WHERE DOES YOUR HELP COME FROM? Psalm 121

Transcription

1 WHERE DOES YOUR HELP COME FROM? Psalm 121 I was walking home from school when a bully confronted me. He was only a few years older than me. But he seemed as big as Goliath. He grabbed me and said, Give me all your money! I froze. Shaking me, he repeated, Did you hear me? I said give me all your money! But I don t have any money! I cried. He finally let me go, warning me he would be there tomorrow and I better have his money. I ran home and told my parents what happened. My dad put me in his car and drove around for an hour looking for the bully. I am not sure what my father would have done if we found him. But I cannot describe how safe I felt in the car with my father that day. On the way home, my father announced he would drop me off and pick me up from school from then on, which he did for many years. But my father was a busy pastor. And there would be days when I would have to walk home alone. What would I do if the bully showed up again? I am now a grown man with children of my own. But the same dilemma still confronts me. There are times when I have to walk a path to face bad things I cannot handle on my own. So do you. What then? Does anyone care? Can anyone help? The answers to these questions are found in Psalm 121. Psalm 121 is known as THE TRAVELER S PSALM. It is the second of a collection of psalms called the SONGS OF ASCENT. Psalm are songs Jewish pilgrims would sing as they traveled in caravan to Jerusalem to celebrate the God-appointed festivals. Psalm 121 uniquely characterizes these pilgrim songs, as it is filled with the imagery of one who is on a journey. For this reason, it is one of the most famous and beloved psalms. It reminds us that life is a journey. And we cannot make it safely to the destination alone. There are times when we join the psalmist in asking, From where does my help come? The Lord is the only one who is able to help you safely make it through the journey of life. CHARLES SPURGEON wrote: The purposes of God; the divine attributes; the providence, predestination, and proved faithfulness of the Lord these are the hills to which we must lift our eyes, and from these our help must come. Where does your help come from? Psalm 121 gives two reasons why you should trust the Lord to get you through the journey of life. I. THE LORD IS OUR HELPER. The key word of verses 1-2 is help. It means aid, relief, or support. But it is more than that. The word is not used of one who assists as you lead the way. It is used of one who rescues you from a crisis you cannot overcome on your own. Help is protection from danger, strength for burdens, and deliverance from trouble. Verses 1-2 address the need for help with a truth you should accept and a testimony you should adopt. A. THE TRUTH YOU SHOULD ACCEPT. 1

2 The psalm begins with a statement and a question: I lift up my eyes to the hills. From where does my help come? This opening statement, I lift up my eyes to the hills, is enigmatic. It is a simple statement. But the context is unclear. It could be that the psalmist looked to the hills with concern, as he began his journey to Jerusalem and considered the road ahead. Or it could be that he looked to the hills with hope, as he saw Jerusalem in the distance and neared the end of his journey. Either way, it caused him to ask: From where does my help come? I learned Psalm 121 from the KING JAMES VERSION that reads: I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help. That translation suggests the psalmist looked to the hills for help. But that is clearly not the case. Verse 1 records a question and a statement. As the psalmist lifts up his eyes to the hills, he asks, From where does my help come? This question confronts us with a fact of life: You need help! The journey is long. The road is rough. The burdens are heavy. The climb is steep. The dangers are many. It is impossible for you to make the journey alone. You need help. But the help you need may not be easy to find. Or it may not be found in the most obvious places. In asking, From where does my help come? the psalmist confesses that he is not able to help himself. Even though one who embarked on a long journey would rarely travel alone, the psalmist does not conclude that the help he needed could be found in those who accompanied him. He apparently needed help that his family and friends could not supply. This is the reality of life. You need help. You cannot help yourself. And you cannot it in things or people. This is the truth you should accept. B. THE TESTIMONY YOU SHOULD ADOPT. Verse 2 answers the question of verse 1: My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth. This is the only one right answer to the question. Note the personal nature of this statement: My help comes from the Lord. The Lord is more than a general source that sustains creation. He is a personal source of help that will be you every step of the way. But you must trust in him. The axiom, God helps those who help themselves, is not biblical. But it is a quote from BENJAMIN FRANKLIN S Poor Richard s Almanac. Scripture teaches the direct opposite. God helps those who cannot help themselves. Isaiah 40:29 says: He give power to the faint, and to him who has no might he increases strength. Self-sufficiency disqualifies you from divine help. To receive God s help you must confess you are a helpless sinner. You must stop trying to help yourself. And you must run to the cross for help. There is sufficient and sovereign help in the Lord. THERE IS SUFFICIENT HELP IN THE LORD. In verse 1, the psalmists asks, From where does my help come? In verse 2, he answers with a name, not a list. The source of help you should look to is the only one who does not need to look for a source of help. Only God qualifies. This does not mean that all other means of help are illegitimate. You should get an education. You should see the doctor. You should work hard. You should plan wisely. You should cultivate relationships. But these are only means of help, not the source of help. Life will confront you with realities your 2

3 family and money and education and career and connections cannot help you with. The Lord is the one and only source of true help for the journey of life. Psalm 46:1 says, God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. THERE IS SOVEREIGN HELP IN THE LORD. Verse 2a testifies, My help comes from the Lord. Who is the Lord? Verse 2b identifies the Lord by his sovereign power: who made heaven and earth. Note the progression of the text. In verse 1, the psalmist looks to the hills and wonders where his help will come from. In verse 2, he looks beyond the hills to the Lord who created the hills and everything else. The first verse of the Bible is the most important verse in the Bible. Genesis 1:1 says, In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The creator of a thing is always greater than the thing he creates. So if the one who created the heavens and the earth is my help, I can say with Paul in Romans 8:38-39: For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, no powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate me from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord? Where does your help come from? Psalm 124:8 declares, Our help is in the name of the Lord, who made heaven and earth. Is that your testimony? If it is not, trust in Jesus as your Savior and Lord today. If it is your testimony, you have no reason to worry, doubt, or fear. ASK THE SAVIOR TO HELP YOU COMFORT, STRENGTHEN, AND KEEP YOU HE IS WILLING TO AID YOU JESUS WILL CARRY YOU THROUGH II. THE LORD IS OUR KEEPER. There are four stanzas in this psalm, each two verses long. These four stanzas divide into two sections. In verses 1 and 2, the psalmist speaks in the first person: I and my. But in verses 3-8, the psalmist speaks in the second person: you and yours. There is also a change in motif. In verses 1-2, the key word is help. But in verses 3-8, the key word is keep, which is used six times in these six verses. This transition is so distinct that it is argued that there is more than one speaker in the psalm. It may be the pilgrims sung this SONG OF ASCENTS antiphonally, one person leading out with verses 1-2 and the caravan responding with verses 3-8. Or it may be that this psalm was sung after the feast was over, the people singing verses 1-2 and the priest singing verses 3-8 in response, as a benediction on the departing worshipers. But there may be only speaker in the psalm. If so, he sings verses 1-2 to remind himself of where his help comes from. Then he sings verses 3-8 in a soliloquy, celebrating God s unfailing promises to build up his faith. Any way you view the transition of these two sections the point is the same. The psalmist looked to God for help on the basis of his faithful character. And the character of God is described here in simple terms. The Lord is our keeper. If you look to the Lord for help, he will keep your feet stable, your hands strong, and your life secure. 3

4 A. THE LORD WILL KEEP YOUR FEET STABLE. In the ancient Near East, there were no paved streets or engineered highways. There was only the rugged terrain of well-trodden roads. As one walked along these paths, it was easy to stumble and fall. But verse 3 says the one who walks with God enjoys a special benefit: He will not let your foot be moved. As you walk with God, he will give you spiritual stability. Jude 24 says: Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy. This is not a guarantee that believers will never fall. It is an assurance that the Lord will keep your feet stable as you travel, so that you are not prone to fall. Psalm 37:23-24 says, The steps of a good man are established by the Lord, when he delights in his way; though he fall, he shall not be cast headlong, for the Lord upholds his hand. The Lord will keep you on your feet. In fact, the only reason you have not fallen into slippery places, doctrinal error, or dangerous situations is because the Lord has kept you. Psalm 27:1-2 says: The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life; of whom shall I be afraid? When evildoers assail me to eat up my flesh, my adversaries and foes, it is they who stumble and fall. This is the promise of the Lord. He will not le t your foot be moved. CHARLES SPURGEON said it well: Our feet shall move in progress, not in overthrow. In the journey of life, you will inevitably become tired. But how can you lie down and sleep when you are in the midst of danger? Verse 3 says, He will not let your foot be moved; he who keeps you will not slumber. Picture a soldier on duty to watch. He must stay awake, lest the enemy overtakes the camp unaware. This is our God. He does not get drowsy. God is not like a solider that dozes off when he is to be looking out. When a person asked the Greek general ALEXANDER THE GREAT how he could sleep when he was surrounded by danger, he replied that PERMENIO, his faithful guard was watching. How much more soundly should we sleep when God who never slumbers is guarding us! Verse 4 says, Behold, he who keeps Israel neither slumbers nor sleeps. Behold is a call to attention. It suggests there are times when God seems to be sleep on the job. But the real problem is that we are paying attention to the wrong things. Behold, he who keeps Israel neither slumbers nor sleeps. The name of the Lord is used five times in this psalm. But the psalmist identifies the Lord here by a special title: he who keeps Israel. This is a reference to the faithfulness of God to Israel throughout its history. Don t judge God s faithfulness on the basis of present circumstances. Check his performance review. He who keeps Israel neither slumbers nor sleeps. 1 Kings 18 records the contest of gods between Elijah and the Baal prophets on Mt. Carmel. The rules of the contest were straightforward. An altar was erected. And the God who consumed the altar with fire would be declared the true and living God. The Baal prophets went first. And they spent all morning dancing around and crying out to Baal. Baal never answered. 1 Kings 18:27 reports: And at noon Elijah mocked them, saying, Cry aloud, for he is a god. Either he is musing, or he is relieving himself, or he is on a journey, or perhaps he is asleep and must be awakened. Our God is no sleeping deity who needs to be awakened. He who keeps 4

5 you will not slumber. The Lord is the night watchman of the universe. Our God works the night shift. He is the unsleeping guarding who is ever alert to provide an untiring watch over us. B. THE LORD WILL KEEP YOUR HANDS STRONG. In verse 4, the Lord is called he who keeps Israel. But verse 5 shifts from the corporate to the person and says: The Lord is your keeper. The God who watches over all his people is intimately involved in the details of your life. He is your keeper. Jacob was on the run from his brother, after stealing his birthright. One night, as Jacob slept under the stars, he dreamed about a ladder that reached heaven. The angels of God were ascending and descending on it. During this vision, the Lord spoke to Jacob, reaffirming the promises he made to Abraham. In Genesis 28:15, the Lord told Jacob, Behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land. For I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you. This promise may have been on the mind of the psalmist as he wrote this psalm. If the Lord was faithful to his promise to watch over a hustler like Jacob, surely he will watch over sinful and stubborn people like you and me. Verse 5 says, The Lord is your keeper, the Lord is your shade on your right hand. This promise of shade was rich in meaning for those ancients who were so often scorched by the heat of the sun. The traveler s only defense was to find a place of shade to cover him. This is what God is for us. You would have suffocated under the consuming circumstances had it not been for the Lord covering you with his shade. Psalm 91:1 says, He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will abide in the shadow of the Almighty. The Lord is our shade. And note where he provides shade: on your right hand. That is, our transcendent Lord is imminently near. Psalm 16:8 says, I have set the Lord always before me; because he is at my right, I shall not be shaken. In scripture, the right hand is the place of favor and strength. Could it be the idea is that the Lord will cover you at the place of your strength? We think we only need God s strength for our weaknesses. But this only reveals that we do not know how weak we really are. The fact is that we are so weak that we not only need God to cover our weaknesses, we need him to cover strengths. Think about that. Abraham s strength was his faith. Yet he went down to Egypt in unbelief, saying his wife was his sister. Moses strength was his meekness; yet he lost his temper and smote the rock. Elijah s strength was his courage; yet fled in abject fear from Jezebel. We need God to cover us strengths, as well as our weaknesses. Thank God the Lord is your shade on your right hand. Verse 6 says, The sun will not strike you by day, nor the moon by night. This verse is not about sunstrokes or so-called moon-strokes, whatever that is. This reference to the sun and moon stands for dangers that occur in the day and in the night. The Lord provides around the clock protection for his children. He will protect you from whatever the day may bring or whatever may occur in the darkness of the night. Note that the text does promise the Lord will cool off the heat 5

6 of the sun or brighten up the darkness of the night. But the Lord does promise that they will not strike you down. The Lord will protect you from the elements. C. THE LORD WILL KEEP YOUR LIFE SECURE. Verses 3-6 use powerful metaphors to describe how the Lord will keep those who trust in him. But the final stanza of the psalm drops the word-pictures to declare in plain terms that the Lord will keep your life secure. THE LORD PROVIDES PERFECT SECURITY. Verse 7 says, The Lord will keep you from all evil; he will keep your life. Evil can refer to moral evil or physical evil. It is used here to speak of physical evil. It is that which is bad, harmful, or dangerous. It is what David spoke of in Psalm 23:4: Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me. Similarly, the psalmist here promises divine protection from the bad things of life. Note the scope of this promise: The Lord will keep you from all evil. This does not guarantee a life of health, wealth, and success. The fact that the psalm begins by asking for help acknowledges this. Reread the psalm and consider the reality of life without God. Your foot will be moved. The enemy will attack you as you sleep. The sun and moon wills strike you down. Bad things happen in life. So how can it be true that the Lord will keep you from all evil? It may be that you and God have different ways of defining what is evil. I was chasing my little sister around the house one day, when we were children. She suddenly darted out the front door. Barefooted, I gave chase until I caught up with her down the street. We walked back together laughing, until she look down and asked what was wrong with my foot. It was covered in blood. I had stepped on a piece of glass or something that cut a gash under the big toe of my right foot. My mom rushed me to the hospital, where they would stitch me up. They gave me something to dull the pain. But as they began to stitch me up, the pain was excruciating. And I kept jumping up. They brought in my mother, whom I was sure would deliver me. Instead, she held me down until they finished. I repeat. It may be that you and God have different ways of defining what is evil. Why does he do this? Verse 7 says, The Lord will keep you from all evil, he will keep your life. Literally, he will preserve your soul. We are too shortsighted. We want the Lord to keep our health and strength and goals. But your health is not your life. But your job is not your life. But your marriage is not your life. Roman 8:37-39 says: No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. THE LORD PROVIDES PERPETUAL SECURITY. Verse 8 says, The Lord will keep your going out and coming in from this time forth and forevermore. Going out and coming in is a Hebrew idiom for the daily affairs of life. It means the Lord will keep you day by day. It is the laborer who goes out to the field and comes in at the end o f 6

7 the workday. It is the pilgrim who goes out to the temple for worship and then comes in again. It is the solider that goes about for battle and comes in from war. And the Lord will keep you whatever as you come and go. But how long can you count on the Lord to watch over you. Verse 8 answers: The Lord will keep your going out and coming in from this time forth and forevermore. From this time forth refers to real time. Whatever is going on in your life, the Lord is keeping your right now! Yet he will keep you forevermore. He will not stop watching over you until he gets you safely to glory. The Lord will keep you day by day. And the Lord will keep you for all eternity. Romans 8:28-30 says: And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified. What a fellowship. What a joy divine. Leaning on the everlasting arms. WHAT A FELLOWSHIP, WHAT A JOY DIVINE, LEANING ON THE EVERLASTING ARMS; WHAT A BLESSEDNESS, WHAT A PEACE IS MINE, LEANING ON THE EVERLASTING ARMS. O HOW SWEET TO WALK IN THIS PILGRIM WAY, LEANING ON THE EVERLASTING ARMS; O HOW BRIGHT THE PATH GROWS FROM DAY TO DAY, LEANING ON THE EVERLASTING ARMS. WHAT HAVE I TO DREAD, WHAT HAVE I TO FEAR, LEANING ON THE EVERLASTING ARMS; I HAVE BLESSED PEACE WITH MY LORD SO NEAR, LEANING ON THE EVERLASTING ARMS. LEANING, LEANING, SAFE AND SECURE FROM ALL ALARM; LEANING, LEANING, LEANING ON THE EVERLASTING ARMS. 7