Praying in the Midst of Barbarians • Psalms 120-121

57:57 Teaching begins

Notes

The times we live in are marked by increasingly insolvable problems. The irrationality of nations make it impossible to adjust, resolve, or find a way to co-exist. The conflict seems ready to expand and engulf the world, and destroy it completely.

From our scriptures we realise two things.

The conflict can’t be solved by people, only by God.

Until He solves it, He is the only One who can keep you.

We’re starting with Psalm 120 and finishing with Psalm 121.

1. It’s unusual to have the answer to the situation appear first, but there it is.

A. The psalmist cried out to God. The action of his whole life is focused on God.

B. God kept answering, a continuing action with the end not in sight. It just goes on and on.

C. The psalmist endures an impossible situation that seemed it would never end through God continually answering his prayers.

2. The psalmist prays for God to deliver him from an insolvable problem.

A. He is for peace.

1. Peace is harmony, everyone getting along. Coexisting, adjusting reasonably so that there can be co-existing. We’re different, but that doesn’t mean that we can’t live together. You get to be you, I get to be me.

2. He speaks for peace, the Imperfect Tense, so it’s ongoing. I continually seek for peace, I communicate, I offer goodwill. I try to make agreements so that we can make a way for both of us to live. Why not? Is that not reasonable? 34 peace plans I counted on Wikipedia.

B. But he lives among barbarians.

1. Kedar is somewhere on the Arabian Peninsula. Meshech is far to the north. Someone has pointed out that the psalmist really can’t live in these two places at the same time.

2. The issue isn’t a location, it’s an attitude of what is acceptable behaviour.

C. The point is that both Kedar and Meshech are uncivilised, they do not live according to the rule of law.

1. Law determines a person’s rights that cannot be violated. Law determines how to resolve a dispute when a person’s rights are violated. If you are found to have violated a person’s rights, justice says you must be punished and the violated person be vindicated and repaid for what was damaged and trespassed upon.

2. But the opposite of the rule of law is barbarism, which is, might makes right. If you have power you can do whatever you want and the other person is helpless to respond because they can’t fight back. If you can get away with it, you do. You can treat others any way you want and take whatever you want and do whatever pleases you, because others don’t matter.

3. Law is based on God. He gives life to all people, and He gives rights, this is what you can have, and no one can take it from you. Do not trample on other’s rights. Live in peace.

4. Barbarians say, forget God, forget rights, forget law. The only thing that counts is power and me. I want what I want, I don’t care about anything else. I can lie, I can steal, I can kill.

D. You can’t have a relationship with a barbarian. You can’t have civilisation with a barbarian. They are the opposite of civilisation and building up. They are all about destruction and death.

E. Therefore there is no reasonable solution.

1. You would think, let’s reason this out. Let’s adjust and find our differences and work out a solution so no one’s rights are trampled on.

2. But these barbarians hate peace. They see peace as an enemy to be defeated and conquered. That would mean war wins over peace. Destruction wins over life.

3. Uncivilised people deny the truth because the truth proves they are wrong. So they breathe out lies. And people believe lies because they want to believe lies.

4. Who in the world could hate peace? The only person who could think this way is the devil. He is utterly completely at war with God, there is no truce, no reconciliation possible. This is not reasonable, it’s not capable of being resolved rationally.

F. The psalmist suffers because he lives among barbarians who lie continually, a conflict that never ends.

3. The psalmist reminds himself of the future.

A. What will be given to you? He’s thinking about the certain retribution of God. There is a God, there is most certainly a day of reckoning coming.

B. When you’re in the midst of an insolvable situation it’s good to look ahead to the future and God’s solution.

1. Sharp arrows of the warrior, burning coals of the broom tree equals violent death and destruction. Barbarians inflict arrows and burning on their victims.

2. What a man sows, that he shall reap. If you live by the rocket launcher you will die, not only in conflict, but also afterwards, as a result of the judgment and condemnation of God. He has reserved for you everlasting punishment in hellfire that will never be quenched. If you sow death and destruction, you will receive that very condemnation, and it is inescapable.

4. How do you live in the meantime? You trust in God to keep you. That leads to Psalm 121.

A. He keeps looking at mountains. Not for them to help him. He keeps looking at them to remind himself of who God is, the One who made heaven and earth.

1. God made the heavens, unimaginable distances, billions of galaxies made up of billions of stars. There is so much space it’s impossible for us to get to the closest star to us. Isaac Asimov, the science-fiction writer who coined the term “hyperdrive” said, “It’s impossible. Any space ship would run out of fuel and coast to a stop before it ever reached the closest star.”

2. All those stars are nuclear fusion furnaces. Incredible power, and God keeps them by the word of His power.

3. God made the mountains, the trees, the sky, the clouds, the animals, everything you see.

4. And He made these things because He is good. You understand that from the creation. You see His goodness all around you. So when you need to remind yourself, look at a mountain, remember who made that mountain so you can remember Him.

B. Remember that He will help you. He is your keeper because you and Israel are a testimony that He is, and that He is good.

1. This is stated six times here. He keeps you, an individual. He keeps a whole nation, Israel. He wants to be known as your keeper.

2. He keeps you by His power. All that power that keeps billions of stars burning is also keeping your foot stable. He is your foundation.

3. He keeps you by His authority. When it says He will not allow your foot to slip, it means He will not give permission. Satan had to ask God permission to afflict Job. He couldn’t go beyond what God permitted. Satan had to ask permission of God to sift Peter like wheat. God will not give permission for your foot to slip.

4. If the enemy can kill you, then he has proven that God is not true, peace is not possible, God does not exist.

5. Therefore God keeps you for His own benefit and eternal purpose, a more significant reason than even for your benefit.

C. God always protects and guards you 24 hours, day and night. He always knows where you are, what you need, what to do.

D. That doesn’t mean you will get through life without a scratch and you’ll never get sick. That is not biblical theology.

1. Witness the Apostle Paul. He was chosen by Jesus Himself, and He told Paul how much he would suffer for His name’s sake. Paul emphasised, everyone who desires to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution. Paul was beaten, he bled, he was hungry, he didn’t have enough money or clothes.

2. 2 Timothy 4:16-18 At my first defense no one supported me, but all deserted me; may it not be counted against them. But the Lord stood with me and strengthened me, so that through me the proclamation might be fully accomplished, and that all the Gentiles might hear; and I was rescued out of the lion’s mouth. The Lord will rescue me from every evil deed, and will bring me safely to His heavenly kingdom; to Him be the glory forever and ever. Amen.

E. Notice that God will protect and guard your soul. That is the immaterial part of you that will exist forever. He will guard your soul and deliver it from barbarians all around you. He will keep you from losing the plot and becoming just like them, wanting to kill and pay back. He will deliver you safely to His heavenly kingdom.

5. So what?

A. First, be aware of how deep and significant are the times we live in. The problems are not political, not ethnic, not economic. They are spiritual, it’s between God above and the devil below.

B. No amount of human effort can solve this irrational problem. Not the United Nations, the United States, the European Union, nor the State of Israel. We can’t trust that irrational people will begin to love peace. Only God Himself will solve the conflict of all time.

C. God will save when Israel yields to God and cries out, “Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord.” There will only be peace on earth when Jesus Christ returns physically and visibly to the earth and establishes His rule forever.

D. It’s important for us to keep speaking the truth. God has made the only true peace through Jesus dying on the cross for our sins. Apart from Him there is no peace. He commanded this message to be made known. While we are here we must continue speaking the truth.

E. We believe God, therefore we pray. “In my trouble I cried out to the Lord and He answered me.” You pray, and Jesus alone is going to keep you in peace until He comes to judge all the nations.

1. First you pray for peace with God personally. Have you asked Jesus to forgive you for your sins and rule in your life? You must start there. If you’re not part of the solution you are part of the problem.

2. Then you pray for God to be in every part of your life. God! Come in and solve the unsolvable problems I face! Psalm 46 says, “Cease striving, and know that I am God.” You only know that when you have cast all your burden and striving on God through prayer.

3. Pray that God will open people’s hearts to the truth. God alone can change people that hate peace. If I know where I go when I die, then I don’t have to worry about what’s going to happen to me if I speak truth.

4. Start small. Say, “God, I’m terrible at prayer. I don’t even want to pray.” Good! You’ve started. Keep being helpless because prayer is helplessness. God glories in preserving the helpless from the barbarians.

Let’s pray.