Psalm 125--The LORD Surrounds His People

Psalm 125
English Standard Version

The LORD Surrounds His People
A Song of Ascents.
125 Those who trust in the LORD are like Mount Zion,
    which cannot be moved, but abides forever.
2 As the mountains surround Jerusalem,
    so the LORD surrounds his people,
    from this time forth and forevermore.
3 For the scepter of wickedness shall not rest
    on the land allotted to the righteous,
lest the righteous stretch out
    their hands to do wrong.
4 Do good, O LORD, to those who are good,
    and to those who are upright in their hearts!
5 But those who turn aside to their crooked ways
    the LORD will lead away with evildoers!
    Peace be upon Israel!

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This is another one of the Songs of Ascents that the people sang as they went up to Jerusalem to gather to worship the LORD.  This psalm focuses on how those who rest in the LORD and have the assurance of their salvation in Him alone are like a mountain with deep "roots" that cannot be moved.  Actually, our faith is even more steadfast than that, because heaven and earth will pass away, but our faith will become sight and we will be with the LORD forever and ever one day.

The mountains surrounding Jerusalem provided a natural defense for the city, and it was built as a mountain stronghold and fortress, yet the LORD Himself was their true defense.  He surrounds His people and defends them from all enemies physical and spiritual.  Wickedness will not rule over the Promised Land that has been given as an eternal inheritance to the people of Israel who are called "the righteous" here.  For, if the wicked are in charge of the LORD's people, then the people themselves will become wicked just like the world and will have to be punished.  How prophetic this is as we have studied the books of 1 and 2 Samuel, 1 and 2 Kings, and 1 and 2 Chronicles already and have seen how the wicked kings of Israel and Judah led the people into idolatry and all kinds of evil, and the LORD had to send Israel and Judah into Exile.

The LORD's blessing is poured out in those who do good (who obey His commandments and have had their sins forgiven, but judgement condemnation and wrath are in store for those who practice wickedness.  They will not inherit the Land or the coming Kingdom of God.  They will be citizens of the kingdom of this world that will pass away and of the Antichrist and the devil and the false prophet, and like them they will have their part in the Lake of Fire that was prepared as the eternal judgment, the second death, for all those who reject God and the salvation that only comes through faith in the finished work of Jesus, the Son of God.  In Him, Jesus, the Son of God.  Those who have the Son have life everlasting, but those who do not have the Son do not have life.