Psalm 121 - The Lord, My Help
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
2 And Ahaziah fell through the lattice in his upper chamber which was in Samaria, and became ill. So he sent messengers and said to them, “Go, inquire of Baal-zebub, the god of Ekron, whether I will recover from this sickness.” 3 But the angel of the Lord said to Elijah the Tishbite, “Arise, go up to meet the messengers of the king of Samaria and say to them, ‘Is it because there is no God in Israel that you are going to inquire of Baal-zebub, the god of Ekron?’
At some point in life we all fall through the lattice work so to speak. We all get hurt, get sick, experience a hardship or a trial; we need help at some point.
But where should we look for help?
Ahaziah looked to an idol instead of the living God and was told “You shall not come down from the bed where you have gone up, but you shall surely die,” (2 Kgs 1:4).
[CIT] Psalm 121 calls God’s people to look to the living God for their help.
[PROP] It promises that if we do, our God will not let our foot slip into the grave.
As Jesus said, if we look to Him, even though we die, we live.
[TS] This psalm presents the LORD to us as our help, our security, our keeper, and our protection.
I pray the Lord encourage and comfort us as we look to the Lord for help tonight.
Major Ideas
Major Ideas
#1: The LORD is Our Help (vv. 1-2)
#1: The LORD is Our Help (vv. 1-2)
1 I will lift up my eyes to the mountains; From where shall my help come? 2 My help comes from the Lord, Who made heaven and earth.
Q. How are we to understand these mountains? Does the Lord’s help come from the mountains or does the psalmist first look to the mountains for help before realizing that he should look to the Lord alone?
May the psalmist is thinking of pilgrims making their way to Jerusalem for one of the annual festivals. They would have looked to the mountains of that city as they approached, perhaps specifically looking to Mt. Zion, the hill on which the temple of the Lord sat.
As they lifted their eyes to the mountains of Jerusalem, they would have seen their help come from the Lord.
Or maybe the psalmist is saying that the mountains are no help and that we must look to the Lord for our protection.
Jeremiah thinks in this direction in Jeremiah 3:23, saying…
23 “Surely, the hills are a deception, A tumult on the mountains. Surely in the Lord our God Is the salvation of Israel.
And in Psalm 123, the psalmist lifts his eyes, not to the mountains, but to the Lord alone…
1 To You I lift up my eyes, O You who are enthroned in the heavens! 2 Behold, as the eyes of servants look to the hand of their master, As the eyes of a maid to the hand of her mistress, So our eyes look to the Lord our God, Until He is gracious to us.
However I understand looking to these mountains, what’s important is that I understand that my help comes from the LORD alone.
He is the LORD, the same yesterday, today, and forever; the One who was, is, and always will be.
He is my ever present help in times of trouble (Psalm 46:1).
He is the Creator. He made heaven and earth.
He can surely handle my troubles.
If I don’t believe that I need His help, then I must be blind to the world of trouble in which I live.
In John 16:33, Jesus said, “In the world you will have tribulation…”
Acts 14:22 says, “Through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God.”
If I don’t believe that I need His help, then I must be blind to the spiritual forces of darkness arrayed against me.
8 Be of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.
12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.
Because of the challenges I face in the physical world and in the spiritual world, I need the LORD’s help.
I will be helped in my trials to meditate on the LORD as Creator.
2 My help comes from the Lord, Who made heaven and earth.
[ILLUS] Job experienced physical and spiritual trials unique in history. Job was stripped of everything except his life and a wife that advised him to curse God and die.
Job didn’t need to look to her for help.
Job didn’t need to look to his friends for help either.
They kept accusing him of secret sins that led to all his trials.
Finally, Job gets an audience with God, but rather than learning why all these things happened, Job learns who God is by being forced to meditate on God as Creator.
1 Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind and said, 2 “Who is this that darkens counsel By words without knowledge? 3 “Now gird up your loins like a man, And I will ask you, and you instruct Me! 4 “Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Tell Me, if you have understanding, 5 Who set its measurements? Since you know. Or who stretched the line on it? 6 “On what were its bases sunk? Or who laid its cornerstone, 7 When the morning stars sang together And all the sons of God shouted for joy?
In the rest of Job 38-39, God displays His power as Creator. Then Job says in Job 40:4…
4 “Behold, I am insignificant; what can I reply to You? I lay my hand on my mouth.
God isn’t finished, however, and displays more of His Creator power in the rest of Job 40-41. Job then responds in Job 42:2, 5…
2 “I know that You can do all things, And that no purpose of Yours can be thwarted.
5 “I have heard of You by the hearing of the ear; But now my eye sees You;
When he needed help, Job was made to think on God as Creator, and in doing so he received the help he needed—a bigger understanding of God as God.
[APP] The help we need in our trials isn’t to understand why; the help we need is to understand God as God.
We get that help when we think on God as Creator.
#2: The LORD is Our Security (vv. 3-4)
#2: The LORD is Our Security (vv. 3-4)
3 He will not allow your foot to slip; He who keeps you will not slumber. 4 Behold, He who keeps Israel Will neither slumber nor sleep.
In his commentary on this psalm, Derek Kidner suggests that verse 3 should be read as a prayer and verse 4 should be read as the response.
In that case, v. 3 would read, “May He not allow your (my) foot to slip; May He who keeps you (me) never slumber.”
And verse 4 would then carry the response, “Behold, He who keep Israel will neither slumber nor sleep.”
The foot that slips slips into Sheol, the Hebrew place of the dead, sometimes viewed as a place of separation from God.
The Lord’s vigilance will not allow His people to slip into the grave like this. As Psalm 66:9 says…
9 He keeps us alive and does not allow our feet to slip.
He will not rest in His protection of His people. If we are in Christ Jesus, we have been grafted in to the people of God. We are apart of the true Israel, and…
4 Behold, He who keeps Israel Will neither slumber nor sleep.
[ILLUS] The weather people warned us about severe weather this past Monday night. Tornado watches were likely for the early morning hours, so I decided I would sleep in the recliner with my phone set to alert me if there were any tornado warnings. I stayed up late waiting on a warning but eventually fell asleep and woke up to sunshine and blue skies. I assumed there was never a tornado warning only to look at my phone and realize that I missed one about 4 a.m.
I was slumbering and sleeping as danger loomed overhead.
[APP] Our LORD never slumbers nor sleeps. He always vigilant, always alert, always on guard. Because of Him, the danger never slips up on us, and our foot never slips into the grave.
His vigilance is our security.
#3: The LORD is Our Keeper (vv. 5-6).
#3: The LORD is Our Keeper (vv. 5-6).
5 The Lord is your keeper; The Lord is your shade on your right hand. 6 The sun will not smite you by day, Nor the moon by night.
The Lord is my keeper. That word keeper is a popular one in this psalm.
3 He will not allow your foot to slip; 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.
7 The Lord will protect you from all evil; He will keep your soul.
Q: What does it mean for the Lord to keep us?
It means that the Lord is our security (v. 3), our watchman (v. 4), our refreshment (v. 5), and our protector (v. 7).
[ILLUS] God asked Cain, “Where is Abel your brother?” Cain knew exactly where Abel was because Cain had murdered Abel, but Cain still replied in angry exasperation, “I do not know. Am I my brother’s keeper?” (Gen. 4:9)
[APP] The Lord is not angry or exasperated to be our keeper. He doesn’t throw off His care for us, asking dismissively, “Am I my brother’s keeper?”
He delights to keep us, to watch over us day and night.
#4: The LORD is Our Protection (vv. 7-8).
#4: The LORD is Our Protection (vv. 7-8).
7 The Lord will protect you from all evil; He will keep your soul. 8 The Lord will guard your going out and your coming in From this time forth and forever.
Q: Does the Lord protecting us from all evil mean that we won’t ever experience any evil in this life? If not, then what does it mean?
Derek Kidner said, “In the light of other Scriptures, to be kept from all evildoes not imply a cushioned life, but a well-armed one.” He then refers to our walk through the valley of the shadow of death in Psalm 23, highlighting Psalm 23:4, which says…
4 Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil, for You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.
We expect the dark valley, but because the Lord is with us—protecting us—we have no fear and we have all comfort.
He protects me from all evil, keeping my very soul.
His protection would be terribly limited if it only provided for my physical well-being. But His protection extends beyond the physical to the spiritual.
His protection of me extends beyond the temporal to the eternal.
He protects me at all times, in my coming and going now and forever.
Going out and coming in refers to everything. God protects me in everything.
In all my ventures and enterprises, He protects me.
In all my traveling far and returning home, He protects me.
In all my years younger and older, He protects me.
This is true now and forever.
Conclusion
Conclusion
Again, the psalm doesn’t teach us that we shall never experience hardships or trials or that we shall never be touched by evil.
No, this psalm teaches us where to look for help when we are touched by those things.
We look to the LORD alone.
John Calvin said, “The meaning of the prophet is abundantly obvious, which is, that although all the helps of the world, even the mightiest, should offer themselves to us, yet we ought not to seek safety anywhere but in God.”
[PRAYER]