Sermon Summary — Psalm 121: The Lord Who Keeps His People
Sermons from Aberdeen Christian Fellowship
Release Date: 06/03/2026
The Life of Paul - the Hidden Years
Sermons from Aberdeen Christian Fellowship
Malcolm continues the series on the life of Paul, focusing on “the hidden years” after Saul’s conversion and before his wider public ministry. The passage is Galatians 1:11–23, where Paul explains that the gospel he preached was not invented by people or passed on to him second-hand, but received by direct revelation from Jesus Christ. Malcolm begins by placing Paul’s story in context. Last week looked at Saul the persecutor being transformed by Jesus on the road to Damascus. This week looks at the quieter period that followed: Paul’s time in Arabia, then Damascus,...
info_outline
The life of Paul - Episode 1
Sermons from Aberdeen Christian Fellowship
David begins a new series on the life of Paul, focusing first on Saul before he became Paul and the grace of God that transformed him. He opens with a searching question: what is the worst thing you have ever done, and do you believe there is a way back to God for you? He walks through several biblical examples — Abraham, Moses, Rahab, David, Jonah, Zacchaeus, the woman caught in adultery, Peter, Thomas and the thief on the cross — showing that God repeatedly restores sinners who turn back to him. David stresses that the gospel is a gospel of grace. While some sins may seem...
info_outline
Luke 22
Sermons from Aberdeen Christian Fellowship
Vijay preaches from Luke 22, focusing on Peter’s denial of Jesus and what it reveals about human weakness, self-confidence, prayer, repentance and the grace of Christ. He begins by reflecting on the fact that most of us carry around two versions of ourselves. There is the version we are happy for others to see — our strengths, achievements and best moments — and another hidden version containing our compromises, failures and weaknesses. Often, pressure reveals things in us that we did not realise were there. Vijay says the better question is not simply, “Who am I really?”...
info_outline
Jesus and the fallen woman
Sermons from Aberdeen Christian Fellowship
Cheri preaches from Luke 7:36–50, the account of Jesus at the home of Simon the Pharisee, where a woman known for living a sinful life comes to Jesus with tears, perfume and extravagant devotion. She begins by linking this sermon with the previous week’s message on the woman caught in adultery, and with her reflections on Rahab and Hagar. Her focus is on how God responds to women who are shamed, rejected or treated as “fallen” by society. Cheri explains the setting of the story: Jesus is invited to a formal meal at a Pharisee’s house. A woman enters uninvited, weeping at Jesus’...
info_outline
The woman caught in adultery
Sermons from Aberdeen Christian Fellowship
Cheri preaches from John 8:2–11, the story of the woman caught in adultery, where Jesus says, “Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” She explains that this passage has been on her mind because of her recent teaching on Rahab and because of pastoral conversations with young people, especially around questions of sexuality, gender, fear, shame and Christian discipleship. Cheri says the church often finds this subject hard to talk about because it is surrounded by fear. Some fear being misunderstood, accused of hatred or facing consequences...
info_outline
Logos Hope team - The power, authority and honour of the name of Jesus. 2nd Aug 2026
Sermons from Aberdeen Christian Fellowship
The Logos Hope team share a service centred on the power, authority and honour of the name of Jesus. The team begin by introducing themselves and the work of OM’s Logos Hope. Bauka, from Kazakhstan, explains that although the team come from different countries, the focus is not on flags or national identity, but on introducing people to Jesus. He also asks the church to pray for Kazakhstan, where evangelical Christians are a very small minority. Anne Marie then shares a short testimony using the illustration of fleas in a jar. When a lid is placed on the jar, the fleas learn to jump only so...
info_outline
Living in times of change, uncertainty and instability
Sermons from Aberdeen Christian Fellowship
James preaches from Isaiah 6:1–8, where Isaiah sees the Lord in the year King Uzziah died. He begins by reflecting on Bob Dylan’s song “The Times They Are A-Changin’”, using it to introduce the theme of living in times of change, uncertainty and instability. His central message is: In a time of change and uncertainty, we need to fix our eyes on the one who is unchangeable and completely dependable. James explains that Isaiah’s vision happened at a real point in history, around the death of King Uzziah. Uzziah had reigned for 52 years, so his death marked a time of national...
info_outline
Love - 1 Corinthians 13
Sermons from Aberdeen Christian Fellowship
Florence preaches from 1 Corinthians 13:1–7, focusing on the “missing ingredient” in the Corinthian church: love. She begins with a humorous cooking illustration, adding the wrong amount of garlic and almost forgetting the chicken in a curry, to show that sometimes one essential ingredient can be missing. In Corinth, the church had spiritual gifts, activity and ability, but they lacked love. Florence explains that the love Paul describes is agape love: a self-giving love that keeps giving even when the other person does not deserve it. This is the love of God, shown most clearly in Jesus...
info_outline
Don't you care if we drown?
Sermons from Aberdeen Christian Fellowship
Jeremy preaches from Mark 4:35–41, the account of Jesus calming the storm. He begins by connecting the disciples’ fear in the boat with our own experiences of anxiety, uncertainty and hardship. Even when we know Jesus is with us, difficult circumstances can make us ask the same question the disciples asked: “Teacher, don’t you care if we drown?” Jeremy shares honestly about his own anxiety, including the move from Singapore to Aberdeen, and uses the story of his young nephew on a rope playground to show how fear can overwhelm trust, even when help is close by. The sermon...
info_outline
Blind Spots
Sermons from Aberdeen Christian Fellowship
Part 1 – The Ten Commandments overview. Derek reads Exodus 20 and makes three points: the commandments were given after God's rescue of Israel (not as a condition of it), they're guidance for the saved rather than a means of earning salvation, and each one is a broad principle meant to be applied widely rather than treated as a tick-box exercise. He illustrates this with the 8th commandment ("you must not steal"), showing it covers tax evasion, underpaying workers, time-theft, and misusing power of attorney. Part 2 – The blind spot. Turning to the 9th commandment ("you must not bear false...
info_outlineSpeaker: Vijay
Main Bible passage: Psalm 121
Theme: Trusting God to keep us through the whole journey of life.
Vijay closes the Psalms of Trust section of the series by preaching from Psalm 121, one of the Songs of Ascents sung by pilgrims travelling to Jerusalem. He frames life as a pilgrimage: we move through changing seasons, uncertainty, weakness, ageing, and eventually death. Psalm 121 speaks to travellers who know the road may be long and difficult, but who are promised that the Lord will keep his people all the way home.
The sermon gives four reasons why the Lord can be trusted on life’s journey.
First, God is powerful enough to keep his people. When the psalmist says, “I lift up my eyes to the hills,” Vijay explains that ancient pilgrims would not only see beauty but danger: exposure, robbers, exhaustion, and uncertainty. The answer is not found in the hills themselves, but in the Lord, “who made heaven and earth.” Faith lifts our eyes beyond the problem to the Creator.
Second, God is attentive enough to preserve his people. Vijay highlights the repeated word “keep” in Psalm 121. God does not promise a pain-free life, but he does promise that suffering, evil, and calamity will not finally destroy his people. Like a harness on an aerial adventure course, God may not prevent every stumble, but he prevents the final fall.
Third, God is always near. The Lord is described as “your shade at your right hand.” Vijay explains that the right hand was the vulnerable side in battle, so this image shows God standing close to his people at the place of greatest weakness. God does not merely send help; he himself is the help who walks beside us.
Fourth, God’s keeping is total and comprehensive. The psalm’s language, heaven and earth, day and night, going out and coming in, now and forevermore, shows that no time, place, season, or circumstance lies outside God’s care. Vijay notes that the psalm leaves the danger unspecified so each believer can fill in the blank: diagnosis, grief, family heartache, uncertainty, or anything else. The promise remains: the Lord will keep you.
Vijay ends with the image of a turbulent overnight flight. The passengers may panic because they cannot see the route, but the journey depends on the pilot, not the passengers. In the same way, our hope is not in our own strength or understanding, but in the Lord who keeps us. One day the journey will end, the final hill will be behind us, and we will look back and say, “He kept me.”
Key Takeaway
Psalm 121 assures God’s people that the journey may be hard, frightening, and uncertain, but the Lord who made heaven and earth is powerful, attentive, near, and faithful. He will keep his people from now and forevermore.
00:00 Opening thanks and OM update
02:23 Psalms series: moving from trust to praise
03:01 Life as a pilgrimage
04:58 Introducing Psalm 121
06:57 Reading Psalm 121
08:26 God is powerful enough to keep us
11:11 “My help comes from the Lord”
16:34 God is attentive enough to preserve us
18:02 What “keep you from all evil” means
21:16 “He will not let your foot be moved”
23:53 The God who never slumbers or sleeps
26:55 God is always near
30:42 God’s keeping is total and comprehensive
35:10 The turbulent flight illustration
37:06 The promise: the Lord will keep us
38:46 Closing prayer