I’ve been reading through Psalms lately. Just feeling like I need to concentrate there for a while …
Of course, being the Bible, there’s a ton of good stuff. But I thought I would share just a bit from Psalm 125.
Particularly, the verse “As the mountains surround Jerusalem, so the Lord surrounds His people from this time forth and forever.”
This verse has many implications, but I’ll just share a few.
First of all, Jerusalem in the Old Testament is the Holy City of God, where David set up the capital and Solomon the Temple. In the New Testament, Jerusalem has become a type and a symbol for the true City of God, His people not by the flesh but by the Spirit, those who are born of (and led by) the Spirit of God.
The writer of this psalm uses the mountains around Jerusalem, a natural boundary against enemies, as a simile for the Lord’s protection of His people. Actually, the psalm contends that the Lord Himself is the protection and the barrier.
First of all, let’s look at the barrier concept. This teaches us that Jesus is the only way in. This way is difficult and natural. Notice the writer didn’t use man made walls, he used a natural boundary. Or we could use the buzz-word organic. Essentially, the way is difficult because we must deny ourselves, seek to lose our lives for His sake before we find true life.
We don’t like to think of Jesus as a difficult person, but in order to truly help us, He must be. It is his “kindness that leads us to repentance.” His kindness draws us to see we are wrong and need change at the very core of our being, not just a little adjustment here and there because we’re basically okay. Even though multitudes flocked to Him at times, He was ultimately very offensive to most people, to the point where Jesus said, “Blessed are those who are not offended by me.” Which means it is highly likely we will be.
The way is narrow not because it is difficult to understand, but because it requires so much of us. Unfortunately, we have a Christianity better at marginalizing the extreme call of Jesus in His ministry than actually responding to it.
But there’s no other way in. Anyone who gets in any other way than through the Person of Christ (and His call which cannot be separated from Him) is a “thief and a robber”.
To those outside of the true City of God (His people), Jesus is a stumbling block of offense. To those on the inside, God is a refuge and a source of endless protection.
Back in the day, smart people used to build cities situated where natural barriers protected them: bodies of water, mountains, deserts, etc. Any attack would naturally be by land or sea, so therefore these things protected a city from invaders and enemies.
So secondly, Jesus is also our the protection against the three main enemies, the world, the flesh, and the devil. So once you’ve begun to traverse the narrow way, as difficult as it may seem, you are actually safer in the long run … like, the way long run … you know, eternally.
But there’s also no other protection. We try to manufacture other things that make us feel safe like programs, paradigms, structures, organizations, political ambitions, and sacraments, but ultimately it is only the Son of God who protects and acts as the boundary and defines the Body of Christ.
Our lives are “hidden in Christ” at the right hand of God. Therefore Paul tells us in Colossians to look there, in the heavens, where our lives truly exist.
Another important scripture to note in relation to this is when Jesus promises the Holy Spirit in the Gospel of John. To the world, the Holy Spirit will reveal, “sin, righteousness, and the judgment of God.” To believers, the Spirit “will lead you into all truth.” To the world, the Spirit leads to repentance. But once you’ve repented, relinquished your right to live your own life, to instead dedicate everything you are to the furthering of His Kingdom, the Spirit takes a different role. He then “leads you into all truth.”
There are many things I could discuss, but those were the two main points I thought needed sharing.
But one note as I close. The picture we are given of the people of God is a city. In Psalm 122 it’s “built as a city that is compact together.” You are not alone in a city, and the more “compact” the city, the more you have to do to be alone and isolated. In other words, you weren’t designed to do this alone. You need a fellowship of people to walk this out with on a day to day basis, to live closely with, those who also do all they can to “seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness”, who make the Kingdom the foremost thought in their brains. It’s really not designed to work any other way, no matter how clever we think we are.
Peace.