The Lord Surrounds His People.
A Song of Ascents.
125 Those who trust in the Lord
Are as 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 forever.
3 For the scepter of wickedness shall not rest upon the [a]land of the righteous,
So that the righteous will not put forth 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 as for those who turn aside to their crooked ways,
The Lord will lead them away with the doers of iniquity.
Peace be upon Israel.
This psalm brings two things to my mind, and I can’t decide which, so I’ll share them both. The first has to do with the beginning stanza, where God surrounds His people. And who are His people? “Those who trust in the Lord…” They cannot be moved, but will live forever, because God surrounds them and protects them.
It reminds me of the story of Elisha in 2 Kings 6, where the enemy was out to get him. That is, the Arameans had literally sent an army to capture Elisha. His servant was distraught, but Elisha was unfazed. Why? Because he knew something his servant had forgotten. Just as this psalm said, God had surrounded his people… with horses and chariots of fire.
As they came to capture Elisha, he prayed, and the enemy army was blinded. Elisha lead them into the city of Samaria, and they end up being at the mercy of the king of Israel. God not only protected Elisha, but used this event to give peace to His people for several years–until both Aram and apparently Israel had forgotten who was the source of that peace.
Which takes us to thing two in the second stanza. The psalmist asks God to do good for those who are good. Now if we read ahead a bit, we know that Jesus said, “do not call me good, for no one is good but God.” But the point is still there, that if we trust in God, we ought to be good, and do good. Not just for the sake of doing good things, being praised for them, and so on.
Rather, doing good because our hearts are right with God. We should be, like Jesus, “about our Father’s business.” We need to keep our motives pure, and trust God to work out the details, and simply do the “good things that He has prepared in advance for us.” If we want true peace, and a fulfilling life, this is the only recipe for success.