I lift my
eyes to the hills--from where will my help come?
Stop right
there.
You get a
picture in your mind?
Stranded
in the valley, enemies surrounding you. You wonder, will the calvary arrive?
Will soldiers come rushing over the hills to rescue me?
Where will my help
come from?
Not the
hills, the psalmist says. Not the hills. My help comes from the maker of the
hills!
Again, we
continue our Lenten journey toward Jerusalem, Christ’s last supper with his
disciples, that final prayer in the garden, the agony of the beatings, and
death on a cross. And on this journey, we continue to call up our feelings,
using the ancient Psalms to help us, and some of the great hymns of our faith
as well.
Last week,
I suggested that every human being is equipped with five basic emotions, five
feelings that every one of us, as a two year old, could identify and
communicate. I even used two year old words to help us remember them. They all
rhyme, except for one...mad, glad, bad, sad, and scared.
You’ll
remember I also discussed with you how adults learn how to suppress these
feelings, until it becomes difficult if not downright impossible to identify
these feelings. We stuff them until we don’t know for sure what we are
feeling, let alone, how to let someone else know it. That’s where the Psalms
help us. The Psalms are full of feelings. Read a smattering of these short
songs, poems, liturgies of the people of God and you will find anger, sorrow,
bliss and rejoicing, shame, and fear. In other words, mad, sad, glad, bad and
scared.
Today, we
look at one of the great Psalms that is so familiar to many believers today.
The 121st. Some of us learned it in the lyrical King James English
“I will lift mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help? My help
cometh from the Lord…”
And many
of us learned that the words of this great Psalm provided comfort in times
when we were afraid. Isn’t that when we recognize our need for help? When we
finally discover that we are not going to be able to get through all by
ourselves? When we realize we are in over our heads? When we feel assailed and
assaulted?
This psalm
is for those who are first of all, in need of help! To know this need,
is to know fear.
But to be
an adult is to be self-sufficient. Isn’t that what we’re conditioned to
believe? To be an adult is to no longer be afraid. To no longer need help. The
truth is, God did not create us to be alone and self-sufficient. No. We are
created with the need for others, that we are sufficient in the midst of
community, with God’s help and providence.
And when
we suppress fear, when we stuff feelings of fear down deep and do not let them
rise to the surface, we can delude ourselves into believing that we do not
need help. That needing help is a weakness.
But of
course we do…(need help that is.) From time to time. To calm our fears. To
give us strength. To restore hope. To keep us…keep us…safe and secure
from all alarms.
The word
keep occurs no fewer than 6 times in this small, 8 line psalm.
…he who keeps
you will not slumber.
He who keeps
Israel…
The LORD is your
keeper;
The LORD will keep you from all evil; he will keep your life.
The LORD will keep your going out and your coming in…
Six times: “the Lord
will keep you.” Keep us.
Is there
an image that comes to mind for you when you hear those words? Is there a
story? A time God kept you when your fears arose?
In 1993
there was a terrible flood of the Saline River and Smoky Hill River, and the
two tiny towns I served as a student Pastor were submerged. Literally, the
entire towns. Of the 100 or so homes and structures located in Tescott, all
but a handful had water in them. Murky, brown, smelly river water.
The town
was evacuated until the water receded. Until it did, we held church in the
Senior Citizen’s housing complex, on the north side of the highway, out of the
water. Two Sundays we met and worshiped, prayed and dispensed cleaning kits
and information on relief efforts.
Then, we
were able to return to church. The church building itself had been built high
enough to stay out of the water, but the grounds and homes surrounding it had
all been flooded.
The small
congregation gathered in the Sanctuary, and we began our opening hymn.
“O God our help in
ages past, our hope for years to come. Our shelter from the stormy blast and
our eternal home. Before the hills in order stood or earth received her
frame; from everlasting thou art God to endless years the same.”
There
wasn’t a dry eye in the congregation. Indeed, this tiny town had known floods
before. In the bank and in the post office there were marks notched to show
the water levels of the flood of 51, and the flood of 73. Now the flood of
93, higher than either of those two. Old timers remembered how the town
pulled together to recover from those earlier floods. And as we sang…the
church remembered too…as frightening as this flood was, as weary as the people
were, they remembered…God had provided for them before, and would no doubt do
so again. We were in God’s keeping. And that is enough to make tears flow.
The hymn
that helped release these feelings of thankfulness and hope was written By
Isaac Watts, one of the most prolific English hymn writers of the 18th
century. Many of his hymns are beautiful renditions of the ancient Psalms,
each one serving to capture the heart-felt emotion of the text.
Often,
there is something in the story of a person that I think shapes their
artistry.
Isaac Watts was
theologically trained and served as an assistant and then pastor to an
Independent congregation in London. However, he was stricken by an ongoing
fever which never left him, and from which he never recovered, which forced
him to leave the pastorate. Unable to work, he relied on a wealthy benefactor
who provided for him for the remaining 36 years of his life. His voice was
thin, and his recurring psychiatric illness (at times incapacitating him) was
common knowledge. God used Watts' sufferings to produce a gentle, modest, and
charitable spirit. Out of his compassion, one-third of the small allowance he
received from his benefactor was in turn given to the poor. Not a tenth. A
third.
No wonder
he could write so eloquently of God’s providence, and help.
Apparently Isaac
Watts was not much to look at, either. Frail and often sickly, his head
seemed too large for his five foot tall body. He was described as having
small, piercing eyes and hooked nose. A lady once fell in love with Isaac
by reading his poetry and she began corresponding with him. When she met
his face to face, however, she was very disillusioned, though he fell in love
with her. Issac asked her to marry him, but her reply was, "Mr. Watts, I only
wish I could admire the jewelry box as much as I admire the jewel."
He
remained friends with the woman for 30 years. He loving her, she loving the
expression of his beautiful poetry.
Imagine
Isaac Watts, tiny, frail, suffering from a broken body and broken heart. Now
hear again his marvelous testimony:
“A
thousand ages in thy sight are like an evening gone; short as the watch that
ends the night, before the rising sun. Time like an ever rolling stream bears
all who breathe away; they fly forgotten as a dream dies at the opening day.
O God our help in ages past our hope for years to come; be thou our guide
while life shall last and our eternal home.”
Last week, I shared
words from a modern poet, who has translated anew those ancient Psalms in such
a way the emotion and the majesty of them is not only preserved, but perhaps
highlighted for a new generation. The 121st Psalm from “The
Message” by Eugene Peterson. Here, God is not a keeper, but a guardian. Not
one who keeps, but one who guards us against all that might rise up against
us. Listen:
“I look up to the
mountains; does my strength come from mountains?
No, my strength comes from GOD, who made
heaven, and earth, and mountains.
He won't let you stumble, your Guardian God
won't fall sleep.
Not on your life! Israel's Guardian will
never doze or sleep.
GOD's your Guardian, right at your side to
protect you--
Shielding you from sunstroke, sheltering you
from moon stroke.
GOD guards you from every evil, he guards your
very life.
He guards you when you leave and when you
return, he guards you now, he guards you always.”
May God, our keeper and our
guardian, guard us now, guard us always. Thanks be to God.
