Turn with me, if you would, back
to Psalm 121. Psalm 121, verse one says, I will lift up mine eyes unto
the hills from whence cometh my help. I'll lift up my eyes
unto the hills from whence cometh my help. Every believer is gonna
have moments when he or she gets so low and so broken and so desperate
and so destitute, he or she can do nothing else but lift up his
or her eyes unto the hills. Job said, man that is born of
a woman is a few days and full of trouble. Our Lord said, in this world
you shall have tribulation. Paul said, we are joint heirs
with Christ, if so be that we suffer with him. Peter said, the God of all grace
will strengthen you and settle you after you suffer a while. So far, it's been my experience
that no child of God is exempt from it. I believe there was
a period of time where I thought I might be exempt from it. And I believe there may be some
who would also think that same thing. And I'm very sorry to
say, but so far, it's been my experience that no child of God
is exempt from it. When our Lord said, you shall
have tribulation, that means you're going to have tribulation. Our Lord gives us moments where
things are fine and it's a normal day and life is what we call
good here on this earth. But then in his all wise providence,
and I want to stress that part, in his all wise providence, I
don't even understand, I don't even understand that. But
that's what it is in his all wise providence. Our Lord allows
moments to come and he allows circumstances to come that bring
us into such utter despair. It's like everything about us
shuts down. Have you ever had moments in
your life where you felt like it wasn't even possible to make
your face smile? Some of you know what I'm talking
about. moments when you didn't know
what to do because you just couldn't do anything. You just paralyzed,
spiritually paralyzed. Sometimes the weight of the grief
is so heavy. The gravity of the burden, it's
just so great. All you can do is lift up your
eyes unto the hills. And I'm going to tell you this,
I see brethren go through deep trials and it reminds me of some
of the things that I have had to go through in this life. And
I, you know, I don't, I don't want trials and I don't want
you to go through trials. But I will say that it's the
deep trials that our Lord sends us through that causes us to
relate with our brethren and causes us to feel for our brethren
and causes us to be able to say, I know where you are. There are moments when the grief
of sin, and that's the cause of it every single time, sin,
sin, oh, what sin has done to us. Nobody wants to talk about
it anymore. But oh, what sin has done to
us, sin has ruined us. It has absolutely ruined us.
There are moments when the grief of what our sin has brought us
to and the grief of what our sin has done to us is so great. All we can physically do is lift
up our eyes unto the hills. Thank God He has given us a hill
to lift up our eyes unto. Thank God he has given us a rock
that is higher than us. Thank God. Verse one says, I
will lift up mine eyes unto the hills from whence cometh my help. I believe it's Psalm 12 that
starts out with the two words, help Lord. That's what we need. Help, help. That hill is Christ. That help
is Christ. That security is Christ. That
comfort is Christ. Turn with me over to Psalm chapter
two. Psalm 2 verse 6, God the Father
said, yet have I set my king upon my holy
hill of Zion. That hill is where the king sits. The throne of God Almighty. That's
the hill that we lift up our eyes unto the very throne of
God Almighty. Look at Psalm 3 verse 1. It says,
Lord, how are they increased that trouble me? Many are they
that rise up against me? And I'm going to tell you, that's
my sin. That's my, those are my sins. Many there be which
say of my soul, there is no help for him in God. They just say
to me, there's no help for you in God. But thou, O Lord, art a shield
for me, my glory and the lifter up of mine head. You have lifted up my head because
you lifted up my head. You've lifted up my head because
you've lifted up my head. You know, you've seen in the
movies, somebody's all down in the dumps and somebody else comes
up to them and lifts up their head. Well, our head is Christ. The head of the body is Jesus
Christ. And David said, you've encouraged me. You've lifted
up my head because you lifted up Christ. Verse four, I cried
unto the Lord. with my voice and he heard me
out of his holy hill. I cried to the one who is my
helper and he heard me out of his holy hill. Go with me to Psalm 43. Psalm 43 verse 1, it says, Judge
me, O God, and plead my cause against an ungodly nation. O
deliver me from the deceitful and unjust man, for thou art
the God of my strength. Why dost thou cast me off? Why go I mourning because of
the oppression of the enemy? Oh, send out thy light and thy
truth. You know, that's Christ. I'm
the light. I'm the truth. Oh, send out thy
light and thy truth. Let them lead me. Let them bring
me unto thy holy hill and to thy tabernacles. Lord, turn me to you. Turn me
to you, let them turn me to you, my high place of safety, my high
place of comfort. All of these troubles and trials
and everything that's taking place, Lord, use all of these
things to remind me of my high place of safety and comfort,
which is you, it's you. Turn with me to Psalm 125. These first two verses have been
a refuge for me many times in my life. I mean this, I have
fed on these two verses and rejoiced in these two verses. Psalm 125
verse 1, it says, they that trust in the Lord shall be as Mount
Zion which cannot be removed, but abideth forever. Those that
trust in the Lord are gonna be as Mount Zion, which cannot be
removed, but abideth forever. Verse two says, as the mountains
are round about Jerusalem, So the Lord is round about his people
from henceforth, even forever. I'm telling you that comforts
my heart. I think about when Elisha, that king wanted to take
Elisha, I think it was Elisha, maybe Elijah, but his servant
went out and all of that king's soldiers were coming to get Elijah,
Elisha. And he ran and he said, master,
what are we going to do? And he prayed and said, Lord,
open his eyes that he might see. And when he did, the mountains
were full of horses and chariots of fire. You know, that doesn't
change. He is the Lord and he changed.
He changes not. And if He did it for His people
then, He's doing it for His people now. As those mountains are round
about Jerusalem, the Lord is round about His people from henceforth
even forever. Boy, that is a comfort to me.
Right across the page here in my Bible is our text. Psalm 121
verse 1 says, I will lift up mine eyes unto
the hills, From whence cometh my help? To lift up our eyes
unto God's hills is to lift up our eyes to Christ. It's to look
to Christ. It's to look to the Lamb of God,
the Lamb of God's sacrifice that was lifted up on a place called
Golgotha's Hill. Mount Calvary, our Lord said,
if I be lifted up to that hill, I'll draw you to me. If I'm lifted
up there, I'll draw you to me. The hill of Calvary. He said, that'll be the hope.
That will be the help. That will be the comfort. And
honestly, is it not? Is Calvary, the cross of Christ,
is that not our strength? Is that not our peace? Is that
not our rest? The rest we need in our desperate
moment. That's all that God's people
can do, and that's all they need to do in that desperate moment
is lift up their eyes unto the hills. And this is how we do
it. All right, this is how we do
it. This is the greatest example I've ever seen of what it is
to lift up our eyes unto the hills. Turn with me to Luke 18. If we really want to know what
it is to lift up our eyes to Christ, here it is, Luke 18. The eyes that we're speaking
of are the eyes of faith. the eyes of faith. And this is
what it is to look up with our eyes of faith. Luke 18 verse
9 says, Our Lord spake this parable unto certain which trusted in
themselves that they were righteous and despised others. Two men
went up into the temple to pray, the one a Pharisee and the other
a publican, two men. One was a self-righteous Pharisee
and the other was a wretched publican. Verse 11 says, the
Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself. God, I thank thee
that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers,
or even as this publican. I fast twice in the week. I give tithes of all that I possess. I can envision this man standing
there, you know, shoulders back, chest out, chin up. Can't you
see that? Verse 11, the Pharisee stood
and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank thee that I'm not
as other men are extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as
this publican. I fast twice in the week, I give
tithes of all that I possess. Verse 13 says, and the publican
standing afar off would not lift up so much as his eyes. unto heaven. Now this is what
it is. If we want to know what it is
to lift up our eyes unto the hills, if we want to know what
it is to lift up our eyes to Christ, he would not physically
lift his eyes unto heaven. This is what it is. He stood far away, unworthily,
with his head hanging down, his eyes to the ground, his heart
in the dumps, just spiting himself. That's what it is to lift up
the eyes of faith to the hills of Jesus Christ, the mercy of
Jesus Christ, the grace of Jesus Christ, the salvation of the
Lord Jesus Christ. Verse 13 says, the publican standing
afar off would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven,
but smote upon his breast saying, God be merciful to me, a sinner. Our Lord said, I tell you, this
man went down to his house justified rather than the other. For everyone
that exalted himself shall be abased, and he that humbleth
himself shall be exalted. That's what it is to lift up
the eyes of faith unto the hills. It's to humble self and exalt
Christ. It's to cry out to him in our
moment of great need. Lord, I need you. Go back to Psalm 121. Verse one says, 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 is the creator
of all things. Therefore, he is the owner of
all things. Isaiah 52 says he is the ruler
of all things, reigning over all things. Colossians 1 says
he is the sustainer of all things, and that's why we turn our eyes
to him. That's the reason why. Verse 1 says, 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. We turn our eyes to him because
he's able. He's able to do this. If he's able to do all of this,
he's able to do anything. He's able to help us. He's able
to save us. He's able to keep us. He is able
and he is willing. And that's why we turn our eyes
to him. He's the one. Verse three says, he will not
suffer thy foot to be moved. Let me see if I can see if you
can get a hold of this. Okay. He will not suffer that
foot to be moved. When you look that up in the
concordance, it means he will not allow his sheep to leave
the crook of his staff. Man, that's good. That comforts me. His rod and
his staff, it comforts me. You know, you see a shepherd
with this big long pole with a hook on the top of it. The
rod is the straight part that wards off the enemy, the wolves. The hook, the staff is the hook
that keeps us reined into him. Where are you going? So comforting. Verse three says,
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. I like that. What that means is you can, because
he won't. Something happened one time a
long time ago, right after Hannah and I got married, and it shook
both of us up in the middle of the night. And I told her, you
go to sleep, because I'm not going to. I'm going to sit right
here. Well, we are the ones who can
go to sleep. We can just drift right off to
dream. We have a watchman watching over us. Look across the page
at Psalm 127 verse 1. It says, Except the Lord build
the house, they labor in vain that build it. Except the Lord
keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain. It is vain for you
to rise up early, to sit up late, to eat the bread of sorrows.
For so he giveth his beloved sleep. You can just drift right off
to dream. You just go ahead. You have a watchman watching
over you. You have a keeper keeping you by the power of God. Who
is it? Who are we being eternally, sovereignly,
powerfully kept by? Our text in Psalm 121 verse 5
says, it's the Lord. The Lord is thy keeper. The Lord is thy shade upon thy
right hand. He is your shade. He is your
shield. He's your covering. He's your
hiding place. Verse six says the sun shall
not smite thee by day nor the moon by night. Why is that? It's because verse seven says
the Lord shall preserve thee. He'll preserve you from all evil. He will preserve you from all
evil. Does that mean that nothing that
appears to be evil will ever come to us? Does that mean that
nothing that appears to be evil will ever come to us? No, it
doesn't mean that at all. Everything that Joseph's brothers
did to him, they sold him. sold him and he imprisoned him. They imprisoned him, sold him. He was imprisoned again, lied
to their father, Jacob, everything that they did. They all meant
it for evil. And if you look at the circumstances
of what happened to him and his family, it all appeared to be evil. But
here's the thing about it. God did not mean it for evil. He did not mean it for evil to
come to Joseph. You know, he didn't mean it for
evil to come to his brothers. You know the end of the story.
He didn't mean it for evil to come to Jacob. He didn't mean
it for evil to come to all of Israel, all of the children of
Israel. God meant every bit of it for
good. I'm sure there was no way they
could understand it at the time, but even though it appears that at
the drop of a hat, we could just all be consumed by evil, wicked
sin, the sin that's in us, the sin that's all around us, by
the word and the power of God, we won't be. We're not going
to pay. Our God will preserve us. He'll
preserve us. Verse seven, the Lord shall preserve
thee from all evil. He shall preserve thy soul. He will keep us. He will protect
us. He will preserve us. In the palm
of his hand, that's where all of his people are in the palm
of his nail scarred hand. Those scars are our reminder. We're kept in the palm of his
nail-scarred hand, and those scars are our reminder that he
perished so we could be preserved. The old song says, I'll be looking
for scars up in heaven. I don't believe it's going to
take very long. I believe it'll be the first thing we see. But
it says, I'll be looking for scars up in heaven, scars that
love held on the tree, scars that turned judgment to mercy
for a hell deserving sinner like me. Verse seven, the Lord shall preserve
thee from all evil. He shall preserve thy soul. Everything about this flesh is
going to end. but he will preserve the soul of his people forever.
This flesh is gonna return to the dust that it came from, but
that's the moment that the soul will truly live. It'll begin
living truly forever. Verse seven says, the Lord shall
preserve thee from all evil. He shall preserve thy soul. The Lord shall preserve thy going
out and thy coming in. Don't you love that? Out and
in, listen to this. Out of my bondage, sorrow and
night, in to thy freedom, gladness and light. Out of my sickness,
in to thy health. Out of my want, lack, in to thy
wealth. Out of my sin, in to thyself. Out of my shameful failure and
loss, into the glorious gain of thy cross. Out of earth's
sorrows, into thy balm. Out of life's storms and into
thy calm. Out of distress to jubilant song. The Lord shall preserve thy going
out and thy coming in from this time forth and even forevermore. And all we need to do between
now and then is lift up our eyes to the hills. Look and live. My brother, my sister, live. Our life, our rest, our peace,
our hope, our help cometh from the Lord. Amen. Let's all stand together.