"I Will Lift My Eyes Unto The Hills…”

“I WILL LIFT MY EYES UNTO THE HILLS…”

Ps. 121:1-2

INTRODUCTION

A. HUMOR

1. Dick Van Dyke once described Mahatma Gandhi.

2. He said, “Gandhi walked barefoot everywhere, ate very little, and often fasted, leaving him thin and with very bad breath.”

3. Thus he is often thought of as a “super callused, fragile mystic plagued with halitosis.” (Van Dyke didn’t say this!)

B. TEXT

1 I will lift up my eyes to the hills—from whence comes my help? 2 My help comes from the Lord, Who made heaven and earth. 3 He will not allow your foot to be moved; He who keeps you will not slumber. 4 Behold, He who keeps Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep. 5 The Lord is your keeper; the Lord is your shade at your right hand. 6 The sun shall not strike you by day, nor the moon by night. 7 The Lord shall preserve you from all evil; He shall preserve your soul. 8 The Lord shall preserve your going out and your coming in from this time forth, and even forevermore. NKJV

C. A SPECIAL PSALM

1. Beginning with Psalm 120 and continuing to Psalm 134, these Psalms are called “Songs of Ascents.” They were sung by the pilgrims who were traveling to Jerusalem to keep the various feasts days on the religious calendar of Israel.

2. The average elevation of Israel = 1,667 ft. The Dead Sea elevation is -1,410 feet. The Temple Mount elevation = 2,428 feet. So the average pilgrim would have to ascend 761 feet; those traveling from the Dead Sea would have to climb 3,838 feet! When the pilgrims would stop for rest and refreshment, they would sing one of these Psalms in worship to the Lord.

3. As the pilgrim traveled toward Mount Moriah, and the holy hill of Zion, where the ark of the covenant, the worshiping priests, the sacrifices and prayers were, he was thinking of the special presence of God in that holy place, and God with his people, which is much different from His common presence.

D.THESIS

Let’s all take our own journey tonight toward God as we consider the message, “I Lift My Eyes Unto the Hills…”

I. SONG OF THE HUNGRY

A. RECOGNITION OF NEED

1. The soul that says, “I will lift my eyes unto the hills…” has recognized their emptiness without God. They have a longing for God.

2. They may have a nice house, plenty of food, and nice clothes, but there’s still a spiritual vacuum in their hearts. They may live in a beautiful place, but a desert WITH GOD looks better than a resort without Him. There’s no inner satisfaction, joy, or peace.

3. The pilgrim has made the decision to do something about it; “I will” seek the presence of God. The Bible says of Jesus & His disciples, “Then, because so many people were coming and going that they did not even have a chance to eat, he said to them, “Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest.” Mk. 6:31.

B. THE PLACE WE FIND GOD? IN SOLITUDE

1. We look “unto the hills” because we long for solitude, to get out of the endless hustle & bustle. We instinctively know that God is not to be found in the works of man, but He’s more easily found in nature (i.e., Psalm 19:1-3). Jesus went out to “solitary places.” “Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed.” (Mk. 1:35).

2. In John 15, Jesus told us to "abide” in the Vine; that means to "wait for", "to remain in the same place.” For some of us, getting closer to Jesus means we must simplify our lives, to unclutter them, to carve time out of our schedules by removing some things not as important, so that we can spend quality time with Jesus.

3. Stillness is essential to reception of instruction (“Be still and know that I am God,” Ps. 46:10). We must be quiet if we would hear his voice. Also, quit running to people and start going to God instead.

4. HUMOR. Some people do all the talking and no listening.

a. One pastor was called by a man who said he needed some advice. But when the man was in his office, he talked the entire appointment time, never getting around to listening to any advice.

b. That man later told a friend that he learned a lot from the pastor during his visit! We do that with God!

5. 3 TYPES OF SILENCE: a. Verbal – quit talking; b. “silence of desires” – we can’t know God’s will if OURS is in the way; c. “silence of reasoning” – stop trying to figure everything out!