DUNCAN/Where do we look for help?

Please take your Bible in hand and turn with me to Psalm 121. As we go through this psalm, I want you to watch for these words — shade, help, and keep. These are words that are used to describe what God is and does for His people. This psalm asks a vital spiritual question. What is the source of our security? He answers this with a simple answer. God is the only reliable source of your security. And how does he remind himself of this? He preaches this great truth to himself again and again.

What is the Source of Our Security?

Let’s look at the question first and you’ll see it in the very first verse. “I lift up my eyes to the hills. From where does my help come?” The psalmist, pilgrimaging on the way to Jerusalem, looking at the threatening hills and mountains surrounding, asks the question, “Where does my help come from? What is the source of my security?” The psalmist is reflecting a condition which is common to believers, that even though we know our help is in the Lord, when danger surrounds us, we tend to look here and there and everywhere but the Lord for our security. 

The question is this — Where does your help come from? What is the source of your protection? In the end, there are only two answers to that — God or anything and everything else. Some of us try to find security in ourselves and through what we do. When we find ourselves in dangerous and challenging situations, we sometimes try to find an answer for our insecurities in the activity that we do. We try to fix the situation. Other times we look for a sense of security and help and stability in other things. It may be in circumstances, or it may be aid from some other location rather than God. But ultimately, whether we look to our self or whether we look to our circumstances, neither of those things can be the source of our help and our security. What is the source of your security?

God is the Only Reliable Source of Your Security 

And the answer comes in verse 2. Look at the words of the psalmist. “My help comes from the LORD who made the heavens and the earth.” Notice this singular personal acknowledgment and appropriation of this hope, of this place of security, of this sense of security, of this source of security — my help. “My help comes from the LORD.” The psalmist personally, individually acknowledges that the Lord is his help. Now it’s important for us to have both of those things. Our help is in the name of the Lord and my help is in the name of the Lord. There is both a corporate and a personal and individual aspect to the Christian life. Those things are not competing; they’re not in contradiction. God did not send us off into the world by ourselves, all on our lonesome. He gave us a family, a church family in the first place, to walk the walk of faith, to be pilgrims and sojourners in this world. 

You need to ask yourself the question, “Can I really say my help is in the name of the Lord?” You see, the psalmist is telling us on God’s behalf, “You look up to Me and I’ll look out for you, I’ll watch over you, I’ll shade you, I’ll help you, I’ll keep you. I am your help.” And the response of faith to that is to say, “You are my help. My help comes from the Lord.” Is that where your sense of security is? If you’re a believer, the ultimate answer to that question is “yes.” That is where your sense of security comes from, but that does not mean that you do not wrestle with the first verse of this psalm in the course of your own spiritual experience because our faith is weak. That’s why one in the gospel says, “Lord, I believe. Help my unbelief.”

Preaching Providence to Yourself and Encouraging Your Fellow Pilgrims with it 

But then the psalmist demonstrates to us how to preach God’s providence to ourselves and to encourage our fellow pilgrims. 

First, in verses 3 and 4 — “He will not let your foot be moved.” He will guide your steps. He will uphold you through thick and thin. In other words, He won’t let you fall. 

Second, notice what else he says in verse 3. “He who keeps you will not slumber.” And so, the psalmist preaches a second message to himself. “Lord, You are always watching. You never take a break. You’re always looking out for me. You’re not only the One who guides my steps, but You’re always guiding my steps. You’re always watching. You’re never sleeping.”

Third, notice here this language that “He will keep you.” That is language of protection. It’s the language of providence. He will keep you; He will protect you; He is your keeper; He is your protector. He protects Israel; He will protect you. 

Fourth, look in verse 5. “The LORD is your keeper; the LORD is your shade.” If you’ve ever been out in a hot, Mississippi summer you know how refreshing shade can be. The image is instantaneously understandable to you. The Lord Himself is declared to be our keeper and our refreshing shade. 

Fifth, look at verse 6. “The sun shall not strike you by day, nor the moon by night.” Obviously, sunstroke and dehydration are a reality of travel in the Middle East, and of course there are the fears of night. The psalmist says, “You will protect me from the most overpowering forces, forces that are beyond my understanding.” There’s no force out there that is greater than the force of the Lord’s protection.

Sixth, look at verses 7 and 8. “The LORD will keep you from all evil.” Now this, of course, does not mean that you never experience any hardship or difficulty or that you’re never affected by evil in this life. What we’re being told that the Lord will protect you from and arm you against all evil.

Lastly, we’re told at the end of verse 7, “He will keep your life.” He is concerned for the whole course of your life, from beginning to end. “The LORD will keep your going out and your coming in from this time forth and forevermore.” 

And so, the psalmist preaches to himself all these sermons about God’s providential protection so that he can really take in and internalize the truth that God is our help. The Lord knows that you are quick to despair, and you are weak of faith. In psalms like this, He reminds us that “I will keep you. I will help you. And your foot will not slip. And you will not finally fall because I am your God, and I made the heavens and the earth, and I will be your help.”

The Rev. Dr. J. Ligon Duncan III  is the Chancellor/CEO of Reformed Theological Seminary and the John E. Richards Professor of Systematic and Historical Theology. He is also currently serving as President of RTS Jackson.