My Help Comes from the Lord Psalm 121

My Help Comes from the Lord

Psalm 121

 

All throughout the Bible our heavenly Father assures us that we are not on our own or alone in this world.  That He is our help and our keeper.  Psalm 121 is only one of many Psalms and other passages in the Bible that promise God’s help and provision to us.  Let’s read Psalm 121.  

 

Psalm 121

 

1. I will lift up my eyes to the hills, from whence comes my help.
2. My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth. 
3. He will not allow your foot to be moved.  He who keeps you will not slumber.
4. Behold, He who keeps Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep.

                   5. The Lord is your keeper, the Lord is your shade at your right hand.
     6. The sun shall not strike you by day, nor the moon by night.
     7. The Lord shall preserve you from all evil:  He shall preserve your soul.
     8.  the Lord shall preserve your going out and your coming in.  From this time forth and even forevermore.

This little Psalm begins with the writer saying that he was looking up to the hills from where his help came. The writer, probably David, was looking up to the hills of Zion and Jerusalem, which was the Old Testament symbol for the dwelling place of God.  Many hundreds of years after this Psalm was written, Jesus was asked by the woman at the well in Samaria if Jerusalem was the place where one should worship God as the Jews said?  Or were the Samaritans correct when they worshiped God on their mountains.

 

And Jesus answered her that “the hour is coming and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in Spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such to worship Him.” (John 4:23)  After Jesus came and died for our sins and rose again, the Old Testament law has been fulfilled.  Believers are now free to worship God anywhere and at any time.

 

Psalm 121:2 says: “My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth” Imagine, the Creator of heaven and earth, is also our Guardian and our Caretaker.  “In Him all things consist.” (Colossians 1:17b) Who God is (our Maker and Creator) flows into His loving and caring actions toward us.

 

Psalm 121:3 says: ”He will not allow your foot to be moved.” When tragedy strikes it may seem to us that our “foot has been moved”.  But our heavenly Father has our deepest heartaches under His control and, if we love Him, He promises to work things out to our good .  (Romans 8:28)    Verse 3 continues: “ But, He who keeps you will not slumber.”  The Hebrew word for “keeps” means “preserves” and it is used six times in this Psalm emphasizing how much God is watching over his children. We are kept and protected not in the sense that we will never suffer sorrows and pain, but that He will go through our pain and sorrows with us and bring us out victorious. 

 

Psalm 121:5-7 says: “The Lord is your keeper; the Lord is your shade on your right hand.  The sun shall not strike you by day, nor the moon by night.  The Lord will keep you from all evil: He will keep your soul.”  The sun and moon. I believe, represent 24-hour protection. Verse 5 says that “He is our “shade”.  Other Scriptures tell of similar imagery in representing God’s protection over us.  Isaiah 51:16 says: “Therefore I have covered you under the shadow of My hand.”   “Shade” and Shadow” are both images of God’s protection over us.

 

Deuteronomy 32:11 says: “As an eagle stirs up it’s nest and hovers over its young, spreading out its wings, taking them up, carrying them on it’s wings, so the Lord alone leads you.”  What does this imagery say about our God and His care for us?

 

In our old age, when our bodies are slowing down and death is perhaps around the corner, our heavenly Father promises to give us special care.  Psalm 23:4 says : ”Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil:  For You are with me.  Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.”  How many older people are comforted by God’s “rod” and “staff”? 

 

This Psalm goes on to say in verse 6: “Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life.”  It is comforting to know that God promises His “goodness” and “mercy” to follow after us throughout our lives.  When we get discouraged, let’s stop and look around for the “goodness” and the “mercy” that follows our steps.

 

Psalm 121 closes with: “The Lord shall preserve your going out and your coming in .  From this time forth, and even forevermore.”  The keeping power of God sustains us until the very coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. But, He not only keeps us until the end of the Age, but He promises to keep us “forevermore”.  – throughout eternity.

 

Since we have such an awesome God – the Creator of the heavens and earth and a God who loves and cares for us, we never need to be worried or anxious about anything again.  We can safely rest in Him.  Believe His promises. Take everything to Him in prayer.  And put our trust in the “shadow of His Hand covering us” (Isaiah 51:16)   

 

    

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

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