Latest / Tabernacle Talk - A Bible Study Podcast with Pastor Bryon Self / Psalm 121 - A Psalm For A Road Trip

Transcript

Psalm 121 - A Psalm For A Road Trip · Tabernacle Talk - A Bible Study Podcast with Pastor Bryon Self

• 0:00
  Welcome to Tabernacle Talk. Tabernacle Talk is a Bible study
• 0:03
  podcast brought from Tabernacle Baptist Church in Essex, MD.
• 0:07
  I'm your host, Brian Self. We hope this podcast encourages
• 0:10
  you to know Christ, grow in his word, and show his love to
• 0:14
  others. Let's dive right in.
• 0:15
  Welcome back to Tabernacle Talk. We are walking through book 5 of
• 0:18
  Psalms together and today we are in Psalm 121.
• 0:23
  And this is another one of the song of a sense.
• 0:28
  Think like ascend a mountain specifically.
• 0:31
  These are the songs. There's 15 or so of these song
• 0:35
  of a sense that the children of Israel, they would sing these as
• 0:40
  they went up to Jerusalem three times annually for the different
• 0:45
  feasts to remember what the Lord had done for them to worship
• 0:49
  together. And so this is one of those
• 0:52
  songs. So even as we walk through it,
• 0:55
  you're going to think this is a song for a road trip.
• 0:59
  And this is particularly a song of God's safety for us on our
• 1:06
  road trip. So I, I just love kind of the,
• 1:09
  the thought of that. It seems so incredibly specific
• 1:12
  to me. I know in some Christian
• 1:16
  traditions, they even think of, you know, particular people that
• 1:21
  followed the Lord in years gone by.
• 1:24
  And because they went through a particular scenario, they think
• 1:28
  of that person as you'll hear the phrase the, the patron St.
• 1:33
  of this or that or the other. And so I, I'm sure that there's
• 1:38
  someone that's a patron St. Of trips or something like that
• 1:42
  that people have labeled. But I'm thankful for the Lord's
• 1:45
  care of us even in just everyday normal things.
• 1:51
  That God cares enough about, even Rd. trips, so to speak,
• 1:56
  that He put songs into scripture written by His people so that we
• 2:03
  would know that He cares for us and loves us in every scenario
• 2:09
  of life. Well, let's read through.
• 2:11
  I believe there are 7. Oh, there are 8 verses here.
• 2:15
  In this, in this Psalm verse #1I lift my eyes toward the
• 2:21
  mountains. Where will my help come from?
• 2:25
  My help comes from Yahweh, the Maker of heaven and earth.
• 2:30
  He will not allow your foot to slip.
• 2:32
  Your protector will not slumber. Indeed, the Protector of Israel
• 2:37
  does not slumber or sleep. Yahweh protects you.
• 2:41
  Yahweh is a shelter right by your side.
• 2:45
  The sun will not strike you by day or the moon by night.
• 2:50
  Yahweh will protect you from all harm.
• 2:53
  He will protect your life. Yahweh will protect your coming
• 2:57
  and going both now and forever. Man, what a great portion of
• 3:04
  scripture. I, I've told you guys before the
• 3:08
  story of my first year in like full time ministry, my church
• 3:15
  was robbed. I had some stuff that was stolen
• 3:18
  that was there. My Co workers and and things did
• 3:21
  as well. And so it was really difficult
• 3:25
  for me for about year, year and a half to even be able to sleep
• 3:32
  without a light on. And this particular Psalm to me
• 3:38
  just give so much comfort. I got a lot of my comfort
• 3:42
  actually from Psalm 3 was, was one of the passages that the
• 3:47
  Lord used to kind of bring some peace back into my heart.
• 3:51
  And so I think here that this might be very helpful for
• 3:55
  someone as they're walking through a hard time.
• 4:00
  Or maybe you might be like these pilgrims and you have some road
• 4:04
  trip that you're going on. And so Psalm 121 can be a help
• 4:08
  to you. Let's begin in verse #1 He says,
• 4:10
  I lift my eyes toward the mountains.
• 4:13
  Where will my help come from? Now, you might say, OK, what's
• 4:17
  up with this thing about the mountains?
• 4:19
  This could be that, as with many times in David's life, he would
• 4:25
  hide in the different, you know, caves and crags of the
• 4:32
  mountains, and it would provide safety for him.
• 4:34
  So it might be he's looking towards the mountains and going,
• 4:37
  yeah, I can stay there for a little bit, but that's not going
• 4:41
  to, like, help me. The mountain caves can't even
• 4:45
  provide me with ultimate safety. Might be a place to hide.
• 4:50
  Mountains were also very often viewed as a symbol of God's
• 4:54
  stability and his deliverance. That just as unshakeable as the
• 4:59
  mountains, so unshakeable was God's care.
• 5:03
  Or sometimes the mountains were seen as a kind of looming
• 5:08
  menace. You can think, I really, really
• 5:11
  love The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit and the, you know,
• 5:15
  precursor to those, the the Sumerian.
• 5:18
  And in those books you have the mountains are always a really
• 5:22
  dangerous place. It's a place where, you know,
• 5:25
  you could easily fall off a Cliff or something like that.
• 5:29
  Even when you dive into the mountains and you have mines and
• 5:32
  things, there's dangerous things in there.
• 5:35
  So in whatever way that were intended to think through the
• 5:39
  mountains, whether it is a temporary place of safety, a
• 5:43
  reminder of God's steadfastness and his protection and his help,
• 5:48
  or a kind of like dangerous or uncertain time, you can know
• 5:54
  that God is your help in each of those scenarios.
• 5:57
  The answer is God's our help. He is our the, the word here is
• 6:03
  the word easer. It's like in Genesis 2 where Eve
• 6:07
  is described as the the helper suitable for Adam.
• 6:12
  It's the easer. It's the one who comes alongside
• 6:15
  and kind of like protects, defends someone.
• 6:20
  And so the psalmist, verse one says, where will my help come
• 6:23
  from? Verse 2 says my help comes from
• 6:25
  Yahweh, the maker of heaven and earth, the skies and the land.
• 6:31
  Just as with Genesis one, in the beginning God created the skies
• 6:35
  and the land, the heavens and the earth.
• 6:38
  God made everything. And so you don't have to fear
• 6:41
  the mountains. I get a little squirrely in
• 6:46
  winter time when I'm driving the the only like car.
• 6:51
  I'll say quote UN quote accident thing that I've had is my
• 6:56
  daughter had just been born like 3 months before and we had come
• 7:03
  back from visiting Maryland, from visiting my in laws.
• 7:08
  This was back when we were in Washington and we were going to
• 7:12
  take her to a doctor's appointment of some sort.
• 7:15
  And we were going down the hill like 45 seconds from my house
• 7:22
  and hit this little patch of ice.
• 7:25
  I was going like maybe 15 to 20 miles an hour.
• 7:27
  So I was going 10 to 15 under the speed limit and just hit
• 7:33
  this patch of ice and we slid and like totally messed up the
• 7:38
  the front left part of my tire and how to get it towed.
• 7:43
  It was the whole thing. So whenever it gets to really
• 7:48
  slick weather now, I get really nervous, but I'm thankful that I
• 7:54
  am able to know, OK, God, you are the one that made snow and
• 8:00
  ice and the weather and the wind and the overcast skies and all
• 8:05
  of it. And so God, I can just rely on
• 8:08
  you. I can trust that whatever plans
• 8:10
  you have for me are good, that I am not going to be any better
• 8:15
  off through worrying and stressing about my
• 8:19
  circumstances. And so I can just say my help
• 8:22
  comes from you because you made it all.
• 8:25
  And so I can trust you as I traverse it all.
• 8:28
  This would be certainly one of the things that many Israelites
• 8:31
  would often think as they journeyed up into the the
• 8:34
  mountains. It's kind of more of a mountain
• 8:36
  range around Judah, especially from some of the flatter places
• 8:41
  that there are in Israel. And so as they are traveling up
• 8:44
  these hills, they go, OK. I lift my eyes toward the
• 8:46
  mountains. Where does my help come from?
• 8:49
  My help comes from Yahweh, the Maker of heaven and earth.
• 8:53
  Then here's some promises in verses 3 and four.
• 8:56
  He will not allow your foot to slip.
• 8:59
  Your protector will not slumber. Indeed, the protector of Israel
• 9:03
  does not slumber or sleep. God is never taking time off.
• 9:08
  I'm a human. I have to take time off.
• 9:11
  I am not immortal. I'm not the Energizer Bunny.
• 9:15
  And so there are very often times and days where I just have
• 9:19
  to step back and say, K, God, I've done all I can do.
• 9:24
  And so now I just need to rest. I need to spend time with
• 9:27
  family. I need to frankly, just spend
• 9:30
  some time in joyful worship. Just personally, I need to, you
• 9:34
  know, do some sort of a hobby thing that I'm able to enjoy,
• 9:40
  enjoy my life because for me, I have a very kind of obsessive
• 9:44
  personality. And so it can be super easy for
• 9:47
  me to just totally dive into my work because I love it.
• 9:52
  I'm all about it. And so from the moment that I
• 9:55
  wake up, I can be listening to a podcast either on, you know, the
• 9:59
  Bible, theology, leadership, churches, whatever.
• 10:03
  And I can just do that all day every day because I love it.
• 10:07
  But I have to remember, I'm not the one that gives my life
• 10:12
  meaning or purpose. God does.
• 10:14
  And I'm not the one that accomplishes everything that my
• 10:17
  life needs. God is the one that will
• 10:19
  accomplish all that truly needs to happen.
• 10:21
  And so I can work hard, I can spend time, I can study, I can,
• 10:25
  you know, record Tabernacle talks, but at the end of the
• 10:28
  day, what I need is my relationship with God.
• 10:32
  And part of that relationship is realizing God, You're the one in
• 10:35
  control. I'm not in control.
• 10:37
  So help me kind of disavow myself of that misunderstanding.
• 10:43
  So I love here verse three. He says he will not allow, Oh,
• 10:47
  sorry, sorry. I was talking about the
• 10:48
  slumbering and sleep. God never takes a day off.
• 10:51
  We need a day off. That's why God gave us the
• 10:53
  Sabbath. He says the Sabbath was made for
• 10:56
  man. It's not something that we have
• 11:00
  to like serve the Sabbath. He says man was not made for the
• 11:05
  Sabbath, but Sabbath for man. And so we should take times when
• 11:11
  we slumber, times when we sleep in, times when we take a day
• 11:16
  off. I have a day of rest within your
• 11:20
  life. For me, that's Fridays.
• 11:22
  I'm not doing my sermon prep on in normal weeks.
• 11:27
  I'm not doing any sermon prep on Friday.
• 11:30
  I am not answering emails. I will still take like a phone
• 11:36
  call from someone else, but I'm not calling anyone on any like
• 11:40
  work related things. And I would encourage you have a
• 11:44
  day where you just set aside to the Lord.
• 11:47
  You're not working, you're not putting in a ton of effort.
• 11:50
  You're just rejoicing in what God has already given you and
• 11:55
  spend time with family and just operate in that.
• 11:59
  That's very, very, very good Couple books I might recommend
• 12:03
  for you the ruthless elimination of hurry.
• 12:08
  Whichever I remember correctly, that's John Mark Comer that
• 12:10
  wrote that. There's also a book Practicing
• 12:15
  the Way by John Mark Comer that goes through like some spiritual
• 12:20
  disciplines and one of those is practicing Sabbath.
• 12:25
  I also know CC Kirk. Many of you might know that name
• 12:31
  even from the headlines not too long ago.
• 12:34
  He actually just wrote a book on the Sabbath.
• 12:39
  I forget if it was shortly before he passed or if it was
• 12:45
  published posthumously after after he passed that he had
• 12:49
  already been writing and then it was released.
• 12:52
  But I'd encourage you, if for no other reason, then hey, cool,
• 12:56
  this is, you know, somewhat current in today's day and age.
• 13:00
  That might be a good thing for you to take a look at.
• 13:03
  If you have read that book, let me know.
• 13:05
  Drop it in the comments. I would love to hear what your
• 13:08
  thoughts were on that, but those would be some resources that
• 13:12
  kind of talk about Sabbath and rest that we recognize God is
• 13:16
  the only one that is unceasing in His work.
• 13:20
  He never slumbers, He never sleeps.
• 13:22
  He is our protector. He's the one that cares for us.
• 13:24
  And I love that promise at the beginning of verse three.
• 13:27
  He will not allow your foot to slip.
• 13:31
  You can't even slip without God intentionally allowing it for
• 13:36
  your good and for his glory. And that is a comfort to me.
• 13:40
  So often I think I fear what might happen to me because
• 13:47
  there's not like a guarantee from God that says, Brian, you
• 13:50
  will always have, you know, this amount of money that you're
• 13:55
  making and you will always have this house and you will always
• 13:59
  have your health in these areas and you will always have this
• 14:04
  many people in your church. Because I don't have any of
• 14:08
  those like promises from God. Sometimes I can get really
• 14:12
  nervous to go, OK, well, kind of anything's fair game, like I
• 14:15
  can't lose Jesus. But other than that, God hasn't
• 14:18
  guaranteed me anything. But verses like here in verse 3
• 14:22
  and in Psalm, I forget if it's 90 or 91 that we went through.
• 14:27
  I think it's 91 are such a comfort to me that they
• 14:35
  communicate God's regular mode of operations for my existence
• 14:42
  is that God is not plotting evil against me, but he is plotting
• 14:46
  my good and that there is an active protection from the Lord
• 14:52
  in every moment of my life. And it if at any time I do
• 14:58
  experience the hardships, then I can note like this isn't some
• 15:03
  random circumstance. This is God specifically allowed
• 15:07
  this hardship and he has not allowed so many other hardships
• 15:12
  to take place, but these ones he did and it was for a purpose.
• 15:16
  I think about Job's story that Satan complaints to God, and he
• 15:23
  says, well, yeah, Job loves you, but it's because you have put a
• 15:28
  hedge of protection around him so that I can't do anything to
• 15:33
  him. And there obviously came those
• 15:36
  days where Satan did get to attack Job and he did get to
• 15:41
  hurt him in incredible ways. But I think too often in the
• 15:46
  story we focus on God allowing Satan to tempt or test Job that
• 15:55
  one time, and we neglect to appreciate the fact that Satan
• 16:01
  had tried so many times before and had failed.
• 16:04
  God had said, no, you can't have him.
• 16:06
  And that's a comfort to me to know God, You are actively
• 16:10
  protecting me from things that I will never know this side of
• 16:15
  eternity. I just love that thought.
• 16:18
  That's a real encouragement to me.
• 16:19
  Verse #5 Yahweh protects you. Yahweh is a shelter right by
• 16:24
  your side. I love that God's not super far
• 16:27
  off somewhere. He is right by me and we can
• 16:30
  think of even the Holy Spirit now living and dwelling inside
• 16:33
  of us, that He is right there and He feels everything that we
• 16:37
  feel. And what a joy that that is.
• 16:41
  Verse #6 The sun will not strike you by day or the moon by night
• 16:46
  here. I love this picture.
• 16:48
  I'm sure that there are I know that there's a lot of ways that
• 16:55
  that someone could take it mentally.
• 16:57
  I have like kind of a cartoony the sun trying to smack you.
• 17:02
  That's the kind of mental picture that I have here.
• 17:05
  This just tells you I'm I'm very human.
• 17:07
  This is the way that this is processing in my head.
• 17:11
  But here in one of my study Bibles, one of the notes for
• 17:16
  there says God protects his people from the perils of the
• 17:19
  road by day or by night. So here it's there's not going
• 17:23
  to come this evil against you during the daytime as you're
• 17:28
  traveling on the road to Jerusalem.
• 17:31
  And there will not come any perilous attacking you at night
• 17:36
  as you sleep and as you rest. And I love this, that whether
• 17:40
  you can control it or not, whether you can see it or not,
• 17:44
  God is there for you. And He is protecting you all
• 17:48
  day, every day and every season. And then verses 7 and 8, Yahweh
• 17:52
  will protect you from all harm. He will protect your life.
• 17:57
  Yahweh will protect your coming and going.
• 17:59
  That's going to Jerusalem and coming back from it both now and
• 18:04
  forever. We have an eternally protecting
• 18:07
  God who loves us, who cares about us, who His design for us
• 18:13
  is for our good. And because He protects us from
• 18:16
  so many things, when we go through hard times, when we find
• 18:21
  out that there is a temptation or a test or a difficulty, we
• 18:25
  can know God has this for a specific purpose for this time.
• 18:30
  Well, I hope Psalm 121 was an encouragement to you.
• 18:34
  There is a song that was written from Psalm 121 by Sovereign
• 18:37
  Grace Music. I've attached that to the show
• 18:40
  notes in the like description. You can find that.
• 18:43
  You can click that. It is called He will keep you.
• 18:47
  And that's a beautiful song and really encourage you to listen
• 18:50
  to that. Tomorrow we're going to be in
• 18:52
  Psalm 122.