Into the Wilderness – Psalm 121

Well, friends, I don't know about you,

but in our family, we are intense

mountainloving people. Uh, we camp in

the summers and we play in the winter.

We ski and hike, we snowshoe, we trail

run. Uh, truly like the Utah mountains

are our favorite place to be in the

whole world in our family. Uh, but my

confession to you is that was not always

the case for me. Um, in fact, in the

late 90s when I moved to Salt Lake and

met my husband, I was fresh from the

city in California. I was afraid of the

woods. Uh, I had never heard of

Patagonia and REI.

I am not kidding when I say I did not

own anything even close to remotely uh

be considered hiking boots. Uh, in fact,

on our first date, um, Dave took us on a

hike, and the only shoes I had that I

felt like qualified for outdoors were

like the white kids of the 80s and 90s.

You know them, right? They're made of

linen. They have no traction.

And I'm not exaggerating when I tell you

that halfway up the hike, I slipped and

fell into the creek. Uh, it was

embarrassing.

Um, but my wounded pride of course like

had to overcome and so I just like

pretended like I had it and I was going

to keep up with this boy who had taken

me on a hike. Uh, now Dave is a serious

outdoorsman, always has been. Um, and he

assumed in moving to Utah that everybody

else was too. Uh, in fact, he thought

that taking a girl on a first date to a

death march up the mountain

was a good and romantic idea.

Now, I do remember him like faltering

for like just one quick second in the

car when he looked down and saw my

shoes. Uh, but being young and dumb, he

didn't quite see them as the red flag

that they were.

Now, after my slip and fall in the creek

on the first date, you'd think it

wouldn't get worse, but it did. It did.

Um, I am not kidding when I tell you

that when we finally made it to the top

to like the gorgeous lookout over the

whole valley that I'm sure was the

point. Uh, I turned and promptly vomited

all over the place in front of him.

Classy. It was not romantic. It was not

fun at all. No, it's kind of a miracle

that we made it past that first date,

actually. But I will give him some

credit. Uh Dave, he would not be

deterred by this. He just started

showing up to my house with gifts every

time we got together. Gifts like boots

and hiking poles and uh a camel back.

Who knew you could have a backpack

filled with water? I was amazed.

uh backpack, all the things, sleeping

bag. Um it was actually kind of

problematic. I mean, not until his

grandmother told him he might want to

ease off and try for flowers or

chocolate did he stop showing up with

stuff from REI.

But I'll give it to him. It did

eventually work. It did. Um we fell in

love thankfully, but I fell in love with

the mountains. I often tell him it's one

of the great gifts he gave this city

girl was a deep love for being outside

and the importance of proper footwear.

Yes.

Well, this morning we are continuing in

our series talking about what it is to

wander in the wilderness, what it is to

get comfortable with being outside

somewhere unfamiliar.

And we're going to turn to Psalm 121

this morning. And this is a psalm about

heading up into the hills. It's about

scrambling up into the mountains. It's

about backpacking through the wilderness

and just hoping you're going to make it

to the top. And so friends, hear the

word of the Lord. I lift up my eyes to

the hills. Where will my help come from?

My help comes from the Lord who made

heaven and earth. He will not let your

foot be moved. He who keeps you will not

slumber. He who keeps Israel will

neither slumber nor sleep.

The Lord is your keeper. The Lord is

your shade at your right hand. The sun

shall not strike you by day, nor the

moon by night. The Lord will keep you

from all evil. He will keep your life.

The Lord will keep your going out and

your coming in from this time on and

forever more. This is the word of the

Lord. Thanks be to God.

Well, you probably know that this is one

of the most well-known psalms in all of

scripture. And it's part of a special

collection called the Psalms of Ascent.

The Psalms of Ascent. Um, this

collection of psalms, um, they were used

like a song book, like a prayer book for

travelers as they made their way to

Jerusalem.

And the title of the collection, it

tells you what they were doing.

They were ascending.

They were hiking. They were quite

literally going up the mountain often

from Jericho, which was 800 ft below sea

level, to the temple in Jerusalem, which

was 2,200 2400 ft above sea level. So

quite a trek. These folks were literally

looking up to the hills and asking,

"Where's my help going to come from? How

am I going to make it?

How are we going to survive?

It's a psalm for all of us who journey

in the wild, all of us who make our way

in the wilderness.

But if you look really closely at the

text, you'll notice something kind of

interesting. There is an abrupt shift

between the second and third verses

between the first person and the second

person.

It begins with I lift my eyes to the

hill. Where does my help come from? And

then it shifts to the second person. It

says God's not going to let you stumble

or fall. God will keep you safe.

Now this could be just an expression of

the psalmist like internal dialogue as

they sort of self-t talk themselves

through the climb maybe but most

scholars assume that it's actually it

was a psalm written and used as a call

and response almost like every Sunday we

give a weekly call of worship where we

go back and forth in this refrain

between one another reminding ourselves

that we can do this that we're in it

together.

So, you can picture a hiker, right? Like

on the edge of the trail, starting to

get anxious about the journey ahead and

calling out, "How am I supposed to get

up there?

I'm not sure I can make it to the top.

Where is my help going to come from?"

A and then their friends and their

community and all those who are also out

there in the wilderness, they come

around and they say

things like, "You don't have to do it

alone.

Your God will go with you.

Your God will keep your feet stable and

watch over you day and night. God's not

going to let anything happen to you."

Often it's these people that wrap around

us giving us this kind of encouragement

when we're afraid that get us to the

top. It's why we have Kairens sort of

used as this metaphor during this season

of Lent. People keep asking me, "Why are

we stacking up rocks in the sanctuary,

Jamie?" And I'm like, "Because they are

the image of what happens when we get

lost on the trail." And if you've ever

been lost in a trail, when you turn and

you see one of those, you see somebody

that has traveled this path before you

and has found the difficult turnoff that

most people don't recognize and has

chosen to market for future weary

wilderness wanderers.

So, a couple of you took my advice and

you brought rocks in and added them to

our Kairens today. I'd encourage you to

do that as you're out and about. Bring

in a rock and stack them up with us.

But I think it's a beautiful picture of

what it is to make it through our

wilderness wandering

because the truth is is we have to start

by just like naming how scary it is that

often our lives are quite uncertain.

They're terrifying at times. We look up

at those hills and those mountains and

it looks pretty steep. We wonder if

we're going to be able to make it.

And it's in those moments that when our

community comes around us to remind us

that we're actually not here alone

that we won't be left out here in the

wild unattended.

That gives us the resolve and the

strength and the courage to keep

climbing.

God will keep us steady and sedive.

And so how does God keep us steady and

safe? Well, let's ask the psalmist

because I don't know if you noticed

this, but six times in just these few

verses does the psalmist declare to us

over and over and over and over again

that God is our keeper. That God will be

our keeper. The word to keep, the verb

is shamar in the Hebrew, and it means to

preserve and to protect and to watch

over, to guard, to keep.

It doesn't mean simply like to have

something to own something. It doesn't

mean to be a distant passive observer.

No, this word implies like care,

attentive connection, watching over

someone and protecting them because of

your love for them.

Uh writer Robert Fischer put it well.

There's a big difference between having

and keeping. He says, for instance, I

might have a favorite sweater. It's my

possession. However, I keep my puppy

dog.

He is not merely a possession. He's my

beloved dog. He's dear to me. Therefore,

I watch over him, not for my sake, but

for his. I protect him from harm because

if he suffers, it hurts me, too.

Likewise, God does not merely have us.

God keeps us. We are God's beloved and

immeasurably dear to God. We're not

merely possessions in the eyes of the

Lord because if we suffer, it hurts God,

too. Psalm 121 celebrates the fact that

our Lord is our keeper.

Is our keeper. And so, how does God

promise to keep us? Let's talk about

that. Verses three and four, they go

right to the heart of all the like

practical immediate needs we might feel

in the wilderness. Starts right with the

shoes.

In verses three and four, we're told

that choice of footwear aside, God will

not let our feet be moved.

God will hem us in. God will hold us

steady. No matter how precarious the

trail looks, God's got us. And and then

when we find ourselves exhausted from

the hike, worn out by the journey,

needing desperately to sleep, we feel

like we can. And why? Because we're told

that God actually is never tired.

That our keeper is attentive

and will keep watch. That we can rest

and we can rest easy and well because

our keeper will make sure that we are

protected day and night. Our keeper does

not slumber. We're told in fact our

we're told our keeper doesn't even nap.

So that's great. We can rest. We can

rest.

When we get to verses five and six, our

keeper promises to be our shade. We're

told, um, this is this image that draws

on the often used metaphor as God as

like mother bird, mother eagle, mother

hen,

pulling us into the safe embrace under

those wings, promising to be our shield

and our refuge from both the heat of the

day and all that might frighten us at

night.

I think this is interesting, but when

the psalm was written, uh, biblical

antiquity, uh, you know, people believed

that the night was full of terrors.

I I think I tend to agree with them

actually. Um, but this idea that at

night you find yourself confused,

struggling with mental illness. They

called it calling, you know, falling

moonruck. Have you heard that term

before?

And so we are, I mean, in fact, you

should know that that's where we get our

word for lunatic or lunacy. It's the

Latin Luna for moon.

But this psalm makes sure to note that

like God is not just shading us in the

heat of the day. God is also our refuge

and our strength and our covering from

all that might threaten our nights, too.

And our psalmist, it just keeps building

on all these promises. Our keeper will

do that and do so much more. Our keeper

will do this and so much more. Each

verse adding, finally coming to this

like glorious crescendo in verses seven

and eight where the promises include

keeping us from evil,

keeping and paying attention to our

going out and our coming in

our whole life all our days

now and forever. Forever. And so our

keepers watching out for us, not just

here and now, but always in every single

thing we might face or go through. every

mountain we might have to climb, every

desert we wander into, whatever we go

through in this life and beyond this

life, we are not alone on the trail, God

is keeping us.

And so if you find yourself in the

wilderness, in this season of your life

right now, you want to know how to make

it through,

this is how

this is how people have been doing it

for centuries.

This is how the people of God have been

surviving the hardest climbs.

By fixing their gaze on Christ,

by recognizing that they're actually not

climbing alone. That God has got them.

God is keeping them.

By looking back to the promises of God

and reminding themselves of what is true

and right and good, that God has kept us

in the past. God has protected us and

preserved us. And God will do it in the

future, too.

And then by building Kairens,

by being the people that maybe have made

it through the wilderness a time or two,

have made it to the top of that

mountain.

And so they gather around the other

folks who are maybe afraid of the

outdoors, who get a little nervous at

night, who aren't sure they have the

stamina to make it all the way to the

top, and they say, "Yes, you can."

and we will go with you and we will mark

the trail and our God will not let you

get lost.

The challenge I think for us in our own

time is that often it's really hard for

us to allow God to be our keeper.

However, because if we're honest about

it, I don't think it's super easy for us

to just surrender and rely on the help

of others.

In fact, my experience in doing pastoral

ministry for 25 years is that life has

to be pretty well miserable before we'll

ask for help a lot of the time before

we'll turn to one another and turn to

God. We we sort of want to convince

ourselves that we can do it all by

ourselves. It reminds me of a toddler. I

can do it.

But we can't.

We think we're going to make it up the

trail in kids, but we're not.

And even when people extend an offer for

support and help, often we turn it away,

don't we?

This psalm is an invitation to head up

the mountain with a really different

posture.

To instead acknowledge right from the

start of the hike

that you actually don't have to do it

alone. You weren't meant to.

that surrender and unclenched fists

is actually your best shot of making it

through to the other side

to invite God to be our keeper to make

room for genuine transformation on the

journey. You know, some of the most

important steps in our disciplehip

journey as we create a deeper and deeper

relationship with Jesus Christ, it

always involves letting go,

surrender.

It is one of the things the wilderness

will teach you how to do.

It's one of the gifts we actually learn

from those in 12step recovery. If you've

ever been a part of 12step or known

someone who has, these folks have a lot

to teach us.

The first step of the 12 is admitting

that we're powerless and that our lives

have become unmanageable.

Or in other words, we admit we need

help. We can't do it. The second step is

to come to believe that a power higher

than ourselves, greater than ourselves,

can actually restore us to sanity

or that God can provide the help we

need. The third step is to make a

decision to turn our will and our lives

over to the care of God as we understand

him. Or in other words, lift your eyes

to the hills. Fix your gaze on Christ

and recognize and seek God's help.

Folks in recovery get it.

And that's because they've already tried

all the other things that they once

thought would get them through the

wilderness. And then they've learned the

hard way that it didn't work. They've

learned the hard way that actually like

when you're terrified and staring up at

that mountain, the only thing that's

actually going to get you up that

mountain is the one who made that

mountain.

It's about surrendering to the God who

promises to keep us no matter how

difficult our wandering might be.

Scholar and pastor Eugene Peterson

writes this about this psalm. He says,

"The promise of this psalm, and both

Hebrews and Christians have always read

it this way, is not that we shall never

stub our toes, but that no injury, no

illness, no accident, no distress will

have evil power over us. That is, we'll

be able to separate us from God's

purposes in us."

And so friends, all of you wandering in

the wilderness,

making it up that mountain in one piece,

it is not easy. It is not. You already

know that full well. Whatever wilderness

it is that you're walking in today,

there will be stub toes.

You might even fall in the creek.

You could vomit at the top.

But you are not on the trail alone.

Your God will keep you.

Your God will hem you in and hold you

up.

And so as we prepare to come to

communion this morning and celebrate the

Lord's supper supper, I want to close by

reading that psalm as the author

intended it. And what I mean is this.

We're going to read it aloud together.

And some of you might be really sitting

in the first couple verses.

You might be afraid and staring up at a

mountain that looks like it's no

possible way you're going to get there.

Where is your help going to come from?

And some of you, maybe you just recently

built a Kairen for somebody. Maybe you

just made it to the top and the

adrenaline's pumping and you're like, it

really is possible. Maybe you've been up

and down that mountain out in that

desert back and forth many times in your

life. And so you get to be the community

that speaks life into those who are

anxious for the journey

to remind us that God is our keeper. And

so wherever you find yourself this

morning, this is a psalm for you. May

you feel held by its truth today. And so

join me.

I lift up my eyes to the hills. From

where will my help come? My help comes

from the Lord who made heaven and earth.

He will not let your foot be moved. He

who keeps you will not slumber. He who

keeps Israel will neither slumber nor

sleep. The Lord is your keeper. The Lord

is your shade at your right hand. The

sun shall not strike you by day, nor the

moon at night. The Lord will keep you

from all evil. He will keep your life.

The Lord will keep your going out and

your coming in from this time on until

forever more.

Amen to that.