Sermon Cloud

Psalm 121
Video- Man in Black
Welcome: Brian Luse
Bob- quiet, Think about your story. How do you mark the significant points along the way? What signifies a “mile marker” as it were, what does it look like?
 
Body Prayer-

We rest, oh God, in the words you laid on us generations ago.
We believe you are with us,
That you keep us
And that you bless us so that we, as people who follow your way
Can continue your blessing to others.

Read Psalm 121 Together from Screen

Worship in song- Devin

When we come to God all our problems are solved… Right? When we embark on relationship with the Almighty, one thing we can absolutely count on is that all our problems, all our “issues” all the hard parts of life get solved, smoothed out… dealt with.
And should we find pain or difficulty or suffering in our lives? That’s a sure sign that God has left us, has rejected us, is in fact punishing us…
You know, like Tyler Durden says: “You have to consider the possibility that God does not like you, that he never wanted you. In all probability, he hates you.”
Right? No…
If we were perfectly honest with ourselves, we might admit to thinking like that sometimes. But the good news is, the good news we can tell ourselves when we find those thoughts creeping in, when we find ourselves descending to that place, thinking those thoughts is… we’re wrong.
That’s why Psalm 121 was written. It’s the friend who comes along when we are spiraling down into dispair, or looking to all the wrong things to save us and tells us- no, it’s God. God is with you, He has not abandoned you. You cannot make inferences about the character of God or His love for you based on the harder circumstances of your life.
Vs 1-2
This is where we start- looking to God. He is my help, He is the savior of my soul.
And because of that we can say, He will not let me stumble, and He will not fall asleep on the job. Too often we do it the other way around. Does my limited, very subjective perspective tell me that God is paying attention and awake and caring about my situation? Then yes, He’s my savior, the one I depend on. No? Then I guess I better find something else to depend on…

What are our options- let’s think creatively- what kinds of things do we often tend to turn to that we ask to “save us” from hard times, difficulty, pain, etc. There are some obvious ones and some not so obvious ones- let’s chase them down- what are they?

This is a Psalm written for people on the road, people who were traveling to Jerusalem to worship God together- they would come from all around Israel and walk up the steep, long, hot and dusty roads toward Jerusalem, the city on a hill.
And so, because it’s a psalm for those on the road, it characterizes God this way:
VS 3-6
These were important words for the one on the journey, the one “on the way” to hear.
Three dangers to people on the road are referred to here- that you might stumble and fall and so be injured, that the sun might be too hot and you would get heat stroke and more interesting one… that the moon might do you harm. What do you think that’s all about?
We’ve kind of lost touch with some of the origins of our words, but in a world where the gods of the hills and the sun and the moon were worshiped mainly to appease them, to keep them from harming us and hopefully to earn their favor, that would have made a little more sense. The English word “lunacy” comes from “luna” or moon. The idea was that as the sun affected us physically, the moon affected us emotionally. And what the psalmist tells us here is that God is a present help in times of physical failings, of oppression and heaviness, of anxiety and emotional distress- all along the way, God is standing where? Right beside us.  
We might miss something in this psalm though, if we’re not careful. He says in
VS 1-2
The Hebrew is kind of ambiguous here. Some translations read- “I lift my eyes up to the mountains where my help comes from.” In other words- when I see the mountains, I know the one who was powerful enough to make all of this is also powerful enough to watch over me.
But… The hills were also where all the pagan gods were worshipped, where the Asherah polls, basically giant phallic symbols were set up, where the shrine prostitutes would practice their trade in an effort to get gods like Baal to pay attention, to get Baal excited and hopefully make the land fertile.
And see- that was always the problem with gods like Baal. He had a short attention span and often slept for years. So his priests would have to do all kinds of things to try to grab his attention. In one passage in the Hebrew part of the Bible, there’s a show down between the prophets of Baal and Elijah, the prophet of God. They dance around and shout and cry out, they cut themselves, they do all kinds of things to try to get Baal to light this offering they have laid out on fire… and Elijah just watches, and when it becomes apparent that Baal isn’t listening, he pokes a little fun at them. Maybe he’s away, he says- literally, maybe he’s on the toilet (not many English versions give that translation)… or maybe he’s asleep? Elijah asks.
Because that’s the kind of god Baal is. When his people most need him, he’s indisposed, away, asleep.
Psalm 121 says not so with our God. “The one who watches over you will not slumber. In fact, He never sleeps. His eyes are ALWAYS on you.” This song was written for people on their way to worship God, to cause them to think, to draw comparisons in their minds between the gods of the hills that they would see worshiped along the road and the God who made the heavens and the earth.
It was meant to tell them- salvation is not found in chasing after all these gods who don’t even care enough to pay attention. When I worry about the heat of the day, should I go to shrine of the sun god or should I depend on the one who created the Sun, who stands right beside me, even in the most heavy, weighted down, oppressed moments of my life.
VS 7-8
So back to where we started- The one who has a relationship with God never encounters any difficulties, right?
I’m not sure that’s what this says- It doesn’t say he makes the sun magically cool, or the road magically smooth.
God does not protect us from any and all circumstances… followers of Jesus still have to deal with rocks in the road, the heat of the day, feelings of anxiety…  But what He does do is protect us from the evil that those circumstances could work in our lives. There are things in my way both little and small, the sun is beating down on me… it happens. What do I do with that? That’s where God comes in.

God doesn’t stop the hot sun from shining, He offers some shade. He doesn’t clear all the rocks out of the road and fill up all the potholes, He walks beside us, holds us up, keeps us from falling in the ditch. The promise of this psalm, and both the Hebrew people and Christians have always read it this way, is not that we will never stub our toes but rather that whether we’re talking about sickness or circumstance, nothing we encounter along the way has power over us, can get inside us and work evil in us- nothing can separate us from the love of God and His presence with us on this journey.
I love the story of Joseph- his jealous brothers throw him in a pit, sell him into slavery and tell his father that he’s dead. Years later, he becomes second in command in Egypt and they end up coming to him to beg for food to feed their families in the midst of a famine. And Joseph, rather than taking revenge, embraces them and makes this mind blowing statement- he says: what you meant for evil, God meant for good.
What Psalm 121 tells us is not that we should be all smiles and pretend that hard times don’t come. Read Psalm 120.
Here’s what Eugene Peterson says about this Psalm:
(Read quote from page 43/44)
Contrary to what you might feel, you don’t have to try to get God’s attention. You don’t have to jump around and dance around to try to get Him to look at you.
The Lord keeps watch over you as you come, and as you go. From the opening moments of your life to the last breath that you take, God is watching. And He’s asking- do you want some shade? Do you want some help over that pothole? Can I tell you about this tricky part in the road up here?
We all walk the same exact road, whether you consider yourself a Christian or not, whether you know God or know nothing about Him- we all live, work, eat, sleep, feel the same pressures, experience the same anxieties.
The difference is some of us choose to do that alone- often without the company of others along the way, but also without the company of the One who offers constant protection and guidance. We hit a rough spot and we run to all those replacement gods we see around us- anything to numb the pain, fill the void, make it all better. Anything but God.
The Christian view of life is not naïve- it’s not blind to the difficulties of life. But it does see life as a journey of exploration, of constantly finding new ways God’s mercy and grace are experienced. Of seeing even in the hardest circumstances of life, God’s protection from the evil that those circumstances have the potential to work in us.
Did you notice that the tense changed after the first 2 verses?
It started off with the first person “I look up- my help comes from the Lord.” But pretty quickly it changed to the second person “He will not let you stumble- The Lord watches over you.” This was a song that they would sing as they journeyed- they sang to God, they sang to themselves, they sang to each other. And they did so because they needed to say these things to themselves and they needed to hear others say them as well. Sometimes we just need to hear people tell us “God has not abandoned you. God is with you.”
The way to tell the story of the life of a Christ follower, the way to describe the journey is NOT so much to tell about all its trials and tribulations. Those are not the true mile markers. The way to describe the journey of the one following Jesus is to name and to describe the character of the God who journeys with us, who watches over us, who preserves us from and through the trials we face.
This journey of life in the way of Jesus that many of us have embarked on is not this precarious, iffy, maybe I’ll make it, maybe I won’t kind of thing. It’s a solid, secure experience of journeying with God Himself- the one who made the heaven and the earth, who in His grace and mercy condescends to be MY help, my shade, my protection. God is our Savior- nothing else. He’s the one. We need to constantly preach that good news to ourselves and to everyone we meet on the way. God is the one I depend on, He watches over me, and He will not fall asleep at the wheel- even through the hardest parts of my life, God will not rest. He’s continuing to love me, to protect me from the real evil that my circumstances could do me. He’s continuing to love me, watching over me as I come and go, both now and forever…

Songs
Wrap up:

Blessing- “May the Lord keep you from all harm and watch over your life. May the Lord keep watch over you as you come and go both now and forever.”