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Good evening, everyone. It's 
good to be here again to worship with you and again to hear from 
the Word of the Lord. You can turn in your Bibles to 
Psalm 121. Psalm 121 will be our passage 
this evening. I'll read the entire Psalm together 
and then we'll pray before the preaching of the Word. Psalm 
121, it is a song of ascents. I will lift up my eyes to the 
hills, for whence comes my help? My help comes from the Lord, 
who made heaven and earth. He will not allow your foot to 
be moved. He who keeps you will not slumber. Behold, he who keeps 
Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep. The Lord is your keeper. The Lord is your shade at your 
right hand. The sun shall not strike you 
by day, nor the moon by night. The Lord shall preserve you from 
all evil. He shall preserve your soul. 
The Lord shall preserve your going out and your coming in 
from this time forth and even forevermore. Amen. Well, let 
us pray together. O Lord, most high, again we do 
come before you. and we appeal to the power of 
your spirit to be here among us. Lord, that you might dwell 
with us. and that you might attend to the preaching of your word. 
Lord, I pray that you would reveal yourself through your word, by 
your spirit, to your people here. Lord, may you be glorified. May 
it be for the edification of your people here. May it be for 
the salvation of sinners. Lord, we pray for the aid from 
on high to assist in the preaching of the word, so that we might 
hear from you now. We pray this in Jesus' name, 
amen. So Psalm 121, if you notice at 
the top of the psalm, it gives us a title, Song of Ascents. 
And if you look, probably in your Bibles, at many psalms on 
the same page there, we have the same thing, a Song of Ascents. 
They're all called that. Or we might say a Song for Ascending, 
or even a Song for Climbing. And we have to ask the question, 
what are we climbing? What is this talking about? Now, 
in this, these Psalms were Psalms that the children of Israel would 
sing as they were climbing, as they were returning to Jerusalem, 
and they were climbing the mountain that Jerusalem was on, working 
their way up, Mount Zion, the Bible calls it that. So, but 
in order for us to better understand what the significance of that 
is, we have to locate this psalm within the greater biblical context, 
the entire canon of scripture, so that we can better then see 
how it applies to us now in the 21st century. We're not climbing 
hills on our way, we don't climb hills to go to church, those 
things. How are we trying to, or how do we need to understand 
this psalm here? So that's what we're gonna do. 
First, I'm gonna spend some time giving us a bit of a greater 
the greater biblical context that we need to understand in 
order to understand the psalm. Then we'll look at verses 1 and 
2, the reminder of the Lord's identity, the identity of the 
psalmist's God. And then really the rest of the 
psalm is the practical application of that. When we know who our 
God is, there's a lot of practical applications for that. So, 3 
to 6, the climber's protection. 7 through 8, the climbers' preservation. So first, the biblical context. 
In order to understand this, we need to go back to the Garden 
of Eden, Genesis 1, Genesis 2. That's where most often we need 
to go back to, to get the context here. And I'm going to say, now, 
I'm going to pack a lot of information into probably not as much time 
as is needed for all that information. But I do trust that most of you 
are probably familiar with a lot of these concepts, covenant of 
works type things, things that are going on that are revealed 
to us in the creation narrative. So in Genesis chapter 2, we read 
about the creation of man, and his unique role as God's image 
bearer in the physical realm on this earth. And we also read 
that God had planted a beautiful garden, and that garden was on 
a mountain. Now it doesn't tell us in Genesis 
it was on a mountain, but we can, because we know water flows 
downhill, we know it's on a mountain, because a spring flowed out of 
that garden and flowed down this mountain and then went throughout 
the four corners of the earth. Ezekiel 28 also calls Eden the 
holy mountain of God. So, picture a garden on a mountain. God creates this garden. He places 
man in that garden. But Genesis 2 also tells us that 
the land around this garden was empty and barren. And there was 
nothing growing in there. Genesis 2 verse 5, before any 
plant of the field was in the earth, or before any herb of 
the field had grown. So again, we have a garden on 
a mountain, and around that mountain is wilderness. And there is nothing 
growing in that wilderness, but God creates man to solve that 
problem. Why was there nothing growing 
there? Because the Lord had not yet caused it to rain on the 
earth, and there was no man to till the ground. So God then 
creates the mist, the rain cloud, that waters the earth, and then 
God forms man of the dust of the ground and breathes life 
into him. So God solves the problem of nothing in that earth by creating 
man. Man as God's image-bearer is 
then to go and to fill that earth. It's an empty, barren earth. 
He is told to be fruitful and multiply and fill it with image-bearers. Also, he is then to turn that 
empty wilderness into a beautiful garden paradise. He has to follow 
the pattern that God gave him on the mountain. You hear the 
temple building language there, too. So for this to happen, then, 
Adam would have to go down the mountain. He was created and 
placed in that garden, in the presence of God. He would have 
to go down the mountain, And then he would procreate with 
his wife, they would fill this earth with image bearers, and 
they would cultivate this wilderness, turn it into a beautiful garden 
paradise. So what God had done on a cosmic 
scale, where God had taken what was empty and void and nothing 
and barren, and brought order to it, cosmos, from the chaos. 
God had done this on a cosmic scale. Adam, as God's image-bearer, 
was to do this on a global or a local scale, as God's image-bearer. And then this is where we start 
seeing the connections. When this task is done, when 
Adam has done his task and he has all his children there and 
they've turned this wilderness into a beautiful garden. He would 
call his children and he would say, come children, we're going 
back up this mountain. We're going to climb up this 
mountain back into the presence of God. And all the people would 
come, stream from the four corners of the earth, rejoicing, singing, 
into the presence of God in that garden. And then, and they would 
say, I finished, Adam would say, I finished my task, Lord. Here 
are all these children. And God would, God would then, 
and the result was that they would get to rest in God's presence. They would get to enjoy the greatest 
possible reward that God could have offered man. To be in his 
presence, to enjoy his goodness, and to dwell with him. And also 
what we should know then, too, is that every seven days, Adam 
was given a little taste of that. Every seven days, he would have 
been, he was to call his children. Even though the task wasn't done, 
every seven days they would get to climb back up that mountain. 
They would get to ascend into the, or they would climb up, 
enter that garden, and there they would meet with God, and 
there they would have one day of rest. And then they were to go 
down and continue the work. That day of rest is the Sabbath 
day. Problem is, we know that none 
of that happened, did it? Adam and Eve didn't have one 
child before they sinned. Adam and Eve didn't even go down 
that mountain. They stayed in the midst of the garden. What 
was in the midst of the garden? The tree of knowledge of good 
and evil that they were forbidden from eating from. So they violated, 
they broke God's law. They did not fulfill any of the 
righteous requirements of what they were supposed to do. They 
violated the law. So we know that story. Adam was 
exiled out of the garden. He was sent out, sent into that 
barren wilderness. And the curse takes over. Thorns 
and thistles now spring up that are gonna hinder them, prevent 
them from doing any gardening and being able to turn this into 
this paradise they were supposed to. Their children, when their 
children were born, they looked more like the liar, more like 
the murderer who had deceived them than they do their own creator. We know that from the story of 
Cain and Abel, who murdered his brother. But we also know that's not the 
end of the story, is it? In fact, it's just the beginning. 
We had one man who was supposed to obey God's law, who was supposed 
to make a people, to present to God, to bring them into the 
presence of God. This first man failed, but we 
know another man was coming, another Adam, the last Adam, 
Paul calls him, who would come, who would undo, who would crush 
the head of the serpent, the serpent who had deceived Eve 
and Adam into violating this law. The serpent who had deceived 
them into bringing the curse upon them and upon the earth. This man who would come down 
the mountain and who would go rescue those broken image bearers. People who no longer represent 
their creator. Who are tangled in the thorns 
and the thistles of sin and bondage and the curse. And he is there, and then he 
would go to the four corners of the earth. I'm not a flat 
earther, in case anyone's wondering. I'm using biblical language, 
the imagery the Bible gives to us. He's going to the four corners 
of the earth. He's gathering his people who 
are in bondage, bondage to their sin. The Bible uses the imagery 
of being tangled in thorns. We can't escape. He comes. He 
cuts us loose. He breaks us free. He breaks 
our chains. He gathers them. He calls them 
and he says, come children, we're ascending the mountain. We're 
going, I'm going to bring you into God's presence. And he brings 
us, he does that. And he says, here am I, here 
am I and the children you have given me. And then all those whom he has 
rescued, all those get to rest and enjoy God's presence forever. 
We know that's our Lord Jesus Christ. That's what he does. 
He comes to this earth. Adam didn't want to go down the 
mountain. Adam didn't want to do his duty. But Christ was willing to go 
down the mountain. Again, I'm using biblical language 
here. that's teaching us a point. Jesus didn't literally come down 
a mountain. Jesus came down from heaven down 
to earth, what that signifies. You remember, even Genesis 1 
and 2 is redemptive revelation. Dr. Barcelos taught on that at 
the conference last year. Even those chapters are revealing 
Christ to us, they're revealing the work of Christ What He came 
to do, we see that pattern already in Genesis. So Adam was not willing 
to go down the mountain. He wanted to stay in the midst 
of the garden. But Jesus was willing, and Jesus 
does that in John 6, 38. For I have come down from heaven. Not to do my own will, but the 
will of Him who sent me. And this is the will of the Father 
who sent me, that of all that He has given me, I should lose 
nothing, but should raise it up. Ascending, raise it up at 
the last day. And this is the will of Him who 
sent me, that everyone who sees the Son and believes on Him may 
have everlasting life. And I will raise Him up at the 
last day. So that's Christ, the faithful 
Adam, the last Adam, the one who does what the first Adam 
failed to do, the one who comes, who his father has given him 
these children, he says. Of all that the father has given 
me, the father says, there's children, sons of Adam and Eve 
out there that I want as my children, adopted into my family, and you 
need to go, and you need to rescue them, and you need to raise them 
up and bring them into my presence. You need to go. They're tangled 
in those thorns and thistles. They're in bondage to their sins. They're sitting there ready to 
die. You need to go redeem them, and that's what he does. So in one sense, we could say 
that Christ has accomplished this work already. Came down from heaven. He didn't 
physically leave a place somewhere and come down. Coming down from 
heaven is incarnation language. Taking to himself human nature. Assuming human nature. He became 
a man. And he lived, he died, he went 
down, down the mountain to earth. We might, again playing on biblical 
imagery, he went down even lower into the valley of the shadow 
of death. But then he too, he rose up from the dead, he ascended 
into heaven. So in one sense, Christ has completed 
his work already in that he has overcome death and the curse. And he has ascended back into 
heaven, into the presence of God. But in another sense, he's 
still working, and he's still building his church. And he's still, him and his bride, 
the church, as the church proclaims the gospel and brings that message 
that we heard this morning, brings God's gospel to the ends of the 
earth, he's still working. He's still building His kingdom. 
He's still calling sinners out of darkness, bringing them into 
this glorious company that we call the church. And then He's still reigning. He's still taking 
dominion. Then as 1 Corinthians 15 says, 
when the task is complete and when the last of the children 
have been redeemed, that whole joyful company From every tribe, 
tongue, people, and nation, and language is brought together 
rejoicing. And he says, here am I and the 
children you have given me, presents them to the Father. The task 
is completed. The second Adam, the last Adam, 
the Lord Jesus Christ does what the first Adam failed to do. So that's the greater biblical 
context that we need to understand this in. And this idea of climbing 
mountains, what it signifies. It signifies entering into the 
presence of the Lord. So when we come to the nation 
of Israel, in this old covenant context that they are in with 
Yahweh, the creator, they experience this same thing in an outward, 
typological, very physical way. They had Jerusalem. Jerusalem 
was on Mount Zion. In Jerusalem was the temple, 
and in the temple was where God dwelled. So the presence of God 
was on that top of that mountain in Jerusalem, in the temple. 
And they would go down the mountain, out of the city, and they would 
go and they would work in their fields, or perhaps they were 
fighting against their enemies, and they would go out And when either the work week 
was over, or if the situation was a battle, and the battle 
was done, then the king would call his people, and the king 
would say, would say, come, let us go up to Zion, let us go up 
to the house of the Lord. We see that in many of these 
psalms here. Psalm 122, I was glad, that joy, 
that rejoicing, I was glad when they said to me, come, let us 
go into the house of the Lord. Our feet have been standing within 
your gates, O Jerusalem. So they would come into the presence 
of the Lord in that outward, physical, again, typological 
sense, pointing us to the Lord Jesus Christ. So this joyful 
procession coming, ascending the hill, singing these psalms, 
the psalms that we're going to look at today into the presence 
of God. So this psalm, then, is here 
to teach us or to be applied to the people of God in their 
life, in their journey into the presence of God at the end of 
the age, when they die and more so at the end when the Lord returns 
and the consummation of His kingdom. So we apply it in that way, where 
we are all, in one sense, climbing a hill, climbing the mountain, 
on this journey that will end with us in the presence of the 
Lord, being presented to Him by our Savior, the Lord Jesus. So now let's imagine the context 
here. Perhaps it's David. I don't know. 
I'm going to assume it's David that wrote this psalm. Let's 
picture David. He's in the plains below. David 
was the warrior king. The king went to come and conquer 
enemies. He's down in the plains below, 
maybe he's just won a battle, perhaps, and it's time to return 
back to the city, back into Jerusalem. And he's standing in the plains. 
below these mountains, and he looks around, and he sees mountains 
all around him there. And he sees Mount Baal Hermon, 
sometimes called Mount Hermon or Mount Baal Hermon, in the 
north. And Baal was said to live there. That was said to be Baal's 
mountain. And Baal lived at the top. And 
Mount Hermon, he saw Mount Hermon there. Maybe he looked and he 
saw Mount Nebo in the land of Moab, where the god Chemosh was 
worshiped on the top of that mountain. Or maybe he looks more to the 
south and he sees the high, steep, red cliffs, dark red cliffs of 
Mount Seir. And he knows where the Edomites 
lived. But he also sees Mount Zion. 
And that's why he says here then in verse 1, I lift up my eyes 
to the hills. Where does my help come from? So again, all the pagan nations 
around Jerusalem, they all claim that their gods lived on these 
mountains, and that's where they went to worship their gods. That's 
why Israel was always condemned for having those high places, 
because they went on high places or mountains where they thought 
they could worship all these other gods. So when David's looking 
at these mountains, these high places all around him, where 
all these other little g gods are worshipped, he looks at them 
and he says, where has my help come from? Who's my helper, my 
God, my defender? He's the God who dwells in Mount 
Zion. Yahweh, the Lord. Verse 2, my 
help comes from Yahweh who made heaven and earth. Yahweh, I'm 
sure you're familiar with it, it's just the Hebrew word name 
for God, whom we call God, the Lord. Capital L, capital O, R, 
and D. Yahweh, David knows who his God is. He knows his God is not like 
the gods of the nations at all. This is Yahweh. Yahweh's name 
means I am. I am. and that there's none like this 
one. Just like Moses said back in 
Exodus 15, after they crossed the Red Sea and Pharaoh and his 
host were drowned in the sea, Moses says, who is like you, 
O Yahweh, among the gods? Who is like you, glorious in 
holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders? So this is Yahweh, 
this is the Holy One of Israel, Yahweh, I am, self-existent, 
eternal, infinite, in every way. The perfection of being. And who, the perfection of being, 
the one who is I don't get, I'll leave this for Cam. The one who 
is ase, you can ask him for explanation later, who is from himself. If 
you've ever heard of divine aseity, means he is from himself, means 
he depends on nothing outside of himself to be who he is. He doesn't need anyone to exist 
or anything to exist, just as he is in his fullness and in 
the perfection of his being. That's who this God is. And therefore, Everything else that exists is 
a creature, has been made by this one. That's what David reminds 
himself of here. My help comes from the Lord who 
made heaven and earth. Sovereign, supreme, Lord, King 
of the universe. See, Yahweh's not one God among 
equals. David's not looking at all these 
mountains and thinking, wow, I really hope my God is stronger 
than these ones. Yahweh's not one God among many 
gods. Yahweh is supreme, sovereign 
over all things, and everything else that exists is a creature, 
and therefore everything else that exists depends on this one, 
this Yahweh, for their very existence. Without him, they would cease 
to exist. And this God is David's God, 
and this God is our God, creator of heaven and earth. Never forget 
that, brethren. If you're a believer in the Lord 
Jesus, if you belong, if you believe in Him, you belong to 
this God. None like Him, none more powerful 
than Him. See, David could have looked 
around at all these mountains. He could have looked at them. 
He could have seen how tall Mount Hermon was. The snow was on it 
all year round. It never melted. And the Canaanites 
said, our God is stronger than your God because his mountain's 
taller than your God's mountain. He could have worried about that. He could have looked at those 
cliffs where the Edomites lived, and he knew how fierce those 
Edomites were and how much they harmed his people. He could have looked anywhere, 
become anxious and worried, but instead he looked to Zion, to 
Mount Zion, because that was the dwelling place of his God, 
and his God was not like these ones. He belongs to the creator 
of heaven and earth. Whom shall I fear, he says. And that's the reminder that 
we need. When we look around us, we see evil in the world, 
and it seems very strong at times, and it seems very powerful, and 
it can be frightening. And maybe it's more personal. 
It's not out there, but it's in our own lives as we feel the 
effects of the curse on us. We feel the thorns and the thistles 
of life in a sin-cursed world. Sickness and cancer and suffering 
and loss of life and trials. But we need to look to Zion like 
David. We need to remember who our God 
is. Remember who it is that we belong 
to. It's so important that we know 
who our God is. It's so important. Every Lord's 
Day, you have the opportunity to come and hear from Him and 
to learn from Him as He reveals Himself through the preaching 
of the Word to His people. And more so, here in this church, 
you have the Sunday school where you can really learn about who 
your God is. Take advantage of that. It's 
there for your good. I'll let you in on a little secret. 
I don't think it's a secret. Last, at the conference, Dr. Barcelos 
said to me, he said, I've listened to these guys' confession studies 
on their website. He said, this church is so blessed. You have two men here who can 
teach you all about God, about our God. Use it. When I say right 
now, we talk about divine aseity, you might not get it all. You 
spend some time learning about what divine aseity means. What 
a comfort that is. A comfort for the people of God 
to know who our God is. Because when we know Him, we 
can trust Him. We can be assured of His protection over us. and his preservation of us, and 
that's the rest of the psalm here, verses three and four. 
He will not allow your foot to be moved. He who keeps you will 
not slumber. Behold, he who keeps Israel shall 
neither slumber nor sleep. You will not allow your foot 
to be moved. Think of climbing a mountain. Think of our life as a mountain, 
climbing. It's steep. It could be slippery. We could lose our footing. We 
can slip. First of all, remember, if you're 
looking up, you're looking ahead, you're looking to your God, is 
a sure way to keep you from slipping, or to be kept from slipping when 
you know Him. If you're looking over your shoulder, 
if you're looking down, if you're dangling from a cliff and you're 
looking down as opposed to looking upward, you may slip. But look to the top. There's 
our God. He's waiting at the top of the mountain. Our Christ 
is there, seated in glory at His right hand. That's the means God uses to 
prevent us from slipping. We see our Christ there. We know 
what our Christ did. He's climbed that same mountain. He has suffered. He came down the mountain first 
by becoming man. And he took that same path. that you're currently on. It's 
a path of suffering and trials and difficulties, but it's a 
path that leads to glory in His presence at the end. So when 
we know our God, we can be strong in the battle, strong in the 
race, strong in that ascent of our life into His presence. And 
we can trust Him for the strength to keep us from slipping and 
to be able to put one foot in front of the other. in our walk 
through this life. Because there may be times when 
your path of life up this mountain is a gentle winding path through 
green pastures beside still waters, but often the path of life is 
hard and it's arduous and it's tiring at times. And you might feel like that 
today, that tired, that weariness of life. There's so much opposition. 
There's so much trials and setbacks and difficulties. You feel those 
thorns and those thistles, you know, tangled around you, trying 
to pull you down, as it were. But he promises here that he 
will not allow that to happen. He will not allow your foot to 
be moved, your foot to slip. And again, if you know Him, you 
can better trust Him. And that's the means by which 
He keeps your feet from slipping. Isaiah chapter 40 says, with wings like eagles. See, 
it doesn't mean when you trust in the Lord, it doesn't mean 
the path suddenly becomes easy, and suddenly every path is through 
green pastures and by still waters. It's not like that. It still may be steep, treacherous, 
difficult, but when we know who he is, we can persevere, we can 
trust him, we can go in his strength, to keep one foot in front of 
the other and keep pressing on to glory where he's waiting. 
He watches over us. He knows us. He cares for us. We may be tired and we may be 
weary, but he never slumbers or sleeps, 
he tells us here. He never grows weary. He watches 
over his people, all his people. He never has to take a nap, or 
he's never too busy somewhere else and gets tired from taking 
care of an orphanage in Myanmar that he's too busy over there 
to take care of you here today. He knows all things. He knows his people. He knows 
his own people. There's people that He has released 
from bondage and has sent on that journey up this mountain. 
He knows them. Nahum 1 verse 7, the Lord is 
good, a stronghold in the day of trouble, and He knows those 
who trust in Him. He knows them. He's the keeper 
of Israel. Behold, he who keeps Israel, 
the Shumer Yisrael, the keeper of Israel, watching over his 
people, keeping them, protector. That's what keep means, to protect. 
He protects them. You may be weary, but he never 
is weary. He never ceases doing what he 
promised he will do to protect you. to give you the strength to keep 
going, even when the path may be very hard. You can put one 
foot in front of the other and you can keep going up this mountain. Glory awaits you at the top. He's your keeper. He never slumbers 
nor sleeps. In verse 5, the Yahweh is your 
keeper. The Lord is your shade at your 
right hand. The sun shall not strike you 
by day, nor the moon by night. The Lord is your keeper." Again, 
go back to the garden. Adam was to be the keeper of the garden, 
Genesis 2.15. The protector. He was to protect 
not only the garden, but he was to protect his wife and to protect 
his offspring, had he followed through. from anything evil, 
anything that would seek to ruin the goodness that he enjoyed. 
But Adam didn't protect his bride, his wife. He should have grabbed 
that serpent. The moment he sensed what that 
serpent was up to, he should have grabbed that serpent by 
the scruff of its neck. And I don't know if serpents 
have necks. I guess they're all neck. He should have grabbed 
them by its neck and put it out of the garden, back into the 
wilderness where it came from. But he didn't. And now, as Peter 
says, that the serpent, the devil, he still goes about like a roaring 
lion, seeking whom he may devour. He's still out there. We saw 
in Thessalonians, we didn't really see it too much, but Satan was 
hindering Paul on his mission, on his life. And Satan is still 
out there seeking to hinder, seeking whom he may devour. But 
we have a promise here from Yahweh for his people that are on this 
journey and he will be our keeper. He, Yahweh himself, keeping us 
from the mouth of that roaring lion, from the devil, swallowing 
us up and taking us back for himself. Yahweh himself, as the second 
person of the Trinity takes upon Himself, our humanity, to come 
to rescue His bride, to free them from the clutches 
of our captor, and to protect us from Him, so we never need 
to fear being captured again by Satan. In simple terms, When the Lord saves His people, 
He does not lose them. No one can snatch them out of 
my hands, He says. We don't need to fear. The Lord 
will protect us. Yes, we may face His hindrances, the hindrances 
of Satan. Yes, we may face the effects 
of the curse all around us, the thorns and thistles of life, 
but none of that can keep us from arriving at our destination 
in glory. He always is our protector. He's 
our keeper. He promises to be there with 
us as well. He's waiting for us in glory, 
but He's also there with us as we go through this life. He is 
your shade at your right hand. There's two ways in which we 
can understand this here. is that he's like your shadow. 
He's your shade at your right hand. He's your shadow that never 
leaves you. You think of David climbing that 
mountain, and the sun is beating upon him, and as he looks down, 
he sees his shadow, and his shadow takes a step with him. Every 
time he steps another foot in front of the other, the shadow 
is with him. Yahweh is like that shadow with 
him every step of the way, bringing him into his presence in the 
temple in Jerusalem. It's like that for us. Yahweh 
is there every step of the way, ensuring we arrive in His presence. And more so, God is not only 
like the shadow that's being cast at our side, but He's also 
casting a shadow over us or a shade over us to protect us and to 
give us a reprieve from the heat. So whatever it is in our life, 
maybe right now, you're facing something that feels like it's 
sapping your energy. It's drying you out like the 
blistering heat of the sun. Whatever trial it may be, whatever 
it is, whatever we're facing, and it doesn't matter how small 
it is either. There's no trial in life. too small, where God 
says, you're on your own, you can take care of that one yourself. 
He never says that. Every trial, everything that 
we face, everything we go through in this life, He knows, He cares, 
He protects, He keeps us. He's promised to shade us here. It may still be hot, it may still 
be difficult, but it will not overcome you. 
It will not cause you to die of heat exhaustion before you 
reach the top. It cannot overcome you. He promises, 
he who began a good work in you will complete it to the day of 
Christ. He promises you will make it, 
not on your own strength, but on the strength that he gives 
his people. No matter how steep the path 
is, No matter the trial, you'll never slip and fall to your spiritual 
death. He promises, neither height, 
nor depth, nor any created thing will separate you from the love 
that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. And that brings us to the preservation, 
the climber's preservation. Verse 7, the Lord shall preserve 
you From all evil, he shall preserve your soul. He shall preserve 
your soul. See, David knows. This wasn't 
ultimately about him climbing up this hill into Jerusalem. 
He knows that he's writing this, pointing us on that greater scale 
concerning our souls, our spiritual life, and entering into the presence 
of Yahweh for real, not just the temple. in Jerusalem. He will preserve 
your soul. It's not about a physical climb 
up a physical mountain to a physical city. It's a spiritual journey. He promises to preserve our souls. Again, it's not easy. There's 
so much opposition, thorns trying to entangle us, trying to impale 
us, trying to trip us, lions roaring, fiery serpents trying 
to bite us, so to speak. We face the curse. We face the 
curse in so many different ways through this life. As we go through 
this life living in a creation, as Paul says, groaning, waiting 
for the redemption, we face the curse. But God promises, none 
of that, none of that will cause you to lose your soul. Matthew 
Henry says, even that which kills you won't hurt you, because He 
will preserve your soul. Because He has made that path. He has blazed the trail into 
the presence of God. He came down that mountain, our 
Lord. He walked through the valley 
of the shadow of death. He died for our sin, but He was raised 
back up, and then He ascended into the presence of His Father. He made the way. He blazed the 
trail. And that's the confidence that 
we can have, that we will be kept, we will be preserved to 
that day, those who are in Christ, those who believe in Him. You 
will. You will be brought to glory 
because our Lord rose from the dead. He had conquered that curse. 
He had overcome it, paid for it in full, crushed the head 
of the serpent, overcome the curse, power over it. He has 
the keys of death and Hades now in His hand. He will bring us to glory. The outcome is certain. And why is that? He says He will preserve us from all 
evil. In the Hebrew, he will preserve 
us from all calamity or judgment is perhaps a better understanding 
of that. He will preserve us from judgment. The judgment that we deserve 
for our sins. The judgment, the calamity coming 
upon mankind. for their rebellion against their 
creator. You sin against Yahweh, this one who made heaven and 
earth, that means all things therein, that means you're sinning 
against your creator. And you deserve calamity, judgment, 
because of that sin. You can't break the law of your 
creator, the one whose existence you depend upon, and expect to 
get away with it. Sin must be punished. Judgment 
must be meted out. But he says he will preserve 
your soul. See, because he has provided 
a shade for you. He's your shade at your right 
hand. He's provided a shade for you from that judgment. He will preserve us from that 
because he's protected us from that. And that shade, that protection, 
is Christ. Christ took the heat of the wrath 
of God for us. In our place, condemned, he stood. We sing that song, I'm sure you 
still, you sang it last week probably, after communion. In our place condemned, He stood. He took the wrath of God. He 
shields us from the wrath of God so that our soul may be preserved 
and so that our soul, so that we may be brought to glory. So, for the believer here, if 
you're struggling, your life is hard, it's difficult, and 
again, nothing is too small for the Lord to care about. But remember this, if you're 
feeling weary and struggling, you've been shielded from the 
wrath of God that you deserved for violating His laws. Because 
you're no different than that first Adam in the garden who 
didn't listen to God, who didn't obey God's command, and chose 
the lie of the devil instead of to believe and trust in the 
goodness of God. He thought the devil's way seemed 
so much better, that fruit looked so tasty. And maybe it was, for 
a second, as he swallowed it, as he ate it, it might have tasted 
good, but immediately he was abandoned. And immediately he 
realized, when I say abandoned, I say abandoned 
by the devil, who had no interest, did not have his best interest 
in mind, Adams, even though he said he did. But we're no different. We have all sinned. We all thought 
sin was the better option, and it looked good, and maybe for 
a moment it tasted good when we engaged in sin and violated 
His law. But it leaves us all in the same 
place as Adam, out from God, cut off, exiled, in bondage. But God came down the mountain, 
Christ came to rescue us, and he did so by shielding us from 
the wrath, by dying in our place, bearing the wrath of God for 
us, so that we can be forgiven. That's one of the greatest, greatest 
encouragements for the Christian, to press on. And to keep running 
that race, to put another foot in front of the other, no matter 
how tired you may feel. He promises to give you the strength, 
and He promises to be with you, but He's forgiven your sin. Was 
it the one that we sang, the bliss of this glorious thought, 
my sin not in part, but the whole? is nailed to the cross and I 
bear it no more. Praise the Lord. It's amazing when we think about 
that. Full atonement, as we sing in Man of Sorrows. Full atonement, 
can it be? Can it really be? Full atonement, 
every one of our sins forgiven. And it can be, and it is. Because we've been shielded because 
of our Savior. And therefore we've been forgiven. 
Forgiven by Yahweh, the Great I Am, our Creator, the Creator 
of heaven and earth has forgiven us because of Christ and we are 
His. We belong to Him. What an encouragement 
that is. And that's our conclusion, the 
final encouragement and conclusion to this psalm here in verse 8. 
The Lord shall preserve. You're going out and you're coming 
in from this time forth and forevermore. This is what we need, week in 
and week out, to hear from our God, to be reminded of our Christ, 
of what He has done for us. And that gives us the strength 
to go out again, another week. Think of David and the Israelites 
in this context here. They ascended, just like I said 
in the beginning, Adam, he was given every day He got to, before 
the task was done, but he would get one day where he could, he 
was to go back up that mountain and go back into the garden with 
him, with his children. He would get to rest for a day, 
and he would get to enjoy God's presence for a day. But it was 
just a day, and it was just a taste of what was to come when he finished 
that task. And for Israel, they had the 
same thing. Every Sabbath day, every seven days, they would 
come in out of their fields. where they had been living their 
lives and doing their thing and they're working in their fields 
and hoeing the thistles and pulling out thorns and thistles and laboring. But every Sabbath day they would 
get to come back singing these songs and they would get to come 
into Jerusalem and they would get to meet with God in the temple. But then the next day, the first 
day, Or the next day, then they would descend. They would go 
out, back out of the city, back into those plains again. And 
they would continue their work, fighting enemies, fighting thorns 
and thistles in their garden. And in Christ, when we are in 
Christ, we again are offered a weekly taste of what is to 
come. And that weekly taste is what 
keeps us pressing on. Every Sunday, every Lord's Day, 
is a Sabbath day where we get to stream in. You get to stream 
in from the four corners of the Fraser Valley and stream into 
this place here and meet with God in his presence. Remember what I said earlier, 
the greatest gift that God could have offered man as a reward 
for his work was eternal rest in his presence. There's nothing 
better than that, to be in the immediate presence of God with 
our Savior in glory forever. The best gift God could have 
ever offered man. And I would argue then the second 
best gift is a weekly taste of that in His presence on the Lord's 
Day. Don't undervalue that, brethren. 
Take the Lord's Day seriously. You get to come in and learn 
and hear from this God as He speaks to you through the preaching 
of the Word and He reveals Himself to you through His Word by the 
power of His Spirit. And you get a taste, just a small 
taste, of what is to come. I know that's not the point of 
this sermon so much the Sabbath day concept, but yet we can't 
miss that. We can't miss that reality that 
every Lord's Day we get to come into His presence. We get to 
come, we sing, we rejoice, we gather with His people in this 
small local expression of that greater church. And we come and 
we meet with Him. We hear from Him. And then on 
Monday, tomorrow, we go back out. Back out down the mountain, 
so to speak, back into the fields of our life where we work. And 
we do our callings and our duties and our responsibilities, and 
we are contending with the thorns and the thistles of life in this 
lower world. But God promises here, He will 
preserve your going out and your coming in. From this time forth, 
now, as each week goes by, each week, week after week, but then 
one day, that journey will be done. One day, we'll have reached 
the top. And when we pass into his presence, and now that happens in a sense 
when we die, but in the fullest sense of that last day, when 
our Lord returns, And his kingdom is complete. And he presents 
us to the Father. And as Hebrews says, he quotes, 
or he says there, here am I and the children you have given me. 
And Christ presents us to his Father. Christ, the faithful 
Adam, the faithful man who did the Father's desires and obeyed 
his will. And he presents us to God. and 
says, look, Father, I've rescued them all. Every single one of 
those children you gave me, I've rescued them, and here they are. 
And then we'll hear the Father say to him, well done, good and 
faithful servant. You've done, you've done my will, 
you've done the will of your Father. Enter into the joy of 
your Lord. You and all of those children 
whom you have brought here. That's what we have. in our future, 
for those who are God's people, those who believe on Christ, 
in the Lord Jesus as their Savior. We have glory awaiting us, and 
be encouraged by this. This psalm was written by a man 
in the thick of it, so to speak, a man dealing with the cares 
of life, It's written by a man in the 
thick of it for us in the thick of it. The busyness, the cares, the 
trials, the overwhelm, struggles, disappointments. He knows what 
you're going through. He's not too weary. He never 
gets tired. He knows. He's never too busy. He's bringing 
you to glory. He guarantees that. He guarantees 
that protection over you. You have nothing to fear in this 
life. Look to Zion. Behold your God. You have nothing to fear. He 
promises to preserve you till that day, to bring you to glory, 
to be with Him forevermore. There's nothing greater than 
that. If you're here this evening, 
this afternoon, and you are not a believer in this one, this 
morning we looked at 1 Thessalonians, the freeness, 1 Thessalonians 
2, the freeness of the gospel. It costs nothing. It costs nothing 
to believe in this one. You have nothing to lose. Nothing 
to lose. You have everything to gain. 
to be in His presence, to enjoy His goodness, abundance, life 
eternal with Him. So believe on Him, trust in Him, 
repent, acknowledge you've sinned against the Creator who made 
heaven and earth, and that you deserve the calamity of verse 
7. You deserve the judgment for 
your sin. But God is offering you this 
now, free, to believe on Him. And He will, right now, picture 
yourself as though, to use the imagery we've seen here, as though 
you're tangled in thorns. You're caught in the thicket. 
You can't get out. Judgment's coming. But if you 
look to Him, He releases you from that. Your chains What does 
the hymn writer say? My chains fell off, my heart 
was free, a rose went forth and followed thee. When you believe 
on Him, that's what happens. You're freed from that punishment. 
You're free and you follow Him. And you're on that journey now 
up the mountain to where He is in glory. There's nothing better. 
So believe on Him and you'll be saved. I hope we're encouraged 
by this psalm here. May we, as we go out into our 
weeks tomorrow, The Lord will preserve you week after week 
until he brings you home to glory with him. Let's close there in 
prayer. Our Father, I do pray that you 
would take your word and bring it to bear upon the hearts of 
your people. Lord, may the sheep of this flock be greatly encouraged 
today. Lord, may you use this word however 
you have ordained it to be used. For Your glory we pray in Jesus' 
name, Amen.