the invisible hand of God

I will lift up my eyes to the mountains, where does my help come from? —Psalm 121

In this second step in songs for the journey we discover the invisible providential hand of God!  As we begin this journey we need to know that God is with us all the way, watches over us and keeps us along the way. 

What are you looking to for help and guidance along your way?  The Psalmist states that he lifts his eyes to the mountains.  Can they help?  In his day, people would erect altars of worship to idols on the mountains or on high places.  What is an idol? An idol is made by  men and women who create a god in their own image that they are comfortable with and can control.  But can an idol help us on our way?  Only the living One can.  My help comes from the Lord, who made the heavens and the earth ... and the mountains, Psalm 121:2. 

How does God help us?

1.  The LORD made the heavens and the earth.    This means that the Lord is ABLE to help us wherever we are on the journey.  “Ah Lord God behold, You have made the heavens and the earth by your great power and outstretched arm.  Nothing is too difficult for You, Jeremiah 32:17.  Lift your eyes on Him!

2.  The Lord is ready to help AT ALL TIMES.  He is not only “out there” but He is “here” at the same time.  He is the God transcendent and also immanent (near and involved).  He does not sleep nor does He slumber, Psalm 121:4.  He is always available twenty-four/seven. Lift your eyes on Him!

3.  The Lord is the One who KEEPS you.  He has your back.  He has you.  He personally watches over you.  He has every hair on your head numbered.  Jesus said, He knows every sparrow that falls to the ground. Are you not much more valuable than they are?  What say you to that?  The trials that come in our lives are not to destroy us but to from us, James 1:2-4.   Like Job, we ask God, where are you in this?  God answers I am here in ways you do not and cannot comprehend. In the fog or your life then, lift your eyes on Him!

4.  The Lord is the one who PROTECTS you.  Nothing - no no thing will ever separate you from Him, His love, nor His good purpose, Romans 8:37-39.  Lift your eyes on Him! 

5.  The Lord is the one who GUARDS you.  In other words he helps you from the beginning of your journey to the very end.  What God starts, He completes, Philippians 1:6.   “The promise of the psalm — is not that we shall never stub our toes,but that no injury, no illness, no accident, no distress will have evil power over us, that it is, will be able to separate us from God’s purpose in us” — Eugene Peterson, Long Obedience in the Same Direction.

Lift your eyes on Him!