LENT | Our Help - Fr. Chad E. JarnaginPsalm 121 (NRSV)1 I lift up my eyes to the hills—from where will my help come? 2 My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth.3 He will not let your foot be moved; he who keeps you will not slumber.4 He who keeps Israelwill neither slumber nor sleep.5 The Lord is your keeper;the Lord is your shade at your right hand. 6 The sun shall not strike you by day,nor the moon by night.7 The Lord will keep you from all evil;he will keep your life. 8 The Lord will keepyour going out and your coming in from this time on and forevermore.Psalm 121 is poetic assurance of God’s presence and activity. Many of us resonate with books of poetry in Scripture because of the rhythm and cadence they have. We have to think that they writers wrote them intentionally. This psalm is a process of change. It gives us an effect of God’s presence - Maybe these kinds of psalms can help us with our perspective... which is a changed way of seeing or observation.“We would rather be ruined than changed. We would rather die in our dread than climb the cross of the present and let our illusions die.” W.H. Auden (Apropos of Many Things)Illusions are that which we have fabricated or constructed to give us a sense of safety, worth, or even identity.There is an ultimate place to look for help. Sometime we look to “alternatives”. But this psalmist tells us to seek help from Yahweh. May this be a reminder that changing our perspective sometimes requires us to actually change.When David looked at those hills, he saw something more. For as many as ten or fifteen years, David had hidden in those very hills, from a brutal king who was trying to kill him. So, in those hills, he saw protection. He saw deliverance. David knew the presence of God in those hills. When he became king, he wanted to remember that even in the darkest places, God was still there... fulfilling the promise He had given him when he was a young, even when it seemed impossible.I am my Beloved’s and my Beloved is mine.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
