From where does my Help come?

One of things I do, when I’m thinking about what course of action to take on an issue or preparing a piece of scripture to preach on is to ask myself a series of questions. The answers dictate the approach I’ll take to the particular issue or scripture concerned.  In this psalm the Psalmist does something very similar by asking the question: ‘From where does my help come?’

It’s easy to imagine this psalm being sung on the pilgrimages to Jerusalem. The writer is asking a rhetorical question.  The idea of him looking to the hills (v1) is interesting as they could have been the home of leftover pagan shrines (Deuteronomy 12:3-4) or the ‘high places’.  In Deuteronomy chapter 12 we learn that the Ark of the Covenant was to move around Israel, but only to the place that the: ‘LORD your God shall choose’ (Deuteronomy 12:11).  So the ‘high places’ represented heretical worship!  The Pilgrims, approaching Jerusalem, would have seen the Temple Mount, the place where the Ark now resided, as the true place of worship!  So the Psalmist contrasts these two places of worship.  He seeks to serve and worship the Lord in the right and proper way as his: ‘help comes from the LORD who made heaven and earth’ (v2).

The Psalmist invokes the name ‘Yahweh’ the covenant name for God, which is a name that reveals so much of his love for his people. In other words, he helps because he cares!  But this is also a personal relationship which is seen in the use of the words: ‘My help’.  This encourages us today as the Christian has a personal relationship with the Lord. He is not some vague or distant deity; rather he has revealed himself to us through Jesus Christ in his word the Bible.  He watches over his people as represented by Israel in this psalm.  The people of God in the Old Testament are often referred to as the ‘Assembly’ which is where we get our word church from.  So God watches over his people, the church, in every day and age, and the encouraging thing is that he will: ‘neither slumber nor sleep.’ So he’s always attentive to his people’s needs.

So this gives the writer of the psalm great confidence. The pilgrimage up to Jerusalem would have gone through some difficult country where there was a real risk of injuring oneself.  But the Psalmist is confident that the Lord will not let his foot slip (v3).  How might we apply this today?  The idea of pilgrimage was to keep focus and achieve the goal of worship at the temple in Jerusalem.  In the same way, if we keep our focus on the Lord we will not get knocked sideways by the next strange fad that is making its way round the churches.  We will be so rooted in God’s Word our focus will be on him alone!  Some of the festivals would have been during the hot summer and the travelling would have been very tiring, yet the nights would have been surprisingly cold!  But the Psalmist looks to the Lord to sustain his people during the difficult journey (vs5-6).  The last verses (vs7-8) emphasise again that the Lord watches’ over every aspect of a believer’s life as he cares about them that much!

Pilgrimage was hard but, for the believer, it was worth it! There will be many things that will bruise and buffet us as we seek to serve the Lord, but we can take encouragement from this psalm. Jesus when speaking to his disciples the night before his crucifixion, knowing that they were going to go through a roller-coaster of emotions, said: “I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world” (John 16:33). His words, and this psalm show we have a God and Saviour who cares about us and is with us every step of our earthly pilgrimage! That’s a great encouragement whatever we face!

Would you like to hear a sermon on this Psalm? My Help comes from the Lord.