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Psalm 125 · a question people ask

"Those who trust in the LORD are as Mount Zion, which can’t be moved" (125:1). Does the psalm promise that trouble won't come to those who trust?

In the text

The psalm itself speaks of trouble. Two verses later it names "the scepter of wickedness" over "the allotment of the righteous", and says it "won’t remain" (125:3). So it doesn't say the scepter never comes; it says it won't stay. Psalm 46 has the verb of 125:1's moved both ways: the mountains "are shaken into the heart of the seas" (Psalm 46:2), and of the city of God (Psalm 46:4), "She shall not be moved" (Psalm 46:5) (tap moved). Psalm 125 doesn't say what trouble will or won't come, or when, and these notes don't add it.

The verses

“A Song of Ascents. Those who trust in the LORD are as Mount Zion, which can’t be moved, but remains forever.”
Psalm 125:1 · World English Bible
“For the scepter of wickedness won’t remain over the allotment of the righteous, so that the righteous won’t use their hands to do evil.”
Psalm 125:3 · World English Bible
“Therefore we won’t be afraid, though the earth changes, though the mountains are shaken into the heart of the seas;”
Psalm 46:2 · World English Bible
“There is a river, the streams of which make the city of God glad, the holy place of the tents of the Most High. God is within her. She shall not be moved. God will help her at dawn.”
Psalm 46:4-5 · World English Bible

From Favor's study of Psalm 125

Psalm 125: Like Mount Zion

Psalm 125 gives two pictures: those who trust in the LORD are as Mount Zion, which can't be moved, and the LORD is around his people as the mountains are around Jerusalem. The WEB's two remains are two Hebrew verbs: Zion stays; the scepter of wickedness won't settle over the allotment of the righteous, so that they won't use their hands to do evil.

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Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible, which is in the public domain. Every answer cites the verses it rests on. What we believe · All Bible questions