February 19, 2005 Psalm 121
A song of ascents. 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.
As I sat down to finally write down this sermon, it was already Friday morning. I was simply amazed at HOW QUICKLY the week had gone by. They say that life goes quickly the older you get, but this is getting ridiculous. It’s kind of daunting to know that just as another work’s week has been accomplished, another week is right around the corner. I’m sure it’s probably the same for you. It’s kind of like walking through some mountains - just getting over one - only to find another one twice as big ahead of you.
The Psalmist in Psalm 121 said, “I lift up my eyes to the hills.” If he’s looking up to a mountain - it must mean he was still down in the valley. There is no history behind this Psalm - so we have no idea what kind of a valley he was in. What he being attacked by enemies? Was he sick? It doesn’t say. Whatever the case was, he needed help. So he asked the rhetorical question - from where does my help come from?
It’s a good question to ask yourself. Where does your help come from - when you are down in the valley? When you’ve got a hard week or chore ahead of you - what do you do? Where do you look for help? Human nature tends to look for the best path up the mountain, or even just lay down for a while and contemplate saying, “How am I going to get up this thing?” So what do you say to yourself? “I better get a good night’s sleep - I’ve got a long day ahead of me tomorrow.” That’s one way. Others make a list of duties - a game plan - making sure they know exactly what has to be done and when it has to be done - so they can check them off one at a time.
Yet this view of being down in the valley doesn’t just insinuate a long climb ahead. Battles were often fought in valleys. When Isaacs servants camped in the Valley of Gerar and dug a well, the herdsmen of the area immediately argued with them over it and took it from them. (Genesis 26) As we live in this shadow of death we are often being attacked on different fronts - even when we aren’t trying to bother anyone. People like to slander us at work. Others try to steal our identity off of the Internet. Satan is non-stop in his temptations to anger and strife within our own households. Where does your help come from in the valley? Does it come by being able to mix that drink or open that bottle at the end of the day? Does it come from sitting in front of the television and being able to escape into a fantasy world? Does it come from being able to read a book or exercise a little bit? Where does your help come from?
This kind of “help” is no real help when there’s a mountain in front of you. They might be temporary remedies to help you survive another day or get through another week - but they don’t take in mind the mountain ahead of you. Life is not that easy. Sooner or later you’re going to realize that all of your planning and relaxation and little entertainments don’t remove the mountain of responsibilities and death and eternity that you have to face. God’s Word calls you to be missionaries, fighters, proclaimers of the truth in a world that is darkened by sin. God expects you to be patient, kind, forgiving, and generous with people. That mountain of shoulds and expectations - it isn’t wiped away by watching a funny movie, and it isn’t accomplished even with the most detailed schedule or no matter how many Robert Schuller books you may read. If you seek your help from these things - you’re bound to stay in the valley and go even lower - down to hell.
The Psalmist had a different plan to get out of the valley. He knew he was going to get out. Why? Because no matter how steep the climb, no matter how difficult the journey -
The LORD is Watching
I. Through the hills
The Psalm starts, “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.” At first read - the hills may seem like something scary - something daunting. Wild animals often lived in the hills. They caused him to call for help. Yet a second read might make us think that the Psalmist was equating his looking to the hills - with looking to the Lord. If you think about it, it kind of makes sense. If we are supposed to LIFT our EYES to the LORD for help - how many of us could really do that? When Moses asked to see the LORD, He said, “you cannot see my face, for no one may see me and live.” (Exodus 33:20) Even when God just SPOKE at Mt. Sinai, the Israelites begged Moses to go and speak to God himself, for they were terrified at just hearing his voice. So what the Psalmist could be doing - is recommending us to look where God has presented Himself throughout their history - as their source of help. Mt. Sinai would always bring bear to mind God’s majesty, strength, and holiness. When they looked to that mountain - that hill - they could remember that God was definitely powerful enough to protect them. At another time in the history of the Israelites God had the Israelites split up into two groups and pronounce both blessings and curses at Mt. Gerizim and Ebal. The temple was built on Mt. Moriah - where the ark of the covenant and the altars were. So when the Psalmist told the fellow Israelites to look to the hills - maybe he was telling them to remember the promises and words God had pronounced to the Israelites on these mountains.
As we find ourselves sitting in the valley of death on another Sunday in Lent, God directs our eyes to a different mountain on the hillside of Jerusalem - called Golgotha. As we look on this hill - it isn’t very comforting - not at first. We see three crosses up there, with three men hanging on them. They’ve been painfully nailed to these pieces of wood by nails having been put in their hands and their feet. The one in the middle is different from the other two. He’s been beaten badly, and He’s being ridiculed the worst - even by the other two criminals. Yet in spite of this He isn’t cussing. He isn’t angry. He’s forgiving these soldiers and these men who are putting him through this terrible punishment. Something isn’t right here! The sky is turning black! He’s also having a conversation with His Father. He’s talking about being forsaken! He’s also saying, “it is finished. Into your hands I commit my spirit.” This isn’t just any man dying here - this is our Savior - our God! The Holy Spirit says to us, “look at this hill. See the crime that took place on it. An innocent man was put to death. See the justice that also took place on it. A guilty Man - the Scapegoat - went through hell. Listen carefully to those words - ‘it is Finished!’ Watch the earth shake, the rocks split in two!”
As we take a look at this hill - it’s scary to see the pain and suffering - the hell that Jesus went through. Yet it’s also - in a strange way - very comforting. Why? The great mountain of duties and punishments that we fear can never been done, are finished. That cross assures us that there is no payment left - no hell to pay - to our God. What’s even greater - is that the same LORD that was crucified on that hill is now living and ruling over that hill - having raised from the dead. Jesus said to Mary, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die.” (John 11:25-26) The words give us courage. It doesn’t matter if you don’t get all your duties done - you’ll still end up at the top. When God’s law and your guilt make you feel you can never be king of the mountain, Golgotha says “think again.” If you fail - if you slip up in life - even if you don’t get everything done and you end up as a complete failure in the eyes of the world - as long as you keep looking at God through Golgotha you’ll still end up at the top. Because through this hill - God sees you as forgiven and holy.
II. So you won’t slip
Yet there’s more to this Psalm - much more, isn’t there? The LORD - the Maker of heaven and earth - is always watching over you. When someone designs something - they know it’s weaknesses and strengths. I can guarantee you that the designers of the new Airbus know exactly how much weight the plain can carry and how long of a runway it needs to take off. These things are designed down to the inch. They have to be. So when the Psalmist says, “the LORD - the Maker of heaven and earth” is watching over you - there’s some more comfort in it. He says - that Designer - “will not let your foot slip.” Good footing is essential when mountain climbing. One wrong move can prove deadly. When I took a trip to the Grand Canyon we walked around some very thin paths with huge falloffs. That day over a foot of snow had fallen. We looked into renting a donkey, but found out that several of them had actually slipped over the edge that day. I thought, “no way I’m trusting any donkey on this path!” The Psalmist assures us that God knows exactly what shoes to put on our feet so we don’t stumble on our trip up the mountain.
Tripping and stumbling - it’s something that God warns us of as we go up the mountain. Peter says in 1 Peter 5:9 Resist him, (that’s the devil), standing firm in the faith, because you know that your brothers throughout the world are undergoing the same kind of sufferings. Paul also warned in 1 Corinthians 10:12, So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don’t fall! Since we are naturally sinful and spiritual klutzes, there are all kinds of ways we could trip ourselves up on the way to heaven. For Judas, as we learned this past Wednesday - it was greed. It could be lust. It could be anger. It could be any number of things.
But the ultimate stumbling stone ironically is the LORD Himself. In Jeremiah 6:17-21 He explains why. “I appointed watchmen over you and said, ‘Listen to the sound of the trumpet!’ But you said, ‘We will not listen.’ Therefore hear, O nations; observe, O witnesses, what will happen to them. Hear, O earth: I am bringing disaster on this people, the fruit of their schemes, because they have not listened to my words and have rejected my law. . . . therefore . . I will put obstacles before this people. Fathers and sons alike will stumble over them; neighbors and friends will perish.” The major stumbling stone is listed in Jeremiah 50:32. He said, “The arrogant one will stumble and fall and no one will help her up.”
Today’s theme is “justification by faith.” The ultimate stumbling stone to faith - the ultimate sign of arrogance - is when we fail to look at Mt. Golgotha, and try to climb the mountain by our own works. It’s when people are too arrogant to admit they are sinners - too proud to confess their sins - and their need for a Savior. Paul wrote to the Romans in chapter 9:30-34, “What then shall we say? That . . . Israel, who pursued a law of righteousness, has not attained it. Why not? Because they pursued it not by faith but as if it were by works. They stumbled over the “stumbling stone.” As it is written: “See, I lay in Zion a stone that causes men to stumble and a rock that makes them fall, and the one who trusts in him will never be put to shame.” The highest mountain to climb is the mountain of Christ. He seems too easy. He seems too simple. The Muslims, the Jews, the Jehovah’s Witnesses - they all stumble on that simple message of Christ crucified. They slip.
So what’s the lesson from the Psalmist? Listen again to what He promises. 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 slip that the LORD protects us from - is much more than protection from a broken hip or a fractured ankle. The Psalmist’s promise is that as long as you keep looking at the LORD for your salvation - your spiritual footing - your salvation and faith in Christ will not be taken away from you - even when we do slip. As sinners you’ll still always be on a SOLID FOUNDATION. It’s like we sing in the song - “on Christ, the solid rock I stand. All other ground is sinking sand.” Think of the disciples in the Garden. When they were weary - too tired to go on and stay awake - Jesus didn’t fall asleep. They were weak, but He was strong. He continued on his plan of salvation even when they were too weak to go on. Isaiah 40:30-31 says, “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. The message is clear. Our salvation is not based on how strong our feet are, but on the LORD who watches over our footing.
III. So you can come and go as you please
The second promise contains a different kind of promise. 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 sun and the moon are two parts of God’s creation that we cannot affect. We can’t change the heat of the sun or the power of the moon as it causes the waves to roll across the surface of the earth. After the Fall, these things - especially the sun, can have a harmful effect on us. This seems to be referring back to the journey of the Israelites through the desert. For forty years they had to travel through the heat and danger of the barren Sinai Peninsula. As some of them entered into this barren wasteland, they wanted to turn back to Egypt. They wished they had never left, because it was so dangerous. During the day, temperatures could get searing hot. During the night - on a clear night - temperatures could get downright freezing. But God protected them from these natural dangers. With a pillar of cloud by day, He protected them from the harmful rays of the sun, and with the glowing heat of a pillar of fire by night, He kept them warm. The sun and the moon couldn’t harm them.
Forty years in the desert are a long time. Seventy or eighty years on this earth can also be long. Just as there were lots of things to be afraid of in the desert, there are lots of things to be afraid of in this world - things that are beyond our reach and that we have no control over. Think of the war going on in Iraq. We didn’t have any control over that. Yet some of our own friends and family have been sent over there to risk there lives. It hits home. We can’t control the influences on our children as they live in this society - not completely. Sooner or later - the images on television and the influence of their classmates will start beating on them. We can’t control it. It’s easy in this world to react like the Israelites - to want to go back to Egypt - thinking, “if only we could return to the good old days!” It’s tempting to get into a hunker down mentality that thinks - “I’ll just stay here in my house - I’ll just go to church - I’ll just live like a hermit - so that the world can’t attack me or my kids.” In a recent movie called “the Village” some parents who had been “burned” by society decided to try and shelter themselves from the world by building a village out in a wild life refuge area. They kept anyone from escaping by convincing them that there were terrible creatures that would attack and kill them. However by the end of the movie they had no choice but to expose one of their children to the outside world. The fact of the matter is that we can’t escape from these dangers any more than we can escape from the sun.
What does God promise us? He will watch over your life; the LORD will watch over your coming and going both now and forevermore. It goes back to the same theme throughout. The LORD is watching, no matter whether you’re coming or going - He’s watching. I’d compare it to walking through a mall with your kids. When my kids go walking through the mall, sometimes they’ll get pretty obnoxious and a little out of control. One time Tristan went running in Wal-mart and ran straight into a shopping cart - had blood gushing out his forehead and everything. They like to run ahead, hide behind coat racks, and go up and down the escalators. After about a half an hour of that I get angry with them and try to drag them back in line. If they ever got lost, it would be a scary thing. I can guarantee you, that if they ever looked up to find that mom and dad weren’t anywhere around, they would freak out as well. The picture the Psalmist is drawing is kind of similar to the kid in the shopping mall. He wants to assure us, “I - as the Parent am always watching. You can lose me, but I can’t lose you.” This kind of promise is made to give us courage as we travel through this strange and dangerous world. Don’t be too afraid to explore it. Don’t be too afraid to step out. But don’t be careless either. Keep your eyes on the LORD - and GO. Nothing can happen to you that God won’t allow to happen.
The ultimate promise of this then is fulfilled in heaven, where God says,“The sun shall no longer be your light by day, Nor for brightness shall the moon give light to you; But the Lord will be to you an everlasting light, And your God your glory. Your sun shall no longer go down, Nor shall your moon withdraw itself; For the Lord will be your everlasting light, And the days of your mourning shall be ended.” (Isaiah 60:19-20)
Back an Norton there was an elderly shut in who had a lifetime of physical problems. Time and again she was suffering from one sickness after another. Her favorite Psalm was this Psalm. She would replace the “your”s with “my”s. As she read it to herself, she found such great comfort to go on. With a soft and breaking voice she would say, “he will watch over my life; the LORD will watch over my coming and going both now and forevermore.” Next time you find yourself looking at a mountain - seemingly impossible to pass - open up to these words in Psalm 121 and read them to yourself. Look up to the Hill, and remember, the LORD is watching. Amen.
