Psalm 124: We Have Escaped

The Journey
“We Have Escaped”
Psalm 124

Introduction: Last weeks psalm ended with, “We have endured much ridicule from the proud, much contempt from the arrogant.” (Psalms 123:4) Some think that this psalm was put in this place as a response to Psalm 123. It does make sense. This is a psalm celebrating God’s deliverance.

Enemies. Who are your enemies? Most of us don’t think in those terms do we? We might talk about have a conflict with someone, not liking this person or that, but we usually don’t refer them as enemies.

I. Enemies on the Journey
Journeys are inherently dangerous. It doesn’t seem that way these days but in the days of the psalmist it was especially true. There were plenty of natural dangers and in a dry arid country flashfloods could change a pleasant day into a struggle for survival. In a sense these were worse than the tornados that we experience because if the rainfall occurred far enough away there would be little or no warning before a wall of water was rushing toward you.

While danger from natural disaster is always troubling, that is not what is in view for the psalmist. The problem is people just as it was in Psalm 123. Nature may hurt us but it doesn’t show us contempt and ridicule. We may talk about nature being angry but it is nothing in comparison to the rage of a human being. And human rage almost always catches us by surprise.

As a nation we were surprised by the rage that perpetrated the events of 9/11. We still struggle to understand it. I remember the feelings of that day and Psalm 124 expresses it very well, it felt like a flashflood that threatened to sweep us away.

I am sure the psalmist felt that for his people. This psalm is communal in nature rather than individual. There were plenty of times in Israel’s history where they felt they were being swept away. Israel was a buffer country between the two great superpowers of the day and thus a battleground. One of the great battlefields in history is still remembered in our language today, Armageddon. Those superpowers no longer exist but the people of Israel do, and I am not talking about the nation state we know as Israel.

When we think of this in our own context we can see this psalm in both communal and individual terms. Communities go through crisis at various points of existence. Sometimes it is something like a natural disaster. It can be tough to lose a building through fire, flood, or tornado. But the most difficult crises are human. A preacher’s wife murders her husband. A trusted person embezzles church funds. A church leader is caught in sexual infidelity. Church conflict destroys church unity. All of these seem like a flood, unexpected and threatening to the point of destruction.

It can happen in our individual walk also. It can be a crisis of health or accident. No one expects to get cancer or to be in an accident that leaves you paralyzed. The death of someone we love and depend on comes out of the blue. Those are terrible times. But worse than these are the human crises that devastate our lives. The betrayal of a spouse destroys our future. A beloved child commits a crime. Gossip and slander at work or at church or in the neighborhood destroys our name. Like a flood these things cut the ground out from under our feet and threaten to swallow us up.

II. Where is God?
Of course the question in all of this is, “Where is God?” “Why is this happening to me?” Preachers tend to get both questions thrown at them as if we are God’s defenders or explainers of God’s actions. God, of course, is where God has always been, on the throne and as close as our own skin. People who are hurting want answers and unfortunately the answer is, “I don’t know.” I do wonder at people who want to blame God for everything bad in the world. People often forget that their own sin or the sins of others is responsible for much of the suffering we see and we suffer. If someone is betrayed by a spouse then is that God’s will? If a child becomes involved with drugs then is that God’s will? I think we realize the answer is “No.” God is not the only one involved in our world. We are free moral agents and there are spiritual beings that have an impact that we are often completely unaware of.

The psalm points out something we don’t like to consider, God does not protect us from all the problems, all the crises that life throws at us. The psalmist writes this psalm as a survivor. The crisis came and threatened to overwhelm God’s people. Hope was gone. There was no way out. Yet they survived. They escaped.

III. The Maker of Heaven and Earth
A cynic might say, “Only a survivor could write a psalm. What about those who don’t survive?” Godly people die in tornados and floods. Evil people kill good people all the time. I believe it is the last verse of the psalm where we need to look for an answer, “Our help is in the name of the LORD, the Maker of heaven and earth.” (Psalms 124:8) Considering the questions of pain and suffering are always difficult especially in view of the God we worship, “the maker of heaven and earth.” We can never completely understand the purposes of God in the world. We will never make sense of God with our human sense. It does begin to make some sense if we view life on this earth as a beginning rather than an end. Sometimes God delivers through death and not from it.

There are two stories in the Old Testament that may give us some insight. The first is in 1 Kings 14. The prophet is pronouncing judgment on the house of King Jeroboam who has been unfaithful to God. Jeroboam’s child becomes ill and his wife goes to God’s prophet to ask for help. Instead the prophet says this, “As for you, go back home. When you set foot in your city, the boy will die. All Israel will mourn for him and bury him. He is the only one belonging to Jeroboam who will be buried, because he is the only one in the house of Jeroboam in whom the LORD, the God of Israel, has found anything good,” 1 Kings 14:12-13. Death in this case was not a punishment. Only the maker of heaven and earth has power beyond death.

The second story comes from Daniel. Three Hebrew officials in the Babylonian government have defied the king by refusing to worship his idol. The king threatened death by fire and they refused with this answer, “O Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to defend ourselves before you in this matter. If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to save us from it, and he will rescue us from your hand, O king. But even if he does not, we want you to know, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up,” (Daniel 3:16-18). The ‘maker of heaven and earth” has the last word whether in life or death. No matter what happens, “We have escaped” because “Our help is in the name of the Lord,” (Psalm 124:7,8).

Livonia Church of Christ: April 30, 2006