Psalms of Ascent | I Lift Up My Eyes to the Hills

Greetings, welcome to reality Church.

Glad that you're here with us today.

Happy Father's Day. Happy Juneteenth.

My name is Austin. I'm one of the pastor's here and

I'm going to be continuing our Series in the Psalms of ascent

that we started. Just last week these Psalms our

a collection of 15 songs or poems.

That pilgrims on their way up to Jerusalem for different Jewish

feasts would sing together. Or site as they made their

Journey up to the temple, to celebrate their Journey, songs

are travel songs, think of it, like, maybe some time.

Somebody wants burned. You a CD, for road trip with

some driving tunes, right? Like, these are like the Bible

version of your road trip music, but as with every good road

trip, right? You need a destination, this

journey has a destination. And when we think of the, our

lives and the life of Faith, right?

Is a destination in mind where we're some time.

Herbs on this journey home towards God and we feel like

they're smooth sailing. Right?

There's clear skies, the sun is out.

Things are going well, we know, kind of like, where God is that.

How he's working? Things seem to be going well,

but then other times, right? Like there's, there's clouds

there, storms. There's Darkness, you're just

like scrambling for anything in the dark.

Just trying to find your way to a path.

So the pilgrims on these original tricks up to Jerusalem,

would have felt a lot like us all over the map depending on

like where they were in their life fail, which what the year

held for them? Leading up to these festivals?

They sometimes would it come in Feeling Good, Feeling clear?

Ready to worship God and sometimes they would have found

themselves on their Journey feeling like, why are we even do

the doing this? Like why are we making this

track? Does God really care?

Does God like, is he is he a part of this whole thing?

There's a lot. The people aren't that different

than us, right. You probably undertook, I mean,

you at least had some sort of Journey to get here today and

maybe walked, maybe you rode your bike, maybe took the train.

Maybe you parked in the garage, right?

You took some sort of Transit here.

I don't think anybody lives on Newbury.

Street. That would have right.

Maybe maybe, maybe somebody's in a hotel here.

I don't know, but on a bigger scale, right?

Your life has been a journey to bring you to this point, right?

Maybe you are surprised to find yourself sitting at a church in

Boston in June of 2022 or maybe, you know, if I told you that

five or ten years ago, I'm like, oh yeah, of course, I'm here.

That's exactly what I would have expected, but for many of you,

that's probably not the case. Our Journeys are full of ups and

downs, twists and turns right bright spots, dark spots,

successes failures delts. Assurances times of knowing

where God is what he's up to and then times with having

absolutely no clue. But what is certain is that you

are here today and that matters, it matters that you are here

today and I believe that God has a word for you today, but he has

something that he wants to encourage you in a word of hope

that he wants to speak to you. So, with this in mind, let's

read our, some are some is 121. You can read along on the

handout or if you'd like, to just listen and close your eyes.

I'm going to read it over us here.

So let's take a moment and ask God to speak to us.

Psalm 121. I lift my eyes to the mountains.

Where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord the

maker of heaven and Earth. He will not let your foot slip.

He Who Watches Over, you will not Slumber.

Indeed, He Who Watches Over Israel, will neither slumber nor

sleep the Lord Watches Over You. The Lord is your shade at your

right hand. The sun will not harm you by

day, nor the Moon by Night. The Lord will keep you from all

harm. He will watch over your life,

the Lord will watch over your coming and going both now and

forevermore. Amen.

I think for us to begin to understand the words of the

song, at the first start with the mountains, the mountains are

the Hills. This is kind of where everything

begins, right? The psalmist lifts, his eyes up

to the hills, to the mountains. I'm gonna use those

interchangeably. I think that the, she says

mountains, but some chance rates, and see Hills.

So, those are going to be the same thing.

So when you think of mountains, right like what comes to mind,

you're probably thinking, there's some picturesque

Landscapes and sort of scenic view maybe like In the distance

or maybe you hike them out and then you're like over looking at

all of this beautiful Fall Foliage and seeing the valley

below Catherine. I we weren't hikers before we

came to New England, but now we do an annual Fall Foliage hike

and in my book doing a hike once a year makes me a hiker.

So we're now very Avid fall hikers.

There's some pretty sweet spots around here, maybe if you

haven't gone on a fall like you should totally do it but that's

not what this song is talking about.

It's not taking in the drink in the beauty.

Of the mountains, the hills around Jerusalem, where places

of danger, and a journey through the hill country of Palestine,

was a treacherous task. These mountains are places where

robbers and thieves are hiding out waiting to Ambush Travelers

at times. If you think of Luke 10 and the

Good Samaritan, The Good Samaritans right?

He's coming from Jerusalem down to Jericho.

He's on the mountain path when he is attacked by the robbers.

That leave him for dead. so, when the psalmist is saying, I

lift my eyes up to the mountains, he is looking at his

present circumstances and feeling like Fear despair.

What am I going to do? Like, what is going on?

How am I going to get out of this?

What's on the other side? I think a lot of us know that

feeling And in his commentary on the Psalms ja my, your says this

he says the question of where security can be found, could

originally have been prompted by any number of situations but in

its present, Pilgrim context at pictures and anxious gaze at

Hills, which could shelter Marauders or a longing gaze.

At the far-off hills of Zion house, shall I escape the

dangers of the way and arrived home.

So the psalmist is saying I lift my eyes up, I look around me

things, don't look good. Where is God when I'm analyzing

my situation forced to wonder even Corral.

Where is my help going to come from?

How will I make it through this? So once you think what are the

mountains or the hills in your life right now?

For all on this journey of life, right?

We all have mountains and hills in our lines of sight.

Some of us, the mountains, maybe a little more distant and some

of them we might be like right at the foot of our Mount

Everest, right? It could be a tough situation at

work. It could be a looming.

Rent hike, endless loan payments.

Medical conditions family Dynamics, may be internal

wrestling's with doubt and anxiety.

A hidden addiction upcoming deadlines turning on the news

and looking at the state of the world.

Could even be your own feelings of Shame and guilt in an

Aggregate adequacy and the list could go on and on and I could

be any number of things, we all have our own hills and mountains

that Loom large in our eyes. I think it's interesting here is

that the psalmist. He doesn't try to like, shelter

as eyes from the mountain. Like that's, that's what I would

do. I would kind of be like, if I

don't look at it, it's kind of like not there, right?

I think a lot of us were may be tempted to do that.

Like, I'm telling you think about your mountains, or like

it's the last thing I want to think about, like I didn't come

here to like think about the hard things in my life.

The psalmist says telling us like look at them, but hold

them. Where does my help come from?

And then you declares this truth.

He says, my help comes from the Lord, the maker of heaven and

Earth. My help is from God, the one who

created this world and everything in, it might help

with the mountains is from the one who created mountains. one

commentator also says, about Psalm 121 at the beginning of

this song, the idea of lifting one's eyes to the mountains

means to scan the Horizon, not searching out some place from

which to seek help, but rather recognizing that, help comes

from God, no matter where one is Help comes from God, no matter

where one is, what if, when we looked at the things that Loom

large in our life, the things I cast Shadows of doubt and fear

and uncertainty suffering, and pain over our Journeys.

What if we look them in the eye and knew that God was present to

help us, which with every single step that we take?

Help comes from God, no matter where one is, God doesn't call

us out on a journey to follow him, in order to, then abandon

us on the way. In preparing, for the Sunday,

I've been reflecting on Juneteenth.

And I think, particularly one of the most powerful testimonies of

right of like people recognizing that God is there ever present

help, no matter how big the Mounds which surround the Mars

is, the testimony of the African-American church and the

faith, especially those who were enslaved and writing about the

story of many enslaved, Africans in the United States Cheryl

Sanders wrote this She said in their clandestine prayer

meetings, held late at night in the slave quarters and hush

Harbors the slaves. Participated in the transforming

power of the age for which they hoped by petitioning God for

deliverance. From bondage.

They believe that the same God, who transformed their sinful

status of their souls in their conversion experience, would

transform the sinful structures of society, The God Who had

freed their souls from sin. Kurt could certainly free their

bodies from slavery. The slaves knew better than to

take seriously the white preachers who sought to use

religion and biblical hermeneutics to justify and

support the institution of slavery.

Their ethic of Justice rested. Squarely on the theological

presupposition that God would act to free the slaves.

Based on the precedent set in scriptures, when Godfrey de

Israel from bondage in Egypt, moreover, this ethic was closely

connected with the slaves, affirmation of their own

god-given Humanity. What a testimony this is that

help comes from God no matter where one is when we think of

Juneteenth. And we think of emancipation

day, we would be remiss to overlook the testimony of the

black church. The testimonies of an enduring

hope in God. In a world that offered little

Reason for Hope. So maybe think of the words of

the hymn beams of heaven and it kind of sums this up.

Well, it says harder yet, maybe the fight.

Right? May often yield to might

wickedness a while May rain Satan's cause may seem to gain.

There is a God that rules above with hand of power and Heart of

Love. If I am, right, he'll fight my

battle. I shall have peace someday.

I lift my eyes up to the mountains.

Where does my help come from? My help comes from God, the

maker of heaven and earth. And the one final thing about

hills and mountains here before we kind of get into the rest of

the some, I think this is important because we are so

prone to comparison or are so prone to like compare our

stories and our challenges with those around us.

I think I kind of run the risk of using it right using the

example of American slavery, right?

It could give us all A chance to kind of step back and say, well,

my mountains are basically meaningless and comparison to

that one. But that's, that's not the point

here. Just because someone else is

mountainous killed differently than yours or appears different.

The Arts, doesn't invalidate your own Journey, your own

Journeys going to be different than anyone elses and context,

matters, and comparison is destructive to Hope.

I was in South Carolina for a conference a couple weeks ago

and stay with one of my college roommates.

And he took us, we were in Greenville and he was taking us

on this tour of downtown, we're going to walk from one end of

town to the other and he warned us before he left.

I was with Mandy and he was like, you know, there's there's

a big hill, like if we're going to make it to other side with

the go up this hill. And we're like, all right, like

whatever and he kind of kept bringing it up and kept bringing

it up. If I brought up like half a

dozen times and we were like, all right?

Well like if we get to the hill and it's too much, we can kind

of like a vandal. Check then, like change our

plans and go somewhere else. We don't have to make it, I'll

be okay. If I don't see the entire city

of Greenville South Carolina, and we're kind of like we're

almost done with our walk. We're close to the end and he's

like, ah, like that was it. We made it and Romanian that

were kind of like, What do you like?

What was that? And he was like, that was the

hill. And we were like, oh, okay.

I didn't really notice it. It was, it was not Beacon Hill,

right? Like it was I mean it was a hill

to him, though. Like he mentioned it probably

half a dozen times so he was like really serious about like.

So I made fun of him for that, which is what you're not.

This is what I don't want you to do.

Like don't make they don't make fun of people for the hills, but

this is the point of this. Like, when it comes to to the

mountains that we face, right? Don't minimize your own Hill or

the hills of others, just because they appear different

scale or scope. We're going on a Sunday, stroll

through the Newton Hills. It feels pretty different than

if you're at like mile, 21 of the Boston Marathon, I got a big

head nod from the marathoner up here.

It feels a lot different. We're 20 miles in then if I'm

just kind of like out and about roaming around with Watson.

The same Hills can hit very differently at different times

in our lives. Our journey is unique, in

comparison, robs us of the ability to Journey well with

others and to have people Journey with us.

So let's move with a little more Pace here through the rest of

the psalm keeping in mind, right?

That God is our help in on the journeys of Y, through the

mountains, the remainder of the song, kind of shows us, what all

this and Compasses spoiler. God, God watches over us at all

times. And in all places, let's reread

verses 3 through 8 says, God will not let your foot slip.

He Who Watches Over, you will not Slumber.

Indeed, He Who Watches Over Israel and neither slumber nor

sleep. The Lord Watches Over You, the

Lord is your shade at your right hand.

The sun will not harm you by day, nor the Moon by Night.

The Lord will keep you from all harm.

He will watch over your life. The Lord will watch over your

coming and your going both now and forevermore.

So the Hebrew word Shamar. It shows up six times in these

six verses and it's translated as either.

Watch keep observe guard and is always used in relationship

between God and his people that God watches over us, that we are

those whom God watches over. It's a very as a part of the

very fabric of our identity that we're the people who God keeps

watch over. But God is watching us.

Really, what is this song? Like what does this include?

This isn't like, is this like, you know, he sees you when

you're sleeping, he knows when you're awake, right?

This isn't like the Santa Claus idea of God but it's a part that

God watches over us. But can I all this?

He just like said that, you know, is how often does this is

like a checks in once a day just to make sure we're doing all

right? The rest of the song tells us,

it says he will not let your foot slip.

So includes every step that we take on our journey, every place

that we go says that he will neither slumber nor sleep.

So includes all times of day, every minute that we live.

Then it says again, he is your shade from Sun and Moon

confirming, right? That it must be all times of day

and night. and then at last the says he will watch over your

life, you're coming and you're going so that it will go in all

the places that we get when we were out.

And about more at home home in a way, God Is Watching Over Us at

all times. So, where does this leave us?

I think it leaves us in saying the point of the psalm, is that

at all times and in all places, whatever one is doing that God

provides protection. God is our constant Watchman.

He does not Slumber over the totality of time, day and night

and space coming and going. There's no time and no place

where this isn't true. This reminds me of Psalm 139

which is not a sum of a set, we're not going to make it all

the way to Psalm 139. But David says this, when he

thinks about the ever-present reality of God, says, where can

I go from your spirit? And where can, I flee from your

presence? If I go up to the heavens, you

are there. If I make my bed in the depths

you were there, if I rise on the wings of the Dawn, if I settle

on the far side of the sea, even there, your hand will guide me.

Your right hand will hold me fast.

If I say surely the darkness will hide me in the light but

come night around me. Even the darkness will not be

dark to you. The night will shine like the

day for darkness is as light to you.

Even if no one knows if nobody else knows what you're going

through event, what mountains that you're being faced by, what

burdens that you brought in with you today, what I can tell you

is that no matter where you find yourself, on this journey, that

God is with you. In this very place at this very

time. I want to encourage you.

Can you trust this song that the words are true, even if you

don't feel it, or what would it mean for you to trust these

words? How would it change your

perspective? If you knew that God was going

with you and guarding every step of the way?

I think in relation to the hills that we face.

It means that like the continuing Journey that we face

when we're surrounded by Hills. It's actually like an exercise

in Hope, and exercise, and trusting and depending upon

God's ever presence with us and his ever keeping of us.

And with hope, right? So one of the things with hope,

right? It sometimes we're feeling that,

we're not feeling that we thinking in our head and

sometimes it's helpful to just like literally like say it out

loud. So we're going to do we're going

to like declare Our Hope out loud together here.

As we end, the maybe you're feeling like I don't feel like

saying this, we're going to use the words of Psalm 121 but maybe

you're like, I don't feel like saying this like I I'm not right

there right now if that's okay because somebody around you is

going to be saying it and like let their faith carry you up.

If you if you're feeling like you can declare this today.

Like let's let's say it out loud and if you're feeling like man,

I'm not there right now. Listen to those around you the

Clara because sometimes it's helpful to know, like somebody

else believes this. Somebody else is in a spot where

they can say this words. So our hope, our hope is that

God is here, that he is working the he's present that he is Lord

of creation and that there will be a better day to come.

So let's declare Psalm 121 out loud together.

Words are in your handout. We're going to use that, take

that back out. All right, I lift up my eyes to

the mountains. Where does my help come from?

My help comes from the Lord the maker of heaven and Earth.

He will not let your foot slip. He Who Watches Over, you will

not Slumber. Indeed, He Who Watches Over

Israel, will neither slumber nor sleep the Lord Watches Over You.

The Lord is your shade here. Sun will not harm you by day,

nor the Moon by Night. The Lord will keep you from all

harm. He will watch over your life.

The Lord will watch over your coming and going both now and

forevermore and then let's pray.