Introduction
I’m going to take these two psalms together, because they’re both short. And, of course, they are both songs of ascents. So, they were perhaps written for the returning exiles who were making their way back from Babylon to Jerusalem. Or perhaps more likely they were written for God’s people who were making their way to Jerusalem for one of the annual festivals which they were required to celebrate.
In the first of the songs of ascent, the psalmist called on the Lord to save him from people with lying lips and deceitful tongues. He said that he had lived among such people for too long. But now he was on the way to Jerusalem.
In the second one, the psalmist looked up at the hills and thought about the dangers he might encounter on the way. But he encouraged himself with the thought that the Lord is his helper. The Lord will keep him always.
Then in the third song of ascents, the psalmist had arrived in Jerusalem. And he’s thrilled to be there and he calls on people to pray for the peace and well-being of the city.
And like the psalmist, we are on a pilgrimage and we’re making our way to Jerusalem. But we’re not on our way to the earthly Jerusalem, but to the heavenly Jerusalem. We’re on our way to everlasting life in the presence of God, where all of God’s people will enjoy perfect peace and rest for ever and for ever and where God will dwell with us for ever. And when we meet together for worship on Sundays, we experience a foretaste of that, because on Sundays, God’s people gather together before the Lord to worship him. And we should therefore pray for the peace and well-being of God’s people here in Immanuel and around the world: asking God to deliver his people from persecution and to keep us from being divided.
In Psalm 123 the psalmist looks to the Lord for help because of the contempt of the proud-hearted. And in Psalm 124 he praises the Lord, who alone has been able to save his people from trouble. And so, we can imagine the assembled worshippers appealing to the Lord for help because of their enemies; and then giving thanks to him for his deliverance.
Psalm 123
Psalm 123 can be divided into two parts: verses 1 and 2 and then verses 3 and 4. In the first part, he says that he lifts his eyes to you. That is, he’s looking to the Lord for the help he needs. And he describes the Lord as the one ‘whose throne is in heaven’. So, he’s addressing the Most High God who is enthroned in heaven over all things. There is no-one above the Lord; there is no-one greater than him or more powerful. He reigns over all things and he has the power and authority to overcome all of the troubles and trials we face. Sometimes we ask someone to help us, but there’s nothing they can do for us, because they don’t have the power or authority to help. They want to help us, but they can’t. But nothing is too hard for the Lord whose throne is in heaven above.
So, the psalmist, who is on the earth, lifts his eyes up to heaven, where God is seated. And he looks to the Lord for help.
He compares God’s people to slaves who look to their master and to maids who look to their mistress for help. Of course, slaves and maids depended on their master and mistress for everything: for clothes and shelter and for food. And so, here are slaves and maids looking to their master and mistress for something they need. They have no money of their own and they’re relying on the kindness of their master or mistress. And in a similar way God’s people look to the Lord for what we need. And what we need from the Lord is mercy.
The word translated ‘mercy’ can also be translated ‘grace’ and it refers to God’s kindness to his people which we do not deserve. God’s grace is his kindness to the undeserving. Because we’re sinners by birth, we deserve nothing from the Lord except his wrath and curse. But instead of giving us what we deserve, he gives us what we don’t deserve. He gives us his gracious help.
The psalmist depicts God’s people as those who look to him and they keep looking to him until he shows them mercy. Though they know they are undeserving, they expect him to be gracious to them and to help them. And they expect him to be gracious because he is the Lord, the covenant-keeping God, who has revealed himself to be merciful and gracious and slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. The Lord has bound himself to his sinful people with a promise to be their God and to be gracious onto them. And since the Lord has promised to be gracious to them, they look to him with expectation and hope.
In the second part of the psalm, we discover why they need the Lord’s gracious help. It’s because they have had to endure much contempt; and they have had to endure much ridicule from the proud; and they have had to endure much contempt from the arrogant. Proud mockers are ridiculing them and scoffing at them. They are looking down on God’s people and treating them as if they were worthless. God’s people are despised. And so, they look to the Lord for deliverance.
They know they can’t force the Lord to help them, because he’s the one who is enthroned in heaven and he’s therefore over them. They have no power over him. And they know the Lord doesn’t owe them anything, because they’re only sinners. And so, all they can do is appeal to him for mercy. And the good news is that the Lord is merciful and gracious. And so, God’s people can count on him.
And you can count on him, not because you deserve his help, but because of who he is and because he is gracious. And because he is gracious he sent his Only Begotten Son into the world to pay for your sins with his life and to make peace for you with God for ever. And so, when you look to him for help, you’re not going to someone who is angry with you, but to someone who is at peace with you and who is merciful and kind.
Psalm 124
Psalm 124 can also be divided into two parts: verses 1 to 5 and verses 6 to 8. In the first part the psalmist calls on God’s people to acknowledge that if God hadn’t been on their side, their enemies would have destroyed them. And in the second part he gives thanks to God for enabling them to escape from their enemies.
He says about their enemies in verse 2 that they attacked God’s people. In verse 3 he says their anger flared up against them. So, we’re to think of hot anger. Their anger was like a fire which burned against them. He then says that their enemies would have swallowed them alive. So, he’s now depicting their enemies as a large, wild animal who eats its prey whole. It captures its prey in its mouth and manages to swallow it in one gulp.
In verse 4 he likens their enemies to a flood. They were like a tsunami which sweeps everything away. And he says that they are like a torrent which would have swept over them so that they would be drowned. Again he compares them to raging waters — a fast flowing river — that would sweep them away for ever.
And so, their enemies would have swept over them and swept them away and swallowed them whole if it were not for the Lord who was on their side. No one else would have been able to do what he did for them, because he alone is their Saviour. If it weren’t for him, they were goners. But because the Lord was on their side to defend them, they were kept safe. And so, the psalmist calls on the people of Israel to acknowledge that this is true.
In the second part of the psalm he offers praise to the Lord who has not let God’s people be torn by the teeth of their enemies. And so, he likens their enemies to a wild animal who tears apart its prey with its sharp teeth. And in verse 7 he compares God’s people to a bird which was caught in a trap. But with the help of the Lord, they have escaped from the trap. In fact, the trap or the snare has been broken so that it cannot be used against them again. And they have escaped.
And so, the psalmist praises the Lord for rescuing them. And he confesses at the end that our help is in the name of the Lord. The name of the Lord refers to who God is. And who is he? He’s the Maker of heaven and earth. And since he made all things, then he rules over all things. Our enemies may look terrifying to us, but they are under God’s control, because God made them and he sustains them and he can overthrow them whenever he likes.
Our help comes from the Maker of heaven and earth who is also our Lord, our covenant-keeping God who has bound himself to us with a promise. And he promised to give his Son to be our Saviour and to establish a lasting peace between us by the sacrifice of himself on the cross, when he paid for our sins with his life and shed his blood to cleanse us from our guilt. And now that we have peace with God, we can look to him for all the help we need as we make our way to the heavenly Jerusalem in the new heavens and earth where we will join with all of God’s people from every nation around the world and we will praise him for rescuing us from sin and satan and death and from every other enemy who makes our life miserable.
Because the Lord is on our side, we will make it all the way to the heavenly Jerusalem in the new heavens and earth. He will keep us always as we make our way as pilgrims through this world. And since that’s the case, then we should always lift our eyes to the Lord and trust in him for the help we need each day to overcome every trouble and trial and difficulty we encounter on our way to our eternal home.
Sermons and Stuff 