Latest / Reformed Thinking / Those Who Trust in the Lord Cannot Be Shaken (Psalm 125) | Charles Spurgeon

Transcript

Those Who Trust in the Lord Cannot Be Shaken (Psalm 125) | Charles Spurgeon · Reformed Thinking

• 0:00
  Imagine standing on a dusty, uneven Rd.
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  You are staring up at a massive stone fortress.
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  Just picturing that is intimidating.
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  Right. And do you know for a fact that
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  the greatest, most ruthless army on earth is marching directly
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  toward you? Their stated goal is leveling
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  your city and taking everything you love.
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  The panic in the air would just be palpable.
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  Oh, absolutely palpable. People around you are terrified.
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  And yet your defense strategy, the way you and your fellow
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  citizens prepare for this catastrophic violence, is to
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  walk around the perimeter of those stone walls and sing a
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  song. You know, it sounds almost
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  completely irrational to a modern mind.
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  It really does. You do not sharpen swords.
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  You do not stockpile arrows. You sing a song about a
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  psychological and spiritual survival tactic that is 3000
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  years old. Because when we think about
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  personal security today, there's a very rigid expectation of
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  visible tangible barriers. Yeah, you build a house, You put
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  a heavy steel deadbolt on the door.
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  You install a loud blaring alarm system.
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  And then the security specialist points to the setup and says
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  that you are safe. It is a strictly physical
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  calculation. Steel, concrete and electronics.
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  We want barriers we can touch and perimeters we can physically
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  verify. But when you look at ancient
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  texts, that modern home security system looks incredibly fragile.
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  Welcome to Reform thinking. I am so glad you have joined us.
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  This is a deep dive into an absolute masterpiece of ancient
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  literature. And it is a text that completely
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  redefines what safety means. Yes, it is.
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  Today our mission is to analyze Psalm 125, and we are doing it
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  through the lens of Charles Spurgeon's massive multi volume
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  commentary collection known as the Treasury of David.
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  It is such a phenomenal resource.
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  Spurgeon pulled together centuries of thought on these
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  texts. He really did.
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  We are taking a short biblical text paired with all this
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  historical commentary from theologians, military
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  historians, and ancient preachers.
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  And the goal is to extract the central Nuggets of knowledge
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  regarding faith, security and God's absolute sovereignty over
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  human trials. We are going to look at what
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  true safety actually means when the physical world around you
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  feels anything but secure. OK, let's unpack this.
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  Could you set the historical and geographical scene for these
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  specific songs? Sure.
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  So what is the physical context of these Pilgrim psalms?
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  Yeah, what are they actually doing when they sing this?
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  Well, these are also known in the historical text as a song of
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  degrees, and they mark a very specific physical and spiritual
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  ascent an. Ascent like climbing.
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  Precisely. To understand the text, you
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  really have to understand the geography.
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  Jerusalem sits on an elevated plateau in the Judean Mountains.
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  OK, so it is up high. Very high.
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  No matter where an ancient Israelite lives in the
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  surrounding regions, traveling to Jerusalem for their annual
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  festivals meant going up. That sounds exhausting,
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  honestly. It was you had to climb these
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  dangerous, winding, steep roads to reach the city.
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  So there is this literal physical ascent happening step
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  by step, elevation by elevation. So the song of degrees matches
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  the physical degrees of the climb.
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  Yes, but Charles Spurgeon points out that there is also a rise in
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  the spiritual sense of the text itself.
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  How so? Well, the previous songs in this
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  collection might offer praise for past escapes from danger,
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  but Psalm 125 reaches a much higher state of assurance
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  regarding the future. I love that you can just picture
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  these pilgrims completely exhausted, dusty from days on
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  the road, finally reaching the city plateau.
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  And then they gather together and they chant this song while
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  perambulating the massive stone walls of Jerusalem.
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  Walking around the walls, touching the stones.
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  As for who actually penned these specific words, Spurgeon notes a
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  fascinating debate among scholars.
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  Right, the authorship is heavily debated.
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  Some attribute this text to a writer living long after the
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  devastating Babylonian captivity, someone who had
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  actually seen the walls rebuilt. Which would make a lot of sense
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  given the focus on security, but there is equally strong reason
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  to attribute it to David himself.
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  Yeah, the general consensus in Spurgeon's collection is that
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  all the Pilgrim psalms were likely composed or at least
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  compiled into this specific hymnal by the same writer to
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  serve this exact function. A marching song for the ascent.
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  The imagery of them walking around the wall singing about
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  security while physically touching the cold stones is so
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  vivid it grounds the theology in dirt and rock.
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  It makes it incredibly tangible. Let us look at the opening line
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  verse one reads. They that trust in the Lord
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  shall be as Mount Zion, which cannot be removed, but abideth
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  forever. A commentator named WHJ Page
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  offers a brilliant analogy here. Oh I really like his breakdown
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  of this. Yeah, he compares different
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  types of people to different elements in the natural world.
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  He says some people are like the sand, you know, ever shifting,
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  treacherous. Constantly reforming based on
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  the tide. Yes.
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  Think about how we build our lives on shifting economic
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  trends or fleeting social standing that is shifting sand.
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  And then he mentions the sea. Right.
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  Others, he says, are restless and unsettled, just like the
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  sea. That feels very applicable to
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  the modern mind. The anxiety, the insomnia, the
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  constant refreshing of news feeds.
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  It is a perfect description of modern anxiety.
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  And still others, Page says, are completely inconstant, blowing
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  around like the wind. Changing their ideological
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  stance based on whatever argument they heard last.
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  Precisely. But believers, those who place
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  their trust in the Lord, are compared to a mountain strong,
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  stable and secure. It makes you pause and ask
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  yourself right now, as you listen to this, what substance
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  does your own internal life resemble?
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  That is a tough question to ask. It is Are you the shifting sand,
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  the restless sea, the blowing wind?
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  Or are you a solid mountain? Well, the mechanics of how a
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  person becomes that solid mountain are fascinating.
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  How does that actually happen? Martin Luther breaks down the
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  mechanism of that stability, and he brings in a sharp contrast
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  between human devised efforts to secure divine favor and the
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  sheer empty handed act of trusting.
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  You you really have to understand Luther's historical
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  context to get his point here. Absolutely.
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  He lived in an era where people were taught that security came
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  through grueling physical exertion.
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  Right, they entered strict monastic orders.
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  They starve themselves with rigorous fasting.
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  And they went on these elaborate, punishing, physical
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  pilgrimages where they walked hundreds of miles.
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  Sometimes crawling up stone stairs on their knees, all just
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  to earn merit. They lived in total
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  psychological terror, constantly wondering if they had done
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  enough to secure their standing before God.
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  But Luther argues that the psalmist bypasses all of that
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  religious anxiety completely. Yes, the text commands no
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  specific physical labor at all. It only speaks of trust.
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  That is such a stark contrast. It is, and Luther connects the
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  simple act of trust to the very nature of God Himself.
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  He says God's nature is to create all things out of
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  nothing. Creasio ex nihilo.
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  Right. God brings life out of dead
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  dirt. He brings light out of absolute
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  pitch black darkness. So how does that relate to a
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  person trusting him? When a person simply trusts God,
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  especially when they are in extreme danger or crushing
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  poverty or burdened by intense guilt, they are aligning
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  perfectly with God's creative nature.
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  They are presenting an empty vessel for God to fill.
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  Yes, rather than handing God a resume of their own religious
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  accomplishments. So the stability does not come
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  from the person's own willpower, it comes from offering zero
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  resistance to God's nature. That is a great way to phrase
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  it. But wait, let me.
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  Wrap my head around the specific metaphor used in the text.
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  Calling Mount Zion immovable feels factually wrong.
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  I could see why you would say that.
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  Historically speaking, Jerusalem got sacked, the Babylonians came
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  in and burned the temple to the ground.
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  And centuries later, the Roman legions leveled the city.
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  They leveled it so thoroughly they plowed the ground with
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  salt. So how could these ancient
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  pilgrims look at those specific walls, sing about absolute
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  immovable security, and use Mount Zion as the ultimate
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  symbol of safety? Especially when history proves
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  those walls absolutely can fall. Right.
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  How does that make any sense? That is a brilliant point, and
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  it forces us to look past the architecture and into the
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  geology. The geology of the mountain
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  itself. Yes, commentators like
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  Lieutenant Condor and James Neal point out something highly
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  specific about the topography of Zion.
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  The security is not about the masonry on top of the hill.
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  Because human beings can absolutely destroy a masonry.
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  Of course, invading armies can tear down walls, burn cedar
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  gates, and level majestic buildings until not one stone is
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  left upon another. But the underlying rock
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  structure is different. Totally different.
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  The ancient limestone scarps of Zion, the everlasting hills
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  themselves, They simply smile at human rage.
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  You cannot dismantle a mountain. Right.
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  You can burn the grass on it, but you cannot unmake the
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  bedrock. And the theologian John Gill
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  takes this physical geological immobility and applies it
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  directly to the believer's spiritual state.
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  Which is a beautiful application.
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  He argues that just as you cannot remove the physical
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  bedrock of the mountain, the trusting believer can never be
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  removed from their secure standing.
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  Now, Gill acknowledges the realities of life a believer
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  might experience seasons where they are removed from their
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  local church community. Or they might go through dark
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  periods where they feel a complete lack of sensible
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  communion with God. Feeling totally abandoned.
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  Yeah, and they will eventually be removed from this physical
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  world by death itself. But Gill insists they can never
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  be removed from God's heart. They can never fall out of the
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  covenant of grace. Right, which is an eternal
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  agreement made before time began, not some fragile human
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  contract. And they can never be snatched
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  out of the protective hands of Christ.
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  The masonry of their daily life might get battered, but their
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  spiritual bedrock is entirely untouchable.
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  So verse one establishes this baseline of absolute immovable
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  security on the inside. Your soul is as fixed as the
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  bedrock under the city. But if my internal soul is a
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  mountain, what about my physical reality when a literal hostile
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  force shows up at my door? Because internal peace is
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  wonderful, but people still face massive external threats.
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  Exactly. Financial ruin, disease,
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  Malicious individuals? How did these ancient people
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  view the geography around them as an active defense system
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  against those external threats? That brings us to verse 2.
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  The text says as the mountains are round about Jerusalem, so
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  the Lord is round about his people from henceforth, even
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  forever. To grasp the way of that verse,
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  we really need a graphical reality check.
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  What do you mean? Well, the commentators Arthur
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  Penrin Stanley and William M Thompson offer fantastic notes
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  on the actual terrain of Jerusalem.
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  People often imagine the city sitting at the bottom of a vast
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  bowl. Completely walled in by a tight
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  circle of towering peaks. Right, but that is
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  geographically inaccurate. Jerusalem itself sits on an
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  elevated plateau. OK, so it is high up.
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  Yes, and it is surrounded by a network of incredibly steep,
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  deep ravines, specifically the Kidron and Hinnom valleys and
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  across. Those treacherous ravines are
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  higher outer peaks like Mount Olivet blocking the east and the
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  peak of Nebby Samwell. So these.
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  Surrounding mountains do not form a neat circular wall.
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  Instead, they function as massive geological Sentinels.
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  They act. As natural shock absorbers
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  against an invading army? Precisely.
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  A military force cannot just March straight onto the plateau
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  in a clean formation. They have to.
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  Surmount these exhausting outer mountains first.
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  Cross the. Ravines and fight uphill the
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  entire way. Here's where.
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  It gets really interesting. The historical account of the
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  Roman siege of Jerusalem by Titus in 1870 illustrates the
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  sheer terror of trying to breach that geography we are talking.
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  About the Roman army, arguably the greatest, most efficient
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  military machine on earth at the time they conquered.
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  The known world. But when they got to Jerusalem,
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  they could not simply surround the city and starve it out
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  easily, no. The geography fought against
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  them, the Jewish. Historian Josephus, who actually
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  witnessed the siege, details the staggering scale of the
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  engineering required just to bypass the Sentinel Mountains.
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  It is. Unbelievable what they had to
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  build because the. Terrain was so hostile the
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  Romans had to build massive sweeping earthworks.
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  We are talking about a siege wall nearly 5 miles long
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  constructed. Over rough Rocky Mountains in
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  this terrain, complete with. 13 separate military garrisons
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  built into the wall itself and the Roman.
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  Soldiers driven by absolute desperation and military
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  discipline wilt this entire five mile structure in just three
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  days to do. It they had to strip the
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  surrounding countryside totally bare, they cut down every single
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  tree within a 10 mile radius. Just think about.
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  The sheer labor involved in that, that is.
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  What it took for human hostility to bypass the natural geological
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  defenses God placed around that city.
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  So when? The Ancient Pilgrim saying about
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  the mountains being round about Jerusalem, they were not
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  speaking in poetic abstractions, no.
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  They were looking at a terrifyingly difficult military
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  obstacle course. The message.
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  Is that God made the geography so inherently difficult that
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  human rage had to literally move mountains to get to the people
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  inside that? Historical reality synthesizes
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  the 1st 2 verses beautifully into a concept of double
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  security. Yes.
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  Believers are established internally, like the bedrock of
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  Mount Zion, and they are entrenched externally,
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  sentineled by surrounding mountains.
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  The. Theologian John Owen makes a
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  very weighty point regarding the second-half of that verse where
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  it says the. Lord is round about his people
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  from henceforth, even forever, Owen.
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  Stresses that this is not a promise of conditional
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  preservation. Right conditional.
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  Preservation is a contract that says God will protect you as
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  long as you maintain a flawless level of moral performance and
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  the. Flaw in conditional safety is
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  that it relies on the weak just link in the chain, which is
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  human. Consistency.
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  Exactly. But Owen argues the text
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  promises universal, eternal preservation.
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  God surrounds his people against all incursions, regardless of
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  their momentary failures. He keeps.
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  Them in his protective custody across all generations.
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  The guarantee. Of safety is tied to God's own
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  everlasting, unchanging nature, not to the believers fluctuating
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  emotional state. Martin Luther.
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  Offers a stunning illustration of what this external protection
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  looks like in daily life. What does he?
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  Say he talks about. Believers being compassed about
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  with fiery walls of angels fiery.
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  Walls. That is an intense image, but
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  even. That angelic protection is not
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  the ultimate barrier, Luther says.
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  God himself is the wall. God is the.
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  Heaven above your head, the bedrock beneath your feet, and
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  the barrier on your left and your right.
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  Think about. The audacity of that theological
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  claim If the enemy, if Satan himself, wants to throw a dart
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  at you to destroy you, that dart has to pass through the wall
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  first. Neuther.
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  Boldly claims that God himself would have to be injured.
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  God himself would have to take a hit before the believer takes
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  lasting, fatal harm, that is. An astonishing level of promise
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  protection, but if. You are listening to this right
• 15:03
  now and you have just lost your job, or you are dealing with a
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  severe chronic illness or you are watching your family fall
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  apart hearing that. God has built an impenetrable
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  wall around you. Probably feels incredibly
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  frustrating. It might.
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  Even feel insulting if the wall is so flawless, if the
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  protection is so absolute, why is the pain still getting
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  through if God is? An iron wall.
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  How does the strike still land on my life that.
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  Frustration bridges our conversation right into the
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  sobering reality of verse three. Yes, verse. 3 provides a
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  necessary reality check to the soaring promises of the 1st 2
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  verses it says. For the rod of the wicked shall
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  not rest upon the lot of the righteous, the presence.
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  Of the surrounding mountains. The presence of the fiery wall
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  does not mean complete immunity from the friction of life.
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  The. Rod of the Wicked, which
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  represents oppression, tyranny, unjust treatment and severe
• 15:51
  hardship, is a very real element of the believers earthly
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  experience, the commentators. Note that this has always been
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  true historically. Even Isaac was mocked and
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  harassed by Ishmael within his own family tent and the.
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  Massive, brutal empire of Assyria laid its heavy,
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  oppressive scepter on Zion itself.
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  So the text. Does not pretend the rod does
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  not exist or that it never strikes but there.
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  Is a crucial, heavily stressed limitation mentioned there.
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  The rod will not rest upon the lot of the righteous it.
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  Strikes, but it does not remain Charles.
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  Simeon provides A striking historical analogy to explain
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  the mechanics of this limitation.
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  Oh, the. Water mill analogy.
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  It is brilliant, he compares. The wrath of man, or the
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  oppression of the wicked to water turned upon a water mill,
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  if you have. Ever stood next to a large
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  industrial water mill? You know the water rushes in
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  from the river with tremendous, deafening, destructive force.
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  It is. Terrifyingly loud and powerful
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  and left. Unchecked, tons of rushing water
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  would RIP the wooden wheel apart and flood the building.
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  But the Miller. Stands at the controls, right?
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  The water is allowed to come through with only enough force
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  to accomplish the specific intended purpose of turning the
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  wheel and grinding the grain The rest.
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  Of the water, no matter how menacing or powerful the flood
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  appears upstream, is forced to pass off harmlessly through an
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  open sluice gate. God stands as the Miller
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  controlling the sluice gate of human suffering He allows.
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  Just enough pressure to enter your life, to turn the wheel, to
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  try your character, and to prove the truth of your integrity.
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  But. He actively diverts the crushing
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  flood that would wash you away completely that.
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  Completely flips the script on how we view adversity.
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  It is like a modern surge protector on an expensive
• 17:38
  computer system that is a. Really good modern equivalent A.
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  Massive lethal spike of electricity hits the grid from a
• 17:45
  lightning strike. The surge protector takes the
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  hit, absorbs the fatal blow and down regulates the voltage.
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  It only. Lets a safe, functional amount
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  of electricity through to keep the machine running the trials.
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  Down regulated. The adversity is not a breach in
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  the wall, it is measured water turning the mill, the
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  commentator. Thomas Adams expands on this by
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  analyzing the concept of the lot of the righteous he breaks.
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  Down the believers inheritance into a fourfold lot, yes.
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  The first lot is sufferings, the second is light and happiness on
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  Earth. The third.
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  Is faith and sanctification, and the fourth lot is heaven itself
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  in succession. Let us.
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  Examine the mechanics of those four lots, because the order is
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  highly intentional. Why?
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  Is suffering listed as the very first lot?
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  Because the friction of suffering is the mechanism that
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  burns off the dross of human pride.
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  It is the abrasive tool that shapes the character.
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  But. It is immediately followed by
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  the second lot, light and happiness, meaning that.
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  Even amid intense trials, the boundary lines of a believer's
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  life fall in pleasant places. There's joy coexisting with the
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  pain. The third.
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  Lot, faith and sanctification is what Adams calls the earnest of
• 18:54
  heaven. Like Earnest.
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  Money in real estate right in. Real estate earnest money is a
• 18:58
  down payment. It is a non refundable deposit
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  that absolutely guarantees the rest of the transaction will be
• 19:04
  completed the internal. Growth of faith is the down
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  payment, proving that the 4th lot, the final inheritance of
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  Heaven, is a guaranteed reality. This stands.
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  In stark contrast to the lot of the wicked, whose.
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  Temporary, unchecked prosperity parity ends in a disastrous
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  final portion, and we have to. Look at the reason God sets
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  these strict, precise limits on the rod of the wicked, the
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  verse. Gives a very clear psychological
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  and spiritual reason for the sluice gate, it says.
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  Lest the righteous put forth their hands unto iniquity, there
• 19:33
  is. A recognized biological and
• 19:35
  spiritual breaking point in human endurance The.
• 19:38
  Commentator John Trapp uses the wonderful analogy of a luteinist
• 19:42
  someone playing a stringed instrument like a lute if the.
• 19:45
  Musician leaves the string too slack.
• 19:48
  The music is ruined. It sounds dull and dissonant,
• 19:52
  but if the. Musician tightens the strings
• 19:53
  too much, trying to reach an impossible pitch.
• 19:56
  The strings will violently snap. God is.
• 19:58
  The master musician, He tunes the strings of his people
• 20:02
  through the tension of trials. He stretches.
• 20:04
  Them to produce the right sound, the right character.
• 20:07
  But he knows. Precisely what the tensile
• 20:09
  strength of the wire is. He knows the exact frequency
• 20:12
  where the tension becomes too high.
• 20:13
  It makes me. Think of modern piano tuning.
• 20:16
  A grand piano has roughly 30,000 lbs of tension across its cast
• 20:20
  iron frame. That is a.
• 20:21
  Staggering amount of pressure it is.
• 20:23
  The tuner uses a massive lever to pull those heavy steel wires
• 20:27
  tight. If they do not know what they're
• 20:28
  doing, the wire snaps and it can take your eye out.
• 20:31
  God. Knows our breaking point and he
• 20:33
  will not turn the lever past our tensile strength.
• 20:36
  He will not let the strings snap if the.
• 20:38
  Rack of oppression is used for too long.
• 20:40
  Even the most patient, faithful sufferer might eventually give
• 20:44
  way to sheer despair or moral compromise.
• 20:47
  The pain would. Become so blinding they might
• 20:49
  resort to sinister, unethical practices just to deliver
• 20:52
  themselves from the agony this is.
• 20:54
  Why God sets a strict boundary on tyranny the ancient.
• 20:58
  Civil Law of Israel stated that a criminal could receive 40
• 21:01
  stripes save one, meaning 39 lashes.
• 21:05
  There was a. Hard legal limit on physical
• 21:07
  punishment to prevent the degradation of the human being
• 21:10
  in the same. Way God shortens the days of
• 21:11
  tribulation for the sake of the elect.
• 21:13
  He will not. Allow the external pressure to
• 21:15
  push them to the absolute uttermost extreme where their
• 21:18
  faith is entirely destroyed living.
• 21:21
  Through that rod, dealing with that carefully measured tension
• 21:24
  on the string is what reveals the true nature of a person's
• 21:27
  faith. It separates.
• 21:28
  Genuine trust from mere lip service, and that naturally
• 21:32
  shifts our focus from the external pressures of the rod to
• 21:35
  the internal state of the heart. Which is what?
• 21:37
  Verse 4 addresses, it reads. Do good, O Lord, unto those that
• 21:41
  be good, and to them that are upright in their hearts.
• 21:45
  Now, on the surface, this presents a massive theological
• 21:48
  paradox. It really.
• 21:50
  Does when we look at the context to perform theology, who is
• 21:54
  actually good? We are.
• 21:55
  Taught that human nature is fundamentally flawed, that our
• 21:58
  natural inclination is entirely selfish.
• 22:01
  So how? Can the psalmist ask God to do
• 22:03
  good to those who are good if no one is naturally good, if we.
• 22:07
  Connect this to the bigger picture.
• 22:09
  We have to define goodness carefully.
• 22:11
  Charles Stanford provides a brilliant clarifying quote.
• 22:14
  What does Stanford? Say, he says.
• 22:16
  The good in US is God in us, the good in.
• 22:18
  US is God in us. That completely shifts the
• 22:20
  origin of the goodness, yes. True uprightness is not
• 22:23
  something native to human biology.
• 22:25
  You do not just grit your teeth, try really hard, and generate
• 22:28
  moral goodness on your own steam.
• 22:30
  What the? Text calls Goodness is alien
• 22:32
  righteousness. It is imparted grace.
• 22:35
  It is the. Direct result of the indwelling
• 22:37
  Holy Spirit actively changing the desires of the heart.
• 22:40
  Stanford. Warns that any form of
• 22:42
  Christianity that lacks this internal reality is a hollow
• 22:46
  sham meaning. If there is no actual presence
• 22:49
  of Christ fundamentally altering the person's internal nature, it
• 22:53
  is fake. It is a.
• 22:55
  Cheap imitation of religion that might look good on the outside
• 22:58
  but has no heartbeat. So it is.
• 22:59
  Entirely about the source of the goodness in the.
• 23:01
  Commentator and McMichael gives us a very practical, highly
• 23:05
  scrutinizing test for this. He prioritizes motives over
• 23:08
  actions, Michael. Points out that the good action
• 23:11
  does not make the good man, rather the good man does the
• 23:14
  good action. We as.
• 23:15
  Human beings tend to judge entirely by the outside.
• 23:18
  We really. Do we see a billionaire give
• 23:20
  away $10 million to a charity? And we immediately assigned the
• 23:24
  label of goodness to them. But Michael.
• 23:25
  Says that DS, which win the world's highest admiration, can
• 23:29
  actually be nothing better than splendid sins if the internal
• 23:32
  motive is wrong. Splendid.
• 23:34
  Sins. That is a heavy phrase if the
• 23:36
  billionaire. Gave the money solely for a tax
• 23:38
  write off or to buy public relations goodwill to cover up
• 23:41
  corrupt business practices. The action helped people, but
• 23:45
  the heart was utterly selfish if the.
• 23:47
  Motive is pride. Everything that flows from it is
• 23:50
  tainted. God weighs the motive, not just
• 23:53
  the checkbook. That is a.
• 23:54
  Razor sharp standard that cuts right through religious
• 23:57
  hypocrisy, but for. Those who do possess that
• 23:59
  genuine spirit, given internal goodness.
• 24:02
  The results are spectacular. Joseph.
• 24:04
  Carroll outlines 3 distinct outcomes for those who do good
• 24:08
  from an upright heart first. They receive true good from God,
• 24:12
  meaning God actively blesses their lives with His presence.
• 24:16
  Second. They hold the best good
• 24:17
  eternally. They possess an inheritance that
• 24:20
  cannot be touched by economic collapse, time or physical
• 24:23
  decay. And 3rd.
• 24:25
  They find that even their crosses and their losses
• 24:27
  actively work together for their good.
• 24:29
  That applies. Directly to how you the listener
• 24:32
  view your own heart hardships if your heart.
• 24:34
  Is upright. If your motives are aligned with
• 24:35
  God, the trial you are facing is not a punishment.
• 24:38
  The alchemy. Of grace takes the lead of your
• 24:40
  suffering and turns it into gold, the.
• 24:43
  Hardship is an instrument actively working for your
• 24:46
  ultimate benefit, so. What does this all mean?
• 24:49
  When we contrast this true internal spirit driven goodness
• 24:54
  with the behavior of those who only pretend to possess it, we
• 24:58
  move into the harsh and sobering realities of verse 5, the text.
• 25:02
  Says, As for such as Turn aside unto their crooked ways, the
• 25:06
  Lord shall lead them forth with the workers of iniquity.
• 25:09
  Charles. Spurgeon uses a fantastic,
• 25:11
  almost humorous term to describe the behavior in this verse.
• 25:15
  He calls it the circumvendibus, it sounds.
• 25:17
  Like a ridiculous word, but it captures the concept perfectly.
• 25:20
  Spurgeon. Describes the circumvendibus as
• 25:23
  a deliberate detour. It is a calculated curve.
• 25:26
  These are. People who never intend to
• 25:27
  completely abandoned their faith.
• 25:29
  They do not wake up 1 morning and decide to become atheists.
• 25:32
  No, they just. Find the straight, narrow,
• 25:34
  rigorous way of honesty a little too difficult or unprofitable in
• 25:38
  a specific moment, so they. Decide to make a slight curve, a
• 25:41
  temporary deviation into deceit or compromise.
• 25:43
  It is the. Person who tells a little white
• 25:45
  lie to close a major business deal.
• 25:48
  Fully intending to drop back into the right Rd. of honesty
• 25:50
  tomorrow, but the. Text warns that this deliberate
• 25:55
  calculated curve resulting complete apostasy.
• 25:59
  You cannot control the detour, we have to.
• 26:01
  Analyze what makes away crooked the commentator.
• 26:03
  Thomas Scott says the ways of sinners are crooked because they
• 26:07
  constantly shift from one pursuit to another.
• 26:09
  They turn. Hit her and thither to deceive
• 26:11
  they wind. About 1000 different ways to
• 26:13
  conceal their base intentions or to escape the consequences of
• 26:17
  their actions think about. The sheer exhaustion of being a
• 26:20
  hypocrite. You always have to remember
• 26:22
  which lie you told to which person you are constantly.
• 26:25
  Shifting your mask. It is the exact opposite of
• 26:28
  straightforward honesty where you only have one story to tell.
• 26:31
  Joseph. Carroll provides a brilliant,
• 26:33
  highly emotional contrast to this crookedness.
• 26:37
  He defines the straight way, using a bizarre biblical
• 26:40
  illustration from First Samuel chapter 6.
• 26:42
  Oh, the story. About the cows, yes, he talks.
• 26:44
  About the kind of the milking cows that were used to carry the
• 26:47
  captured Ark of the Covenant back to Israel from the
• 26:49
  Philistine territory, these were.
• 26:50
  Cows that had just given birth, their calves were shut up at
• 26:54
  home naturally. The overpowering biological
• 26:57
  instinct of a mother animal is to turn around lowing and crying
• 27:01
  for its young. The.
• 27:02
  Animals should have refused to walk away from their calves, but
• 27:05
  under. Divine direction.
• 27:07
  Pulling this heavy wooden cart without a human driver, they
• 27:11
  took the straight highway. They went.
• 27:13
  Along lowing as they went, feeling the intense natural
• 27:16
  distress of the separation, but they.
• 27:18
  Turned not aside to the right hand or to the left, that is.
• 27:22
  The ultimate picture of the upright heart.
• 27:24
  You might feel the intense emotional pain of the journey.
• 27:27
  You might groan under the heavyweight of doing the right
• 27:29
  thing when it costs you everything but your.
• 27:32
  Willpower and your obedience override your natural instincts.
• 27:36
  You do not deviate into a crooked path just to find
• 27:39
  temporary relief from the pain. John.
• 27:41
  Bunyan, the brilliant author of the Pilgrims Progress, brings up
• 27:45
  a terrifying point about those who refuse that pain and choose
• 27:48
  the crooked path. He uses an.
• 27:49
  Old term calling them the Baron Professor this is.
• 27:52
  Someone who takes up a public profession of faith merely as a
• 27:55
  cloak for their reputation underneath.
• 27:58
  When no one is looking, they are secretly practicing wickedness
• 28:02
  bunion. Says that eventually God looses
• 28:05
  the reins of their secret sins. God.
• 28:07
  Stops restraining them and gives them up to their vile
• 28:10
  affections. The internal.
• 28:11
  Corruption they thought they were hiding is allowed to break
• 28:14
  the surface, exposing the hypocrite to the entire world.
• 28:17
  The mask completely slipped in the final.
• 28:20
  Division described in the text is severe.
• 28:22
  The Lord shall lead them forth with the workers of iniquity.
• 28:26
  Thomas. Goodwin explains the terrifying
• 28:28
  justice of this outcome. Even if these individuals walked
• 28:32
  in the procession of God's children here on earth.
• 28:34
  Even if they looked apart, sang the songs, and sat in the exact
• 28:38
  same buildings as the righteous their.
• 28:40
  Internal driving principle was sin because they.
• 28:43
  Harbored the exact same internal nature as the open flagrant
• 28:47
  rebel. They share the exact same
• 28:48
  execution day when? Divine truth unveils all hidden
• 28:52
  pursuits. These secret traitors, these
• 28:55
  practitioners of the Circumbendabus, are ejected
• 28:57
  right alongside the most avowed enemies of God.
• 29:00
  Facade. Drops and they are grouped with
• 29:03
  the company they truly belong to.
• 29:04
  It is a. Sobering warning against trying
• 29:06
  to play games with divine omniscience.
• 29:09
  You cannot trick God with a religious resume but the Psalm.
• 29:12
  Does not end on that heavy note of judgement.
• 29:15
  It pivots beautifully after. All the talk of sieges, rods and
• 29:19
  judgement. The final clause is a breath of
• 29:21
  fresh air. It says, But peace shall be upon
• 29:24
  Israel. A.
• 29:25
  Commentator named LeBlanc breaks down that single word peace into
• 29:29
  a spectacular 6 fold description.
• 29:32
  Let us. Examine all six layers because
• 29:34
  this is the inheritance of the upright.
• 29:36
  First this. Piece is from above.
• 29:38
  It originates outside the human system, meaning it can weather
• 29:42
  any earthly storm because it is not tied to earthly
• 29:44
  circumstances. Second.
• 29:46
  It is internal, it flows directly into the heart and
• 29:49
  stills the violent agitations and anxieties of the mind.
• 29:52
  Third. It is external, it changes a
• 29:55
  person's life and interactions so clearly that their neighbors,
• 29:58
  their Co workers and their family members can actually see
• 30:01
  the difference in how they handle conflict. 4th.
• 30:04
  It is divine, maintaining perfect harmony and
• 30:07
  justification between the individual and God 5th.
• 30:10
  It is universal, meaning it applies to all members and
• 30:14
  appetites of the person. It brings order and discipline
• 30:17
  to the chaotic, destructive desires of human nature and. 6th
• 30:21
  This piece is eternal. It flows from an exhaustless
• 30:25
  fountain that can never run dry no matter how much you draw from
• 30:28
  it. And we must ask, who is this
• 30:31
  Israel that receives this massive 6 fold piece, George?
• 30:35
  Seton Bowes provides a wonderful historical definition to close
• 30:38
  our analysis. Israel is not just a national or
• 30:41
  political designation here, you have to remember.
• 30:44
  The origin of the name itself. The patriarch Jacob wrestled
• 30:47
  with the Angel of the Lord in the dark night of the soul at
• 30:50
  Peniel. He was.
• 30:51
  Terrified, he was exhausted and he wrestled until his hip was
• 30:54
  thrown out of joint. But he held.
• 30:55
  On and he prevailed. He derived his true strength not
• 30:58
  from his own physical power, but from his desperate clinging.
• 31:02
  Prayer, Israel. Translates to the Prince who
• 31:04
  wrestles with God and holds on until the blessing comes.
• 31:07
  That is the. Posture of the upright heart.
• 31:09
  You might walk with a limp after the trial, but you walk with the
• 31:12
  peace we have covered. Massive theological arcs Today,
• 31:15
  on this deep dive, we really. Have we started by looking at
• 31:20
  the immovable geological security of simply trusting God
• 31:23
  with empty hands? We examine.
• 31:25
  How God establishes believers on solid bedrock and entrenches
• 31:29
  them with towering Sentinels of external protection we faced.
• 31:32
  The harsh reality of the rod of the wicked, but found immense
• 31:36
  comfort in the fact that God controls the sluice gate.
• 31:39
  Placing deliberate calculated limits on our suffering so our
• 31:42
  faith is tuned like a master instrument rather than broken.
• 31:45
  We saw. The absolute necessity of
• 31:47
  God-given internal goodness, recognizing that any true virtue
• 31:52
  we possess is simply God residing within us and we.
• 31:55
  Ended with a severe warning against the circumbendabus, the
• 31:58
  crooked rationalized detours of the hypocrite while claiming
• 32:01
  that beautiful 6 fold piece for the true wrestler as you.
• 32:04
  Carry these ancient truths into your modern life.
• 32:07
  Here is a final thought to Mull over.
• 32:09
  We talked at length about those massive 5 mile Roman earthworks
• 32:12
  that the General Titus built to bypass the natural God-given
• 32:15
  defenses of Jerusalem when the. Rod of the Wicked falls in your
• 32:19
  own life. When a sudden crisis hits your
• 32:22
  finances, when a terrifying health issue arises, or when you
• 32:26
  face unfair, malicious opposition at work, what is your
• 32:30
  immediate knee jerk reaction? Do you?
• 32:32
  Panic and frantically attempt to build your own five mile
• 32:37
  earthworks of defense. Do you exhaust yourself trying
• 32:40
  to engineer your own safety through manipulation, endless
• 32:43
  worry and sleepless nights? Or do you?
• 32:46
  Pause. Look at the geography of your
• 32:48
  soul and recognize that the Maker of the hills is already
• 32:51
  surrounding you. Can you?
• 32:52
  See that he is actively limiting the strike, managing the water
• 32:55
  on the mill to refine your character rather than allowing
• 32:58
  the flood to destroy you. It changes your.
• 33:00
  Entire posture toward the future when you realize your security
• 33:03
  system is not made of concrete, steel, or your own willpower.
• 33:06
  It is made of the Creator himself.
• 33:09
  Thank you for joining us for this deep dive on reformed
• 33:11
  thinking. May you experience the absolute
• 33:13
  fullness of that six fold piece we discussed today.
• 33:16
  Until next time.