While riding my exercise bike one morning, I listened as the online trainer talked about difficulties he had overcome in both physical training and in life. He then said something like, “whatever you are going through, you will get through it, if you just believe in yourself.”
“Just believe in yourself.” It’s a phrase we hear all the time, so much so that it seems true. After all, if I don’t believe I can do something, like say run a marathon, I likely won’t try that hard to train and therefore won’t finish the race. But what about other things we face in life? Does belief in oneself help someone when their spouse betrays them? Does belief in oneself make the cancer go away? Does belief in oneself pay the bills? Does belief in oneself rescue us from our fears? Does belief in oneself save us from sin, restore us into right relationship with God, and bring reconciliation to broken relationships? (Those are rhetorical questions, by the way.)
The Bible cautions against belief in oneself and often calls such belief idolatry. That’s because it is the Lord alone who delivers his people. It is the Lord alone who is our strength and shield, our life and hope. That’s what the writer of Psalm 121 wrote in this Psalm of Ascent. When Israelite pilgrims journeyed to the temple in Jerusalem for sacred celebrations and worship, they sang specific psalms along the way. Our family once visited Israel and as our bus traveled from the Judean countryside, up the steep and winding roads to Jerusalem, we recited these same psalms together, including Psalm 121. It is a psalm which reminds us to keep our gaze set on our only source of hope in times of trouble.
And it’s not ourselves.
Psalm 121
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.
The pilgrim’s journey to Jerusalem likely paralleled the daily troubles of life as they faced danger and uncertainty on the dusty roads. There were often thieves lying in wait, looking for travelers from whom they could steal. The desert sun bore down on them. Wild animals were a concern. In their journey, God’s people trusted in their covenant making and keeping Yahweh to keep and preserve them, both in daily life and in their travels to the temple, to the place of God’s presence. In this psalm, we see that their hope and help was found not in created things—and certainly not in themselves—but in the Creator (v.1). He is the omnipotent God who spoke and light appeared. He is the one true King who reigns over the universe and nothing happens apart from his sovereign purpose and will. He is not man that he should need sleep (v.4), therefore he keeps his people always in his care. He is like the shade one seeks when the sun beats down on weary travelers (v.5-6). And more, he keeps his people from all evil (v.7). What a gracious and merciful God!
Six times this passage tells us that God “keeps” his people. The Hebrew word used means to keep, preserve, protect. And it’s not just referring to his people as a whole, but to “you” as an individual. God keeps you in his sovereign care. God protects you from evil. Another thing that stands out is that God alone is our keeper. Nothing in this psalm references things that we do, only what God does for us. He is the one who watches over us. He is the one who keeps and preserve us. He is the one who ensures we endure to eternity. He is the one “who will sustain you to the end, guiltless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Cor. 1:8).
In our culture, it sounds encouraging when someone attempts to motivate us by saying “you’ve got this” and “believe in yourself.” The Bible disagrees. There’s no power in those words. There’s no power inherent in us. Apart from Christ, we can do nothing (John 15:5). But the God of all power, the very Creator himself, has called you to himself and he will keep you. That’s real encouragement. “From this time forth and forevermore.”
Photo by Robert Bye on Unsplash
