The Source of our Help (Psalm 121)

Good morning and welcome back to the fall. I know it feels like you never had a summer. One of the requirements of being Canadian is that we’re never happy with the weather. About the best thing you can say about our summer weather is that it didn’t snow, but at least that’s something. There are places it did snow in Canada this summer.

We’re about to get back into our fall schedules. The kids are in school, work is getting busy, and the slower pace is over. It’s not a bad time to ask you a question. It’s a question that might surprise you, but I’m going to ask you this question anyway.

The question is this: Where do you turn for help?

That question won’t surprise some of you, because you need help and you need it yesterday. Anybody got bills they can’t pay, medical problems they can’t fix, relations they can’t relate to, or any other type of problem? I thought so. There’s a group of us here that are at the end of our resources, and we know we need help and we’re not afraid to admit it. When I ask you where you turn for help, you’re not really surprised. You know you need to turn somewhere.

There’s a whole other group here, though, that is going to be surprised by this question. Most of us go through life not knowing that we need help. Even if we did, we’re like the proverbial guy that won’t stop for directions. We may know we need help, but we’re not prepared to admit it to anyone else. When I ask you where you turn for help, you’re a little bit surprised. Join the club; there are a lot of us here.

I just got back from seeing my father in England. Dad is in his eighties, lives alone, and has dementia. When I showed up at his place, I found that it hadn’t been cleaned since the last time I was there two years ago. There were unpaid bills, eviction notices, you name it. The amazing thing is that he thinks he’s doing fine. He isn’t even aware that he needs help. There are all kinds of resources out there for people in his exact condition, but he won’t get the help because he doesn’t even know he needs it. You may think it’s bad to need help. It’s even worse to need help and not know that you need help.

So let me ask you again: Where do you turn for help?

Thousands of years ago, this question was asked on a fairly regular basis, at least once a year, at a special occasion. It became sort of a conversation between at least two people, probably as they traveled to Jerusalem for a religious festival. This question and its answer became so important that it has been sung for years, and now, even though we’ve lost the music, the words are recorded for us.

This question is critical for you to answer properly, because you and I need help whether we know it or not. So let’s look at what the Bible suggests our answer should be. If you have a Bible, please turn with me to Psalm 121.

Psalm 121:1 says:

I lift up my eyes to the hills-
where does my help come from?

This is speaker number one. There is no indication in this psalm that the speaker is in any sort of trouble, so we’re free to guess as long as we know we’re guessing. It could be that the speaker is looking to the hills in fear, maybe scared of robbers who might be lurking there. It could be that he’s approaching Jerusalem and is looking to the hills, knowing that any minute the holy city will appear. He may be looking heavenward as he asks this question. We don’t know. Whether or not the psalmist was facing any type of problem, he found it important to ask this question. Where does my help come from? He just assumes he needs help. Where am I going to get the help that I need?

Answer that for yourself before we go on. I suppose we could say we’ll prepare the best that we can so that we don’t need any help. We could try to save money and cultivate friendships and look after our bodies so that we can be our own help. The reality is that despite all the preparations we can take, the psalmist knew what we so often forget. It’s not a matter of if we need help; the question is where we’re going to get it. For the first speaker in this passage, there’s only one answer:

My help comes from the LORD,
the Maker of heaven and earth. (v.2)

“My help comes from the LORD.” Good answer. That’s why we pray. That’s why many of us come to church. We know we need God. We’ve faced circumstances in which there is nowhere else to turn, and we can honestly say, “My help comes from the LORD.” This is a good answer, and it is exactly the answer that you would expect to read in the Bible, and that you would want to hear in church.

But let’s do an honesty check here. When we get into trouble, God is often the last place we turn. I’ve often thought that we divide life into different compartments. There’s the career compartment, the financial compartment, the relational compartment, and the spiritual compartment. When we get into trouble in most of these areas, our first response is not usually to turn to God for help. We think God is in charge of the spiritual compartment of life, but what does God know about the rest of life? God is in charge of the church and all things churchy, but we don’t always turn to God as quickly in our homes, at the bank, or at work. We need help, but God isn’t always where we go for that help.

The psalmist says, “My help comes from the LORD.” What I love about this psalm is that it develops the reasons why the LORD is qualified to be the source of all our help, in every area of our lives. This psalm becomes not just a song of worship, but one of blessing on the lives of those who enter into it. Today, I’d like this psalm to be a source of blessing to you. I would like this psalm to orient our lives, individually and as a church, as we enter into this new school year. But first, we have to learn exactly why the LORD is qualified to be our helper. The psalm gives three reasons:

1. He is qualified to help because he is the Creator

Again, verse 2 says:

My help comes from the LORD,
the Maker of heaven and earth.

What qualifies the LORD to be our helper? He is the maker of heaven and earth. He is the Creator, and that makes him uniquely qualified to help us.

I don’t know if you heard, but the newspapers recently reported that banks rate your value as a customer when you call in and route your call accordingly. You know when you call your bank and enter your bank card number? The computer looks up how much you are worth to that bank. Those of us with low value to the bank – that’s me – are put on hold. Those with big portfolios are immediately connected to someone who is pleased to help them. They receive completely different levels of service based on their value.

It’s like that all over. I redeemed some travel points lately. It wasn’t that much of a difference to fly first class, so I gave into temptation and went for it. I loved the level of service. They close the curtains and keep the economy class out. They wait on you hand and foot. You have access to special flight attendants who treat you differently because you have a first class ticket. Without that first class ticket, you would be stuck with no access to any of the benefits the people enjoy up front.

The psalmist says that when you need help, you have first class, direct access to the highest power that exists in this universe: the Maker of heaven and earth. Your call is not routed according to your worth. You are given access to the one who created the galaxies and stars, the one who created everything you see around you. You have access to the most powerful One in the universe.

As a parent, it’s embarrassing to get to the age in which you can’t meet all your kid’s expectations. When they’re little, it’s easy. They ask you to fix a toy, bang, it’s fixed. They want something lifted off the top shelf, and presto! It’s down. They need a carry and you pick them up. There comes an age when the kids realize that you can’t do everything. Then there comes an age when they think they can do everything better than you. That’s embarrassing.

God never reaches a stage when he’s not qualified to help. There isn’t an area of our lives that he isn’t powerful enough to help. Need a strong God? How about the one who created the Milky Way? Have medical problems? Doctors and scientists are still unraveling his handiwork as they study the human body. He knows more than they ever will. Need relational help? The Creator is the one who created you for relationship. There is not an area of your life in which God is not qualified to help, because he is the Creator of everything you see. The Creator is more than able to help.

Isaiah 40 puts it this way:

Do you not know?
Have you not heard?
The LORD is the everlasting God,
the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He will not grow tired or weary,
and his understanding no one can fathom.
He gives strength to the weary
and increases the power of the weak.
Even youths grow tired and weary,
and young men stumble and fall;
but those who hope in the LORD
will renew their strength.
They will soar on wings like eagles;
they will run and not grow weary,
they will walk and not be faint.
(Isaiah 40:28-31)

That is why I trust the LORD. He is our Creator. We have direct access to the One who is powerful to meet any conceivable need in any area of our lives.

I told you this psalm would become a conversation. The first speaker has given a reason why he trusts God. He’s spoken using the first person, “I…my.” In verse 3, a second speaker comes along and uses the second person. He gives another reason why God is qualified to be our helper:

2. He is qualified to help us because of his track record

Verses 3 and 4 say:

He will not let your foot slip-
he who watches over you will not slumber;
indeed, he who watches over Israel
will neither slumber nor sleep.

Here we have more reasons why God can be trusted. He has a track record of faithfulness to his covenant people, Israel. The entire Bible is a record of God’s faithfulness to people who were anything but faithful to God. God never sleeps. He never nods off and stops looking after his people. God has a track record of dependability, of coming through for his people.

I read an interview recently directed to pastors, but I think it applies to all of us. The person being interviewed talked about how easy it is to be scared by life. There’s so much that could go wrong. We lie awake and worry about all of this. The funny thing is that he’s talking about pastors, the same pastors who get up and preach about God providing manna and quail in the desert; who brings water from a rock; the God who splits open a sea when his people had nowhere else to turn; about the God who makes little boys victorious over giants; who brings his faithful out of furnaces; who suppresses the appetite of hungry lions.

God gives victory against all odds to his people. Time and time again he comes through. God has a track record of faithfulness to his people. He watches over Israel, and all his people, and never falls asleep at the switch. God is faithful to his people.

I find it easy to believe what God can do in the lion’s den, or how he provides for his people in the dessert. I don’t think that God will always meet the exact same needs in the exact same way. But throughout the centuries, you can see a pattern: God has been there for his people. God has a track record of always being there for his people.

We could even make it personal. My life has lots of stories of how God has come through in unmistakable ways to do what only he could do. I’ll bet you have similar stories. I’ve heard some of them. God has shown his faithfulness in the past. With God, the past is an accurate predictor of the future. He will come through for his people in the future just as he always has in the past.

The Apostle Paul takes this to the extreme. The most radical example of God providing for his people was when he offered his own Son to die in our place. Paul argues this way: “He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all-how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?” (Romans 8:32) God has spared no expense in providing for his people. He is qualified to be our helper, because he is the Creator, and because he has never failed to come through for his people.

In verse 5, the psalm gets even more personal. It takes the point that’s been made in verses 3 and 4 and drives it home to an even greater extent:

The LORD watches over you-
the LORD is your shade at your right hand;
the sun will not harm you by day,
nor the moon by night.
The LORD will keep you from all harm-
he will watch over your life;
the LORD will watch over your coming and going
both now and forevermore.

Here’s the last reason why God is qualified to be our helper:

3. He is qualified to help because he takes a personal interest in you

This is the part that amazes me. It’s easy to talk about God as our helper in the abstract, but you can only do that for so long. God is the one who has promised to help you in your future. He takes a personal interest in you, and watches over you. The LORD is present with you wherever you go. Nothing at daytime or at nighttime escapes his notice. Whatever you do, wherever you go, God is watching over you.

The God who created this universe, the God who created all things, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of Moses and David and Daniel is the same God who knows you by name. He knows your address. He saw what time you woke up this morning, and he knows what you ate for breakfast. God knows every detail of your life. Not only does he know it, but he cares. He’s interested in you. And he’s promised to go into your future with you, and he’ll never let you down.

This doesn’t mean that bad things will never happen. History is full of bad things happening to God’s people. But it does mean that he will never stop caring for you, never stop watching over you, never stop providing for you according to his will no matter what you go through. And nobody will ever be able to take away what matters most, because God is faithful to his people.

Where do I turn for help? To God. Why to God? Because he is the Creator. Because he has such an outstanding record of looking after his people. And because he takes a personal and vital interest in you, and has promised to walk with you into your future.

As we start a new ministry year, it’s a good time to remind ourselves where we’re going to turn when we face budget deficits in our offerings, fire panel replacements that we don’t think we can afford, marriage problems that we don’t know how to fix, doctor’s reports that we don’t want to hear.

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.
He will not let your foot slip-
he who watches over you will not slumber;
indeed, he who watches over Israel
will neither slumber nor sleep.
The LORD watches over you-
the LORD is your shade at your right hand;
the sun will not harm you by day,
nor the moon by night.
The LORD will keep you from all harm-
he will watch over your life;
the LORD will watch over your coming and going
both now and forevermore.