I lift up my eyes to the hills. From where does 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 nor sleep.
The Lord is your keeper; the Lord is your shade on your right hand.
The sun will 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 forth and forever more.” (Psalm 121.)
The dictionary defines the word “keeper” as “a person charged with responsibility for the preservation and conservation of something valuable.”
This whole psalm breathes this truth to me and I draw great comfort from it.
Think upon this: in Verse 2 it says that “the Maker of the heavens and the earth” gives me help as I lift my eyes to the hills.
Note that this psalm begins with action from the writer, and a given understanding of an action that God will not take for us.
God is not going to descend upon me, take my head in His hands and force me to look up to the hills. The psalmist writes that, as he lifts his own eyes, he sees where his help comes from.
Help is not just coming from anywhere, it is from my Creator God, my keeper.
Five times in just eight verses this word is used to describe who God is to me when my flesh is crying out for help; Who is He? He is my keeper.
The Hebrew meaning of keeper: “to hedge about (as with thorns), i.e. guard; to protect, attend; to keep, tend, watch over, retain.”
In verses 3, 5, 7 and 8, this powerful word keeper is used to tell me that my life is in the hands of Almighty God, that my life is fully watched over and surrounded every day, all day. The lover of my soul is ever guarding, protecting, attending watching over, tending to, retaining and keeping my life.
As I write this morning I am listening to Jesus Culture’s song Holy, and I am realizing again what a great and holy God I have as my Savior, that you have as your Savior.
This truth brings me to my knees in adoration, worship and overwhelming silence.
This God is my keeper, ever and always; there is nothing to fear, there is nothing to dread.
Let Him keep you today. Bow your knee, surrender your life, and find life in this profound truth this morning.
Nothing or anyone can offer you what Jesus alone gives.
Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, keeper of my life.
“I lift up my eyes to the hills. From where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth.”
Are the hills beckoning the eyes of your life today?
Karolyn Burch is wife of Mark Burch, senior pastor at Maple Ridge Baptist.