Psalms for Lent: For When You Feel Helpless

Timaeus’ son never amounted to much. 

To be fair it wasn’t his fault. He’d been blind for years. Without his sight, he couldn’t do much. 

He couldn’t catch fish. 
He couldn’t count money.
He couldn’t read Scriptures or make chairs.

He could only beg. For years, he had been setting up shop on the side of the road. He’d lean against a tree trunk. He’d lift his eyes up towards the road. He’d listen. And when he heard people coming, he’d shout: 

Help! Help me! Some money. Some food. Some anything. Help me. 

He was helpless. 

As a lifelong blind beggar, Bartimaeus grew more hopeful when he heard certain voices approaching. The short, abrupt voices weren’t very kind. He barely received anything other than “get-a-job” pleasantries from them. But other voices, kinder voices, jovial voices would find some way to help him—a coin, a sandwich, a few pieces of beef jerky. In fact, that was so common that when he heard a voice like this he would sit up a bit taller, hold his hand out a bit longer, and wait a bit happier. 

But on this particular day, as he sat in the glistening sun – his muscles growing tired from holding his palm out – he heard a voice that was different. A voice that was kind. A voice that was powerful. A voice that was divine. 

Could this be Jesus? He had heard of him. His words. His thoughts. His miracles. 

As the hubbub of the teacher’s group grew closer, the man pulled himself up with a tree branch and shouted out as loudly as he could: 

Jesus! Have mercy on me. Jesus have mercy on me!
Jesus, Son of God, have mercy on me!

Finally, his shouts quiet the crowd around him. After a few moments of silence, so quiet that he could feel the stares of everyone around looking at him, he heard that divine voice speak: 

What would you like me to do for you?

Bartimaeus thought. 

As much money as he could muster. 
A sandwich. 
Maybe Jesus could hook him up with a job. 
Or…Maybe?

I’d like to see.

The request shocked the crowd. 
The request shocked the man. 
How could he ask that? How could Jesus do that? How could he expect that?

But the silence was interrupted by footsteps. 
Jesus walked over. 
He put his hands on his eyes. 
He spoke. 
And…Bartimaeus saw something that he had never seen before.

Light. 
Color.
The world.

Jesus had done it again. Jesus had helped the helpless. 

That’s what Jesus does. And today we’re going to be reminded of that in a wonderful Psalm that’s tailor made for you when you’re feeling helpless. Our goal is to see just why God is the perfect one to turn to when you need help. As always before we delve in, let’s say a prayer and ask God to bless us: O Lord, strengthen us by the truth, your Word is truth. Open our eyes to see what you want us to see; open our ears to hear what you want us to hear; open our hearts to believe what you would have us believe. Amen.

I.    Lift Up Your Eyes

Psalm 121 is all about a guy who needs help. He’s, in fact, helpless. We don’t know the situation that he’s in. Is he months behind on the mortgage? Did he have a knock down drag out fight with his wife? Did he just find out that he has leukemia? Is he in danger of losing his job at work? We’re not told. Perhaps that’s for the best – it makes it very easy to insert whatever helpless feeling situation that you find yourself in. 

Look at verse 1. He says, “I lift up my eyes to the mountains—where does my help come from?” In that verse you get a semblance of how he’s feeling. He’s lifting up his eyes – the impression is that he’s in a very lowly place or at least feels very lowly. He’s sullen. He’s down in the dumps. He’s feeling very much like he’s fallen and he can’t get up. 

This all leads up to a very important question that he ponders deep within his soul: Where does my help come from?

Before we any farther – to help us apply this to ourselves – we’ve got to ask ourselves the same thing. (And so) I’m going to ask you to the same thing:  

Where does your help come from? 

Of course, we’re in church. You might have a hunch that the right answer is God. You might have looked ahead in the Psalm and seen that the Psalmist’s answer is God. So, you might want to knock that softball Sunday School question out of the park and answer, “GOD! My help comes from God. Now, where’s my gold star?” 

But just because you know that you should go to someone for help, doesn’t mean that you actually go to someone for help. 

Who do you go to for help? Think about it. 

•    When you find out your behind at rent, do you pray to God for help OR do you start by making a list of all the ways that you can solve this on your own?
•    When you get in a fight with your spouse, do you open up a Bible for guidance or do you try to fix it on your own?
•    When you find out that there’s a problem at work, do you send your boss an email, “I’ll get to work on it right now, but praying for God’s blessings on this project.” ?
•    When you have a health scare, do you look for the best doctor who uses the best medicine and works at the best facility but forget all about looking at THE best Doctor, who uses THE best medicine and works at THE best facility?

It’s sad, huh? We know where our help should come from. But that doesn’t mean that’s where we actually go to for help. 

But that’s so foolish! Because when you’re on the ground, as low as you can go, and you only look down – you won’t find any help! The worm can’t lift you up. The piece of grass won’t offer words of comfort. The snail doesn’t have a helping hand to extend – he doesn’t even have hands. 

If you’re feeling lowly and you keep your eyes on an earthly level, you won’t find the help you need. 
Which will cause you to feel like no one can help you. 
Which will leave you feeling helpless. 
Which means our feelings of helplessness are because of a lack of help, but a lack of looking in the right place. 

It’s a lack of looking up!  

II.    The Help Up There

Because look at the help that’s there when you look up. Verses 2-8 say it so beautifully. Listen to the description of your Helper in its entirety.

2 My help comes from the Lord,
    the Maker of heaven and earth. 
3 He will not let your foot slip--
    he who watches over you will not slumber;
4 indeed, he who watches over Israel
    will neither slumber nor sleep.
5 The Lord watches over you--
    the Lord is your shade at your right hand;
6 the sun will not harm you by day,
    nor the moon by night.
7 The Lord will keep you from all harm--
    he will watch over your life;
8 the Lord will watch over your coming and going
    both now and forevermore.

(1) A Universe Maker

Check out what verse 2 says:  

My help comes from the Lord,
the Maker of heaven and earth. 
He will not let your foot slip--

Notice it doesn’t say that my help comes from my dog. It doesn’t say my help comes from a three-year-old kid. It doesn’t even say my help comes from Steve Urkel. Our help comes from the LORD! He’s no weakling. He’s not unable to help. He’s the Maker of heaven and earth. 

We’ve got to take a break from our evolution, there is no god, the world evolved over billions of years society to properly understand just how powerful the maker of Heaven and earth is. Because our science books have such a grip on us that we forget that whole evolution thing is nothing more than a THEORY. Not a fact. Not a video recorded truth. A Theory. 

And as a result, Christians have just melded God into that theory…as if God caused a big bang and then it took billions of years for him to accomplish the world that we have today. That’s cool—kinda—but it means that the power isn’t that incredible or instantaneous. That’s like someone solving a Sudoku after working on it for a year and a half. I guess that’s impressive?

But this billion-year evolution is not what the Bible says.
It’s not what God says. 
It’s not what Jesus, the guy who died and came back to life – the guy that we trust with our salvation – says: 

The Bible describes God creating the world in six, 24 hour days. That’s amazing. Stop and think of the logistics. It means that God spoke and mountains surged forth from the ground. God spoke again and waterfalls rushed into an incredible ocean. God spoke again and fully grown, seed bearing trees formed from Asheville to the Outer Banks. God spoke one more time and whales, elephants, lions, tigers and bears did whatever he wanted them to do!

That’s your God. Almighty. Powerful. That’s the one who is your help! The maker of heaven and earth!

Do you think helping you out of debt is really that hard?
Do you think healing a disease is all that difficult?
Do you think you think repairing a relationship is beyond him?
Do you really think the one holding up the stars and moon and Jupiter and those new planets just discovered outside our galaxy is able to let you slip?

No way.

(2) An Eternal No-Dozer

Because what good would this divine Creator be to you if he was asleep? That’s like a kid wanting some help with his homework but finding dad asleep on the couch. Not that sleep is bad; it’s just that sleep isn’t very helpful. 

And everyone sleeps. Your doctor. Your dentist. Your car mechanic. They all sleep. All of our helpers sleep. 

Except God:

3 ---  he who watches over you will not slumber;
4 indeed, he who watches over Israel
    will neither slumber nor sleep.

He will never be too tired to help you out. 
He will never be so groggy that he doesn’t notice you’re in need. 
He will never be so far passed out that he doesn’t answer your prayers. 

God doesn’t slumber. 
God doesn’t sleep. 
God doesn’t stop being ready to help you. 

(3) Your Sunscreen

Ok. It doesn’t exactly say sunscreen and I don’t mean to imply that God can be found in a bottle at the local store. But look at what Verses 5-6 describe:

5 The Lord watches over you--
    the Lord is your shade at your right hand;
6 the sun will not harm you by day,
    nor the moon by night.

Because what does shade do? It keeps you out of the hot sun. When it’s 110 degrees and you’re hot and you’re sweaty and you’re tired and your skin is starting to ache as you slowly turn into a lobster, the shade of a tree is one of the best things you can find! It’s cool. It’s relaxing. It keeps you protecting from the danger of the sun. 

That’s God.
He protects from the harmful burns of the devil. 
He comforts us with His promises of protection. 
He stops the harsh rays of guilt from destroying our souls. 
He cools us down from the stress of life as he says, “Peace. I’ve got this. You’ll be ok. I love you.” 

(4) A Keeper from All Harm 

7 The Lord will keep you from all harm--
    he will watch over your life;
8 the Lord will watch over your coming and going
    both now and forevermore.

Which is a wonderful thought. But as you’re seeing this, maybe you’re thinking, “That’s not entirely true. If there was no harm, then I wouldn’t be feeling helpless. If he was watching over all the time – then what about last Thursday at 5:15pm when that awful thing happened?! Does he really keep from all harm?”

That’s a matter of perspective, isn’t it?

It’s like one of those pictures that seems like one thing until you turn it 90 degrees and then it looks like something different. There’s one famous picture of a duck until you turn it to its side and it looks like a rabbit. Different perspectives = different thoughts = same picture. 

It’s the same thing with God. You and I look at it and we might think: This is no good. This is awful. This is harm!

But God looks at it and says:

This will cause you to look up for help. 
This will cause you to rely on me like never before. 
This will cause you to remain in faith until I bring you home to heaven. 

That’s not harm. 
That’s awesome. 
That’s God.
That’s why we look up. 

CONCLUSION: 

Because up is where the mountains are. 
Because up is where our help is. 
Because up is where our help is on a mountain. 

Calvary. 
It was dark. 
It was sad. 
It was bloody. 

There hung Jesus. Losing blood. Running out of breath. Slowly dying. Looking like he needed help!

But he didn’t. 
In fact, he wasn’t in need of help, he was up there because you were in need of help. 
You were completely covered in sin. 
You were deserving of eternal death. 
You were without a way of helping yourself. 

But on that cross Your Help reached out. 
On that cross, the Maker of Heaven and Earth– created something new – a way for you to get to eternal life. 
On that cross, the one who never slumbers or sleeps – remained awake until every last sin of yours was paid for. 
On that cross, your shade in the day and in the night – was also your shade from sin, death, and hell. 
On that cross, the one who protects you from all harm -- protected you from harm. 

And he will do that. Always. 

Just keep looking up. Your Help comes from the Lord. 
Amen.