My Help Comes From the Lord

INTRODUCTION:

We all need help at times in life.

The Beatles used to sing: “I get by with a little help from my friends.”

The commercial for the Lifeline product carries the tagline: “Help! I’ve fallen and I can’t get up!”

Where do you go when you need help? Do you call on family? Friends? Dial 911?

It’s good to have a support system in place, but we need to look further than that.

Because history and experience teach us that

no safety plan,

no insurance policy,

no security system can keep you absolutely safe in this life.

You can follow all the safety rules, take every precaution, exercise and eat well, and things can still go wrong.

And that’s why we need to look to God for our help.

It was Ben Franklin who said, “God helps those who help themselves,” but the Scriptures teach us that God helps those who seek his help.

None of us are safe until we take refuge in God. (Samuel Cox)

Psalm 121 is a psalm about trusting in God’s providential care.

Do you need help this morning?

SCRIPTURE:

Psalm 121 “A Song of Ascents. 1 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.”

God is my helper

Psalm 121:1-2 “1 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.”

Psalm 121:1–2 (NIV84)

1 I lift up my eyes to the hills— where does my help come from? 2 My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth.

Trust in the power of the creator.

First of all, they encourage us to look beyond the mountains to the God who created them. The hills in verse one are part of the argument here. Mountains are symbols of strength and stability. They are great in size, long-lasting and unchanging. The creation reflects the Creator. And so the God who made the mountains is even greater in power and strength.

The hills are also upward in direction. We tend to look down when we’re in trouble. Right? Our faces are downcast. Our focus is on our troubles and all our problems down here, and they just tend to drag us down further. But don’t look down. That’s the wrong direction! The hills are a reminder that we are to look up. You must lift your eyes to look at a mountain. But don’t stop there. Are you looking high enough? You must look beyond the mountains to the God who created them because God is higher than all.

Remember these psalms were sung by travelers on their way to Jerusalem, and it is possible they may have sung this Psalm as they were nearing the hills that surrounded Jerusalem. In that case they were not only looking up at the mountains, but they would also have been looking up towards Jerusalem and the temple, the dwelling place of God.

Psalm 46:1 tells us: “God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble.” (Psalm 46:1)

We read in Psalm 90:2: “Before the mountains were born or you brought forth the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God.” (Psalm 90:2)

God is bigger than the mountains and God is before the mountains.

We don’t look to the mountains for our strength,

but the mountains get our eyes off of our problems and lift our eyes up towards God who can help us in our time of need.

So don’t just look to the hills but look to the one who made the hills.

Look past the creation to the creator. As Pastor Josh Moody writes: “Nature is not the solution … it points to the solution.”

Look beyond the mountains to the God who created them.

Trust in the Providence of God.      

God is not only the Creator, but he is involved in his creation.

The Scriptures teach us that God is involved in every aspect of his creation and that includes you.

We call God’s power over all creation his providence.

The Westminster Confession of Faith gives us a beautiful description of God’s providence: “God, the great Creator of all things, doth uphold, direct, dispose, and govern all creatures, actions, and things, from the greatest even to the least, by his most wise and holy providence, according to his infallible foreknowledge, and the free and immutable counsel of his own will, to the praise of the glory of his wisdom, power, justice, goodness, and mercy.” (Westminster Confession, V, 1)

What a difference it makes to know that the Creator of the universe is your helper and your friend!

How big is your problem today?

Now compare it to the Maker of heaven and earth.

I think it’s safe to say, “God’s got this.”

Gerald Williamson writes: “Because God controls the universe, chance is ruled out, and because it is God who controls the universe, fate is ruled out also.”

We live in a world neither of chance nor fate.

This is God’s world, and God’s providence means that nothing can happen to you outside of God’s will and providential care.

What is the source of your help? Psalm 121 tells us it is the Maker of heaven and earth. That’s the first truth we learn from this psalm. The Creator is your helper.

God is my protector:

Notice the ways that God protects us:

He watches over us

Psalm 121:3-4 “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.”

Psalm 121:3 (NIV84)

3 He will not let your foot slip— he who watches over you will not slumber;

A. He protects you from accidents       – Psalm 37:23-24

First of all he protects you from accidents, or as verse 3 puts it: “He will not let your foot slip.” (Psalm 121:3)

When you build your life on God and his word, you are on solid ground. You have a firm foundation for your feet and for your life.

We read in Psalm 37: “The LORD makes firm the steps of the one who delights in him; though he may stumble, he will not fall, for the LORD upholds him with his hand.” (Psalm 37:23-24)

There are no accidents for those who put their faith in Christ.

Everything that happens in your life takes place under God’s providential care.

B. He never slumbers nor sleeps

Secondly, God never slumbers nor sleeps.

This is in contrast to the pagan gods we meet in Scripture. For example in 1 Kings 18we read about the prophets of Baal trying to reach their god.

When Baal didn’t respond, Elijah teased them: “Shout louder! Surely he is a god! Perhaps he is deep in thought, or busy, or traveling. Maybe he is sleeping and must be awakened.” (1 Kings 18:27)

The implication here is if your god is sleeping when you need him, then you don’t have much of a god, do you?

But our God is always awake. He never falls asleep on the watch.

He never dozes or nods off.

He never even gets distracted.

You can pray to him at any time and he always focuses on you and hears you.

And because God never slumbers nor sleeps – that means that you can! Because God is awake, you can sleep.

It’s like a child who can’t sleep until their parent promises to stay by their bedside.

Then the child trustfully falls asleep knowing their parent is there to watch over them.

It’s the same way with God.

It doesn’t matter what problem you’re dealing with,

you can leave it in God’s hands and go to sleep at night knowing that God never slumbers nor sleeps and he will take care of it.

He will take care of you.

C. He is close beside you   Psalms 121:5 “5 The Lord is your keeper; the Lord is your shade on your right hand.”

The hills may be far away in the distance, but God is the shade at your right hand.

He is close beside you.

David wrote in Psalm 16:8: “I have set the LORD always before me. Because he is at my right hand, I will not be shaken.” (Psalm 16:8)

God told Jacob in Genesis 28:15: “I am with you and will watch over you wherever you go.” (Genesis 28:15)

The Lord is your shade at your right hand.

That means God accompanies you every step of the way. He is close beside you.

D. He protects you at all times       – Psalm 91:5-6

God protects you from accidents. He never slumbers nor sleeps. He is close beside you. And then fourthly, he protects you at all times. Look at verse 6: “The sun will not harm you by day, nor the moon by night.” (Psalm 121:6)

The travelers to Jerusalem faced many dangers along the way. Sunstroke was a real danger during the day, and there were often extreme changes of temperature between day and night. The moon was associated with lunacy, also called “moonstroke.” And of course there was also the danger of bandits and wild animals at night. There were dangers both day and night on the road, but verse six assured the traveler: “The sun will not harm you by day, nor the moon by night.” We read something similar in Psalm 91: “You will not fear the terror of night, nor the arrow that flies by day, nor the pestilence that stalks in the darkness, nor the plague that destroys at midday.” (Psalm 91:5-6)

The Hebrew language often uses pairs of opposite words to signify totality (called a “merism”). In other words the phrase using the opposites includes both extremes and everything in between. So when we read that the sun will not harm you by day, nor the moon by night, what this is really saying is that God protects you at all times – both day and night and everything in between. God is present to help you with every problem in your life. The God of Israel is your protector.

Here, the Bible tells us that the one who ''keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep.'' *When a person asked the Greek general Alexander the Great how he could sleep soundly when he was surrounded by so much personal danger, he replied that Parmenio, his faithful guard, was watching. How much more soundly should we sleep when God, who never slumbers nor sleeps, is guarding us!*

*A mother and her little four-year-old daughter were preparing to retire for the night. The child was afraid of the dark, and the mother, alone with the child, felt fearful also. When the light was out, the child caught a glimpse of the moon outside the window. ''Mother,'' she asked, ''is the moon God's light?'' ''Yes,'' said the mother. ''God's light is always shining.'' The next question was, ''Will God blow out His light and go to sleep?'' And the mother replied, ''No, my child. God never goes to sleep.'' Then out of a simplicity of a child's faith she said that which gave reassurance to the fearful mother: ''Well, so long as God is awake, I am not afraid.''*Â

He keeps us from harm.

Psalm 121:5-8 “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.”

The psalmist says, ''The sun shall not strike you by day, nor the moon by night.''

*There is genuine danger of sunstroke in such hot regions as the Near East, but there is no reason for thinking of the moon as threatening, in spite of the fact that the word ''lunatic'' (from the Latin word luna for ''moon'') reflects the ancient belief that exposure to the moon's rays can disorder the mind.

What the psalmist really means, though in figurative language,

is that nothing either of the day or night can harm us if God is keeping guard. \

God is our covering against every calamity.

He is our shade against the visible perils of the day as well as the hidden perils of the night.*

He is watching and caring for as at all times (our comings and Goings)

These verses remind a New Testament believer of that great corresponding passage at the close of

Romans 8:35-39 “35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? 36 As it is written, “For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.” 37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, 39 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 point of this psalm is not that we will never have any troubles, but that God is still in control and He has our best interest at heart. For the Christian, we cannot expect a life without any problems.

CONCLUSION:

*So what is the disciple of Jesus to expect? Peterson answers,

''The Christian life is not a quiet escape to a garden where we can walk and talk uninterruptedly with our Lord; nor a fantasy trip to a heavenly city where we can compare blue ribbons and gold medals with others who have made it to the winners' circle....The Christian life is going to God. In going to God Christians travel the same ground that everyone else walks on, breathe the same air, drink the same water, shop in the same stores, read the same newspapers, are citizens under the same governments, pay the same prices for groceries and gasoline, fear the same dangers, are subject to the same pressures, get the same distresses, are buried in the same ground. The difference is that each step we walk, each breath we breathe, we know we are preserved by God, we know we are accompanied by God, we know we are ruled by God; and therefore no matter what doubts we endure or what accidents we experience, the Lord will preserve us from evil, he will keep our life.''

The mature Christian is neither blind to trouble nor in fear of it, for he is following after Jesus Christ, who said, ''In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world'' (John 16:33). ON SCREEN)*

So take comfort in this. Learn to trust God in all things and to look for the good in all the details of life. God cares for you. He will provide for you. He is there to help you. “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.” (Psalm 121:1-2)