Very early in my Christian life, I became concerned about the problem of perseverance. I was conscious of my own weakness, and I knew that Satan would put many snares in my path to destroy my faith. One of the verses in Amazing Grace says: “Through many dangers toils and snares I have already come.” At that point in my Christian life I was aware that these dangers toils and snares lay ahead of me, rather than behind me. I wanted to follow the Lord faithfully to the end, but I felt overwhelmed by the possibility of falling away. Robert Robinson, in his hymn, "Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing," was aware of this same possibility when he wrote "Prone to wander, Lord I feel it, prone to leave the God I love." He had lived a notoriously sinful life until he was converted under the ministry of George Whitefield. He then went on to become a preacher, and wrote a number of books and hymns. But later on in his life he turned away.
When I was in High School, I had three friends who were serious Christians. I wasn't a believer at the time, but they made an impression on me. They were different in a way that I respected, and they seemed to know something about fellowship with God. I became a Christian about a year after I graduated, and, since I didn't have many models to look to, I often thought about these three and found encouragement from their example. (I had left the area by this time and couldn't speak to them personally). Today, none of them are following the Lord; all three have turned away, for one reason or another.
A little over a year after I became a Christian, I turned away for about 8 months or so and tried desperately to erase the reality of God’s presence from my memory. But everywhere I turned, I found Him relentlessly pursuing me, and finally, early in 1976, I bowed before His lordship and have not turned away since that time. But for the first few years after that experience I was really fearful of the possibility of falling away again. I had seen, from experience, that I was “prone to wander,” and I was constantly on my guard against the danger. Eugene Peterson tells about growing up in the church with an acute awareness of the danger of backsliding: “Backslider was a basic word in the religious vocabulary that I learned as I grew up. Exempla were on display throughout the town: people who had made a commitment of faith to our Lord, were active in our little church and who lost their footing on the ascent to Christ and backslid.... Backsliding was everywhere and always an ominous possibility. Warnings were frequent and the sad consequences on public display. The mood was anxious and worried. I was taught to take my spiritual temperature every day, or at least every week; if it was not exactly ‘normal,’ there was general panic. I got the feeling that backsliding was not something you did, it happened to you. It was an accident that intruded on the unwary or an attack that involved the undefended” (A Long Obedience in the Same Direction, pp. 79-80). That’s a pretty accurate description of the way I looked at backsliding in the first few years of my Christian life.
The author of Psalm 125 sees things very differently. The life of faith is not something precarious. It’s not like “walking a tightrope without a safety net.” It’s more like sitting in a fortress (Peterson, p. 80). “Those who trust in the Lord are like Mount Zion, which cannot be shaken but endures forever.” The psalmist is surrounded by difficulties and dangers. His pilgrimage has not been easy, and at times he’s been reduced to despair. But he’s not worried about whether his strength will hold out or whether he’ll accidentally get knocked off the path. “Those who trust in the Lord are like Mount Zion, which cannot be shaken but endures forever.”
The focus of Psalm 124 is on the Lord’s faithfulness in the past. He’s looking back and rejoicing in God’s deliverance from trouble. “If the Lord had not been on our side... when men attacked us, when their anger flared against us, they would have swallowed us alive.... Praise be to the Lord, who has not let us be torn by their teeth.... Our help is in the name of the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth.” He’s learned from experience that God is faithful. The focus in Psalm 125 is on God’s faithfulness in the future. Knowing that God has cared for us in the past doesn’t help unless we’re assured that He will continue to watch over us in the future. Unless we have some assurance that God won’t change His mind about us and decide that maybe we just aren’t worth all the trouble, we’re going to be plagued by uncertainty and insecurity. We’ll be constantly taking our spiritual pulse and wondering whether our strength will hold out until the end.
First, notice that the psalmist is confident about the future because of God’s relationship with His people: “As the mountains surround Jerusalem, so the Lord surrounds his people both now and forevermore.” The source of his confidence doesn’t rest in himself. He’s confident, not because he hopes that maybe he’ll be able to hang on till the end. He’s confident because he knows that God is hanging onto him.
Part of the problem early in my Christian life was that I was aware of the necessity of perseverance. I knew, without a doubt, that perseverance in faith is a necessary part of our salvation. The New Testament has very stern warnings for those who commit apostasy, who turn finally and completely away from the Lord. In speaking about the end times, Jesus says: “Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, but he who stands firm to the end will be saved” (Matthew 24: 12-13). Paul says, in writing to the Colossians: “But now he has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in his sight without blemish and free from accusation–if you continue in your faith, established and firm, not moved from the hope held out in the gospel” (Colossians 1:22–23). And the letter to the Hebrews, written to people who were on the verge of turning away, is full of warnings about the consequences of turning our backs on the only hope of salvation. He warns them and exhorts them to remain faithful, as in this passage: “We want each of you to show this same diligence to the very end, in order to make your hope sure. We do not want you to become lazy, but to imitate those who through faith and patience inherit what has been promised” (Hebrews 6:11-12). I had read all these verses and more, and I was very much aware of my own weakness. But I thought it all depended on me. I thought God would protect me as long as I trusted Him to do so, but it was possible that I might someday find myself unable to trust in Him. What would happen to me then? God had been protecting me, but He had done so because of my faith, and if my faith failed in the future all would be lost. I was depending on God in a sense, but His protection was only available if I was aware of, and trusting in, Him. Ultimately, my faith was the most important thing in my long-term survival as a Christian.
If it depends on us, of course we’re not going to have much confidence. We’re weak, and fickle. We make new resolutions at the beginning of the year, but most of them don’t survive for even a month. The psalmist has made a good start, and he’s learned from painful experience that God is faithful to His people. But he’s also aware that God will be faithful to him in the future, that “God surrounds his people both now and forevermore.” He doesn’t say: “God surrounds his people, as long as their faith is strong.” Sometimes their faith is weak. Sometimes they feel abandoned, and aren’t even aware of His protection. Sometimes they completely lose hope.
I’m glad Psalm 88 is in the Bible. In many of the Psalms, the author begins by crying out in distress and need, but most of the time his hope is restored by the end of the Psalm. But not always. Psalm 88 begins: “O Lord, the God who saves me, day and night I cry out before you. May my prayer come before you; turn your ear and hear my cry. For my soul is full of trouble and my life draws near the grave” (vv. 1-3). The psalmist cries out repeatedly, but he seems to find no sense of comfort. Here he is, near the end of the psalm: “But I cry to you for help, O Lord; in the morning my prayer comes before you. Why, O Lord, do you reject me and hide your face from me?” (vv. 13-14). God seems distant, even though the psalmist is crying out to Him and is in desperate need. And then the psalm ends with these words: “You have taken my companions and loved ones from me; the darkness is my closest friend” (v. 18). The psalmist is in despair, and he is crying out to God, but he finds no comfort. Everything around him is dark and hopeless. Sometimes life is like that, in this fallen world. God doesn’t always respond on our timetable. But even in those dark times, it’s true that “God surrounds his people, both now and forevermore.” The thing that sets God’s people apart is not that they always feel good about things; it’s not that we’re always overflowing with hope. Sometimes we become overwhelmed and lose sight of the truth about ourselves in Christ. But God is among us, even when we’re unable to perceive His presence. And because He surrounds us, we cannot be shaken.
The next thing to notice here, in verse 3, is that God places limits on the bad things that happen to us. “The scepter of the wicked will not remain over the land allotted to the righteous.” This psalm was probably written sometime after the captivity in Babylon. The people were taken captive for 70 years, and a remnant returned after Babylon was overthrown. But they were under foreign domination from this point on (apart from a very brief interlude during the Maccabean period). The “scepter of the wicked” was over their land. God had permitted His people to be ruled by pagan nations. But the author is saying that this will not always be true. God has set a time limit on the rule of wicked people.
In setting a boundary on evil, God is preserving His people: “for then the righteous might use their hands to do evil.” Without this certainty that God is one day going to set things right, that He is going to create a just and perfect world, God’s people might be tempted to take matters into their own hands. They might be tempted to do evil, in the hopes of somehow making things better, at least for awhile. Some of the worst atrocities in history have been committed by people who were trying to create a more just society. What happened? Were they intent on evil from the beginning? No, they earnestly desired to create a better world, but they ran into the problem of human sinfulness. They found that most people really don’t care about justice, as long as their needs are being met. So, in order to create a more perfect society, the revolutionaries decided to kill off those in power. Society needed to be purged of their evil influence. But as they carried this out, the revolutionaries found themselves corrupted and twisted. They became worse than the tyrants they replaced. Most revolutions in the past century promised to help the poor and oppressed, but in reality they have only resulted in worse oppression as the new leaders have become corrupted by power and violence. In setting a limit on evil, God is protecting His people from starting down this road; “for then the righteous might use their hands to do evil.” God assures us that the scepter of the wicked will not remain.
In describing the dark times before His return, Jesus said this: “For then there will be great distress, unequaled from the beginning of the world until now–and never to be equaled again. If those days had not been cut short, no one would survive, but for the sake of the elect those days will be shortened” (Matthew 24:21-22). For the sake of His people, God will not permit those days to continue; He’s placed a limit on those evil days. And God also prevents us from being tempted beyond our ability to endure: “No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it” (1 Corinthians 10:13). God is protecting us. Evil is both temporary and limited.
Often it’s not limited as much as we’d like. Several years ago I heard a testimony from a woman who had been a missionary in Africa. She had been there for some years, when a movement rose up to overthrow the government. But in addition to fighting the government, they were committing atrocities against foreigners. She said she prayed during that time and told the Lord that she was prepared to lay down her life for Him, but that she couldn’t endure it if they raped her. But that’s what happened, and she was able to testify later that she was aware of God’s presence strengthening and protecting her, even though her worst fears were being realized. And she was able to testify to the reality of God’s grace and love in the midst of horrible outward circumstances. “Those who trust in the Lord are like Mount Zion, which cannot be shaken but endures forever.” Evil is temporary and limited, and He strengthens us to bear the evil which we are called to endure.
God preserves us and keeps us. But there’s always a danger of presumption. There are those who hear a message like this and say, “it doesn’t matter what I do. God will protect and keep me.” Does this psalm give us grounds for carelessness in our spiritual lives? Will God keep us in the faith no matter what we do? Look at verses 4-5. The psalmist prays that God will “do good... to those who are good, to those who are upright in heart. But those who turn to crooked ways the Lord will banish with the evildoers.” He’s praying for God to protect and preserve those who are seeking to follow Him, but he’s also assured that God will remove those who are intent on apostasy. They will be banished with the evildoers.
There are people who make a profession of faith, enter into the life of the church and make considerable progress, but then something happens and they turn away and never return. A friend of mine had a seminary teacher that he really admired. He was a competent New Testament scholar. But he also had a strong emphasis on the importance of godly living, and he really stood out on the seminary faculty, where some of the teachers seemed more intent on academic ability than spiritual maturity. I met him once and was impressed with him. But he decided to walk away from the faith. He left his wife and children behind, moved in with another woman and became a Buddhist. As far as I know he’s never returned.
What should we make of a story like that, and how should it influence us? I don’t know what was going on in this man’s heart at the moment when he finally decided to walk away from God, but I do know that it didn’t happen all at once. My friend said, looking back, that he could see signs that the man was headed in that direction. A former pastor of mine once said: “There are no blowouts in the Christian life, only slow leaks.” This man had been walking away from God for a long time before it became evident in his outward behavior.
It’s not easy to walk away from God. We all have times when we are dry spiritually, when we have no desire to read the Bible or pray. But God keeps us during those times. Apostasy isn’t something that just happens to us while we’re not paying attention. I turned away for 8 months in 1975, and it just about killed me. I did everything I knew to keep God out of my conscious awareness, but in early 1976, I came to the end of myself and turned back to the Lord. He doesn’t make it easy on us when we try to run from Him. Francis Thompson was an opium addict in London in the late 1800's, and he wrote a poem called “The Hound of Heaven,” describing his efforts to flee from God and God’s insistent pursuit of him. He says “I fled Him, down the nights and down the days; I fled Him, down the arches of the years; I fled Him, down the labyrinthine ways Of my own mind; and in the mist of tears I hid from Him....” He describes, at great length, fleeing from “those strong Feet that followed, followed after.” But there’s a constant awareness, throughout the poem, that God is pursuing him: “But with unhurrying chase, And unperturbed pace, Deliberate speed, majestic instancy, They beat–and a Voice beat More instant than the Feet–‘All things betray thee, who betrayest Me.’” God wouldn’t let him go, and everything that he tried, in his attempts to drown the voice of God, ended up betraying him, so that at the end he found himself defeated and joyfully reconciled to this One who had lovingly pursued him.
It’s not easy to walk away from God. My experience was very much like that of Francis Thompson (although it didn’t last as long). Here’s what Eugene Peterson says: “it is not possible to drift unconsciously from faith to perdition. We wander like lost sheep, true; but he is a faithful shepherd who pursues us relentlessly. We have our ups and downs, zealously believing one day and gloomily doubting the next, but he is faithful. We break our promises, but he doesn’t break his. Discipleship is not a contract in which if we break our part of the agreement he is free to break his; it is a covenant in which he establishes the conditions and guarantees the results. Certainly, you may quit if you wish. You may say no to God. It’s a free faith. You may choose the crooked way. He will not keep you against your will. But it is not the kind of thing you fall into by chance or slip into by ignorance. Defection requires a deliberate sustained and determined act of rejection” (A Long Obedience in the Same Direction, pp. 85-86).
The two extremes are presumption and paranoia. To those who presumptuously live careless lives, expecting that God will keep His end of the bargain no matter what, the answer is: “See to it, brothers, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God” (Hebrews 3:12). Presumption is one of the signs of a “sinful, unbelieving heart.” If you are guilty of this sort of attitude, the proper response is to cry out to God for mercy, and to ask Him to replace your sinful, unbelieving heart with a heart that bows before His lordship and longs to please Him in all things.
But to those who are fearful, the message is: “Those who trust in the Lord are like Mount Zion, which cannot be shaken but endures forever.” The Christian life is not like walking a tightrope, living constantly with the threat of falling to one side or the other. We fail, yes. We sin and rebel. But God has called us by His name; He has set His unchanging love upon us, and He has taken it upon Himself to bring us safely to His eternal kingdom. We set out on pilgrimage because He called us. But He doesn’t leave us on our own. He has promised to walk with us, even though at times we’re not aware of His presence.
Are you unsettled by some of the people who’ve traveled on pilgrimage toward God’s kingdom and then have turned away? Are you aware of your own weakness, so that at times you cry out, with Richard Robertson, “prone to wander, Lord I feel it, prone to leave the God I love”? Don’t be afraid. Cultivate a relationship with God. Seek to know Him and walk with Him, until you can’t bear the thought of being separated from His presence. This is the safest, surest way to avoid the extremes of presumption and paranoia.
Peter says something along these lines in his second letter. “His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires. For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love. For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But if anyone does not have them, he is nearsighted and blind, and has forgotten that he has been cleansed from his past sins. Therefore, my brothers, be all the more eager to make your calling and election sure. For if you do these things, you will never fall, and you will receive a rich welcome into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” (2 Peter 1:3-11). May God strengthen us all to seek Him and to continue seeking Him until that day when He welcomes us into His glorious presence.
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