CORRECTED Psalm 121: Looking to God for Help and Hope
Psalm 121
I lift up my eyes to the hills.
From where does my help come?
2 My help comes from the LORD,
who made heaven and earth.3 He will not let your foot be moved;
he who keeps you will not slumber.
4 Behold, he who keeps Israel
will neither slumber nor sleep.5 The LORD is your keeper;
the LORD is your shade on your right hand.
6 The sun shall not strike you by day,
nor the moon by night.7 The LORD will keep you from all evil;
he will keep your life.
8 The LORD will keep
your going out and your coming in
from this time forth and forevermore.
China Pink Dianthus-#3 | Mercer Botanical Garden | March 2023
In the battle for Helm’s Keep in the Lord of the Rings Trilogy, Gandalf tells Aragorn and those who will face the vicious onslaught of the forces of evil, “On the third day, look to the east.” He is promising help will arrive. And sure enough, on the third day of a fierce battle, Gandalf comes to the aid of the embattled forces of good. It is a welcome sight to say the least. The tide turns. The enemies are defeated.
Where do you look for help? When the bills can’t be paid. When the wife just doesn’t understand. When the husband won’t listen. When the boss says you’re laid off. When you know you need help but don’t know what you need or how to ask. The psalmist tells us that our help comes from the LORD, the maker of heaven and earth.
Tonight our Life Group (a small group that meets in our home) was looking for a Bible passage that we could pray on a daily basis. We settled on Jeremiah 33:3, where God invites (commands) us, “Call to me and I will answer you, and will tell you great and hidden things that you have not known.”
We had no idea how appropriate this was until we learned that one of our group will be laid off in the very near future. We prayed that a door of which he now knows nothing about would be opened to him. How powerful to know that as we pray we can apply this verse specifically to our friend and brother in Christ!
So where do we look for help? Government? Medical science? A nearby friend? An escape to the mountains? I lift my eyes to the hills. Yes. But my help comes from the LORD. He created the world and all that is in it. He has is eyes on you. He will watch over you. And he will not miss a beat.
When trouble comes, God never says, “I didn’t see that coming!” There are no surprises in the courts of the heavenly realm. He has good plans for his people. Sometimes those plans are to help others in their time of need. Sometimes those plans are to strengthen our faith through trials and struggles. And sometimes his plans are to send help at an opportune time. In every case when we look to God for help, we are looking toward the right One.
David Bahn - Reflections 