THRU THE BIBLE EXPOSITION

Psalms: Living By Faith In God

CXXV. God’s Rescue From Strong Evil Influences

(Psalm 125:1-5)

Introduction: (To show the need . . .)

We believers in Christ face strong evil influences:

(1) We face it in the secular realm: “(T)he Southern Poverty Law Center” has a “‘hate map’” that “includes conservative Christian law firms like Alliance Defending Freedom . . . parental rights groups like Moms for Liberty, and groups of doctors who oppose . . . transgender experiments often euphemistically referred to as ‘gender-affirming care’ . . . (A) convicted terrorist used the SPLC ‘hate map’ to target the Family Research Council in Washington, D. C., for an attempted mass shooting. The SPLC condemned the attack, but kept the council on the ‘hate map’ . . .” (Tyler O’Neil, “Comey versus the ‘white supremacist adjacent,’” Republican-American, May 21, 2025, p. A6)

(2) We face it in religious realms: A letter to the Republican-American from Reverend Michael E. Carroll of Plantsville (May 31, 2025, p. A6) reacted to a story in the paper about “Ken Ham’s Ark Encounter.” Reverend Carroll critiqued Mr. Ham’s literal interpretation of the Biblical book of Genesis, supporting his critique by a citation from Nahum Sarna’s book, “Understanding Genesis” that asserts of Genesis’ creation and Noahic Flood accounts, “‘(T)hese stories should never be interpreted literally . . . or presented as historical or scientific fact.’” (Ibid.). Reverend Carroll wrote that when Babylon captured and took Judah’s people to Babylon in the 6^th century B. C., “(o)ne of the ways the Hebrew people were able to preserve their faith . . . was to creatively convert the tales and sagas of their captors in a way that reflected their own values and vision of God” (Ibid.). Thus, the “chief Babylonian deity Marduk’s creation of the world in 7 days, as described in the epic ‘Enuma Elish,’” allegedly “became the basis for Genesis 1. Enki and Ninursag, a southern Mesopotamian creation story, was” supposedly “transformed into the Garden of Eden account, augmented by the sneaky snake from the ‘Epic of Gilgamesh.’ Utnapishtim, a Babylonian hero from Gilgamesh, is” thus presumably “transformed into Noah, who saved his family and all the animals on an ark after the gods decide to flood the world. Finally, a certain King Enmerkar attempts to build a tower to heaven but is thwarted when the god Enki scrambles the languages of the workers. This story was” allegedly “transformed into the ‘Tower of Babel,’ a hilarious spoof on Marduk’s huge ziggurat (temple) in Babylon.” (Ibid.)

(3) We face it even in evangelical circles: I recently heard a report that teachings on prophecy by some evangelicals are making believers anxious. One evangelical pastor in particular warns that President Trump’s deals with Arab nations look like the treaty the antichrist will make with the “many” in Daniel 9:27 KJV to start the Tribulation. His warning suggests that we might already be in the Tribulation, so a believer asked me if the warning was true and could we know if the antichrist will be a European or come from another place like the United States!

Our Church has long taught that 2 Thessalonians 2:3-17 reveals that we believers should be comforted and established in every good word and work until Christ takes us to heaven in the pretribulation rapture. Thus, fears raised by teachings that we may face the antichrist and the Tribulation Period conflict with our long-taught beliefs!

Need: So, we ask, “How does God want us to handle strong evil influences that we face?”

I. Psalm 125:1-2 testified that believers who rely upon the Lord enjoy God’s great security:

A. The Jebusite fortress that Israel’s king David conquered and made his city (2 Samuel 5:6-9) was called “Zion,” meaning “fortress,” and this name was eventually extended to include the temple site north of David’s city and then to all the later enlarged city of Jerusalem (H. A. W., Theol. Wrdbk. of the O. T., 1980, v. II, p. 764-765).

B. Verse 1 thus claimed that those who rely on the Lord will not be shaken but abide forever like Mount Zion.

C. Verse 2 added that as the mountains surround Jerusalem, the Lord always protectively surrounds His people.

II. God’s security meets the need of God’s people to handle rulers with strong evil influence, Psalm 125:3:

A. Verse three begins with the particle ki (Kittel, Biblia Hebraica, p. 1088), what in that verse means “for, because” (Ibid., H. A. W., vol. I, p. 438) to explain the author’s focus on the security God provided for Israel.

B. God’s people faced evil rulers, the KJV word “rod” meaning “scepter,” what the evil rulers stretched over the land to rule where God had “allotted” property to the upright as their inheritance, Psa. 125:3 ESV; Jos. 14:1-5.

C. Since Israel’s people were assigned their land by the Lord through the use of lots, God required that they live where He assigned them their lot regardless who ruled over them. However, that became a problem if the rulers were evil and their rule extended for such a long time that they influenced God’s people to sin!

D. To avoid such a situation, God determined to keep evil rulers from ruling long over His people, Psalm 123:3b.

III. The psalmist thus called on God to do good to those who were good and upright by removing evil rulers from them, banishing them when they turned to crooked ways, that Israel might be at peace, v. 4-5.

Lesson: Believers can trust God to protect them from overwhelming evil influence to do evil that they might have enough room, motivation and strength to do what is right.

Application: (1) May we trust in Christ Who died as our Atoning Sacrifice for sin that we might receive God's gift of eternal life, John 3:16; 1 Corinthians 15:1-11. (2) May we rely on God for Him to guard us from overwhelming evil influences that we might always have the capacity to do what is upright. (cf. 1 Corinthians 10:13)

Conclusion: (To illustrate the message and/or provide additional guidance . . .)

(1) On the evil influence of the Southern Poverty Law Center with its “hate map” designations, “in 2019, a former SPLC employee revealed that workers called it the ‘poverty palace’ and called the ‘hate’ accusations a ‘highly profitable scam’” since the group’s “hate” charges “‘scare donors into ponying up cash and . . . silence political opponents’” (Ibid., O’Neil). We must thus trust the Holy Spirit’s 2 Thessalonians 2:6 restraining ministry to give us room in spite of the SPLC to live rightly in God’s comfort and to minister as He promised in 2 Thessalonians 2:16-17.

(2) On Reverend Carroll’s claim that the Hebrews based their Genesis accounts of creation, the flood and the tower of Babel on Babylonian myths so that we should not interpret them literally or treat them as historically or scientifically true, (a) acclaimed archaeologist W. F. Albright wrote of the Pentateuch: “‘(N)ew discoveries continue to confirm the historical accuracy or the literary antiquity of detail after detail in it . . . It is, accordingly, sheer hypercriticism to deny the substantially Mosaic character of the Pentateuchal tradition.’” (Gleason L. Archer, Jr., A Survey of O. T. Intro., 1972, p. 165, citing W. F. Albright, The American Scholar (1941) AP 224) Moses lived over 800 years before the Babylonian Captivity, so the Genesis accounts were not based on Babylonian myths as Reverend Carroll claims! (b) Also, “the utter implausibility of a cube-shaped ark and an inundation of the entire world by a mere fourteen day downpour” in the “Gilgamesh epic . . . stand in opposition to the seaworthy dimensions and the gradual sinking of the waters in the Biblical record.” (Ibid., Archer, p. 200-201) The antiquity and credibility of the Genesis record versus the Babylonian stories show the Babylonian stories to be corrupted forms of the true record!

(3) On the fear caused by some evangelical teachers over President Trump’s deals with Arab nations, deals that such teachers say look like the antichrist’s Daniel 9:27 predicted treaty with the “many” that starts the Tribulation Period and that then suggests that the Church now faces the antichrist and the Tribulation, (a) the consistent literal interpretation of Scripture (b) leads us to see that Ephesians 2:11-3:10 teaches that the Church was NOT revealed in Scripture before the start of the Church at Pentecost in Acts 2:1-13. Thus, all end time Bible prophecies given before Pentecost address matters concerning ISRAEL – NOT the CHURCH! [For example, Christ’s pre-Pentecost prediction of the rapture of His Hebrew disciples in John 14:2-3 dealt only with Jesus’ Hebrew disciples in Israel, not with the Church. The rapture of the Church was revealed after Pentecost in Paul’s epistles!] (c) Consequently, the pre-Pentecost prophecies of Daniel 9:27 and Matthew 24:3-51 on the Tribulation Period relate to matters regarding Israel – not the Church! (d) For this reason, we know that since Daniel 9:26 KJV predicted that “the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary,” that prediction was fulfilled in A. D. 70 when the Romans destroyed Israel’s city of Jerusalem and Israel’s temple. (e) That Roman army was then made up of native Europeans, so the “prince that shall come,” the Daniel 9:27 antichrist, will be a native European. (f) That antichrist’s Daniel 9:27 seven-year treaty with “many” is not a treaty with many Arab or other Gentile nations, but with Israel, and this is how we know: (i) First, Daniel 9:24 reveals that Daniel 9:27 predicts the 70^th set of the 70 sets of seven-years that deal with Israel! (ii) Second, the “many” (rabim in the Hebrew text, Ibid., Kittel, p. 1277) in Daniel 9:27 KJV with whom the antichrist makes a treaty is Israel’s people, for the same term “many” (rabim) is also used in Daniel 8:25 KJV of Israel’s people whom Antiochus Epiphanes persecuted from 171 to 165 B. C. (Ibid., p. 1275; Ryrie Study Bible, KJV, 1978, ftns. to Daniel 8:14 and 8:23-25). (g) As for Matthew 24:3-51, that prophecy was given by Jesus in His earthly ministy before the cross, and thus before Pentecost, so it predicted what Israel and not the Church would face in the Tribulation Period. For this reason, we know that those who are “taken” in Matthew 24:40-41 are NOT Christians who are “taken” by Christ to heaven in a posttribulation rapture, but rather unbelievers who are “taken” by God’s angels to Hades in judgment at Christ’s Second Coming to the earth!

Thus, interpreting the Bible in a consistently literal way equips us to know the truth about end time events and to be at peace about them like Paul directed us to be in 2 Thessalonians 2:1-2 and 16-17!

May we trust in Christ Who died as our Atoning Sacrifice for sin that we might receive God’s gift of eternal life. May we rely on God for the capacity to do what is right regardless what evil influences we face.