Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Adult Sunday School Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/bb/bb19990221.htm

PSALMS: DIARIES OF GODLY OLD TESTAMENT SAINTS
Psalm One Hundred And Twenty-Five - Resting In God's LIMIT Of Our Being Swayed By Crooked Overseers
(Psalm 125:1-5)
  1. Introduction
    1. When the believer notes the high degree of wicked crookedness to which he is exposed in overseers in government and work or in other institutions of which he is a part, there is the challenge of a creeping fear that he also will come to practice crookedness simply because of the influence of the crooked overseers.
    2. However, 1 Corinthians 10:13 promises that God will not allow the upright to be tempted to do evil above what they can bear, but with the test make an escape so they can bear it without sin. That same promise is repeated in Psalm 125:1-5 with regards to the believer's exposure to influential overseers as foll ows:
  2. Resting In God's LIMITING Our Being Swayed By Crooked Overseers, Psalm 125:1-5.
    1. As a pilgrim psalm, or psalm of "ascents," the psalmist states the words of this psalm for the benefit of fellow traveling pilgrims who, like him, are headed for Jerusalem, Ps. 125:1a.
    2. His testimony to fellow worshipers of God is that those who rely (from the Hebrew word, batach, "feeling of being safe or secure", Theological Wordbook of the O.T., v. I, p. 101) on Jahweh will be stable and secure as is Mount Zion, a place that cannot be shaken and abides forever in the plan of God, Ps. 125:1.
    3. He goes on to state that as the mountains that surround Jerusalem look like they shield Jerusalem, so the Lord in reality surrounds His people for their protection both now and eternally, Ps. 125:2.
    4. Just what creates the insecurity and how God counters it to protect His own is given in Psalm 125:3:
      1. Apparently, wicked men ruled the people of God whose very wickedness of crookedness (see "E,3" below in these notes) stood as a threat of wicked INFLUENCE over God's people that could cause God's people to sin by their becoming crooked as well, Ps. 125:3a, b.
      2. Now, lest these rulers' INFLUENCE God's people subordinate to them to do what is SIN in becoming CROOKED themselves, GOD would not let these rulers rule long, Psalm 125:3!
    5. According to this wonderful principle, the psalmist calls on the Lord to apply it to the nation at that time:
      1. He asked Jahweh to do what was wholesome (from the Hebrew word, tov used to describe the "good" of the universe of God's sinless creation in Genesis 1:31), Ps. 125:4a.
      2. In particular, that wholesome thing was for Jahweh to check influential, evil rulers so that God's people would have a fair chance of not falling for undue temptations to follow their rulers' crookedness, 125:3.
      3. He expressed confidence that those wicked rulers who turned to crooked ways that circumvent justice (cf. Judges 5:6 where the same word, 'aqalqal is used, B.D.B., Hebr. and Eng. Lex. of the O.T., p. 785) be banished with all the other evildoers who should be and are justly banished, Ps. 125:5a.
      4. Then, there will be peace on the people of God, Ps. 125:5b!
Lesson: Even the temptation to follow the CROOKEDNESS of highly influential but CROOKED governmental, religious or other overseers is LIMITED by GOD so that His subordinate people can AVOID falling themselves into such influence to crookedness. If He must, God REMOVES such crooked, influential leaders to keep His people from their undue influence to do wrong.

Application: (1) God is AWARE of the DEVIOUSNESS of wicked and influential governmental, religious and business leaders, and CAREFULLY protects His people who are the subordinates of such men from coming to view their wickedly devious ways as ACCEP TABLE. (2) If a devious leader becomes SO influential that he can deceive God's upright ones into practicing devious ways themselves, God will REMOVE that leader in accord with the general promise of 1 Corinthians 10:13. (3) Conversely, if a crooked le ader doesn't FOOL God's people, and they loathe his crookedness, it may be in God's interests to LEAVE that leader in power as an object lesson to create great REVULSION for crookedness in God's people! (4) Thus, our prayers for those in leadership should not really be for their rise or demise as leaders, but for the protection of righteousness at the grassroots level for God's people! THAT determines if a leader rises or falls!