The Pulpit Commentary on Psalms 121:1-8

The Pulpit Commentary · Joseph S. Exell and contributors · Public domain

The Source of help.

"I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills," etc.

I. A STRONG, DEEP SENSE OF DEPENDENCE ON GOD IMPLANTED IN US.

II. WE MUST LIFT OURSELVES UP IN THE WHOLE POWER OF OUR BEING TO REALIZE GOD'S NEARNESS TO HELP US. He dwelt in the mountain-group of Zion at Jerusalem, and in the other mountains of Israel. We have been taught to realize that God is Spirit, and dwells near us, as well as in the far-off mountains and in distant worlds. But we can see him only from the heights of the soul.

III. THE CREATOR OF THE UNIVERSE IS THE PROVIDENCE OF THIS WORLD. (Psalms 121:2.) The Being who framed man's wonderful nature would naturally provide for its great wants—the wants he had himself created. "Your Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things."

IV. THE CREATOR WOULD NOT ONLY HAVE THE POWER, BUT THE DESIRE, THE DISPOSITION, TO HELP THE CHILD OF HIS LOVE. (Psalms 121:3-6.) "He that keepeth thee will not slumber." God's care for us will not suffer him to sleep or become indifferent to us.

V. GOD'S ETERNAL CARE IS TO KEEP THE SOUL FROM EVIL—FROM ALL REAL EVIL. Many calamitous, or what appear calamitous, events to us are not evils in the sight of tied, but, under his control, issue in our eternal good.—S.

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