On this journey of life, I think we all need encouragement, don’t we? We’re really all asking the same question:  “Where does my help come from?”

I did the intro session for one of our women’s study groups last night, and my own group starts today, along with my co-teacher Teresa. I’m so excited! In chatting last night after class, I agreed with one friend that it’s so helpful to study together, to soak up encouragement and insights and accountability. I feel like I’m getting ready to drink in a big breath of fresh air. In last nights’ group and today’s group and then tomorrow when I share chapel with Serenity Shelter ladies, women everywhere are asking, “Where does my help come from?”

In a struggling marriage … where do you get help? Suffering with a long illness … where do you get help? Agonizing over a rebellious child … how about some help? Tired of financial strain … can I get some help here? Hurt from a relationship … where do I get help? In bondage to an addiction … who can help? Discouraged and heading to “depressed” … is there help? Lonely and isolated … where to turn for help?

Different events and circumstances on life’s road remind us to ask this question, but we ask it over and over, in every season. Psalm 121 is one of the songs of “Ascents,” a song to sing while journeying up to Jerusalem. It was a sacred pilgrimage, but we’re all on a pilgrimage to our heavenly home where our Lord awaits us. This is a song we can all sing, a song we must all sing, for it answers the question we all want to know:  “Where does my help come from?”

Identify who the source of help is:    The creator God.  His power is unmatched, and nothing overrules Him; His authority is universal.

Describe this source of help:  

• He is my stability.
• He is not limited or weak like I am.
• He does not have an exhaustible capacity to care.
• His role is to be my keeper, refreshing and protecting me from stress.
• His role is to be my keeper, protecting me from the evil of man.
• His role is to be my keeper, watching me completely and constantly.

The original word for “Keep” is “shamar,” meaning to guard, watch over, attend to carefully, both corporately and individually. I love knowing I am guarded, watched, attended to, kept.  HE is my help, from the moment I ask until forever. That’s a song worth singing on this journey of life. 

Are you feeling the need for help on your journey today? 
Are you asking the question we all share?
Sing out this Psalm, friend, and let God keep you from today until forever.

I lift up my eyes to the hills.

From where does my help come?

My help comes from the LORD,

who made heaven and earth.

He will not let your foot be moved;

he who keeps you will not slumber.

Behold, he who keeps Israel

will neither slumber nor sleep.

The LORD is your keeper;

the LORD is your shade on your right hand.

The sun shall not strike you by day,

nor the moon by night.

The LORD will keep you from all evil;

he will keep your life.

The LORD will keep

your going out and your coming in

from this time forth and forevermore.

~ Psalm 121 ~

On this journey of life, I think we all need encouragement, don’t we? We’re really all asking the same question:  “Where does my help come from?”

I did the intro session for one of our women’s study groups last night, and my own group starts today, along with my co-teacher Teresa. I’m so excited! In chatting last night after class, I agreed with one friend that it’s so helpful to study together, to soak up encouragement and insights and accountability. I feel like I’m getting ready to drink in a big breath of fresh air. In last nights’ group and today’s group and then tomorrow when I share chapel with Serenity Shelter ladies, women everywhere are asking, “Where does my help come from?”

In a struggling marriage … where do you get help? Suffering with a long illness … where do you get help? Agonizing over a rebellious child … how about some help? Tired of financial strain … can I get some help here? Hurt from a relationship … where do I get help? In bondage to an addiction … who can help? Discouraged and heading to “depressed” … is there help? Lonely and isolated … where to turn for help?

Different events and circumstances on life’s road remind us to ask this question, but we ask it over and over, in every season. Psalm 121 is one of the songs of “Ascents,” a song to sing while journeying up to Jerusalem. It was a sacred pilgrimage, but we’re all on a pilgrimage to our heavenly home where our Lord awaits us. This is a song we can all sing, a song we must all sing, for it answers the question we all want to know:  “Where does my help come from?”

Identify who the source of help is:    The creator God.  His power is unmatched, and nothing overrules Him; His authority is universal.

Describe this source of help:  

• He is my stability.
• He is not limited or weak like I am.
• He does not have an exhaustible capacity to care.
• His role is to be my keeper, refreshing and protecting me from stress.
• His role is to be my keeper, protecting me from the evil of man.
• His role is to be my keeper, watching me completely and constantly.

The original word for “Keep” is “shamar,” meaning to guard, watch over, attend to carefully, both corporately and individually. I love knowing I am guarded, watched, attended to, kept.  HE is my help, from the moment I ask until forever. That’s a song worth singing on this journey of life. 

Are you feeling the need for help on your journey today? 
Are you asking the question we all share?
Sing out this Psalm, friend, and let God keep you from today until forever.

I lift up my eyes to the hills.

From where does my help come?

My help comes from the LORD,

who made heaven and earth.

He will not let your foot be moved;

he who keeps you will not slumber.

Behold, he who keeps Israel

will neither slumber nor sleep.

The LORD is your keeper;

the LORD is your shade on your right hand.

The sun shall not strike you by day,

nor the moon by night.

The LORD will keep you from all evil;

he will keep your life.

The LORD will keep

your going out and your coming in

from this time forth and forevermore.

~ Psalm 121 ~