Help for Those That Seek It — Chuck Smith

Oh, let the song release your soul.

Welcome to The Word for Today, featuring the Bible teaching of the late Pastor Chuck Smith, founder of the Calvary Chapel Movement. This radio program is a verse-by-verse study through the entire Bible.

And on today's edition of The Word for Today, we'll be focusing on help for those that seek Him, as we pick up in the 121st Psalm, beginning with verse one. And now with today's message,.

Looking to the Creator for Help

Here's Pastor Chuck. I will lift up mine eyes into the hills, from whence cometh my help. As we mentioned, Jerusalem is situated in what they call the hills of Jerusalem. And the Jews have this thing that they always say, let's go up to Jerusalem.

You never go down to Jerusalem. You may be living in the north part of the country, but you wouldn't say, well, let's go down to Jerusalem. You'd say, let's go up to Jerusalem. If they lived on the top of Mount Hermon, 10 ,000 feet, they'd say, well, let's go up to Jerusalem.

Because the final leg of the journey to Jerusalem is uphill. No matter what direction you're coming from, your final last lap into Jerusalem is uphill. Whether you're coming from the coastal area, whether you're coming from Ephraim, whether you're coming from the south, or of course, from the area of the Jordan Valley, it's always up to Jerusalem.

From whence cometh my help is, I believe, a question. He's not declaring, surely, that my help comes from the hills. And I think to read it that way is to read it wrong. I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help.

The hills don't help me. But my help comes, and he answers it in verse two, from the Lord which made the hills, the Lord which made the heaven and the earth. And again, the vast importance of believing in a creator.

Creation, Meaning, and Human Purpose

Seeing God in creation. It makes such a vast difference in the whole way that you look at life, that you look at circumstances in life, whether or not life has meaning and purpose, or life is just a mistake and a series of accidents.

It all depends on whether or not you believe in a creator and you believe in creation. But if you don't believe in the creator, then life is just here today, gone tomorrow, and let's eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die.

And there's no meaning for life, there's no purpose for life, there's no purpose for your existence. Makes a big difference. My help comes from the Lord who made the heavens and the earth. Surely, if God is great enough to make the heavens and the earth, he's great enough to take care of my little problems.

For he will not suffer thy foot to be moved. He that keepeth thee will not slumber. Behold, he that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep. God is always there when I need him. Anytime I call him, he's available.

He never slumbers, he never sleeps. The one who keeps us neither slumbers nor sleeps. For the Lord is thy keeper. He is your shade upon your right hand. Now, the dangers of traveling were the sun, by day, sunstroke, or dehydration.

Any of you that know anything about the desert know the dangers of dehydration. And so, the Lord is your keeper, he is your shade on your right hand. The interesting thing, the right hand was, the right side was the side that you were most vulnerable on because you always held your shield with your left hand.

And thus, your left side was pretty well protected by the shield, but the right side of the fighter was exposed. And so, he will be your shield on your right side. He'll be the protection on the right side.

That side that is most vulnerable. And the sun will not smite thee by day nor the moon by night. The Lord shall preserve thee from all evil. That's a great promise. The Lord will preserve you from all evil.

He will preserve your soul, your mind. The Lord shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in from this time forth even forevermore. So, traveling to Jerusalem for these feasts, you're gonna be traveling through the desert areas, you're gonna be exposed to the elements, the sun, the heat of the sun, the moon, and the slippery pathways, but God will preserve you.

Worship and the Joy of Jerusalem

God will keep you. He will watch over you. He won't slumber, he won't sleep on the job. I was glad, the next psalm declares, when they said unto me, let us go into the house of the Lord. When the suggestion came, let's go to the house of the Lord, the joy, I was glad at the prospect of going to worship God.

For our feet shall stand within thy gates, O Jerusalem. The anticipation of coming, standing within the city itself, within the walls of Jerusalem. For Jerusalem is built as a city that is compact together.

Where the tribes go up, the tribes of the Lord. That idea of compact together is where national groups can come together in a unity. Where the tribes go as one, though they are the 12 tribes, yet as they gather together, that unity that they experience as they feel.

Unified together, a place where we are unified together. Where the tribes go up, the tribes of the Lord, unto the testimony of Israel, to give thanks to the name of the Lord. I was glad when it was suggested, let's go to the house of the Lord, that we might give thanks unto God, to the name of the Lord.

For there in Jerusalem are the set thrones of judgment. There is the national headquarters, the national capital where the Supreme Court, the thrones of the house of David, the places where the judgment issued forth.

Pray for the peace of Jerusalem, for they shall prosper that love thee. And then David's own prayer for Jerusalem and for the peace. He exhorts you and others to pray for the peace, but this is his prayer.

Peace be within thy walls, and prosperity within thy palaces. For my brethren and companions' sake, I will now say, peace be within thee. Because of the house of the Lord our God, I will seek thy good.

So moving now towards Jerusalem, seeing the hills, the anticipation, the joy, the excitement, the thrill, glad when they said to me, let's go to the house of the Lord. Oh, the blessed city of Jerusalem, the place that it holds in the heart of every Jew.

It's interesting, there's almost a Jerusalem cult. Those Jews who live in Jerusalem feel that they are blessed above all Jews in the world. And they feel that those who live in Tel Aviv are pagans. I mean, to live in the land of Israel and not to live in Jerusalem, man, you're just a real pagan, you know.

And that love for Jerusalem, those that live there, I mean, they just really have an intense love for Jerusalem. And it's great to hear them talk about Jerusalem. And their love for this city. Because it is the city of God and has a special place in their hearts.

Waiting on God for Mercy

So now the beginning of the worship unto thee, lift I up mine eyes, O thou that dwellest in the heavens. Behold, as the eyes of the servants look to the hand of their masters, and as the eyes of a maiden look to the hand of her mistress, so our eyes wait upon the Lord our God until that he have mercy upon us.

Now, in those days in which they had servants, the man of the house would have the male servants that attended to his every desire. The wife, the women, would have their maidens who attended to them. And the masters would develop hand signals that were imperceptible to other people.

And they would direct the movements of their servants with just a slight movement of the hand. And they would have certain signals that would indicate to, you know, bring me a glass of water or time to bring the food or whatever.

And they would just have these slight little hand signals that would direct the servants' activities. And thus, whenever the master was there, guests were around, the servants would always watch his hands because he would give that signal with his hand and he would expect then the servant to respond.

They would never give them verbal commands, always just a signal with a hand that the servant understood and would respond to those hand signals. And thus, the servant would just always stand there attentively watching the hand, waiting for the directions that were to come to him through these little signals that would be given by the hand of their master.

So as the servant, the eyes of the servant looked to the hand of their masters, the eyes of the maiden under the hand of her mistress, so our eyes, we stand looking to God, waiting for those signs of God's mercy, waiting for those indications of God's mercy upon us.

So we, our eyes look upon the Lord, our God, until we have that mercy upon us. And then the prayer, have mercy upon us, O Lord, have mercy upon us, for we are exceedingly filled with contempt. That is the contempt of those around us who hate us.

God have mercy. Our soul is exceedingly filled with scorning of those that are at ease and with the contempt of the proud. And so being ill-treated by the world around me, I look to God for solace, for mercy, for comfort.

God's Preservation in Persecution and Trouble

Psalm 124, if it had not been the Lord who was on our side, now may Israel say, if it had not been the Lord who was on our side, when men rose up against us, then they had swallowed us up quick when their wrath was kindled against us, when the waters had overwhelmed us and the stream had gone over our soul.

Many of these psalms are ascribed to the period of captivity and to the period of Nehemiah, Ezra, when the temple was rebuilt and the people were again coming, many of them from Babylon, who lived in these hostile environments.

As you remember, there was at one time, even in the Persian empire, an edict to exterminate all the Jews. And so if it had not been for God's preservation, if it had not been the Lord who was on our side, of course, this psalm is ascribed to David.

And so it is before that time of the great persecution by Babylon and later by Persia. But David had, of course, experienced his own trials by Saul, who sought to destroy him, Absalom, who sought to drive him from the kingdom.

And of course, they were surrounded by their perennial enemies, the Philistines, the Ammonites, the Moabites, the Edomites. So if it had not been for the Lord, who was on our side, face of the Lord is against those that do evil, but the Lord is on the side of those that do good.

When men rose up against us, they would have swallowed us up quickly when their wrath was kindled against us. God has preserved us. It's recognizing that it was God who gave us the victory. Then the waters, the deep waters, would have overwhelmed us.

The stream would have gone over our soul. Talking now about the emotional experiences of life, those deep waters that we often go through. When we have a death of a loved one, when we have financial reverses, when we have a breakup of a marriage, problems in interpersonal relationships that just deep water, and they seem like they're gonna swallow us up.

When the proud waters had gone over our soul, we would have been destroyed. We wouldn't have survived if the Lord had not been with us. Blessed be the Lord, who has not given us as a prey to their teeth.

Now that goes back to the enemies who surrounded us, who would have swallowed us up when they were angry with us, if it had not been for the Lord. God didn't give us as a prey to them. Our soul is escaped as a bird out of the snare.

Talking now about the mind, the emotions, which are so caught in this, I see no way out. I feel like I'm trapped. And I feel like there's just no way out of this dilemma. It's sort of like, you know, I can't see any way out.

I'm trapped. And so many times a person feels trapped in the conditions that they are, you know, and it's a horrible feeling to think, man, this is, you know, the rest of my life, and I'm trapped. I can't see any way out.

But the psalmist declares, my soul is escaped as a bird out of the snare of the fowlers. The snare of the fowlers, of course, is an old English term. Goes back to when they used to trap birds. And so the snare being a trap of the fowlers, the men who trapped birds.

And so I feel like a bird that was caught in the trap, but yet I was able to escape out of the trap for the snare of the fowlers. The snare is broken. We are escaped. For our help is in the name of the Lord who made the heaven and the earth.

The Creator's Power in Prayer

Because God is my help. And again, the idea of creation and the creator. He made the heaven and the earth. And it's such an important concept to hold whenever you're in trouble. Whenever you're desperate and you go to God in prayer, it's important to remember God's power.

To realize that I'm calling upon the one who is so great as to have created this universe. There has been an interesting conference of the National Academy of the Astronomers. And many of the astronomers have been presenting their papers to this convention back there.

And thus, the interesting thing that I have noted as I've been reading the summary of their papers is the amazement that the astronomers have the universe in which we live, the discovery of how much more vast is this universe than we ever dreamed before.

We had no idea of how vast the universe actually is. And of course, this great wall that they've discovered out there which stretches from horizon to horizon some 500 million light years. How much further it stretches, we don't know.

But it's out there just as a great wall. How there seems to be new galaxies that are being birthed in the universe. And all of these interesting things that they are discovering as they are able to improve the various telescopes and means of exploring the universe, they are finding out that is far more vast than they had ever comprehended before.

It always excites me because it means that God is just that much bigger than we ever thought he was before. Because he stretched out the heavens like a curtain. Now it's interesting, they say wall, but the Lord says curtain.

He just stretched out like a curtain. That vast, what they call wall out there, of light, 500 million light years long. And so, the greatness of the God who created the heavens, the earth, he is the God that listens to you when you pray.

He is the God who is interested in your little problems. He is the God who wants to help you and reveal himself to you because he loves you. Now that just is mind boggling. To think that God loves me, that God is interested in me.

The one who created the universe is interested in me, in my needs. And those things that overwhelm me are nothing to him. He is God. He said to Jeremiah, behold, I am God. Is there anything too hard for me?

Thus, believing in creation, a God who created this universe, I have great comfort. I have great assurance because he is going to see me through every difficulty, every trial. He's gonna protect me. He will be my defense.

I don't even have to defend myself. He is my defense.

We'll return with more of our verse-by-verse study through the book of Psalms in our next lesson. As Pastor Chuck continues with, the Lord is our strength. And we do hope you'll make plans to join us.

But right now, if you'd like to secure a copy of today's message, simply order Psalm 121, verse one, when visiting thewordfortoday .org. And while there, be sure to browse the many additional biblical resources by Pastor Chuck.

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That's right here, on the next edition of, The Word for Today. Now, once again, here's Pastor Chuck with today's closing prayer.

Walking in the Spirit and Following Christ

Father, we thank you for that mercy and grace, whereby, Lord, we have been forgiven, cleansed from the pollution of our own sin, and we've been made your children. Help us, Lord, to learn from the mistakes of the nation of Israel, who so often turned from thee, who so often turned after the flesh and the things of the flesh, who rebelled against your ways and against your truth.

Lord, help us that we might walk after the Spirit. Following after Jesus Christ, living a life that is pleasing unto him.

Sometimes it's difficult to celebrate the holidays like Christmas or New Year's Eve because of a recent death in the family or a sudden tragedy that's happened. And it's in times like this that we want to be used by God to bring encouragement, hope, and most of all, love to our family and friends who are going through a hardship.

That's why I'd like to tell you about a book by Chuck Smith called, When the Storm Hits. I'm amazed when I read this book that it's able to encourage and strengthen a person and persuade them to look to Jesus and not at their problem.

It encourages us to be patient, not to lose hope, and when the storm hits, to get anchored on Jesus, the rock, and don't let go. To order a copy of Chuck Smith's book, When the Storm Hits, please call the word for today at 800 -272 -9673.

Or you can visit us online to read a preview of the book by visiting the wordfortoday .org.

This program has been sponsored by The Word for Today in Costa Mesa, California.