One Set of Footprints
Psalm 124
St. John’s United Church of Christ
Greeley, Colorado
Juvenal Cervantes, Pastor
June 5, 2022
On this Pentecost Sunday I would like to invite us to reflect on our true foundation, both individually and corporately, and for us to be encouraged that through Christ we are victorious, irrespective of trials and tribulations.
Several years ago, our family visited Blanco State Park, a few miles north of San Antonio. We had a great time until my brother Luis began to drown. He was swimming in what appeared to be shallow water, but the undercurrents and the weeds of the river pulled him downward. My grandmother began to scream and my stepfather swam towards my brother and rescued him.
Have ever been at a place in your life where things are going fairly smoothly for a while? And then all it takes is a phone call, a word from a doctor, an event on the highway. In a matter of seconds, what had been peaceful and easygoing can turn into an authentic crisis; a time when the future is called into question. And we can get there so quickly. It may only last 15 or 20 minutes, or it may last two or three days or it may last several years, but suddenly everything is changed in a moment. And at the end of the day there you are bruised and dirty and tired and exhausted, but the crisis has finally passed.
If God had not been with us, I don’t think we would have made it. The book of Psalms has a poem like that, its Psalm 124. It is one of those psalms of accent that we have been talking about, a hymn that pilgrims sang on their way to Jerusalem for the festivals and it is a reminder that just because you are traveling to Jerusalem it does not mean that your life is exempt from crisis, it can happen any time. It is also a good word of testimony from those who have walked that path before and have been through those crises to say, “God is our help and our deliverer.”
Let’s read together Psalm 124:
If it has not been the Lord who was on our side – let Israel now say – it has not been the Lord who has on our side, when our enemies attacked us, then they would have swallowed us up alive, when the anger was kindled against us;then the flood would have swept us away, the torrent would have gone over us; then over us would have gone the raging water.
Blessed be the Lord, who has not given us as prey to their teeth.
We have escaped like a bird from the snare of the fowlers; the snare is broken, and we have escaped.
Our help is in the name of the Lord, who made heaven and earth.
You may call that psalm, “The Psalm of Narrow Escape” because that is exactly what the psalmist is describing. “If the Lord had not been on our side, we would not have made it. The river would have washed us away. Our enemy would have chewed us up and spit us out. Like a bird caught in a fowler’s trap we would have never gotten out had the Lord not been with us.”
The pilgrim life is a life that is marked occasionally by crisis, a time when the future is called into question. It can happen quickly; it can happen over time. Those crises can genuinely threaten our lives, our health, our families, out wellbeing, our church, our hope and we’re not going to be exempt from these just because we are traveling on the road toward God, toward Jerusalem. We are traveling that road as human beings among human being in a broken world and occasionally those crises are going to be ours. And what’s contained on these psalms is not a promise that we are somehow going to be exempt from these experiences, rather it is the testimony of someone who has been through these experiences to say, “God is our deliverer, the maker of heaven and earth.”
One of the things that it is important to grasp, underlying this psalm is this very honest observation that the psalms makes that crisis is a part of the journey and that praising God is not always easy in the midst of the crisis.
Now there are Christians who think you’re supposed to praise God all the time, no matter what’s going on in their lives. It is always great and appropriate to sing praise to God and I agree with that, but sometimes in the midst of life threatening crisis there is hardly any time for that. The crisis overwhelms us in such a way that praise does not come up easy in the midst of it; it’s not a common response to say, “Praise the Lord.”
The psalms had been in the midst of crisis. Consider the images he employs, “Man attacked us, they would have swallowed us alive, anger flared against us, the flood would have engulfed us, the torrent would have swept over us, raging waters would have swept us away, we were attacked by wild animals, we were trapped by the fowlers snare. That’s a serious crisis he was experiencing. And it was so serious that if God had not been with us, we would not be alive. Sometimes the journey is hard, but the Lord is our helper and our deliverer. There is nothing that will do you in if your life is in the hands of God. God never leave us; His goodness runs after us.
This passage is a word of encouragement for some of us who are going through a personal crisis. God says to us hold on, whether or not you can hear God or see God in this moment. Whether you feel like praising him right now, He is with you, He is your deliverer, your help is in the name of the Lord who made heaven and earth. On a personal level, we can rejoice that our great God is with us.
Now on corporate level, as the body of Christ, we are conquerors and victorious because the church belongs to Christ and because He is the foundation of the church.
Read with me these words from Matthew 16:13-18
When Jesus came into the region of Caesarea Philippi, He asked His disciples, saying, “Who do men say that I, the Son of Man, am? So they said, “Some say John the Baptist, some Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” Simon Peter answered and said, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”
Jesus answered and said to him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven.
And I say also to you, That you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.
Several weeks ago, Miss Lanett and Miss Sylvia and I attended a conference in Denver. At the hotel elevator we met a retired professor from Metro State University. He was a Ph.D and his name was Joe. We began a conversation and in the midst of our visit, I inquired, “Joe, when you go to church, where do you go?” He said, “I am Catholic.” I responded, “I grew up Catholic…” and before I continued, he interrupted, “But you left us. I am Catholic because Jesus told Peter, you are the rock an upon this rock I will build my church. Peter is our rock and our foundation.”
Some of our friends interpret Matt. 16:18 to mean that Peter is the rock upon which the church is built. That interpretation then becomes the basis for the doctrine of papal succession. If Peter is the rock on which the church is built, and if the bishops of Rome are Peter’s successors, then it follows, they say, that the papacy remains the foundation of the church.
But that is not at all what Matthew 16:18 teaches.
The name “Peter” was a nickname given to Simon by Jesus, all the way back in John 1:42 when Peter first met Jesus. Coming from the Greek word petros (or the Aramaic word “Cephas”), the name Peter means “Rock” or “Stone.” To use an English equivalent, Peter means “Rocky.”
But when Jesus said, “I say to you that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build My church,” He differentiated between Peter and the “rock” by using two different Greek words. The name Peter is petros, but the word for “rock” is petra.
Those terms may sound similar to us, but ancient Greek literature shows that they actually refer to two different things. Petros was used to signify a small stone; petra, by contrast, referred to bedrock or a large foundation boulder (cf. Matt. 7:24-25).
So, to paraphrase Jesus’ words, the Lord told Peter, “I say to you that you are a small stone, and upon this bedrock I will build My church.” It was a play on words that made a significant spiritual point.
Peter was just a small stone built atop the bedrock of something much bigger than himself: namely, the truth that Jesus is the Christ the Son of the living God. Put simply, Peter was not the rock; Christ is the Rock. And as Peter and the other apostles testified to the truth about Christ (which Peter did in verse 16), the church was built upon its only sure foundation.
The rest of the New Testament bears this out.
In 1 Corinthians 3:11, Paul wrote that “no man can lay a foundation other than the one which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.”
In Ephesians 2:20, Paul further explained that Jesus Christ is the cornerstone on which the church is founded by the apostles.
Even Peter himself, in 1 Peter 2:1–10 compared all believers to small stones that are part of the superstructure of the church. By contrast, Peter noted in vv. 6, 7, the Lord Jesus is the cornerstone on which the church is built. Peter said the same thing to the Jewish religious leaders in Acts 4:11. Speaking of Jesus, Peter proclaimed, “He is the stone which was rejected by you, the builders, but which became the chief corner stone.”
Peter’s nickname might have been Rocky, but Peter himself understood that the Rock was Jesus Christ. The Rock on which Peter’s life was built was none other than the Rock of Salvation; the Rock of Deliverance; the Chief Cornerstone; and the Rock of Ages.
Peter bore witness to that truth in Matthew 16:16. The rest of the Apostles bore witness to that throughout their ministries. And it was the truth of that apostolic witness to Jesus Christ that formed the foundation of the church.
Now, through history, the church has been attacked, there has been efforts to discredit the church, and even some who feel that the church is irrelevant in our modern times. Please remember that the church belongs to the Lord and that the gates of hell will not prevail against it. All the powers of hell will not conquer it, because Christ is our foundation.
Several years ago, Bill and Gloria Gaither wrote a song with the title, “The Church Triumphant.” Listen to the lyrics of this song and be encouraged:
Let the Church be the Church
Let the people rejoice
For we've settled the question
We've made our choice
Let the anthems ring out, songs of victory swell
For the church triumphant, is alive and well
You know, this ship's been through battles before
The storms and the tempests and all the rocks on the shore
Though the hull may be battered
Inside it's safe and dry
It's gonna carry its cargo to the port in the sky
God has always had a people.
Many a foolish conqueror has made the mistake of thinking that because he had forced the church of Jesus Christ out of site, he had stilled its voice and snuffed out its life, but God has always had a people.
The powerful current of a rushing river is not diminished because it's forced to flow underground.
Now the purest water is the stream that burst crystal clear into the sunlight after it has forced its way through solid rock.
There have been [?] who like Simon The Magician sought to barter on the open market that power which cannot be bought or sold, but God has always had a people.
Men who could not be bought and women who were beyond purchase.
God has always had a people.
There have been times of affluence and prosperity when the church's message has been nearly deluded into oblivion by those who sought to make it socially attractive, neatly organized, financially profitable, but God has always had a people.
Yes it's been gold platted, draped in purple and encrusted with jewels.
It has been misrepresented, ridiculed, lauded and scorned but God has always had a people.
And these followers of Jesus Christ have been, according to the whim of the times, elevated sacred leaders and modern heretics.
Yet through it all, their march is on that powerful army of the meek.
God's chosen people who cannot be bought, blabbered, murdered or stilled.
On through the ages they march, the church!
God's church triumphant!
Listen child of God, its alive.
Discouraged pastor, it's his church and it's still alive.
Lonely missionary, sow that seed with confidence.
The church is still alive.
Old saint, you're not alone or forgotten.
The church is still alive.
Its alive my broken-hearted friend, it's still alive.
Busy mothers, just keep trusting in Jesus, the church is alive.
You're not alone out there [?], just keep looking to Jesus.
The church is alive.
And faithful fathers, there's rest in the Lord.
God's church is still alive.
So family of God lift your hands, lift your hands and praise the Lord.
The church, God's church triumphant is alive, it's alive my friends.
Alive and well
We can rest confidently knowing that God is our sure foundation, individually and corporately.