Psalm 124

Psalm 124 is another short Psalm. It's a simple declaration of God's sovereign protection over our lives. Do you believe God's protecting you? Do you believe God protected you up until this point? Do you believe God protected you while you were walking away from Him? And for those of you who were raised in a Christian home and always walked with the Lord, if that's you, God bless you. Most of us don't have that sort of a testimony. Most of us began our lives living for self, walking in the passions of our flesh, going the way of the world. But do you believe that God protected you during that time? Do you believe that the Lord had His hand on you? I do. I believe the Lord had His hand on you. You just think about your life. Think about the things you've gone through. Think about the challenges you've had. Think about the close calls that you've had in your life. Most of you should probably be dead, just from what you've gone through. But you're here. You're still here and God has had His hand on you. I don't know if I... I would like to think I would have believed what this psalm has to say. But the Lord actually said it to me. He actually told me that. In a... Years and years ago, in fact, it was when I was ordained. When the elders were laying hands on me. And I was a fairly young man. I guess I was probably in my late twenties at the time. But one of the things the Lord said to me was, first of all, He said, I knew you when you knew Me not. And then He said to me, you often wondered why the things of this world didn't satisfy you. And the Lord said, it's because I had My hand on you the whole time. And at first I thought, "Wow, that's really cool! I mean, and it is still cool. But you know what? I think He did that to you too. Even if He didn't say it to you. I think that He has had His hand on you. And He's kept you and He's walked you through what you've gone through in life to bring you to where you are today. Where you're sitting in church and you're hearing the Word of God. And you're... And hopefully being encouraged by it.

This is a beautiful Psalm, verse 1. Look at what it begins to say. And this is a great question. It's not really formed as a question, but we could form it that way. It says,

And the question that it forms is: Have you ever thought about that - what your life would be like if the Lord had not kept you? If the Lord had not been on your side? Have you ever thought about where you would be today? If you would even be alive? I've thought about it. I've actually thought about it. Because I had the early years of my adult life not walking with the Lord, never darkening the door of a church, never wanting to, never reading my Bible, even though I had one somewhere tucked away, gathering dust. I never read it. And I didn't care to. And that was my life. And I think about what would have happened if that life would have continued. And the Lord had not been on my side to bring me through all that idiotic, foolishness of those early years. I'll tell you, I know my life would have been a continual train wreck. I know it would have been. Because I started to see that train wreck happening in those early years of my life. I started to see it happening. You guys have heard me say, how many times have you heard me say, that after the first five years... Sue and I didn't make it five years in marriage before we were ready to get divorced. Five years into it, we were absolutely a train wreck martially speaking. It was horrible. And I know that had the Lord not had His hand on my life, I probably would have ruined every relationship I ever would have gotten into. And probably all the people who ever loved me and cared about me, I would have burned those bridges. When you think about your life and you think about what the psalmist is saying here, when he says, if it had not been for the Lord, we would have been swallowed up. And you and I can say that. If it had not been for the Lord, my sinful life would have swallowed me up, swallowed me whole. He says,

And there's this picture of this like tsunami, that just rolls through the land, taking everything with it: houses and cars and people. And just... He says,

And that's a pretty powerful friend to have on your side. The One who made heaven and earth. ---