Psalm 125

A Song of Ascents

1 Those who trust in the LORD are like Mount Zion, which cannot be moved, but abides forever.

2 As the mountains surround Jerusalem, so the LORD surrounds his people, from this time forth and forevermore.

The psalmist declares the security of God’s people using two metaphors. First, those who “trust in YHWH are like Mount Zion, which cannot be moved.” Mountains are considered unmovable. This is why Jesus said if you have faith like a mustard seed you can command a mountain into the sea. It’s the least likeliest thing possible. We have the expression, “as old as the hills” implying that the hills have been around forever (they haven’t in reality, but it seems like it from our perspective). Apart from an occasional earthquake, mountains don’t normally shake and they are great places to build cities and fortresses because the high ground is more secure. The specific mountain mentioned here, Mount Zion, is of course home to the temple, the epicenter of Hebrew worship. Jerusalem was an ancient city, perhaps inhabited in the days of Abraham by Melchizedek, making it at least 4,000 years old. The temple was built about 3,000 years ago, and even though it’s been demolished a couple of times, the location still exists as the center of Hebrew worship and a holy site for Christians and Jews as well. If you want to have a stable, enduring presence in this world, put your trust in YHWH. One of the reasons you can enjoy that kind of stability is related to the second metaphor, “as the mountains surround Jerusalem, so the LORD surrounds his people, now and forevermore.” Now in reality, there aren’t mountains around Jerusalem, just rolling hills. These do provide a bit of an obstacle to invading armies, at least slowing them down and placing them in vulnerable positions in the valleys. So as the hills surround Jerusalem, so the LORD surrounds his people. He is their protective force field, miraculously securing their safety. However this does seem to be conditioned on the first verse -- trusting in YHWH. Don’t expect to enjoy internal peace and security if you are trusting in things other than YHWH. There’s something bigger than physical safety at stake here. There are no guarantees of invincibility from disaster, disease, and death. The rain falls on the just and the unjust. The difference is that the one who trusts in YHWH has stability, constancy, and boundless peace in the midst of the storms, surrounded as he is by YHWH’s presence and strengthened by his promises. 

3 For the scepter of wickedness shall not rest on the land allotted to the righteous, lest the righteous stretch out their hands to do wrong.

4 Do good, O LORD, to those who are good, and to those who are upright in their hearts!

5 But those who turn aside to their crooked ways the LORD will lead away with evildoers! Peace be upon Israel!

One of the things that YHWH will surround and protect the nation from is the rule of wicked people. In a hereditary monarchy the nation rises and falls based on the character of the king and those he surrounds himself with. If “the scepter of wickedness” represents an evil ruler, the threat in the second half of the verse is that the righteous will respond by doing equally unrighteous things. Power will be met with power. Good people will resort to injustice to fight injustice. They will give up on trusting in God and trust in their own political power to accomplish their ends and will ultimately come to be that which they originally despised. The final two verses offer a prayer and prediction. The prayer is for the LORD to do good to those who are good and upright in heart. In other words, be fair and just. May it be a world where good is rewarded and evil is punished. The final verse is something of a promise. Those who turn aside from the straight path and follow crooked ways will be led away with the crooked. This follows naturally out of God’s justice and is a tacit appeal for good people to stay on the straight and narrow. These final three verses relate to the first two as a statement about the way in which God protects his people. His nation is protected by justice, the rule of law, the power of good people in positions of influence. Ultimately human free will can tear it all down, but clearly right and wrong are immutable and a wise people will recognize that and live within the bounds of the law. As the mountains surround Jerusalem, YHWH’s instructions to us surround us and grant us a safe place to flourish. When evil leaders push us to abandon those boundaries for the illusive green grass beyond we are all worse for it. And thus the final prayer for Israel is for “shalom”, peace, well-being, and wholeness. This kind of perfect shalom is only possible by the grace of God who gives us the law and the grace to keep it.