“The Lord is Your Helper” (Psalm 121)

Have you ever heard of syllabus shock? It usually happens on the first day of class when the professor gives the syllabus. Sometimes students get a pit in their stomach and think “this is way too much stuff. I’m never going to be able to do all of this. The professor is crazy.” Or maybe you felt similar emotions if you’ve ever had a newborn. All the sudden there is this tiny little life looking to you for everything. Or maybe you’ve felt something like this after talking with a friend or a counselor about an issue in your life. You’ve worked up the courage to talk about something challenging, you’ve been vulnerable and open, and this person has really listened! There seems to be a way forward. But then at some point you get flooded with all sorts of negative thoughts and emotions. You begin to wonder if growth is truly possible. The hope felt so wonderful, but the journey to where you want to go feels daunting. I think we all know something of these feelings. We all know what it is like to see where we want to go and wonder if we have what it takes to get there. 

And the Psalmist in Psalm 121 knows something of this experience too. “I lift my eyes to the hills,” he says. The Psalmist was preparing to set out on a journey up the mountain to Jerusalem. God had commanded the Israelites to make pilgrimage to Jerusalem three times a year. But the problem was that these mountains were not very safe. There were wild animals and probably thieves. For most people it would take multiple days to get there so they will have to sleep outside. The travelers would be exposed to the elements and so on. And the challenges didn’t stop there. This wasn’t just a test of physical fitness; it was also an emotional and spiritual journey of faith. Journeying up the mountain was saying “yes” with the whole of one’s being to keep moving towards what God had called them to do. So, the Psalmist and every Israelite must look to the hills and decide if they will make the climb or not. Will they move forward to what God called them to do or will the challenges hold them back? And what we will see is that the Psalmist moves forward. And he does so with confidence. And he wants us to do likewise. The Psalmist wants to instill confidence in us as we pursue what the Lord is calling us to. So that is what we are going to spend the next few moments looking at. We will see this first by answering the question where does my help come from? And second by considering what kind of help we can expect from the Lord.

“Where does my help come from?” When the Psalmist looks to where God has called him to go, he first pauses and asks, “Where does my help come from?” It can be so easy to forget to ask that question. When we look at what God is calling us to, we might be more inclined to ask the question “how am I going to do all of this?” “How am I going to care for my kids in a way that pleases the Lord?” “How am I going to work diligently at this job that I cannot stand?” “How am I going to build this habit of faith, when my plate feels so full already?” When we look to what God is calling us to do, we usually do some level of analysis. Some of us might look at the challenges and feel immobilized. The fears and the difficulties might keep us from attempting the journey at all. Others of us, might make the journey but be consumed with the challenges. We journey, but we journey anxious and afraid, always on the lookout for what could go wrong next. And still others of us might make the journey with a sort of king of the hill mentality. But the Psalmist does a different kind of analysis. He knows that if God has called someone to do something, He will help them do it! 

Our youth group was at the Bridge in Chicago the other night. If you don’t know the Bridge is a church that seeks to bridge formerly incarcerated individuals to churches throughout Chicago. One of the students and I were talking with one of the guys there. This man had been a very talented football player and a successful fitness trainer after college. In his late 30’s he started using drugs and got into trouble the law. He’s now living sober and in his own words is trying to “restart his life in his 50’s.” And when I’d try to encourage him, saying “good job,” or “you are doing it,” he would instantly say, “It’s the Lord. It’s the Lord. It’s only because of him.” He is making the journey by relying on a help that comes from outside of himself.

How about you? What are you relying on? Who are you looking to for help? Where do you go when you look at the challenges in front of you? Where do you turn to when you feel overwhelmed? What do you tell yourself when the path to where God is calling you looks scary? The man from the Bridge and the Psalmist are reminding us that “The Lord the Maker of Heaven and Earth, is your helper.” Almighty God is your helper. The one who pre-dates the mountains is your helper. The one who is sovereign over all the elements of nature is your helper. Your help comes from the Lord, the maker of heaven and earth. 

The Psalmist’s analysis sets the journey in the context of what is true. The Lord here is the covenant name of God. So the Psalmist is reminding us that we aren’t moving forward in faith for some trivial reason. The Psalmist didn’t just wake up and feel like going on a hike. No, the Lord who delivered his people out of slavery in Egypt told them to keep moving forward in faith. “Do this three times a year,” he said. And who is this Lord, that calls his people to do challenging things? He is the maker of heaven and earth. Which means that as you make the journey up the mountain you are on God’s home turf. You think of the boost that athletes get when they have home court advantage. They still have to play the game, there will still be difficulties, but they also know that the whole arena is on their side. And that’s what is being said of us. If we are moving forward in faith, we are doing so in God’s arena, his name on the side of the building. We can have the confidence that comes from knowing, that he is on our side and he is rooting for us to succeed. 

And even more than just rooting for us as a spectator, He will get down into the arena! Almighty God will help you in the lived terrain of your life. The Psalmist is not satisfied with a conceptual level of analysis. He reminds himself, that the Lord is his helper so that way he can think through the journey properly. He will seek to work that truth into the concrete circumstances of his journey. He will work through the various fears and challenges he will likely encounter. And in so doing, he gives us three things that everyone who looks to the Lord for help can expect. You can expect the Lord to guide you as you make decisions. You can expect the Lord to protect what he has placed in your hands. And you can expect him to keep you always. 

First, you can expect the Lord to guide you as you make decisions. In verses 3-4, we are told that the Lord will not let your foot be moved. Which is to say that the Lord will keep you securely on the path. The fear here is that you might step on something so destabilizing that you cannot complete the journey. Obviously, that is important for people traveling up a mountain. If you step on a rock that is not as sturdy as it appeared, you might twist your ankle and not be able to continue on. And we totally get that! We’ve all asked the question, “is this the step I should take?” And what we are asking is will this choice be able to hold my weight? Will this destabilize my life or will it help me to live the life I long for? Will this move me in a good direction or not so good direction? And what you don’t want to be doing in the decision-making process is worrying about every little step along the way.

Years back during the Olympics, I was watching the marathon. And the commentators mentioned that they could tell a runner at the front of the pack was about to fall off the pace. They said they knew this because the runner’s vision was getting closer and closer to his feet. Apparently, the way to keep running strong is by keeping your head up. If you start focusing on each step, you are in trouble. But sometimes, we do that when we make decisions. We think “if I can just predict every little thing and forecast every potential problem, then I will have the certainty needed to move forward in confidence.” But that is not a recipe for confidence. Of course, we want to exercise wisdom, discernment, and seek good counsel as we make decisions, but the truth is we can’t know how every little detail of life is going to shake out. 

So to the fear of taking the wrong step the Psalmist reminds us of the ever-vigilant watchfulness of God. He is always on the clock, so you don’t have to be. He never takes his eyes off of you, so you can keep your head up. The image here is of a drowsy sentry. We can think of the night guard slowly nodding off right as the thieves are coming to ransack the castle. The Psalmist says, “Yea, God is nothing like that.” He doesn’t slumber, he doesn’t dose off, he doesn’t need a nap. He is your sleepless keeper. Which I think means that the weight of every decision is not completely on you. You don’t have to over analyze every single step, because God is looking out for you all the time. He knows exactly where you need to go. He is the one calling you forward. You can be confident as you make decisions because God cares about the steps you take in His world. It is his special prerogative to watch over your journey. He will get you to where He wants you to go, because He never takes his eyes off of you.

Second, you can expect the Lord to protect what He has placed in your hand. In verse 5 we read, “The sun will not strike you by day nor the moon by night.” The sun and the moon are forces beyond us that can overpower or exert a negative influence upon us. Which would have been a major problem for the Israelites. When God told them to journey up the mountain, he told them to bring something in their hand. In Deuteronomy, where these journeys are commanded, we read, “[You] shall not appear before the Lord empty-handed.” God expected them to bring some grain, or an offering, or a sacrifice because they were headed towards a party. That was the goal of these pilgrimages. These pilgrimages were journeys up the mountain towards a party where God would be their host. Bringing something in your hand was a way to express gratitude to that host. It was a mark of hospitality. And in that culture, you would never show up to a party empty-handed. 

When we send out invites to parties nowadays it’s not uncommon for us to say something like “your presence is your present.” By which we mean, don’t feel pressure to buy or bring a gift to the party. But that would have been unthinkable to the Israelites. To show up empty handed to a party would be a gross act of ingratitude. Showing up empty handed to a party would insult the host and it would bring shame upon yourself. We see something similar to this when Jesus turned the water into wine. Why did he do that? Because the newly married couple would be deeply shamed if the wine ran out at their party. So, the fear of showing up empty handed is a genuine reason why someone might not make the journey to Jerusalem at all. “If I’m going to show up emptied handed, I’m just not going to go. If the forces outside of my control could lead me to dishonor, I will decline the invite.”

Our culture might not be as shame/ honor oriented as theirs, but we get this fear too. Many people in our day and age are struggling with feeling like they have anything to offer. We have a heightened awareness of things outside of our control, and so we think we cannot contribute anything of significance. I think many people feel like, “The challenges we are facing are too great, so why even try?” And that is a very normal response, if it feels like there is nothing you can do. If your best efforts will come to nothing. If it feels like no one is watching out for you. If the sun and the moon, and other forces outside of your control, were more powerful than God. But that is not the case, nothing and no one is more powerful than God. The Psalmist says, “The Lord is your shade on your right hand.” Which means, not only has he invited you to the party, he also wants you to show up in honor. The Lord shades what he has placed in your hand so that you can have contribute something of significance. You and I can keep journeying forward in faith, because the Lord will protect what he has placed in our hands.

And third, you can expect that the Lord will keep you always. In verses 7-8, we read, “The Lord will keep you from all evil; He will keep your life. The Lord will keep your going out and your coming in from this time forth and forevermore.” The Psalmist now expands beyond a journey to Jerusalem. “Your going out and your coming in” is another way of saying, the Lord will keep you in every area of your life. The confidence that the Israelites could have as they journeyed up the mountain was the same confidence they could have for the entirety of their lives. In other words, their confidence didn’t come after they completed the journey but before they completed it. Their confidence was rooted in their relationship not their performance.

Most jobs give a yearly performance review. If you performed well, if you outperformed those around you, you have job security. You can be confident for another year of work as long as you continue to put up good numbers, as long as you continue to perform. Your confidence is contingent upon your performance. It always has a future referent. Your past might be a good indicator of future performance, but it is no guarantee. But that is a very different kind of confidence than what the Psalmist is talking about. The Psalmist says that we have a confidence that is rooted in the past. It is secure, not on the basis of what we do but on the basis of what God has done. 

This takes us back to the very beginning of the Psalm, why were the people making the journey in the first place? Because they belonged to God. God delivered them out of slavery and oppression and said when I bring you into the promised land make pilgrimage three times a year. They journeyed forward because they were in a relationship with God. He had already acted definitively as their helper and their keeper. Because they were already in a relationship with God they could be confident for the whole of their lives. They had a future confidence that was rooted firmly in their past. 

And what we come to see in Jesus is that the confidence that these Israelites had is meant for us all. Jesus journeyed to us as the perfect traveler. He journeyed to us and he also journeyed to Jerusalem. In Luke’s gospel we are told that Jesus “set his face to go to Jerusalem.” He made this journey during the pilgrimage of Passover. But instead of going to offer a lamb in his hand, he offered up himself. He journeyed forward to the cross to deliver us from evil. Jesus is the fulfilment of God’s keeping. His cross, resurrection, and ascension is the definitive act of salvation once and for all. If you follow Jesus in faith, you have the most secure relationship in the cosmos. Nothing can separate you from His love and you can keep journeying forward in faith, because Jesus is your keeper.

So, you can really please the Lord with your life. Your prayer life can grow. A relationship can be mended. You can build a life of goodness and beauty, because Jesus has definitively loved you. You have been welcomed in the totality of who you are. And God has committed Himself to you forever. And that is where you and I ultimately get the confidence to keep moving forward in faith. We can entrust the whole life of our life to him and we can also entrust specific aspects of our life to Him. He will guide you as you make decisions, He will guard you so that you make a meaningful contribution, and He will do this for you always. This is what everyone who follows Jesus in faith can expect. You can move forward in confidence because Jesus is your helper.