A Wonderful Savior Is Jesus My Lord!
Meditation for the week of March 10, 2013
A Song of Ascents. I will lift up my eyes to the hills– From whence comes my help? My help comes from the LORD, Who made heaven and earth. (Psalms 121:1-2)
Does our help come from the hills or does it come from the Lord? Obviously, it comes from the Lord. We don’t worship the “hills” so why does the Psalmist look unto the hills? Likely, it is because God dwelt at Jerusalem. The temple at Jerusalem was built on Mount Moriah and was surrounded by other hills. This was a Psalm that was probably sung by worshipers who were traveling to Jerusalem on feast days. For the Jew, the Lord dwelt on the hills in Jerusalem.
The Syrians in 1Kings 20:28, thought that God was a God of the hills (where they had lost a battle) and not a God of the valleys. They were wrong. So the King was told by a man of God, "Thus says the LORD: ‘Because the Syrians have said, "The LORD is God of the hills, but He is not God of the valleys," therefore I will deliver all this great multitude into your hand, and you shall know that I am the LORD.’ "
Our God is a God of the hills and valleys of life. We don’t worship nature as many do, we worship the creator God Who made nature and all that we enjoy. So where do we as Christians look for our help? We look to the Lord Jesus. The anonymous author of Hebrews reminds us that we should be “looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God (Hebrews 12:2).” Again, the Lord Jesus is associated with a hill, but this hill is called Calvary. It is outside the city of Jerusalem. So in a sense, Christians too look unto the hills from whence comes our help because our help comes from the Lord Jesus.
We need to keep our focus on the One Who is the source of our blessing. His sacrificial death at the cross of Calvary made it possible for sinners to be saved. He has taken sinners and made us saints through faith in Him. There is no other means of salvation and there is no other person who can save. And for those of us who are saved and who have become “family” to Him, He is the One to whom we look for our help. We don’t have to go to Jerusalem, because upon believing the Holy Spirit “seals” us. He takes up residence in us and we become His temple (1 Corinthians 6:19). That is a precious truth.
Thus we look unto Him to be saved (Isaiah 45:22). After we are saved, He is the one we worship by the way we live, by the ceremonies we observe, and in our preaching of the Gospel. The Samaritan woman at the well became a worshiper “in spirit and in truth” and made her worship of the Lord obvious by telling the Samaritans, “Come see a man (John 4:29).” They did come and they heard him and believed in Him.
The hymn writer has said:
A wonderful Savior is Jesus my Lord,
He taketh my burden away;
He holdeth me up and I shall not be moved,
He giveth me strength as my day.
The children of Israel worshiped the Lord at Jerusalem. I found Him in the Bible and can worship Him privately any where and at any time. Publicly, I worship Him in a ceremonial remembrance meal consisting of bread and wine and enjoyed with other Christians on the Lord’s day. I have also experienced His care in my daily walk for many years. Yes, my help comes from the Lord!
Bruce Collins