Is God Good? Psalm 121:1-2

Transcription

1 Personal God Is God Good? Psalm 121:1-2 Psalm 121:1-2 I life up my eyes to the mountains where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord, the maker of heaven and earth. Life can sometimes seem like an uphill climb, can t it? Comedian Red Buttons once did a routine in which he told of a bare dinner table. He was a teen and his family was poor. Around the table stood his family dressed in overcoats because they couldn t afford heat. There was his mother dividing the half-loaf of stale bread among a dozen kids, who swept up and ate the crumbs. Then, adds Red Buttons, then came the Depression! Buttons was exaggerating, of course. But it does seem sometimes that, when times are bad, problems just keep coming. Some of you may remember a fine major league baseball player named Ron Hunt. Hunt s motto was, Some people give their bodies to science; I give mine to baseball. The reason this was Hunt s motto is that for seven consecutive seasons he led the league as the man most hit by major league pitchers. Ron Hunt was hit by 243 pitched balls during a National League baseball career that spanned the years 1963 to I don t know about you, but that s a record I d just as soon avoid. Problems, like Ron Hunt s, sometimes just seem to keep coming. Life can sometimes seem like an uphill climb. You ve been there, haven t you. You ve felt like nothing you have and nothing you are is of any value. At such a time we need to be reminded, we still have God. In fact, this is when a person, imprisoned by doubt or fear or life circumstance finally begins to find the way out, when they discover that all they have left is God. When we re feeling helpless and hopeless, it is very hard for us to take our eyes off ourselves. The conflict we re facing sucks the air out of the room and uses up all our energy. Affliction demands attention. But when we look up When we shift our focus from our problems to the power, presence, and peace of God, then we begin our journey to recovery. You may not know this, but the city of Jerusalem is built on hills. Whenever we read a Bible passage about people on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, we read that those people went up to Jerusalem. Many of the Psalms in the Old Testament were written as traveling worship songs that spiritual pilgrims sang together as they traveled from the surrounding towns to worship in the temple on Mount Zion. As they climbed the hill to Jerusalem, the caravan of people would sing a psalm of praise or of lament. That s why many of the Psalms are titled A song of ascents. It means, A song to sing as you climb up the hill. 1 1 The Learning Bible (CEV) (New York: American Bible Society, 2000), p

2 When life seems like an uphill climb to you, we need to find a song to sing, and there is none better than Psalm 121 which begins: I lift up my eyes to the hills where does my help come from? My help comes from the LORD, the Maker of heaven and earth. In these first two verses, the psalmist is moving his focus from his problems to his God. From paralysis to power. The people of God are climbing the hill to the temple on Mount Zion. They re at the point in the journey where they re putting in a lot of effort and not getting a lot of result. As they encourage each other along the way, they continue to look up, straining to see the top of the mountain and that moment when they can join in the worship of God. In the temple, in the act of worship, they will find hope and wisdom and joy and perspective. They will find refreshment for their souls. Why are they climbing this hill? What s the point of this journey? To worship the Almighty, most Powerful God. The God who made the heavens and earth. Whatever problems we may bring to worship, we know we are laying them at the feet of a God who created the universe and set the natural laws in motion. When we recall the power of God, we gain a new perspective on our problems and on the possibilities for God to redeem our situation. That s what the people going up to Jerusalem were hoping to find. The power of God to give them help and hope for the living of their lives. Our key passage for this morning was Psalm 121:1-2, but we would be wise to hear what the Psalmist continues to say. These are verses 3-6: He will not let your foot slip he who watches over you will not slumber; indeed, he who watches over Israel will neither slumber nor sleep. The LORD watches over you the LORD is your shade at your right hand; the sun will not harm you by day, nor the moon by night. This simple faith in God s constant presence sounds like the faith of a child or the faith of someone who has faced many sleepless nights, and has discovered that he or she was not alone in their struggles. In Shakespeare s Romeo and Juliet, it s night. Lovers Romeo and Juliet are separated by their families deadly feud. Suddenly Juliet realizes Romeo stands below her window, out in the garden. When she realizes he s there, she asks how he came. And why he didn t stay away? After all, this is a dangerous move. Romeo answers: With love s light wings did I o er-perch these walls, For stony limits cannot hold love out, And what love can do, that dares love attempt. What a beautiful picture of a loving God coming to comfort God s people in the night. What love can do, that dares love attempt. We are most likely to feel our helplessness at night. In the darkness, when we no longer have to keep up appearances and we have nothing else to distract us from the truth, we let our struggles and questions gnaw at us. But when we lie awake at night and ruminate on our situation, we can be assured that God is right there with us. In the book of Job, verse 35:10, Job s friend refers to God as our Maker who gives songs in the night. And it is at night, when they are shackled and stuffed in a prison cell, that Paul and Silas begin singing songs of praise to God. Their shackles fall off, the

3 prison doors swing open, and the prisoners walk out as free men. (Acts 16: 25) Knowing that God neither sleeps nor slumbers inspires us to sing songs in the night, and to find meaning in some of the hardest circumstances. The Psalmist continues in verses 7-8: The LORD will keep you from all harm he will watch over your life; the LORD will watch over your coming and going both now and forevermore. This is an amazing promise that God is with us both now and forevermore. As a parent watches over a child, so God watches over us. We are not a statistic or a face in the crowd. We are known and loved by God. There s a children s book written years ago that many of you know, titled, Are You My Mother? Some of you probably grew up with this book. It s the story of a baby bird hatched while its mother is away searching for food. When it realizes that mom is missing it sets off on a quest to find her. On the way, the little bird asks everyone it encounters if they are its mother. On its journey the little bird encounters a kitten, a hen, a hound dog, a cow, an airplane, and even a steam shovel and each time inquires, Are you my mother? Each responds according to its kind: the kitten just stares, the hen simply says No, the dog would like to be helpful, but the cow responds rudely, How could I be your mother? I am a cow. In desperation, the hatchling calls out to an uncaring boat and an airplane, and at last, convinced he has found his mother, climbs onto the teeth of an enormous power shovel. But he s betrayed by the huge cold steel of the steam shovel as it shudders and grinds into motion. He can t escape. I want my mother! he shouts. At this moment, the birds fate is suddenly reversed. The shovel drops him back in his nest, just as his mother is returning home. And then it is she who asks the question: Do you know who I am? 2 She s the one who would never forsake him. She s the one watching over him. She s the one loving him as no other could love him. That s the picture the Psalmist paints for us this morning. In the Creator s eyes, our lives have inestimable value. Listen to Jesus words from Matthew 10. This is a time when he s sending his disciples out into hostile territory to tell the people that the kingdom of heaven is near. And he reassures them with these words, Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from the will of your Father. And even the very hairs on your head are all numbered. So don t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows. (29-31) That s how much God loves us.... even the very hairs on your head are all numbered. If God knows us that intimately, then it stands to reason that God has a plan in mind for our lives. And not just in this life, but forevermore, as the Psalmist said. Why would God give us eternal life if God didn t love us and want to preserve us? And so, in those times when life seems to be an uphill climb, we lift up our eyes unto the Lord from whence our help comes. We find peace in knowing that our lives are 2 P.D. Eastman, Are You My Mother? (New York: Random House, 1960).

4 valuable to God, in this world and even in the life to come. We take refuge in God s unfailing love.

5 "Personal God Psalm 121:1-2 I. Life can sometimes seem like an uphill climb. A. At such a time we need to be reminded that we still have B. When we re feeling helpless and hopeless, it s hard to take our eyes off C. When we recall the power of God, we gain a new perspective on our and on the of God to redeem our situation II. The people going up to Jerusalem were hoping to find the power of God A. The simple faith in God s presence helps us discover that we are not in our struggles B. We most likely feel our helplessness C. Knowing that God neither slumbers or sleeps inspires us III.God is with us both now and forevermore A. As a parent watches over a child, so B. In the Creator s eyes, our lives have

6 C. If God knows us intimately, then it stands to reason that God