Some of my more detailed reviews - books, films, theatre trips, software etc. I will also post the text of some of my sermons here.

Sunday, October 20, 2013

Safe in the Lords Hands - Psalm 121

Preached 20 Oct 2013 at Christ Church, Billericay at the 08:00 spoken communion.


Introduction


Join me on a pilgrimage. We do this three times a year. We pack up the whole family and travel to Jerusalem for the festival. Its a long way, and we will be gone for quite a time. From Capernaum on the northern shore of Galilee, where I live it is 90 of your milesi if I go by the most direct route, but that would mean going through Samaria. That's a hostile region, so we will have to go around it. That will make the journey about 120 miles, or sixii days. We will have to pack food and water for the journey, and of course tents for shelter. We have donkeys to carry all of that – and don't think you would get to ride on them, they are much too important for that!
The last part of the journey is hardest as we have to climb the hills up to Jerusalem. It's there that some of the some of the family get a little disheartened – but we have our songs to keep us going. They remind us of the Lord, and how good he is to us. We sing them every time, so we know them even better than you know your Christmas songs. We don't need scrolls, or books – the children learn them by repetition and will know them very well by the time they are seven years old. We call them 'Songs of ascent' because we sing them as we begin the long slow walk up the hills to Jerusalem.
That one you heard this morning can be used as a challenge and response, it has 4 simple verses, lets give it a try so you know how we sung it, then I'll tell you a bit about what it means to us:
L: I lift up my eyes to the hills— where does my help come from?
A: My help comes from the LORD, the Maker of heaven and earth.


L: He will not let your foot slip — he who watches over you will not slumber;
A: indeed, he who watches over Israel will neither slumber nor sleep.


L: The LORD watches over you — the LORD is your shade at your right hand;
A: the sun will not harm you by day, nor the moon by night.


L: The LORD will keep you from all harm —he will watch over your life;
A: the LORD will watch over your coming and going both now and forevermore.

vv 1 and 2

I lift up my eyes to the hills— where does my help come from?
My help comes from the LORD, the Maker of heaven and earth.
We look up to the hill as we approach them and as we slowly climb them. There are lots of dangers in the hills. There are bandits, large groups of them, they can ambush you and steal all your money and provisions, they will even take your clothes, and some will kill you if you try to fight back. There are also bears and lions prowling around. Most of them won't come near a human settlement, but sometimes we will have a visitor to the camp in the dead of night.
The other danger is temptation. Jeremiah said “Surely the idolatrous commotion on the hills and mountains is a deception; surely in the LORD our God is the salvation of Israel” and he was right, only the Lord our God can save us. We must avoid the shrines and alters of the high placesiii because they are dedicated to the gods. Some to Baal, you'd think they'd have given up on him by now, but well, they don't seem to have. Baal is nothing really, the Lord our God made everything you can see, that is where our help comes from.

vv 3 and 4

He will not let your foot slip — he who watches over you will not slumber;
indeed, he who watches over Israel will neither slumber nor sleep.
The Lord our God watches over all of us, all the time. He is an attentive God and is interested in his people. The paths we follow are not like your lovely roads, they are dry and dusty and strewn with rocks and stones. It is easy to trip or turn an ankle if you do not pay attention. There is nowhere to get help on our roads, there are no emergency services, there are no service areas, no hotels, no toilets. If you are hurt here there is only the family and the Lord God to help you.
Baal sleeps, if you worship him, you might have to wake him up to get his help. The Lord God does not sleep, He doesn't even doze, He is never tired, He is awake and watching over us all the time. Now some of you might think that being watched all the time was not a good thing, but we know the Lord God cares for us so we are pleased that He is always there.

vv 5 and 6

The LORD watches over you — the LORD is your shade at your right hand;
the sun will not harm you by day, nor the moon by night.
The Lord watches over us, we remind ourselves of that a lot – it is easy to forget – especially when bad things happen to us, but He is always there watching over us. On our pilgrimage we might encounter some high temperatures, so make sure you have a hat, or a turban if you've got one. The sun on your head can make you very ill. Make sure you have light clothes too, to reflect the heat from your body. Temperatures can reach 120 F (or 40 C) and there is very little shade in the hills.
That word 'shade' can also mean 'shadow'. The Lord God is like our shadow, always with us, never leaving us on our own. We use this image to talk about oppression, just as the shade protects from the oppressive heat of the sun, so the Lord protects us from oppression.
Some people believed that being caught in moon light can make you insane, it is a belief that your ancestors had – your word lunatic comes from the old word luna that means moon. For us this is just additional confirmation that the Lord God is watching over us even at night, even when your shadow is caused by the moon and not the sun, so that the moon cannot harm you.

vv 7 and 8

The LORD will keep you from all harm —he will watch over your life;
the LORD will watch over your coming and going both now and forevermore.
God protects us, just like we protect our children. When you have a small child like my little grandson you don't let him play in the road, you prevent him going up or down stairs on his own, you put covers over the electrical sockets, even if they can't be opened without a plug. You don't protect him from walking across the floor, even though he might fall flat on his face – because walking is something he's got to learn, and falling helps him to learn. If he doesn't learn that his mother is going to struggle carrying him for six days – that's OK when he's a baby, but not when he's bigger!
That's just how the Lord is with us – he protects us from the things that will harm us, but he doesn't stop us experiencing the hurts that will teach us how life works. As it says in Deuteronomy (28:6) “You will be blessed when you come in and blessed when you go out.” Whether we are coming or going the Lord is protecting us.

Conclusion

So that's a little about how we view the psalm, but the best thing we can do is to learn it, so lets try it again


L: I lift up my eyes to the hills— where does my help come from?
A: My help comes from the LORD, the Maker of heaven and earth.


L: He will not let your foot slip — he who watches over you will not slumber;
A: indeed, he who watches over Israel will neither slumber nor sleep.


L: The LORD watches over you — the LORD is your shade at your right hand;
A: the sun will not harm you by day, nor the moon by night.


L: The LORD will keep you from all harm —he will watch over your life;
A: the LORD will watch over your coming and going both now and forevermore.


Next time you're travelling, say the travellers psalm and remember that the Lord God is protecting you.

References

i http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_is_the_distance_from_Jerusalem_to_Capernaum&altQ=How_far_was_Capernaum_from_Jerusalem
ii 20 miles a day - http://www.blessitt.com/Inspiration_Witness/MilesJesusandMaryWalked/MilesJesusandMaryWalked_Page1.html
iii http://www.gotquestions.org/high-places.html
The Expositors Bible Commentary Volume 5
NIV Bible Study Notes (Pradis)
From Sermon Central.com:
God?s Protection in Times of Danger by Howard Harden
Who Ya Gonna Call? by John Beehler
"Powerful Protection" by Robert Leroe
Your Help Is On The Way by Levi
Help From On High by Steve Shepherd

No comments: