May it please God to bless us
together this evening as we meditate in his word. Now let's turn to
Psalm 121 and we'll read the second verse. Psalm 121 and the second verse.
My help cometh from the Lord. which made heaven and earth. This was the expression of the
Psalmist. This was the confession of the
Psalmist. And as we read a statement like
this, I wonder if you and I can also claim humbly to agree with
the words as they apply to our own life, to our own life in a natural
way, to our own life in a spiritual way. I wonder tonight if you
were asked to write down your evidence that you have received
help from the Lord What would you do? What would you write
down? Well, we do want to have the
evidence in our life that we have received help from Almighty
God. And it's not something that you
and I can produce ourselves. We may perhaps foolishly look
to ourselves for help. We may look to men and women
to help us perhaps in situations when of course it's not wrong
to ask others but the important thing is that we may always come
in every time of need to ask God for help. We're very backward often in
praying to God. Sometimes we don't like to admit
it We don't like to confess that we are not as prayerful as we
should be. The Apostle Paul, when he wrote
to the Thessalonians, he put it in a very clear context and
he says to pray without ceasing. I suppose you might say, well,
I think that's a bit excessive and that's a bit strong. As the Lord deals with us, unless
the Lord is gracious to us, our life does become more and more
a life of prayer. Indeed, what we prove is that
prayer is our vital breath. That means as naturally, without
breath, we die, Spiritually, without prayer, we die. And so, as we use the analogy
of the breath of prayer, how important it is that we go about
day by day, breathing out prayers to God from our heart. And of course, there are many
natural things that we need God to help us in during the day.
And sadly sometimes we forget to ask until we find we're in
a situation where we can't really solve the problem. And then belatedly
we pray to God. Now, how condescending of our
God not to turn us away. Not to say, well, you haven't
asked me until now, why should I now take notice of you? We
have a God who is very compassionate. And although we forget God, don't
forget, He has not forgotten us. He's not forgotten us. He's looked upon us in our lives,
day by day. He's watched over us. He's put up with all our evil
heart. He's put up with all our forgetfulness,
he's put up with all our sinfulness, and yet he's still been gracious
to us. And what has he done? He's helped
us. And it may be he's helped us
to call upon his name. You may think that's a very obvious
thing. Well, let me assure you it's not an obvious thing. because left to ourselves, we're
under the influence of the devil. The devil does not want you and
me to pray. When I say that, I'm not talking about just a
formal prayer. There's nothing wrong in a formal
prayer in one sense. But you and I need prayer from
the heart. That means you and I need prayer
indicted by the Holy Spirit of God. That's a tremendous thought,
isn't it? To think that God gives us prayer
to pray to Him. Now, what's the result? There can't be any failures,
can there? God gives prayer. It's indicted
by His Holy Spirit, and there will be answers. Now, it may
not always be to our liking, It may not always be to our timetable, but if the Lord has indicted
prayer from our heart to our God, there will be an answer and therefore God will come and
he will help us, help us in prayer. And it's a good exercise and
a good thing to desire that the Lord will help you and me as
we do pray to God. Because as we ask for his help
in that, I believe then he does give us the right prayers. And by that I mean this, the
prayers which will be, when they're answered, a benefit to our soul's
eternal good. So let us understand how relevant
and how necessary it is to come seeking God to help us in our
prayers, so that we may pray for those things which are good
for us, those things which are needful for us, and to be delivered
from asking for those things which will not be good for us
and won't be a benefit to us. Sometimes we set our hearts on
certain things. We set our hearts on certain
plans. But they may not be in the eternal
purpose of God, for the benefit of our souls, and more importantly,
for the honor and glory of God. Everything that you and I pray
for should have really this in it. Is it for the honour and
glory of God? It's a very significant understanding
as we come to God like that, come seeking that he will enable
us to pray for his will to be done in our lives. That means
to be submissive to him in everything. How we need help then from God
to do this thing because sometimes the Lord's ways, don't forget
they're higher than our ways, but they often don't correlate
with our ways. They're often in a different
way, but be sure of this, they will be the best way. What a
mercy we have a God who knows what is good for our souls. He knows how he is preparing
us for our eternal home. He knows exactly what we need. And we don't. And we don't. I often think of that very simple
request by Javis we read of in the Chronicles. And he just made
this statement at the beginning of his prayer. Oh, that thou
wouldest bless me indeed. That's simple, isn't it? He was
desiring God to help him in that way. Oh, that thou wouldest bless
me indeed. And that's a very safe prayer
because God then will hear and do that for you and me, what
we need and what will bring honor and glory to him. So as we come
to this word tonight, my help cometh from the Lord. Let us
realize the need it is to obtain God's help in prayer and also
to come to our God as we read in this verse, which made heaven
and earth. We're not coming then to an insignificant
God. We're not coming to a God that
is an idol, a God that has no life. We are coming to the almighty
God, the ruler of the universe, that one who created all things,
who spoke the world into being. It's an amazing thought, isn't
it? It's a wonderful truth. And this is the God that by his
grace, you and I are able to come to. And so it's no wonder,
is it? that we have the psalmist here
making this statement. The first verse tells us, I will
lift up mine eyes unto the hills from whence cometh my help. And
it would seem the psalmist here is kind of looking perhaps to
Jerusalem, perhaps looking to the hills, and just wondering
where his help will come from. And then it seems that the Holy
Spirit descends upon him with power from on high, so he realizes
where his help comes from. It doesn't come from the hills.
It comes from the Almighty God. And so he's able to come and
say, with confidence, my help cometh from the Lord, which made
heaven and earth. And so as we come to our God,
seeking for his help. May we recognise that we are
coming to the Lord God Almighty and you know I believe that will
influence us in our attitude in prayer and we won't come then
in a careless way. We won't come in a half-hearted
way because we're coming to that God who holds our breath in his
hand He can dismiss our life in a moment. And so to have a
realization of the greatness of God, I believe the more that
we are granted fellowship with our Lord God, we will know more
and more of his greatness, more and more of his holiness, more
and more of his infinite love, of his wonderful grace, and it
will make us in our own sight smaller and smaller and the Lord
God will be greater and greater and we will come bowing down
before this God and there will be no difficulty in that because
we will be satisfied that we're coming before the Lord God of
heaven the Lord God who omnipotent reigns the Lord God who does
not change And yet the Lord God who is constant, the Lord God
who ever hears the prayers of his people, my help cometh from
the Lord. So we have this evidence of God
helping us in prayer. And then we can think of the
Lord helping us to discern his work in our souls. And this, of course, may be a
great question. It's good, you know, when we
do question these things, the Word of God encourages us to
examine ourselves, whether we are in the faith or not. We should
not go just wandering on, just making an assumption. We do want
to be helped to examine our spiritual life under the searchlight of
Almighty God. Because when God's light shines
into our heart, it picks out all that which is of the flesh,
all that which is of self, and then it reveals to us the work
of God. And so we need to pray that for
God's help in examining ourselves with regard to our spiritual
life and to examine ourselves as to how we stand before a holy
God, to examine ourselves and help to examine ourselves to
determine whether We are one of those for whom Christ has
died. Now, one of the ways that you
and I will be able to conclude that great issue is this. What thinking of Christ is the
test? That will be a requirement and you and I will
need help to examine ourselves, to find what we think of Christ. Now we have many examples in
the Word of God of what the Church of God thought of Christ. We have of course the beautiful
accounts in the Song of Solomon, where the Bride of Christ very
beautifully describes what she thought of the Lord Jesus Christ
who she describes as her beloved, the one who she loved, the one
who she sought after, the one whose voice she wanted to hear,
the one who was her heavenly friend. Well, these are all evidences
of the life of God in the soul. And so, When we come to this
word, my help cometh from the Lord, it is God comes upon us
and gives us that real concern to know the condition of our
soul and what we think of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's a very solemn examination
that you and I pass through. as we ponder that great question,
because if we are children of God, the Lord Jesus Christ will
be to us more precious far than life and all its comforts are. Now that's a very searching and
dividing question, isn't it? And we may have to say, well,
I wish it was so. Well, pray for it. Seek for help. That Christ may be to you and
me more precious far than life and all its comforts are. Because
when we stand at the edge of Jordan, when we stand at that
time when we must cross Jordan, it's then that we won't have
any satisfaction with the comforts and things of time. But we will know the wonderful
blessing of fellowship with the Saviour who said, I will not
leave you comfortless. In our time of need, the Saviour
comes and comforts us and tells us, I am with you. Oh to pray
then for that desire and the evidence that in our soul the
Lord Jesus Christ is precious. And also help to understand and
appreciate that he is our great and glorious High Priest. To have the spiritual understanding
that you and I, because of our sinfulness, cannot approach unto
the Holy Father in heaven because of our sin. But we can approach
through the merits of our Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ, who is
our great High Priest. That's why we have the beautiful
Old Testament illustrations of the high priest, and how he went
about the job that was his, and how he presented the prayers
of the Israelites, especially on that great day of atonement,
when he went into the most holy place, not without blood, which
had to be sprinkled on the mercy seat. And my friends today, you
and I cannot go into the holy place with our prayers, but only
through the shed blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, which has
been sprinkled on the mercy seat, so that we are accepted in the
beloved. My help cometh from the Lord. It'll be a great blessing. The
Lord gives you and me that help to view the Lord Jesus Christ
as our great and glorious high priest. Oh friends, never have
low views of the Saviour. Never have views which are not
high and lifted up. Desire, pray for help to understand
what Isaiah said when he by faith saw the Lord high and lifted
up. You and I can never exalt the
Lord too much. because he is great and high
and lifted up. My help cometh from the Lord. And therefore to be blessed with
this heavenly desire to know Jesus Christ and him crucified. That was the Apostle Paul's desire,
wasn't it? And it wasn't the beginning of
his experience. The beginning of his experience
was perhaps before the Damascus Road, because we're told his
conscience was pricked before then, because the Lord said,
it's hard for you to fight against the pricks, and perhaps some
here tonight are fighting against God. You might not be very willing
to admit it, but the Apostle Paul was brought to that place
where he knew his position. The Lord came and touched his
heart. And what did that do? It caused
him to fall down before God. Oh, my help coming from the Lord. It was God gave him help to take
away all that tremendous pride that the dear old apostle had. And by nature, of course, we're
proud beings, aren't we? It's very hard, you know, to
come and to bow down before God and to acknowledge his lordship
and his kingship over us. We need help to do that. But
it's a good place to come and be found low at his feet. It's a good thing to be found
low and to have a low view of ourselves, and to realise what
the Lord said when he came and spoke
to the Apostle Paul so that he was able to record those words,
O wretched man, but I am. But don't stop there. The Apostle
Paul didn't stop there. And my friends, you don't want
to stop there. Many people may perhaps feel that, but not really
in heartfelt sincerity. The Apostle Paul was breathing
after Christ. And that's why he came and said,
I wretched man that I am. And what did he say? Was he content? No, he wasn't.
He needed help. Who shall deliver me from the
body of this death? He was looking to Jesus for his
help. I thank God through Jesus Christ
our Lord. There was his confidence. You
and I don't need to have anything less than that. I thank God through Jesus Christ
our Lord. Well, as the Holy Spirit enabled
us to come to him seeking help, to look to Jesus, as he said,
so then with the mind I myself serve the law of God, but with
the flesh, the law of sin. Oh, we have to fight. We have
to fight against sin. It's within us. It's there from
Adam when he sinned in the Garden of Eden with Eve. Original sin
it sticks with us. We're not free from it this side
of glory But my friends may we have help maybe plead for help
to resist the devil But he may flee from us. He'll be hovering
around be sure of that He wants to destroy your soul, that's
his great great aim Don't forget that you'll need help. I My help
cometh from the Lord. What a safe place that is, isn't
it? Just, we might say, confined to the Lord himself. My help
cometh from the Lord, which made heaven and earth. We read together
that familiar 46th Psalm, which starts off with those familiar
words, but they are so very wonderful where the psalmist says God is
our refuge and strength and then he tells us a very present help
in trouble a very present help as we come into times of trouble
which we will and it may be spiritual trouble it may be when we examine
ourselves, we find, well, after all I'm not quite sure where
I stand. We need the blessed confirmation
from the Lord Jesus Christ to speak into our hearts and say,
yea, I have loved thee with everlasting love and therefore with loving
kindness have I drawn thee. And what is that? the blessed
work of the Spirit, to draw us to Christ. We need the help then
that the Lord would indeed indict in our heart that prayer to seek
for the evidence that the Lord Jesus has indeed loved us indeed. It will come down to us like
this, saying to my soul, I am thy salvation. You know, when
I visited that man Gordon Daw in hospital at the beginning
of this year. And he was really only converted
on his deathbed when he was 92. Quite a remarkable time. And
latterly, the last few weeks, he was not so clear in his mind. But the amazing thing was he
was in hospital And at night he prayed aloud and the people
in the ward and the staff heard him. And he used to pray, God
be merciful to me a sinner. And he used to pray, say unto
my soul, I am thy salvation. He was concerned about his eternal
state. What a good thing. If you and
I are concerned with our eternal state, it's not how much money
we've got in the bank, it's not what beautiful things we're able
to buy, it's not what a wonderful life we're having. The important
thing is to know that it's well with our soul. My help cometh from the Lord. And as we're able to come to
our God and to seek his help for his honour and glory and
for the comfort of our soul, he will not turn us away. He will help us to reveal himself
to us as we plead a prayer like that. Say unto my soul, I am
thy salvation. Nothing less than that will do.
You and I stand on the edge, on the brink of eternity, don't
we? The brink of eternity. You see, how soon we shall enter into
eternity, we don't know. But one thing we do need to know
is the blessed help from God, the blessed revelation from God
in confirming to our souls that it is well. The Lord Jesus Christ
has died for us. We have it in the word of God.
We need God's help to apply his word to our hearts. A head knowledge will never get
you to glory. Simon the sorcerer, we read of,
he thought he could purchase the gift of the Holy Ghost. Utterly deceived. Utterly deceived. He'd been baptized and now he
wanted to purchased the gift of the Holy Ghost. And the Apostle Peter had to
tell him, you're not right. You're not right. Oh, what a
solemn thing it is to be not right. We don't want to be deceived
do we? Don't build upon a false foundation. Seek God for his
help to enable us to determine that our building is on the rock,
the Lord Jesus Christ. So that when the storms come
we shall stand firm, and of course especially the storm of life,
that last great storm, the storm of death, to know that we shall
not be displaced. We shall not be overcome, but
by His grace, by His mercy, by His love, we shall be found firm
on that rock, that rock which does not move. Isn't it a wonderful
blessing to know we have such a Saviour? Now then, coming back
to that question, what do we think of Christ? To have help,
which comes from the Lord to show to us what has been done for us and
what a debt we owe. And again, we don't want to have
it just in our head. We need the blessing application
by the power of God to show to our souls individually that the
Lord Jesus Christ has come into this world the great God, the
one who made heaven and earth for this great, divine, sovereign
purpose to redeem our souls, to redeem my soul, redeem your
soul. You see, it won't be of any comfort
to know that the Lord has redeemed the person next to you on the
seat, You may be thankful for it, but you want to know yourself. My help coming from the Lord,
to pray to him that you may have the spiritual revelation that
you are indeed redeemed with the precious blood of Christ,
and the price required to pay for your redemption, the price
required to take away your sins, has been paid, has been paid, was paid at Calvary. The Lord Jesus Christ gave his
life for all his church, for all his people. And all my friends,
you and I need help to pray to God that he will reveal to us
that we are among that number. that no man can number. That
blessed number, that by his grace we found around the throne of
God in heaven, singing his praises eternally, that great and blessed
song, worthy as a lamb, that was slain. So, blessed with that
evidence, the proof of that evidence is, where are our affections? Are our affections upon spiritual
things? Are our affections upon things
above? Or are our affections upon things
on the earth? Where is our treasure? Is it
on the earth? Or is it in heaven? Oh that the
Lord would give us help to discern where it is. Now the true seeking
soul will not be afraid to come to the Lord, praying that he
will tell them where it's well with their soul. Because eternity
stands before us and we need to know the blessed humbling
truth that Almighty God in the form of the Saviour has graciously
taken away our sins. And to then have some understanding
of the great cost of that redemption, of the great cost that it was
to the Saviour to purchase us. He paid the price to redeem our
souls. And if you and I are truly believers,
we will never be wearied of coming to Calvary. Because it's a place
of good news to the seeking soul. It's a place of good news to
the undone sinner. It's a place where Christian
came to. And what did he find there? As
he came to the cross, he lost his burden. The burden of sin rolled off
as he looked to Jesus, the crucified one. Oh, what a relief. My help cometh from the Lord.
Perhaps we need God's help to come to Calvary. Perhaps we need
God's help to look to the Lord Jesus Christ. We perhaps need
God's help to hear that gracious exhortation in Isaiah 45, 22. Look unto me, nowhere else. Look unto me and be ye saved,
all the ends of the earth, for I am God and there's none else. the eternal God that made heaven
and earth. What a wonderful blessing it
would be if the Holy Spirit comes and gives us this help. We look to the Lord God. We don't
look anywhere else. We don't look to the hills. No,
we look to the Lord, the Lord God, and not any God, the eternal
God who made heaven and earth. the great compassionate God,
the everlasting God, the God who by His grace we hope one
day to spend eternity with. Well, is Christ precious? He is the one thing needful.
The Lord told Martha that when she was concerned about Mary
and what she wasn't doing. The Lord told Martha, Mary hath
chosen that good part. And what was that? Sitting at
the feet of Jesus. Ah, my friends, what a mercy
when you and I are found like that. When the Holy Spirit comes,
we receive his help to come, meek and moved by his Spirit
to come. and be found sitting at his feet. You know, she was in a teachable
condition, wasn't she? It's a good thing when the Lord
gives us a teachable heart, a willing spirit, to learn of him. Oh, do we seek to learn of him. The Lord tells us, doesn't he?
Come unto me, all ye that are laboring or heavy laden, and
I will give you rest. take my yoke upon you and learn
of me for I am meek and lowly in heart and you shall find rest
unto your souls. That's a gracious word of invitation. Oh may God help us all to come
there casting all our care upon him believing he cares for us. My help, my help. May we all be able to say it,
but in that personal expression, it is a personal word. My help
cometh from the Lord, which made heaven and earth. Amen.