WEBVTT

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 Psalm 124, I'll read it out loud for us.

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 Then over us would have gone the raging waters.

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 Blessed be the Lord who has not given us as prey to their teeth.

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 We have escaped like a bird from the snare of the fowlers.

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 The snare is broken and we have escaped.

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 Our help is in the name of the Lord who made heaven and earth.

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 So this psalm is divided into two parts.

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 You can see it's verses one to five has to refrain,

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 if it had not been the Lord who was on our side.

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 So that first half is about remembering,

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 remembering how God has helped us in the past.

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 And then verses six to eight, it begins with blessed be the Lord.

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 So this is the response, that second section,

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 response to remembering how the Lord has delivered us in the past

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 and responding with praise to God.

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 And so that's really the two main points.

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 First part is, if it had not been the Lord.

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 The second part is, blessed be the Lord.

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 So let's look at the first part together, verses one to five.

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 It begins with, by repeating that phrase, that clause,

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 if it had not been the Lord who was on our side,

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 let Israel now say,

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 if it had not been the Lord who was on our side,

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 when people rose up against us.

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 Just the repetition by itself is very powerful.

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 Just asking ourselves, if it weren't for the Lord, where would we be?

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 And it's a good question to ask ourselves,

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 where would we be if it weren't for the Lord?

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 If it weren't for the Lord Jesus, if it weren't for God,

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 where would we be today?

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 And it has a really neat contrast in verse two,

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 because it says,

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 if it had not been the Lord who was on our side,

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 when people rose up against us.

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 The word people is the Hebrew word for man, which is Adam.

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 So that's literally Adams.

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 If it had not been the Lord who was on our side,

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 when these men rose up against us.

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 So the men are rising up against us,

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 but it's contrasted with the fact that the Lord is on our side.

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 Right?

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 And how much of our life can be described that way,

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 when people conspire against us,

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 when men rise up against us,

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 when the things of this world conspire against us.

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 But you remember that it's still the Lord who is on our side,

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 and he's able to help us.

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 But if it weren't for the Lord,

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 we would have been overwhelmed.

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 And that's what verses three to five described.

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 And they would have swallowed us up alive

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 when their anger was killed against us.

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 The phrase swallowed us up alive

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 is the language that is often used to describe Sheol,

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 or the realm of the dead, in Hebrew conception.

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 And Sheol is sometimes associated with water,

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 kind of the watery depths.

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 So if you look at Jonah,

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 chapter two,

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 he says in verses one or two to three,

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 I called out to the Lord out of my distress,

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 and he answered me.

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 Out of the belly of Sheol I cried,

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 and you heard my voice.

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 For you cast me into the deep,

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 into the heart of the seas,

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 and the floods surrounded me.

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 All your waves and your billows passed over me.

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 So this is a very similar image,

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 being swallowed up by death itself

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 in the depths of the sea.

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 And he describes it as the flood

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 would have swept us away,

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 the torrent would have gone over us,

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 then over us would have gone the raging waters.

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 I don't know if you guys have ever

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 been swept away in a current before.

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 I was a little tiny kid growing up.

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 I'm still tiny,

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 but it's a,

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 so that happened to me a lot,

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 playing in the rapids and stuff growing up.

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 And then I remember one of my friends

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 just literally being swept away in the current,

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 carried away.

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 And then one of,

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 one of our dads went in to grab him

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 and save him.

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 And,

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 and just,

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 it's such a helpless,

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 scary feeling,

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 just being overwhelmed,

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 swept away.

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 The waters come over you,

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 can't breathe.

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 And,

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 and that's what we were.

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 We were being swallowed up by death

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 because of sin.

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 Because of what we had done,

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 the penalty of death was,

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 was inevitable.

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 And it was unavoidable.

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 It was coming to us.

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 But the Lord had been on our side.

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 The Lord was on our side.

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 And then,

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 so the response is,

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 blessed be the Lord

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 who has not given us as prey to their teeth.

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 We have escaped like a bird

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 from the snare of the fowlers.

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 The snare is broken

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 and we have escaped.

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 Again,

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 this one uses the image of hunting

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 and a prey that is

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 hunted by the predator.

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 And,

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 and we,

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 once again,

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 we're like that.

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 We were stung by the sting of death.

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 We were being hunted down

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 by our enemies.

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 And,

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 and yet,

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 it is the Lord

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 who was with us,

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 who was by our side

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 as our helper.

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 And,

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 and because of that,

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 we were delivered.

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 We were able to escape.

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 And then,

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 the psalmist concludes in verse 8,

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 our help is in the name of the Lord

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 who made heaven and earth.

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 It's very similar to the first,

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 first psalm

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 in the Songs of Ascents.

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 In chapter 121,

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 verses 1 to 2,

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 I lift up my eyes to the hills

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 from where does my help come?

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 My help comes from the Lord

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 who made heaven and earth.

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 I described that last time I preached it

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 as like kind of the credentials.

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 God kind of establishing his credentials

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 as,

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 as one who is sufficient to help us.

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 Why is God enough to help us?

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 Because he's the one who made heaven and earth.

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 Right?

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 He's the one powerful,

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 more powerful than anyone else.

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 He's the one who is Lord over heaven and earth.

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 And he is our help.

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 And that's the powerful assurance

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 we have from this psalm.

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 And this psalm,

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 like any other psalm,

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 is ultimately fulfilled in Jesus

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 because we know

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 that we were in the throes of death,

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 that we were in the grip of death.

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 And we had no way out from it

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 because of sin,

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 because of our rebellion against God.

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 And the penalty that was due was death.

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 But because of what Jesus Christ has done,

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 it says in 1 Corinthians 15,

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 verse 54, 57,

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 death is swallowed up in victory.

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 O death, where is your victory?

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 O death, where is your sting?

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 The sting of death is sin,

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 and the power of sin is the law.

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 But thanks be to God

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 who gives us the victory

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 through our Lord Jesus Christ.

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 It is through Jesus

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 that God was ultimately with us

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 by our side to be our help.

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 And because of that,

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 we don't even need to fear death.

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 We will have the ultimate victory.

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 Death will not have the ultimate victory.

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 And we'll be delivered from Sheol,

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 delivered from our predators.

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 And we will be able, in the end,

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 to praise God forever

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 in response to what He has done.

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 So let's remember that,

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 and then maybe sing a song

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 and pray together.

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 Each time remember

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 and fun begins,

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 as such