“Keep Your Eyes on Him”
A church member shared this Psalm with me saying how much it has meant to her.
Psalm 121 (ESV)
1 I lift up my eyes to the hills.
From where does my help come?
2 My help comes from the Lord,
who made heaven and earth.
3 He will not let your foot be moved;
he who keeps you will not slumber.
4 Behold, he who keeps Israel
will neither slumber nor sleep.
5 The Lord is your keeper;
the Lord is your shade on your right hand.
6 The sun shall not strike you by day,
nor the moon by night.
7 The Lord will keep you from all evil;
he will keep your life.
8 The Lord will keep your going out and your coming in from this time forth and forevermore.
After reading this Psalm over again, I was reminded of an event where this Psalm carried a pastor friend of mine through a life changing time.
I was awakened by the parsonage phone ringing at 2 a.m. and reached over to the bedside table and answered. It was the voice of my co-pastor from the church on the other end of the line. His voice was shaking when he said, “Marty, can you come to the hospital? My Mandy has been involved in a fire at her house and I need you.” I still remember those haunting words.
I jumped out of bed and was literally standing in the hospital within 15 minutes. My brother in Christ and his wife and other daughter were in shock.
Mandy was living with 3 others in a house in town and her roommates were downstairs and Mandy was in her room upstairs. She had some candles burning in her room and fell asleep. The 3 roommates downstairs also went to sleep on the couches in the living room. They woke to smoke in the house and when they tried to go up the stairs to get Mandy, the flames from the fire had already engulfed the upstairs. They could not reach her.
I stood with my friend that night mourning the loss of his oldest daughter and no words seemed to fit. So I just held him in an embrace, shedding tears along with him.
The next day and as that week unfolded, my friend, even in the midst of his awful, terrible, horrible loss, began to lean on God and His Word to see himself through. One of those precious passages was Psalm 121, “I lift my eyes to the hills. From where does my help come? My help comes from the Lord…” Where else could my believing friend turn? Where else could he find any comfort in this situation, but the Lord? Were there questions in his mind? Yes! Was he hurting? Yes! All the whys, like any of us would ask, flooded his mind, but he told me, “Marty, I have to lean on the Lord or I’ll go crazy. This will take me down.” And that is where he took refuge in the midst of the crisis. IN THE LORD!
Where do your “eyes” turn in crisis? Where do your “eyes” turn in the valleys of life? To the Lord? OR To self or something else? Some turn to drugs and alcohol. Some choose to turn inward and shut down. Some run away. But the answer in crisis is to turn to the LORD!!!
Claim this folks in all situations. “…He will keep your life. The Lord will keep your going out and your coming in from this time forth and forevermore.” (vs.7a - 8)
All else will fail you, but the Lord. The Lord has promised to never leave or forsake those who believe. You can count on Him in all things, always, “…from this time forth and forevermore.”
Blessings,
Pastor Marty Duffell, Pastor - HOPE Church Raleigh
