Psalm 121

One of the challenges of being a teacher of this class is to recognize what's happening with people in the class.

individually, and then have lessons that hopefully explore deeply what God wants us to know about himself and about his word so that when we face our individual situations in life, we don't face them without a foundation, that we have something secure on which we can stand, something solid. it that's my job as teacher or one thing i feel a sense of calling about is to help have the foundation because the rain is going to come the difficulty is going to happen the challenges will be present in your life and i've been through some personally in my life when i didn't have the foundation settled for myself so one hope in my teaching is that you will listen carefully and that you won't view what we talk about here as something just abstract or theoretical or something that applies to other people my prayer is that if at the very moment we talk about something it doesn't apply to you you will listen and let it build the foundation because one day you will need the foundation i know enough about many of you to know that today some of you face some very anxious things in your lives some things that can cause you great anxiety or even great fear. Some of you have job concerns. You don't know if you will keep your job. You don't know if your job will go in such a way that you'll be able to stay there.

Some of you face serious health issues. You have faced them. They're continuing problems, and those can cause great anxiety. Some of you have financial difficulties. You don't know how you're going to make things work out financially.

Some of you are dealing with difficult family situations. Some of you are dealing with the relationship with your spouse. Some of you are dealing with difficulties with children. Some of you are dealing with difficulties with grandchildren.

You know, life's just tough, isn't it? It's hard. It's not easy. so what do we as believers in the Lord Jesus Christ do

where do we go how do we see our way through these difficulties that's the question I hope to answer this morning as we turn to the Psalms if you have your Bibles let's turn to Psalm 121

does everyone have a handout to guide us this morning.

Psalm 121. Let me just read this psalm and then we'll take it apart.

I'm reading out of the NIV, but you read along. Psalm 121.

There's some students here who wonder if they're going to get through Classes. Another difficulty.

I lift up my eyes to the hills. Where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord, 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. Lord, as we look at your word this morning, I pray that for those who need to hear particularly today the words of this psalm, that you will help them to discern clearly what your word teaches, but then that they will have a real sense of your presence in their lives to help them as they journey through this difficult, often dark place we call earth with all the experiences and difficulties we face here. In Christ's name we pray. Amen.

The Jews had some great customs or traditions. And one of those customs or traditions was to have great festivals. And throughout the year, the Jews had a lot of festivals at which they would celebrate and remember. The festivals were particularly designed to help them remember God's faithfulness in the past, because as they remembered his faithfulness in the past, it would remind them that he will be faithful right now and into the future. But of the festivals they had, and there were many, there were three that were the biggest festivals, and they were called pilgrimage festivals or pilgrimage feasts, three-annual pilgrimage feasts.

They were the Feast of Passover. Sometimes it's called both the Feast of Unleavened Bread There was then the Feast of Pentecost, and then there was the Feast of Tabernacles. The Feast of Passover and the Feast of Pentecost were in the springtime, and then the Feast of Tabernacles was in the fall. And they're called pilgrimage festivals because the admonition was that for all the Jews who were able, the admonition was particularly to the men, but with the men would come their families, if they could journey to Jerusalem to celebrate this festival.

And so Jerusalem would go from a town that probably in that day had a population of 30,000 to 50,000 and it would swell to possibly several hundred thousand people during the times of these great festivals. So it was a great time for the merchants, the money changers in the temple, loved it. The tourists were in town, but there was a real spiritual side to it as well. It was the time for the nation to remember. Most of the pilgrims would come for the Feast of Passover and would stay through the Feast of Pentecost, which really came right after the Feast of Passover, because, you know, they didn't get there on United Airlines, or they got on their their feet, and they walked, so they would usually stay for Feast of Passover and Feast of Pentecost.

Then they would go home, and then in the fall they would come back for the Feast of Tabernacles. Now, you've got to think about those journeys.

Those pilgrimages were dangerous in many senses.

They left their homes.

So their homes and their possessions were really left unguarded during the time of the festival. Nobody there to protect it. And as they journeyed, they would go through the hills and mountains to get to Jerusalem. And there were bandits in the hills. There were people who were waiting to take things from them.

There were wild animals on the journey.

there was the danger of just a physical health you could fall you could get hurt you could stumble you could run low on water run low on food depending on how far your pilgrimage was so these pilgrimages while they were great spiritual things they were often pilgrimages that were filled with danger and some uncertainty about how the journey would go

well as the jews would journey they would sing songs

and in the book we call psalms which is a collection of songs or psalms there are there's a certain group of psalms from chapter 120 through chapter 134 that are called the songs of ascents You see that in your handout, the songs of ascents. These 15 psalms are a collection of specific psalms grouped together, and these are the songs of ascents, or the songs of goings up. And most believe that the Jews would sing or chant these psalms particularly as they would journey on this pilgrimage to Jerusalem.

these songs of ascents were probably ascending you know they're ascending up to jerusalem that's why it's called the song of ascents the songs of going up to jerusalem these psalms of ascents songs of ascents were probably also used in the liturgical worship at the temple you know how many steps there were between the court of women and the court of israel in the temple you know there was a point at which women could go no further into the temple so there was a court of women and then beyond that no woman or gentile could proceed into the next court which was the court of israel and then only certain people could go into the holy place and only one person could go into the holy of holies that was the priest the high priest but between the court of women and the court of Israel, there were 15 steps. And so many believe that these 15 psalms would be used in the worship. They would stand on one step and sing one and go to the next step and sing the other. So these songs of ascents were not only the songs sung as they went up to Jerusalem, but the songs they sang as they ascended the steps into the court of Israel. Okay?

So these psalms from chapter 120 to 134 were a very important part of the life of Israel. And over the next four weeks we're going to look at several of these. But today it's Psalm 121.

So remember the danger that the pilgrimage entailed going through the hills. And then let's ask the question of verse 1. What's the question? I up my eyes to the hills, where does my help come from? Question.

I need to say a word about that verse. In the King James, it's not shown as a question. In the King James, it's a statement. I will lift up mine eyes to the hills from whence cometh my help. And the King James makes it sound as if I'm looking up to the hills because that's where my help is going to come from.

I think the New American Standard and the NIV are probably more correct to make it a question because the hills weren't viewed as the place of comfort by and large. They were viewed as the place of dangers. So you see you're on the pilgrimage and you lift up your eyes to the hills and you say, where will my help come from? I've got to traverse these hills. They're bandits.

They're wild animals. It's a dangerous journey. Where will my help come from? So I think to make it a question in the text, as the NIV and New American Standard does, is probably right. The pilgrims are saying, who's going to help me on the journey?

Who's going to help me on the journey?

And that's the question we ought to ask ourselves today. Who's going to help us on the journey as we face all the difficulties in our own pilgrimages of life? pilgrimage in a sense and we all face certain dangers where will my help come from i think for the jew traveling to jerusalem as they asked that question as they journeyed they would do this psalm where will my help come from when they finally got to jerusalem and they could see the temple on the temple mount up on the hill the answer to the question came right because they were reminded now when they got to this final hill they've been through all these dangerous hills they get to the final hill where the temple is and the answer to the question comes where will my help come from my help comes from the lord maker of heaven and earth

Well, I want to, as we answer this question, where does my help come from, you will see on the handout I've divided the answer to that question into two parts, A and B. So I want to focus on the first part of the question. My help comes from A, the Lord. My help comes from the Lord. Now let me make a couple of comments here.

If you look in your English Bibles, I want anybody to look in your English Bible, If your Bible is like mine in verse 2, the word Lord is in all capital letters. Capital L, capital O, capital R, capital D. Do you see that? Everybody see that? Is that the way your Bible is?

That's a signal to us that behind the word Lord is a certain Hebrew word. Because sometimes you will see the word Lord written in the Old Testament. capital L little o little r little d

and that's a signal that it's a different Hebrew word behind it so when you see all capital Lord capital L capital O capital R capital D the Hebrew word behind it is Yahweh that's the word right here is Yahweh when you see capital L little o little r little d the word behind it is Adonai So right here, when I see my help comes from the Lord, all caps, it's saying my help comes from Yahweh. Do you remember who Yahweh was? He is I Am. Remember Moses at the burning bush? You know, God's going to send Moses to lead the people of Israel.

And Moses says, well, who will I tell them sent me? And God says, you tell them my name is Yahweh, which means literally I am who I am. My name is Yahweh. This is the covenant name. This is the name of the God who entered into relationship with his people.

This is the God who cared for Israel. so this this name Yahweh was so holy to the Jews they wouldn't even say it they would substitute another Hebrew word for Lord here they would usually say either Elohim or Adonai when they got to the word Yahweh they wouldn't say it it was so holy this notion of the covenant God who is called Yahweh I am who I am they wouldn't even repeat it I went we went to Spain this past summer and there was a guy who was a Jew there and he actually was a cantor. He led the singing in the Jewish synagogue and I had a great time talking with him, asking him some questions because he knew the Hebrew language, he could speak it. And we were talking and at one time as we were talking I said, yeah, that's the word for Yahweh. And when I said that word Yahweh, he kind of looked at me.

And I knew. I just said a holy word which for him was so holy they usually say it. It was that powerful a word. So this God, this Lord here is Yahweh. But He is not only Yahweh, we get a description of who He is.

He is the maker of heaven and of earth. In other words, this covenant God is a God of power.

He is the one who made the heavens. the earth and he because he is so powerful he is able to protect us does everybody know the apostles creed i believe in god the father almighty maker of heaven and of earth that's where that phrase for the apostles creed comes out of this psalm right here there is no power greater than Yahweh. There is no one else who could or did make the heavens and the earth. All of those pagan deities that so many around the Jews worshipped were nothing. They were insufficient gods. They were impotent gods.

But the God, Yahweh, is all powerful. So, where does my help come from in this pilgrimage of life? My help comes from Yahweh who made heaven and earth. And the notion of power is essential when we start to think about who can help us. We don't want somebody who's a weakling.

We don't want somebody who can't stand up to the difficulties we face and help us get through them. We want somebody who can move mountains. And we've got him. We've got him. He is with us.

He is Yahweh. But the other descriptive term, and you see that word Lord will appear verses 2, 5, 7, and 8 throughout this particular psalm. This Lord who is Yahweh is also our shepherd. Now, that word shepherd is never used in this particular psalm. Everybody knows the 23rd psalm.

The Lord, Yahweh, is my shepherd. That word shepherd is never used here, but I think the idea is here because it's repeated throughout, particularly if you've got the NIV, I'm going to use the word watches over. But this is the Lord who watches over us. You see that in verse 3? Just look at all the places it says He watches over us.

He who watches over you. Verse 4, He who watches over Israel. Verse 5, the Lord watches over you. Verse 7, he will watch over your life. Verse 8, the Lord will watch over your coming and going.

Do you see that repeated watch over, watch over, watch over? I think that's the notion of being the shepherd. He is the one who is looking out for the sheep. He is watching over us. So this all-powerful Lord is also our shepherd who watches over us.

points about him being a shepherd first he is a personal shepherd he is a personal shepherd

and we get this in the personal pronouns that are used verse one look at me with your text here Where does my help come from? The answer is my help comes from the Lord. And then the psalmist switches to using the word you or your. And in the Hebrew text, you know in English you can be singular, talking about one person. Or it can be plural, talking about a lot of people, right?

But in the Hebrew text, the word you and your here is singular. And again, it's an emphasis on he's our personal shepherd. Look how many times the psalmist talks to you and me individually. Look at verse 3. He will not let your foot slip.

He who watches over you will not slumber. Verse 5. The Lord watches over you. your shade at your right hand. The sun will not harm you by day.

The Lord will keep you. He will watch over your life. He will watch over your coming and going. There are almost 6 billion people on planet earth today. And you know what?

God sees you. individually. You may think nobody cares. You may think what you're facing is so difficult that surely you've been abandoned. Nobody's paying attention. The psalmist wants you individually, personally to know that this Lord who is Yahweh and all powerful is your shepherd.

He cares for you individually. And some of you, some of you just need to hear that. That God cares for you.

There's nothing like when a mother or a father takes a child, a young child who's hurting, who's falling down, who's dealing with something difficult, and just takes that child and wraps his or her arms around them. comforting to the child to know that mom or dad has a hold of them and is caring for them this great Yahweh he's got his arms around you wherever you are whatever you're facing never doubt it never forget it let the psalmist speak to you today the second thing I will say about this shepherd he is always vigilant he is always vigilant verses three to four say this 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.

Not only is God your personal shepherd, He's a shepherd who never quits, who never takes a break. He is always vigilant, watching over your personal situation, watching over what you need. He knows where you are. He knows what you need. that kind of shepherd who is so concerned about his sheep he never goes to sleep this god Yahweh is different from the pagan deities you remember when Elijah had the confrontation with the prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel remember they had that big contest they were going to say who could call fire down from heaven and as the prophets of Baal danced and tried to call fire down from heaven from Baal, Elijah began to taunt them and say, well, why don't you shout a little louder?

Maybe Baal's just asleep. You know? Taking a little snooze. Slumbering a little bit. Not paying attention to you. If you look at the Hebrew text, he goes on to say what probably is the equivalent of maybe he's gone out to the bathroom for a minute.

He's in the restroom. You know, he's busy right now. Can't help you. This is not vigilant. He's always there. Not a sparrow falls to the ground without his knowledge.

And the sparrow is a tiny little bird. But not even the sparrow falls to the ground without the knowledge of the Father. Whatever you're facing, he knows. He's paying attention. He knows what you're going through. He's right there. Just trust him. Just trust him.

He knows how many hairs you've got on your head. And that changes every day. But He's so intimately involved with your life, He knows the smallest details of your life.

So don't feel abandoned because you are not. He is there. And He's vigilant.

As one writer said, when you go to bed at night, to sleep and rest because God is watching so you can just sleep peacefully knowing he's in control well the third thing about this God is he helps us verse 3 says he will not let your foot slip and that Hebrew word for slip can literally be translated shake he will not let your foot shake and the notion is you step on a rock it can be shaking so much you slip off but that notion of shaking may be able to help us understand about fear you know throughout life we walk through life and I know for me personally there have been times in my life when I was very anxious about things or very fearful about things and there's a sense in which if we trust in this personal God he takes that fear away we don't have to have this shaking where our foot can slip easily Helps make smooth paths for us. He guides us in the way we should go. If we follow his commands and his directions, so many of the things we face in life will be so much easier. But even when we face those difficult things in life, he's there with us to help us get through it without falling or stumbling or being so fearful that we begin to shake. There's no need to be afraid.

He has said, I will never desert you nor will I ever forsake you confidently say the Lord is my helper I will not be afraid what will man do to me. Franklin Roosevelt said we have nothing to fear but fear itself. That is I think true in many respects but it's only true and I think even the fear can go away when we're clinging tightly to Yahweh. We have nothing to fear when we have a hold of him when we're trusting him when he is our shepherd if he is not our shepherd then we ought to have a lot of fears but when he is our shepherd those fears go away the fourth thing i want to say about this personal god is he protects and preserves our souls this is how verses five to seven put it the lord watches over you the lord is your shade at your right hand day nor the moon by night the lord will keep you from all harm he will watch over your life now i want to look at verse 7 with me just a moment there's a couple of translation issues here most a lot of english translations say in verse 7 the lord will keep you from evil the niv says harm and a lot of translations say he will watch over your soul the niv says life now let me make a couple of points here i think the sense is he will keep you from all harm the sense is all evil harm or all bad types of harm it's not a promise you won't experience difficulty and he will watch over your life but the word life and soul can use the same hebrew word the sense is he's watching over that part of you which is most important he will preserve and protect your soul that doesn't necessarily mean you won't lose your life at some point but he's going to preserve and protect that part of you which is most important so this Lord who is Yahweh he preserves and protects our souls this is we've given several images here about this he protects and preserves our souls one way he does that he is our shade verse 5 says the Lord is your shade at your right hand he will protect you so the sun will not harm you by day nor the moon by night

you know some thought that the moon you know the word lunatic comes from the word luna you know when even the moon was sometimes viewed as something that could cause you harm the sun can certainly harm you by its heat but the sun and moon are used here i think to indicate that as we journey day by day whether under the sun or under the moon the lord will be there to protect us he will be our shade and i want to talk about that word shade for just a moment each day we walk in the shade of the almighty or psalm 91 says we walk in the shadow of the almighty and the picture of shade or shadow is that he is our protector and the psalmist says he is at our right hand meaning he's immediately present as our shade or shadow into which we can to be protected. Does everybody understand the image of shade or shadow being something that's protected, protects you from that that can harm you? Elizabeth Elliot wrote a book called The Shadow of the Almighty. You remember the story of Jim Elliot? How many of you remember the story of Jim Elliot? Okay. I'm going to tell this story till I die so people will know it. January 8th, Elliot and four other men were slaughtered by a group of Guarani tribesmen, we call them the Alcas, on the banks of the Curare River in Ecuador.

They were five missionaries who were killed. Five women were left widows, nine children were left fatherless. Elizabeth Elliot wrote two books after that. She wrote one, Through Gates of Splendor, a magnificent book about accounting what happened those men but then she wrote a personal biography about her husband Jim Elliot in which he collects a lot of his writings and we can read what he wrote in his journals and in his diaries

and she decided to title the book The Shadow of the Almighty because as she was going through the difficulty and the pain of losing her husband left to raise their only child she said that she in the shadow of the Almighty. And it was what kept her going. It was resting in the shadow of the Almighty or in the protective hand of the shepherd that kept her going. There was a pastor named Dave Roper of Cole Community Church. He was getting ready to go on a trip and he got his wife and his daughter together and they were going to pray before he went on the trip.

And his prayer was, was, Lord, please protect them while I am gone. And after he prayed, his wife looked at him and said, Who do you think protects us while you're here?

And there's some real truth there. He is our protective help at all times. Can you remember times in your life when it was the shadow of the Almighty in which you were protected? When God, without your really doing anything at all, provided the protection or help you needed.

[Personal prayer concern omitted.]

There are other stories y'all can think of in your own lives

so he protects us he is our shade and he protects us from all evil harm and that's what i think verse 7 as we talked about the lord will keep you from all harm it's talking about those bad things we all are going to experience things that hurt in life i do not want to minimize the hurt it's real when you're sick it hurts when you've lost a job it can be very painful when you have a family member who's suffering it can be particularly hurtful but you want to hear something if he is your shepherd nothing nothing nothing will do you any harm in such a way as to cause you any ultimate problem everything you experience will in some way some way work out in a way that will in fact be beneficial to you i'm not saying you don't go through dark valleys I'm not saying you don't hurt. I'm saying nothing, nothing in an ultimate sense will ever hurt you. Ever. That's quite a promise. One of the martyrs of the early church wrote before he was killed to a Roman emperor.

He said, you can kill us, but you can do us no real harm.

I'm sure that Roman emperor was going, you kidding me? I can kill you and all the other Christians. And these Christians, they knew the shepherd. And they could say, you can kill us, but you can't hurt us. And that's the sense here.

It may be painful from a worldly perspective, but you can be done no harm in an ultimate sense when you are with the shepherd. The last point I want to make about this shepherd is, his care is all-encompassing and eternal. Verse 8, the Lord will watch over your coming and going both now and forevermore. Your coming and your going, that's everything you do in life. He's watching over it.

He cares for you now. He'll care for you tomorrow. And folks, he'll care for us for eternity. When we finally get to that place where there's no more pain or suffering or sorrow.

so here are my lessons for life let me run over these with you and then i'll close with a story

my first lesson for life is seeing jesus loves me and put me in capital letters that's okay to put capital letters he loves you individually secondly seeing a mighty fortress is our God. This is Yahweh, the maker of heaven and earth. No matter what you face, he can help you get through it. Number three, relax. How much stress have you had in life?

How much worry have you had? How much fretting about different things? I know I have fretted about so many things and I look back and I say, Lord, why didn't I just relax and trust you? Relax. God is in charge.

He is your shepherd. He'll get you through it. Relax.

D, in God I trust. Needs to be our motto. Number five, no fear about the big things and no anxiety about the little things. there's a sense in which Christians ought to be the most fearless people we ought to be willing to take on whatever challenge whatever risk the Lord calls us to and we ought to just look whatever in the eye and just keep marching because you know we can't really be harmed in any ultimate sense

that's why many Christians in the history of the church have been able to stand so firm in such difficulty because they knew the reality of that. The last question I'm going to ask you is, are you abiding in Christ? These promises that He will be your shepherd and protect you apply to those who abide in Him. Do you know Christ is Savior and Lord? That's the first question.

If you do, are you abiding in Him? That is, day by day, are you staying close to Him? living in his presence for me personally i have often found that i am most anxious when i am most anxious when i am fretting about things when i'm most worried you know what where i am i'm a long way from abiding in christ and there's something about when i am in his presence when i am staying close to him when i have his shadow at my right hand you know life is easier i can walk with a step and I can have greater joy. So if you're fretting today, if you're worrying, are you abiding in Christ? The last words of John Wesley are these.

He said a couple things, a few phrases and then I'll tell you the last thing he said. As he's about to die and he's getting ready to cross to the next life, he says to those in the room, the best of all, God is with us. God is with us. And then he apparently tried to start to sing a hymn, but he couldn't get out but two words. He just didn't have the strength, but he kept saying those two words over and over and over. I'll praise,

the Lord is our helper he is our shepherd he is with us I'll praise I'll praise Lord may we praise you because you are the great shepherd for those who are hurting may they know you more deeply and more closely than they've ever known you before this day For it's in Christ's name we pray. Amen.