From Whence Comes My Help?

Psalm 121, v.1: I will lift up my eyes to the hills – from whence comes my help?

Question: When do you lift your eyes to the hills? That is, when does our focus turn upward? Is it when things are going well? When your marriage is great, your kids are all healthy, your job is satisfying…? Maybe. Sort of.

 But, I don’t think generic, metaphorical praise is what the Psalmist has in mind. He is writing in a particular context: he is in need. He isn’t on the mountain top looking to the heavens and shouting out the LORD’s worth. Rather he is in the valley. He recognizes his need for “help” and his eyes search the distant hills for its coming.

Psalm 23: “Even though I walk [where?]through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, [there is evil, but he doesn’t fear it. why?]because You [who? GOD] are with me; Your rod and Your staff [your correction and your protection], they comfort me. You prepare a table before me [in good times? in peace? no, but…] in the presence of my enemies; You have anointed my head with oil[you have a purpose for my life even in the midst of trial and trouble] ; My cup overflows. Surely goodness and [mercy - hesed] lovingkindness will follow me all the days of my life [here and now], And I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever.”

When do you lift your eyes to the hills? When you are in the valley.

What does it take for us to admit we need help?

v.2: My help comes from the LORD, who made heaven and earth.

Those are some serious credentials! What greater help could we desire? What greater Savior could we ask for?

Verse 1 posed the question: Where can I find help? Verse 2 begins the answer. “My help comes from the LORD.”

But, we may ask, hasn’t he already given us enough? Isn’t it enough that Jesus died for our sins? Why should I bother GOD with my day-to-day troubles? That seems to make sense.

Yet, Romans 8 says, “If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things?”

So, GOD wants us to come to Him for help in “all things”, in every valley. We are His children. In Christ, He is our Father. And, when your child has a need they cannot meet without your help, then you meet it. That’s just what fathers do.

v.3: He will not allow your foot to be moved; he who keeps you will not slumber.

What will He do? What is He like, this GOD you look to for salvation? He is a firm foundation. He is tireless. He will not (indeed, He cannot) be caught unaware.

And, who is it He keeps such vigil over? Whose foot will He not allow to be moved? Not a king, or the President, or some other famous person – but you. You, the one who looks to the hills for His help.

But, how do we know we can trust GOD? Of course, He is the same “yesterday, today, and forever.” But, what if Idon’t deserve His help? What if I’ve turned away from following Him, taken Him for granted, even created other ‘gods’ in my life? What if I’ve disqualified myself?

The Psalmist may have asked the same thing at this point: Why should God not allow myfoot to be moved? Why should He “not slumber” on my account? I’ve messed up. I’ve failed. I don’t deserve that.

v.4: Behold! He who keeps Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep.

You’re right, of course. We have messed up. We have all failed. Speaking of believers, of followers of Jesus, John writes, “If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” (1 John 1:8-9)

So, the LORD reminds us of Israel, His chosen people, who rejected Him, turned to other gods, pursued fleshly desires, betrayed and murdered their kinsmen, and failed in every way for generations. Yet, the LORD never stopped taking care of them. He never rejected them. Even now, God’s faithfulness and plan for the nation of Israel gives us the confidence we need to believe that He has a plan and a purpose for ourlives that He will never turn away from.

Why would GOD do this? Why would He want to help us? Well, it seems like that’s just who He is. It’s His character; His heart for us, that we should depend upon Him. And, to encourage our faith, the Psalm describes 2 attributes of who GOD is in His desire to Protect and to Preserve those who look to Him for help.

v.5: The LORD is your keeper; The LORD is your shade at your right hand.

1) Protection: There are 2 images in this verse.

Keeper: strong, alert, secure, dependable

He keeps us. That image makes sense to us, I think. God holds onto us. He is our strong tower to whom we can run and be saved. He is the good shepherd and King. He keeps watch over our lives. No one can snatch us out of His hand!

Shade: rest, comfort, refreshment, peace

What does it mean for the LORD to be our shade at our right hand? It means that He is more than just our refuge, more than a fortress in the wilderness. He is our home, a place of nourishment, restoration, and joy to all who turn aside to Him. He is right there for us, just at our right hand.

These images of protection (keeper and shade) are reinforced in verse 6.

v.6: The sun shall not strike you by day, nor the moon by night.

Nothing gets to you without GOD’s permission (not even heavenly forces) to do you harm. There is no power, authority, or assignment against you that the LORD does not ultimately have authority over.

We will face struggles, Jesus promised us that, as his followers, persecutions and tribulation would come to our lives. But, he also showed us that God is faithful. Jesus says, “In this world you will face tribulation. But take heart, I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33)

Verse 6 agrees with 1 Corinthians 10:13 when it says, “No temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man; and God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, so that you will be able to endure it.”

It means that the LORD is our protection: our faithful keeper and the ready shade at our right hand to escape evil.

v.7: The LORD shall preserve you from all evil; He shall preserve your soul.

2) Preservation: The LORD not only protects us, but He preserves us from evil. How many evils? Well, ALL of them.

This is the point in many sermons where the preacher tries to lighten the weight of his message by saying something like: “Now, I’ve done a study of this word ALL in the Hebrew (or Greek) and guess what it means? It means ALL.” Now, by this, I’m sure he is trying to emphasize the completeness of whatever action or group is described by ALL. But, that seems like a silly way to do that to me.

Sometimes ALL does mean “every one of them.” But, how many times do we use the word ALL without meaning “every single one” or “every single bit”? We do it all the time:

“I went to the store for some popcorn, and ALL I saw was popcorn oil.” Really? Is that really ALL you saw? Did you see anything else besides popcorn oil? You didn’t see people, sodas, an empty shelf…?

OR “I went to the game last week, and ALL the cars in the parking lot had Texas Ranger’s stickers on their windows.” Really? You checked every single car in the parking lot to see if each one had a Texas Rangers sticker on it. Of course not!

So, I’m not going to try and sound smart or spiritual or condescending and tell you that every time you see the world ALL in the Bible it means “every single one”. We don’t do that in English, and they didn’t do it in the biblical languages either.

However, I will tell you that just as it does in English, the Hebrew word for ALL does sometimes mean “every single one”, and in the context of this passage and based on the holy and faithful character of GOD, I believe that is exactly what it means here. My interpretation of this passage is that the LORD preserves us in “every single evil” we face.

But, how is that possible? It’s often so easy to argue that our lives are affected by all sorts of evil. Every day we have to wage war against the darkness in our world and in our lives. So, how can this be true? How can GOD be preserving us from evil when there is so much evil surrounding our lives?

OK. Look again at the second half of the verse: “He shall preserve your soul.”This phrase defines what is meant by the first part of the verse, “The LORD shall preserve you from all evil.”He is not saying evil will no longer be a reality you have to deal with. Quite to the contrary, the existence of evil plays an important role in our being conformed to the image of Christ, just as it did for Jesus himself.

However, the Psalmist is saying that God will see you through it, the real you, your soul. He is your keeper, remember? “He shall preserve your soul.” GOD is less concerned with your outward circumstances than with your inward state. He is not saying you will be immune from evil, but that you can be preserved from the devastating corruption and ruin it can bring to who you really are, to your soul.

The word “preserve” always reminds me of food… mason jars full of pickles, strawberry jam, or boiled eggs. Maybe that’s why the word is used here? The psalmist writes in a day when they understood preservation. Without it, they could not have survived. GOD also understands preservation.

GOD has a long term plan for our lives. But, it’s more than that. His goal isn’t to simple preserve our life. He is preserving our souls! He is ‘saving us’ (preserving us) for eternity. And, He knows it takes work to preserve, so He works on us. He uses everything we encounter, even “ALL evil”, for the benefit of our souls. Philippians 1:6 says God is “perfecting” us.

And doesn’t Romans 8:28 say, “And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose”? He doesn’t say all things are good, but that he works all (and again I think that here it means “every single”) things for (that is toward) our good, toward the good of those who love God, who look to Him for their help.

So, what’s God’s goal in all of this? Why help us? Well, according to verse 7, the LORD’s goal is to “preserve our soul.” maybe that’s why God’s protection and preservation often look so different than we think they should. Jesus cares about our health and happiness, to be sure, but He is far more concerned about our holiness, about our soul’s preparation for eternity with Him.

And so, the last verse: v.8: The LORD shall preserve your going out and your coming in from this time forth and forevermore.

“Goingout” and “coming in” are military terms in the Bible, and they refer to the idea of heading out to battle, or returning home from battle to praise the LORD. These are the terms Solomon used in 1 Kings 3:7 when he asked the LORD for wisdom to lead the nation of Israel. Each of us also, as we depend upon God, goes out into the world to battle, and comes back in to rest, recuperate, and worship.

And, when does it start? Well, right now! “From this time forth.”

And, when does it end? Never!

You see, the LORD preserves us for eternity, but He also has a plan for us now. And, the two arenas are connected. What GOD protects and preserves for eternity, He also wants to use here to make an eternal impact.

Why? Because it isn’t just about us. It’s about GOD, and His love for the whole world. It isn’t just about our need for help, our protection, our preservation. It’s about everyone, each person created in the image of God. And, just as GOD wants to be our help because it’s who He is, He also wants to help our neighbors, our family members, and even our enemies. He wants to draw their eyes to the hills, and He wants to do it through us.

Now, let us read and claim Psalm 121over our lives, believing that the LORD is our faithful help, our protector, and our savior because of who he is. Let us lift our eyes to Him. Please stand as I read this passage again as a prayer over you.

(Re-read Psalm 121)