We all need help in life. We all need God’s help in life.
• Not everyone knows they needed help, like those who are sick but not knowing it.
• They need the doctor to do some tests and tell them what is wrong with them.
• But there are also those who do not want help. They feel that they are alright or they can help themselves.
AVOIDING THE DENTIST
Like a little boy who was asked to see a dentist. He opened the door to the dentist’s office and spoke to the receptionist at her desk. “My mother told me to see the dentist about my bad teeth.”
“Sorry, sorry,” the receptionist responded, “But the dentist is out just now.”
The boy sighed in relief and asked hopefully, “When will he be out again?”
Sometimes we just don’t want the help we most need, because we fear to confront the truth. We want to do what we like.
But the truth is we all need help.
• If you step into a store, you’ll hear this, “Can I help you?” The salesperson knows the store very well and what they are selling.
• Today, if God asks you this question, will you say YES?
The psalmist wrote this song reminding the people that God is our help.
• It is a song of ascent - sing while walking to Jerusalem for festivals.
• In this journey, just as in our life journey, we need God’s help and protection.
Our help comes from the MAKER of heaven and earth.
• Today many worship the heaven and earth – they worship the sun, the moon, and the stars. They worship the creation – the snake, the cow, the tree. Or they worship the works of human hands.
• Why do we want to put our trust these created things and not the Creator?
Listen to what the Lord said to prophet Isaiah – 40:25-26
25 "To whom will you compare me? Or who is my equal?" says the Holy One.
26 Lift your eyes and look to the heavens: Who created all these?
He who brings out the starry host one by one, and calls them each by name. Because of his great power and mighty strength, not one of them is missing.
Scientists say there are 7000 stars visible to the naked eye. We can only see 3000 of them at any one place on earth.
• The galaxy earth is in has more than 100 billion stars.
• Suppose these stars were divided up among the world’s total population of 6.9 billion people. Then each person on Earth would receive more than 1 trillion stars!
• There are around 100 billion such galaxies are known to exist.
Stars are actually huge. The smallest star is 5 times the size of earth.
• The biggest is 6500 times bigger. So if one star fells on earth, it will smash the earth.
Think about it. God makes the heaven and the earth.
• What ‘big’ problem are we facing today that is too hard for Him?
We want to worship and trust the Maker of heaven and earth.
• The One who can help us must be greater than us, stronger and wiser.
• We need to cry out to God because He is the SOURCE of our help.
The psalmist says in verse 3: He will not let our foot slip!
• They journey is difficult and they have to walk many days.
121:3b-6 He who watches over you will not slumber;
4 indeed, he who watches over Israel will neither slumber nor sleep.
5 The LORD watches over you - the LORD is your shade at your right hand;
6 the sun will not harm you by day, nor the moon by night.
We call on God to help us. The Bible shows us many examples.
• When Moses was facing the Red Sea, He did not call for his people to help. They were helpless. He called for God’s help.
• When David faced Goliath, he did not call on his brothers. They were afraid and hiding. He called on the Lord. He trusted God.
• When Daniel was about to be thrown into the lion’s den, no one was around to help him. He called out to God in prayer. God shuts the mouths of the lions.
God did what no man can do.
The God we trust watches over us. He is ABLE to help us.
121:2-3 My help comes from the LORD, the Maker of heaven and earth.
3 He will not let your foot slip.
• See the contrast here – God has the power to make the universe, and that same power is available to help you walk strong!
• Sometimes, the path we take is difficult and hard. We have to look up to Him. He is there to strengthen protect us.
• Missionary Hudson Taylor had complete trust in God’s faithfulness. In his journal he wrote: "Our heavenly Father is a very experienced One… He sustained 3 million Israelites in the wilderness for 40 years. We do not expect He will send 3 million missionaries to China; but if He did, He would have ample means to sustain them all."
Verse 3b: He who watches over you will not slumber!
• ’watches over’ mentioned 6 times in this psalm. He is always with you. Psalmist emphasizes the fact that God is with His people - when they start the journey from their home, on the road, and when they reach Jerusalem.
GOD IS THE ONE WHO PROTECTS
An executive was getting ready for a month-long business trip. He prayed with his wife before departing: “Lord, please protect Sharon and the children while I’m gone.”
His wife looked up at him when he finished and said, “Who do you think protects us while you’re here?”
Actually, whether you are here nor not, God is the One protecting us.
MAN’S HELP IS LIMITED
A blind man with a white cane stood at a busy intersection one day waiting for someone to help lead him across the street. It wasn’t long before another many appeared and the two began to talk.
The second man took the first man’s arm and the two of them began walking across the street. Suddenly, there was the sound of tapping as the men walked across the street, but the tapping was more than usual.
They then realized that both of them are blind!
121:7-8 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.
• God protects us from ‘EVIL’
• Jesus taught us to pray, “And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil.” (Matt 6:13)
So when we encounter a problem and we are hurt, it is not because God has deserted us or that He is sleeping and not knowing our problem. Man suffers today because:
(1) We have deserted Him; we did not rely on God – the Source of help.
• We rely upon ourselves. We did not ask God for help.
• James 4:2 says we do not have because we do not ask God.
• I heard of people who said they don’t want to ‘trouble’ God, who ‘has enough to do’. God isn’t too busy for us—we’re often too busy for Him.
(2) We do wrong. We sin. Our mistakes bring us suffering.
God knows all about life. He knows what you need.
• God says man has sinned and in need of salvation. We need Jesus to settle our sin problem. He came and died on the cross for our sin.
• This may not be something many likes to hear, but it’s the truth.
• Man needs God’s help. We need God to save us from our sin.
There are times when we do the right things and yet faces problem.
• It is not because God has forgotten you. He is watching over you, even in the midst of the difficulties.
• He has a purpose. We don’t understand. God wants us to go through it with His strength.
The promise here is one of preservation in the midst of hard times, not protection from hard times.
• In your life, you will face storms. God did not promise that as Christians, we will not face any storms ever.
• But in the storms, God will protect us and keep us safe through them.
“All the water in the world cannot sink a ship unless it gets inside.”
• If we keep our trust in God, our life will not sink. We can be strong.
• But if we allow the world to get into our heart – sin, evil, hardship – we sink.
This is a song we need to sing on the road of life.
• To always remind ourselves to look up, beyond this troublesome world, and to the God who can help us.
• He has not left us. He is the One “who made heaven and earth”.
• He can help us “from this time on and forever more.”
May the Lord grant us such a faith.
WHEREVER THE WIND BLOWS FROM, GOD IS LOVE
A farmer once printed the words GOD IS LOVE on his weather vane.
When someone asked the farmer, does it mean God is fickle as the wind?
The farmer replied, "No, it means that ‘God Is Love’ whichever way the wind blows. If the wind blows from the cold north, God is love. If the wind is blowing out of the east, God is love. If the wind blows from the south, God is love. If the wind blows from the west, God is still love."
Regardless of how the wind blows against us today, we look up and we can still see this truth – God is love. He loves you and He watches over you.
• Good times or bad, God is there to give us the strength we need.
• He loves you. You can trust Him. Wherever you are, He is with you.
