My name is Lanny and then they have a big question.
Where do you serve in the church?
And the only thing I can come up with is I'm the dinosaur.
I've been here forever, but I love the people of this church
and I love this church.
Today's scripture reading is from Psalms 124.
If the Lord had not been on our side,
let Israel say, if the Lord had not been on our side
when people attacked us, when they would have swallowed us
alive in their burning anger against us,
then the water would have engulfed us.
The torrent would have swept over us.
The raging water would have swept over us.
Blessed be the Lord who has not let us be ripped apart
by their teeth.
We have escaped like a bird from the hunter's net.
The net is torn and we have escaped.
Our help is in the name of the Lord,
the maker of heaven and earth.
This is God's word.
Thank you, Lanny.
I'll take the microphone, one last thing to hold.
Thank you, Lanny.
In 1582, John Dury, a devoted Scottish minister,
faced imprisonment due to his unwavering preaching
of the gospel.
When he was finally released from prison,
an assembly of his friends and congregants
eagerly gathered at the prison gates to welcome him
as he came out.
Together they embarked on a solemn procession
up the bustling streets of Edinburgh, Scotland.
Amidst their journey, a remarkable event unfolded
as Dury and his companions melodiously sang
a rendition of this psalm, Psalm 124.
Astonishingly, around 2,000 individuals came and began
to join them in the streets, singing Psalm 124.
A harmonious chorus.
One of Dury's oppressors witnessing this awe-inspiring sight
and hearing the sounds and resounding echoes
of Psalm 124 in the streets confessed
that he had never encountered anything
as unsettling in all of Scotland.
It is often recounted that Protestant refugees
from various parts of Europe, upon arriving in Geneva
during the Reformation and reaching the grand wooden doors
of St. Pierre, would be greeted by the uplifting sounds
of people singing Psalms.
For these weary travelers who had suffered in lands
where they dared not openly raise their voices
in praise to God, for fear of being captured or persecuted,
these hymns served as a sanctuary,
a small glimpse of heaven on the outskirts
of their earthly struggles.
Throughout the years, this procession
of pilgrims from all over the world
has been a source of encouragement in solace
for countless pilgrims marching
through their time on this earth.
That is why our series is called A Pilgrim's Song.
These songs of assent, both an individual
and a community event, where fear and faith meet
in united song.
And today's Psalm, Psalm 124,
is attributed to the man David.
Now David was an Israelite shepherd boy
who had a knack for playing the harp
and writing songs and melodies.
And he was from a small town of Bethlehem about 1,000 BC,
so not that long ago, right?
Lanny, were you there?
Okay.
Israel had gone through all sorts of hardships
and had to face many challenges.
Israel had gone through all sorts of trouble and hardship
after having been set free from slavery from Egypt.
They wandered in the wilderness for 40 years, right?
And then under the leadership of Joshua,
they had been brought into the land
that God had promised them.
And many wicked and evil tribes and nations
were in that land.
And as judgment for their wickedness,
God had sent Israel to conquer and take possession of it.
Eventually, Joshua dies and the people enter a period of time
where there isn't a clear leader,
they haven't fully taken the land
as they were supposed to do,
and they're constantly being harassed
and invaded by wicked tribes and nations.
So God raises up a series of judges,
and you can read about all those stories
in the Book of Judges.
And it's wild chaos.
We studied it in the Men's Bible study a while back,
and it was just a ride.
My goodness.
So God raises up these series of judges
to lead the people through this time,
but eventually the Israelites demand
that they be given a king like all the other nations.
We wanna be like all the other nations.
And God said, he took that as a rejection of him,
a rejection of his kingship.
He was the one who brought them out of Egypt.
He was the one who guided them through the wilderness.
He was the one who had given them the promised land
and showed it before.
And now they said, give us a king to rule us.
Give us a king to follow.
And so God gave that what they wanted to them.
And some have speculated it was judgment what he gave them.
Judgment in the person Saul.
Saul is chosen, and he's a man of great stature.
Everyone recognizes a natural born leader,
a tall man, commanding.
But he was not a devoted worshiper of Yahweh.
He was not a devoted worshiper of God.
And his heart was not after God.
And so David, the man who wrote Psalm 124,
it is said that he is a man after God's own heart.
And therefore the Lord chooses him to be king
of the Israelite nation.
The people chose Saul, and God gave them what they wanted.
God chose David after Saul's death in battle
to ascend the throne.
And while we don't know the exact situation
that surrounds Psalm 124, and where these words were,
what birthed these words in David,
we can see that it was written in response
to a great victory that the Lord had given to David
and the people of Israel.
And yet, even in the words, you can see that it seems
that David is still concerned a little bit.
David is concerned that the people might make the mistake
of attributing the victory,
directing the credit to the wrong source.
Maybe their own intellect is what won the war.
Or maybe it was their might and strength.
Or maybe it was their superior power
or maybe it was their superior firepower at that moment.
Or maybe it was their privilege.
We're chosen.
It's a lock, we're gonna win.
We're gonna look at Psalm 124 under three headings.
The deliverer, the danger, and our dependence.
And so number one, the deliverer.
Psalm 124 begins with the words,
if the Lord had not been on our side.
Let Israel say, if the Lord had not been on our side,
when people attacked us.
Now as a song of ascent, as Nick talked about last week,
you can imagine making your journey up to Jerusalem,
up to the temple, up to the place of worship,
and the place where the festivals of the people of Israel
would take place.
And it's a place where the people of Israel
would take place, and it's up, it's on a hill, right?
And so you're making your way.
You're a pilgrim on a journey, walking,
one of those thoroughfares through the countryside
on your way to celebrate.
And maybe a song leader or maybe one of the local priests
or Levites throughout the countryside
is walking along with you.
Or maybe the head of a family and they began to sing.
They began to say, if the Lord had not been on our side,
come on Israel, sing with me.
If the Lord had not been on our side,
the words on our side or literally in Hebrew mean for us.
The Lord had not been for us.
Well who is the us?
Let Israel say, if the Lord had not been for us.
Well who is Israel, Israel is God's chosen people, right?
The elect, the people through whom He chose
to reveal Himself to the world.
The people through whom would be a blessing to all nations
and they might come to know the glory of our God.
Who is the deliverer?
Who is the one who is with them?
The Lord.
The Lord is with them.
Yahweh, the covenant name of God.
The Psalter is set on making sure that everyone knows
that the Lord is their only hope.
Oh people, the Lord is your deliverer.
In Samuel, in 2 Samuel chapter five,
Saul is dead and David has been crowned king.
And Saul died in battle against the pharaohs
and Saul died in battle against the Philistines.
Philistines were one of those really irritating people
in the life of Israel.
And Saul had gone out and he ended up dying
along with many of his sons in this battle.
David begins to rally the people as he ascends
to the throne and is crowned.
And the Philistines here, there's a new king
and so what are they gonna do?
Well they're gonna test the limits, right?
They're gonna see.
Let's finish this once for all.
We could have all this territory, all this land.
Let's finish what we started.
What does David do?
He goes and he inquires of the Lord, Yahweh.
What should we do?
Should we attack?
And the Lord tells David, attack,
for I will hand them over to you.
The same Philistines that had routed
and killed Saul and the army.
David obeys and absolutely crushes them.
Absolutely crushes them.
It is possible that a victory like this
out of Second Samuel five,
that the people of Israel might be tempted
to credit David.
Saul had lost.
Saul had fallen in battle just before.
Our armies were routed.
David rises up.
Look at this great king.
David is our savior.
They might have looked at their own zeal or passion.
Hey, we got riled up and we got into the fight
and look what we did.
It would be tempting to think we must be something great
to have achieved such a victory.
It is possible that in your own life,
you might think that you are something great.
That what you have,
you have achieved because of your great endeavor,
because of your brains,
or because of your brawn,
or your resolve.
Even in matters of faith, we can be tempted.
I've kept myself pure.
I've resisted temptation.
I have great pride in choosing Christ.
I chose him.
Look at all those pitiful other people out there
who aren't as smart as me.
David is reminding the people that without the Lord,
they are hopeless.
Without the Lord, they are hopeless.
And with that, he's also trying to stir up gratitude
for what God has done.
My parents, whenever we get together with the family,
they live in Montana, so it's not often,
but whenever we get together,
they love to pay for the food they eat.
They love to pay for the food they drink.
They love to pay for whatever food or treats
that we get while we're out and about with the family.
They always kind of intervene,
find their way to squirrel their way in,
and pay for it, right?
And the boys often, as they would grow up not knowing,
like they don't know who pays for it,
they just know food comes and delivers and they eat it,
and then they want more, right?
Would often hear from us,
hey, are you enjoying that ice cream?
Well, grandpa bought it for you, right?
It's not just information, right?
Not just giving them information, what am I doing?
I'm inviting them to be grateful.
I'm inviting them into gratitude.
David is saying, glory in your deliverer.
Glory in him.
Study his past and present deliverances in your life
so that you can have confidence in his future deliverance.
Study it, glory in it, give thanks.
Look, if the Lord hadn't been on our side, Israel,
if the Lord hadn't been on our side,
do you know what would have happened?
Can you imagine what life would be like?
Hopeless, without purpose.
Look back, glory in what he has done
in order to be prepared for what is next in life.
Which leads me to point number two, the danger.
But we see that David doesn't leave it there.
He wants to deepen their response.
He wants it to go even deeper.
And so he says, people,
you don't even know what danger you were in.
You can't even believe it.
You can't begin to understand
how the odds were stacked against you.
You don't know how close you came to death in defeat.
If the Lord had been, not been on our side,
when people attacked us,
then they would have swallowed us alive
in their burning anger against us.
Then the waters would have engulfed us.
The torrent would have swept over us.
The raging water would have swept over us.
Blessed be the Lord,
who has not let us be ripped apart by their teeth.
We have escaped like a bird from the hunter's net.
The net's torn and we have escaped.
Do you even know the danger you were in?
I must be a glutton for punishment,
but ever so often, weekly usually,
I go out for coffee and play a game or two
of chess with my son, Micaiah.
I don't know where he's at, but I don't ever win.
I mean, I've won once or twice,
but I could see it in the twinkle in his eye
that he gave that one to me,
because he didn't want me to stop
going out and playing with him.
But chess is an interesting game that I've learned,
even in the times where I've been playing,
where you can really feel good about your position
and be only one or two moves away or mistakes away
from an absolute route.
And it's been interesting to sit there
and experience those emotions.
They're real.
I like to say that I'm not competitive.
I'm not competitive.
I don't play games, right?
I don't play games because I lose and I want to win.
That's why I don't play games.
But chess is an interesting game.
You learn as you're sitting there these emotions,
like, oh, I'm about to win.
I'm about to beat this kid finally.
And then two moves later, I'm down in the,
can we just call it, I yield, you win?
Let's go.
You don't even know how close the danger,
you don't know the odds that were stacked against you.
You don't know one move away from defeat.
David uses imagery to communicate
how much in danger they actually were.
Verse three says that if not for the Lord,
they would have been swallowed whole,
swallowed up alive,
like an animal swallowing something else whole
or like how we might describe a fire
sweeping through the forest, right?
It doesn't break the trees into little pieces like we do
and then stack them and then light them on fire.
It just consumes it wholesale.
Or verse four and five,
different pictures that he uses,
water that's engulfing or sweeping over them
like a torrent.
Or verse six, ripping them to shreds with their teeth.
Or verse seven, a fowler's trap set for them,
snare, do you think those little birds
that get snared in those traps often get out?
No, it was that close,
that close to defeat.
Just a little bit, my son Gabe
will be going on his second summer camp at Rocking Waters,
Rockin' Waters,
which is on the river up near Lotus toward our home.
They're gonna do mountaineering,
they're gonna do hiking,
they're gonna do river rafting.
And while they're gonna be in some fairly tame waters
where they're at,
they wear life jackets and helmets for a reason.
One head bump away from slipping unconsciously
into the water.
Believe me, I thought about this
while he was gone last year.
One rapid away from flipping the raft
and spilling the occupants
into the swift, unforgiving and indifferent waters.
These images that David used in the psalm
paint the picture of the danger
that God's people are always in.
God's people are always in it
because there's always an enemy prowling around.
Their enemy has designs on traps for them
and designs to ensnare them and swallow them
and envelop them and crush them.
He isn't done yet.
He hasn't given up yet.
At this time, he is seeking to kill,
steal and destroy.
And he's prowling to look for someone to devour.
That's what the word says.
If the Lord wasn't for us,
we would be all his.
The danger's real.
Leads to the final point, our dependence.
And so how does David bring this up?
And so how does David bring this psalm to a close?
With verse eight, he says,
our help, our help Israel,
is in the name of the Lord,
the maker of heaven and earth.
We were introduced to our deliverer in verses one and two.
We were told of the ever-present reality
of the dangers that we were facing
in verses three through seven.
And now in verse eight,
we close with a wonderful declaration of dependence.
What does it mean that our help is in the name of the Lord?
The name of the Lord is so much more
than just a personal label,
so much more than like a personal name like John.
The name of the Lord is the sum total
of all that he has revealed himself to be to his people.
It is his nature, his attributes, his character, his love.
It is personal and knowable.
It is who he shows himself to be through his word.
We trust in the name of the Lord
because we trust in all that God has disclosed
about himself, who he is, what he does.
When the Old Testament was translated into Greek,
the translators decided that the word that would be used
anywhere the name Yahweh appeared in the Old Testament,
when they translated into Greek,
they would use the word kireos.
And in English, kireos is translated Lord or kireos.
One of the earliest confessions of the first believers
was a simple phrase.
You guys know what it was?
It was three words.
Earliest confession, some people call it a creed.
Jesus is Lord.
Jesus is kireos.
We may immediately wanna interpret that as,
oh, Jesus is master.
But those early believers knew exactly what it meant.
Yes, Jesus is master.
But it also meant that Jesus is the exact representation
of the Father, Yahweh.
Jesus is God with us.
The covenant God who revealed himself as Yahweh, Jesus.
And Jesus, God with us, stepped down from heaven
and entered into our world.
We must remember that Jesus is the God who was with us.
If God was not for us, Jesus was with us.
And in him proves God's faithful love for us.
First John chapter three, verse eight says that the son,
Jesus, appeared for this purpose.
The son appeared for this purpose,
to destroy the work of the devil.
To destroy the work of the devil.
To fight and win the victory over our enemies.
If the Lord Jesus had not been on your side,
death would have swallowed you up, alive.
If the Lord Jesus had not been on your side,
sin would trap you,
and drag you down to the pit of hell.
If the Lord Jesus is not on your side
and not protecting his own child,
then the enemy of our soul would have won your soul
and destroyed you.
Do you think you resist temptation on your own?
Do you think that the Lord Jesus
is the God who is with us?
Do you think you can take the devil and his lies
and his fears all on your lonesome self?
You're the devil, I'm John.
Woo!
If the Lord had not been on our side,
we would have been swallowed alive.
We would have been dashed against the rocks.
We would have been torrent and taken away.
If the Lord Jesus had not demonstrated
his great love for us,
that while we were still a sinner,
Christ died for us,
you and I would be lost.
But he is for you.
He has prevailed.
He has prevailed today.
I'm fighting a battle you've already won.
No matter what comes my way, I will overcome.
I don't know what you're doing all the time,
but I know what you've done.
I'm fighting a battle you've already won.
Here, oh Israel, here, oh Israel,
here, oh chosen people of God,
your help is in the name of the Lord,
the maker of heaven and earth.
He got that right.
He'll get this right.
Romans eight has some amazing words,
to me at least,
amazing words of pure hope for God's chosen people.
Will you listen to these words as we wrap up this morning?
What then are we to say about these things?
If God is for us, who can be against us?
He did not even spare His own Son,
but gave Him up for us all.
How will He not also with Him grant us everything?
Who can bring an accusation against God's elect?
God is the one who justifies.
Who is the one who condemns?
Christ Jesus is the one who died,
but even more has been raised.
He also is at the right hand of God and intercedes for us.
Who can separate us from the love of Christ?
Can affliction?
Can distress?
Can persecution?
Can famine?
Can nakedness?
Danger?
Sword?
The fowler's net?
The torrents of the raging water?
Can they separate us from the love of God?
No, in all these things we are more than conquerors
through Him who has loved us.
For I am persuaded that neither death nor life,
nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present,
nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth,
nor anything other created thing
will be able to separate us from the love of God.
That is shown to us in Christ Jesus.
People of God, if the Lord had not been on our side,
we would be lost.
But in Christ, He gave His life.
He was for us.
And so our challenge this morning is to live in the love
of Christ Jesus.
Our challenge this morning is to live in light of that,
remember to look back at His deliverance
and His present deliverance with hope
for His future deliverance.
And we know we can take it to the bank.
He's made good on His promise.
And so we serve Him and we love Him
and gratitude wells up in our hearts
because of what He has done for us.
Will you pray with me?
Father, I thank you so much
for these precious words of promise.
For us, these pilgrims on the journey of life,
as we make our ascent,
as we look to our heaven's home in the city of God,
and we sing songs to help us along the way.
Today we sing, if the Lord had not been on our side,
we would be lost, but our helper is our help.
Our helper is our maker.
And our help is in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.
We thank you so much for your words of promise
and we know that we can trust them this morning.
In Jesus' name, amen, amen.