God Is On Your Side - Psalms of Ascent

Psalm 124 reminds us that God has always been—and always will be—on the side of His people. In this message, we see how this truth is proclaimed, proven through God’s faithfulness, and praised by those who recognize Him as their help. No matter what surrounds us, God goes before us, stands behind us, and remains with us.

A message from Dr. Bryan Samms, Senior Pastor of First Baptist Church Burnet.

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The Psalms of Ascent are 14 Psalms, Psalm 120 to 134, that were designed by God that the children of Israel sang as a song book as they returned to Israel three times a year for worship and celebration at the festivals. These are songs of praise, they're songs of anticipation, they're songs of protection. And each one has a message for us as we move to higher ground. You know, they're called the Psalms of Ascent, remember, because wherever you were coming from in Israel, whether it was the northern plains of Megiddo, whether it was the southern Judean wilderness, whether it was the coastal plains of the Mediterranean, wherever you came from, you had to go up to get to Jerusalem. And so these songs are called ascents because as they returned to worship, they all were ascending in elevation. They were rising. And I labeled this first series of my time here higher ground because that's where we all want to go, right? We all want to go to higher ground, or you should. You should want to go further, deeper, higher in your faith with your church as a family, leaning in further, going deeper, and growing in your Christian experience. So that's what we're going to talk about. Maybe no greater truth on this pilgrimage that we are all on that you will find anywhere in the Bible than you find in Psalm 124. So would you follow along with me as I read Psalm 124 verses 1 through 8? The Bible says, 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, notice all the times it says would have, they would have swallowed us up alive and their anger kindled against us, then the flood would have swept us away, the torrent would have gone over us, then over us would have gone the raging waters. Do you see what's going on there? If God wasn't for us, this would have happened. So verse 6. Blessed be the Lord, who has not given us as prey to their teeth, who have escaped like a bird from the snare of the fowlers. The snare is broken and we've escaped. Our help is in the name of the Lord who made heaven and earth. Amen. This is God's word. I want to label the message this morning. God is on your side. 1964, the nationwide insurance company developed its slogan. I don't even need to say it. Because most of you know it. If I were to say nationwide is, you would say what? On your side. And probably while you're saying it or in your mind, the song may have repeated through your mind. In fact, in recent years, you would have uh people like um uh uh Leslie Odom Jr., Brad Paisley would do their own little version of a song with Nationwide, but it always ended with the same thing. Nationwide is on your side. And those commercials really get ramped up during football season. Do you realize that in 1964, over 60 years ago, that slogan was developed? It has been debated. The company has considered changing it, but they always come back to the same thing. We still are doing what we were doing in 1964. We are making people feel safe, we are making people feel secure, and nationwide is on your side simply cannot be beaten. Nationwide has a 60-year track record of being on the side of its customers. But can I say to you this morning that God has been in the on your side business for far longer? Think about it. God is on your side. If you're a believer, he always has been and always will be on your side. And that's what Psalm 124 teaches us. It teaches us this great truth that if you remember nothing else this week, remember that God is on your side. And the psalmist is going to teach us this in three ways. In verses 1 and 2, the truth is going to be proclaimed. In verses 3 through 5, the truth is going to be proven. And then in verses 6 through 8, the truth is going to be praised. In this repetition, you should walk away from this psalm saying, I know God is on my side. First of all, he says, This truth is proclaimed. It is proclaimed in verses 1 and 2 in a very unique way. It may have sounded a little odd to you when you read it, but notice again, it says, If it was not the Lord who was on our side, and watch this, let Israel now say. Now in my Bible, there's a little dash at the end of that. It's an intended pause. And then it's repeated in verse number 2. Some Bible scholars believe, and I agree with them, that this is a song leader or a worship leader who's calling Israel to proclaim this truth. So it's almost like Pastor David standing up and saying, This morning we are going to sing, Let Israel now say, if the Lord had not been on our side, and then Israel rises to its feet and starts singing this familiar song. If God had not been on our side, let Israel now say, if God had not been on our side. And what does the songwriter do to proclaim this truth? It's very simple. He says this if God had not been with us, we would have been destroyed. We would have been overcome. Or I might say it like this, we would have never made it without God. Now Israel's going to comb through its history and make this clear through different experiences that they have, but I want you right now to take a moment and comb through your own history. Because the truth is, all of us could say that, couldn't we? Where would we be without Jesus Christ? Where would you be today if God did not save you? Where would you be today if God did not answer that prayer? Where would you be today if God did not heal your body? Where would you be today if God did not rescue your children? Where would you be today if God did not keep your marriage together and put it back together? Couldn't we all look back over our history and say, man, I'm only here today because God has been on my side? There's an old song that says it like this were it not for grace, I could tell you where I'd be, wandering down some pointless road to nowhere with my salvation up to me. And I know how that would go. The battles I would face. Folks, listen, as a child of God, we don't have to ever wonder that, because God is in fact with us. And I want to tell you this this morning, Scripture says it boldly, Scripture says it loudly, and Scripture says it repeatedly, that God is on your side. For instance, Psalm 118, verse 6 says this, the Lord is on my side. I will not fear. What can man do to me? I mean, if everybody in the world is for you and God is against you, you're in bad shape. But if everybody in the world is against you and God is for you, you are in really good shape. This is why Romans 8, verse 31 says it like this. What shall we say then to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? But not only is God for us, folks, the Bible gives us a picture that God is with you and for you and on your side in every conceivable way. Example, the Bible says God is ahead of us. The Bible says in uh Isaiah 45 and verse 2, I will go before you and level the exalted places. You know, there's been times in your life you didn't even know it, but God got out in front of you and did some things ahead of you that you didn't even know about in order to allow you to get to where you are today. God is also around us. Psalm 125, verse 2 says, As the mountains surround Jerusalem, so God surrounds his people. I mean, view God like as a as someone who has completely covered you like a shield. It reminds me of the Secret Service before the President of the United States comes to a venue. They get out ahead of him. They check the venue, they check the vantage points, they make sure there's nobody that can get a shot off, they make sure that only people can go in to the facility are scanned and checked and invited and have clearance. And then while they're there, he's surrounded and protected from every side and every angle from them. On a much larger scale, you have 100% secret service security and beyond because God is ahead of you, God is around you, and watch this, he's even behind you. Isaiah again in 52, verse 12, says it like this: the Lord God of Israel will be your rear guard. You know what that means? God's got your back. I remember a few years ago, actually, several now. As you get older, don't you start saying that? A few years ago, it was like like 30 years ago. Yeah, a few years ago, I was traveling with a singing group from the college that I was in in California. We were actually out here somewhere in this area. I don't exactly remember. We were coming from West Texas, we were driving down to Eagle Pass. So we were somewhere in this rough vicinity. On a two-lane road, way out in the back road somewhere. My wife was with me. We only had one kid at the time, Adriana, our oldest, was about two, I think, at the time. And we were driving down this two-lane road, and there was a an 18-wheeler way off in the distance that I saw coming, didn't think much about it. But about the time the 18-wheeler got from me to about the parking lot out there, uh, a a truck whipped out beside that 18-wheeler and I mean came right at us. And going that fast, there was literally no time to think, no time to move. All I could do was the quickest thing I could think of. I couldn't turn left because I get hit by 18-wheeler. I couldn't stay where I was, I get hit by the truck. The only decision there was to make was pull over as quick as I could to the right, but I had no time to look. And man, we got off of that that road and down into that median, and everything was bumping and shaking. We did not hit a tree, we did not hit a mailbox, we did not hit a driveway, we didn't hit a car, we didn't hit a culvert. I mean, it was like the perfect landing spot that kept us from wrecking. Now, folks, I could say it's a coincidence if I chose to, but I believe that I have to say, I think God knew exactly where we were and exactly what we needed and protected us just at the right time and the right way to ensure that I lived another day. Now, I don't know if I'm the only person here today that is understanding that God has been there for you like that. And if you're not sure of anything else he's done for you, I mean, I mean, uh, is there anybody here that's been saved by the grace of God? And you could say this morning, if I had nothing else going for me in my life, I know this one thing. The Lord Jesus Christ saved me. He rescued me, he changed my eternal destination, he was there when I needed him the most to avert the worst possible crisis I would ever face in my life. You see, the truth is proclaimed. God is on your side. But number two, the truth is proven. It's one thing to say it, it's another thing to see it. And in verses three through five, and really verses six and seven, uh, notice all the past tense words. Notice all these would-have scenarios. He would have been swallowed up, we would have drowned in a flood. We were not, verse six, given to uh the prey of their teeth. We have past tense escaped like a bird. It's almost like the songwriter is saying to us, in case you don't believe what I'm saying, just look in your past. And in your past you will see and discover that God has, in fact, been there many times. He has saved you and rescued you. And there's four different ways that the songwriter teaches this. He says, You have been, first of all, kept from being swallowed up. That's what verse number three says. We would have been swallowed up. Now, when I say that, some of you in your mind were thinking two other times in the Bible that something was swallowed up. Jonah, right? In Jonah chapter 1, verse 12, Jonah was swallowed up by a great fish when he was disobeying God. But then we also find in the story of the Exodus that the sons of Korah rebelled against Moses. And the Bible says the earth split and the earth swallowed up the sons of Korah. You know, the fact of the matter is, God has saved us and preserved us, has He not from swift and violent and sudden destruction from time to time, whether we knew it or not. But then verses four and five, all too familiar to those of us that maybe have lived in the hill country for some time, floods swept us away. Talking about man, those quick and swift waters that would put somebody into eternity. I believe he's talking about literally, probably like the Red Sea, the same waters that rescued the children of Israel drowned the children of Egypt. He said, We were spared that at that moment. Some older translations of the Bible include our soul to verses four and five. Speaking to the interpretation that this is not just talking about a physical storm or a physical flood, but a spiritual flood. My friend, if you've been saved more than five minutes, you've had a storm in your life. You've had a flood in your life, you've had something rise up in your heart and put your soul in turmoil. And it is God that has put us to rest and God that has brought us through, and God that has seen that we live another day. He goes on to verse 6. He talks about being chewed up. This is graphic. He essentially talks about being swallowed up or clamped onto by an animal. Uh, folks, listen, if I had to choose between being swallowed up quickly in death and having an animal eat me, I would choose the first, right? But you want to know what the point is? The point is that trials come in different shapes and sizes. That some people suffer quickly and some people suffer long and through deep pain and excruciating circumstances, but God was there nonetheless. Verse 7 talks about being trapped like a bird. Charles Spurgeon said this about this section. Listen to this. He said, What should have been my epitaph became my epigram. The thing that should have put me in the grave, God spared me from and gave me an epigram. What's an epigram? Somewhere where you share something. And here's what the Bible is teaching us. We should have been destroyed. We had no hope, but God preserved our epitaph and gave us a story to tell. And that's why we're here today. You are here because God has rescued you. You are here because you have a story to tell. And what could have been, what should have been, what would have happened in our lives did not happen. Why? Because God was on our side. Have you ever looked back at your life and wondered what would have happened if this would have happened? A few years ago, there was a documentary put out. Some of you probably watched this called The Last Dance. The Last Dance was about the 1990 Chicago Bulls. Now, forgive me, for all the young people in the house that think LeBron James is the greatest ball player ever. It's because you didn't live in the 90s. All of us lived in the 90s and watched Michael Jordan literally take over the world, know for sure that he was the most dominant basketball player in history. In fact, they three peted twice in the 1990s. They won 1991, 92, 93. They did not win in 94, 95. They came back in 96, 97, 98 and won again. Ironically, the only two years they didn't win were the two years that Jordan retired to play baseball. And this last dance series covered that story. And I watched every second of it. You get to the very end, episode number 10, and they're talking about that last final, the last time Jordan beat the Utah Jazz, and he won it with his own shot in the very last few seconds of the game and walked out an absolute hero. Never really to play again with any substance. He they they talked about that game, and they talked about what happened afterwards. They called 1998 the last dance. That's why the documentary is called that. Before the season ever started, Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen, Steve Kerr, Dennis Robbman, and the coach Phil Jackson all were at the end of their contracts. They basically decided before the season ever started this is gonna be it. We're gonna play one more season and it's over. And they get to the end of the game, the end of the season, they won. And Jordan has asked in the last five minutes of the documentary, have you ever wanted, did you want to leave on top? How do you feel about that? And his answer was basically, I hate it. Because I'm always wondering if we could have got number seven. They never asked us, would we have come back for another season? I was on one season contracts, I would have come back. Scottie Pippen would have come back, Rodman would have come back, Steve Kerr would have come back, probably Phil would have come back, but we're never going to know what could have been because they never gave us the chance. May I say this to you this morning? When you look at your life, you should be both thrilled and terrified about what could have been. Because if we look at our lives and what we deserved, all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. The soul that sinneth, it shall die. There's none that does good. No, not one. What should have been, what could have been, what might have been is you and I being punished for our sins for all of eternity. That terrifies me, but at the same time, it thrills me to know that I am under no condemnation because of Jesus Christ, and my future is secure, my past is forgiven, I have a guarantee in heaven, I don't have to worry about what could have been, would have been, or should have been all because of Jesus. So truth is proclaimed, the truth is proven, and finally, listen to this. The truth is praised. Now notice verse six. Notice how it starts, blessed be the Lord. You probably heard that phrase repeated in the Old Testament. Did you know that the book of Psalms is broken up into five books? Book number one is Psalm 1 through 41, book two is 42 through 72, book three is 73 through 89, book four is 90 through 106, book five is 107 through 150. And did you know at the end of each of the books the same phrase is repeated? It's repeated in Psalm 41 and verse 13, Psalm 72, verses 18 and 19, Psalm 89, verse 52, and Psalm 106, verse 48. Every time one of those sections of the book of Psalms in, the answer the reply is this: Blessed is the name of the Lord. Blessed be the Lord. You know what blessed means? To kneel, to praise, and this is my favorite definition, to speak well of. I assure you, you're not gonna give God for his birthday, he never had a birthday, you're not gonna give something to God that he doesn't already have. You're not gonna give physically something to God that he needs. But I'm here to tell you this morning what God desires, and the only thing we can offer to God, because he has been so wonderfully gracious to us, is we can offer him our praise. So they say, Blessed is the name of the Lord, let's speak well of God. And finally, we proclaim the fact that our help, watch this verse 8, our help is in the name of the Lord. We praise the Lord and then we go forward from this place, believing that our help, the only chance that we've got in the future, is that God is on our side and he is therefore our help. But notice what it says there very carefully. Our help is specifically in the name of the Lord. Now, let me ask you guys this. Did anybody here name your kids a name specifically because of what it meant? Anybody like that? You gave your kids a name meaning because of what it meant. Okay, one, two, I don't know how many people are here today, but that's pretty low. Okay, a couple back here, a few of you. A few. Like maybe 10, maybe 10 people out of hundreds picked a name because it actually meant something. I mean, I might ask you what your kid's name mean, you might be like, I have no idea what my kid's name means. But in the Bible, that's not the case. In the Bible, names meant something, especially the names of God. And oftentimes in the Old Testament, in particular, when God did something for someone, they attached his name to it. Let me give you an example. Genesis chapter 22, when God provided the ram instead of Isaac to be sacrificed. What did Abraham say? This is Jehovah Jireh, God will provide. When Hagar ran from Sarah and Abraham out in the wilderness and thought she was going to die, and God appeared to her in Genesis chapter 16. She called the place El Roy, which means God sees me. When Gideon was scared out of his mind, in Judges chapter number six, he called God Jehovah Shalom. God is my peace. Samuel raised up a stone of remembrance in 1 Samuel 7 12, and he said, Here is my Ebenezer, my stone of help. The point is that when these men needed help, they got it from the Lord and they attached something that they needed to the name of God. Can I suggest this to you this morning? You should give To know the names of God. Because what you're gonna find is that everything God is is everything you need. My friend, you need provision today. Hear me, He is your provider. You feel forgotten today, He definitely sees you. Are you afraid today? He is your peace. Do you have an enemy today? He is your banner. Do you need help today? He is your helper. Let the church say this this morning. Our help is in the name of the Lord. We run to the Lord. We hide in the Lord. We trust in the Lord. And can I just say this to you one more time this morning? God is on your side. He was on Moses' side when there was an army behind him and mountains around him and a dead sea in front of him that was impassable. He was on Abraham's side when God told him, You're gonna have a kid, but my wife can't have kids anymore. God was still on his side. God was with Elijah when he stood down the prophets of Baal and called down fire to consume the soaking wet altars of Mount Carmel. God was there when the widow of Nain in Luke chapter 7 was going to bury her only son beside her late husband. God was with Paul when he was in jail and turned his song into praises, his pen into scripture, and his calendar filled with appointments to talk about Jesus. God was with Peter when he stood at the Pentecost sermon and preached after miserably failing God, and the world would have said you're done because you're a failure, but God said you're not done because I am with you. Now here's the question I've got to ask you this morning. I know God is on the side of those who are on his side. So that's the real question. Who is on God's side? Moses stood in front of Aaron when Aaron had made a brazen calf, a golden calf, and all the children of Israel were worshiping a false God. And guess what? Moses stood out in the middle of that camp, and this is exactly what he said. Who is on God's side? Let him come to me, which tells me if you're on God's side, that's your choice. You move from not being on God's side to being on God's side. And yes, God is on the side of his children, but the question is, are you on the Lord's side? That's why when Abraham Lincoln was asked the question, Do you believe God is on our side? He answered with this My concern is not whether God is on our side. My concern is whether we are on His. Now listen very carefully. Every man in his natural state is separated from God. You have no chance or hope to get to God without Jesus Christ. There's only one way you're getting on God's side, and that's through Christ. You're not going to work your way, earn your way, be baptized, give your way. You're not getting there any other way than Jesus. So I ask you again, are you on God's side? I'm not asking you to go to church. Everybody goes to church. I'm not asking you, did you get baptized? I'm not asking you, do you do good things? I'm not asking you a good old country boy. That's not what I'm asking you. I'm asking you this morning, do you have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ? Do you know this morning that he's the only chance you have? And there's been a time in your life where you said yes to Jesus and no to my religion and no to my sin, and you accepted him as your only possible chance of salvation. That is the only way you can get on the Lord's side.