The Lord Our Helper

In this Psalm of Ascent, when the worshippers would travel up to the temple mount and would sing these psalms in preparation of their journey, we find a most important question.

In this question, “where does my help come from?” those who have the answer are overjoyed, they are secure, they are safe; but those who do not have the answer are left in the dark so to speak. They are left in the vague wonderment, not understanding the reason for their difficulties, or whether any of it will come to fruition as something beneficial or meaningful.

James Boice called this a Psalm for travellers. Whenever he or one of his family members would go out on a journey of some sort, on a trip, to college, on vacation, etc, she would quote this psalm to them in prayer as they would leave. I have heard similar stories of others clinging to this Psalm in travel as a reminder that God will keep their goings out and their comings in.

In fact, David Livingstone, the man who by God’s strength introduced modern missions to the dark continent of Africa, read this psalm before he embarked on his journey.

But again, if one finds himself in a position where he does not have the answer to that initial question, then he is left grasping for straws. Perhaps his best outlook is to cling to some sense of blind optimism or theoretical well-wishing, or perhaps he ascribes to the concept of fate or karma without attaching any religious meaning to it. Whatever a person’s way of navigating the challenges of life, both great and small, is, I stand here and tell you that without the answer to this question, the hardships and challenges of life are meaningless and hopeless. But with the answer - if in fact we do know the one who is our help, our keeper, our sustainer, then life is not only meaningful, but it is joyful. Not for lack of sorrows, but for utter peace in the sorrows. Not for lack of trouble, but for sustaining in the trouble both now, and in all eternity.

Our cry of distress must always turn our eyes upward to God our maker, our helper, and our keeper.

1. Our Wondering Heart

In this portion, the Psalmist in rapid form both asks the question of the hour and answers it. He could answer it so quickly because he was well familiar with the answer. And perhaps the very reason that he considered the question at all is because he knew the answer. The unfortunate truth is that the ones who need the answer to the question most are the least likely to consider the question at all. But nevertheless, the Psalmist prompts us here to ask.

A. The Question - Vs. 1

The question is asked here as the psalmist is lifting his eyes up to the hills. In this Psalm of Ascent, he would have been travelling toward Jerusalem, upward in elevation - up Mount Zion. He was looking at the hills literally as he travelled to worship the Lord. However, We have all reached that moment in life where we raise our hands in questioning, we look up, and we ask, even if just in our heart, what is the answer? What am I going to do? Why is this happening? Does anyone see me? Does anyone know my trouble?

Maybe in today’s age we don’t look up to the hills, but we may look to Google, to social media, to the government, to our employers, to law enforcement, to something seemingly greater than ourselves, and we ask, Where does our help come from? And as we have already stated, having the answer to this question makes all the difference.

B. The Answer - Vs. 2

For this individual, the answer cam quickly. He resounded with no hesitation.

My help comes from “Yaweh”. The All powerful one. The covenant maker, the covenant keeper, the deliverer. The self existent, all powerful, all knowing, all seeing, sovereign Lord of the universe.

In comparison to the mountains that he was looking up at, he reminds himself that his helper is the one who made those very mountains that he is lifting his eyes up to. What a reminder. For those who know this Yaweh, we must always assure ourselves that our helper is the one who is not just greater than all our surroundings, both large and small, but he is the one who is in total control and providential guidance of all our surroundings.

In , we are reminded of Christ, Yaweh come in the flesh, who is our helper and our savior.

Colossians 1:15–17 ESV

He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together.

Colossians 1:15-1

All things were created by him, all things were created for him. In him all things hold together. Literally, all things find their existence both in the beginning and forever, in Yaweh.

May we be reminded in our darkest hour that although sometimes our surroundings give us clues and temporary comfort, our help comes from the one who made, keeps, and controls all things in our life.

2. Our Wonderful Help

The Psalmist then turns to give greater description of Yaweh our helper. He does this by describing three things that he does for us. We will see Him as our Stay, our Shelter, and our Sustainer.

A. Our Stay - Vs. 3-4

“He will not let your foot be moved.” The picture here is of sure footing on unstable territory. You may have prayed this psalm while walking into church this morning, that your foot might not slip! Or on a more serious note, you may have thought this morning, “my foot is slipping. My job is shaky, my finances are shaky, my marriage is shaky.” We feel as if one of those mainstays in our lives collapse, then we will utterly fall and collapse also. In this moment, we are looking for our stability in our surroundings rather than in the one who created them.

Here we are not promised that whats under our feet will not shake or even crumble, but rather we are promised that the One who is actually holding our footing will never cease to be our stay. He will never take a break from upholding us. He will never falter in his stability. The word here for “keep” could be translated more fully as to watch over, to keep watch, or to guard. This word is used 6 times in this psalm. The watchcare of God does not stop. Our Guard and Keeper does not take a lunch break.

This reminds me of Elijah and the prophets of Baal, when they were trying to call fire from Baal, and Elijah taunted them by saying, “maybe he is sleeping, or maybe he is using the bathroom.” The false idols of both foreign religion, and the false idols of earthly security, financial dreams, anything we hold on to but God, will utterly fail at some point - but Yaweh our Helper will not sleep, and will not fail.

B. Our Shelter - Vs. 5-6

“The Lord is your shade on your right hand.” When I read this, my memory turns to the prophet Jonah. Remember when he was up on a high place sulking in self pity because God had mercy on the people who he hated? And remember that God caused a gourd to grow up in the heat of the afternoon sun to shade Jonah? And then God caused a little worm to eat the gourd and it whithered? Of course, this only fueled Jonah’s self-pity. He was happy for the shade, and sad when it left, but what he was not happy for was the God who provided the shade.

At times, God may allow temporary comforts and luxuries in our life. We may thoroughly enjoy those things. We may even get to the point where we don’t know what we would do without them. The danger lies when we begin to value the gifts that God bestows upon us more than the gracious giver of those gifts.

In this section, we are told that it is not the thing in our life that are our shade and comfort, but rather it is God Himself. Here again, we are not promised that God will make the beating sun stop, or the rain or wind or snow for that matter, but rather that it will be him that protects us from the effects of those things. In other words, we will not be utterly destroyed by the power and effects of evil in this life. It is not that we will not see or experience it, but rather that God will keep us through the evil. We will certainly have the consequences and messes of living in a sin-cursed world, but as God’s children, we will not be ultimately destroyed by the evil.

Ephesians 6:16 ESV

In all circumstances take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one;

C. Our Sustainer - Vs. 7-8

Finally, we are reminded of God’s ultimate watchcare. It is here that we consider not just the effects of evil in our lives, but we see that our very days are in the hands of God.

“he will keep your life.” Have you ever known someone who was, to put it kindly, a health nut? Someone who did everything right with their diet, with their exercise, with the kinds of products they used, the kind of toothpaste that only uses organically grown mint? You know, that person? I am not that person. If you are, you have much more discipline than I.

Have you ever known someone who was just the opposite? Someone who did everything wrong with their diet, hardly exercised, never saw a doctor, never took a vitamin or balanced the amounts of fruits and vegetables they ate? You know, that person? Maybe that is me… Or maybe it is you!

Thats not my point. Now, have you ever known an extremely healthy person who seemed to pass before their time? Consider James Fixx. Do you know that name? You should… he is the one who made JOgging famous. He preached that an active, healthy lifestyle will surely lengthen your days. Well, unfortunately Mr. Fixx died when he was 52 while he was jogging of all things.

Now, that is not an indictment on a healthy lifestyle. We certainly should take care of the life that God has given us. But what it does remind us of is this fact: we are not ultimately in control of our days. We cannot choose our lifespan.

Christ said, in matthew 6:27.

Matthew 6:26–27 ESV

Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life?

Matthew 6:27 ESV

And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life?

Does this teach us to be carefree and not work for a living and just expect food to fall from heaven like manna every day? Of course not, in fact we are taught in scripture that the one who is not willing to work should not eat.

Again, what we see here is the principle that we are not in control our our days. They are in God’s hands. If anyone is going to keep our life, it is God. He knows the number of our days.

He will keep our daily lives, our daily activities, our daily plans, as long as his will decrees. Not one person can live one day longer than God decrees, and not one person can live one day shorter than God decrees. God the creator is God the sustainer. May we not look only to our health or our carefulness to lengthen our days, but may we look to God who made us as God who keeps us.

This whole psalm teaches us that God is sovereignly working our lives. He is our protector in the evil times, he is our upholder in the shakiness of this sin-cursed world. He is working all things after the counsel of his own will. And he is in control of our length of days as well.

James 4:13–15 ESV

Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”— yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.”

James 4:

Go back in your mind to that initial question. “Where does my help come from?” Those without the answer to that question, who operate only on the basis of fate or blind optimism, operate like the person James is talking to. They plan based on the track record of yesterday, the hope that tomorrow is coming. They plan with their eyes looking forward to the next hour, day, year, decade on earth. Their plans are wrapped up in goals that amount to retirement, graduation, accumulation of wealth, the ability to purchase a particular item, go on a particular vacation, etc. The goals may be big or small, but in the end they are only temporary. They can be only temporary. They are limited by time. And every person who lives understands that their time is limited - that one day their opportunity to live will come to an end, so they strive to make the most of it - and when its done it is done.

Not so, however, for the one who knows the Lord. We, as God’s children, know that yes, our earthly lives are limited also. But we have an end view that is beyond our length of days here on earth. We know that the keeper of our life does not just have in view our life here on earth, but our eternal life - our life with God eternally.

He will keep our goings out and coming in from this time forth and forevermore.

Our cry of distress must always turn our eyes upward to God our maker, our helper, and our keeper.