Psalm 121
Just a couple weeks ago, lottery fever swept across the United States. The largest jackpot in US history was available, 363 million dollars. It cost only $1 to buy a ticket with the right combination of numbers and be a winner. For just $1 you could win 363 million dollars. Of course imaginative statisticians have made the point that a person has a better chance of being hit by a 1977 Ford automobile when crossing the street than to be the one with the right winning numbers. You might as well throw your dollar on the sidewalk. But people ignore the odds and put down their money.
If it was only $1 it would not be so bad, but people spend a lot of money on the lottery. People spend more than they can afford on the lottery.
People who don’t have enough money for food and rent and bills that are due next month empty their bank accounts and spend $300, $700, $1000, everything they have, on lottery tickets. People in states where there is no lottery will drive long distances to stand in long lines to wait their turn to buy their tickets. They call it lottery fever because people go crazy trying to win this prize.
Why do people do this?
People sit in their houses and watch TV shows in which everyone seems to have a better house than they do. They read magazines about lifestyles of the rich and famous and want some of that lifestyle for themselves. They read in the newspaper about how rich people are getting with investments in the stock markets and want some money to invest for themselves.
People have a dissatisfaction with their lives and look to the lottery for the answer to their dissatisfaction. People are not content with their position in life and want a quick and easy solution for their discontent.
So they look for help.
When I win the lottery, then everything will be OK.
When I get the inheritance I am waiting for, then everything will be OK.
When I get the job I am hoping for, then everything will be OK.
When I get the promotion I deserve, then everything will be OK.
When I get to Spain, then everything will be OK.
When I get married, then everything will be OK.
When I have a child, then everything will be OK.
When I get a nicer house, then everything will be OK.
Many people in this world are dissatisfied with their lives and are looking somewhere for a solution.
Psalm 121 is the second of the psalms of ascent. Pilgrims making their journey three times a year up to Jerusalem would recite these psalms 120 to 134 as they made their way up to the festivals.
This was an actual journey for Hebrews at the time these psalms were written and sung. But this was for the Hebrews a metaphorical journey as well. And it continues to be a metaphorical journey for us. As Christians, we all have turned our eyes toward Jerusalem, toward God, and are on a journey as pilgrims to our final home and resting place. These psalms speak to us on our journey as Christian pilgrims.
Psalm 120 on which Steve Corey preached last week, is a call to repentance. This first psalm reminded the pilgrims that they started their journey with the understanding that they were spiritually distanced from God. So from the outer edges of Israel, Kedar and Meshech, they began their journey to Jerusalem, the Holy City.
Our journey, our spiritual journey likewise began when we turned toward God, when we repented and decided to follow Jesus. We start on our journey because we recognize our need to draw close to God. We begin in repentance, realizing we do not have what we want and turn to God to find what we need.
This second psalm, Psalm 121, is called the traveler’s psalm and the psalmist points out that life is a dangerous journey and mentions three dangers travelers faced.
When walking on a journey, there is a danger that you will turn your ankle on a stone. Anyone who has hiked knows the importance of good shoes and proper foot care. Getting a sprained ankle is a problem when you don’t have a car that can take you where you want to go.
Over exposure to sun is also a problem. Spending too much time in the sun can cause sunstroke.
The third danger is associated with being moonstruck. It was thought in ancient times that the moon could have power over you to make you go crazy. It is from this belief that we get the English words lunacy and lunatic, from the Latin word for moon.
This summer, many of us will be on a journey for vacation. There are many dangers we may encounter on our journey that cause us anxiety. Will the car break down? Will we make our plane connection? Will we have enough money? Will we get along with the relatives?
Life is a dangerous journey. Car accidents, plane crashes, broken bones, robbers and thieves, loss of a job and financial hardship, fires and hurricanes and earthquakes. I could go on for the rest of the morning. You don’t need me to stand here and tell you of the dangers we face in life. Just read the daily newspaper for as many illustrations as you want.
In this life of danger, where do we look for help? As the pilgrims set out on a potentially dangerous journey, the psalmist asks this question:
I lift up my eyes to the hills—
where does my help come from?
During the time this psalm was written and sung, Palestine was overrun with popular pagan worship and much of this religion was practiced on hilltops. Shrines were set up, groves of trees were planted, male and female sacred prostitutes were provided. People coming to these shrines engaged in acts of worship that would enhance the fertility of the land, make you feel good and protect you from evil.
Whatever you were afraid of on your journey, there was something to help you. If you needed protection from the sun’s heat, you could pay for protection from the sun god. If you were afraid of being driven mad by the moonlight, you went to the moon priestess and bought an amulet to protect you from lunacy.
Whatever you were afraid of, there was someone who promised to help. So the psalmist asks, “Where does my help come from?” From Baal? From Asherah? From the sun priest? From the moon priestess? Do I look to the hills where these shrines call out and offer help?
What kind of help did these temple shrines offer?
These shrines were not much different from those today who promise to cure you if you buy their charm, get their blessing or pay for a curse to be put on someone else. They were places of immorality, drunkenness and disease. The stories of Baal are full of tales of his orgies and the difficulty of rousing him out of a drunken sleep to get his attention. (Remember Elijah taunting the priests of Baal “Perhaps he is asleep and must be awakened.”)
We have many modern equivalents. Fortune tellers and palm readers abound in most cities I have visited in the US and in Europe. Shopping malls invite us to come in and buy something to make us feel better when we are depressed. Romance novels offer an escape from reality as does pornography. Drugs and alcohol offer oblivion as an alternative to life. Food beckons us, telling us we will feel better if only we have some more to eat. Financial planners tell us that our problem is we don’t have enough money in the bank. Self-help books abound, telling us life will be what we want it to be if only we will buy their book and diet or develop a positive attitude or exercise. At every step of our journey, there is someone calling us, encouraging us to look to them for help, telling us they have the answer to our problem.
As it is now, so was it then. Setting out on a journey, the Hebrew pilgrims looked up to the hills and saw many who offered help for any problems they faced.
But a look to the hills and a visit to the shrines ended in disappointment, as is also the case with modern fortune tellers, shopping sprees, drunken oblivion, financial success and self-help books.
Where do we find our help?
I have had the experience many times of going into a city somewhere on a business trip and then having to decide what I wanted to have to eat that night. Chinese or Japanese? Mexican or Italian? A steakhouse or seafood restaurant? And sometimes I would be paralyzed with indecision. I came to realize that my problem was that I was trying to find the ultimate meal, a meal that would satisfy my inner needs. What I was trying to do was satisfy my spiritual needs with physical food. When I found myself in this state of paralysis, I knew I needed to take some time to pray and read my Bible. Looking to the hills around me and all the restaurant choices was not going to satisfy me.
In Jeremiah, God calls to Israel and in Israel’s response, we see this inadequacy.
“My wayward children,” says the Lord, “come back to me, and I will heal your wayward hearts.” “Yes, we will come,” the people reply, “for you are the Lord our God. Our worship of idols and our religious orgies on the hills and mountains are completely false. Only in the Lord our God will Israel ever find salvation. Jeremiah 3:23
We know that. I’m sure there are many who could stand up this morning and testify to the inadequacy of seeking help from sources other than God.
The psalmist points out that life is a dangerous journey and so he asks the question, where do we turn for help? His answer is that our help comes from the Lord who created the earth.
2 My help comes from the LORD,
the Maker of heaven and earth.
How will God help us? The psalmist goes on to contrast what the Lord will do for us as we travel on the road of life as opposed to these temple shrines.
3 He will not let your foot slip—
he who watches over you will not slumber;
4 indeed, he who watches over Israel
will neither slumber nor sleep.
5 The LORD watches over you—
the LORD is your shade at your right hand;
6 the sun will not harm you by day,
nor the moon by night.
7 The LORD will keep you from all harm—
he will watch over your life;
8 the LORD will watch over your coming and going
both now and forevermore.
Unlike Baal, the Lord does not need to be awakened. The Lord does not slumber in a drunken stupor. The Lord is ever present, ever awake, ever alert.
When you are struggling, the temptation is to believe that God is not watching over you. You pray and pray and pray and God is silent. Is God busy doing something else? Does God not care?
The psalmist wants to make us understand that however much we struggle, this one thing is absolutely clear, God is present with us. God is watching over us. God is ever present, ever awake, ever alert.
Are you worried about your safety where you live? The Lord watches over you. Are you feeling overwhelmed with the pressures of your life? The Lord is your shade. Are you struggling about what to do next with your life? The Lord will watch over your coming and going both now and forevermore.
But what happens when we get hurt on our journey? The psalmist says God will keep us from all harm. But if that is the case, why do Christians get sprained ankles and sunstroke?
The psalmist does not promise we will not suffer. The word translated “harm” is better translated as “evil”. Read the whole of Scripture and it becomes very clear that there is no protection from suffering. Suffering and tragedy are part of life. But what Scripture promises and the promise of this psalm is that God will watch over us and protect us. We belong to him and our connection with him cannot be broken by any trouble we experience on our journey. It is evil from which we are protected.
This past Tuesday, Roswitha Diehl sat in church while we had a memorial service for her husband Eckart. Why did Eckart die at such a young age, only 56 years old? When he died of a heart attack in Agadir, did God protect him from all harm on his life journey?
At Eckart’s funeral service, we read the passage from Romans 8 that Wendy read for us this morning.
Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?
37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39 neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
God does not prevent suffering. God does not prevent death. Roswitha has not been spared the pain of having her partner of 30 years taken from her. But we are able to rejoice in the presence of suffering, in the presence of death because nothing can separate us from the love of God. We sing songs of praise in the midst of sorrow because even in the suffering that comes with the death of a spouse, parent or child, God is present. God has not been taken away from us.
There is nothing you are facing this morning or anything you will face tomorrow on your journey through life that can harm you. God is your help. God is present with you. God loves you.
As much as you despair because it seems that God is not answering your prayer, God loves you and is actively seeking what is best for you. God is not passive. God is not indifferent.
When this psalm enters our heart, soul and mind, then we will have no need to be anxious or worried on our life’s journey. Our life will cease to be a fearful battle against dark, ominous forces who at any moment can break through and overpower us.
Our faith on this journey is not a fragile piece of glass that can be broken if jostled. Our faith is the solid, massive, secure experience of God who keeps all evil from separating us from him, who watches over our life, who watches over our coming and going both now and forever more.
In our prayer time this morning, we will sing this refrain after each section of our prayers: Our help is from the Lord, the maker of the earth.
Do you have financial needs? Our help is from the Lord, the maker of the earth.
Are you worried about your health or the health of someone you love? Our help is from the Lord, the maker of the earth.
Are you concerned for your safety? Our help is from the Lord, the maker of the earth.
Our help is from the Lord, the maker of the earth.
