Saturday, March 15, 2014

     

Help!                      

 

Psalm 121:1-9        
 

  

I lift up my eyes to the hills-- from where will my help come?

My help comes from the Holy One, who made heaven and earth.

God will not let your foot be moved;

the One who keeps you will not slumber.

The One who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep.

God is your keeper; God is your shade at your right hand.

The sun shall not strike you by day, nor the moon by night.

God will keep you from all evil, and will keep your life.

The Holy One will keep your going out and your coming in

from this time on and forevermore.

 

Psalm 121 is one of the most heartfelt encouragements offered in the Psalms. Here in the midst of Lent, we long for some hope for we know the story well ... we know its first ending and, thankfully, we know the ultimate outcome. Yet we walk the long journey, recalling the disappointments Jesus knew along the way and the cost to the human side of his being. Jesus, a knowledgeable Jew, knew the promise, and he knew that following his call would lead to difficulty in the society he lived in.

 

How he must have longed to have help through those difficult days. He must have trusted and surely experienced in unknowable ways the presence of the Holy One.

 

Consider your own journey through life. Pause here and reflect on your time, your life. Where have you longed for the presence of the Holy One? When and where have you noticed the Spirit's presence and movement in your life. Treasure these moments now.

 

Read the Psalm and let it surround you with the grace of presence and the promise that your help is present through the One who created you, and who keeps your going out and coming in now and forevermore. 
        

Mary Elva Smith, Ruling Elder PC(USA) 

SFTS DASD Staff and Chaplain
SFTS DASD 1997