God who helps me
[Psalms 121]
Do you know that you need help? If so, what do you do when you need help? Who are you asking for help? When I personally need help, I tend to sing the hymn “Jesus, My Lord to Thee I Cry”. In particular, I like the words of verse three: “No preparation can I make, My best resolves I only break, Yet save me for Thine own name’s sake, And take me as I am” (Internet). When I fall because my strength and determination are weak and when I feel like I need help urgently, I pray God and sing this hymn “Jesus, My Lord to Thee I Cry.” And often the bible verse that comes to my mind is Psalms 121:1-2: “I will lift up my eyes to the mountains; From where shall my help come? My help comes from the LORD, Who made heaven and earth.” I want to meditate on the whole of Psalms 121 under the title of "God who helps me" and to receive the lessons God gives to us.
In Psalms 121:1-2, the Psalmist looked at the mountain and thought, “From where shall my help come?” (v. 1) His conclusion was, “My help comes from the Lord, Who made heaven and earth” (v. 2). Who are we asking for help when we are in desperate need of help? Aren’t we trying to get help from other people or other things besides God? Our instincts don’t rely on God's help until we realize our own helplessness. That’s why many times we are looking at a great world power such as “the mountain” instead of looking at God for help who made heaven and earth. Then, when we don’t get any help from the "mountains" of the world, we are depressed and desperate, and eventually the Holy Spirit makes us look to God the Almighty Creator who made even the mountains for help. And after we get help from God, we confess like the Psalmist, “My help comes from the LORD, Who made heaven and earth” (v. 2). Then, how does God helps us? I want to think in three things based on Psalms 121:
First, God who helps us does not allow our foot to slip.
Look at Psalms 121:3 – “He will not allow your foot to slip; …” This means that God, who helps us, will not allow us to derail from the truth (Park Yun-sun). What precious grace and blessings is this? We are the weak ones who have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way (Isa. 53:6). But the way, the truth, and the life, Jesus doesn’t allow us to derail from the path of truth, what a blessing or grace is this? I am curious about the reasons for the derailment of Korean youths. The results of the questionnaire survey on the delinquent behavior of 431 middle school and junior high school students (224 males and 207 females) in the Seoul Metropolitan Government were analyzed. The results showed that the main cause of the delinquent behavior of the male students showed 'anxiety and negative emotion' and female students showed 'distorted perception of herself'. When I was reading the results of this survey, I thought about the causes whey we Christians, who believe in Jesus the Truth and who are following Him, derail from the truth. I think one of the causes is a negative attitude toward the suffering of the righteous. The reason I think this way is that the psalmist Asaph's feet came close to stumbling because of the prosperity of the wicked and the suffering of the righteous (Ps. 73).
What do you think? Do you think that the negative attitude of the suffering of the righteous is one of the reasons why we derail from the truth? If you think "yes," what do you think we should do to have a positive attitude toward suffering? I find the answer in Philippians 1:29 – “For to you it has been granted for Christ's sake, not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for His sake.” If we know and be thankful that it is God's grace that we suffer for Jesus Christ, we will not derail from the truth. Let’s pray for this. Let’s pray that God will give us grace so that we may know that suffering for Christ’s sake is God’s grace and blessing and that we will not derail from the truth. When we pray in this way, let’s pray by believing in the fact that God will not allow our foot to slip (Ps. 121:3).
Second, God who helps us keeps us.
How does God keep us?
(1) God keeps us will neither slumber nor sleep.
Look at Psalms 121:3b-4: “… He who keeps you will not slumber. Behold, He who keeps Israel Will neither slumber nor sleep.” A several years ago, my son was afraid of sleeping because he had nightmares. So I encouraged him to read the Bible and pray to God. No matter how much we love my son, I cannot keep my hand on my son’s head and pray for him all night for him to have good sleep. How can I protect my son without sleeping? However, the Bible clearly states that our Heavenly Father doesn’t slumber and sleep and keeps us. But what is the problem? I think the problem is when our prayers are not answered and when God's help is delayed, we sometimes think that God is sleeping. But in reality, God is not sleeping. Our God is helping us who are in trouble, in His appointed time. Therefore, we must learn to be patient. God, who is our shade on our right hand, protects us and prevents us from harmful things (vv. 5-6). Look at Psalms 121:5-6: “The LORD is your keeper; The LORD is your shade on your right hand. The sun will not smite you by day, Nor the moon by night.”.
(2) God is our shade and keeps us from harmful things.
Look at Psalms 121:5-6: “The LORD is your keeper; The LORD is your shade on your right hand. The sun will not smite you by day, Nor the moon by night.” When I was meditating on the God’s word, “The LORD is your shade on your right hand” (v. 5), this thought came into mind: ‘If the sunlight continues to shine on me in the desert, what will happen to me? But the Bible says God is my shade and I am comforted by this truth.’ During the summer when the sun is so hot, we tend to look for the shadow. So when we find a big tree, we go under the big tree because there is big shadow. Likewise, there is a time when we would like to go to him in the shadow of our Father in heaven, when we are exhausted by these and other things in this world. When we are living in the desert-like world, we are comforted by the truth that God is our shade and protects us from harmful things of this world. Also God, who is our shield, protects us from all dangers in this world as we are heading toward Heaven. Therefore, we can confess, as David did in Psalms 23:4, “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil, for You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.”
Third and last, God who helps us protects us from all evil.
Look at Psalms 121:7 – “The LORD will protect you from all evil; He will keep your soul.” God, who helps us, keeps us from falling and protects us from all danger, protects us from all evil. Isn’t it interesting that even though God protects us, we have to go through the danger of "all evil"? It is because our thought is when God who made heaven and earth protects us, then there shouldn’t be no danger of getting harm by any evil. But the Bible says, there is all evil and God protects us and delivers us from all evil. Although God allows us to go through various kinds of tribulations, He will surely protect us and keep us. Here, I think even though God doesn’t allow us to derail from the truth, He allows us to go through tribulations because He wants to discipline us and bless us.
I remember the words of Hosea 2:14 in which God disciplined the Israelites by leading them into the wilderness but the its blessing was that God spoke to their heart gently. This is the blessing of discipline and suffering. The difficulties and adversities in our lives, and all kinds of tribulation, are the blessings of God. Although it is difficult and painful at the time, it is the blessing of God that He doesn’t allow us to derail from the truth, but deepens our faith in Him. Furthermore, it is a good opportunity to experience the grace of salvation as we cry out to God in prayer and God answers it with His salvation. Therefore, we can praise God: “Faith of our fathers! living still In spite of dungeon, fire and sword; O how our hearts beat high with joy Whene'er we hear God's glorious Word: Faith of our fathers, holy faith! We will be true to Thee till death” (Hymn “Faith of Our Fathers”, verse 1).
When I feel helpless, I love to sing the hymn “Take Me as I Am.” This hymn was written by Scottish Eliza H. Hamilton and composed by a well-known pastor named D. Sankey. Pastor Ira D. Sanky recalled in the ‘Story of the Gospel Song of Sankey’, published after his blindness (Internet): “Years ago, while revival meetings were being held in one of the large towns in Scotland, a young girl became anxious about her spiritual condition. Returning from one of the meetings, she went to her own minister and asked him how she might be saved. Ah, lassie, he said, don’t be alarmed! Just read your Bible and say your prayers, and you will be all right. But the poor, illiterate girl cried out: ‘O Minister, I canna read, I canna pray! Lord Jesus, take me as I am!’ So the girl prayed like this: ‘Lord Jesus Take me as I am!’ In this way the girl became a follower of Christ; and a lady who heard of the girl’s experience wrote this hymn .” “A minister in England writes to me about a Christian woman, a shoemaker’s wife, who had a lodger that was an obstinate unbeliever. The good woman often tried to induce him to go to meetings, but in vain. Tracts which she placed on the table in his room she found crushed on the floor. She would smooth them out and again place them so as to attract his attention, but he would read nothing but his novels and newspapers. One spring the old man fell ill with bronchitis. The good woman acted as his nurse, for he had no relatives who cared for him. She used the opportunity, often speaking to him about his soul and reading the Word of God; but she could make no impression upon him. One day she was reading the hymn Jesus, my Lord, to Thee I cry, and when she came to the refrain, the old man called out to her sharply: That’s not in the book! The woman answered, Why yes, it is. He declared again that he did not believe it was in the book. The good woman told him that he could read it for himself. He asked for his glasses, and read with wonder and amazement, again and again, My only plea — Christ died for me! oh, take me as I am. A few weeks afterward he said to the woman one morning, I am going home to-day, and I am so happy, so happy! In an hour or two he passed away, repeating those words to the last” (Internet).
As I seek the Lord’s help,
James Kim
(With thanksgiving heart because the Lord is protecting us without slumber and sleeping)