My Help Comes from the Lord

Where do you turn when you need help?

I guess that depends on the kind of help you need, right? Well, today on Truth for Life, Alistair Begg explains why, when circumstances are beyond our control, we can confidently trust in God's promises to us. I was thinking of the prayer by the old Yorkshire farmer, where he would ask God, he would say to God, Keep me kept.

Keep me kept. And it's been with me throughout the day, and then I was thinking about the psalm, and so I decided right around five o'clock, well, what I'll do is I'll just turn us to Psalm 121. We have just sung it, and we will take these closing moments before a final song together to allow the words of this familiar psalm to be, if you like, our benediction on the day and our direction for the week that lies ahead.

So I read them in your hearing. The psalmist says, 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. One of the questions in these psalms of ascent that is unanswered, and particularly in Psalm 121, is not where is the psalmist looking, because he tells us where he's looking, but in what direction is he looking? Since they're called the psalms of ascent and since you always make your way up to Jerusalem, the aliyah in the Hebrew language, it is customary for us to think that the psalmist is now writing as one of the pilgrim group that would be going up in order that they might celebrate in the temple in Jerusalem. And that may well be the case. But it's interesting that verse 8 ends, you're going out and you're coming in.

No, you're coming in and you're going out. And there is at least a possibility that the picture is of a returning pilgrim that he has behind him the temple and all that is representative security there. And as he looks out on the hills and anticipates his departure, he lifts up his eyes to the hills, and he asks the question, Where does my help come from? Now, it may well be that the reason that he asks, Where does my help come from? is because he looks to the hills as simply a place of a blessing. But it also may be that he says, I lift my eyes to the hills, and I say, Where does my help come from? because the hills may not actually be for him a place of protection but a place of menace. A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho and fell among thieves that stripped him of his raiment and departed, leaving him half dead. Now, that's the journey.

That's the place. So whether it is in anticipation of security, whether it is in the prospect of menace, he is looking in that direction. I lift up my eyes to the hills. And then he asks the question, of course, Where does my help come from? It's a wonderful question. It's a routine question. It's a question that I ask myself with frequency. It may be a question that you've been asking yourself, particularly in this last week.

I don't know the circumstances of your life. All of us are in need of help. All of us are in need of more help than we often realize that we are.

Would you be honest enough to say that often, particularly when the wind is against us, that we're tempted to look for help in the wrong place and to try and find the answer in someone or in something that is unable to suffice? He answers, of course, his own question in verse 2, which is good, because then we're not left to wonder, Where does my help come from? He says, My help comes from the Lord. My help comes from the Lord. And then he adds, Who made heaven and earth. And so, in other words, he's saying, My help comes… If the hills represent longevity, if the hills actually represent lasting significance, I actually have my help founded and grounded in the one who made the hills. Before the hills and orders stood, or ereth received its frame, from everlasting, thou art God, to endless years, the same. My help comes from the Lord, who created everything. Who created everything.

So is there an area in which I am particularly in need of help? There is nothing that is beyond the bound of his scope, of his understanding, of his omniscience, of his omnipresence, of his capability. He is an able God.

He is the God in Ephesians 4, a three who is able to do exceedingly abundantly beyond all we can ask and ever imagine. It would be wonderful tonight to be able to have Mahalia Jackson finish off our service just in light of this. I have a couple of songs that I'd love to hear her sing, and if I had her here tonight, then I would say, sing the one that begins, Who made the mountains? Who made the trees? Who made the rivers that run to the seas? Who put the moon in the starry sky, somebody bigger than you or I?

Have you ever heard her sing it? Puts the chills up your back. He lights the way when the road is long. He keeps me company, with God to guide me. He walks beside me, just as he'll walk with you. We're here tonight, and you're actually saying with a psalmist, goodness gracious, where am I gonna get my help from now? Well, say with a psalmist, my help comes from the Lord, he made heaven and earth. Now, interestingly, between verse 2 and verse 3, there's a shift.

You'll see that. I lift my eyes to the hill, my help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth. Now look at this.

He will not let your foot be moved. So now he's moved from the first person to the second person. Question. To whom is he talking? We don't know. It may be that the way in which this psalm would have been sung is a bit along the lines of having a presenter, so that he as the presenter would sing verses 1 and 2, I lift my eyes to the hills, where does my help come from?

And then he would sing out to his congregation in this way. It's possible. I wonder if he's not just talking to himself. Do you talk to yourself? If you talk to yourself, make sure you talk sense to yourself. It's okay to talk to ourselves if we talk sense to ourselves.

It's very unhelpful if we talk nonsense to ourselves. But I like the thought that the psalmist now is talking to himself. I've lifted my eyes to the hills, where does my help come from?

My help comes from the Lord. And he says, Now let me just have a talk with myself. He won't let your foot be moved.

He won't let your foot be moved. He who keeps you will not slumber. The keeper of Israel, of all of the people of God, will neither slumber nor sleep.

Well, of course, if you remember the conflict on Mount Carmel between the prophets of Baal and Elijah and the living God—you remember one of the taunts of Elijah to the prophets of Baal as they worked themselves up into a terrible stew, because there was no response from the Baal to whom they made their appeal. And Elijah says to them in the context of other things, he says, Hey, perhaps he's asleep. Perhaps you need to go and waken him up. Because he's nothing.

He's no one. He can't hear. He can't see. He can't know. He can't do. He can't help. But he says to himself, Now my help comes from the Lord.

He created the heavens and the earth. He won't let my foot be moved. He's always available to me. It's not simply that he's saying the equivalent of, you know, he never turns his phone off at night. Or he has a kind of adult version of a baby monitor, such as when you have your children or your grandchildren staying over with you. You're allowed to go to sleep in the hope that the baby monitor will work. That's understandable.

But it's far more significant than that. He never sleeps. He never dozes off.

He never slumbers. He may be called upon any time, in any place, in any circumstance. He is the one who not only hears but keeps. In fact, that verb, to keep, comes in verse 3, verse 4, verse 7, verse 8. Repetition is important in the Bible. And the reason that Psalmist repeats it here is so that we might understand.

And that's why I've had that thought in my mind. Keep me kept. He keeps you, verse 3. He keeps Israel, verse 4. He's your keeper, verse 5. The Lord will keep you, verse 7.

He'll keep your going out and your coming in. It seems to be saying that you'll never even trip. I wonder, can it really mean that? And what about this? The sun will not strike you by day nor the moon by night. Kidner is very helpful in his tiny little commentary, but he says, you know, what you have here in verse 6 are a pair of opposites to include everything in between.

That's very helpful. You won't die of sunstroke nor will you become a loony and be moonstruck. I think there may be something in that, actually.

The lunar cycles and psychology—although it is sort of populist notions, there is a reason why the word lunatic is in the dictionary. God, he says, the one who watches over me, he keeps me—body, mind, soul, spirit. In fact, in verses 7 and 8, he is describing the totality of our human existence. He'll keep you from all evil. He'll keep your life. He'll keep your going out, your coming in.

But how are we to understand this? How are we to understand he won't let your foot be moved? What about the slough of despond from this morning? Wasn't Pilgrim's Foot moved? Didn't he slip into the slough? Didn't he get covered in mud? Yes, he did. So what happened? Was he doing some bad sins?

No, you would have to be one of Job's counselors to bring that as the conclusion, wouldn't you? No, he was heading to the heavenly city. Slid in there. On another occasion, he looked over the fence, and he said, This meadow over here is so beautiful, so wonderful. I think we ought to go over the wall and into that meadow. And over the wall and into the meadow he went.

It's called Bipath meadow in Pilgrim's Progress, and it is in that context that he runs into Apollyon, who is the picture of the devil, and wrestles big time with Apollyon. So what do we mean, he will not let your foot be moved? What does it mean, he will keep you from all evil? It seems to be saying almost that nothing bad will ever happen to you. But it can't mean that. Because lots of bad things do happen to us. We've all lived long enough to know that there is no exemption from the rigors of life.

Our loved ones die, we get sick, businesses go kaput, children disappoint us, we disappoint one another. So when you read something like this that seems to be so categorical, and you say to yourself, How does this work? You know what to do, don't you? Stand further back from the picture. Stand further back. Take what the Bible says in the context of all that the Bible reveals.

You can do this on your own. Let me just get you started. Say to yourself, How would Joseph sing Psalm 121? In the pit he will not let your foot be moved.

How's this working? Stripped naked and sold as a slave, he will keep you from all evil. Sold into the home of Potiphar?

Despised by his family? You see, what's the answer? Well, the answer, of course, is provided by Joseph himself when he greets his brothers at the end, and he says, You know, you intended all this stuff for evil, but God intended it for good. So that in the economy of God, even the evil, even the bad, even the difficult, and even the disappointment is actually employed by God. So that from the vantage point of eternity—and it will, in many cases, take eternity to grant resolution to this for many of us—that we will all take questions into eternity.

If you found somebody who won't have them come and talk to me, I have to meet them. We will inevitably take questions into eternity. But from the vantage point of eternity, it will be apparent that God employs evil deeds and intentions to defeat evil itself. And if there is nowhere else to go to resolve it, then simply go to the cross of Jesus Christ.

And there you have it. In Psalm 23, the anticipation is of the shadow of the valley. You expect the shadow of the valley, but you expect to be able to face the valley. In the Gospel of Luke, when Jesus is speaking to his followers, and he is assuring them of the minutest care of God for them, he says to them, Even the very hairs of your head are numbered.

Go look at the context. And where does he say that? He says it right on the heels of the fact that if you become my follower, you will be persecuted and a number of you will be martyred. But remember this! The hairs of your head are numbered. Are you kidding me? I thought if the hairs of my head were numbered, I'll never be persecuted and I'll never be martyred.

No, you don't get it. He won't let your food slip. He will not let your soul be lost.

He knows what he's doing. That's why Luther, in that grade him, you know, is able to say, But though they take my life, goods, honor, children, wife, yet is their profit small. Why is it small? Because Luther says, All I have is Christ. You see, where this goes south for us is if we have not come to the point where all we ultimately have is Christ. You see, if my security, my confidence, is in my wealth—I put it that way, not that there's much wealth—but if it's in my wealth or if it's in my health or if it's in my wife, then if you take my wife, my wealth, or my health, it's a disaster.

It has to be. But if my security is in Christ, then though they take my wife, goods, children, life, then is their profit small. Why? Because my help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth. Because it's in that context that we understand that everything that is really real will actually last forever.

I said I would stop, and I will stop. But I've been thinking about, you know, Jesus as singing this psalm. I'm thinking about… Because we have the record of him in the Garden of Gethsemane. And if you've been in the Garden of Gethsemane, you know that there are certain vantage points there where it would be possible to do as the psalmist does here and say, I lift my eyes to the hills. Now, we know part of the conversation between Christ and the Father.

Father, if there's any way that I can do something other than this program right now, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me. And then you find him pondering and saying, I to the hills will lift mine eyes. Where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord. Perhaps singing Psalm 16, I have set the LORD always before me. Because he's at my right hand, I shall not be shaken. Therefore my heart is glad, and my whole being rejoices, and my flesh also dwells secure. For you will not abandon my soul to Sheol, or let your holy ones see corruption. There's nobody can really pray that as Christ prayed it. You won't abandon me, Father. You won't let me see corruption.

Why? You made known to me the path of life. In your presence there is fullness of joy, and at your right hand there are pleasures forevermore.

Now, that's not conjecture on my part. Certainly in relationship sipped to Psalm 16, I have it on good authority, because if you go to Acts chapter 2, Peter there, on the day of Pentecost, says that it is in the lips of Jesus that we have Psalm 16. Because he says of Jesus, it was not possible for death to hold him.

It wasn't possible for death to hold him. He says, quoting Psalm 16, he says, quoting Jesus, you've shown me the path of life. In your presence there's fullness of joy, at your right hand there are pleasures forevermore. And so Jesus is saying, I'm coming home to you, Father, and I'm bringing a whole ton of brothers and sisters with me. Because God has already said to him, Ask of me, and I will give you the nations as your inheritance.

Here I am, he says, Father, and the ones that you have given me. All of them have been kept. Not one of them has been lost. There are no empty seats.

There are no no-shows. Because I live, they live. Because death cannot hold me, it cannot hold them. Because you have held me fast, they remain in my grasp.

Why? Because God is faithful to the promises of his Word and his promises both of the execution of his justice and the assurance of his love are expressed finally and savingly in Jesus, who like the Highland Presbyterians had only one hymnbook with a hundred and fifty songs in it called the Psalms of David. And surely Jesus knew all the psalms of by heart. Jesus probably knew the whole Old Testament of by heart. So when we read it, as Mattia reminds us, read it as a whole Bible.

And when you say, My help comes from the Lord, you find its focus savingly and ultimately in Jesus. To start 2022 with us, the New Year is always a good time to establish or to recommit to good habits, habits that will draw us closer to God. On our website, we offer a number of resources to help you get started. We have books and devotionals, Bibles, much more than that. You'll even find a daily Bible reading plan you can download that will help you work your way through both the Old and New Testament by the end of the year.

Find out more when you visit truthforlife.org. At Truth for Life, we like to recommend materials that will point you to God and to his word. And we've found a great book to help you kick off 2022 that will do just that. The book is titled The All-Sufficient God. The book is written by Martin Lloyd-Jones. He's well known for mining scripture for all of the truth it contains. In this book, Lloyd-Jones will walk you through chapter 40 from the book of Isaiah. Each of the nine chapters in this book contains material originally preached by Lloyd-Jones as a sermon. His passage for the scripture marked his ministry. In fact, he was known for unpacking God's word verse by verse. And in this book, he consistently points to the gospel and to God's glory and wisdom.

Find out more about the book The All-Sufficient God when you visit our website at truthforlife.org. Now, here is Alistair to close with prayer. We thank you, Father, that your Word we can never exhaust.

We thank you that we can go to it again and again. We want to affirm tonight, as we end this day together, your faithfulness to us, your kindness and your grace. And we pray that as we prepare to part from one another, we may do so with joyful hearts. If we have heartaches and concerns, let's turn around and share them with someone before we go, and to discover again that a burden shared is a burden haft. If we're full of joy and rejoicing, let's share that too. For a joy shared is surely a joy doubled. We rest in your faithfulness throughout all these generations, and we pray in Jesus' name. Amen. I'm Bob Lapine. Thanks for listening. When you're in a crowd, do you prefer to blend in or to stand out? Next weekend, we'll find out why Christians are supposed to be noticeably different from the surrounding culture. The Bible teaching of Alistair Begg is furnished by Truth for Life, where the Learning is for Living.