Psalm 121: Help for the Journey

The Journey
Help for the Journey
Psalm 121

Introduction: I remember the first LOTR movie where Frodo and Sam are leaving the Shire. Sam stops and remarks that if he takes one more step he will have traveled farther from home than he ever had. Their journey began easily but they quickly discovered hazards on the journey.

One thing we know about traveling, it has a number of hazards no matter what means of travel you use. As a result we take precautions. Over the past several years cell phones have changed the way we look at hazards. One study has shown it gives people a false sense of confidence and they take chances they wouldn’t otherwise take. They think help is only a phone call away.
The psalmist did not have a cell phone, AAA, or any of the things that protect and aid us when we travel. I suppose this is part of the reason so few people traveled very far from home.

I. Hazards on the Journey
The journey to Jerusalem was not easy and the psalmist mentions three different hazards in the psalm. The first is having the foot to slip. In flat Michigan having your foot slip is not too dangerous, you might turn an ankle or break something but it is not likely to kill you. Not so on a trip to Jerusalem. A trip to Jerusalem was steep and could be treacherous. A slip of the foot could lead to serious injury or death.

The sun and the moon were seen as hazards. The sun is an obvious danger in a hot climate like Palestine. We learned very quickly in Kenya to be cautious of the sun and its intense rays. Heat stroke and sunstroke were always a danger. The moonlight would not seem to be such a danger but in ancient times it was felt that moonlight could induce mental illness. Nighttime had its own hazards with attack from human and animals.

The problem with hazards such as these is that they were very discouraging and could cause a person to turn back. Fear of the dangers or even the potential dangers could paralyze a person. It takes real persistence to push on in the face of such obstacles.

Of course we are not talking about an actual physical journey as we consider these psalms. Instead we are looking at a spiritual journey, possibly even an inward journey as we open our hearts up to God. Stumbling on our spiritual journey is a real danger. There are many things that can cause us to stumble and it can be different for each person. Events that come into our lives can cause us to stumble. The loss of a parent, a child, or a job is traumatic and often so unexpected. We are walking along and suddenly we are tumbling in free fall and the ground comes up fast and hard. Sometimes the biggest stumbling blocks are people we love and depend on. Suddenly they let us down or even betray us in some fashion and we find ourselves lying in the dirt wondering if we can get up or if we even want to get up and try again.

It is not just the sudden and unexpected that makes the journey hard. The constant pressure of life, the day after day grind can be like the fierce sun that bakes us, dries us out, and saps us of the will to go on.

We might think the night would be better. We are so use to electricity and public lighting that often in our society we forget there is a ‘night’. But take those things away and even with a bright moon the dark presses in, the slightest sound paralyzes us with fear. The night can be dark and lonely. The journey is hard; the hazards are great; maybe we should just stay home.

II. Where Does Our Help Come From?
The psalmist looked up at the hills. Now, to us hills are hills but that was not so during much of the Old Testament. The hills were places of idols and places pagan ceremonies took place. Hills were places where the sun and moon were worshipped. The pagan god Baal was worshipped on the hills. Lots of people looked to the hills for their help. Of course to get the help in the hills you had to leave the path and go up to the worship place. In other words it distracted the traveler from the destination. It confused them and made it difficult to find the way again.

Of course we don’t look to the hills for help but that doesn’t mean we don’t look for help in places where such help is faulty at best. Our hills are named Oprah or Dr. Phil. People may look to the latest real estate infomercial and the promised financial security. Israel was a land of many hills but only one Mt. Zion. “I lift up my eyes to the hills-where does my help come from?”

Our help is not in the creation but “the Maker of heaven and earth,” our help is from the Lord. There is a Hebrew word used six times in this short psalm that is translated ‘watch’ or one time ‘keep’. All of these refer to the Lord who watches over us and will keep us from harm. The Lord doesn’t sleep in drunken slumber like the pagan gods.

It might be easy to read this psalm and think, “If I’m really in the way I won’t stumble, suffer from the sun, or be afraid in the dark.” Sometimes when people become Christians, when they start the journey, they believe they will never have doubts or problems. Anyone who has traveled the road more than a few days realizes this is not the case.

The promise of God is not a life free from pain and suffering on the journey but that he will always be with us, that nothing can separate us from his love and providence. So often our reaction to the problems we face is, “God has abandoned me.” It is easy to conclude that God has given up on us when we consider how badly we have stumbled on the road. Instead the psalmist pictures God as one who is with us in the way. When we sleep, he doesn’t. When we stumble, he enables us to stand and continue. When the sun becomes too much for us, his presence gives us shade and refreshment. God is not just the God of Mt. Zion, a god who stays in his temple. He is the God who “will watch over your life,” night and day and provide what we need to complete the journey. Paul put it plainly in Romans 8:35-39, “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written:
‘For your sake we face death all day long;
we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.’
No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Livonia Church of Christ: April 2, 2006