Psalm 121:2
My help comes from the LORD,
who made heaven and earth.
Today’s verse comes just after one of the most misquoted passages in Scripture. That passage reads, “I lift up my eyes to the hills./From whence does my help come?” We’ve seen it, seemingly millions of times, decorating greeting cards that invariably have pictures of Judean hills bathed in the warm glow of sunset. The sentiment seems to be that we can “draw strength” from contemplating the beauty of nature in the mountains etc. etc. That is a lovely sentiment and a perfect reflection of the notions of Romantic poets like Wordsworth or John Denver. Unfortunately, it has less than nothing to do with the actual meaning of Psalm 121. In fact, it is close to the opposite of what the Psalmist intended. For him, the hills were not sources of strength but sites of idolatry. When he lifted up his eyes to the hills he saw “high places” where idols to Baal, Asherah, or Moloch were erected and their rites of worship were carried out. Thus, today’s verse, so far from being an expression of squishy sentimentality, is an act of brazen defiance against the culture of death that surrounded the ancient Israelite faithful to the LORD. Make that act of defiance your own the next time our culture tempts you to worship at the high places of money, sex, or power. For our culture also masks the appeal of these three gods in squishy sentimentality and delivers them through commercials and television programs as warm and fuzzy as a greeting card.
