Dartmouth Bible Notes Notes from the Pulpit Ministry of Dartmouth Bible Church Series: Hope in God, Lesson 13 Scripture: various Speaker: Rev. Neil C. Damgaard, Th.M., D.Min. Date: August 19th, 2018
Hope of Safety
Psalm 121 (ESV) A SONG OF ASCENTS I lift up my eyes to the hills. From where does my help come? My help comes from the LORD, who made heaven and earth. He will not let your foot be moved; He who keeps you will not slumber. Behold, he who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep. The LORD is your keeper; the LORD is your shade on your right hand. The sun shall not strike you by day, nor the moon by night. The LORD will keep you from all evil; he will keep your life. The LORD will keep your going out and your coming in from this time forth and forevermore.
Introduction We have been looking at different aspects of “hope” and last week was a tough one to consider—do we still have hope even in the middle of desperate loss? Today I want to think about another side of hope: as it relates to our desire or passion to be safe. How does a Christian manage hope in this area?
As I drove home Thursday afternoon, thinking about how to talk about “safety”, flowing out from a hope-standpoint as a Christian, I had the dark thought, “I could get hit by a bigger vehicle on the way home, here, and be terribly injured.”
Or I could be sitting in Starbucks and a crazy gunman come in and mow down all the customers.
Twice Susanna and I have watched the 2005 film Grizzly Man about Timothy Treadwell (1957-2003) who after thirteen summers studying and living among grizzly bears in Alaska, finally gets eaten by one, along with his girlfriend. Last week Susanna decided to detour around a section of the Great Divide Trail in Canada where there were apparently some grizzly attacks on mountain bikers – who at their speed while biking, confused some grizzlies into thinking they were lunch. I live in fear for my daughter these days—as fearless and adventurous as she is. (She takes awesome pictures, by the way).
I could be overcome by the Whopper demon and against my will be dragged into the drive-through lane at Burger King and with my mouth moving involuntarily, cry out (in a garbled, gravel-voice), “May I have a Sour Dough King burger please, a large order of onion rings, an order of spicy nuggets, an Oreo Cookie Cheesecake with a large regular Dr. Pepper?” “No, NOT Diet.” Safety is a thing we think about a lot;
we invest a fair amount of money in the attempt to stay safe and to protect our families; we are pretty careful in what we eat. We are far more watchful for contamination in our food than were our forefathers. we are very sensitive about our national safety these days; some of us get martial arts training; some of us carry firearms; some of us walk around the park with a pit bull; we install alarms; when we drive we are surrounded by air bags; we even designate each other sometimes as “toxic” and then distance ourselves because we don’t feel “safe”.
We are greatly interested in safety. But the question is,
“Can we hope for it, flowing out of our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ?” Can we expect God to keep us safe in this life for however long it is that we are ordained to live on this planet? Do we, as followers and believers in Jesus Christ, own some special guarantee for safety? I would like it, if we do!
Psalm 121 is my 4th favorite psalm (after 139, 1 and 51). Many years ago I put it to music in a song (which I won’t impose on you today). It is subtitled “A Song of Ascents” so at least, my putting it to music was appropriate. A Song of Ascents is a title given to fifteen of the Psalms, 120–134 (119–133 in the Septuagint and the Vulgate), each starting with the superscription
.("meaning "song of the ascents שִׁ יר המַ עֲלֹות :SHIR HAMA'ALOTH (Hebrew
They are also variously called Gradual Psalms, Songs of Degrees, Songs of Steps or Pilgrim Songs1. Some scholars think the Hebrew people would sing songs like this as they ascended into the higher elevation of Jerusalem from the lower countryside. Others think these were written when the writers would ascend to the tabernacle area or to the Temple after Solomon built it. At any rate, these fifteen songs were used while walking or moving gradually up to some significant place.
I love this psalm. It is written by someone who trusted God to keep him safe. That is something of a mystery to my weak faith. I can testify to many times that I know God DID keep me safe. If I review the last 46 years that I have
1 Wikipedia article 2 walked with the Lord Jesus by faith I can surely see many times (and I am sure there are many more that I did NOT see) when He kept me safe. But to sing or write a song as I’m walking uphill… The complete confidence given in song by this psalmist, awes me. This psalmist says that God doesn’t go to sleep “on watch”, at least insofar as protecting him, the psalmist is concerned.
But when I think about some of the main people of the Bible it is clear that while they somehow trusted God to keep them ultimately safe, there is very little temporal safety in the Bible. Able was not safe, as his brother turned on him. Joseph was not safe as HIS brothers betrayed him. Moses was unsafe when the decree went out… but WAS kept safe as he was placed in a basket and floated up river. Was the prophet Jonah kept safe? That is an interesting question—the answer is a conditional “yes”. He did not die in the storm or as fish food. He lived through that, even as the God who doesn’t sleep watched over him. He didn’t die from the pagan Ninevites or from the scorching sun either.
Knowing that Jerusalem would eventually be subject to siege, Hezekiah had been preparing for some time by fortifying the walls of the capital, building towers, and constructing a tunnel to bring fresh water to the city from a spring outside its walls. He made at least two major preparations that would help Jerusalem to resist conquest: the construction of the Siloam Tunnel, and construction of the Broad Wall. Later in his life, Hezekiah was ill with a boil or an inflammation which Isaiah initially thought would be fatal. The narrative of his sickness and miraculous recovery is found in 2 Kings 20:1, 2 Chronicles 32:24 and Isaiah 38:1. The Bible says that his righteousness postured Hezekiah to be given certain safe passages through various trials.
And Psalm 1:3 says the man whose delight is in the law of the Lord will be like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers.
The apostles of Jesus were kept safe most of the time while they were with Jesus—with a couple of scary incidents when they might not have felt safe: 1) Peter sinking into the water; 2) Peter and James and John on the mountain when the cloud appears; 3) Peter on the night Jesus was arrested. But after the ascension and the disciples now find themselves being apostles, all trouble breaks loose! Peter and John are arrested. Paul is arrested, beaten, and on and on. Even surviving a shipwreck and the snakebite afterwards on Malta, he lived. SAFETY SEEMS TO ME TO BE PART OF THE STORY OF MANY BIBLICAL CHARACTERS, BUT DOESN’T MEAN THEY WERE NEVER AT RISK OR NEVER WERE INCONVENIENCED OR EVEN HURT. Safety only seems to be the last concern of the apostles as they move out and share the news of Jesus Christ to far-away places. Every one except John is martyred for their obedience to the Great Commission. The heroes of the faith
3 seem, implicitly in the text, to be RESIGNED TO GOD’S PROVIDENCE in their lives. At the same time I don’t see too much evidence of foolish risk-taking with them.
Esther took a risk but she sought prayer support before she did it. Joseph and Mary lived at risk and amd were told by God to relocate to Egypt for a while (which they did) to avoid growing danger. Epaphroditus risked his life for one guy: Paul!
BUT THE THING WE ASKING TODAY is, “can’t we expect a guaranteed safety because we are Christians?” Can we move through life, from day to day, with our kids and families with a bit of Christian cockiness?
If we have our quiet times, take our vitamins, buckle our seatbelts, pay our insurance premiums on time, get our license-to-carry, go to church, join a small group, listen to K-Love, never say any of the 17 forbidden words, call every baby we see “cute” and hug each other often, THEN can’t we be assured that nothing unsafe will happen to us?
I think that would be great! Perhaps we could then imagine that we are exempt from bad traffic accidents, cancer, random violence on the street, tornados, getting yelled at, running out of money, divorce and getting back aches.
Here is the bottom line: I DON’T THINK THE BIBLE GUARANTEES SAFETY—NOT IN THIS WORLD. However it does say these things:
If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him. But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways (James 1:5-8).
God responds to the prayer of trust.
Οἴδαμενδὲὅτιτοῖςἀγαπῶσιντὸνθεὸνπάντασυνεργεῖεἰςἀγαθόν,τοῖςκατὰπρόθεσινκλητοῖςοὖσιν. Oidamen dé hoti tois agaposin ton Theon panta sunergei eis agathon rois kata prothesin klétois ousin
And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. (Romans 8:28)
God has an overall plan for good, cash-in-able for those who love Him.
We know that If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. (1st John 1:9)
4 Forgiveness of sin IS guaranteed when believers acknowledge their day to day sins.
We are confident that the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials, (2nd Peter 2:9).
Nowhere in the Bible are we promised “no trials”. But there are no doubt many times when God IS preserving our safety, whether we see it or not.
He will not let your foot be moved; He who keeps you will not slumber. Behold, he who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep. (Psalm 121:3,4)
The believer can be assured of God’s attentiveness and watchfulness and paying attention all the time.
Here are some practical considerations…
1. We are expected, I believe, by God to be responsible. 2. We are expected by God to walk worthy of the calling with which we have been called. 3. We are expected to learn from our mistakes and to not hold on to foolishness. 4. In relationships, where we often might feel unsafe, we are expected to forgive and to be kind and tender-hearted and empathetic to each other. 5. When a travesty strikes, random or expected, we are expected to be like the Good Samaritan and bind up the wounds of each other, softening the blow of the travesty. 6. We can pray and ask God for travel mercies, healing, and His sovereign preservation when we are going through a trial that was not of our doing. 7. We can have a general hope of safety, giving thanks carefully and mindfully for those times and seasons when we DID enjoy safety—which will probably be most of the time. And if we come upon a time of danger, we weather that in trust that eventually it will pass—even the worst of times. The Christians in the years 40 to 120 AD underwent an almost constant time of trouble and danger. But they shared their faith and the Gospel grew and spread remarkably in a short period of hard times. There was still joy and peace with God. God still provided over and over again, even IN hard times.
What have I to dread, what have I to fear, Leaning, leaning, Leaning on the everlasting arms; Safe and secure from all alarms; I have blessed peace with my Lord so near, Leaning, leaning, Leaning on the everlasting arms Leaning on the everlasting arms.
5