Psalms 125

Psalms 125:1-5

the Christian’ s Fortress Psalms 124:1-8; Psalms 125:1-5 Here are three instances of escaped peril. In Psalms 124:3 is an allusion to Korah and his company; see Numbers 16:32-33. Why are we spared when others have been overwhelmed by swift disasters? In Psalms 124:4 and Psalms 124:5, as the morning breaks, we see the proud waters that have burst their banks and are inundating the low-lying lands. Why did our house escape? In Psalms 124:6 and Psalms 124:7 we have the metaphor of the ensnared bird and as the fluttering fledgling, when freed, leaps into the sunny air, so do we rejoice when God frees us. But why should we escape when so many never break loose? Psalms 125:1-5 Jerusalem lies on a broad and high mountain range, shut in by two deep valleys. But the surrounding hills are higher, and made her almost impregnable to the methods of ancient warfare. They who trust in God live within ramparts of His loving care for evermore. The scepter of evil may sometimes cast its gaunt shadow over their lives, but it is always arrested in time. Crooked ways are by-paths. The commandments of God are a public thoroughfare. Keep on the highway and no hurt shall assail you.

As Mount Zion!“The Church first sang this Psalm under the oppression of heathen rule (Psalms 125:3); but in her own land; from the natural features of which the figures of her security in the Divine protection are taken. Struggling with manifold troubles, which might have led her to doubt the protecting favor of God, she here rises above these in faith.” While many of her members were true, others had departed from the living God (4, 5). “These circumstances are exactly those which existed after the deliverance from captivity and at the time when the building of the temple was interrupted” (compare Psalms 120:1-7; Psalms 126:1-6) Hengstenberg.

Psalms 125:1. They that trust in the Lord Trust so links us and our cause to God that we acquire something of his stability, as the limpet, sticking fast to the rock, partakes of the nature of the rock.

Psalms 125:2. As the mountains round about Jerusalem Robinson says: “The sacred city lies upon the broad and high mountain range, shut in by two deep valleys. All the surrounding hills are higher: in the east, the Mount of Olives; on the south, the Hill of Evil Counsel, which ascends from the Valley of Hinnom.” What an exquisite picture this is of the believer–God-encompassed; God-encircled; God-girt! And as the mountains made Jerusalem well-nigh in-accessible and impregnable, so is God round about us, warding off the attacks of our foes. They cannot get at us except through Him. Oh that our eyes might be opened to see the invulnerable walls by which we are surrounded (2 Kings 6:17).

Psalms 125:3. The rod of the wicked shall not rest upon the lot of the righteous The wicked do oppress the righteous, but their oppression shall not be permanent. The righteous may not be tempted to relinquish their righteousness and relapse into backsliding.

Psalms 125:4. Do good, O Lord, unto, the upright God is to us what we are to Him (Psalms 18:25-26).

Psalms 125:5. Such as turn aside unto their crooked ways Crooked ways are by-paths or private ways, apart from the highways. The commandments of God are as the public road. To travel along them is to be at peace. To diverge from them is certain misery.