“I lift up my eyes to the hills. From where does my help come?
My help comes from the LORD, who made heaven and earth.
He will not let your foot be moved; He who keeps you will not slumber.
Behold, He who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep.
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 life.
The LORD will keep your going out and your coming in
from this time forth and forevermore.” Psalm 121
There are far too many times that we ask “Where will my help come from?” Or, “Is there any help to be had?” There are far too many times that we think we don’t have an answer to that question. And this is such a common question from ALL people. No matter their situation chosen or not…this question is on the lips of every person at some point in their lives. From foxholes…real and imagined…when push comes to shove…people in the quiet of their hearts and in the outrage of voice “LOOK UP” and cry out this question.
But here in this text David makes the answer abundantly clear. First, since he is a child of God he knows specifically to look up to our LORD God. The One from who help is assured and given. Our HELP (our “Ezer”)…our only real Help is God above… “Our Help comes from the LORD (Yahweh).” And this LORD is the One and True God, Creator of Heaven and Earth. He is our “Ebenezer”; our “stone of help” which means, He has been our help in times past, He is our help today, and He will be our help into the future. David knows who to look to. The questions for us are, “do we?” and if we do, “why don’t we find ourselves actually going to our Help more rather than trying to do it ourselves?”
Secondly, David tells us more truth…Our HELP is also our KEEPER. Six times in these short verses He tells us that He is our Keeper. Once would have been enough but when we are distressed we need to hear it more often. Keeper is a very specific word in the Hebrew…shamar.
1. Twice he says that Yahweh never slumbers or sleeps. He never rests or is distracted but always keeps us just as He planned from before the foundations of the earth. In fact, he adds a “Behold” to this so that none forget this point. Behold means understand and build upon this point.
2. He keeps, He protects us so that we can sustain and not be drained to the point of failure by “shading us” which refreshes us to fight on if need be. And just a note: the moon is referred to here in connection with the sun…both created by God and controlled by God…so whatever superstitions arise from either are not realized because God KEEPS US!
3. He keeps, He guards us from evil in that we will never be defined by evil again…
4. He keeps our life; He gives life, sustains life and upholds our life…no one else can do that. He keeps us by guiding and directing our life…
5. He keeps our going and coming always.
We are in a land NOT our own so the LORD is our Helper and our Keeper. We are never without our HELPER and our KEEPER. So where does your help come from? The LORD our HELPER and KEEPER. This is good news for when we are too distraught or distracted to remember and when we are simply contemplating our next step. God makes it clear throughout Scripture that He is always with us…something that we should really take to heart!
God bless y’all today.
In His Grip,
Pastor Mike
