Help From The Hills!
"I will lift up my eyes to the hills—
from whence comes my help?"
Psalm 121: 1
The phrase “high places” occurs
around
seventy times in the Old Testament. The
reference to “high places” reflects the on-
going temptation in Israel to worship idols
instead of the one true God
(2 Chronicles
28:25).
Israel had its own “high place,” and that
was Jerusalem, situated on Mount Moriah
and surrounded by hills. Three times every
year, Israelites would journey to Jerusalem
for feasts and celebrations.
Psalms 120–134 was compiled for pilgrims to
sing as they made their way from the plains of
Israel to Jerusalem. Psalm 121 begins with the
question a pilgrim might ask rhetorically as he
walked on his journey: “I will lift up my eyes to
the hills—from whence comes my help?”
Instead of looking to the idols on the pagan
high places, he is looking to God: “My help
comes from the Lord, who made heaven
and earth” (verse 2).
Just as the Jewish pilgrims
journeyed
to Jerusalem, so we journey through life
toward New Jerusalem. And just as God
was their help, so He will be ours. Look to
God, not to the “high places” of this world.
"Man must have
God or an idol."
Martin Luther