Where Does Our Help Come From?

Dear Beloved Congregation, God commanded all the Israelites to make three pilgrimages every year to Jerusalem (Passover, Pentecost, Tabernacles). He instituted this practice so that they would yearly renew their commitment to Him. In Jerusalem, they would see the temple, where the name of God resided. In Jerusalem, the priests would remind them of all that God had done, how He had rescued them out of bondage and slavery in Egypt. How He had provided for them in the wilderness, giving them food and water, even their clothes and sandals didn’t even wear out!

They would remind them of how their God spoke to them from the mountain, amidst the cloud, the fire, the smoke, the earth quaking mountain. How the Lord chose them out of all the nations to be His people. How the Lord provided them with laws and commandments that are wiser than anything any human being could ever invent. They would remind them how God alone had driven their enemies from before them by His mighty power.

God invited His people to come to Jerusalem to renew their covenant with Him, to remember God’s lovingkindness, to find solace, assurance, peace, forgiveness, and renew their commitment to walk with God in His ways.

This was necessary because the Israelites were prone to wander. They were prone to turning their backs on God, forgetting all His benefits, and chasing after other gods, other human wisdom, solutions, and ideas. They exchanged a true worldview for a false one.

And that is precisely why Psalm 121 starts with “I lift my eyes up to the hills—from whence comes my help?” What were on the hills? What were on the high places which not only surrounded Jerusalem, but were scattered all over Israel? They were the places where Israel worshipped the false gods of the other nations. They were the high places of the Canaanite deities.

So, while many in Israel did indeed look up to the hills for help, for help from false gods, from figments of human imagination, true worshippers did not. The true Israel who was faithful to God, who was faithful to keeping His commandments, who refused to worship other Gods did not lift their eyes to the hills, they knew their help doesn’t come from there.

Neither do we. We don’t look to other gods, we don’t participate in rituals, in knocking on wood, or other superstitions, rather, we look to God, the maker of all the earth and heaven. Why look to the thing built upon God’s creation, when you can look to God Himself?

Brothers and sisters, let us not waver in our focus on God! There is only one God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. We look to Him for all our help in this earth. For truly, our help comes from Him.

Pilgrimage is costly. It means not earning an income for the time it takes to travel from home to Jerusalem and back. It means expenses, just as we see gas prices rise in peak travel times, food prices, lodging, everything went up and everything cost more during the pilgrimage. Some of the passes were dangerous. Thieves, robbers, murderers, and all manner of wicked men lurked in the shadows. Some of the mountain passes were steep and difficult. The road from Jericho to Jerusalem is 14 miles and a 3300 foot climb!

No wonder the Israelites expressed their confidence in their God, who helps them! No wonder they sang these prayers as they walked, as they ascended up to Jerusalem. The God who helps will not allow your foot to be moved. Now, does this mean that no one ever tripped on their way up the mountain? Does that mean that God protected all the pilgrims in their journey?

Of course not! We confess, we believe that God watches over us! God protects us, but He allows things, even terrible things to happen to us. For are we greater than Job was? Are we greater than Jesus? Consider all that Jesus endured, for our benefit! No, what this means is that even if we stumble, even if we get cancer, even if we lose our jobs, even if we go to war, God protects us, He watches over us. God will not let us be lost, we who believe in Him.

God is attentive to all our needs. God never sleeps. Recall Israel in the time of King Ahab. It was a terrible time to be a faithful follower of God. Ahab, together with his wife Jezebel followed Baal. Anyone who served the God of Israel was peresecuted unto death. At His appointed time, God confronted Ahab in his sin. He sent Elijah to challenge the priests of Baal.

On Mount Carmel, the showdown took place. The priest of Baal set up an altar. Elijah set up an altar. They put wood and the sacrifice upon it. Elijah did the same. No fire was lit. Elijah said, “I alone am left a prophet of the LORD; but Baal’s prophets are four hundred and fifty men. Therefore let them give us two bulls; and let them choose one bull for themselves, cut it in pieces, and lay it on the wood, but put no fire under it; and I will prepare the other bull, and lay it on the wood, but put no fire under it. Then you call on the name of your gods, and I will call on the name of the LORD; and the God who answers by fire, He is God (1 Kings 18:22b-24a)” It sounded good to the people.

But when the priests of Baal cried out, no answer came, no fire came. So, they cried out louder and louder. Elijah egged them on, “Cry aloud, for he is a god; either he is meditating, or he is busy, or he is on a journey, or perhaps he is sleeping and must be awakened” (1 Kings 18: 27).

But The Lord God does not slumber. The Lord God is the one true God! For, after Elijah instructed that they douse the Lord’s altar three times with gallons and gallons of water, Elijah prayed, “LORD God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, let it be known this day that You are God in Israel and I am Your servant, and that I have done all these things at Your word. Hear me, O LORD, hear me, that this people may know that You are the LORD God, and that You have turned their hearts back to You again” (1 Kings 18:36-37). “Then the fire of the LORD fell and consumed the burnt sacrifice, and the wood and the stones and the dust, and it licked up the water that was in the trench. Now when all the people saw it, they fell on their faces; and they said, “The LORD, He is God! The LORD, He is God” (1 Kings 18:38-39)!

Rather than sleeping or being otherwise occupied, know this, people of God, God is awake, He is aware, He is attentive to all that is happening in His creation! He is your keeper. He keeps you, He protects you, He watches over you. He is the Lord, He is God!

Whatever happens to you in this life, if it happens by day or by night, God is aware of it. Indeed, He orchestrates all of life for His glory and His honour.

How is it, my friends that we are gathered here tonight? What steps led us here? What trials did Rev. Oord and his family endure? What difficulties did you endure? What challenges did you have to face to begin this congregation? What difficulties did I and my family face? What challenges have tried to stop us?

But here we are, we are here because God has ordained it. The sun has not scorched us. The moon has not been hidden from us, though the darkness has closed in. We have withstood challenges, and have come through them. We stand before more challenges, the threat of another world war, the possibility of more restrictions, the fears raised about the end of the world.

But God is with us, night and day. Year after year, season follows after season, and we attend to the task laid before us. Be faithful to God. Be faithful Christians. Trust in Him to provide for all our needs. Even if we should be struck down, emotionally, psychologically, spiritually, physically, nothing can ever take us away from God’s good hand! Therefore, we keep striving to love God with all our heart, all our soul, all our mind, and all our strength. We keep loving our neighbours, telling them the gospel, telling them the truth of the way the world really is.

And that’s the most important thing. People are running frantically all over creation trying to get this, that or the other thing. But God offers us the greatest promise: He will preserve us from all evil. He will preserve your soul.

Let me ask you, what must you do to prove your faithfulness to God? What must you do to prove yourself worthy of being saved? Do you need to go up to Jerusalem? How about Calgary, or Canmore, or Banff?

What do you need to do to prove yourself to God? Do you need to demonstrate your faithfulness?

No. Read verse 7 again. The Lord shall preserve you from all evil; He shall preserve your soul. The Lord does this. You do not. The Lord did this, long before you were born. All you must do is believe it. All you must do is trust that what God says is true, what He promises, He will do!

He will do this, not just today, but every day. No matter what you do, no matter when you do it, God will be with you preserving your life, eternally, each and every day.

The things of this life, pain, sorrow, difficulty, whatever, are nothing in comparison to what we already have in Christ! The things of this life, homes, clothing, vehicles, electronics, anything in all creation, is nothing in comparison to Christ.

Those Israelites, battling weather, battling terrible roads, battling unruly donkeys, battling their own desires to live for themselves, turn around and just go home and watch Passover on the couch, they were reminding themselves: Where does my help come from? It doesn’t come from false gods, it doesn’t come from the government, it doesn’t come from the king, it doesn’t come from foreign nations, it doesn’t come from within me. My help comes from the Lord God, Yahweh, the maker of heaven and earth.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, what makes Grace Reformed Church, Grace Reformed Church is our unyielding commitment to God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. We are here tonight, we are here Sunday morning, we are here Sunday afternoon, not because we have to, not because duty compels us, we are here to worship God, to be with God, because God is with us. Amen.