All right, if you take your Bibles
and turn them to Psalm 121. Psalm 121. They titled this message, A Song for
the Weary. A Song for the Weary. And we've discussed this many
times. There are 15. of these Psalms with this title,
the Song of Degrees. The Song of Degrees. Now, one
writer had written this, that these Songs of Degrees, they
often have the same tune. They often start out at a very
low tune. They often start out in great
distress and as the song continues, it is a song of degrees. It elevates
in its melody. It becomes lighter. It becomes
more comforting in its tone. That may be the case. Some people
say that's what the song of degrees are. Others say this, and I'm
more inclined to believe this, that these songs were sung as
the nation of Israel marched from their homes to Jerusalem
every year, three times a year, that the men were required to
leave their homes and attend the feasts in Jerusalem. And as they gathered in these
bands, they would sing these songs of degrees as they went
up to Jerusalem. And so this song of degree, this
song of degree is really helpful to us because we too are journeying
to Zion. You who are believers in Christ,
we are, as the hymn writer said, marching to Zion. Believers in Jesus Christ, you
are the true Israel of God. Now Israel is a nation, they
did march to Zion, but we know this, not all of them that marched
to Zion were really saved. But we know this of true Israel,
spiritual Israel. All of us who are believers in
Christ, all of us who are saved by the grace of God through Christ's
blood, offering by the power and grace of the Spirit, we are
journeying to Zion. It is our aim, it is our goal
to be with our Lord. And we are on a journey. We are
pilgrims and strangers, the Scripture says. in this world. And as we march, we know this,
it is a weary land. I was reading much in the book
of Ecclesiastes this week, and it is a bleak outlook on the
things under the sun. Everything is fleeting. Everything is vanity, empty. Vanity of vanities, all is vanity. He said, I've done everything.
I've had everything a man could ever want and this is what I
have learned in the wisdom God has given him. It is all empty. It lasts only for a moment. The joy is only for a moment
and the joy is gone and you'll look for something else. And
when you got that, it'll be gone too. It's vanity, it's empty. And as we journey to what is
really valuable, We too must suffer in this life. We have
this flesh and we are tempted by these same things, these trinkets
and things that dazzle our minds and eyes. And we grab on to them
just like everybody else and when they disappear we are disappointed. And so we become weary. We become
weary in our travels. through this world is one fold.
We have one Shepherd, Jesus Christ. We travel with one mind, one
heart, and we travel on one way. We got one way. Jesus Christ
is the way, the truth, and the life. We are all traveling as
believers in Christ. We are resting solely on Him
as our Shepherd. And we hold forth His banner,
His royal banner, because we are His soldiers. And He is our
King. And we march toward our home,
not only as soldiers, not only as pilgrims, but sons. John says, you are the sons of
God. It doth not yet appear what we
shall be. Don't look in the mirror and
try to see a son of God. It doth not appear. Don't look
at your circumstances and try to think you're a son of God
based on your circumstances. It doth not yet appear what we
shall be, but when He shall appear, we shall be like Him. We are
His sons. We are sinners saved by grace. I don't think I'd get tired of
saying that to you. We are sinners redeemed by blood,
the blood of Christ, justified of God. made righteous through
the faith and obedience of Jesus Christ. And yet, though we press
toward the mark of the high calling of God, though we are pardoned,
though we are forgiven, though we are redeemed, we still must
experience many troubles. Scripture tells us that those
who are going to the Kingdom of Heaven must do it through
much much tribulation. Peter even says this, why do
you think it's strange that these things happen to you? As though
some strange thing happened. And yet every time, that's exactly
how we view it. We view trials and troubles as
a strange thing. We become weak and burdened with
the things of the world and The flesh causes us to despair even
of life. And so we often need to be refreshed. We often need to be refreshed.
The psalmist here starts off this song again with a very low
condition, a very melancholy tune, a very weary condition
in this, that he is only able to lift up his eyes. He says
this, I will lift up my eyes. Now why is that? Because the
rest of him is laying on the ground. He's prostrated. He's laid out, weary of his journey. The heat of the sun piercing
through and burning his flesh, his face, his clothes are covered
with sweat and dirt. He has got a burden on his back. He slowed down to a crawl. What
started out as a marching to Zion has come to a crawl. He's so weak that he can't lift
anything but his eyes. And so with his heart, with no
strength, he's desiring to see Zion. He looks in the distance
ahead of him. And it's there he finds help
from God to continue his journey. He lifts up his eyes seeking
help from God. Seeking help from God. Believer,
are you weary? Are you weak and desperate? Do you need strength to take
one more step? Where are you going to find such
strength? when the burdens of life only
grow greater. Some of you have been around
a while, you know this to be true, they don't seem to get
lighter. They only seem to grow greater. The burdens of life, the trials
and difficulties. You suppose you could, you that
have been around a while, you suppose you could deal with the
difficulties you have now, when you were much younger? You suppose
you could handle those burdens at that time? No. No. As we grow in grace, so grows
our trials and difficulties. Is the load heavy? Do the rays
of tribulation pierce your soul? Does the night air of sin and
indifference cause you to slow to a crawl? then believer, this
song of degrees is for you. It is written by the Spirit of
God in a spirit of love for you. Now notice the first thing that
we see here in our text is a very deliberate and determined heart. I will lift up mine eyes
unto the hills from whence cometh My help. Now this lost religious
age, they determined to do something. They determined to lift up something
to God. What are they determined to lift
up? Their merits. They determined to lift up their
works and their will before God and offer it as a sacrifice in
order to receive His help. In other words, it's an exchange
program. They want to exchange their labor
for His grace. for His mercy. That's what religion
does. They want you to do something. You're always doing something
so that God then will in turn do something for you. They say, I will be religious. I will be accepted of God based
on the work of Christ and my own work. not the child of God. You know
why? He has no worth. He has no merit. He has no strength. He has no wisdom in himself. Though we are willing and determined
to lift up our eyes, we cannot and will not give any praise
to our determination. You believer, as you determined
to lift up your eyes this morning, where does that come from? Who
gave you such grace as to know your need of help? It is a gift of God. Faith in
itself is a gift of God and not of works. Why? Lest any man should be like this
religious age and boast in His work. Faith is not a work, it
is a gift of grace. Believers, we find nothing of
merit in ourselves for God's help. We cannot and we do not
have any strength in ourselves to lift a finger to move God
to do anything for us. I cannot manipulate God to help
me. You got that? There is nothing
you can do to make God help you. If you can, you got the wrong
God. You got it? You got the wrong God. If you're
doing something, you say, I'm doing this. Okay, God, now you
do it. You got the wrong God. There's nothing I can do to merit
His help. Matter of fact, I merit his desertion. That's what I merit. If I bring
my merit, that's all I'm going to get. He's going to leave me.
And rightfully so. He should leave me. That's what
I deserve. So this determination is not
one of merit. It's one of mercy. The psalmist
is weary. He has no strength. He is looking
to God for absolute free mercy. This is the plight of every believer. I want free mercy. Because there's
no other kind. If it's not free mercy, it's
not mercy. It's marriage. We want free mercy. It's what
the psalmist is looking for. And the only hope that we find
in looking unto the hill, what is this? Jesus Christ. That's
what we're looking for. We're looking to Christ for help.
We're looking to His merits in order to move God to help
us. And nothing in ourselves. We
look by faith to the hill of Zion where God meets in peace
with man. In the Old Testament, that's
what He said. He said, I'll meet you right
there. And that tabernacle, that's where
He said, I'm going to meet with men in peace. That tabernacle
is only a picture of Christ. He is the tabernacle. He is the
high priest. He is the offering. He is the
only place where God will meet with sinners and nowhere else,
He will meet with no one else outside of Jesus Christ in peace. Now, He'll meet with you in judgment
outside of Christ, but He will not meet with you in peace. You
that are in Christ, you know this. The only place where I can find
peace with God is in Christ. In Christ. Remember, it was at
Zion where the atonement was made, where the high priest was,
where the blood was shed for the forgiveness of sins. Even
so, you weary and weak and worn believer, lift up even now your
eyes and behold Christ. You see, He is the High Priest. You know, High Priest is, in
every religion, is important. And most every religion has one.
What is a High Priest? It's somebody to mediate. Somebody
to make an offering for you on your behalf to God. Jesus Christ
is our High Priest. He is our representative before
God, and as that high priest took that blood into the holy
place, He did it for Israel on their behalf. Even so, Jesus
Christ is our high priest. And He has taken not the blood
of bulls and goats, but His own blood into the place, holy place,
and offered it before God. And it's there that the weak
and worn believer looks, if God is going to help me, He's only
going to help me because of Christ. That's the only reason He's going
to help me. That's my only hope to call out to Him. So look now upon the hill of
Calvary. and behold God's sin offering.
When he's saying, I'm looking under the hills, I will lift
up mine eyes under the hills, this is what every believer does,
is we look to Calvary's hill. We look to where Christ was made
an offering for sin. That burden, you that are burdened
by sin, you that are dragged down to the earth because of
your guilt, look and behold Christ. You that struggle daily with
the old man that stabs you and condemns you. You know, I really don't need
men to condemn me. I do that myself daily. Nobody knows what a wicked man
I am more than me. And I don't know the half of
it. But I know who I am. I know I struggle with the self-condemnation. We are often tempted by our flesh
and it grieves us. What is the remedy? Look to Christ
and look at this. His blood was poured out for
your sins. The reason He was nailed on Calvary's
tree was to suffer the justice of God for your sins. God hath made Him to be sin for
us who knew no sin. That we sinners might be made
something we weren't. We might be made the righteousness
of God in Him. Behold his cries of sorrow, my
God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? As we lift up our eyes under
the hill, what are we looking for? We're looking for Christ.
We're seeing his suffering that God forsook him. The scripture
says he was cut out of the land of the living for the transgression
of my people was he stricken. Our Lord Jesus Christ has shed
His blood for our sins. The justice of God, friends,
is satisfied. As I look under the hill this
morning, I want you to know that God's satisfied. I know you're condemned. I know
you feel condemned. But the truth is you're not.
Christ was condemned in your sin. And God is satisfied. Look to
the hills and see that the high priest has offered his own blood
and has come out in victory. He's come out in victory. You
weary pilgrim, lift up your eyes to Calvary and see that Christ
said this. It is finished. It's done. O weary pilgrim, what more is
there to do? Lift up your eyes and behold
it. Embrace it. Believe it. It is finished. Salvation
is accomplished. Hebrews 10 and verse 14, For
by His one offering for sin, He hath perfected forever them
that are sanctified. He hath perfected forever them
that are sanctified. You might say this, I need proof. I need proof. My burden's too great, just take
your word for it. Please don't take my word for
it. You don't have to. God gave you proof that His offering
was enough. What's the proof that Christ's
offering was sufficient? When He said it's finished, does
one thing say something, right? You can say it's finished. How
do you know it's finished? What's the proof? Listen, God
raised Him from the dead. That's the proof that God accepted
His offering. God accepted His offering for
sin and raised Him from the dead and has seated Him upon the throne
of God. Look at Psalm 45, look over here.
Listen to what God says about His Son. Psalm 45, God says, My heart's
indicting a good matter, and I speak the things which I have
made, touching the king. That's not David He's talking
about. This is Christ. Matter of fact,
David's the one writing this. And God says, My tongue is a
pen of a ready writer. Listen to what He says of Christ.
Thou art fairer than the children of men. Grace is poured into
thy lips. He was a prophet of God. Grace
was poured into his lips. He spoke what God determined
you to hear. He is a prophet of God. Therefore
God has blessed thee forever. Gird thy sword upon thy thigh,
O Most Mighty, with thy glory and with thy majesty, and in
thy majesty ride... What? prosperous, successfully,
victoriously, because of truth and meekness and righteousness,
and thy right hand shall teach thee awesome things, terrible
things. And this is going to be the result,
the arrows are sharp in the heart of the king's enemy, whereby
the people fall under thee. That same thing he said, thy
people shall be willing in the day of Thy power." We were the
enemies of God. Are we enemies now? No, the King's
arrow, it went deep into our hearts, laid out that old nature
and gave us a new heart and the people fall under Him. And what is this that we see?
Thy throne, O God, is forever and ever. Thy scepter and Thy
kingdom is a right scepter. Thy love is righteousness, hate
is wickedness. Therefore God, thy God, hath
anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows. All
thy garments smell of myrrh and aloes and cast out of ivory palaces
whereby they have made thee glad. Oh, His garments are beautiful.
His garments are perfect. That's the robe of righteousness
He has made for us. This is what it is to look to
Zion. It is to see Christ. To look
to the hills is to see Christ. If you need help, to see anything
else is no help at all. We see Christ. And the rest of
that passage, you can read that later, that speaks of the church
and how beautiful are the garments of His people. It talks about
the king's daughter and how she is altogether glorious within. You got that? Glorious where? Within. He has made us righteous. Made us righteous. And He did this because God justified
us. So as we become weary with this
matter of condemnation, self-condemnation, the condemnation of men, the
condemnation of Satan, this is our hope. Who is he that condemneth? It's Christ that died. Yea, rather, he's risen again. So then if thyself condemn thee,
look to Christ. If Satan condemn thee, look to
Christ. If the world condemn thee, look
to Christ. He is our help. The Lord is my
help. He says in our psalm, I will
lift up mine eyes to the hills from whence cometh my help. Listen,
my help cometh from the Lord. That's where my help comes from.
Have you tried to find help in men? Now listen, it's good to have
somebody try to help you, but that's what they're doing. They're
trying to help you. When you ask me to do something,
I'll try with all that I can to do it. I am limited. I may be really hindered to help
you, but there's one who can help you. It is the Lord. And so by faith we are looking
to Him alone as all our hope. And there is therefore, the scripture
says now, no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus. No condemnation. So how much
condemnation is against you? I didn't say nothing about how
you feel about it. You feel condemned. Nothing that doesn't matter how
you feel. Actually, really, how much condemnation
is against you? If you're in Christ, you have
no condemnation. None. Why? Your sins are paid
for. They have been redeemed by the
blood of Christ, and God, who required this blood, is satisfied. He's satisfied. So we look unto
the hills, we are looking unto Christ. Now, I want to give you
a word of warning. If you are looking unto Christ,
and your work, there is no help for you. You listen to me, the Lord will
not help you. You remember that man Uzzah?
David had brought that Ark of the Covenant down from Obed-Edom
and he was bringing it back up to Jerusalem. He did it his own
way. He put it on a new cart. God never told him to put it
on a new cart. God said, you get sticks, you put the sticks
on the side, and you have only a certain... The high priest
alone is supposed to carry this thing, and that's it. You don't
put it on an ox, you don't put it on a horse, you don't put
it on a cart. That's how you carry it. And
he didn't carry it the right way. He thought he was going
to do better. And they were dancing and singing and praising God
and all of a sudden that ox stumbled and that ark fell to the side
and that one man put his hand to steady it with all of his
heart. I don't believe he was trying
to do God a disservice. I think he was sincere. I think
he didn't want the Ark of the Covenant to fall in the mud.
But when he put his hand on it, God killed him. Okay, how sincere
you are in religion. You put your work with Christ,
God is going to kill you. That's it. You may not like it,
doesn't matter. David got angry at that. You
know that? He got mad. God said, what in the world are
you mad at? You were to blame for his death. You put your hand to the work
of Christ, you'll find no help. Believer, salvation is in Christ
alone. In Christ alone. Remember, our
Lord was preaching the gospel. His disciples experienced some
trouble and hardship in that, didn't they? In John 6, He preached
the gospel. He had a bunch of disciples. At the beginning of
John 6, He had a lot of disciples. By the end of John 6, He had
12. And one of them was the devil. And you remember what they said
when they all went away? Jesus turned to His disciples and He
said, will you go away also? You that are weary, you that
have lifted up your eyes unto the hills, will you go away also
when trouble comes? I love what Peter said. He said,
Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal
life and we are sure that you are the Son of God. We're sure
of that. I don't care. I don't understand. I say I don't understand half.
I don't believe I understand anything about providence. I just don't. I don't know how
in the world this is all going to work out. It is. I just don't
know how. I'm confused. But it doesn't matter what I
know, it matters who I know. Lord, I know this, I'm sure of
this, You're the Christ. You're the Son of the living
God. We got nowhere else to go. Believers, have you looked to
Jesus and do you now look to Christ? I know this, if you are
His, you'll continue to look to Him the rest of your days.
You've got nowhere else to go. And if you could go somewhere
else, you wouldn't. You wouldn't. You know He is
the way to Zion. Now, I've got, I know I've already
took up my time. Boy, I tell you what, it goes
so fast. I know it's hard for you, but it seems like it's just
a minute for me. I'm going to give you these things,
and as you're journeying, as you're looking to Christ, there
are five things I want you to see. We're just going to go through
them in this psalm. First of all, you that are looking
to Christ for help, I want you to know His power. You go to
Him for help because He has power to help you. Look at this text. My help cometh from the Lord
which made heaven and earth. The same Lord who loved us and
gave His Son to die, sent His Spirit to give us life and faith.
The same God who He spoke all things into existence. The same
Lord sent His Word, and His Word is going to endure forever. This
Word that we have here, how many hundreds of years this Word endured?
You know, when we're dead and in the ground, this Word's still
going to endure. When we're in heaven, guess what? We're going
to be singing about this Word forever. His Word endures. Why? Because He has power. His
Word is not just a Word. It's accompanied with power.
That's why it endures. That's why it's effectual to
you. That's why you receive it and you love it. Because of His
power. His power. God is, listen to
this, all power. Someone said this to me, you
know if God has all power, that means nobody else has any. Isn't
that right? If He has it all, well how much
do you have? Now He may give you strength,
but it's really His. He is all powerful. He is all
powerful, therefore, All things that happen in time and eternity
are controlled by His power. He said, I'm God, there's no
other God beside me. It's as though God looked over
here and looked over here and said, nope, nobody else but me.
It's just me. I declare the end from the beginning
from ancient times of things that were not yet done saying
my counsel shall stand and I will do all my pleasure What's happening
right now? In the world, what is happening
right now? Is it chaos? Is it out of order? No, it is sovereignly determined
by the omnipotent power of God. That's what's happening. Does
that help you? You a believer, you look into
Christ, does that help you? He has all power. That means He
can do anything He wants to do. And anything He wants to do,
He's going to. There's some things that I want
to do and I just can't do. I just can't do it. I can't turn
that clock back and, you know, give me an extra few minutes.
Can't do it. But He has all power. This should
help you. This should help you. Second
of all, this is it. This should help you is that
He has made all provisions to keep you. Look what it says. He will not suffer thy foot to
be moved. In other words, He will not allow
one of His people to be lost. That's bold, isn't it? Isn't
that a bold statement? I couldn't say that if it wasn't
in the Word of God. Jesus said, I know my sheep and
have known of mine, and I give unto them eternal life, and they
shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my
hand. That simple word, is that plain, simple language? Yet people
all the time tell me, well, you can be saved and be lost. Well,
you can. You can, because your God's not
God. My God said, I will not. I will
not. He who has all power says this,
I will not suffer thy foot to be moved. No one of his people
shall be lost. All that the Father giveth me
shall come to me, and him that cometh to me I will in no wise
cast out. This is the will of him that sent me, that of all
he hath given me I should lose how many? Nothing. I remember
Donnie talking about zeros. He said, you take You take a
zero and you add a zero, what do you get? And if you add ten
million zeros onto a zero, what do you get? So how many are you
going to lose? Zero. Zero. It means none. None. He's not going to lose any. I
will not suffer. I've made all provisions in time
and eternity to make sure you make it to Zion. Does that help
you? You get weary going to Zion, does that not help you? You're
going to make it. God said you would. I'm not going to suffer
you to be lost. I'm not going to suffer your
foot to be moved. He will keep you. He will keep you. Scripture says that He is able
to keep you from falling. Isn't He able? Well, if you believe
number one, then number two is true. If He's all-powerful and
He says He'll keep your foot from moving, then surely that's
true. He will keep us from falling.
He will never allow us to be moved. He holds us to the rock
of ages which He has supplied. I like that. He said, I lay in
Zion a stone, a precious stone, a tried stone, cornerstone. He that believeth shall not,
what? Make haste. You want to get off
of this rock? Any believer want off this rock?
No, I'm not making haste to get anywhere. I'm staying right here. Why? He planted me here. I'm
here because He planted me here. He made all provisions to keep
me here. Therefore Paul said this, hold fast your profession
of faith, hold fast. Hold fast. Without wavering. Why? He is faithful. He is faithful. Thirdly, notice
His presence. In verse 2, He says this, He
that keepeth thee will not slumber. Behold, he that keepeth Israel
will neither slumber nor sleep. Our all-powerful God who has
made provisions to keep us, Listen to this. What good would it be
if in some time he missed something? You guys went to sleep last night,
and I'm sure you missed something. When you went to sleep, you were
oblivious to anything that was going on around you. What if
God were to sleep? What if He were to wink His eye
and miss something? Well, then you could be lost.
That's what he's telling you. His presence is always with you. He neither slumbers nor sleeps. Now, when Elijah made fun of
that false god, Baal, he said, maybe you're God's sleep. Maybe
he went for a walk. Maybe he's in the bathroom. Maybe he's in the bathroom and
he missed something. That's the god of false religion.
He's always missing something. He said, dead, come it, I didn't
even, I didn't plan for that. No, my God, he says that keepeth
thee will neither slumber nor sleep. What does this mean? Simply
this, I will never leave you nor forsake you. Now when did
he leave you? When has he left you? You may have lost a sense of
his presence, but has he ever left you? Before you knew him,
he was still with you. How do you think you made it
to that point of conversion? Except He was always with you. Watching you. Watching you. I like that when Jesus told those
disciples to go rowing on that water, and they got stuck out
there rowing, toiling, and the Scripture says He saw them. Now He was on a mountain. The
Scripture says He saw them toiling and rowing. He never took His
eyes off them. Does this help you? He'll never take His eyes off
you. He'll never take His eyes off you. You are in Christ. So this is His presence. He's
always with you. Number four is protection. Think
of that. He is thy keeper. He is the shade
upon thy right hand. The sun shall not smite thee
by day, nor the moon by night. He is thy protection. Consider
that, that not even the sun... Go out in the sun and try to
keep it from hitting you. He says, it will not hit you
unless I expressly give it permission to do so. Your trials and your
temptations, what does this mean? Your troubles, your afflictions,
your pain, your grief, your sorrow, it does not come on you by surprise. No, I am thy keeper. I am as
close as the shade on your right hand. He keeps us from the sun of affliction
and He keeps us from the night of indifference. How is it that you're still here? You still believe, right? How
is that? The Lord is thy keeper. Does
this help you? I just don't know if I can make
it to tomorrow. Well, did you make it yesterday? Who kept you
yesterday? Why are you even concerned about
tomorrow? Except the Lord's keeping you.
You know who's not concerned? Unbelievers. They don't care. We do. And this is my help, the
Lord is thy keeper, He is thy protection. And notice this,
He is thy preservation. He said, the Lord shall preserve
thee from all evil. He is thy preservation. The Lord
shall preserve thee from all evil. Listen what... It's kind of hard to find Zephaniah
chapter 3, but listen what God said. The Lord hath taken away
thy judgments. What Christ did, He has cast
out thine enemy. The King of Israel, even the
Lord is in the midst of thee. Listen. Now, do you believe this? Because I struggle with unbelief
concerning this. Listen. Thou shalt not see evil
anymore. Do you believe that? The Lord shall preserve thee
from all evil. Thou shalt not see evil anymore. Is what is happening to you,
is it evil? Is it for your benefit or your
destruction? It feels like the destruction.
But in truth, it is for your benefit. The Lord shall preserve
thee from all evil. He shall preserve thy soul. Though
the body be riddled with affliction and sickness and sorrow and pain.
This is the most important, isn't it? Isn't that what the Lord
said? He said, what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?
Yet the Lord says, I'll keep your soul. Though your body may
be afflicted, your soul is what's important. And He has promised
to help you in this. He will preserve your soul. The
Lord shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in from this
time forth, even forevermore. He shall preserve you in every
providence, in going out and coming in. And He's going to
do it forever. Lift up your eyes unto the hills,
for He is my help. The Lord has all power. The Lord
has made all provisions for my soul. The Lord is all my protection. The Lord is my keeper. The Lord
is present with me always. And he will preserve me unto
the end. I pray God will bless this to
you. Let's stand and be dismissed in prayer. Our Father, dismiss us with your
blessing and your grace. Help your weary saints. Keep our eyes fixed upon Christ. Guide us in every way that we
may keep close to your word. Believe it. Trust it. It is our
help and assurance and hope Pray, Father, that You'd bless Your
people. Bring us back again to worship You. I ask this in Christ's
name, amen.