth of all ill weathers, and, like hardy mariners, make small account of the lesser storms of life.

( C. H. Spurgeon.)

People
David, Psalmist
Places
Jerusalem
Topics
125, Heaven, Heavens, Maker, Psalm, Song
Outline
1. The church blesses God for a miraculous deliverance

Dictionary of Bible Themes
Psalm 124:8

     4055   heaven and earth

Psalm 124:1-8

     8609   prayer, as praise and thanksgiving

Psalm 124:6-8

     5589   trap

Library
PSALM CXXIV.
[Psalm 124] 8,6,8,6,8,8,7 Wo Gott der Herr nicht zu uns hält [48]Justus Jonas trans. by Catherine Winkworth, 1869 If God were not upon our side When foes around us rage, Were not Himself our Help and Guide When bitter war they wage, Were He not Israel's mighty Shield, To whom their utmost crafts must yield, We surely must have perished. But now no human wit or might Should make us quail for fear, God sitteth in the highest height, And makes their counsels clear; When craftiest snares and nets
Catherine Winkworth—Christian Singers of Germany

Letter Xliv Concerning the Maccabees but to whom Written is Unknown.
Concerning the Maccabees But to Whom Written is Unknown. [69] He relies to the question why the Church has decreed a festival to the Maccabees alone of all the righteous under the ancient law. 1. Fulk, Abbot of Epernay, had already written to ask me the same question as your charity has addressed to your humble servant by Brother Hescelin. I have put off replying to him, being desirous to find, if possible, some statement in the Fathers about this which was asked, which I might send to him, rather
Saint Bernard of Clairvaux—Some Letters of Saint Bernard, Abbot of Clairvaux

The Creation
Q-7: WHAT ARE THE DECREES OF GOD? A: The decrees of God are his eternal purpose, according to the counsel of his will, whereby, for his own glory, he has foreordained whatsoever shall come to pass. I have already spoken something concerning the decrees of God under the attribute of his immutability. God is unchangeable in his essence, and he-is unchangeable in his decrees; his counsel shall stand. He decrees the issue of all things, and carries them on to their accomplishment by his providence; I
Thomas Watson—A Body of Divinity

Messiah Rising from the Dead
For Thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, neither wilt Thou suffer Thine Holy One to see corruption. T hat the Gospel is a divine revelation may be summarily proved from the character of its Author. If an infidel was so far divested of prejudice and prepossession, as to read the history of Jesus Christ, recorded by the Evangelists, with attention, and in order to form his judgment of it, simply and candidly, as evidence should appear; I think he must observe many particulars in his spirit and conduct,
John Newton—Messiah Vol. 1

Christ's Kingly Office
Q-26: HOW DOES CHRIST EXECUTE THE OFFICE OF A KING? A: In subduing us to himself, in ruling and defending us, and in restraining and conquering all his and our enemies. Let us consider now Christ's regal office. And he has on his vesture, and on his thigh, a name written, "King of kings, and Lord of lords", Rev 19:16. Jesus Christ is of mighty renown, he is a king; (1.) he has a kingly title. High and Lofty.' Isa 57:15. (2.) He has his insignia regalia, his ensigns of royalty; corona est insigne
Thomas Watson—A Body of Divinity

Psalms
The piety of the Old Testament Church is reflected with more clearness and variety in the Psalter than in any other book of the Old Testament. It constitutes the response of the Church to the divine demands of prophecy, and, in a less degree, of law; or, rather, it expresses those emotions and aspirations of the universal heart which lie deeper than any formal demand. It is the speech of the soul face to face with God. Its words are as simple and unaffected as human words can be, for it is the genius
John Edgar McFadyen—Introduction to the Old Testament

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