Bible League: Living His Word 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. The Psalmist, generally thought to be David, lifts up his eyes to the hills. What hills does he have in mind? In Psalm 87:1 it says, "His foundation is in the holy mountains. The Lord loves the gates of Zion." "His foundation" refers to the foundation of Jerusalem, God's chosen city. It is "His" foundation because it was the place of His manifest presence; the place where the Ark of the Covenant was located in the tent David pitched for it (II Samuel 6:17; I Chronicles 15:1). The foundation is located in the "holy mountains." These are the hills upon which Jerusalem was built. They are holy precisely because they are the location of God's presence in His chosen city. It is to these hills that David lifts up his eyes. David lifts up his eyes from the situation he finds himself in and looks to the hills of Jerusalem. Instead of looking at the valley he is in, he looks beyond to something higher and more hopeful. Instead of focusing on his problems, he looks up to something that promises to be the solution to his problems. The great temptation of life is to always lower our eyes and fix them on the sorrows and difficulties immediately before us. David, in contrast, looks up and beyond all that. He asks, "From whence comes my help? What David needed was help. He needed the "very present help in trouble" spoken of in Psalm 46:1. He knew that this help could only come from above, from the one whose presence was in the hills of Jerusalem. His help comes from the Lord, "Who made heaven and earth." His help comes, therefore, from the one who has sovereign control over all things and who has the power necessary to help. Rather than looking to the situation and the people immediately surrounding him, he looks up to the one who controls every situation and every person. It is from Him that his help will come. All of us, to one degree or another, need help. From whence will come our help? Like David, our help will come from the Lord, a very present help in trouble. Bible in a Year Old Testament Reading2 Kings 12, 13, 14 2 Kings 12 -- Joash Reigns over Judah, Repairs the Temple NIV NLT ESV NAS GWT KJV ASV ERV DRB 2 Kings 13 -- Jehoahaz, Jehoash, Kings of Israel; Elisha Dies NIV NLT ESV NAS GWT KJV ASV ERV DRB 2 Kings 14 -- Amaziah and Jeroboam II Kings of Judah NIV NLT ESV NAS GWT KJV ASV ERV DRB New Testament Reading John 5:25-47 John 5 -- The Pool of Bethesda; Testimony about Christ NIV NLT ESV NAS GWT KJV ASV ERV DRB Reading Plan Courtesy of Christian Classics Etherial Library. Tyndale Life Application Daily Devotion I know, LORD, that our lives are not our own.We are not able to plan our own course. So correct me, LORD, but please be gentle. Do not correct me in anger, for I would die. Insight God's ability to direct our lives well is infinitely beyond our ability. Sometimes we are afraid of God's power and God's plans because we know his power would easily crush us if he used it against us. Challenge Don't be afraid to let God correct your plans. He will give you wisdom if you are willing. Morning and Evening by Spurgeon Acts 13:39 All that believe are justified.The believer in Christ receives a present justification. Faith does not produce this fruit by-and-by, but now. So far as justification is the result of faith, it is given to the soul in the moment when it closes with Christ, and accepts him as its all in all. Are they who stand before the throne of God justified now?--so are we, as truly and as clearly justified as they who walk in white and sing melodious praises to celestial harps. The thief upon the cross was justified the moment that he turned the eye of faith to Jesus; and Paul, the aged, after years of service, was not more justified than was the thief with no service at all. We are today accepted in the Beloved, today absolved from sin, today acquitted at the bar of God. Oh! soul-transporting thought! There are some clusters of Eshcol's vine which we shall not be able to gather till we enter heaven; but this is a bough which runneth over the wall. This is not as the corn of the land, which we can never eat till we cross the Jordan; but this is part of the manna in the wilderness, a portion of our daily nutriment with which God supplies us in our journeying to and fro. We are now--even now pardoned; even now are our sins put away; even now we stand in the sight of God accepted, as though we had never been guilty. "There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus." There is not a sin in the Book of God, even now, against one of his people. Who dareth to lay anything to their charge? There is neither speck, nor spot, nor wrinkle, nor any such thing remaining upon any one believer in the matter of justification in the sight of the Judge of all the earth. Let present privilege awaken us to present duty, and now, while life lasts, let us spend and be spent for our sweet Lord Jesus. Daily Light on the Daily Path Revelation 21:4 and He will wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there will no longer be any death; there will no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain; the first things have passed away."Isaiah 25:8 He will swallow up death for all time, And the Lord GOD will wipe tears away from all faces, And He will remove the reproach of His people from all the earth; For the LORD has spoken. Isaiah 60:20 "Your sun will no longer set, Nor will your moon wane; For you will have the LORD for an everlasting light, And the days of your mourning will be over. Isaiah 33:24 And no resident will say, "I am sick"; The people who dwell there will be forgiven their iniquity. Isaiah 65:19 "I will also rejoice in Jerusalem and be glad in My people; And there will no longer be heard in her The voice of weeping and the sound of crying. Isaiah 35:10 And the ransomed of the LORD will return And come with joyful shouting to Zion, With everlasting joy upon their heads. They will find gladness and joy, And sorrow and sighing will flee away. Hosea 13:14 Shall I ransom them from the power of Sheol? Shall I redeem them from death? O Death, where are your thorns? O Sheol, where is your sting? Compassion will be hidden from My sight. 1 Corinthians 15:26,54 The last enemy that will be abolished is death. • But when this perishable will have put on the imperishable, and this mortal will have put on immortality, then will come about the saying that is written, "DEATH IS SWALLOWED UP in victory. 2 Corinthians 4:18 while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal. New American Standard Bible Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation, La Habra, Calif. All rights reserved. For Permission to Quote Information visit http://www.lockman.org. |
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