God on Your Side

Well, good morning church, we'll look this morning at Psalm number 124

Before I read that before I have you stand and read this for you Have you ever asked yourself or been asked by somebody where was

God Where was God in all this whatever this is? Have you ever asked this?

Where was God? When I lost my job, where was God when my bank card bank account was emptied?

What was God? When I was sick Or a loved one was ill and did not get better Where was

God in all this as I prayed as I fell on my knees as I went on my face before him And pleaded with him

For help in my job and keeping my home and keeping my marriage my children

Where was God in all this When all the sudden became homeless and all the while I was crying out to him

Yet these things happened to me where was God have you ever asked that If not out loud with your voice in your heart

Have you ever known someone to come to you and say where was God when?

And then fill in the blank Where was God in all this? If you've ever asked questions like that or been asked questions like that We have an answer in the scripture

That tells us where God was even in those hard times even those times that as we're in them

They're just we have to admit can be horrible Jobs Relationships health whatever is falling apart and we're praying

We're saying where is God now? And why am I not delivered from this?

Where is God? Where was God? You look at psalm 124 this morning

And the people of israel are going to actually answer this question for us

So I would have you stand for the reading of psalm 124 And God willing as we go through this psalm, we will be able to answer ourselves and know where was

God psalm 124 a song of a sense of david

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 when people rose up against us

Then they would have swallowed us up alive when the angles when their anger was kindled against us

Then the flood would have swept Swept us away. The torrent would have gone over us then over us would have gone the raging waters

Blessed be the lord who has not given us as prey to their teeth We have escaped like a bird from the snare of the fowlers

The snare is broken and we have escaped Our help is in the name of the lord who made heaven and earth.

This is the word of the lord. Please be seated So we have a people returning from exile

Who make this proclamation if it had not been the lord who was on our side? Now there's a bit of housekeeping

Just so you know where i'm coming from in this psalm There's many good commentators who believe this psalm was written by david

And so the enemies rising up against them would have been the philistines or mainly the philistines I take a different view along with many good scholars

That this psalm was written by the exilic people of israel while they're in their 70 years of captivity in babylon

So it's exilic or it's post -exilic and then it would have had context it would have had meaning as they returned to jerusalem

And that's the way I take this and we need to understand that that i'm going to preach it as a psalm written during the exiled times

A song written for this people as they are being returned To their land after they paid the price for their sins as it were

As it says in isaiah 40 Comfort comfort my people speak tenderly to jerusalem tell them that their iniquity has been pardoned that she's paid double

For all her sins. This is that people coming back And their first proclamation here

We need to stop and take note if you've ever wondered and asked yourself in my hard times in these Difficulties and in these prayers

I held up. Where was god? Here's the people who answered that question for you

They say if it did not been the lord who was on our side had it not been Yahweh who was on our side and what do they mean by if it had not been?

Stop and think about this for just a moment because what they're saying is That it was the lord who's on their side

It was the lord looking back. The lord was with us every step of the way. It was the lord had it not been the lord

Then these things which we will delve into in a little bit of detail later. These things would have been so much the worse

So if it had not been yahweh who was on our side, it was yahweh. It's a conditional.

It's saying seeing that not If it could possibly be that he had been

Or if maybe he will be sometime. No, no, no, that's not at all what they're saying seeing that Confirming this for you

That yahweh the lord was on our side and then this leader whoever it is.

It may have been cultic for the temple Probably not but this leader the one who starts this he calls upon israel.

He calls upon the church saying Say it with me now Let israel now say if it had not been the lord who was on our side

Because they suffered together all the things in their captivity as a people

And we could just as easily say today If it had not been jesus who in our sight seeing that it is jesus who was on our side

Who is now on our side and let the church now say? Praise god that it is jesus who was on our side.

Praise god for that It was the lord who was on their side And the whole congregation together affirms this cry it is the lord who had been on their side

The lord you see is on your side even in your dark times Even in your darkest times.

What were these people looking back on? If you read through the book of jeremiah, especially the last several chapters, they were looking back upon disaster the darkest of times times of near cannibalism as they were starving to death as god sent the babylonians to Conquer jerusalem to break down the walls to bring these people captive Their women were ravished their sons were slaughtered

Jerusalem was broken down the temple was Ravished and desecrated

And then they were taken captive. They were led away with the edomites on the road saying raise it raise it

Do more to them punish them even more and this is that people who went into that captivity and for 70 years lived in that foreign land and now on their way back

Now coming out of that time they look back on the disasters on the hardest of times

Perhaps not replicated until 70 a .d. When the temple was fully destroyed by the romans centuries after this

But at that time no such disaster had ever befallen a people especially this people of god

And so as they sat by the the streams in babylon in psalm 137

And they cried out and said this is like a dream with all tears and our captors come our captors come and they they tease us they they

Make it worse with their their boasts against us and saying come on sing us some songs They look at those times and they look back and they say it was the lord who was on our side because had it not been

You see he brought these hard times Because he's on their side He brought these hard times he come he made them pay for their sin

He sent babylon to be the judgment against them simply and because He was on their side

And sometimes it's only looking back Upon these things that we lead ourselves into really meaning we we sin

We enter into these things that we know are wrong And we and then god with his loving and disciplining hand gives us these hard times and sometimes you get worse as we fail to listen

And the god brings more difficulty and providence to us never leaving us But during all this he's doing this for you

Even as he did for the jews back then His disciplining hand as hard as it can be

Is because he is on your side Because jesus is on your side because god wants you to be more like jesus christ and whatever he needs to do

In his providence in his loving fatherhood of you He will do

And as hard as it is to go through Whatever difficulty he brings to us to show us our sin to bring us to repentance

Can we not cry out? We have jesus christ Who didn't come for centuries that till centuries after this can we not cry out with them?

Seeing that it is the lord who was on our side and had he not been had jesus not been how much more would this have been?

You see through the darkest times through the hardest times Where even when we're praying out to god

Whatever he needs to do To bring us more and more into conformity with his will he will do because he is with you and will never leave or forsake you

This is the cry of this people in about 516 516 bc that many years before christ

Rejoicing as it were looking back on all the difficulties Can you not look back and see the hard times that god brought to you?

And how coming through them there for your good How the difficulties that you have experienced in the lord

In your prayers still and praying out to god and yet not being delivered and praying again and not being delivered

And even in that time you might say where is god where was god why isn't god with me? But when god delivers you and brings you through Like the dream state that the psalmist would would have for the exiles when they were finally delivered from babylon

Can you not look back and see that it was god's guiding hand throughout it all whether it be your health your job your relationships

All to bring good to you as he did to them as hard as it all was God was on their side and they can look back and see that and if you look at verse 3 now

Well, it was finished verse 2 It would not been the lord who was on our side And then we say when people rose up against us, this is the babylonians.

They did rise up against them Because god sent them but they did as people rise up against them.

He said when people rose up against us Verse 3 now then they would have swallowed us up alive

When their anger was kindled against us, then the flood would have swept over us The torrent would have gone over us then over us would have gone the raging waters

Do you notice something there? They do not say That it wouldn't have happened.

They don't say That we wouldn't have had danger of being swallowed alive. They don't say that we didn't have to go through a flood

That there weren't torrents a torrent is something that you think of in the desert You know, we have those dry lands those dry canals called wadis

And all it takes a little bit of rain and it's out of control You don't want to put your toe in there because it'll suck you in and you're gone

I used to hike in the sierras quite a bit And it was like that in some of those things where the snowmelt was coming down so fast

You didn't want to put very much of your body in there Because it would suck you away and this is the torrent. It's out of control

It's raging as where it's like water that has a personality and it's reaching to swallow you up It does not say that they didn't go through the difficulties notice what they say then

It would have swallowed us up alive when their anger was kindled against us their anger kindled against them because the lord sent them

Yes, they had enemies the greatest power on earth at the time the babylonians and their anger was kindled against jerusalem

But it was all god's will and looking back it was because god was for them god was on their side

But what would have happened then the flood would have swept over us not we would have gone through the flood It would have swept over us and would have drowned us drowning and deep waters in the ancient near east mind

Being some of the darkest and most dangerous and most mysterious kind of thing they could think of drowning being the worst kind of death the depths being that dark and dangerous place because Creatures could come up and you wouldn't see them until the last couple feet

That's the way they viewed it They went through the flood, but the flood didn't go over them as it could have

They went through a torrent, but they came out the other side the raging waters

The anger of babylon against them the destruction of jerusalem the raising of the temple It would have been so much worse had god not been on our side and it's looking back

We see all the possibilities in the hard times we see what could have happened had god not in his hand restrained the flood against us

Usually where does that flood in that torrent that danger of being swallowed life come from? Isn't that our own blunders?

Is it not our own unwillingness to look to the scriptures? to pray before we step out

To not listen this people was in babylon. Why? Read the end of chronicles second chronicles chapter 36

God says he woke up early as it were god doesn't wake up But he says I rose up early and sent you prophet after prophet after prophet, but you wouldn't listen

I sent them to you because i'm on your side. I sent them to you because I love this people whom

I redeemed from egypt Yet you would not listen Until god as it were reluctantly though.

God doesn't do anything reluctantly, but as it were Sends judgment against them It could have been so much more if there had not been a restraining hand and Even so you read out elsewhere in scripture that god would judge babylon simply because they didn't show restraint

He didn't send them to be cruel to the people. He didn't send them to ravish the women to slaughter the sons and yet they did

So and so they get punished for that And looking back on all that prophecy and all these experiences that they had

As we can in our own lives as many of you can even now, what are you going through?

How hard is it How many times have you prayed and have you asked yourself? Where is god?

I believe in his son. Jesus christ. I know he died for my sins I trust the cross. I believe I will be resurrected and following a resurrection like his

I believe what the bible says about christ and the salvation I have in him and the faith that god gave me

I believe all these things. Why has god not delivered? Well god is not obligated to deliver us from our difficulties simply because we have a greater faith than our neighbor is he

God doesn't have to do anything and yet How much worse would these things have been

I think of the blunders in my own life? Excuse me And I can look back even to those times before I was a christian before I confessed christ

And I can see oh my goodness If if something hadn't held me back from that raging water, which

I was voluntarily jumping into What's that something of course then it was something

Now I look back and that was god preserving me for the day of salvation So I look back on all the dangers that I faced and sometimes some very very difficult ramifications to them consequences

I can say god was on my side I could show you if you ever have the time for it, it would take some time point by point and month by year by decade even

I should have god was on my side even before I confessed his son Had it not been for god who on my side how much worse

How much more would have happened They didn't avoid the flood the torrent

But god was there in it Holding it back As he asked joe. Where are you job?

Where were you? When I made everything Where were you when I created and can you tell the flood waters meaning the oceans the seas?

this far no further Can you tell a grain of sand you will stay dry?

And that tidal wave will come and not a speck further That's the god who's on their side

And that's the god who held it back. That's the god who even as unrestrained as babylon was in their cruelty in their victories

How much more would that have been and they can look back and say that See the lord does increase discipline upon us not cruelty

He could increase discipline on you for your good because he's on your side But not ultimate disaster

Well, sometimes we resist sometimes we won't recognize Oftentimes we won't go to a brother or a sister or pastor and find out

Spiritually what is happening and look to his word and see if we can understand it that way And so it becomes more and more intense

But we can look back and say what would have swept over me If god had not been there for me god decreased discipline not cruelty

And he decreased discipline for you and for me and for all of us Because he's for us because he's for you

He's on your side and giving a way of escape In verse 6 he said blessed be the lord who has not given us as prey to their teeth

We have escaped like a bird from the snare of the fowlers. The snare is broken and we have escaped

He didn't give us as prey to their teeth That reminds me of what peter says about the devil

He says your adversary is like roaring lying prowling around looking for someone to die or someone to actually

Use as prey someone to tear apart To consume and this is the kind of cruelty that they went through with babylon

But he says they would have swallowed us alive Why would it be swallowed alive? Well on the one hand we can look at how much more babylon could have done

But I think this idea of being swallowed alive takes us all the way back to the book of numbers Do you remember the korah rebellion?

When korah and his cohort said moses you've gone too far Moses, why do you think the lord speaks only through you?

and they have that whole contest with the The um lanterns that they take or the lights that they bring and god chooses which one

And what happens is when korah is identified as a rebel as a sinner

Who is blaspheming the name of god the earth swallows him up? Remember that the earth opens up and swallows his whole clan alive.

This is I think they're referring to here We've been swallowed alive If it hadn't been the lord who was on our side

We would have gotten what we deserve for our sins before when we went to idols and astral poles and refused to hear the prophets

As a matter of fact tortured and killed the prophets you read that in jeremiah We was led into that cistern full of mud and was left there just to sink further and further like quicksand

They would have been swallowed alive the earth would have opened up and god would just consumed him So i'm done with this people As he told moses i'm going to destroy this people after they went after the golden calf

I'll make another people through you and moses says oh lord. What would happen to your reputation? Should you do that?

And god relented It would have been swallowed alive earth would have opened up and just done away with us

But they say we have escaped like a bird from the snare of the fowlers. It's an interesting picture we have here

Now you think of a little bird caught in a snare And i'm not going to have time and I wouldn't be able to verbally picture for you what these snares look like but it would be a a loop of some kind of twine with a

Loop on the end of it a knot that would tighten as soon as it gets touched and here's this little bird caught in it poor helpless little bird

Caught in this snare There's nothing they can do about what does a bird have they don't have hands A little bird doesn't have a beak that's going to be able to saw through A bit of line even a bit of string he's caught

And all he can wait for is to starve because he's caught Or for somebody to come and release him from that because he's going to put him in a pot

He has no hope that poor little bird We have escaped like a bird

They were the bird They were caught in the snare of the fowler they were taken captive to babylon

They went through all this This is we've escaped The snare is broken.

Here's it's in the passive and we have escaped something came down. Someone came down and broke the snare

Someone was on their side God was on their side. Yahweh was on their side They escaped from the snare of the fowlers because god if you read in the end of second chronicles in the beginning of the book

Of ezra, what does it say there? Says god by his spirit moved cyrus the king of persia the conqueror of babylon

To give a decree That the jews should be able to go back home That jews will be released with all the implements of the temple to rebuild the temple and restore proper worship

I didn't quote it I gave you kind of a summary of that first couple paragraphs in in the book of ezra or the end of second chronicles

That's how they escaped. There were little birds. They didn't accomplish this themselves And we look at ourselves

Have we escaped? You know the book of hebrews speaks of the devil keeping us in bondage because of our fear of death

It's like that fear of death Bonds the whole world in fear and people go through so many things that take so many drugs

There's homeopathic methods and there's workouts and all kinds of things you can do to extend your life

Why because they fear death because death has no answer to them because it's only

That like the deeps in the ancient near eastern thought that I described a moment ago It's you don't know

It's only dangerous and dark and I can't get my arms around it. So i'm afraid of it

But has not jesus christ Taken us out of that snare out of that bondage fear of death no

Because jesus christ lives and because he lives we will live He is resurrected and we'll follow in a resurrection like his we have escaped from that Snare of the fowler from the snare of the devil from the fear of death

They say here we've escaped like a bird from the snare of the followers Remember they went through that snare they were caught they were desperate they were hopeless

They had no choices in the matter But they've escaped They were made to escape

God gave them a way of escape Do you know yourself a sinner Do you know

The ultimate price of sin is death for the wages of sin is death But the gift of god is eternal life in christ.

Jesus our lord That snare is around your ankle if you know not jesus christ

And you're like a little bird like a helpless little bird fluttering with your wings with no body part that you can reach down And open the snare and get yourself released.

You can't do anything about it By faith in jesus christ By faith in the lord.

Jesus Who on the cross paid the price for your sins? Is the snare broken? And only by him

That's god on our side He was on our side When he sent us through the hard times

Can we not look back even in this church and see some of the difficulties we went through? And now that we've come out the other side of them at least for a time

We can look back say god was on our side. God was refining us God was building us up. God was molding.

Jesus as a body and as individuals in this place They say blessed be the lord

Excuse me Blessed be the lord who has not given us his prey to their teeth

We have escaped like a bird from the snare of the fowler. The snare is broken. We have escaped And then to verse 8 our help is in the name of the lord who made heaven and earth

Our help is in the name of the lord who made heaven and earth is now the third time In these psalms of ascents these 15 psalms that were sung on their way back to jerusalem

The third time that they speak of god who made heaven and earth as their help I look to the hills where from where it comes my help my help comes from the lord who made heaven and earth

Here in psalm 124 our help is in the name of the lord who made heaven and earth and this set of 15 ascent psalms

Ends with that. May the lord bless you from zion who made heaven and earth the lord made everything

And it is this lord who is on their side throughout all their difficulties Why did they bring up the lord making heaven and earth?

I think it has to do with the fact that he made heaven and earth and he made you He made all of us

And the idea is if he was on our side when he made us How much more is he on your side when he remade you in christ jesus?

Does not the apostle paul say in second corinthians 5 17 if anyone is in christ, he is a new creation

Behold the old has passed away and the new has come It's not god on your side

In all that If god made us if he made the earth so that the earth in ephesians chapter 3

He made the world so that the church would exist on this world and proclaim the glories of the lord. Jesus christ

Is he not on our side he always has to take us back

To romans chapter 8 classic passage many of you are very familiar with apostle paul writes

What then shall we say to these things what shall we say to god's calling what shall we say to god's sovereignty?

What shall we say to god's grace in calling broken sinners depraved sinners to his son jesus christ and giving them salvation

What shall we say to all of these things? What then shall we say to these things?

If god is for us Who can be against us? He who did not spare his own son but gave him up for us all how will he not also with him graciously give us

All things god is on your side God is on your side in the dark times god brings the dark times even as he did to israel

In the exile the destruction of jerusalem and the exile He's with you in the hard times

Why is he with you? Because he loves his people Because he loves his church.

That's all true Is he on my side because i'm worth? Is he on your side because of something good in you?

He says oh I need this one To continue on because this one gives me so much credit no

Nothing could be further from the truth He who did not spare his own son his own jesus christ his own beloved has only begotten

He who did not spare him but sent him to the cross gave him up for us all He gave jesus christ to die for our sins.

He sent his son to redeem this people To redeem us from the snare of the fowler to redeem us from the raging waters and the flood that was going over our heads

If he sent him And sent him to the cross for us How will he not also with him graciously give us all things?

Why is god on your side? Well, not because of me And not because of you And also

I almost want I never do this Put my cupped hand to my ear And ask for a response

Why does god do this because of whom does god? Get on your side. Why is god on your side because of whom and the class said

Jesus, thank you. I got more over here than I did out there where the kids are because of jesus He did not spare his own son.

He gave us his son So we look back and we say well god now gave me his son

If god is on my side enough to give me faith to believe in jesus christ How could he not have been on my side and now fill in the blank

When my job collapsed And my savings had to be emptied When my marriage had difficulties when my health abandoned me

Fill in the blank if god now is on your side so much so that he gave jesus christ

How could he not have been on your side in all those past times Why is he on your side because you're in christ jesus his son

Why is he on your side because he's on jesus's side? Why is he on jesus's side because jesus his only begotten son his only beloved

Excuse me Who shall bring any charge against god's elect?

If god is for us, how can anyone charge us if jesus christ paid for your sin if god was on your side

In putting you in christ. Jesus ephesians 1 3 He chose us in him before the foundation of the world

To be redeemed in him if god was on your side with that Who shall bring any charge against god's elect

God was on my side You're gonna charge me with sin. I will answer for my sin. I will repent of my sin

The church has discipline about sin. All that is true Someone comes up and says you're just a lousy sinner

And says with that sneer and that cynicism No, you don't put up with that. You say no god is on my side

And no charge can come against me that jesus christ on the cross didn't pay for God is on my side

It is god who justifies who is to condemn christ Jesus is the one who died more than that who was raised who's at the right hand of god

Who indeed is interceding for us who shall separate us from the love of christ? Shall tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword as it is written for your sake?

We are being killed all the day long. We're regarded as sheep to be slaughtered No In all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us

For i'm sure that neither death nor life nor angels nor rulers nor things present nor things to come

Nor powers nor height nor depth nor anything in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of god in christ

Jesus our lord is the lord on your side brethren He is if you're in christ jesus

Why is the lord on your side brethren because you're in christ his son God is on our side

Through all your dark times through all your difficulties even in those how hard it is to say i'm going through this because god is on my side

And god who looks at us on 139 as a father to his children He knows that in those times

It's hard to say god is on my side Most of you know

That my wife is very ill right now She has one kind of cancer And she has a tremendous amount of pain, which is why she hasn't been here for the last few weeks nauseating pain

She's tougher than most of us Tougher than me yet. It makes her cry right now

It's hard to say god is on my side Right now. It's hard to keep my eye on christ

And not look forward more to the answer of the biopsy These things are hard dear ones

Not just me, but we all go through things like this We all have these difficulties And during the difficulty it's so hard to say god is on my side, but it's so hard but god is on my side

But it's so difficult And yet this people these jews 500 years before christ

Look back and say god was on our side through it all I know now whatever comes

We will look back and say god was on our side. God was molding us into christ And that's not just me because i'm some paradigm of excellence you who've known me for some 20 something years, you know, i'm not

But we're all in the same boat We all have these things we go through and brother. We must look and say because of jesus christ

Because I am in god's only beloved son And god is on his side building his church forming his people into the image of his son

Because of all that because of christ jesus not because of me because of christ And what he did in his perfect life and his perfect sacrifice for me because of him because of jesus christ

God is for me If god is for me Who can be against me and the resounding answer is no one nothing

No entity, no power. No spirit. No person Not even myself when

I accuse myself when you accuse yourself Not even you can bring a charge against yourself that christ.

Jesus didn't pay for because god is on our side. Amen Let's pray heavenly father.

We thank you for this word that you give us We thank you father for the sureness we have that you are Certainly for us that you are with us father because of christ jesus and because of what you are doing

In us because of him and through him molding us ever more into that people

The lord as we look back on these hard times these difficulties you've given us We thank you for them because we can look and say through all that as hard as they were

God is on our side through it all Whatever comes father. May we make that proclamation with the scripture if it had not been the lord.

Jesus christ who is for us May we fill in the blank and say thank god and praise god and hallelujah to god