When
I was a young scout, just graduated from 5th grade, my troop and=
I
hiked a peak out in the desert by Palm Springs called San Jacinto.
It was a day hike, but a brutal one. We all carried a little backpack like =
the
ones kids carry to school these days. We filled them with a sweater, lots of
water (dry place) and some food for lunch. The trail was very frustrating. =
Do
you all know what switchbacks are? It is the sort of trail that goes back a=
nd
forth across the face of a mountain, going ever upward. They are frustrating
because it never feels like you’re going anywhere. In any case, we
climbed up those switchbacks all the way to the top of the mountain right n=
ext
to San Jacinto. I guess San Jacinto
itself is too precarious to climb straight up. So we actually climbed the
mountain right next to it, and then had to cross over to San Jacinto, where we grabbed lunch, messed about before
heading back down. I will never forget that trail connecting the first hill
with San Jacinto. The trail was no more than 2 =
feet
wide, with seriously steep fall offs on either =
side.
It felt like we were walking across a razor to get over to San Jacinto. We were tired from the hike, had on backpacks
whose weight we weren’t used to, there was a fast wind blowing, and w=
e had
2 feet of trail before we would have fallen several hundred feet straight d=
own
the mountain.
We all made it across, but I learned the meaning of the word ‘precarious’. It felt as though any second I could fall to my death, dashed against the rocks way down the mountain. Sometimes our lives = as Christians can feel like that, like they are precarious. The slightest fall= or deviation off the trail can result in our being lost, our death. I used to<= span style=3D'mso-spacerun:yes'> feel like if I stepped out of line= I would be lost forever. There can be a culture of fear surrounding the life spent following Christ. But as I’ve grown in my faith, in knowledge a= nd love of God, I have come to think differently, to conceive of my life before God in a different way. I no longer believe that my life as a Christian is precarious, that at any moment I will lose my faith somehow, and plummet to= my death. Christian life, a life surrendered to Christ and His will is not like trying to walk through life on a 2 foot wide trail, with the wind blowing a= nd packs shifting. The Christian life is more like living safe and secure within a fortress. Psalm 125.
Those who trust in the LORD are like Mount Zi=
on,
which cannot be shaken but endures forever. <= o:p>
2 As the mountains surround Jerusalem,
so the LORD surrounds his people
=
both
now and forevermore.
3 The scepter of the wicked will not remain
over the land allotted to the righteous,
for then the righteous might use
=
their
hands to do evil.
4 Do good, O LORD, to those who are good,
to those who are upright in heart.
5 But those who turn to crooked ways
=
the
LORD will banish with the evildoers.
=
Peace
be upon Israel.
Let’s pray.
We’re continuing this morning with our look at=
the
Psalms of the Ascent. These psalms were the actual songs that Jewish pilgri=
ms
sang for centuries as they journeyed from the towns and lands surrounding
Jerusalem, sometimes from far parts of the known world, to Jerusalem to
celebrate feasts like Passover, and to offer sacrifices. These rituals of
worship could only be done at the Temple in Jerusalem, where God specially
dwelled in the Arc of the Covenant deeper in an inner room in the Temple.
God’s special presence was in that place, and so the people would tra=
vel
up to Jerusalem. Jerusalem sits on top of a mountain, Mount Zion to be
specific. And so both spiritually and literally, the pilgrims would be
traveling up toward God. And these were specific pilgrims, purposely travel=
ing
toward God in an attitude of submission and worship. These were not aimless
wanderers who somehow ended up in Jerusalem, but they headed toward God thr=
ough
unsafe lands, regardless of the snares that might trap them; they would not=
be
denied. They were heading toward God.
As are we. It is my hope and my belief that this ima=
ge
of pilgrims headed toward Jerusalem, toward God is a helpful image for us as
well. We too struggle to follow God in hard places, in places that worship
others gods, like money, power, image and sex. We too struggle to follow God
though times are hard; though the way to God seems hard and dangerous. We
journey upwards to God worshipping along the way, disregarding the lies of =
our
culture and the lies whispered to us by Satan that we are not good enough, =
that
God doesn’t really love us, that if other people knew how we really w=
ere
they would reject us. We travel us within the mystery of God’s mercy =
and
grace found in Christ Himself, we journey upwards, ever upwards. Let’s
take an in depth look at Psalm 125.
Those who trust in the LORD are like Mount Zi=
on,
which cannot be shaken but endures forever. <= o:p>
2 As the mountains surround Jerusalem,
so the LORD surrounds his people
=
both
now and forevermore.
=
Jerusalem, then as now, is set in a saucer of hills.= It is a safe city, which is why a city was built there in the first place. It is = very defensible, with high walls looking over the paths up to the city. The arch= ers on the walls would have had clear fields of fire, it was a fortress. It was safe for the inhabitants, for the Temple where God dwelled. There was acces= s to water, it was a place that armies had a tough time taking. A city with high walls was secure from marauders, it was secure from most attacks, it was se= cure from most of the attacks that the world had for it.
The attacks that came against Jerusalem were externa= l; they were the attacks of an army, the attacks of folks trained to break down defenses. Just like Jerusalem, we too have our elaborate defense systems. We took are often attacked, in our psyches. Psycologists<= /span> even have a fun name for our own personal defensive measures against outside attacks, called defensive mechanisms. These are the things that help us cope when we are attacked from having done something wrong or stupid; sometimes = we blame other people and assert is wasn’t our fault. We shut down, or r= efuse to listen to what is unsettling to us. Sometimes we are attacked for no good reason, simply because we stand in someone’s way or because of the cruelty of others.
But the truth is that Jerusalem was taken several ti= mes in its history, by Babylonians, by Romans. So the pilgrims would sing this psa= lm knowing even more secure than the fortress that was Jerusalem is the way God surrounds us, the way God protects those who are in Him, who have decided t= hat Yahweh will be their God, and have repented of other false ways of living. = God promises to be around us, to keep our foot from slipping (we read that in P= salm 121 a few weeks ago). More secure than the psychological walls that surround us, more secure than Jerusalem at the height of its power as a city, more s= ecure than that are those whose faith and trust, whose very lives are given over = to God. At the same time, though, we do panic. We don’t feel always protected, like we live, move and breathe within the safety of a fortress. = And the truth is that the Jewish pilgrims didn’t either. They were often = in danger like us. But they would sing this song as they traveled upward, reminding them to put their confidence in God.
The truth is that we often don’t believe or fe= el like we live in a God shaped fortress. Our feelings of protection and safet= y go up and down, at least mine do, and I’m pretty sure I’m not alone here. Sometimes we’re scared, sometimes panicked, sometimes on the kn= ife edge of life. One day I can be on top of the world, the next in a deep depression. I seem to go up and down daily. I certainly don’t live li= ke I’m in the fortress of God. I live like a yoyo, sometimes up, sometimes down, always spinning it seems. But this is not uncommon. It wasn’t even uncommon for Israel itself. One minute they = were singing about how God had freed them from Pharaoh and sent the horses and riders into the sea, the next minute they were making a golden calf. Then G= od would miraculously provide water out of a rock for them in the desert, then they would complain about the monotony of eating manna from heaven. They to= ok the promised land, and then were so disobedient and evil that God took it a= way from them and sent them into captivity. This hot and cold thing didn’t start with me; it has been the story of how people have interacted with God almost from the get go.
What is steady is not us. We are hot and cold, just = like the disciples even. One minute Peter is telling Jesus he will never betray = Him; the next minute we see Peter realizing that he had done 3 times what he sai= d he would not do, weeping in the garden. What is steady in our relationship with God is God. Feeling are good, but certainly not consistent or steady. We ch= oose to either follow God or our feelings. And I, for one, choose to believe that God is faithful and steadfast because He says so. When I am faithless, He is faithful. When I sin, He forgives when asked. My security in the God fortre= ss depends not on my feelings, but on who God is. Faithful and just, loving towards His children, not matter how His children feel at the time. That’s what disciples of Christ do; choose to believe in the steady G= od, rather than unsteady, quick silverish us. We be= lieve God when He tells us His blood is enough to cover our sins, that His grace = is sufficient for us. Thank God we’re not on the knife edge, on the unst= eady path, with unsteady burdens, but that we live, as disciples, deep in God’s fortress. Like we are in Jerusalem, surrounded by God’s presence and protection.
The scepter of the wicked will not remain
over the land allotted to the righteous,
for then the righteous might use
their hands=
to do
evil.
One of the reasons we go up down, hot and cold in our relationship with God is pain, plain and simple. We see good people, good friends having to endure all sorts of painful operations, having their lives fall apart through no fault of their own. Or we can be in the midst of it ourselves. We suffer the pain of watching others suffer, and then we think, maybe it will be my turn next. Suffering comes to everyone, when’s it= my turn? We anticipate pain, like we are living under a threat of violence or pain. The psalmist lived this out. He knew of suffering. He anticipated it.= He lived in a time where a toothache could kill, when there was no aspirin for headaches, when raids of pillaging and raping was common by other peoples. There were violent people all aroun= d, and justice was scarce. Those people knew pain and suffering.
So why the confidence? The key word in the psalm is “rest”. The pain would not be forever, it would not abide permanently. If we look again at the history of Israel, various foreign kin= gs had conquered and subjugated Israel, but their oppression was never permane= nt. Look at some of the Bruce Willis type heroes of the OT, folks that suffer through trial after trial, but continuing to do what is right. Look at Job, tragedy after tragedy. His wealth disappeared, children killed, sores all o= ver his body, but He knew the hand of the wicked would not rest on his, it would not abide permanently. Last year the adult Sunday School class looked at Jeremiah. He was a prophet who went through one problem after another. Vili= fied for telling the truth, cast out of the community, he was even thrown down a well at one point. But the scepter of the wicked didn’t rest on him permanently. The trials were not going to last. What does last, what did la= st was the safe place in God where those guys lived and dwelled. Did their feelings go up and down? I’m certain they did. But they endured becau= se they knew who God was, and trusted in Him. We do the same.
Whatev= er you are going through, whatever your loved ones are going through, it is not permanent. Someday it will end, someday we will receive new bodies, complet= ely healthy bodies and there will not be any threat of pain ever again. Look at= the pain and suffering Christ went through. It was horrible, but temporary. He = is not the beaten, bloody mess that He was up on the cross, but is resurrected, whole, perfect, seated to the right hand of God. But we’re not there = yet. In the meantime, as we wait, we wait in the knowledge of God’s love a= s a fortress around us.
Do good, O LORD, to those who are good,
to those who are upright in heart.
5 But those who turn to crooked ways
=
the
LORD will banish with the evildoers.
Peace be up= on Israel.
The last piece of life on the knife edge, on that na= rrow trail near the summit is that we could fall, we could fall away from faith. There is an ongoing debate, and it is a purely academic debate, about wheth= er one can fall away from salvation. Some theological streams say yes, some say any decision to follow Christ would never be rescinded if it was a real decision. I suppose it is possible for people of faith to fall away; for th= em to be so distracted by the lure of riches or fame and power that they stop believing in anything more than this life. But then someone would make the argument that they never were saved, and with no way to prove it either way= , it becomes an unprovable argument. And unhelpful i= n the long run. Like some other points in theology, both sides can be argued from Scripture.
Given that it might be possibly, how do we know that= we haven’t lost our salvation? How do we haven’t somehow fall away from faith, that without our knowledge or consent, we have lost our faith? = Is it possible that we, like the psalm says, have turned to crooked ways and a= re to be banished with the evildoers? We do wander away, we are like sheep. Numerous times we children of God are referred to as sheep. We do wander off the trail, but we don’t fall. We are pursued by the great shepherd, we don’t live on the narrow trail, but we live in the fortress of God. T= hat isn’t to say that everything we do is okay, because it isn’t. We are disobedient sheep, wandering where we shouldn’t, constantly putti= ng ourselves in danger. Sometimes we are obedient, sometimes disobedient, up a= nd down, feelings scattered hither and yon, but it isn’t about us. God is faithful to His promises even if we aren’t faithful always to our.
Belief in Christ is not compulsory. You can walk awa= y and leave it all behind. God will not force people, at least I don’t read= in Scripture that people are forced to love God and follow Him. We can walk aw= ay; but it not the sort of thing that just happens to us where we discover that= we are no longer Christians. We have to make up our minds to walk away. Otherw= ise, we will be pursued by the God who knows us totally, even the number of hair= s on our heads, and still loves us. You see, our faith is not in ourselves, but = our faith is in the God who made heaven and earth and who climbed onto the cros= s in order to die for us.
All the Christians I know are fallen. There is no one perfect; not one. We are a slipping people, full of doubt and fears. But all the Christians I know, whether they realize it or not, live deep in the lov= e of God. They are surrounded by God, even though their feelings may tell them otherwise. The are secure, and the pain of this world, or the scepter of the wicked will not rest on them, on me permanently. IN Christ we are assured, = over and over, that our sins are wiped away, that this changing world is no long= er our home and we don’t belong here anymore. Someday we get to leave th= is place and go home, and the pain of this life will not rest on us any longer= . I will you to feel secure. I want you to not panic when you feel like your feelings for God are going up and down. You don’t need to feel like y= ou live on the knife edge; because you don’t. You are secure within Chri= st. There is nothing that can happen to you that can cause you to lose your salvation.
Let’s pray.&n= bsp;