“I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help. My help cometh from the LORD,
which made heaven and earth. He will not suffer thy foot to be moved: he that keepeth thee will not slumber.
Behold, he that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep. The LORD is thy keeper: the LORD is thy shade
upon thy right hand. The sun shall not smite thee by day, nor the moon by night. The LORD shall preserve thee
from all evil: he shall preserve thy soul. The LORD shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in from this
time forth, and even for evermore.” (Psalm 121:1-8)
Hills make us look up. It is well they do so, for all that is necessary for our life here comes from above.
An artist whose eyes have been accustomed to looking up has painted some beautiful pictures of sunset skies,
which astonish many people who visit the Kensington Museum in London. They have never seen such gorgeous
sunsets, and for the simple reason that they have not looked for them. We lose much by fixing our eyes upon the
things beneath and seldom looking up. A king once asked a duke if he had seen an eclipse of the sun on the previous
day. “No, sir,” replied the nobleman, “I have so much business on earth that I have no time to look up.”
The godly man’s need. Help. None can ever outgrow this. Dependence is the characteristic of the
creature known as man. Help must be had in our conflicts, or they will end in defeat; in our labours, or they likewise
will issue in failure. Help must be found in our pilgrim journey, or we faint and fail along the way. We all need help.
The godly man will be found looking for help—“I will lift up my eyes.” He waits—he expects to be
helped—and he obtains, for his help comes first and foremost from the Lord. The most faithful vision is soul
vision, and so, the godly man looks up in expectation, up from the mud and mire of earth and the sins and
sorrows of self. The hills are expressive of strength; the strength of the hills is His: strength of majesty, of
stability. The everlasting hills, if you will. There’s no God like Jehovah!
Your confidence placed here will not go awry. “My help cometh from the Lord.” We are assured that He
who made the heavens and the earth would rather let the sky fall and the earth perish from the lack of His
support, rather than that you should suffer injury from the withholding of His help. Help alone cometh from
God: help is and ever will be guaranteed. It is part and parcel of His warrant of the safety of His people. “He
will not suffer (allow) your standing in Him to be shifted. Your safety is guaranteed from the highest source.
“The Lord is thy Keeper.” His wisdom, power, love―all His attributes are a royal battalion—a bodyguard
around you … unceasingly around you.
God is the only true help of the soul. He alone can raise it from its fallen condition, break its fetters, heal
its wounds, energize its faculties, and set it on a course that is safe and prosperous. To Him, the godly soul
instinctively looks in times of trial. The worldly man in trial looks to earthly things for help and support―to
social sympathies, to human friendships, to Church officers; but the good man turns at once to God and feels
that from Him alone, the necessary help can come. And it does!
We are told of a busy editorial worker whose eyes began to trouble her. When she visited the oculist, he
told her she did not need new glasses but rest for the eyes. That, she told him, was impossible. Her work
compelled her to sit all day bending over a desk, reading, and writing. The wise oculist asked her where she
lived and found it was in full sight of the Blue Ridge Mountains and the Alleghanies. “Go home,” he said, “and
do your work as usual, but every hour or so, leave your desk and go and stand on your porch and look at the
mountains. The far-away look will rest your eyes. That is what worship is for—the far-away looks.
Francis Mason
Pastor Mason