Psa 121:1-8
This is a beautiful psalm of ascents/上行之诗. What is a psalm of ascents? Songs the Israelites sing when they go on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. They have to appear thrice before the Lord to worship Him. Why is it an ascent though? Jerusalem is on a high elevation. On their journey, they’d pass the Dead Sea which is 400m below sea level. Jerusalem on Mount Zion is 700m above sea level. Imagine ascending from the lowest elevation on earth to a higher elevation.

When we see a mountain from afar, recall the feeling we had before ascending it. Mountains give us the feeling of majesty. Reflect on your own experience coming to church in Adam since it’s on a slope lol.

The psalmist asks, “Where does my help come from?” And he gives an answer. He also expresses the absolute faith he has on the Lord. We naturally ask questions and answer those questions ourselves. “What do I do?” “Should I ask for his/her help?” Man seeks help when he faces troubles. This is the great difference between someone who knows God and someone who doesn’t. Because of our faith, we know we have to seek help from God the Creator. But if we don’t have faith in God, nothing can give us a guarantee.

The speaker isn’t sure if we observe people asking themselves questions while on public transport; that have no solutions to their problems. Because they’re unable to find their way out, they become mentally distressed.

But the psalmist and those who have God won’t have that. Because our help comes from the Maker of the heavens and the earth. Are we seeking the true God as our helper?

v1 “I will lift up my eyes to the hills”
Seems hard to understand. Are we trying to rely on the hills for help? Are we trying to hide in the hills? When we study psalms, we also need to know the geography of Israel. Israel/Palestinian region is surrounded by mountain ranges - Mount Zion, Mount Gerezim, Mount Ebal, Mount Horeb, etc. With this geographical background, we understand better what the psalmist means. When surrounded by mountain ranges, we can’t see the way ahead. The people of Israel couldn’t see the way ahead and were surrounded by enemies.

Psa 11:1
A psalm of David that reflects his trust in God. He enemies told him to flee as a bird to the mountain. But David’s response was, “In the Lord I put my trust! Why tell me to flee to the mountain?” Mountains are a source of strength to rely on to people. But God was the source of strength to rely on to David.

Mountains can also be a threat, even though escaping to the mountains seems to be a good hiding idea. Mountains aren’t the true source of reliance for Man. Many robbers reside in the mountains! While you may be able to hide from people, it can also be the case nobody is able to find you if you are killed. Up to now, people go missing in the mountains.

There’s a Chinese saying that says “you are my mountain” which means that person is your reliance. But we shouldn’t place our reliance on a person.

Psa 121:1
“I will lift UP my eyes to the hills”
This means to look ABOVE the hills, to the sky, to the universe, to the one that created this universe. We often hope to draw help from visible things. We ask where the Kingdom of God is; Jesus answered it is within our hearts. If we rely on God in our hearts, our environment won’t affect our faith. Difficulties and troubles won’t cause our faith to fall. Through the visible creation of God, our eyes should be able to behold the Creator of the universe. Through the things created, we know there is the presence of the Creator. But do we look toward the invisible God or the visible creation?

It’s easy to say we should look toward the invisible God for help. But when trouble really comes, what will we end up doing?

1 Kings 19:8
Elijah was a prophet who prepared himself for 3 years; he was God’s chosen worker to go against King Ahab and his wife Jezebel. He was to turn the people of Israel back to God. Elijah wasn’t a man of little faith; he was one of the two who ascended to heaven (you could count Jesus as the third).

When fighting the duel against the false prophets, Elijah looked towards the God of heavens and earth for help. He was alone in facing all the false prophets and was not afraid. He built an altar and God answered his prayer to send fire down, and then rain later. He’s a prophet who can summon rain and fire from heaven. He looked to God for help.

But then in 1 Kings 19 we read how Elijah was so weak he hid himself in a cave. The fire didn’t turn Israel back. What was worse was that Jezebel also pursued his life. What was the choice of Elijah then? He didn’t continue relying on the Maker of Heaven and Earth then. We can see his clear disappointment over what had happened. He was very afraid of the situation he was in, that’s why he fled for his life.

He asked God to take away his life instead of helping him! Why did the prophet of God seek for death instead of help from God instead? When Man’s expectations aren’t met, we become disappointed.

When our hopes our met, we agree our help comes from the heavens. But when our hopes aren’t met, will we be like Elijah who sought death? Whose eyes only saw the troubles instead of God? His source of reliance had vanished.

1 Kings 19:11-12
God wasn’t in the earthquake, the wind or the fire. But after the fire, there was a still, small voice. God doesn’t need to speak to us through majestic happenings.

Sometimes the confusion and troubles we face overwhelm our hearts. That’s why God spoke in a still, small voice. Rely on the Lord to live in our hearts. The hope of the psalmist that God would help him came from within.

Heb 11:1-2
Relying on God depends on whether we have absolute trust in Him from our hearts. It’s not just ‘comforting ourselves’ or a hallucination, but experiencing God’s continual protection really gives us true hope.

By faith, we will be able to press on to the end. We have a cloud of witnesses that surrounds all of us. What surrounds us aren’t the mountains. What surrounds us aren’t all our problems and difficulties. What surrounds us are the manifold witnesses. This is an important concept. In adverse situation, continue believing God will help us, right to the time His promises are fulfilled. Just like when a child puts his trust in his parents. As long as his parent is beside him, the child won’t fear.

The psalmist has absolute faith that his help comes from God.

We will face with challenges in our faith - attacks from the devil and training God wants us to go though. God says He is like an eagle who takes care of us in the nest. But He also says He stirs up this nest. When the mother eagle knows the eaglets are strong enough to fly, she will begin to train them. The eaglets may not be willing to train because they’re leading such a comfortable life having food brought to them. So the eagle uses strong winds to stir up the nest so the eaglets have no choice but to jump from the nest/fall from the nest. While falling, the eaglet is forced to use its wings. Even if the eaglet can’t fly, the mother eagle will catch it and put it safely back in the nest to try again. Without this process, how will the eaglet learn how to fly? How can it reach the high mountains without this training?

Let us likewise trust in God when He tests/trains His people. Some succeed and become people of God with good faith. What we should watch out for are people who rely on God but not 100%. The people of Israel relied on idols and men more than God. Therefore the psalmist tells us we have to rely on the Lord who is the maker of the heavens and the earth, because that’s where our help comes from.

The speaker brought some members to see a cave in Northern Thailand. (Recall the group of soccer boys who got stranded in a cave because they sought it for refuge?) In the cave the speaker and members went to visit, they observed that there were idols inside.

When the speaker was a resident preacher in Thailand, the members said, “Preacher I’m not bluffing you! I saw a disembodied flying head!!” He answered, “I believe you. It’s the work of Satan to entice men to worship him.”

It doesn’t just happen in Thailand. In Taiwan, people worship the mountain too.

The Old Testament scripture gives us better understanding of this. When the enemies of Israel were losing, they reckoned the God of Israel was one of the hills. So they thought they’d win if they fought in the plains instead.

The religious practice of the land of Canaan deeply affected the people of Israel as well. Will the religious concepts and practices of the world affect us today?

Where does our help come from? From the Creator of this world or the worldly concepts?

These things continue to happen in the Roman Catholic Church. Because of that, their members wear bigger and higher crucifixes. They lift up their cross and say that’s their help.

But we rely on Jesus Christ who hung from the cross. Wearing a cross doesn’t mean relying on God. It’s having faith towards God and putting on Christ that guarantees our help coming from the Maker of the heavens and earth. Grab hold of the promise of God and put our trust in Him.