After 6 psalms that touch on dangers, Psalm 125 focuses on how God is our safety, stability and protection in this hymn of trust. Jerusalem like 17 other cities in the world is built on 7 hills and the singers call attention to how God surrounds believers whose good hearts overflow to good works and protects them and they are as stable as mountains with his help and protection.

1. Discussion Guide
week 5 - Psalm 125
A song of trust

2. Prelude: Psalm 125
a short ‘road trip’ psalm in an upward climb to worship
As believers journeyed to the temple to worship, they sang the
Psalms of ascent. Early on, they spoke of dangers and obstacles to
each other. The first psalm which was entirely a prayer was Psalm
123 where they turned to God. Here, in Psalm 125, they sing a him
of trust and confidence.

3. So why the title?
Climbing the mountain of God
with the help of the smallest
of Psalms
Two reasons for the title:
• First, 7 of 10 of the shortest Psalms concern climbing the
mountain of God ( Ps 15, and 6 of the Psalms of ascents)
• Second, many of them touch on themes from the sermon
on the mount

4. The shortest of chapters in the Bible
make big statements perhaps in a less is more
manner.
We will assume there is a
reason God made these psalms
short and to the point and we seek to
glean their purpose and how it applies to us.
Prelude

5. And we will divide these 12 tiny Psalms
into 6 groups
group 1 group 2
ps 70
group 3a
ps 123, 125
and ps 15
group 5
ps 93,100
group 6
ps 117
group 3c
ps 131, 133, 134
‘Send out Your light and truth’ that
You might be my exceeding joy
Psalm 43
Psalm 15
6 of the 15 Psalms of
Ascent
are short Psalms
Who shall ascend the mount
of the Lord and
who shall sojourn in
Your tent (your tabernacle)
‘May all who seek you rejoice
and be glad in you
May those who love your salvation say evermore
‘God is great’
Psalm 70
group 3b
ps 127
we look to You until
You show us mercy
as the mountains
surround Jerusalem
so the Lord surrounds
His people

6. The first 5 Psalms of ascent touched directly or indirectly on problems
faced, scorners, contempt, longing for peace. Here the psalmist
reflects on safety for those who trust in God.
Our short psalm, Psalm 125
a 5 verse psalm in a upwards journey
Climbing the mountain God’s way

7. It is a short 5 verse Psalm
Our short psalm, Psalm 125
a short psalm in a long journey
Jerusalem is built on a massive rock hill, stable and secure.
And surrounded by six other hills with valleys

8. It is a short 5 verse Psalm
Our short psalm, Psalm 125
a short psalm in a long journey
The singers have walked through mountains upward toward
Jerusalem and looked at and considered the mountains in their one
step at a time journey. Here the mountains become a metaphor of
a believer being stable and secure as Mount Zion, then the six
surrounding mountains become a metaphor for God’s protection for
‘as the mountains surround Jerusalem so the Lord surrounds His
people.’

9. Mountains around Jerusalem
“Trusters in Jehovah shall be as fixed, firm, and stable as the
mount where David dwelt, and where the ark abode. To move
mount Zion was impossible: the mere supposition was absurd.”
Charles Spurgeon in The Treasury of David

10. The name of God and trust
This Psalm relates to trust in God and specifically YHWH
the covenant God of Abraham. Consider what aspects of
YHWH make Him ideal for trusting
no beginning
no end
absolute reality
utterly independent
everything else dependent
everything else nothing in comparison
constant
does what he pleases
standard of truth
absolute worth

11. Ponder
10 things YHWH means
from John Piper
God’s name is almost always translated LORD (all caps) in the English Bible. But
the Hebrew would be pronounced something like “Yahweh,” and is built on the
word for “I am.”
So every time we hear the word Yahweh, or every time you see LORD in the
English Bible, you should think: this is a proper name (like Peter or John) built out
of the word for “I am” and reminding us each time that God absolutely is.
There are at least 10 things the name Yahweh, “I AM,” says about God:
1. He never had a beginning. Every child asks, “Who made God?” And every wise
parent says, “Nobody made God. God simply is. And always was. No beginning.”
2. God will never end. If he did not come into being he cannot go out of being,
because he is being.
3. God is absolute reality. There is no reality before him. There is no reality outside
of him unless he wills it and makes it. He is all that was eternally. No space, no
universe, no emptiness. Only God.
4. God is utterly independent. He depends on nothing to bring him into being or
support him or counsel him or make him what he is.
5. Everything that is not God depends totally on God. The entire universe is utterly
secondary. It came into being by God and stays in being moment by moment on
God’s decision to keep it in

12. Ponder
10 things YHWH means
from John Piper
6. All the universe is by comparison to God as nothing. Contingent, dependent reality is
to absolute, independent reality as a shadow to substance. As an echo to a
thunderclap. All that we are amazed by in the world and in the galaxies, is, compared to
God, as nothing.
7. God is constant. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. He cannot be
improved. He is not becoming anything. He is who he is.
8. God is the absolute standard of truth and goodness and beauty. There is no law-
book to which he looks to know what is right. No almanac to establish facts. No guild to
determine what is excellent or beautiful. He himself is the standard of what is right,
what is true, what is beautiful.
9. God does whatever he pleases and it is always right and always beautiful and
always in accord with truth. All reality that is outside of him he created and designed
and governs as the absolute reality. So he is utterly free from any constraints that don’t
originate from the counsel of his own will.
10. God is the most important and most valuable reality and person in the universe. He
is more worthy of interest and attention and admiration and enjoyment than all other
realities, including the entire universe.

13. Jerusalem, a city of seven hills
…the City of Jerusalem as it existed in the time of Christ Jesus was also reckoned to be the "City of Seven Hills.”…
Those "seven hills" are easy to identify. If one starts with the Mount of Olives just to the east of
the main City of Jerusalem (but still reckoned to be located within the environs of
Jerusalem), there are three summits to that Mount of Olives:
The northern summit (hill) is called Scopus [Hill One],
The middle summit (hill) was called Nob [Hill Two],
The highest point of Olivet itself, and the southern summit (hill) was called in the Holy
Scriptures the "Mount of Corruption" or "Mount of Offence" [Hill Three] (II Kings
23:13).
On the middle ridge between the Kedron and the Tyropoeon Valleys there was (formerly) in
the south "Mount Zion" [Hill Four] (the original "Mount Zion" and not the later
southwest hill that was later called by that name),
The "Ophel Mount" [Hill Five],
To the north of that the "Rock" around which "Fort Antonia" was built [Hill Six],
And finally, there was the southwest hill itself [Hill Seven] that finally became known in
the time of Simon the Hasmonean as the new "Mount Zion.
from http://www.askelm.com/prophecy/p000201.htm

14. There are at least 17 cities in the world
built on 7 hills, according to Wikipedia,
perhaps speaking to a need of people of
safety, security
and beauty

15. Ponder
1) How might be mountains a good metaphor for God’s
protection of believers?
Mt Scopus

16. Ponder
1) What does it mean that ‘the scepter of wickedness shall not
rest on the land of the righteous lest the righteous stretch out
their hands and do evil?
2) What does it mean for the scepter of wickedness to rest on
the land
3) How does God restrain evil in our lives
Mt Nob

17. Ponder
1) What does it mean to trust in God ?
i. Consider the faith of Moses, Rahab or the thief on
the cross
2) What might look like trust in God but may be a dead faith?
i. Consider the faith of the people of Jericho who
heard of how the Jews were delivered, the plagues
on Egypt and crossed the sea and even after seeing
with their eyes the people who crossed the Jordan
opposed God, trusted in their walls.
ii. Consider Herod who feared the prophesy of a King
to come and thought he might stop God
Mt Olivet

18. Ponder
1) Why are their promises of safety and protection followed
by warnings of God leading away the wicked?
the original Mt Zion
was near the Kidron Valley

19. Ponder
1) How does the good or bad heart affect the
behaviors of the people in verses 4 and 5?
The good or the crooked
2) What does it mean to be good or to have
an upright heart
3) What does it mean to have a heart
inclined to follow wicked ways?
4) What brings peace?
Opel Mount

20. Ponder
1) What brings peace?
‘The Rock’
around which Fort Antonio
was built

21. Ponder
1) How do those who trust in God abide forever?
the new Mt Zion
outside Jerusalem

22. From ‘fighter verses’ from Bethlehem Baptist Church on Ps 125
http://fighterverses.com/blog-post/how-we-are-not-moved-jesus-in-psalm-125/
“Mount Zion cannot be shaken because another mountain was. Actually, it
was a hill, called Golgotha. Years after this psalm was written, one Friday
afternoon, at about the ninth hour, this promised King died. Jesus Christ
died for us, bearing the wrath we deserved. He suffered in our place,
making atonement for our sins. The only reason the Lord can "surround his
people from this time forth and forevermore" is because on that hill he
didn’t surround his Son. But this King would live forever. Yes, and after
his thorns and cross came his throne and crown. Jesus conquered our sin in
his death. Then he conquered death by his resurrection. And it’s because of
this — and this alone — that we can go about our days under the Lord‘s
invincible protection. The tomb is empty, Jesus reigns, and we cannot be
moved.?
Ponder
1) How might Christ be seen in Psalm 125?
How might Christ relate to Psalm 125
and a believers confidence?

23. fin’
discussion guide Psalm 125