“As the mountains surround Jerusalem, so the LORD surrounds his people both now and forevermore.”
– Psalm 125:2
Hi James and Ellen,
If your dad and ma blocked off a week to take you someplace, where would you like to have your dad and ma take you? Would you like to have your dad and ma take you to a place where there are a lot of wild animals? Would you like to have your dad and ma take you to a place that is close to water? Would you like to have your dad and ma take you to a place where there are mountains? What kind of place do you think that your grandmaa and grandpaa will choose to go to when they are able to spend a week doing downtime or decompressing? Your grandmaa and grandpaa like to spend time in places that are near water. When your grandmaa and grandpaa were living in Bolivia as missionaries on the South America Mission field missionary team, your grandmaa and grandpaa traveled several times by train to the Bolivia/Brazil border/frontier where they would cross over into Brazil to spend several days in Corumbá. Your grandmaa and grandpaa would spend one of the days when they were in Corumbá to go fishing on the Paraguay River. The Paraguay River flows past Corumbá. Your grandpaa would find a guy in Corumbá who has a small, flat bottomed aluminum boat to take him and your grandmaa out on the Paraguay River to places where he knew that your grandmaa and grandpaa probably could catch fish. The guy would pack a lunch for your grandmaa and grandpaa to eat while they were trying to catch fish out of the Paraguay River or out of one of Paraguay River’s tributaries. Your grandmaa would sometimes catch more fish during a fishing trip on the Paraguay River than the number of fish that your grandpaa caught. Your grandmaa and grandpaa would invariably during these fishing trips catch two kilo (four to five pound) piranhas along with a couple of different kinds of catfish that weighed well over ten pounds. Your grandmaa and grandpaa also caught pacus and golden dorados. Your grandmaa really liked to go fishing with your grandpaa on the Paraguay River because it always seemed like to her there was something new to see – such as a different kind of tropical flower or plant or . . . herons, pelicans, macaws and . . . were often seen. Crocodiles sunning on riverbanks and/or a ‘gaggle’ of capybaras eating and/or swimming in one of the tributaries of the Paraguay River and/or . . . were sometimes seen on these fishing trips that your grandmaa and grandpaa made on the Paraguay River. Your grandpaa finds it therapeutic to be around water – especially if he can fish in it.
If your grandpaa had the choice, your grandpaa would not choose to spend time in mountains. Your grandpaa is vertigo challenged – which means that your grandpaa has a wobbly feeling when he looks down from a height of more than ten or so feet. Your grandpaa’s hands will begin to really sweat when he needs to cross over a high bridge or drive on roads that have steep drop offs of hundreds of feet or . . . your grandmaa does not have any trouble with heights. Your grandmaa does not have any trouble climbing up the steps of a fire tower or going to the edge on the top of a tall building or . . . how do you think that the psalmist who scribed Psalm 125 felt about mountains? The guy who scribed this psalm song wrote in verse 2, “As the mountains surround Jerusalem, so the LORD surrounds his people both now and forevermore.” This presumed postexilic psalm song was written by a psalmist to be chanted as a song of ascents – as part of the temple’s liturgy, by a Levite tribal clan guy in the temple of God that was in the city of Jerusalem. There are several probabilities of what a song of ascents might be. The most plausible explanation to your grandpaa of a song of ascents is that the psalm song’s timbre is increased as a Levite tribal clan guy chants repeatedly the psalm song. This psalm song chant was to testify of the trust that God’s specially chosen guys and gals had towards God – as God the Father, after He made it possible for them to return to the land that He gave them over 940 years earlier to always to have to live in as their very own land if . . . the returning captive exiles among God’s specially chosen guys and gals – who are the Israelite people group guys and gals, are promising God in this psalm song chant that their trust in Him will never be shaken – that their trust in him will endure forever – that the presence of guy, gal or kid among them who is wicked will not remain – that the land that He gave them is only for them as His righteous guys and gals – that they expect Him – as God the Father, to do good to them because of their upright hearts – and that they expect Him – as God the Father, to banish from their midst all the crooked evildoers.
The author of this psalm song chant had internalized an intriguing visual of God in action. The author of this psalm song uses mountains figuratively surrounding the city of Jerusalem to illustrate how God does what He does. Even though the city of Jerusalem is situated in a mountain range, this psalmist does not actually reference literally that the city of Jerusalem is surrounded by mountain peaks. The metaphor or simile of being circled by mountains is still a really good way to envision how God always resolutely encircles each one of his specially elected guys, gals and kids. Mountains are symbolic or emblematic of strength, visibility and protection. God is omnipotent meaning that God has no limits to what He can do to protect you. God is omniscient meaning that God has no limits in seeing and knowing what is taking place in your heart and life. God is omnipresent meaning that God has no limits in being everywhere at once. You are being encircled at this moment and you will be forever encircled by God ‘mountains’.
Psalm 125 (1089)