Help! Help!
A voice cries in the midst of a tragic moment, perhaps someone who is lost and not knowing what to do next.
Perhaps its a young mother crying out in the darkness of the night as her baby cries incessantly.
Regardless of the situation, and we have all been in them, we cry out a simple phrase… HELP! Will someone come? Who is able to hear you? Will they show compassion? Will they know what to do?
It was sometime early in 1978. We were pregnant with our first born. We needed a place to live in… My parents stepped in and helped arrange it. As we struggled with a reduced salary and trying to figure out where and how to manage our finances… My in-laws stepped in and regularly brought over bags of groceries. For the next two years we had all the help we needed to survive. It was a true blessing!
For just a moment, back away from the help you might receive that cares for your well being. What about that internal person that defines you to the world, and to God? What do you do when that person needs help?
If ever a writer of scripture documented the help needed, and received, from God, it was David. No writer pens more verses of help for the torment of the soul than does this king. No writer seems to understand that help comes not from those around any better than it does from God himself.
Our soul waiteth for the LORD: he is our help and our shield. (Psalms 33:20 KJV)
Give us help from trouble, For the help of man is useless. (Psalms 108:12 NKJV)
In fact, think about it for a moment. It seems when we are in our direst strait, we often look for the local help more than we do for our spiritual help. Yet, most of our problems can be addressed in a spiritual way.
When I speak at a funeral for someone I do not really know, I realize that most of the words I say cannot change the situation of the deceased one iota. It’s mostly to those who come that I speak to, and for. There is a Psalms of David that I love to reference, hoping for it’s comfort and guidance during trying times.
A Song of Ascents. I will lift up my eyes to the hills— From whence comes my help? My help comes from the LORD, Who made heaven and earth. He will not allow your foot to be moved; He who keeps you will not slumber. Behold, He who keeps Israel Shall 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 shall preserve you from all evil; He shall preserve your soul. The LORD shall preserve your going out and your coming in From this time forth, and even forevermore. (Psalms 121:1-8 NKJV)
Many psalms are simply songs, or poems, meant to be played with melody, or with a spoken cadence. This chapter falls into four stanzas of four lines each. Whereas the previous psalms was one of complaint, this one brings comfort and consolation. It is a psalm of ascent, and like a staircase it begins at a particular point and climbs step by step to a high note.
Notice. It begins at a low point where all the hills are higher than your status. As you climb from low to high, your steps become secure and you can assure yourself that even in the darkest of nights God is not asleep from your moment of need. He watches over every step. He preserves and keeps you. In every direction you go. From now until then.
Isn’t it a wonderful place to be in to know that God is your ultimate source of help! A long time ago I surrendered my angst with the world and rest in his peace and help.
How about you?