Well, good morning. If you have your Bibles, go
ahead and join me in turning to Psalm 121, Psalm chapter 121.
Please, if you don't have a Bible with you, feel free to
raise your hand. Michael will come gladly bring
you one. If you don't have one at home,
feel free to keep that as our gift to you.
We'd love for you to have a copy of God's Word.
As Joe mentioned earlier, it was our intention as a church to be
in First Thessalonians this morning, Pastor Michael
preaching. But as you all know, plans often
change. And so we'll continue to lift up
the Abrahams today and pray for good recovery.
And we'll also trust the Lord's Providence and His timing and
having us in Psalm 121 this morning.
So as you make your way there, consider the phrase, help is on
the way. Sometimes that phrase or a
version of it could be comforting, like if you need the
fire department to come and you hear the sirens in the distance.
Other times, that phrase could be utterly meaningless, like if
you're on a company's website and you see the bubble pop up,
It's like ask for help. And you know if you click on
that, you're going to be entered into the black hole of Internet
domains and chat bots and FAQs that really are not going to
give you the help that you need. Help is only as good as its
ability to meet the real need, and to meet it soon.
Do you need help this morning? Do you know where to turn to
find it? Sometimes in life, things can be
running smoothly. Worldly helps may seem to be
getting the job done for the time being.
But then an unexpected trial hits a season of suffering
that's out of your control. It's a constant burden.
Or maybe you just come face to face with the evils of our
world. What happens then when you come
to realize that you can't help yourself through this problem?
What happens whenever you turn for help in this world can't
actually solve it. If that's you this morning in
any sense, then our passage this morning is for you.
The promises of this Psalm can be yours if you would lift up
your eyes to heaven, to the God who can be your helper, the
church. The promises of Psalm 21 are
incredible, are glorious. Listen as I read God's
incredible promises to us as a church.
Psalm 121 a song of a sense. I lift up my eyes to the hills.
From where does my help come? My help comes from the Lord who
made heaven and earth. He will not let your foot be
moved. He who keeps you will not
slumber. Behold, he who keeps Israel will
neither slumber nor sleep. The Lord is your keeper.
The Lord is your shade on your right hand.
The sun shall not strike you by day, nor the moon by night.
The Lord will keep you from all evil.
He will keep your life. The Lord will keep your going
out and your coming in from this time forth and forevermore.
Amen. As you can see, Psalm 121 is a
Psalm of great comfort. It's a favorite for so many of
us because it provides such triumphant hope for whatever
trial or uncertainty you're facing in life.
Look at the superscription before verse one.
It says it's a song of a sense. If you kind of glance around the
Psalms in this area, these are mostly all songs of ascent.
These would be songs psalms that Jewish pilgrims would sing as
they make their journey up to Jerusalem, usually three times a
year for some of the three big festivals can think about this
as like your Spotify worship playlist on a long road trip,
constant yearly psalms of these pilgrims would sing and they're
songs of ascent because Jerusalem is situated at the top
of multiple hills. So no matter which way you're
coming from, you're ascending an elevation, you're always going
up to Jerusalem. And these psalms are handcrafted
promises for these pilgrims to cling to as they journey toward
the earthly city of Jerusalem. And they're handcrafted promises
for you and I this morning, Church, as we journey toward the
heavenly city. That last phrase in our Psalm
clues us into the spiritual and heavenly realities the Psalm
points to. Look at verse 8 real quick from
this time forth and forevermore. This is a forever Psalm.
And we need to keep that in mind as we walk through this morning,
because we'd be missing the point if we try to interpret
this Psalm only through the lens of our current world.
Now, of course, you can use this Psalm.
You can cling to this Psalm when you need real help and real
protection from real problems in this world.
But if we stop there, we're going to miss the incredible
gospel truths that this Psalm highlights.
Listen, if you're in Christ this morning, then God is your
eternal keeper. You are safe in his arms
forever. Brothers and sisters, you need
Psalm 121 as you journey through this world.
You need Psalm 121 as you face down whatever trials and
uncertainties lie ahead. Here's our one big take away
from the Psalm this morning. Our main point, we could say,
keep your eyes on the one who always keeps you.
Keep your eyes on the one who always keeps you.
That's what we'll seek to do together as a church as we walk
through our passage. Three points.
Keep your eyes on #1 the helper who's all powerful #2 the
protector who's ever watchful #3 the preserver who's eternally
good. The helper who's all powerful
verses 1 and 2. The protector who's ever
watchful 3 to 6 the preserver who's eternally good 7 to 8
point #1 the helper who's all powerful verses one and two.
Look back with me at verse one, I lift up my eyes to the hills.
From where does my help come now?
The journey to Jerusalem would often be very dangerous.
There's no Honda Odysseys with, you know, climate control at AC.
They're walking by foot. Maybe if you're wealthy, you've
got a donkey or something. Blazing heat.
There's often robbers along the way, so you can imagine how the
need for practical help would be real. 1 interpretive question to
ask right away is what do these hills here represent?
When the psalmist lifts up his eyes to the hills, do the hills
scare him, or do they fill him with hope?
The latter seems to make more sense in context.
The fills the hills fill fill him with hope.
Whenever this phrase is used in the Bible, someone lifts up
their eyes. It's usually used in a feeling
of desire and hope, like Psalm 123.
One just a few chapters later. To you I lift up my eyes, O you
who are enthroned in the heavens.
Or the phrase could sometimes just be used neutrally in the
Bible, like I can't see where I'm going, so I lifted my eyes
to see the path ahead. This phrase is never used to
bring about fear in the Scriptures.
Furthermore, these hills are significant because, as I
mentioned a minute ago, they're likely the hills of Zion, of
Jerusalem. And I think the surrounding
songs of ascent make that clear as well.
You can imagine the long hard journey.
You might be asking why? Why am I even going to Jerusalem
again? It's hot, I'm in constant
danger, I'm tired. And then you can kind of see it
in the distance. Kids, look, wake up.
Do you guys can see the Temple Mount?
You can see the buildings. Look, there's Jerusalem.
This would fill you with adrenaline and hope, not because
your help comes from the literal hills, but you know you have
help because of what those hills represent.
This is where Yahweh is worshipped.
This is where His covenant promises and blessings are
experienced most intimately by his people.
Think of it like if you're on your way to a football game, a
big concert or something, you know, a long time on the
highway, you're sitting in traffic, you're getting bored,
and then you kind of, you can see the stadium pop up over the
highway. It's huge, it stands out, it
wakes you up, it fills you with excitement.
Again, there's not anything significant about the concrete
of the stadium. It's what that stadium or
concert venue represents. This is where you have an
experience with your favorite artist.
You get to watch your favorite player.
The weary Pilgrim lifts up his eyes to these hills, and he
knows his help comes from the Lord.
The weary Pilgrim lifts up his eyes to these hills and his eyes
keep going to the One who made the hills to the God of heaven
and earth. Verse 2 My help comes from the
Lord, from Yahweh who made heaven and earth.
Now we aren't told precisely what sort of help is in view
here. And this is a a corporate song.
We should remember that all of God's people across time would
be singing. You can imagine year after year
travelling to Jerusalem, bringing with you on the journey
whatever trials and difficulties you might be facing.
And I think the fact that we aren't told what sort of help is
needed is a significant silence from the text.
Because it doesn't matter what help you might be needing this
morning, God is totally powerful enough to provide it for you.
He made all things, He sustains all things.
Christ upholds the universe by the word of his power.
Dear friend, Christ is going to hold on to you this morning.
There is no situation you will face this year in which God
won't give you the help that you need.
You won't be separated from His love, you won't have to fend for
yourself, and there's nothing that can stop God's powerful
help from coming to you. Some of you likely went through
some incredibly hard things this year.
Still are. You may have wondered at times,
where is God? Is He going to help me?
If you're suffering, be reminded this morning that God is a very
present help in times of trouble.
He is sovereign over your suffering and He's compassionate
enough to meet you in your darkest hour.
That's what we see in Scripture. We see a God who gives help to
his people in all sorts of ways, usually very surprising, often
how his people don't at all expect it.
A pregnancy at 100 years old, a sea split in two, the bottom of
a pit sold into slavery by your own brothers to ascending the
second in command of Egypt and then saving your whole people
from starvation? How about a baby born in a
Manger? Brothers and sisters, if you're
in Christ, remember that God has already provided you with the
greatest help that you really need.
He paid for your sins on the cross.
He secured your eternal life and His resurrection.
He's filled you with His Holy Spirit, who, remember, Jesus
calls the Helper when He goes away.
He's sending you His help to be with you at all moments of the
day. The God who saved you is not
going to stop helping you. His mercies are new every
morning, and He has a fresh batch of His loving Providence
handcrafted for you, handcrafted for you, handcrafted for you, to
help you through every day no matter what you're facing.
TBC, the Lord knows what you need, and He knows exactly how
to provide it for you. Some of you though, might be
tempted to look to other sources of help besides God.
I don't need to tell you that the triangle, or really our
modern world in general, is a place of self-sufficiency, self
dependency. If our area was going to make a
parody of a Psalm of this Psalm, it may say something like this.
I lift up my eyes to the hills. From where does my help come?
Comes from myself. It's my degree, it's my
intellect, it's my fit body, it's my access to the best
medical treatment. It's the social networks I'm in.
I keep my own life. From where does my help come?
It comes from myself. As Christians, we can be tempted
to believe that the world is constantly pressing in on us to
be conformed to it. Krishna, are you tempted to
believe that this morning? Yeah, sure, God helps me some.
But honestly, if we kind of remove God from the picture, I'm
doing pretty OK on my own. What's that old phrase?
God helps those who help themselves?
Well, that phrase is a lie. It's nowhere to be found in the
Bible. If you think you get God's help
by offering some of your help first, that's a dangerous place
of pride to be. OK.
Maybe for you it's more spiritual.
Yes, faith in Jesus. But surely as I walk with the
Lord, I have to cooperate with God's grace.
Surely He gives me some help to save me.
But surely the Lord is waiting on me to give some help in
return as I get myself through the pearly gates.
Friends, there is no both. And for the Christian, there are
no other ultimate helpers besides the Lord in this world.
He is our hope. He is our salvation.
He is our comfort. He is our joy.
If you're struggling with your true source of help this
morning, you need to be reminded that you don't keep your own
life. You didn't save yourself.
You don't sustain yourself. Plus, all their sources of help
are fleeting. Money, possessions, jobs can be
lost. Our bodies can be harmed.
Our reputation can be tarnished. A friend or leader can let you
down and in the end we've all got a date on our calendar in
the future with death. What earthly help can save you
from that? Only God is an all powerful, all
sufficient helper. You know, God has a way in His
mercy over time of weaning us off of the other helps we look
for in this world and getting our eyes back on Him as our only
true source of help. The Lord may do that by
disciplining you. It may be painful.
The Lord may do that just through the normal ebbs and
flows of progressive sanctification over time.
But make no mistake, God will prove Himself to be your only
true helper. Let's think briefly.
How do we access God's help? What does it look like to rely
on Him practically? Well, a couple things are not
exhausted, but I think the first thing you do, as you do what the
psalmist does, you lift up your eyes to heaven.
You remember that's your real home.
You're just passing through this world like a quick stay in a
hotel. Don't even bother unpacking your
bags when you have access to the heavenly throne room.
You don't need access to the other false helps of this world
to access God's help. You have to be disciplined to
commune with God. If God's going to be your
helper, you got to know where to find His help.
He's united his help to His Word.
He's united his help to the help you get by relying on Him in
prayer. You have to store up His
promises in your heart. And as you do that, you need to
identify these false helps by letting the Spirit search your
heart. One way to do that, you know,
because if you ask me, if you ask you, you know what, what
false helps. Are you running to?
It's probably pretty difficult to discern upfront.
Here's what I think we can do to search out our hearts when a
problem hits. What's your first instinct?
What's that first urge, that first inclination of my heart?
What makes you feel really safe or secure in the moment?
Yes, you know God is there, but He can, He can wait.
It might be another grab of your phone or obsessing over an
entertainment or show another mindless scroll.
It might be working more hours when you know you don't need to.
Could be a substance that you've been keeping hidden.
Or maybe you just you just let your mind continue to snowball
with thoughts that are taking you captive instead of
submitting those thoughts to the Word of God, Whatever it is for
you, you then need to ask the Lord to help you retrain the
muscles of your heart so that you rely on God instinctively,
so that that first urge, that first inclination is to go to
God, your only refuge in times of need.
And that's a prayer of the Lord will answer.
Friends, TBC, keep your eyes on the helper who's all powerful.
Your help comes from the Lord. But the psalmist doesn't stop
there. The God who's our helper is also
our tireless protector. Point #2 Keep your eyes on the
protector who's ever watchful. The protector who's ever
watchful. Verses three to six.
Look at verse three with me. He will not let your foot be
moved. He who keeps you will not
slumber again. Remember that Israel's a
mountainous, rocky terrain, lots of cliffs.
You could you can imagine how this image sinks in immediately.
One slip of your foot on this journey could be catastrophic.
I remember a few years ago me and some buddies went out to
Zion National Park in Utah and this is before I had kids to
make sense in a minute. We did a hike there called
Angels Landing. Maybe some of you guys have done
it or heard of it. It's.
One of those hikes that is you're walking up the mountain.
There's literally signposts that say like this many people have
died on this hike. Great.
And you know, the last half mile of the hike is literally you
walking on this narrow ledge with like 1000 foot drop offs on
each side. I mean, the ledge is no wider
than a a highway lane or something.
At some places it's about as wide as my wingspan, but you've
got this metal chain that you're, you're you're gripping
that's attached to the mountain. Thank the Lord.
And I, I just remember thinking as we got up there, you have,
you get to a point where you have to submit your permit to do
it. So you have kind of a plateau
where you have to wait. I remember thinking, alright, if
we're going to do this, and as I'm doing the hike, just like,
you know, my palms are sweating. If I just watch for my next step
is going. If I just hang on as tight as I
can to this rope, then I'll be OK, I'll make it.
But even with me watching every step carefully, it's still true
that one slip could have been catastrophic.
That's the image here in verse 3.
Verse 3 is saying you can think you're watching every step you
take in life, but if it's left up to you, you have no guarantee
that you won't slip and fall. And there's a moral component
for this idiom in the Bible as well.
For your foot to slip in the Bible is to fall off the path of
righteousness. And if it's left up to you,
you'd have no guarantee that you won't slip and fall morally fall
into some grave sin, something you never thought you would do
in life. You can't watch every step you
take in life. It's impossible.
But God can. God can with God as your helper,
your foot won't be moved. He's not going to let it happen.
Why? Because verse 3, the God we
serve never falls asleep on the job.
He who keeps you will not slumber.
Behold, he who keeps Israel when neither slumber nor sleep.
It's funny if you remember Elijah's showdown with the false
prophets in First Kings 18. It's a really funny encounter,
actually, but the it's the false prophet's turn to kind of call
down their gods in the competition and it's not
working. And so Elijah's like, hey, your
God might be, he might be using the bathroom, he says, but your
God might be asleep. You might want to go wake him
up. The one true God never sleeps.
He never needs a shift change. He never takes his eyes off you.
How is this possible? Because God is totally
sufficient in himself, He doesn't rely on anything outside
of himself to exist. He doesn't need emotional help,
He doesn't need time to rejuvenate his power, and he
doesn't need to be woken up and reminded that you need help.
We spend a large part of our existence awake and alert,
eating food, putting on clothes, putting gas in the tank.
But then there's this one third or so, depending on how much
sleep you get of our lives. We're we're not watching a
thing. We're not alert at all.
We're almost completely unconscious.
And God says I'm watching over you with intimate and love and
care, not only every night when you sleep, but in all the
moments when you don't care much for God.
He's delighting and caring for you.
Not only you, but all of God's people.
That's what he says in verse 3 as well.
Behold, He who keeps Israel when neither somber or sleep.
Behold, it's an intensification. He's raising the bar.
Listen up, I'm going to say this again.
I take care of you individually and I take care of all of my
people corporately, all of my people making this journey up to
Jerusalem. Members of TBC, God watches over
you individually and God watches over our body corporately.
He protects us from harm. He leads us over the highest
hills and he leads us through the darkest valleys.
God is not going to fall asleep on his church.
If you look back at verse 3, it's helpful to note this word
keep that pops up there. It's the most prevalent word
used in our passage is used six times in the Psalm.
It means to protect, to watch over, to guard.
You might recognize it as the same word that God charges Adam
with in the garden. He is supposed to work the
garden and to keep it. He's supposed to be on guard.
But Adam fails. And what Adam failed to do, God
will never fail at with his people.
In fact, if we jump ahead to John 17, this is what Jesus
prayed for his people the night he was betrayed.
Jesus says, I'm not praying for the world, I'm praying for them.
What a comforting image, Church, that Jesus prayed for you.
You were in his mind in the garden that night.
He prays that they'd be kept by the Father.
He prays that you'd be guarded from the evil 1.
The promises of Psalm 21 point to Christ.
They're fulfilled in Christ. You are kept from the evil 1
because Christ is keeping you. You're united to Him.
Your eternity is safe and secure, and not even the most
seemingly extreme dangers in this life can change that, which
is what the psalmist points us to in verses 5 and 6.
The Lord is your keeper. The Lord is your shade on your
right hand. The sun shall not strike you by
day, nor the moon by night. Shade means protection, shelter
from harm. It's a similar image in Psalm
91. He who dwells in the shelter of
the Most High will abide in the shadow of the Almighty.
We all know how vital shade can be.
We don't remember much as now when it's been a little colder
in the winter. But when you're waiting in line
in the summer and it's blazing hot, or maybe you're out at a
Saturday Sports Complex or something, the most coveted spot
in the world is shade. But God's not like shade that we
have to go and find just for some temporary comfort.
God's always at our right hand. He's always protecting us from
harm. He's that close to us.
It's the same idea basically, with the sun and the moon not
striking you. The sun and the moon's not
literally going to take a sword and, you know, strike, strike
you. The image is used in Revelation
as well for the new heavens and new Earth.
It's an image of protection. You've got extreme desert heat,
or the dangers of the day under the sunlight, and you've got
extreme desert cold, the dangers of the night under the
moonlight. Basically, the psalmist is
saying all evil is either done under sunlight or under
moonlight. And at all those times God is
watching your steps. God is protection, protecting
you. What should these truths do to
our souls? That God doesn't fall asleep on
you, that he doesn't stop protecting you?
They first should humble us. We know it to be true, but it's
often helpful to say it out loud that we are not God.
You know, in a day where transhumanism and AI feels like
it's running out of control. And those things are are viewing
human limits as a bad thing to be overcome.
Not only, I mean not only is God in control of all those things,
but friends, we need to be reminded with a Christian
worldview that our human limits are a good gift from God to be
embraced, not to be pushed back against.
You can't be ever at once. You can't try to play God and be
everyone's helper all at once. You can't ultimately keep your
life safe or the lives of your loved ones.
Friends, don't try to do God's job.
Humble yourself under His sovereign hand.
They should humble us. These truths should also comfort
us, though. They should comfort us.
It's no news to you that we live in an incredibly anxious
society. Maybe this morning you've come
in anxious. And here's what anxiety says.
Anxiety says you have to be the one to stay awake.
You have to be the one to keep your own life.
You, you, you can't fall asleep with a white knuckle grip on
your future. If you do something back, we
don't know. You've got to stay awake.
You've got to get the job done. And God says, no, you don't.
No you don't. I will never fall asleep on you.
I will never stop caring for you.
Friends, when you're anxious, go to God at all times of the day,
all times of the night, with all your problems, with all your
fears, with all the ways you need help.
God never gets tired of hearing from you.
He loves to provide the help and comfort that you need.
Passages like these should be death flows to our anxiety.
Whatever you're afraid of whatever what if scenario is
twirling around in your mind right now, Remember that God
doesn't fall asleep on you. He loves to stay awake and
protect His children. So TBC, keep your eyes on the
protector who's ever watchful. Last point .3, Keep your eyes on
the Preserver who's eternally good.
The Preserver who's eternally good.
Verses 7 and 8, if you thought the psalmist had made his point
clear by now, he actually ramps it up even more in verses 7 and
8. The Lord will keep you from all
evil. He will keep your life.
Like I mentioned earlier, if we view this Psalm only in light of
the events of this current world, we'd have to say God's a
liar. Really kept from all evil.
Look around us, God. Every week evil is running
rampant in our society. Not only that, but evil plagues
many of you has played you. This week evil and sin and
suffering comes our way. How can God say this?
He can say it because of the reality of heaven.
If your hope lies only in this world, then you will experience
evil and you'll have no answer for it.
If your hope lies only in this world, then Psalm 21 is not for
you. But it can be.
It can be. Look at the phrase in verse 7.
He pairs us with He will keep your life.
It's the same word used for soul in the Bible.
Your life is not just the years the Lord gives you on this
earth. You have a soul, you're headed
for eternity. Your life will go on forever and
nothing could be worse than forfeiting your soul.
Jesus says in Matthew 16, What will it profit a man if he gains
the whole world, yet forfeits his soul?
The rhetorical answer is nothing.
It profits you nothing. You gain nothing.
You lose it all. You spend eternity in hell.
If your only hope is in this life, then the worst evil that
can happen to you is one that you've earned for yourself.
So how can you be kept from all evil?
What's your hope? You do what the psalmist does.
You lift up your eyes to heaven, to the hills.
Hundreds of years after this Psalm was written, there was a
man named Jesus of Nazareth who marched up a hill outside of
Jerusalem, a hill called Golgotha.
He had a cross on his back, and on that hill he's raised up
nails between his wrists and his feet.
And the greatest evil in the history of the world fell upon
the God man, Jesus Christ. He paid the penalty for sin in
full. He drank the cup of God's wrath
every drop. And then God the Son died.
He was put in tomb, but he rose three days later.
The greatest evil that we could eternally face had been paid
for, and His resurrection guarantees the promises of this
Psalm. They can be yours this morning
if you would just trust in Christ.
If you want eternal security from evil, then you need to
repent of your sins and trust in Christ today.
If you want your life, your soul to be saved, all your sins to be
wiped clean, to be united to Christ, to have a reconciled
relationship to God, then you need to turn from sin.
Turn from all the false helps you've been looking for in this
world. Turn from yourself as a helper
and turn to Christ. If you want God to be your
helper and your keeper now and forever, they come to Christ
today and church, the God who showed his good love for you on
the cross will continue to be good to you in this life and
forevermore. The Psalm closes by emphasizing
this truth again in verse 8. The Lord will keep your going
out and you're coming in from this time forth and forevermore
going out and coming in. It's just an expression used in
the Bible. It stands in for it means all
normal activities of life, the nitty gritty stuff of life.
You could think of it like you go out in the morning for work,
you come back in in the evening, Everything that happens in
between, all the normal business of life.
God's guarding it all. He's guarding it all.
Couple months ago, I was leading a student Bible study on campus
and this guy asked me, Brian, what's what's the thing you've
learned the most since leaving college and going on to get
married, have children? And I share the story because my
answer is likely what many of you would answer, I said.
And the greatest thing that I've learned in my 30 years is that I
am not in control of my own life.
In fact, just a few weeks ago, doing some work at a coffee shop
in Chapel Hill, it's broad daylight, packed shopping
centre. And I hear a car alarm, a car
alarm going off in the distance. I have my headphones in, you
know, it's a packed parking lot. And I kind of glance outside and
I see my truck lights are blinking.
Am I OK? So I, I, I get up, maybe I sat
on my keys. I'm kind of fumbling towards the
door. And when I open the door, I mean
for me to you guys in the front row, there's a man in a ski mask
climbing out of my truck window with a gun.
And by the time I see it jumps in the car with his buddy, they
speed off. I mean, with a car like right in
front of here, this close to me, I'm not in control of my own
life. You are not in control of your
own life. It's an illusion.
I don't keep my own life. You don't keep your own life,
but God does. There's nothing stopping these
men from shooting me if they wanted to.
Totally defenseless. There's nothing on this earth
that can really keep you safe from ultimate harm.
It doesn't matter what sort of security system you have in your
home. It doesn't matter how healthy
and strong you think you are right now.
It doesn't matter how much you micromanage your schedule.
You don't make life happen. It happens to you.
And yet God is in control. He's in control.
God is not running Plan B for your life.
His good and loving plan for you is carrying on every day, minute
by minute, as He watches over you.
I mean, if you really think about it, we have no idea all
the ways God guards us and protects us from danger in this
life. I mean, I think it would blow
our minds if we knew 1% of all that God does to protect us even
in this life right now. So when you think about this
Psalm, yes, think about all the ways that God has been and is
your helper and your keeper in this life, both physically and
spiritually. But before you ask God for
future help, it might be helpful to remember all the ways He's
been your help in the past. So God's people are often told
to do in the Word. And any temporary protection the
Lord offers you now is just a foretaste of you being kept safe
in his arms forever. One day you might think, OK,
yeah, what if? What if those guys did shoot
you, Brian? Or what if something horrible
happens to me or my family or my job?
What then? Is this Psalm still true?
You better believe it. It's church you better believe
it is. Nothing can snatch you out of
the Father's hand. There is nothing that can
separate you from His love. People can kill the body, they
can't kill the soul. If your soul, if your eternal
life is kept by Christ, then come what may in this life Come
what may, affliction, hardship, confusion, loss, their light and
momentary. The sufferings of our present
age don't even compare to the glory that is coming for you.
Church, we do grieve in life, but with hope.
We do fight in life, but not with the weapons of the flesh.
We do walk in life, but we walk by sight.
Excuse me? We walk by faith.
We are a people like Paul who have learned the secret to
contentment. We know how to be brought low.
We know how to abound in any and every circumstance.
We can do all things through Christ who strengthens us from
this time forth and forevermore. I know it's been said before by
many of us, but. Isn't the thing you love most
about our church? The fact that we sing a lot of
songs about heaven, It's so wonderful, it's so glorious.
Church, don't look for help in this world.
Lift up your eyes, set your hope on heaven.
One of the best things about our God is that before you can even
say the words, I need help. He already knows a word before
it's on your tongue, and He always stands ready to provide
the help that his people need. Amen.
Let's pray. Lord, we thank you for your
wonderful promises in Psalm 121. Thank you that you are our
helper, our keeper. Thank you that no matter what
comes in this life, you'll never forsake us.
You'll never abandoned us. You'll guard us safely all the
way home and we'll be with you forevermore.
We thank you in Jesus name, Amen.