If The Lord Had Not Been With Us

Psalm 123-124

Immanuel – 11/1/26

          Last week we heard David say, I was glad when they said to me, “Let us go to the house of the Lord!” What gladness there is to be had in the house of the Lord, where God has welcomed us into his presence through Jesus Christ! He is building his church. We belong to him and we belong to one another. Psalm 122 was bursting with joy.

          And then, when you witnessed those two baptisms, was not your heart filled with joy? My certainly was! Those are the kinds of moments where we can see so clearly what God is doing in our midst. I could feel the gladness abounding in this room.

          Then we all went home. I wonder what the rest of your week was like.

          Perhaps you left here encouraged, only to find your old burdens waiting for you at home: that difficult relationship, that persistent temptation, the pains of a failing body, the loneliness greeting you at your front door. You prayed. You prayed again. Nothing seems to change. The encouragement of Sunday was swallowed up by the weariness of your life.

          You know the things we rejoiced in on Sunday are true – you really do know it – but you struggle to feel that gladness on Wednesday, or Friday, or maybe even this morning. Why is it so hard?

          Well, for these difficult moments in our journey, God has given us Psalm 123 and 124.

          In Psalm 120, we met a pilgrim distressed by the lies and hostilities surrounding him. In Psalm 121, he lifted his eyes and found help in the Lord, Maker of heaven and earth. Then Psalm 122 brought us into Jerusalem with joy. But in Psalm 123 there is a mournful cry, Have mercy upon us, O Lord, have mercy upon us, for we have had more than enough of contempt.

We have had more than enough: Many of you understand those words deeply. You have tried to be faithful, you’ve kept pressing on, but now you feel so tired. How much longer is this going to continue? We have had more than enough.

What has happened? Has the pilgrim gone backwards? After the joy of Jerusalem, why are we hearing about contempt again?

Because the Christian life is filled with mountains and valleys. Seasons of weariness do not mean we have lost our way. We are still pilgrims in a fallen world, desperate for the Lord’s mercy.

Psalm 123 teaches us to ask for that mercy. Psalm 124 calls us to remember what would have become of us without it. Brothers and sisters, consider the One who has brought you this far.

Main Point

When life overwhelms us, look to the Lord for mercy and remember how he has delivered us.

Read Psalm 123:1-2

Psalm 121 began similarly but there he lifted his eyes to the hills. Here, the pilgrim looks to the person. To YOU I lift up my eyes, O you who are enthroned in the heavens.

Is there any better place for a troubled man to begin?! The people who despise the pilgrim may wield influence. They may seem untouchable. But above every earthly authority sits the living God. No insult has shaken his throne. No threat has diminished his power.

The Lord reigns! Holy, holy, holy, is the Almighty, glorious beyond comprehension, above every power, dominion, and ruler! Towards his throne must every weary pilgrim lift their eyes!

          In verse 2: the Lord our God. The God enthroned in heaven has bound himself to his people. His majesty does not make him indifferent to their distress.

          I am immediately reminded of how Jesus taught us to pray: “Our Father in heaven.” Our Father! And he is in heaven. He loves his children, and he has the power to help them. The One to whom you bring your burden is the One who rules over everything that burdens you.

          Why are we so slow to pray?

          When trouble comes, how do you normally respond? You probably call someone. You might research answers online. Maybe you lie awake trying to work out a solution. There may be wisdom in seeking counsel or making a plan. God often does help us through other people. But how easily we look everywhere else before we look to him!

          Are you looking to an election to give you peace? Are you looking to a change in your finances? Have you placed a burden upon a husband or wife that no spouse can bear? We expect other people to provide the security that only God can give.

          And some of us, maybe most of us, are still looking to ourselves. We think we should be able to handle this – we’ve handled difficult things before. So we carry on, growing more exhausted, unwilling to admit how much we need help.

          But the psalmist lifts his eyes. He knows where his help must comes from.

          Verse 2 illustrates it for us. Servants look to the hand of their masters, maidservants their mistresses. These are people who utterly depend upon someone else. They are attentive to the one who has authority over them, dependent upon his provision and ready to obey.

          This is how the people of God are to look to the Lord. We come as servants. We do not approach him thinking we know how he should govern his world. We come in need of mercy, ready to trust, willing to obey the One who rules heaven and earth. So should we posture our hearts, so should we look to the Lord, till he has mercy upon us.

          There is so much faith folded into that little word “till”. There’s no way to know how long the contempt will last, nor their troubles. But their eyes remain upon the Lord.

          Some of you have been praying over the same sorrow for years. You don’t know when the answer will come or what that answer might look like. But you know the One you are asking. You know he is Faithful and True. You know he gave his Son for you. Surely, you can trust him with your burdens! Keep looking to him. Your continued need is no reason to stop praying!

          Notice something else in these verses. Verse 1 begins with I lift up my eyes, then verse 2 says, our eyes look to the Lord our God. The prayer of the pilgrim is the prayer of the people.

          Every individual must look to God. And when we bring this prayer into the light of the gospel, we see how urgently every person must look to Jesus Christ. No one else can save you. See the perfect life he lived on your behalf. See him hanging upon the cross, bearing the judgment your sins deserve. See his empty tomb and see him seated upon heaven’s throne. Turn from your sin and trust in him! There is salvation in no one else.

But the church must look to him together. We pray for mercy when we struggle with sin and endure hardship. We pray for the purity of the church and the faithful proclamation of the gospel. And we bring one another’s burdens before him. Brothers and sisters, allow the church to pray with you! Through the trial we look to God together, till he has mercy upon us.

          Read Psalm 123:3-4

          Have mercy upon us, O Lord, have mercy upon us. It’s not a very eloquent prayer: plain words for great need. They have endured contempt until they can hardly bear it any longer.

          Contempt is a terrible emotion. When someone disagrees with you, they may still respect you. But contempt looks down upon you. Your faith is seen as foolish, and your convictions are backwards and embarrassing. They ridicule you for obedience. We considered something very similar in Psalm 120. Following Jesus in a world that rejects him is wearying.

Notice who is showing this contempt: those who are at ease, the proud. They feel secure enough to look down upon the people of God. We hear that scorn from public figures who dismiss Christian convictions, and we feel its influence when our children are taught to be ashamed of what God has said. Lord, have mercy upon us! Keep our children faithful. Give us wisdom to teach them your truth.

This is a prayer for justice for the church. We pray for our brothers and sisters who are persecuted, marginalized, maligned. Lord, restrain those who would harm them. Preserve their faith. May the gospel transform our land, and theirs, and bring peace!

          But we cannot let the contempt of others produce contempt in us! Too many Christians have allowed bitterness and contempt to grow in their hearts because they have felt scorned by the talking heads, the prophets of pride, even from those who were supposed to love them. They are in need of mercy, just as we have desperately needed God’s mercy!

Remember Jesus, whom men mocked while he hung upon the tree. Even while he heard their contemptuous voices he prayed, “Father, forgive them” (Luke 23:34). Then he died. And through his death we find forgiveness.

Oh let us, like Christ, pray for the gospel to transform those who now despise it. Ask him to bring our enemies to repentance. Pray that he would protect his people. And with the many wounds this world has dealt, you lift your eyes to the One enthroned in heaven. Only he can heal.

          Psalm 123 ends with the people still expressing their sorrow. The contempt has not ceased. There is no promise that their hardships will end. But their eyes are upon God, and they are waiting.

          Then Psalm 124 gives us a testimony of deliverance. Read together, these songs teach us to remember God’s mercy while we wait for his help.

          Read Psalm 124:1-2

          This is the second Psalm of Ascent attributed to King David. In it, David remembers a grave danger from which the Lord delivered his people.

          In verse 2, people rose up against David. These were enemies whose anger burned against David and the people under David’s rule. The hatred and power of these enemies was so great that, without the Lord’s intervention, they would have been swallowed whole.

          In the New Covenant, Jesus is the Son of David, the greater David, the ultimate King of kings. The people of his kingdom are found in the church. And there are plenty of enemies today who would destroy his kingdom. You might say, “I know there are people who hate God, but surely most people are somewhere in the middle. They don’t really care about Jesus and his kingdom.”

          Listen to what Jesus teaches.

          “Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters.”                                                               -Matthew 12:30

          There is no neutral position toward Jesus Christ. We either belong to his kingdom or remain in the kingdom of darkness. Obviously, not every unbeliever is consciously plotting against the church, but evil advances through the hushed voices of the indifferent. Indifference toward Christ is no refuge from rebellion against him. We all need to be reconciled to God.

          But when opposition gathers against God’s people, it can feel overwhelming. David pictures it for us.

          Read Psalm 124:3-5

          The flood sweeps, the torrent rushes. Imagine trying to stay afloat as the waters roil and surge all around you: you can’t find your footing, there is nothing to hold on to, and the waters keep coming. Your strength is failing. You’re gasping for air, barely able to keep your head above the surface. This might be it.

          This is the helplessness of pilgrims in Psalm 124. Without the Lord, they would have been swallowed whole.

          Here the flood illustrates the war fallen humanity wages against the people of God. But we can also recognize that same helplessness in other dangers: sickness, disaster, the sudden upheaval of normal life. The flood comes, and we discover how little we control.

          And when control is lost, when your strength fails, when your head is just about to slip beneath the surface, what remains? Prayer. The prayer of Psalm 123: Have mercy upon us, O Lord, have mercy upon us!

          Hear. The Lord has answered!

          Read Psalm 124:6-7

          Blessed be the Lord! He has not given his people over to the teeth of the enemy. Then the picture changes: a bird caught in a snare, helpless until the snare is broken. We have escaped! Their freedom depended upon the Lord’s intervention. How great the rescue of our God! His people are never beyond his power to save.

          Yet we must understand his deliverance. Christians still suffer: they die of cancer, their children get sick, they are visited by loneliness and depression, some are killed for their faith. Let us pray for healing, joy, and protection; but God has not promised that every danger will pass without loss.

          Consider his own Son. The Father gave him up for us. Jesus bore our sins upon the cross, died, and was buried. To those who loved him, everything appeared lost. But on the third day God raised him from the grave!

What appeared to be his enemies’ triumph accomplished our salvation. And the risen Savior will raise his people too!

          So whether the Lord delivers us from suffering or carries us through it, he will not surrender us to final destruction. Even death cannot keep those who belong to Jesus. He is a mighty Deliverer!

          Back to the Psalm. If it had not been the Lord who was on our side. There is an “if,” and in verse 3 there is a “then”: then they would have swallowed us up alive. David wants Israel to understand how completely they depend upon God. Their danger was real. Their strength was insufficient. They were alive because the Lord was on their side!

          Brothers and sisters, consider how much more we can say this in Jesus Christ. If he had not come, our sins would still condemn us. If her had not risen, death would still hold us. Apart from him, we would have no hope. But Christ has come!  He has died and is risen! The enemy that threatens to swallow us will itself be swallowed up in victory!

“Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?” The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.         -1 Corinthians 15:54-57

          Read Psalm 124:8

          Our help is in the name of the Lord, who has made heaven and earth! This is a communal declaration. That is how the Psalm ends. But isn’t that exactly how the Psalm began? If it had not been the Lord who was on our side – let Israel now say – if it had not been the Lord who was on our side. David calls the whole kingdom to proclaim what God has done.

          So let the church declare it too! Think of what Christ has rescued you from. Think of where you would be without his mercy. Then, together, let us say these words: If the Lord had not been on our side!

          Say it with me: IF THE LORD HAD NOT BEEN ON OUR SIDE!

          Does it not encourage your heart to hear the people of God proclaim his deliverance? This is a part of the good of his house which we considered last week. God has given us brothers and sisters whose testimonies strengthen our faith. We help each other remember!

          Some among us have seen incredible answers to prayer. Others are still crying for mercy. If you could hardly speak those words today, hear the voices beside you. Let their confidence encourage you. The Lord who kept them is able to keep you!

          Listen now to the confidence God gives us in Romans 8.

          Read Romans 8:31-39

          If God is for us, who can be against us?

          Many may rise against us, but who can overturn God’s verdict? It is God who justifies! Christ has died, has risen, and even now intercedes for his people. No accusation can condemn those he has justified. No suffering can separate us from his love!

He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all – will he abandon us now? Never!

          Fellow pilgrims, you may leave here with the burdens you have brought. You may still be crying, Have mercy upon us, O Lord. But your unanswered questions do not erase the cross. Your sorrow has not removed you from the love of Christ. Keep your eyes upon him. Remember what he has done for you. Let his people pray with you.

          One day this journey will be over. We shall stand in the presence of our Savior, and we shall see – with all clarity – how faithfully he has brought us through. No more contempt. No more sin. And death itself is gone, forever!

          And unquestioningly we shall know, every step has depended upon his mercy; that from every danger he has delivered!

          If it had not been the Lord who was on our side! Our help is in the name of the Lord, who made heaven and earth!