Psalm 121 (Summer of Psalms #1)
My family and I have been part of this church for about four years, and as a member of our elder board, every once in a while our lead pastor calls up and asks if I would step in and share God’s Word with the Riverwood family. That is why I am here today.
We are kicking off a summer series called the Summer of Psalms. And a few of you are thinking, didn’t we do the Summer of Psalms already? Yes — back in the summer of 2020. But I am told there are plenty of psalms to go around. We could do the Summer of Psalms for a number of summers and still not exhaust them.
I absolutely love the Psalms, because they were written for a variety of purposes. They were written for readers in the ups and downs of life, the highs and the lows. Perhaps this is why the Psalms are the source of so many songs. I bet if you asked our worship leader how many of the songs we sing were written with the Psalms in mind, he would rattle off a long list. There are countless hymns and songs we sing in church that come from here, because of their authenticity and their ability to connect with us in the ups and downs of life.
The book of Psalms was written by a collection of authors — David, Moses, and Solomon, to name a few. And because they were written by a variety of authors for a variety of purposes, it is very important that we understand the context of each psalm.
What Kind of Psalm Is This?
Today we are digging into Psalm 121, which is a psalm of ascent — also known as a journey psalm.
Why is it called that? The Israelites traveled to Jerusalem several times a year for one of three major feasts. And as they were road-tripping along the way — they did not have cars back then, and they could not crank up a playlist or the radio — what they did instead was recite and sing these specific psalms.
One important thing you need to know about this journey is that it was not easy. There were real threats along the way. There were caves along the road, and in those caves were robbers ready to prey on travelers. The journey was also brutally hot — think of the hottest day of an Iowa summer, and that was the entire trek.
So there were a lot of fears and a lot of unknowns for these Israelites as they journeyed toward what was supposed to be a celebratory time. As they sang this psalm, they carried both genuine excitement for the feast ahead and real fear about the road itself.
A Question for You
So let me pose a question. What is the greatest fear you are facing right now?
Perhaps it is a financial fear. Who can avoid the price at the pump right now? Or maybe you walked in to buy your first smoothie of the summer and noticed the price has gone up twenty percent since last year. The financial concerns are real.
Perhaps report cards came in the mail recently and you are wondering how your kid is going to do next year, or how your family will transition from the school routine to the summer routine.
Perhaps safety is on your mind. As someone who works in education, it is hard not to think about the recent shooting at an elementary school in Texas. And hitting even closer to home, the shooting that took place at a church not far from here in Ames.
These fears are real. These fears hit close to home.
Whether a few fears came to mind just now, or whether you are thinking your life is entirely carefree, there is one certainty: life is full of ups and downs. And today’s psalm gives us a simple — yet also complex — answer to life’s recurring question:
Where do I go for help?
The Text: Psalm 121
“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.”
I cannot help but think of that famous Beatles song titled “Help!” Because that is exactly what this psalm is answering.
Today’s passage gives us three truths to consider. First, the Creator is our helper. Second, God is our protector. And third, God will keep you and me from evil.
1. The Creator Is Our Helper (verses 1–2)
Verse 1 says, “I lift up my eyes to the hills. From where does my help come?”
For the Israelites traveling to Jerusalem, these two verses carry a dual meaning.
Look beyond what is right in front of you
First, it reminds them — and us — to look to the hills, but not really. It reminds us to look beyond our current and immediate circumstances.
Some of you know my family loves to hike, and we hike in the mountains whenever possible. Of course, there are not many mountains in Iowa, so mostly we find ourselves hiking the hills of state parks and county parks instead.
One thing I have noticed about myself while hiking is that far too often I am staring at the ground right in front of me, or just barely ahead. But anyone who has been in the mountains knows that the best scenery is usually not right in front of you. It is up and in the distance. The best views come from looking up.
So when the psalmist asks in verse 1 where his help comes from, we are going to find that the answer is not immediately in front of him. It is well beyond his current and immediate circumstances.
What was actually in those hills
The second layer has to do with what the Israelites would have seen when they looked at the hills.
We know from the Old Testament that the Israelites were constantly exposed to false gods. Open 1 Kings and you will read about Baal. You may remember the golden calf. And where did the pagans put those false gods? They frequently built those shrines up in the hills and mountains, so everyone could see them and be drawn to worship them.
Now, we may not have literal shrines to false gods around here. But I often wonder whether the sources we habitually turn to have the potential to become false gods.
Let me explain. When was the last time you were in a bookstore? There is an enormous self-help section. Or maybe you have been shopping online lately. If you want a book to help you diet, it is there. A book to help you become a great parent? There. A book to improve your relationship with your spouse or your friends? There. If you want a three-step program for absolutely anything, the experts are ready to sell it to you.
Maybe you are not the reading type. Maybe you go straight to the internet. There are groups for moms. There are how-to videos for dads. There are podcasts for everybody. And if none of those work, there is a medical site and a search engine with all the answers. And if none of those work, you can always just ask your smart speaker.
Here is the thing, friends — do not misunderstand me. These are all genuinely good sources of information. Fantastic sources of information.
And yet, as my life has gone on, and perhaps yours as well, I find myself with all of these resources to draw on. And if I take them too far, or hold them too tightly, or — if I am honest — if I go to these sources first, the psalmist has a reminder for me and for you: our source of help is not immediately in front of us.
We think that because we have all these books, because we have the internet, because we subscribed to that podcast, we can somehow help ourselves.
The psalmist answers his own question
Verse 2: “My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth.”
Do you not love it when someone poses a question and then immediately answers it themselves?
Go back to the hills in verse 1 and note one thing: God created the hills. The very first verse of the Bible says, “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth” — which means he also created the hills the psalmist is looking at. It means God created everything from the beginning of time. Which means there was never a moment when God was not aware of what was going on, because he made all of it.
The Israelites were not to look for help from the hills. This verse tells us to look for help from the one who made the hills.
Let me repeat that so it sinks in: our helper is also the Creator. And because he is our Creator, this makes him the source of all help.
Even when we think we have it figured out because we listened to the best podcast or read the best book — we do not have it all figured out. And just when we think we do, life throws us a wrench and we realize it.
An illustration
A game that has been very popular in our household lately is chess. Some of our boys are really into it.
Garry Kasparov is widely considered one of the greatest chess players in the world — not just in one country, but in the world. He beat human opponent after human opponent through the 1980s. He beat so many people that he decided the only way left to test himself was to start playing computers. And he beat the computers too — to the point where he reportedly told the company building them that they needed to start teaching their machines to resign earlier. That is how confident he was.
Then in 1996 a new computer arrived: Deep Blue. Headlines around the world announced that Kasparov would once again take on a machine.
And in one famous game, he did not merely lose. He was thoroughly dismantled — beaten in roughly forty moves. In that moment, the man who had been on top of the world, who thought he had it all figured out, suddenly realized that even he needed help.
Friends, we are all a little like that, are we not? We might think we have it all figured out, and then life hands us a moment where the only honest thing left to do is ask for help.
Verse 2 tells us that our helper is the Creator of the earth. That means God created you. He created me. He created the hills. He created heaven and earth. He created the people who wrote those self-help books. He created the whole system that runs the internet.
And if he created all of that, then he is surely aware of the fear that is on your mind and my mind right now.
2. God Is Our Protector (verses 3–6)
If that gives you relief — even joy — hang on, because there is more.
Verses 3 and 4 point to a God who does not sleep. Why does that matter?
It was something of an inside joke for the Israelites. Some of you may recall Elijah in the Old Testament, confronting people who insisted their false gods could act — and mocking those gods by suggesting they might be asleep. Many of us would say they were never awake to begin with. But it was a running joke.
So when the psalmist says our God never sleeps, the Israelites would have nodded knowingly.
For us, it means that the God of Israel and the God of the Bible — our God — is a 24/7 God. He is always on call.
A story about 24/7 access
As a late teenager and into my early twenties, one of my summer jobs was working customer service for an appliance manufacturer. For forty hours a week I answered phone calls, back before the internet was really a thing.
People would call and say, I’m thinking about buying this refrigerator, can you tell me more about it? Or, more urgently, I have no idea who the local repairman is, can you give me a phone number?
Summer was our busiest season, because that is when refrigerators and air conditioners break down. And most people calling had only a small window in which they could call — a morning break, or a lunch hour. So it was not uncommon for callers to get a busy signal or fail to get through at all.
One day I took a call from a man who was thoroughly frustrated. He had not been able to get through all week. You’re only open 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. central time. What is that about? His refrigerator had been broken for a week and he did not know who to call for help.
Imagine if our Protector’s customer service were only available from 8 to 4. Imagine if our Protector could only be reached by phone and you kept getting a busy signal during your lunch hour. That would not be a Protector I would be excited about.
But look at verse 6. We are reminded that our Protector is there for us by day and by night.
Our God is not closed on holidays. We do not walk up to God’s door and find that sign saying closed today, short-staffed. Our God is open twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week.
Our Protector does not sleep.
But does that mean nothing bad will happen?
There is something else in these verses I want to draw out, and it is important.
The text says God will not let your foot be moved. That God is your shade. That the sun will not strike you.
From the outside you might ask: does that mean nothing bad will ever happen to me? If the sun is not going to strike me, why are hard things happening in my life?
What these verses really mean is that he will not allow anything to happen to you or to me that is not intended for his good.
And there is often a difference between his good and what we think our good is.
Isaiah 55:8–9 puts it this way: “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.”
If that has not convinced you, think about Joseph in the Old Testament.
What happened to Joseph? His own brothers sold him into slavery. I do not know about you, but if I were sold into slavery, I would be asking God what on earth was going on.
And it did not stop there. Once enslaved, he was falsely accused and thrown into prison. The psalmist says the sun will not strike you — and Joseph could reasonably say, I have been enslaved and now I am in jail. What is happening?
But follow the story further, and you remember that Joseph eventually becomes governor of Egypt. And in the middle of a devastating famine, he is positioned to help his family — the very family who abandoned him — survive.
What we learn from Joseph is that God’s plan looked bleak through Joseph’s eyes, and God used it for his glory.
That is exactly what God wants to do for you and me. When life seems bleak, when things simply do not make sense from where we stand, his ways are bigger than our ways.
3. God Will Keep You From Evil (verses 7–8)
Look carefully at verses 7 and 8 and you will notice the text shifts to the future tense.
Verse 7: “The Lord will keep you from all evil.” Verse 8: “The Lord will keep your going out and your coming in from this time forth and forevermore.”
The Israelites on that journey were being reassured that God would protect them all the way to Jerusalem. But the psalm ends with assurance that God would protect them not only on the journey — but in life.
That is the promise for you and me. God will keep us from evil in every aspect of life.
How, and why, can he do that? Because he is the Creator of the universe. He is able to make and keep that promise, for his glory. He wants to protect and keep you from evil — not just now, but in the future.
Two Places You Might Be Sitting Today
As you consider where you go for help, I suspect you are in one of two situations. Some of you need to hear something about confusion. Others need a dose of confidence.
If you are confused
Maybe when you walked in this morning and I asked about your greatest fear, you thought: yes, I have fears, we all have fears. But as I have kept repeating the question — where do I go for help? — maybe you have been thinking, why wouldn’t I go to books? Why wouldn’t I go to podcasts? I think I have it figured out.
I want you to know what our Scripture told us today: our help is not immediately in front of us. Our help is not within the hills. Our help comes from the Creator of the hills, God himself.
And your answer to this question — whether you have thought about it or not — has eternal ramifications. Not just answering a question because someone up front asked you to. The way you think about where you go for help matters eternally.
If there is a single take-home point today, it is this: the same God who created the universe is a holy God. And because he is holy, we can never live up to his standard on our own.
If we believe the things immediately in front of us are our help, at some point God will say: you could never do it on your own. Our good deeds cannot begin to stack up against God’s perfect record.
Each and every one of us — and by the way, today we are one day closer to it — will someday be asked: who was your helper here on earth?
The good news I want you to receive today is that the same God who created the universe also sent his one and only perfect Son to die on the cross for you and for me. And that Son’s name is Jesus.
Here is what Jesus said in Matthew 16:24–25. He told his disciples — that is, his followers — “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.”
Friends, are you ready to receive that today? Are you ready to lose your life for his sake — to admit that the solutions and the helps you think are right in front of you are not enough? Are you ready to put your full trust in Jesus as your 24/7 helper?
We often say around here that we exist to help people who are not sure whether they are connected with God yet. That is why this church was started not that long ago — to help people say, I want to surrender my life to Jesus Christ and take my first step in fully trusting him. There is nothing we would love more than to introduce you to the eternal help, whose name is Jesus.
If you already follow Jesus
Perhaps you are already a follower of Jesus, and when I asked where you go for help, you realized that this week you went first to the book, or the podcast, or the online group, or the how-to video.
Your take-home point today — and mine — is this: God, the Creator of the universe, has it all under control.
Do you remember when the pandemic first hit? None of us knew anything. Where do I go for help? Should I do this? Should I see my friends? Should we get together for Christmas or not? Is it okay to meet in a parking lot? I don’t know — help me out. Social media went absolutely bonkers with people looking for help. How many of us said, God, I don’t know. Help me.
God does not ask us to figure it all out. He is asking us to trust him, because he has it figured out. And what he wants today, for you and for me, is that we boldly place our confidence in his ability as our Creator.
Hebrews 4:16 draws this out: “Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.”
That is what God wants. He wants us to find our confidence in him, and to boldly approach him in our time of need.
Will you take the confidence you have temporarily misplaced in the things of this world and redirect it boldly into the hands of Jesus?
Let Us Pray
Father, thank you for the chance to open up Psalm 121 and consider life’s recurring question: where does my help come from? Today we learned and were reaffirmed that our help comes from you — the Creator of the hills, the Creator of the universe.
Lord, if there is anyone here today who for the first time is saying, I have been confused; I thought my help came from within — I pray today would be their spiritual birthday, and that for the first time they would surrender their life to you.
And for those of us who have been trusting you for a while, I pray that as the ups and downs of life come our way this week and in the months ahead, we would redirect our confidence from the things of this world straight to you. You created the universe. You know everything. May we boldly and unashamedly come to you first.
Thank you for the chance today to learn about you and to draw close to you. In Jesus’ name we pray, amen.
