My Help Comes From The Lord

My Help Comes from the Lord

Chuck Sligh

September 15, 2018

NOTE: A PowerPoint presentation is available for this sermon by request at chucksligh@hotmail.com.

TEXT: Please turn in your Bibles to Psalm 121

INTRODUCTION

Psalm 121 was written around three thousand years ago. You’ll notice that it’s titled “A Song of Ascents,” also variously called Gradual Psalms, Songs of Degrees, Songs of Steps or Pilgrim Songs. Scholars tell us that this title indicates these were songs sung by pilgrims as they ascended the road to Jerusalem, which is atop a mountain, to attend the three pilgrim festivals. These 15 Songs of Ascent, Psalms 120-134, served to prepare pilgrims for these spiritual festivals and were reminders of who God is and what He does for us.

Psalm 121 itself is a reminder of where to turn in times of trouble.

Illus. – Week after week, a man came to his preacher with a big problem. He said, “When I go to bed, I can’t sleep because I’m afraid of monsters under my bed. I know it’s silly, but I can’t help it.”

His preacher recommended all kinds of suggestions, but nothing worked. One Sunday the man came to church happy and well rested. He told his preacher that he got help from his friend who was a carpenter.

The preacher asked, “What did he tell you to do?”

The man said, “He told me just to cut the legs off my bed!”

Well, he found out where to get help for his problem! Where do you go for help in life when you’re up against something you can’t handle, monsters real or otherwise? Psalm 121 answers that question and tells us why.

In this passage I see two simple divisions:

I. FIRST, THE PSALMIST BEGINS WITH A RHETORICAL QUESTION AND REPLIES WITH A CONCRETE ANSWER.

The psalmist says in verse 1 – “I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help.” Sometimes, our problems feel like great mountains looming over us. The word translated “hills” here literally means “mountains.” The King James Version has a period at the end of the word help, as if the psalmist is saying his help comes from the hills. But there really should be a question mark at the end of verse 1 so that the verse reads, “I will lift up my eyes unto the hills. Where will my help come from?” The psalmist uses poetic language to describe the huge trials we have no idea how to cope with—mountains of worry and trouble that look too big to conquer. So, in verse 1 he asks, “Where will my help come from to conquer this mountain of a trial in my life I can’t overcome?” and then he answers his question in verse 2: “My help cometh from the LORD, who made heaven and earth.”

I don’t know what problems you have faced IN THE PAST; I don’t know what problems are looming over you like mountains TODAY; and I don’t know what huge mountains you will have to conquer TOMORROW, but I do know where to get help. In the times of trouble and trials and pain and worry and grief, go to the Lord for help! He’s the one who made heaven and earth, so your problems are not too big for Him. We face many difficult problems in life, but billions of Christians across the world can testify that the God who made heaven and earth is greater than your mountain of trial.

Illus. – I can’t tell you how many times I’ve faced huge mountains of trials in my life. Times when I had no hope of an solution; when it looked like I would be delivered into the jaws of death; when I felt fearful and alarmed. But then I looked for help in the Lord. Sometimes he delivered me FROM the trial; but more often than not, He went with me THROUGH the trial, and I found His help in the form of comfort, or peace, or encouragement, or the infusion of a supernatural sense of fearlessness. I can testify that God’s Word is true: Where does my help come from? My help comes from the LORD, who made heaven and earth!

II. THE REST OF PSALM 121 IS A PRAYER OF TRUST BY THE PSALMIST.

It’s important to see that the Psalmist is not so much making absolute statements, but using poetic language to describe certain characteristics of God’s general character, and his trust in God’s special watchcare and loving protection of His children. You’ll see why I say that as we proceed through the psalm.

Notice what he says about the God who is there to help us in time of need:

First, the psalmist says that God does not fall asleep on the job in verses 3-4 – “He will not suffer thy foot to be moved: he that keepeth thee will not slumber. 4 Behold, he that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep.”