I Lift Up My Eyes to the Hills
A song of ascents.
“I lift up my eyes to the hills. From where does my help come? My help comes from the LORD, the Maker of heaven and earth. He will not allow your foot to slip; your Protector will not slumber. Behold, the Protector of Israel will not slumber or sleep. The LORD is your keeper; the LORD is the shade on your right hand. The sun will not strike you by day nor the moon by night. The LORD will guard you from all evil; He will preserve your soul. The LORD will watch over your coming and going, both now and forevermore.”
The first verse of this psalm makes little sense. Why would anybody gaze on the hills? Well, unfortunately, once the Israelites came into Canaan, it didn’t take long before they were setting up pagan shrines all over the place. Guess where one of the favorite locations for these shrines was? That’s right; the shrines were frequently located on tops of mountains or hills. When the psalmist refers to looking at the hills, he wants to demonstrate that the shrines are useless and that it is the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth who will help him.
“He will not allow your foot to slip; your Protector will not slumber. Behold, the Protector of Israel will not slumber or sleep.” These days, security is a fragile thing. Sometimes when we feel the most secure, we are actually at our most vulnerable. Truly, God is the ultimate Source of protection. We can sleep soundly because God will remain awake. Several years ago, I saw a sign in someone’s office. It read, “Give your problems to Me. I’m going to be up all night anyway.” And it was signed “God.”
“The LORD is your keeper; the LORD is the shade on your right hand. The sun will not strike you by day nor the moon by night.” We can readily understand why we need protection from the sun, but why mention the moon? Throughout centuries, many people have believed that the moon could have deleterious influences, hence the name “lunatic,” from “luna” or moon. God can protect us 24/7.
“The LORD will guard you from all evil; He will preserve your soul. The LORD will watch over your coming and going, both now and forevermore.” What comfort! No matter what kinds of measures we take to protect ourselves, these measures can always be breached. But divine protection is truly safe. God knows our every move; in fact, God knows our every breath. The Bible tells us that even the hairs on our heads are numbered. God knows every cell in those hairs, and every atom of those cells.
APPLICATION: For an excellent discussion of all the Psalms of Ascents, check out Eugene Peterson’s book A Long Obedience in the Same Direction. Peterson is responsible for The Living Bible, and his book on these psalms is informative and easily read.
In my life, I have managed to get myself into some sticky situations from which God has had to deliver me on numerous occasions. I grew up on a farm during a time when we still did most of the labor by hand. I have been stepped on and kicked by cows, chased up the side of A-frame hog houses by angry mother pigs, and bucked off horses. At one point, I allowed a friend to lead me up Mount Colden in the Adirondacks by climbing the dike-a precipitous climb made more so by the trickles of spring water weeping down the face of the rock. I was wearing running shoes with relatively smooth soles and had no business being up there in such footgear. The list of my foolish endeavors is a long one; the point is that God has delivered me despite my stupidity.
“But,” you ask, “what about people who are not delivered and who die in accidents or wars over which they have no control?” That’s a good question, and when I reach heaven, I intend to ask God. I nearly lost my father in a near-fatal car crash when I was seven years old. It took my dad nine months to regain mobility after fracturing his pelvis, one femur, a knee cap, and several ribs. Dad did nothing wrong; he was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time when a drunk driver came blitzing down a hill, striking his vehicle head-on.
Isaiah 55 tells us that God’s ways are higher than ours, and our problem is that we only see part of an issue and not the entire picture. Recently, I operated a 17-year-old boy for typhoid. My patient should have made a complete recovery; instead, he developed severe pneumonia and died. When faced with such situations, I can only fall back on something a pastor friend used to say. Our friend told us that he was only in advertising and that God was in management, in other words, God had the final say. But the one thing I am sure of is that God DOES love us and that He knows our needs far better than we do.
During the first reported outbreak of Lassa fever in Jos, Nigeria in the 1960’s, Dr. Jeanette Troup was exposed when she suffered a small wound while performing an autopsy on a Lassa patient. One friend told her that nothing could reach her that had not already come through God’s hand. Jeanette died while a fellow missionary survived to a ripe old age, dying only a few years ago. But Jeanette died continuing to believe that God loved her, even if He chose for her to die from Lassa. Jeanette may have died from Lassa, but despair couldn’t touch her. Even in death, Jeanette’s faith still triumphed.
PRAYER: Father God, thank You for loving us and for caring for us. Jesus, help us to trust You no matter the circumstances and to know that we can always rely on You to deliver us from Satan. It’s in Your mighty and precious Name we pray, Jesus. Amen.
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