Where does my help come from?

About 25 years ago, we lived in a small town called Gilgit, in Northern Pakistan, a day's drive from the Chinese border, right in the middle of some of the highest mountains in the world. We lived at the junction where the Himalayas, the Karakoram range of mountains and the Hindu Kush, all meet.

So, while we lived in one of the most spectacular places on earth, with snowy mountain views from every window, with clear, totally unpolluted crisp night skies, displaying millions upon millions of glorious stars in all their brilliance, those mountains also made our lives very difficult - there were regular electricity cuts, sometimes for days, there were frequent road blocks caused by landslides on the only road in and out of the town and we would be without certain products that were brought in by road, and the winters were very cold, long and bleak.

Psalm 121 is described as a psalm of ASCENT and would have been sung by King David and God’s people as they ascended the hills up towards Jerusalem from the plains, three or four times a year to celebrate various religious festivals. These had been mandated by God, years and years before, when their ancestors were being led by Moses across the desert towards Canaan, the promised land. The walk, they were on foot of course, would have apparently taken nine hours or so and they had to traverse and navigate some very rough and pretty hostile terrain to reach Jerusalem.

In the days before this psalm was penned, David would have hidden in the same barren, hostile & uninhabited hills that surrounded the city of Jerusalem, running from King Saul, a maniacal king who was dead-set on killing him. For 10-15 years David ran terrified and hid, and nearly lost his life many, many times in those mountains. He was betrayed by his companions in those mountains, received very bad news about his family back in the villages, in those mountains, and daily faced the injustice of King Saul’s hatred and jealousy. It all happened in those mountains.

So, now in this psalm David is here lifting his eyes up to the hills, and he isn’t just seeing a beautiful view. He remembers moving from one hill to another, from one cave to another, hiding and having to work his way around one side of the mountain while the king and his army marched relentlessly around the other side.

He is reliving the despair and grief and darkness and hopelessness of those difficult and challenging days.

BUT HE IS ALSO REMEMBERING ANOTHER GREATER PROFOUND TRUTH - that throughout that time, GOD Had indeed been his helper, he had NOT been running and hiding, alone.

Let’s ask ourselves this one simple question? Where does our help come from? Where does YOUR help come from? Where do you go and who do you go to for help? Some of us are facing mountains today - financial concerns, health issues, strained relationships, worries related to work - and then there’s fuel and food prices rising, the war in Ukraine, climate issues, political instability here and abroad. The list goes on and on.

Where does your help come from?

To answer that question, we need to be brutally honest with ourselves - as a follower of Jesus, are you expectant that the God who made Heaven and earth (verse two) will come to your aid? The God who is so much bigger than your challenging situation.

Are you waiting, patiently, faithfully trusting that He is indeed not asleep (verses four and five), but that He is fully awake to all that is going on in your life, every detail? Remember, every hair upon your head, Jesus says, is numbered by Him. Do you believe that He will not let your foot slip (verse three), or that in trusting Him, you will not be tossed this way and that way by all that you face, for He IS the ONLY thing in your life that is rock-like and certain. Steady, faithful, unchanging.

Actually, God is the only one who will not die, will not let you down, betray you, lie to you, leave you or abuse you. He promises to keep you from harm, day and night, around the clock (verses six and seven), as you come and go, both now, today, but also for evermore. Every tomorrow is lived under His careful loving gaze (verses seven and eight).

THIS ONE - HE is your God. HE is your helper.

But do you believe this? We so easily say yes, nothing is impossible for God and yet the church is wracked by anxiety, fear and depression.

Martin Luther King Jr said this, ‘don’t tell me what you believe. Show me how you live and I will tell you what you believe!’

We live in an age where it’s all about feelings, and of course they are really, really important - but how we feel about a situation or about God does not tell us the truth about either, and nor does how we feel about God define His character any more than the chaos that surrounds us, defines His character.

You see, what we need in these unsettling times - what David needed as he fled and hid, is the truth. The truth never changes. The truth stands firm and the storms and blizzards of life cannot move it nor alter or diminish it. The truth is not random or arbitrary, nor in fashion today and out of fashion tomorrow. No. The truth, my friends is a person. Jesus is the truth.

As Christians, we must make a choice, especially when faced with what seem to be impossible situations. It’s simple really, this choice. It must be simple - it’s for uneducated men herding their yaks across the Mongolian plains and for illiterate women in the villages of Afghanistan.

God’s desire is that we would choose to believe Him, choose to take Him at His word, even when our feelings are telling us something very different. God’s words to us are above and beyond feelings, and superior to what the circumstances are saying, or what culture says, or social media, or your family and friends. It may seem to you that God has gone or is not interested, or perhaps that He doesn’t see you. But we are told in the Bible that He says, ‘I will never leave you’, He says, ‘I knit you together in your mother’s womb, I know when you sit and when you stand’.

David expresses some of the same anguish with which we are so familiar, though the circumstances are different. But it is still fear, distress, loneliness and uncertainty. In psalm 142 we see him hiding in a cave, in psalm 56 we hear him when he was seized by the philistines, in psalm 3 he writes whilst fleeing from his own son Absalom. But he always ends each psalm with the declaration of a higher reality, a greater truth: ‘You are my refuge’ or ‘you are a shield about me, my glory and the lifter of my head’ or ‘in God I trust. What can man do to me?’

So, here we are in psalm 121 David looks at the hills and he remembers that all along God’s promise of protection had indeed protected him, he had been kept and sustained through it all, and his life had been preserved.

Where does your help come from? Who do you turn to first, when you need help? Is it the bank manager, the doctor, the therapist? Or do you, like David, instinctively turn to God.

Who is your helper?

On one terrible night of the London Blitz during the second world war, a father, holding his small son by the hand, ran from a building that had been struck by a bomb, as it exploded into flames. Ash and smoke were billowing into the night sky. In the front garden was an old shell hole.

Seeking shelter as quickly as possible, the father jumped into the hole and held up his arms for his little son to follow. Terrified, yet hearing his father's voice urging him to jump, the boy replied, "I can't see you!"

The father, looking up against the black sky, tinted red by the burning buildings, called to the silhouette of his son, "But I can see you! Jump!"

The boy jumped, because he trusted his father.

Our faith in God enables us to face life or meet death, not because we can see, but with the certainty that we are seen; not that we know all the answers, but that we are known, not that the flames won’t consume us, but that there is One standing in the fire with us.

Culture and society tell me that I must take care of myself, that I must forge my own path, that I must decide things for myself, that my destiny is in my hands. I can fix myself. That I must create the life that I want. It’s all up to me.

Wow - that to me is terrifying! in the confusion of today’s world, do I really think I can make it on my own? Independently, with no helper other than perhaps another frail broken human being by my side, am I honestly that capable?

Back when I lived in northern Pakistan, I couldn’t cope with living in those incredible beautiful mountains. The isolation and the loneliness plus the depression and mental confusion took it out of me. We left because it just seemed too hard.

But now I see things differently.

So, in closing, as you lift up your eyes to your own “hills’, what do you see?

Look beyond what it feels like. Look, and look again. See something greater, something bigger. See someone else, the One who keeps you, tenderly, and lovingly whilst watching over all the details of your life. Be willing to jump into His arms for refuge and comfort and deliverance. See the One who has always seen and known you. See the One who will never let you go.

You can do life with anxiety and stress as constant companions, or you can face the same hurdles and trials with peace. Your hand tucked into the hand of your Abba Father.

Will we believe what our circumstances and feelings seem to say or will we choose another narrative? Will we choose the truth?

That choice is ours.

Psalm 121

1 I lift up my eyes to the mountains— where does my help come from?

2 My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth.

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.