ACross2Carry

Help in Time of Need

1 I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help.
2 My help cometh from the LORD, which made heaven and earth.
3 He will not suffer thy foot to be moved: he that keepeth thee will not slumber.
4 Behold, he that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep.
5 The LORD is thy keeper: the LORD is thy shade upon thy right hand.
6 The sun shall not smite thee by day, nor the moon by night.
7 The LORD shall preserve thee from all evil: he shall preserve thy soul.
8 The LORD shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in from this time forth, and even for evermore.

How many times have I been in trouble with no one to help me? How many hours have I thought and struggled to find and answer or an escape or some small comfort? Far too many, I am afraid. Many times I felt alone in a battle, and never took avail of the help that was so near at hand. For we do have a very present help in times of trouble.

The Psalmist was " looking unto the hills" in hope of help. The hills no doubt sat cool and distant somehow detached and unmoved at his plight. Mountains are great and beautiful things, solemn and peaceful, timeless and strong, but miserable help when we are in distress. I remember growing up in the foothills and mountains of western North Carolina. Often I would take to the woods and the hills and valleys to escape or to just seek new paths I had not yet walked. The deep shadowed hollows and forests were a cool, refreshing place to wander and think the deep, deep thoughts of boyhood. However, sometimes I had troubles and pain, whether emotional or physical, and it was not toward the hills I turned, but toward home. Home offered safety, security and comfort.

The Psalmist looked unto the hills and they stoically looked back, in their unchanging stillness, and he continued on to ask: "From whence cometh my help?" He needed to look beyond the hills in seeking help. In a song I used to hear time to time, the singer would ask: "Is there anybody out there?" I have felt that way. I have felt totally alone.

With great joy I can say with absolute certainty that, "yes, someone is out there", and that Someone is closer than you ever thought. He is there waiting for you to reach out your hand and ask for His help. Verse two says it all: My help comes from the Lord, the maker of heaven and earth. The Psalmist needed to look past the hills to the maker of the hills, and there was help plentiful for whatever he faced. We are never alone. Never forsaken or forgotten. He said He would be with us always, even unto the end of the earth.

First we see that the help comes from someone who has the power to help. The creator who has all power. It would be a sad day to ask for help and have someone who was willing, but unable. Our Lord is both willing and able. He is the Creator of all that is, what problem could we possibly have that would baffle Him or confound His power? Isaiah wrote it this way: "Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is none else"

Next we can know that He can put us in a place so that we can not be moved. A place so safe that not even our foot can slip and put us back in danger. He is holding us tight, and nothing we can do or anyone else can do, can break us free from His grip. He is there always, alert and ready to come to our aid.

Third, He stands guard constantly over our well being. Vs. 5-8 show Him protecting us from every danger.

He saves us from evil here. There are evil men about looking to take advantage or destroy us. The devil walks about as a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour. The world wants us to conform to its immorality and darkness. God protects us from them all, but we have to trust Him and lean on Him, and not our own understanding. Verse 7 promises protection here.
But it goes a long way past the clear and present dangers of this world. It also says that He preserves my soul. Not only here are we protected, but also on that dark day when we slip from this world. He will go with us through the dark valley of death and preserve us through that door into His presence forevermore. While our body dies here on this plane, we can never die if we are in Christ. He will be there and escort us triumphantly into His Father’s presence. There is no death for the saints of God.

We are kept and protected in the Lord Jesus Christ, from this time forth, even forevermore. Amen.