Psalm 125 Meditation | The Lord Surrounds His People

Few things convey permanence better than mountains. As you climb a mountain you trace countless invisible footprints; generations of hikers are gone but the mountain remains. By the time pilgrims were singing Psalm 125 on their way up to Mount Zion people had been walking the same paths for millennia. But the mountain wasn’t impressive simply for its age or its imposing height. Mount Zion was special. God dwelt at Mount Zion (Ps. 74:2), saving a remnant (Is. 37:32, Joel 2:32, Obad. 1:17) on the mountain he loved (78:68).
This basic understanding is essential for grasping the psalm’s opening line: “Those who trust in the Lord are like Mount Zion, which cannot be moved, but abides forever.” The singers are pilgrims. They do not live on the mountain. They live down in the valleys, outside of the city’s strong walls. But they can be as secure as the massive fortress. “As the mountains surround Jerusalem, so the Lord surrounds his people” (2).
Jewish pilgrims traveled to Jerusalem not to become secure but to re-member: wherever they live the faithful are safe in God. Literal Mount Zion isn’t the point. Eventually, followers of God would no longer undertake annual worship pilgrimages (John 4:21). The point is trusting in the God who had begun—from that mountain—to expand his reign among all who call on his name, his true Israel (Gal. 6:16). The King of Mount Zion has prayed that God would protect his people from evil (John 17:15). God’s answer is always the same: “the scepter of wickedness shall not rest on the land allotted to the righteous” (3). God wants those who come to Zion through “Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant” (Heb. 12:24) to know that they are as immovable as the mightiest mountain. How comforting!
But comfort may not be confused with complacency. We who are se-cure in Christ must not “stretch our [our] hands to do wrong” (3). God will do good to those who are good (4). “Those who turn aside to crooked ways the Lord will lead away with evildoers!” (5). That’s a fair, somber warning. But the psalm’s intent is to encourage pilgrim’s like us to rest in Christ and follow him in doing good (Acts 10:38).