May 21, 2010

MY HELP COMES FROM THE LORD

Psalm 121

This will be my last sermon for a while. Esther Ruth and I are leaving tomorrow for 3 months of home leave in the US. That means today we are saying “good bye” to all of you who will be leaving over the summer, and not returning. I would like to ask everyone in that category - those of you who will be leaving during the summer and you are not planning to return – to please stand.

One of the realities of life in an international church is that we say a lot of “good byes”. I want to give all of you who just stood a “going away” gift; a final message to take with you as you depart.

Many of the rest of you will also be traveling out of the country over the summer. Could you just raise your hands? This message is also for you as you travel.

And for all of us, life is a journey. It is a journey that often has unexpected twists and turns in it. In that sense, this message is for all of us.

The gift I want to offer you this morning is packaged in a psalm. I want you to turn with me to Psalm 121

                        1     I lift up my eyes to the hills—

                     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.

That is the gift I want you to take with you. I would strongly encourage you to memorize it, if you don’t know it already. It is one of the most encouraging and helpful psalms in the Bible. Let’s examine it more closely together.

 

                  Verse 1 opens the psalm with the words: I lift up my eyes to the hills— where does my help come from?

 

There is some difference of opinion about how to interpret and therefore how to translate this verse. One possibility is to translate it his way: “I lift my eyes to the hills. Does my help come from there? No! My help comes from the Lord.” According to this interpretation, the hills are seen as a false hope or source of strength. The hills are set in contrast to God who is our true help. Don’t just look up to the hills. Look higher! Look up to God in heavean.

 

This is certainly a possible interpretation and translation, but I prefer a second one. This one takes us back to the inscription which reads: “A song of ascents.” Unfortunately, we do not have total certainty about the meaning of that phrase. The KJV renders it “a song of degrees.” If you take a quick look, you will find that all of the Psalms from 120 to 134 have this same inscription. Many scholars agree that these psalms were used by Jewish pilgrims as they made the journey to Jerusalem for one of the feasts of the Jewish calendar. These songs were recited and sung, beginning in a far place in Psalm 120 and gradually ascending up to Jerusalem and to the temple. If this is true, then lifting their eyes to the hills signified their fixing their eyes on their goal, the temple, the dwelling place of God, where he had taken up his dwelling among his people. So it is an expression of trust in the true God.

 

Well, in either case, however you interpret verse 1, the message of the psalm is clearly stated in the strong affirmation in verse 2: My help comes from the LORD. This title, “LORD” is repeated 5 times in the psalm: here, twice in verse 5, and again in verse 7 and verse 8. Now, if you are paying attention you will notice that in the NIV, the word LORD is in all capital letters. This means that it is a translation of the special Hebrew name for God, Yahweh. This was the name by which God revealed himself to Moses at the Burning Bush. You remember the story. Moses said to God: “What is your name?” God answered: “My name is Yahweh”, which is a timeless form of the Hebrew verb “to be”: I am. I was. I will be. He went on to say, “This is my special memorial name.”

 

“Where does my help come from? My help comes from Yahweh! He is the Maker of heaven and earth.” The Creator of all things is our helper! Does that give us goose bumps? It should! We can pour an entire Bible’s worth of theology into this verse. Yahweh, God of creation, God of the universe who has revealed  himself in Scripture – this God, in all of his power, wisdom, love and holiness, this God, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, of Joshua, of David – the timeless, eternal, omniscient and omnipresent One – this Yahweh is our helper.

 

What kind of help is in view here? The psalmist focuses in one particular area. Six times he repeats the same word: to watch. The idea is not the passive watching of a spectator. It is the active watching of a life guard or a security guard or a sentry on duty. It is a word that implies not only alertness, but also protection and care. The English Standard Version and the New American Standard both translate it “keeper.” The Message translates it “Guardian.” As I said, this word in various forms occurs six times in the psalm: in verse 3, in verse 4, in verse 5, twice in verse 7 and again in verse 8.

 

Who is watching over you? Who is guarding you? Who is protecting you? Who is keeping you? Yahweh! The Creator of heaven and earth. And this is his promise: He will not let your foot slip. The image that comes to my mind here is that of a rock climber. Who is at the other end of your rope? Who will keep you from slipping and falling to the rocks below?

 

The psalmist continues to heap up the comforting images. He who watches over you will not slumber; indeed he who watches over Israel will neither slumber nor sleep. Your Guardian and my Guardian never goes off duty. He never sleeps. He never even dozes on the job. The word slumber describes that pre-sleep state of inattention. You know the feeling if you’ve ever tried to drive when you were very tired. Your eyes simply will not stay open, and with that drowsiness comes danger, slow reflexes, failure to see and respond to an emergency quickly and appropriately. It is not a good state in a driver! It is not a good state in a lifeguard or security guard either. Our Guardian never sleeps or even dozes ever so slightly. He is never inattentive. He is never taken off guard.

 

In verse 5, the psalmist repeats the basic theme of the psalm again: The LORD watches over you - , or more literally, “Yahweh is your watcher, your Guardian.” He then adds another image. Yahweh is your shade at your right hand:  the sun will not harm you by day, nor the moon by night. The sun gets pretty hot this time of year, doesn’t it? The word “harm” literally means “to hit or to strike”. Against the heat of the sun, shade becomes a valuable commodity. Imagine shade that followed you around! Shade that stayed right beside you, at your right hand. We have a graphic illustration of that here today. If you were here last week, or you’ve looked in your bulletin, you will see that the youth are offering to escort you to your car with an umbrella – for a small fee or contribution. Shade from the heat of the sun that goes with you and moves when you move. That is what God offers to his children.

And to complete the image, to make it all inclusive, we are even told that his protection will continue through the night and the time ruled by the moon. Day or night, your Guardian is watching over you and sheltering you and protecting you.

                 

                  And then in verse 7: The Lord will keep you from all harm— he will watch over your life; The KJV translates this word for “harm” as evil. But in the context, it is harm or evil that happens to us, not evil we might do. This time, the translation, “keep you” is the word “watch or guard” again. The same word is actually used twice in the same short verse. Yahweh will guard us to keep us from harm, and he will guard our very life. The word is literally “soul”, the intangible, but truly alive part of the human being.

                 

                  The psalmist completes his picture in verse 8: the Lord will watch over your coming and going

         both now and forevermore. This is truly a comforting verse for the person who is moving and for the traveler, isn’t it? The comprehensiveness is truly remarkable. Whether coming in or going out, the Lord is watching over us. Not only now, but forever.

         Esther Ruth and I watched a movie recently entitled “The Blind Side.” It tells the true story of a young man from a very dysfunctional background who was befriended and ultimately taken into another family and goes on to success in the sport of American football. At one point in the story, his new mother was talking to the school counselor about his aptitude tests. Most of his scores were miserably low. But then the counselor brightened and said, “He did score very high in one category.  He scored in the 98th percentile in “protective instincts.” That trait becomes the key to the rest of the story. According to this psalm, our God does not score 98% in protective instincts. He scores 100% all day, every day, now and forever. And his nature as protector is not an “instinct”. It is a part of his character.

         There is another phrase that is used a number of times in the movie. It is a common, contemporary way of expressing the same truth. It is the phrase, “I’ve got your back.”

         This is what God is promising to us in this psalm. He is saying to us, “I’ve got your back.” I offer you the words of this psalm as a source of comfort and encouragement to all of you this morning. To those who will be leaving to return to your home country or to move to another assignment; Yahweh will watch over your coming and going both now and forever. To those who will be traveling over the summer: Yahweh will watch over your coming and going both now and forever. To those of you who may have recently moved to Abu Dhabi: Yahweh will watch over your coming and going both now and forever. To those who will be staying in Abu Dhabi throughout the long hot summer: Yahweh watches over you – he will be your shade at your right hand. To those who may be facing an uncertain future: Yahweh will watch over your coming and going both now and forever.

         A young man left home. He was running for his life. He had deceived his father and cheated his brother and his brother had vowed vengeance. He was traveling alone across empty country when night overtook him. He lay down to sleep, using a stone for his pillow. He felt utterly alone. As he slept, he had a dream. In the dream, God himself appeared to him. This is what God said to him: “I am with you and will watch over you wherever you go, and I will bring you back to this land. I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.” That young man’s name was Jacob. His story is found in the book of Genesis. I find it interesting that the word “watch over” is the very same word that we’ve been looking at in Psalm 121. And God identified himself to Jacob as “I am Yahweh, the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac.”

Jacob thought he was alone. But he wasn’t alone, was he? God was with him and made himself known to Jacob and promised to stay with him and watch over him on his journey. When Jacob woke up, he made a vow: “If God will be with me and will watch over (same word again) me on this journey I am taking and will give me food to eat and clothes to wear 21 so that I return safely to my father’s house, then the Lord will be my God.”

            Now let’s fast forward to the end of Jacob’s long and eventful life. Listen to his testimony as he blessed his son Joseph: May the God before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac walked, the God who has been my shepherd all my life to this day, the Angel who has delivered me from all harm…

            At the end of his life, Jacob looked back and said, “God has kept his promise. God has been faithful. God has been my shepherd all of my life. He has delivered me from all harm.”

            I find that a reassuring testimony. Jacob was a bit of a rascal. His name meant “supplanter” or one who takes advantage, and he lived up to his name. He was not a “poster child” for godly living. Yet God never left him. God never stopped watching over him. That gives me confidence that God will not abandon me when I sin and fail to live up to his standards.

            I also find that his example gives us an important point of perspective and a reality check. Jacob didn’t just have a long life. He had a hard life. He knew what it was to be cheated and tricked. His family life was turbulent. He experienced heartache and loss. He suffered the loss of his favorite son, believing him to be dead for many years. Some of his problems, frankly, were of his own making. Others were thrust upon him by others. Yet when he reached the end of his life and looked back, he could see the Shepherd’s care. He could see that even when he thought he was alone (like he did in the wilderness that night as young man) he had never really been alone. God had been with him, watching over him, shading him. He may have fallen to the end of his rope a few times, but God never let go. He always pulled him back to a safe place.

            To those who are leaving: I don’t know what lies ahead of you. I cannot tell you whether your way will be rough or smooth. I suspect it will be some of both. I do know this. You will not walk alone. Yahweh, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob will walk beside you. He’ll hold the umbrella over your head! Yahweh will watch over your coming and going both now and forevermore.

            Yahweh’s got your back.