08.01.07
The Psalms (7): Looking to God - Psalm 121
I want to start tonight with two different worlds. My first world is approximately 400BC where there was a great man writing a masterpiece. His name was Sun Tzu and he was a general of an army in China. He wrote a book called, ‘The Art of War’ where he discusses the tactics of battle and the strategies of war. My second world is that of Ashes Cricket where, at the present moment, Australia are threatening to whitewash England. Cricket commentators have termed this present Australian Cricket Team one of the greatest to have ever played Test Cricket. But these same commentators also pay tribute to the Australian Cricket Coach, a man called John Buchanan – a ruthless winner with, what sportsmen call, the Eye of the Tiger.
Now to pull these two worlds together – you see John Buchanan uses as one of his coaching manuals Sun Tzu’s book ‘The Art of War’. He treats test cricket matches like a battle between two armies and uses Sun Tzu’s strategies to overcome his opponents. Here’s a book, written 2,500 years ago and yet being used today to devastating effect by the Australian Cricket Team.
Round about the same time Sun Tzu was writing his masterpiece, a few thousand miles away in Palestine, another great man was writing Psalm 121. This time, not a Chinese warlord, but one of God’s covenant people. And he was also writing about battles and war – not this time a battle with swords and chariots, but a battle for his soul – a battle of ideas and ideologies – the ideology of fear against this man’s belief and trust in the God of Israel. This man has much to fear, but trusting in the Lord, he’s going to battle through – he’s fighting for the faith to keep going and to make it to his destination. And he’s doing it by talking a lot about God – focussing not so much on the greatness of the obstacles which lie before him, but concentrating on the even greater greatness of the God in whose power he can overcome any obstacle.
Psalm 121 is an example of the fourth type, or genre, of Psalm we are looking at in our series on the Psalms – it’s a Psalm of Confidence – a Psalm in which in the face of challenges, the Psalmist is confident of the God in whom he trusts; and that confidence completely changes the way he looks at life. The ideology of fear looms large, but compared to the power of his God, fear is but a puff of smoke.
Psalm 121 was probably written some 300 years after the death of King David by a Jewish musician returning from captivity in Babylon. It is called a Song of Ascents – where the word ‘ascents’ means ‘going up’. The Psalms of Ascent form a group of Psalms between no.’s 120-134. They are called Ascents because they are what the pilgrim Jews would be singing as they made their way up the mountains on which Jerusalem is built. Three times a year, religious Jews were required to make the pilgrimage to Jerusalem to celebrate festivals there – and on their way up to Jerusalem they would sing these psalms together.
Psalm 121 is different from any of the Psalms we have so far studied because it records a conversation – it’s not just the thoughts of one – it is the dialogue between two people. One a junior and one a senior; perhaps one a disciple and the other a master; one a worshipper and the other a priest; one a son and the other a father. You see this by looking at the change of person between vs. 2 and 3. In vs. 1 and 2 the junior asks the question. ‘I lift up my eyes to the hills. From where comes my help?’ Everything here is in the first person – ‘I, my, my’. But then in vs. 3-8 the senior steps in to encourage the junior, to answer his question and to elaborate on the junior’s confidence – ‘He will not let your foot shake; He who watches over you will not slumber’. Everything here is in the second person – ‘you, you, you’. Two people speaking – the first a junior and the second a senior.
But before we dive into the text of the Psalm, let’s ask what the Psalm is all about. The Psalmist begins, as we shall see in a moment with a quandary – as I lift up my eyes to the hills around me, as I make ready to take this hazardous journey to Jerusalem through hills infested with wild animals and robbers, where can I find help? Where can I find the help I need to make it from where I am now, to where God is in Jerusalem to worship Him there? Now that’s the same question every Christian asks every day – where can I find the help and strength I need to protect me from world around me as I make my way from where I now am to where God is in heaven? Or in other words, from now until the day I die, what, or who, will give me the help I need to keep going as a Christian? And so you see, just like Sun Tzu’s book ‘The Art of War’ can still be effectively used today, so can Psalm 121 – reading and understanding the message of this psalm can give you the confidence you need as we leave 2006 and enter into the unknown country of 2007 that as we look into that unknown and uncertain future, we can find our help in the Lord and in His watchful eye upon us. And thus we can make as much use of this 2,500 year old piece of writing as John Buchanan makes of his.
So I want to divide up this psalm tonight into two brief sections: the first looking at the comments made in vs. 1-2 by the junior; secondly by looking in vs. 3-8 at the confidence the senior instils into his young friend.
[A] Junior (vs. 1-2)
Now when I call this man junior, all I mean to say is that he is the one asking the questions whereas the other man in the psalm is the one answering them. He may be a son speaking to his father; he may be a disciple talking to his master. But as this man looks out at the world around him and the obstacles which confront him he needs advice and encouragement. We see three things about what this junior does:
1. Looking Out – ‘I lift up my eyes to the hills’. He’s contemplating this hazardous journey to Jerusalem to go up to the temple of the Lord to worship Him there. He’s thinking of the hazards and dangers which lie before him in the way – narrow roads and difficult pathways – if he breaks his ankle in the foothills he knows he will die of thirst and hypothermia. He’s thinking of the lions and bears which inhabit the hilly countryside. He’s perhaps thinking of robbers and bandits who have their hideouts in caves and frequently terrorise travellers on their way up to Jerusalem. He’s got all these things in mind – he sees obstacles, problems and difficulties in his way.
What about you tonight? As you make your way forward on your Christian pilgrimage, are you in the same boat – seeing obstacles, problems and difficulties in your way? I know I am. We are confronted on every side by what the hymn calls terrors without and fears within. Will I have the strength to cope with tomorrow’s challenges? Will I be able to stand strong for the Lord in my place of work or my home? Will I be able to resist the temptations of the evil one? You’re looking out over a pilgrimage, just like the Psalmist, and you are seeing the problems.
2. Looking Around – ‘From where comes my help?’ You will notice a difference here in the translation between the NIV and the older KJV, most readily picked up from the metric version of Psalm 121 – “I to the hills will lift mine eyes, from whence doth come mine aid” – in the older translations, it is implied that the help the Psalmist is looking for comes from the hills themselves – as if to say that the solution to the problems the Psalmist is facing comes from the hills themselves. But the NIV and the newer translations are closer to the mark when they translate the second half of vs. 1 as a question rather than a statement – ‘I lift up my eyes to the hills. Where does my help come from’ – as if to say that the hills themselves are the problems and that the Psalmist is looking somewhere else to find the solution. The hills are not the help he’s looking for; they are the problem he is trying to overcome. They won’t help him as he journeys to Jerusalem. Rather, in view of the problem presented by the rugged mountains and all the hazards of slipping, wild animals and bandits they present, where is he going to find the help he needs to get him through. And so he’s asking this question, ‘from where comes my help’?
Maybe that’s a question you are also asking tonight as you face the difficulties of life – in fact I would argue it’s a question most, if not all people ask – in the face of difficult circumstances which lie before me in life, where can I go to find the strength I need to cope? Or in the case of we Christians, in the face of all the temptations I have to face and the hardship of working and living in an environment hostile to the Christian faith, where can I go to find the strength I need to keep going?
3. Looking Up – Immediately, perhaps because he learned it as a child, the junior speaker answers his own question, ‘My help is from the Lord who made the heavens and the earth.’ He could look in many different areas to help him as he travels to Jerusalem – he could use his money to hire a personal bodyguard; he could travel together with other people (as in there is safety in numbers); he could avoid going by the mountains at all; he could avoid going altogether – but rather than any of these options, he’s going to go and he’s going to trust the Lord to look after him. After all, is this not the same Lord who made the hills in the first place? And is this not the same Lord who made the lions and the bears and by whose infinite power they growl and snarl? Better to be in a tight spot with the Creator of the Heavens and the Earth on your side than with a retired troop of ageing ex-soldiers!
There are a thousand different things people rely on as their help – things they lean on to cope and get through life – drink, affluence, family, religion, morality, science to name but a few – but what about the Christian making his life-long pilgrimage to heaven, what will be our help and strength for the journey? Jesus said, “Without me, you can do nothing”. The Apostle Paul wrote, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me”. Shouldn’t the answer be clear to us? Rely upon ourselves and we will fall flat – and that means relying upon our own good works just as much as it does our natural resources of determination and stickability. Rely upon anyone else and we will fall flat. Follow the crowd and we will fall flat. There is only one sure way of coping and having the strength to keep going through it all and that is by trusting in the strength and ability of God. It is by looking to God for the help that we will find His grace sufficient for us.
So, even though vs. 2 comes across as perhaps a bit of a pat-answer from the junior speaker, he is right. Given the problems he faces, the Lord is his chosen help.
[B] Senior (vs. 3-8)
The senior, whoever he is, whether master, father or teacher, now confirms and encourages the young man’s faith in the Lord. As this young man prepares to trudge the long miles to Jerusalem to worship the Lord there, this older believer is going to give him all the encouragement he needs to look to the Lord for everything he may need on the way. And he’s going to do it by reminding his junior of three things the Lord is that makes Him the ideal and trustworthy travelling companion – the Lord is sovereign, the Lord is watchful and the Lord is powerful. As we go through these three characteristics of the Lord, ask yourself the question, if you fear for your own ability to cope in the future, if you have this God as your travelling companion?
1. Sovereign (vs. 3a) – nothing comes upon us in the way without the sovereign and authoritative permission of our God. You see in vs. 3a how its not a question of our feet slipping outside of God’s knowledge; or its not a case of something else overpowering God so that our feet must slip. Rather, God will not let our feet slip – He will not give permission for our feet to slip. From beginning to end, this man’s journey to Jerusalem is under the sovereign control and care of the God of faithfulness and steadfast love. I think it would help us immensely in our Christian faith if we would but understand the implications of the sovereignty of God over us. From day to day, what comes to us comes through His loving hand – if there is a stone in our way, He has permitted it to be there; if some particular trial, His sovereign will ha ordained it for our good and for His glory. But, at the end of the day, He is still sovereign and in control over us – even if that does just mean giving us the ability to put one foot in front of the other.
2. Watchful – 6 times between vs. 3-8, the Hebrew verb ‘watch’ is used – it’s not always translated by the English word ‘watch’ – sometimes, as in vs. 7 it is translated as ‘keep’, but it is the same word as ‘watch’. The Lord is the watcher. Now what does that mean for us to know that God sees all?
· Alertness (vs. 4) – God never sleeps – what a beautiful truth that is! He will not slumber nor sleep – He remains ever alert, watchful and ready to take action on our behalf. The lions may sleep during the day and hunt at night; the robbers and bandits who threatened the rocky passes waylaid their victims at night; at night, because there was no light on these mountain paths, the traveller may slip and fall. And supposing a man was to trust in another man to provide him with security – supposing a man was to hire a bodyguard – but that bodyguard would still need to sleep – he couldn’t possibly be alert 24 hours of the day. But God is not like that – He never sleeps, and therefore He can forestall the bandits, He can head off the lion and make mountain paths smooth. Other gods slept – remember the incident of Elijah and the prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel where Elijah taunted the prophets of Baal by saying, ‘is your god asleep?’ But the Lord God is never asleep and that means He is always on the lookout for you. He knows all that will confront us. And that’s true in our experience also – that our God is never asleep – He is always awake and alert to protect and defend us.
· Closeness (vs. 5) – but how close is God to us? God is so close that, according to vs. 5, he keeps the sun from us. It is as if we are walking in His shadow, in His shade – it is as if He is walking at our right hand. That’s how close God is to us – He’s not separated from us, like earthly kings are, by reams of red tape, bars of iron and polished guards. Rather, our God, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords is right beside us. What an encouragement that must have been for the pilgrim contemplating his journey to Jerusalem to know that the ever-living, ever-powerful God is closer to him than even his right hand. And notice what it means that God shall be this man’s shade – in vs. 6 we are told that the sun will not smite him by day. The Greek word used to translate the Hebrew here has the idea of set on fire, or burn up – the Psalmist has sunstroke in mind here – a potentially very dangerous condition caused by overexposure to a hot sun. But God will act towards the pilgrim like a shade so that he will protected from the sun. Then also, the moon will not smite him by night. It was commonly thought in the Israel of the day that moonbeams carried disease and sickness – and therefore the Israelites would shade themselves from the moon as well as the sun. But God is greater than these two great lights – and He is close enough to His people to do something about them. Do you realise how close God is to you; and how, because of that, He’s not going to miss what you are going through?
· Durability (vs. 
– we are told here that the Lord will keep our comings in and goings out for ever – literally our eisodoss and our exoduss. Here is a God who doesn’t grow old so as to lose the vitality and energy of youth; here’s a God who is as powerful and durable today as he was in the days of the Psalmist. Here’s a God you can trust today to look after all your tomorrows – a God who says to us, “Lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” After all, age is able to bring a perspective to reality youth isn’t – the senior speaker here is able to reflect on a lifetime of God’s faithfulness in his life and say from his own experience, this God watches over us every day and night.
3. Powerful – the last aspect of the kind of God we have, according to Psalm 121, and why we should keep our eyes focussed upon Him despite the obstacles and challenges of life is that He is almighty and all powerful. You see this in two ways in the text.
· Saviour (vs. 4) – The Psalmist is promised that God doesn’t only watch over him as an individual, He watches over the whole of Israel. God is so powerful that He can simultaneously look after every single person in Israel and ensure that they are safe and free from harm. Here, this verse is a reference back to God’s historical dealings with Israel – the call of Abraham, the exodus from Egypt, the defeat of the Philistines and Assyrians, God’s powerful emancipation of the Jews from their captivity in Babylon. This is a powerful God – a God who can divide seas, destroy armies and stop the sun in its tracks. A God who is so committed to His people that He will literally move heaven and earth to save them – a God who sent His one and only Son Jesus Christ clothed in weakness, but on the cross at Calvary chaining up Satan. His power is limitless. And that power is available to you – He will use that power to keep you and to protect you – because that’s the kind of God He is.
· Champion (vs. 5) – we are told that He is at our right hand. Now the right hand is the traditional place for advisors and champions – it is the place of honour. A King would walk and have his champion or his chief advisor at his right hand. You have God at your right hand, the ultimate champion who will ride forth to defeat all who stand in your path and mean to do you harm. Do you realise that? That of all the enemies you will have to face in the year ahead – whether they be persecution, temptation or trial – your champion is at your right hand ready to fight for you. The pilgrim of Psalm 121 need have no fears since at the first sight of robbers or wild animals his champion would do the fighting for him. You have the Lord God fighting for you – and as the apostle Paul says, “If God be for us, who can be against us”?
Overcoming challenges in the Christian life does not consist in having confidence in yourself, it relies on having confidence in the God before whom all these obstacles are like blades of grass. And so, as we take our leave of another great Psalm can we also say along with the Psalmist – ‘My help comes from the Lord who made the heavens and the earth.’ Fellow pilgrims, focus on God. AMEN