I love to be out in nature, and I cherish every moment of experiencing the natural world around me. It is beautiful and breathtaking, sobering and energizing, humbling and uplifting, all at the same time. Yet, there is one thing nature is not. It is not the saving and redeeming and restoring force of God’s love and mercy. I may look to the mountains, and be captivated by the wonder it all, but “My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven earth” (vs. 2).
Psalm 121 helps us get it right. It helps us see that there is only one God in the universe, and that God is our keeper, the shade on our right hand, and the protector from all evil. He is the Sovereign “LORD” who is our “guard” in all our involvements in life, the good, the bad, and the ugly (see vs. 5, 7, 8). So, in essence, the Psalmist says I will look at the mountains but I won’t turn to them for the truth that sets free. I will not turn to anyone or anything, other than the LORD.
We live in complicated, partisan, and opinionated times, don’t we. I suppose it has always been this way but, be that as it may, we are definitely in these times now. Navigating the world is a challenge in which, if we are not careful, we can lose ourselves, get caught up in the emotional clutter that goes with the turf these days, and find ourselves lost in the clutter. It is not a friendly world. It is a divided world, and the lies are so entrenched that it is difficult to see our way through to truth.
In it all, we have a helper, “the LORD, who made heaven and earth” (vs. 1). Our helper doesn’t take us out of the world. In fact, He sets us right down in the midst of the world that we may life a life above the fray, even while we are in it, and reveal the wonder and majesty and glory of God.
In the Lenten season we see Jesus right down in the midst of the fray. For forty days and nights He fasted in the wilderness, and at the end of this time, the enemy showed up in an effort to take Him down. He sought to lure Jesus away from the heart of the Father. He failed; and the enemy will fail with us, too, if we will not look to the mountains but to the Maker of the mountains, to God, the One who positions Himself between the blazing heat of the sun and us, and abides there, creating a place for us in the shadow of His Amazing grace (see vs. 5, and Psalm 91:1).
It might be good to slow down in this journey to Good Friday and Easter, and realize that God is with us. The world is what it is. However, God is who God is, too. And our hope and safety and joy is not in the temporary things of the world, but in the everlasting love of the Father. Remember, “The LORD will guard your going out and your coming in from this time forth and forever” (Psalm 121:8).
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