Let's turn in our Bibles this morning to Psalm 125, Psalm 125, as we continue our series through the Songs of Ascents. You'll find that in the middle of your Bible, page 657. As we've mentioned before, these psalms are for pilgrims who, through faith, are on their way to Zion, and Jesus tells us that that way is entered into by the narrow gate. And that the way is hard that leads to life. And so on this way, this hard way, we need encouragement. We need sustenance on our March design. For we live in troubled times. Worse than ever, it seems. The population is changing from the pressures of immigration. The legislature is in gridlock. Each side making a lot of noise but not doing a lot of work. The executive branch is striving for increased power at the expense of our legislature. The divide between rich and poor grows wider, giving rise to desperation and discord. The popular culture pays lip service to family and religious values that have been sacrificed long ago and pretends that we still are what we used to be, even as voices clamber to get back to some golden place. Worse than ever, it seems, until we realize that this is how one historian described the decline of the Roman Empire. Nothing new under the sun, people of God. Times are troubled. But they are not worse than they've ever been. They're not worse than they'll ever be. It is the times that we live in as the people of God walking home to Zion. The church in the world then and now, here and around the world, is a church distressed from without by the enemies of God and from within by hypocrites, those who claim the name of the Lord and yet, as the psalmist will say, they turn to their own wicked ways, their own crooked ways. Both the evildoers outside and hypocrites on the inside seek power and influence in order to serve their own ambitions at the expense of God's people. And both seek to establish what verse 3 of our text we'll call the scepter of wickedness. To assert authority in order to oppress God's people. This has always been true. Ever since the Garden. It will always be true right up to the last days. And Psalm 125 was written in this situation. And it speaks to this situation, to our situation. And it speaks to us in encouragement to the church as a whole. This is a congregational psalm, but to each individual who receives it by faith, trusting that what God says here is to His church. He says to each of His people, not only other people, but to Me too. Now many of us give too much attention. to our earthly situation. It's hard not to. It comes screaming at us all day long, every day. Many of us give too little attention to the existence, the character, and the plan of Almighty God, our Father, in Jesus Christ, our Lord. Psalm 125 this morning serves to reorient and encourage believers. Those who trust in the Lord, verse 1. His people, verse 2. The righteous, verse 3. Those who are good, verse 4. Those who are upright in their hearts, verse 4. Israel, verse 5. This is a psalm to God's people. And it's to reorient and encourage us to trust in the Lord. Trust in the Lord. That's the name, that's the title for the sermon that didn't make your bulletin. Trust in the Lord. And he encouraged us to trust in the Lord for three reasons. because of three things about who our Lord is. We're to trust in the Lord, first, who upholds His people. Verses 1 and 2. He upholds His people. We're to trust in the Lord who rules over all. Verse 3. Who rules over all. And to trust in the Lord who judges justly. Verses 4 and 5. Who judges justly. Hear now God's word from Psalm 125, a song of ascents. Those who trust in the Lord are like Mount Zion, which cannot be moved, but abides forever. As the mountains surround Jerusalem, so the Lord surrounds his people, from this time forth and forevermore. 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. Do good, O Lord, to those who are good and to those who are upright in their hearts. But those who turn aside to their crooked ways, the Lord will lead away with evildoers. Peace be upon Israel. So ends the reading of God's Word. Well, in verses 1 and 2, the psalmist opens up by encouraging us to trust in the Lord who upholds His people. And He does that by calling to mind a bit of geography. Jerusalem, Mount Zion, on which Jerusalem is built, is a high mountain. The temple sits there where God lives with His people. But it's not the highest mountain. It's a high place that sits, as it were, in the bottom of a bowl created by mountains that stand around it. And the psalmist uses this geography to illustrate for God's people the powerful presence of the Lord to uphold His people. Not only by dwelling in their midst and supporting them as their sure foundation, but by encompassing them round about and defending them as a mighty fortress. This illustration is intended to inspire confidence, Not in Mount Zion, Jerusalem, the temple, or in the mountains that stand around, but to inspire confidence in the Lord to whom they point. The Old Testament shows us how Israel as a nation missed the point. They trusted more in earthly signs than they trusted in the Lord they signified. They trusted in the temple. They trusted in the city. They trusted in the mountains. They trusted the good gifts that God gave more than they trusted the giver. And we know their end. As a nation, they were swept away. Never again to be reconstituted in the land. The psalmist says, those who trust in the Lord cannot be moved, but abide from this time forth and forevermore. In the midst of His people, the Lord's support is more enduring than the temple. surrounding His people, the Lord's protection is more permanent than the mountains. And the psalmist encourages us thus to trust in the Lord who upholds His people. And we know from the testimony of Scripture that to trust in the Lord is to trust in Christ to uphold you. He came into the world to save sinners. Trust Him and you will be saved, the Scriptures say. For in Him, The whole fullness of the deity dwells bodily. The God-man. Trust in the Lord. Trust in Christ. Trust Christ who supports you, people of God. He's the rock on which he builds his church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against you. He's a living stone, chosen and precious in the sight of God to whom you are being gathered. Whoever puts their trust in him will not be put to shame. And He's poured out His Spirit, the Holy Spirit, to dwell among you, His people. Trust in Christ to support you. And trust in Christ to defend you. In Him you are being guarded, Peter says, you're being guarded by God's power through faith from here to eternity. He is near, Paul says in Philippians. The Lord is at hand. And therefore, when you trust him in prayer, the peace of God, which passes all understanding, will guard your heart and your mind in Christ Jesus. Trust in Christ to defend you. You see, for those who trust in the Lord, eternal security is rooted not in how we feel about our situation, as troublesome as it is, but it's rooted in God himself. The God who is for us in the person and in the work of Jesus Christ. In verse 3, the psalmist turns to another reason, another aspect of God's character to inspire trust in the Lord. He calls us to trust in the Lord who rules over all, even when it may not seem like it. Verse 3 reminds us that those who trust in the Lord, referring to us as the righteous, he reminds us that we share this world with the wicked. Newsflash. We share this world with those who do wrong, with those who are evildoers, with those who are hypocrites, who say one thing and turn aside to their crooked paths. We share this world with the wicked who often seem to have the upper hand. And that's what the psalmist is referring to when he refers to them having the scepter of wickedness. The upper hand, they're trying to rule the scepter of wickedness. We just sang a few minutes ago from Psalm 73 of doubts and temptations. Doubts and temptations that arise in the righteous see the prosperity of the wicked. when we see the wicked who in their arrogance threaten oppression against God's people and who with their mouths lay claims to heaven and with their tongues take possession of the earth, it seems like they've got it all. And with the psalmist, we're tempted to despair. John Calvin described our situation with this graphic image. Not only do we see the good mingled with the bad in the world, But we also see on the barn floor of the Lord, referring to the church, the wheat lying hidden under the chaff and refuge. Verse 3 encourages trust in the Lord who rules over all for a reason. Because, or for in our text, the scepter of wickedness shall not rest on the land allotted to the righteous. this purpose of oppression shall not last. This effort to rule cannot be established over the portion that the Lord has given His people. That's the image. And for the Israelites, it was an image of the promised land which they had inherited by lot under Joshua. And each one, over the generations, passed that inheritance on one to the next. And to Israel, in their history, it was that Israel as a land could never be conquered by the wicked. That doesn't mean that God couldn't throw them out for their wickedness. What it means is that the wicked could not prevail by their own purposes. The image of Israel is to point us to the reality of the church. The new Israel, the true Israel of God. The people of God living in the presence of God by faith here and now and by sight in glory and the promises that the wicked will never prevail against God's church. Jesus said as much, the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. How can this be? Because it doesn't seem that way sometimes. Because as Psalm 2 says, even though the nations rage and the people's plot in vain against the Lord and against His anointed. The Lord who sits in the heavens, He laughs. He laughs. I've set my king on Zion, my holy hill. And we know from the scriptures that that king is Jesus. Ephesians chapter 1. God raised Him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places. And he put all things under his feet. And he gave him as head over all things to the church. This world that feels out of control is not yours to control. It's not mine to control. It's not the wicked's to control. Events happen according to the Lord's plans. History moves according to his will. The lives that we live are shaped by His purpose. This world is under His rule. So why does the Lord intervene? It's interesting that the psalmist gives us a reason why the Lord intervenes. Not a consequence, but a reason in verse 3. According to verse 3, the Lord will act to cut short the scepter of wickedness, lest the righteous stretch out their hands to do wrong. In other words, he cuts it short so that we are not prevailed against, prevailed upon, that we give in to despair. That with the psalmist in 73 we forget, unlike the psalmist who remembers the end, we would give in to despair and forget the end, and we would despair, we'd give up. You've known that feeling. You've known being overwhelmed by the circumstances of life that are hard, unfair, unjust, difficult. And you're tempted. You're tempted to give. The Lord says that he will intervene to prevent that. The Lord has not promised his people a life free from the oppression of the wicked. We must understand that. But he has promised to keep his people from being overwhelmed by the wicked so that we join them in their wickedness. Jesus told his disciples in John chapter 13 in the world you will have tribulation but take heart I've overcome the world therefore Paul writes in 1 Corinthians chapter 10 no temptation has overtaken you that's not common to man God is faithful and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape that you may be able to endure it. This is life for the church in this present evil age. Tribulation, but not overwhelmed. And so Jesus taught us to pray appropriately, did he not? When he taught us to pray, Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. There's a reason we need to pray that prayer. It's a real and present danger. The righteous may certainly stumble, but the Lord will never let us utterly fall. You will not always see His hand at work. And often you won't understand what He's doing. But you can always trust the Lord who rules over all to be working all things together for good to conform His people to the image of His Son, Jesus Christ. The psalmist has encouraged us to trust in the Lord who upholds His people and who rules over all. In verses 4 and 5, trust in the Lord gives birth to prayer. He gives birth to prayer to the one who judges justly. Psalm 122, if you recall, called on God's people to pray for the peace of Jerusalem. And so the psalmist prays. And he prays for the Lord to establish righteousness. Why? Why not peace? Why righteousness? Because righteousness is the way to peace. Isaiah chapter 32 promised that with the coming of the Holy Spirit justice will dwell and righteousness abide and the effect of righteousness is peace. And the result of righteousness is quietness and trust forever. Righteousness begets peace. And as James says in chapter 3, peace begets righteousness. It's a perpetual reinforcement of God's blessing on His people. Righteousness and peace. With the psalmist in Psalm 121, we can say, as God's people, I am for peace. That's how we're called to live our lives. As far as it depends on us to be at peace with everyone, even those who do evil against us. I'm for peace. But our experience reveals what the psalmist experienced in Psalm 121, is that when we speak, I am for peace, the wicked are for war. Therefore, in Psalm 125, the psalmist prays for the Lord to judge justly between those who are His, those who are for peace, and those who are not His, those who are for war. And he does so in verses 4 and 5. In verse 4, the psalmist pleads for God's people, Do good, O Lord, to those who are good and to those who are upright in their hearts. Do good to those you have justified, declared righteous by the blood of Jesus Christ through faith. Do good to those whom you are sanctified and who you've set apart for holiness, whom you're making to be holy by the blood of Jesus Christ through faith in Jesus Christ. Do good for the good. Do not do to your people what our sins deserve, but do for us what Christ has deserved by His perfect obedience in our place. In verse 5, the psalmist prophesies against the wicked. But those who turn aside to their crooked ways, the Lord will lead away with evildoers. In Psalm 73, we learned the end of the wicked. With the psalmist, we say, Truly, Lord, you have set them in slippery places. You make them fall to ruin. How they are destroyed in a moment, swept away utterly in terrors. Evildoers. Those whose names are not found in the book of life. Will be thrown into the lake of fire, Scripture tells us. And here, the psalmist tells us that hypocrites who say they trust the Lord but who turn aside to their crooked ways will likewise be led away at the judgment. By faith, today, we entrust ourselves and our situation to the one who judges justly while we wait for him to come and to enter into that judgment. We entrust ourselves to Him knowing that when Christ returns in glory, He will judge the wicked. He'll undo all of their works, and He'll establish perfect righteousness and perfect peace for His people. We know the end that's coming, and we trust that that end is for us. And anchored to that end, which is in Christ Jesus, we stand today entrusting ourselves to the one who judges justice, As Jesus did for us against all wickedness in this world. Peter tells us that he entrusted himself to the one who judges justly. And he set for us an example to entrust ourselves to the one who judges justly. And we know that when he comes with perfect justice and establishes perfect righteousness, he will bring in peace. For that is the answer that's given to the psalmist prayer in verse 5. The psalmist's prayer is answered with a blessing, with a benediction. Peace be on Israel. This benediction is for Israel, the true Israel of God, those who are members of the household of God through faith in Jesus, those who may or may not be descended from Israel, the people, but whose heart has been circumcised by the Spirit. And this benediction announces peace. Shalom. It's a rich word beyond what I could unpack here for you this morning. It's perfect. It's perfect peace. It's peace for God's people that brings freedom from all outside attack, freedom from all internal division, freedom of full and free fellowship with our Lord face to face and with one another as His people. No sin between us and Him. No sin between us. Perfect. Perfect peace. While we must wait for this shalom to come in fullness, this peace is ours today, scriptures tell us. It's ours today through faith in Jesus Christ. For Christ is our righteousness. 1 Corinthians chapter 1. Christ is our peace. Ephesians chapter 2. People of God, we need encouragement on our way to heavenly Zion. We are easily distracted. We easily find off-ramps. We're enticed. We're forgetful. And the Lord accommodates our weakness, our need for this encouragement, most powerfully when He gathers us together like He has this morning, as He will this evening, as His people in this place. As the congregation of the Lord, as the body of Christ manifest. And He's promised to meet us when we gather in His name in this place by His Spirit and through means that He's appointed to give us the grace that we need. Through the preaching of the Gospel from wherever it comes in the Scripture. By the administration of the sacraments as we saw this morning, the water of baptism, the bread and the wine of the Lord's table. And by these signs He points us. And by these seals, he assures us that these promises that we've heard today are true for all who receive them in Jesus Christ. These are our meals, these days, these times. And Lord knows we need them. And he urges us to know that we need them as well. And so today, having heard a word of encouragement from his word, Psalm 125, to trust in the Lord who upholds his people, who rules over all and who judges justly. Let us come to the table, the table of our Lord set for us in the midst of a wicked generation and receive through faith the body and blood of Jesus Christ to nourish our souls and strengthen our faith as we continue on our way home to Zion. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you for your word this morning. We thank you that through this psalm written for your people Israel so long ago speaks to your people of God of every age. We thank you, Father, that all that was in shadow then was revealed in fullness in Christ and that to trust in the Lord is to trust in Him. We trust Him to uphold us as His people. We trust Him as a ruler over all to keep us from temptation. and lead us not into evil. We thank you, Father, that we trust in the Lord Jesus Christ as the one who judges justly and will come in judgment one day to set it all right. To free us from the misery of this world, to free us from the tyranny of the wicked, to free us to be all that you've created us to be in him without any lingering trace of sin or sorrow. Help us, Lord, on the way as we partake today not only from your word but from the table and from the sacrament of baptism, Lord. Encourage us today. We ask this in Jesus' name. Amen.