Looking to Jesus for our Help

Psalms 121:1-2 ESV

 

“I lift up my eyes to the hills.

    From where does my help come?

My help comes from the Lord,

    who made heaven and earth.”

 

The one who is speaking these words is a person who is in an intimate relationship with Almighty God. Today this would be a believer in Jesus Christ, one who has been crucified with Christ in death to sin and raised with him to walk in newness of life in him, not like the old life, but created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness. This person is walking in holiness and in righteousness in obedience to the Lord and not in sin. And that is why he can say with confidence that his help comes from the Lord.

 

For his eyes, his mind, and his heart are looking to the Lord for his help, and he is not looking to the world nor to the things that this world has to offer in order to solve his problems. He is focused on the Lord and on true worship of him, and his eyes are fixed on Jesus and not on the sinful pleasures this world has to offer. He knows that God is his only hope and so he rests in the Lord and in his wisdom and strength, and he does not rely on his own flesh to guide and direct him in the way that he should go.

 

Psalms 121:3-6 ESV

 

“He will not let your foot be moved;

    he who keeps you will not slumber.

Behold, he who keeps Israel

    will neither slumber nor sleep.

 

“The Lord is your keeper;

    the Lord is your shade on your right hand.

The sun shall not strike you by day,

    nor the moon by night.”

 

Now, again, this is speaking of someone whose life is surrendered to and committed to the Lord Jesus, to following him in his ways and in his truth. This is not someone just giving lip service to the Lord while he continues in deliberate and habitual sin, and while he denies the Lordship of Christ, and while he ignores the commands of God. If our lives are not surrendered to Christ, but we are still walking according to the flesh in deliberate and habitual sin, then the Lord is not our keeper, for we don’t know him.

 

So, if we want the help and the counsel of the Lord in our lives, and if we want to be assured of his watch and care over our lives, then our lives must be surrendered to him to walk in his ways and in his truth. We must not be living in open rebellion against our Lord, resisting the Holy Spirit, habitually yielding to the sinful desires of our flesh. But we must be dying daily to sin and to self and walking in obedience to our Lord. Then we can be assured that he is holding us and he is the one directing our paths.

 

Psalms 121:7-8 ESV

 

“The Lord will keep you from all evil;

    he will keep your life.

The Lord will keep

    your going out and your coming in

    from this time forth and forevermore.”

 

Now, when this says that the Lord will keep you from all evil, this is not saying that evil people will not do evil things to you. For Jesus said that if we follow him with our lives that we will be hated and mistreated just like he was hated and mistreated. And he definitely had evil people working evil against him on a consistent and regular basis. And eventually his enemies convinced the masses to turn against him and to call for him to be crucified, and so they put him to death although he had done no wrong.

 

But if our trust is fully in the Lord, and if our lives are surrendered to him, and if we are walking in holiness and in righteousness, in the power of God, in walks of obedience to his commands (New Covenant), then we will be kept from committing evil, and we will be kept from giving up on God because of the evil being done to us – all in the power of God at work in our hearts and minds as we cooperate fully with his work of grace in our lives. For fellowship with Christ involves us participating with him in his work.

 

[Matt 7:21-23; Matt 24:9-14; Lu 9:23-26; Rom 1:18-32; Rom 2:6-8; Rom 6:1-23; Rom 8:1-14,24; Rom 12:1-2; Rom 13:11; 1 Co 6:9-10,19-20; 2 Co 5:10,15,21; 1 Co 1:18; 1 Co 15:1-2; 2 Tim 1:8-9; Heb 9:28; 1 Pet 1:5; Gal 5:16-21; Gal 6:7-8; Eph 2:8-10; Eph 4:17-32; Eph 5:3-6; Col 1:21-23; Col 3:5-17; 1 Pet 2:24; Tit 2:11-14; 1 Jn 1:5-9; 1 Jn 2:3-6,24-25; 1 Jn 3:4-10; Heb 3:6,14-15; Heb 10:23-31; Heb 12:1-2; Rev 21:8,27; Rev 22:14-15]

 

Have Thine Own Way, Lord

 

Words by Adelaide A. Pollard, 1907

Music by George C. Stebbins, 1907

 

Have Thine own way, Lord! Have Thine own way!

Thou art the potter, I am the clay.

Mold me and make me after Thy will,

While I am waiting, yielded and still.

 

Have Thine own way, Lord! Have Thine own way!

Search me and try me, Master, today!

Whiter than snow, Lord, wash me just now,

As in Thy presence humbly I bow.

 

Have Thine own way, Lord! Have Thine own way!

Wounded and weary, help me I pray!

Power, all power, surely is Thine!

Touch me and heal me, Savior divine!

 

Have Thine own way, Lord! Have Thine own way!

Hold o'er my being absolute sway.

Fill with Thy Spirit till all shall see

Christ only, always, living in me!

 

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