Help, Please

Today’s message was written by guest pastor, Rev. Tasha Blackburn.

I once lived in a place with no hills, it was flat farmland as far as you could see. For the last several years I have returned to hilly ground and I love seeing them: standing at the foot of a high hill and seeing the beauty of it up close, or just driving through town and having a peak off in the distance catch my eye. Hills and mountains, are beautiful. They bring us joy.

Which is what most of us think is being sung about in Psalm 121. If only because of Julie Andrews in “Sound of Music”, you probably know its opening lines: “I lift up my eyes to the hills, from whence cometh my help?” We hear that and we think, yes! Yes, the hills are a thing of beauty and I do get such help from looking at them!

Except that is not what the song means. In fact, it means it’s the opposite. When this song was written, the altars for sacrifice were on hilltops. The sanctuaries for every imaginable god and goddess were on the high places. The psalm is actually asking, “When I look up to the hills, is that where my help is going to come from?” Will it come from sacrificial altars? Will it come from whatever new wave of shiny objects the world would have me bow to?

Then the answer is given: no. No, my help doesn’t come from there. My help comes from the Lord who made heaven and earth. The song is less about the beauty of mountains and more about flashing billboards that always want you to look to them for answers to your need. Any false promise or passing fad, that is what the song reminds us will be of no help in our lives. 

Now, when I drive around my town, I admire the hills and I notice the billboards and both serve as reminders of from whence help truly comes: from the Lord who made heaven and earth.

Let’s pray: For help in need, we thank you this day, O Lord. For comfort in pain; for grace in our sin. For the many ways you have saved us, great God, and the many ways you continue to save, we give you all the glory and honor and praise. Amen.