Unto the Hills

Dr. James Boice: As the ancient pilgrims crested a ridge in the desert, they saw Jerusalem in its glory, and they lifted their eyes unto it. It was a city of worship, a city of refuge, but it was not the city that compelled their journey, nor its hills that they worshipped.
Dr. James Boice: Welcome to The Bible Study Hour, a radio and internet broadcast with Dr. James Boice, preparing you to think and act biblically. The people went up to Jerusalem to worship their God, and they sang a song as their eyes beheld the city. That song still comforts and encourages travelers and refugees today. Join Dr. Boice as he describes the peace the 121st Psalm has brought to many, as well as the faithfulness of the Lord to whom we can truly lift up our eyes. Almost everybody has scenes from his or her childhood that are remembered gratefully, even if it has happened, that the person involved doesn't come from a particularly happy home. My home was a good one, and one of the great scenes I have and remember thankfully are the times my mother would gather the children together before one of us left home for school or some other calling or work, or before the family would leave to go on a vacation, and have us read together the 121st Psalm. He will not let your foot slip. He who watches over you will not slumber. The Lord will keep you from all harm. He will watch over your life. The Lord will watch over your coming and going, both now and forevermore. I can close my eyes today and see our family seated around in a circle as we read that Psalm together and then prayed before one or another of us started out. Because many of those comings and goings were my own. I went off to school in eighth grade and came back and forth over all the years, never was home for a great deal of time after that. This Psalm has in a certain sense become my travel Psalm. Now, it's not only in our family that this Psalm was appreciated, it has been true for other Christians as well. David Livingston, the great missionary to Africa, in the days when it was dark and dangerous, before he started out on what became a lifetime of missionary endeavor and exploration, sat down with his father and sister, and together they read this Psalm and Psalm 135, which praises God for his sovereign rule over all things. Very appropriate choice of Psalms of praise to God who was able to keep him, even all the danger that lay ahead. His mother-in-law was a woman named Mrs. Moffitt, and she wrote to him on more than one occasion that Psalm 121 was often in her mind as she was thinking about him and praying for him. Let me give you a couple more examples. There's a man named J.S. Watson. He was a rear admiral in the United States Navy, and he was the successor to Admiral Dewey, who commanded the U.S. fleet in the Philippines. He wrote in his diary, my favorite chapter in the Bible is the Traveler's Psalm, Psalm 121. The seventh and eighth verses especially mean more to me than any other. It's where the Psalm speaks of God keeping you from all harm and watching over your life. There's another Englishman, his name is William Edwards. He was a magistrate in England at the time of the Indian Mutiny in 1857 and wrote about his experiences in that. He was hiding out for months, he barely escaped with his life and the lives of his family. And he wrote at one point, just reflecting on what was going on. Nothing new has been settled about our plans, we're much harassed. Heavy guns were firing at Turkabad today. We know not for what cause, but they reminded us painfully of our fearful proximity to that place where so many are thirsting for our lives. Amidst it all, the Psalms are most consoling and wonderfully suited to our cause, especially Psalm 121. I will lift up my eyes unto the hills from whence cometh our help. Well, those are only a few instances of what I am sure must be many thousands of experiences and life situations in which God's people have turned to this Psalm in the midst of danger and have found a great deal of comfort and consolation. Now, this is the second of the Pilgrim Psalms. These Psalms of Ascent that began with Psalm 120, that apparently the pilgrims who were making their way up to the city of Jerusalem for one of the three annual feasts sang as they were on their route. Now with that in mind, it's not hard to enter into the experience of such a pilgrim. We can imagine how he might have been coming from a distant place. Remember that in those days they didn't have roads as we know them, and they didn't have any real helpful means of transportation at the best, an animal that they might have been able to ride. The roads were simply trails, often well-trodden, sometimes wide, but nevertheless dusty, unpaved that made their way along the banks of rivers and across plains and up over the passes of the hills. And here's a pilgrim who has been making his way for many days, he's tired, his feet are hurting, and then suddenly as he passes over a ridge, he sees the city of Jerusalem off in the distance and he immediately breaks into song. I lift up my eyes to the hills. Where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord who made heaven and earth. Some of the commentators on this Psalm suggest that this may have been the traditional evening song for the last encampment before the band of pilgrims arrived in Jerusalem itself the next day. They point out, and I suppose with some justice, that the very next Psalm, Psalm 122, actually speaks of standing within the walls of the city of Jerusalem. So there's a kind of progression there, but it's all speculation. Other scholars suggest that this Psalm was something that had been composed in Babylon for the Jews in exile, in the great vast plains of the Tigris and Euphrates Valley, thinking of the hill country of their homeland, but that's speculation too. The only thing that really isn't speculation is the spirit of marvelous, tranquil peace and trust in God that this Psalm breathes from beginning to end. It's what makes it such a strong discipleship song for pilgrims of all ages and at all times. Now, there's a progression here. In the first of these songs, that is Psalm 120, the disciple is starting out from a foreign land, refers to it as Meshech and Kedar, two symbols for the unbelieving world. Now, in this Psalm, we find him turning his eyes away from his pagan environment to God in whom he trusts. Charles Haddon Spurgeon, that great preacher and evangelist of the 19th century, wrote that Psalm 121 is several steps in advance of its predecessor, for it tells of the peace of God's house and the guardian care of the Lord, while Psalm 120 bemoans the departure of peace from the good man's abode. In the first instance, his eyes looked around him with anguish, but here they look up with hope. Now, the theme of the Psalm is protection, that which is provided by God. In the Hebrew text, there's only one word that is used for various translations that we have expressing that idea of protection. We have the words, watches over, he preserves, he keeps, but in the Hebrew language, it's only one word. The word is 'shamar', and it's used six times. So you find it twice in the second stanza in verse 3, you find it once in the third stanza in verse 5, and then three times in stanza 4. Once where it's translated keep, and twice where it's translated watch over. That is in verses 7 and 8. But it's saying the same thing over and over again. It's saying the Lord watches over and keeps us. The Lord watches over and keeps us. The Lord watches over and keeps us. One other question we ought to deal with briefly as we start, and that is who are the speakers in the Psalm. You notice that there's a change from 'I' and 'my', that is the first person in verses 1 and 2, to 'you' and 'your' in the remaining verses, verses 3 to 8. Now, writers differed on that. Some of them suggest that what we have here is a cultic Psalm. A question is asked by the priest, and then the people respond. Some have suggested antiphonal singing among the pilgrims. One raises the chorus and asks the question, and then the others respond. One commentator even suggests that this is the instruction of a father to his son before the son sets off on the pilgrimage. But again, that's really all speculation. It's probably best to understand this in terms of an internal dialogue of the writer with himself. We recall we have an example of that in Psalms 42 and 43, where the Psalmist asks the question, why are you downcast, oh my soul? He's speaking to himself. Why are you downcast, oh my soul? And then he answers, put your hope in God because I will yet praise him. Now probably it's best to understand that kind of internal dialogue going on here. So let's look at it. Looking at the beginning, the King James Version of this suggests a wrong idea in the minds of most people today, though I don't think that that's what the translators themselves had in mind. It suggests as you read it that the Psalmist was looking to the mountains for his help. I will lift up my eyes unto the hills from whence my help comes. That isn't the idea at all. Actually, there are two possible ways of understanding that. For a pilgrim who is heading toward Jerusalem and sees for the first time the mountains of Judea where Jerusalem is located, the mountains themselves suggest Jerusalem. And Jerusalem is the abode of God. So Jerusalem suggests God. And so when he says, I'll lift up my eyes to the hills, he's really saying in that, I'll lift up my eyes to God. I think that's the way the King James translators intended it when they rendered it in the words that are so familiar to most of us. But there's another possibility, and it's this. You have to remember that the mountains with their high places had been centers for the Canaanite religion. As a matter of fact, the reference to those high places, the altars that were constructed on them where they worshipped the Baal gods with cultic prostitutions are mentioned again and again in the Old Testament, 78 times in all by my counting. We're told that they were instructed to destroy the high places, and from time to time they made efforts at doing that. Josiah, especially, the boy king, in that revival, tried to destroy the high places, but they weren't always destroyed. They were always there somewhat as a temptation and at least as a reminder to the people. Now, it may be that if that's what the word mountains is suggesting to the Psalmist, what he's saying is, I will lift up my eyes to the hills, shall I look there for my help? And the answer is, of course not. That's the abode of the idols. What I want to look for is the God who made the mountains, that is the great God, Jehovah, the God of the Old Testament and the God of my fathers. Now, if that's the case, this is the right idea, and the first possibility really suggests the same thing. We would like to ask ourselves at that point, what are the mountains to which we could look? Those centers of idolatry in our time. Many people are looking to the government, that great monolith of government for their help. And so we look to the government and we say, I will lift up my eyes to the government. Does my help come from there? And the answer is, no, my help comes from the Lord who established governments. Some people look to their financial resources, to their stocks and their investments. Shall I lift up my eyes to my stocks and my investments? No, my help doesn't come from there. My help comes from the Lord who governs all of the financial affairs of men, blessing as he often does in the lives of his people, but also allowing us to go through times of hardship. We can say I have learned to be abased and to abound, and in all things I can rejoice in God. Some people look to their families, to their close relations, and that's a very good thing. God gives us blessing there, but they often let us down. We say, shall I look to my family for the support I need? And the answer is, no, I I look to God who is the source of all these things, the only loving, faithful, trustworthy father of his children, the only loving, faithful husband and bridegroom of his church. You see, that's the kind of thing that's suggested in the very first stanza of this Psalm. Now the Psalmist says that he worships the God who makes heaven and earth. And what that means is that to fall short of this in any way, that is to worship or give final allegiance to anything that is made is idolatry, which is why it's so bad. It's not only useless, it's wicked. We need the Creator. Derek Kidner captures this in his commentary where he says, the thought of this verse leaps beyond the hills to the universe and beyond the universe to its maker, because here is living help, primary, personal, wise, and immeasurable. I mentioned Spurgeon a moment ago, let me share something else that he says. He's talking about the hills to which we must really lift up our eyes. He's following, of course, the King James translation. The purposes of God, the divine attributes, the immutable promises, the covenant, ordered in all things and sure, the providence, predestination and proved faithfulness of the Lord, these are the hills to which we must lift up our eyes and from these our help must come. Now there's not a great deal of point in trying in a laborious way to try to outline a Psalm like this, because it's simply saying that God is our help and our protector over and over again. The fact that that word for protection or watching over is repeated six times should make that clear. And yet, there is a kind of movement through it. The first stanza that we already looked at states that the help of the devout pilgrim comes from God, the maker of all things. The next stanzas, that is stanzas 2 and 3 of the four stanzas, explore the various ways in which the great Creator God helps his disciples, doing it by images, first of all. God is like a watchman, it says, who doesn't sleep. You can trust him. Secondly, he is like shade from the harmful effects of the sun or the moon. And then after it develops the idea by images in stanzas 2 and 3, the Psalm just drops the images entirely and states the theme again in the final stanza, saying that God is our protector at all times and in all circumstances, whatever they may be. Now, just briefly, let's look at it. First of all, God is a vigilant watchman. That's what verses 2 and 4 are talking about. He keeps watch over us. So we're not in danger. He's always there as our guard. Someone once asked Alexander the Great, a great soldier and emperor, how he could sleep so soundly, because it was always dangerous to be a ruler in those days. You were always in danger of assassination. And Alexander the Great said that he slept soundly because his faithful guard Permenio was watching. Well, he slept sound because of an earthly guard, but we can sleep soundly because we have a great God in heaven. We have the one who watches over us and who never sleeps and never slacks off in his vigilance. God is also our shade at our right hand. That's what verses 5 and 6 are talking about. Now, it talks about danger from the sun and the moon. How are we to understand that? In a hot climate, it's easy to understand danger from the sun. That would be sunstroke, and a very real danger at that. But what about danger from the moon? There were superstitions, of course, that being exposed to moonlight was a dangerous thing. As a matter of fact, we get our word 'lunatic' from it. Because the Latin word for moon is 'luna', and a lunatic is one who has been exposed to the rays of the moon. They actually did believe that. Is that what the Psalmist is saying? I don't think so, because that isn't true. The moon doesn't have that kind of effect, although he is using language that suggests it and maybe even intentionally doing so. What he's really saying here, using figurative language, is that nothing either of the day or the night can harm us if God is keeping guard. In other words, God's our covering against every calamity. He's our shade against the visible perils of the day, as well as the hidden perils of the night. And then we come to the last verses, and they talk about God being our protector and being our protector always. It does this by a series of intensifying statements. Can you see that as you look at it? We have already been told that God keeps us from all evils of the day and the night. Now we learn that God will also, number one, keep us from all harm. Number two, he will watch over our lives. Number three, he will watch over our comings and our goings, and number four, he will do all of that not only now but also forever. Now, that's a powerful statement. It makes the New Testament believer think of similar things in the New Testament. As for an example, in Paul's writings, the eighth chapter of Romans, or perhaps in the very short letter of Jude, that great benediction that closes the letter. How about Romans 8? It's really worth reading that over and over again because it's a a great statement of God's care for those who are his people. Paul writes like this, he's asking questions. What shall we say in response to all this? That is all of the teaching that he's unfolded in the earlier part of the letter. If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also along with him graciously give us all things? Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It's God who justifies. Who is he who condemns? Christ Jesus who died, more than that who was raised to life, is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. 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's written, for your sake we face death all day long. We're considered as sheep to be slaughtered. No. In all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I'm 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. A powerful New Testament statement, equaling and perhaps even exceeding what we find in the Psalm. Or how about Jude verses 24 and 25? To him who is able to keep you from falling and to present you faultless before his presence with exceeding joy, to the only wise God our Savior, be glory, majesty, power, and authority through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore. And yet we need to ask a question at this point, don't we? And the question we have to ask is simply this, is that realistic? It's one thing to read such statements, perhaps even to read them in a service like this and do it in a rhetorical, sort of pep talk fashion, don't worry, everything's going to be all right, every cloud has a silver lining, but is that really true? Can we really take statements like this realistically? Well, when we look at it, we find that what these passages are recognizing is that we do have troubles. These are not saying that the people of God never face discouraging circumstances, that they never have enemies, that persecutions never come, that they don't suffer. On the contrary, it's acknowledging that they do. We have all of these terrible things coming into our lives, just like other people. But what it's telling us is that God will keep us even in the midst of them. Now, look, when Psalm 121 says, my help comes from the Lord, it's acknowledging that we're going to need help on our journey. If there weren't any problems, we wouldn't need any help. We do it very well by ourselves. When Jude writes that God is able to keep us from falling, he's admitting that there is danger of falling, and furthermore, that there are people who would like us to fall, even be there to help push, get us to fall down, but God's able to hold us up. When Paul says that nothing will be able to separate us from the love of God, he's not closing his eyes or shutting his ears to the hostile forces that exist in the world. On the contrary, he names them one by one, and he invites them all in. He says, do your worst. Nothing's going to separate me from God because God is greater than all those circumstances. He mentions a number of them, seven of them, perhaps for completeness: trouble, hardship, persecution, famine, nakedness, danger, and the sword. They're all terrible dangers, but he says not one of them is able to frustrate God's plans for me or separate me from his love. Now I don't know how you're reacting to that. You may say, well, that's all right for Paul to say, after all, he was an apostle. He had a privileged position, special pipeline to heaven, and all of that. We have to remind ourselves that being an apostle didn't cause Paul or any of the other apostles to escape the hardships. On the contrary, they had more than anyone. It went along with the job. And so they were able to demonstrate by the way they lived, as well as by their words, that God really is able. Think what Paul experienced the next time you think life is hard. Paul wrote to the Corinthians in his second letter this way: I've worked much harder, I've been in prisons more frequently, I've been flogged more severely, I have been exposed to death again and again. Five times I received from the Jews the 40 lashes minus one. Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked. I spent a night and a day in the open sea. I have been constantly on the move. I have been in danger from rivers, in danger from bandits, in danger from my own countrymen, in danger from Gentiles, in danger in the city, in danger in the country, in danger at sea, in danger from false brothers. I have labored and toiled and have often gone without sleep. I have known hunger and thirst, and I've often gone without food. I've been cold and naked, and besides everything else, I face daily the pressure of my concern for all the churches. Every danger that Paul mentions in that great passage of Romans 8 is something that he himself experienced and records for us in that passage. Eventually, he was even put to death for his convictions. So he's not writing, as we would say, 'off the wall' or just making hyperbolic statements. This is something he knew by experience. He said, life is hard. It will be hard, but God is able to keep us even in the difficulties. Now, that's the point of Psalm 121, not that we won't have problems, but that God will keep us through them. Now, when we began looking at these Psalms the last time, when we were studying Psalm 120, I mentioned a great book on them by Eugene Peterson, called 'A Long Obedience in the Same Direction'. He has some comments at the end that sort of apply all of this in a very forceful way. He's saying that the promise of the Psalm is not that we will never fall or stub our toes, but that no injury, no illness, no accident, no distress will have evil power over us or separate us from God's purpose in us. So what are we to expect in life as Christians? Here's how Peterson answers. The Christian life is not a quiet escape to a garden where we can walk and talk uninterruptedly with our Lord, nor a fantasy trip to a heavenly city where we can compare blue ribbons and gold medals with others who have made it to the winner's circle. The Christian life is going to God, and in going to God, Christians travel the same ground that everyone else walks on, breathe the same air, drink the same water, shop in the same stores, read the same newspapers, are citizens under the same governments, pay the same prices for groceries and gasolines, fear the same dangers, are subject to the same pressures, get the same distresses and are buried in the same ground. The difference is that at each step we walk, each breath we breathe, we know we are preserved by God. We know that we are accompanied by God. We know we are ruled by God, and therefore no matter what doubts we endure or what accidents we experience, the Lord will preserve us from all evil. He will keep our life. Remember what Jesus said? Jesus said, in this world you will have tribulations, but take heart, I have overcome the world. So he asks, where does my help come from? The question of the Psalm. The answer, my help comes from the Lord, the maker of heaven and earth. He will not let your foot slip, and he who watches over you will not slumber. Let's pray. Our Father, we do thank you for a Psalm like this that speaks so forcefully of your care and providence over all the events and circumstances in the lives of those who are your children. We confess it's hard for us to maintain that vision and that kind of faith because the circumstances crowd in, and our eyes drift away from you to the circumstances instead, and like Peter, we're looking at the churning of the waves, and we find that we begin to sink. We cry out, oh Lord, help us. You are there, and we discover that your eyes have been on us. Your keeping providence has been surrounding us all the time. We pray for any who may be suffering in special ways today, distressed by the kind of things that have come into their lives. We pray that you will use it to strengthen them, and above all, that you yourself will be close to such persons and minister to them, and they might know that regardless of what happens here in life, our lives are hid with Jesus Christ in you, and preserved forever. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.
Dr. James Boice: Thank you for listening to this message from The Bible Study Hour, a listener-supported ministry of the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals. The Alliance is a coalition of pastors, scholars, and churchmen who hold to the historic creeds and confessions of the Reformed faith, and who proclaim biblical doctrine in order to foster a Reformed awakening in today's church. To learn more about the Alliance, visit alliance.org. And while you're there, visit our online store, Reformed Resources, where you can find messages and books from Dr. Boice and other outstanding teachers and theologians. Or, ask for a free Reformed Resources catalog by calling 1-800-488-1888. Please take the time to write to us and share how The Bible Study Hour has impacted you. We'd love to hear from you and pray for you. Our address is 600 Eden Road, Lancaster, Pennsylvania, 17601. Please consider giving financially to help keep The Bible Study Hour impacting people for decades to come. You can do so at our website, alliancenet.org. Over the phone at 1-800-488-1888. Or, send a check to 600 Eden Road, Lancaster, Pennsylvania, 17601. For Canadian gifts, mail those to 237 Rouge Hills Drive, Scarborough, Ontario, M1C 2Y9. Thanks for your continued prayer and support, and for listening to The Bible Study Hour, preparing you to think and act biblically.