Psalm 121 – Walk with God
Tuesday, 21st March 2023
Rev Daniel Xi An Poon
The Song of Ascents are sung when the Israelites went up to the mountain to worship God every year. On the way to the mountain, it may be lonely, it may be dangerous, but it will also be a time for them to experience God. They could not rely on anyone to help them but to fully rely on God, to walk with God. We must also walk with God every day in our life, to always pray and look upon God, He has sent us His Holy Spirit to give us peace, when we pray in tongue, He will release peace to us, and we will also be able to release peace to others.
上行之歌是以色列人每年上山敬拜神时所唱的。到山上的路上，可能是孤独的，可能是危险的，但这也将是人们体验神的时刻。他们不能依靠任何人帮助他们，只能完全依靠神，与神同行。我们在生活中也要天天与神同行，常常祷告仰望神，祂差遣祂的圣灵赐给我们平安，当我们用方言祷告时，祂会释放平安给我们，我们也会能够释放平安给其他人。
We are just visitors to this world, when we believe in God, until we see God face to face, it is a path that we must walk with God, not with this world, and not by ourselves. We are the followers of God, and we can walk this path of life on earth as it is in Heaven.
我们只是这个世界的过客，当我们信神，直到与神面对面，这是一条我们必须与神同行的路，不是与这个世界，也不是与我们自己。我们是神的追随者，我们可以在地如在天走这条生命之路。
Section One V1-2 To Proclaim the Help Comes from God 要宣告帮助从神而来
V1 ‘I will lift up my eyes to the hills—From whence comes my help?’ How do we believe God walks with us? We must first proclaim, because the Word has power. When the people of the world saw the mountains, we can see help, because God is our help. People would see difficulties, challenges, problems, hardship, but we can see God, Who created the Heaven and the Earth. For people who don’t know God, when they see the mountain they pray to the mountain god, when they see the sea they pray to the sea god, because people are in owe of the created things of the world, but they don’t know the Creator.
我们如何相信神与我们同行？我们必须先宣告，因为神的话是有能力的。当世人看到高山时，我们看到的是帮助，因为神是我们的帮助。人们会看到困难、挑战、问题、艰辛，但我们能看到创造天地的神。不认识神的人，看到山就拜山神，看到海就拜海神，因为人敬畏天地万物，但是不知道神就是造物主。
V2 ‘My help comes from the Lord, Who made heaven and earth.’ We have left God and chased after the world. The technology is so advanced that we can find almost every answer from the internet. But God is the I Am Who I Am God, nothing can be higher than our God and therefore we must proclaim our help is from God. Let us talk to ourselves, talk to our weakness, talk to our impossibilities, proclaim God’s presence with us. Our help is from God, nothing and no one can threaten us.
我们离开了神，追逐世界。技术如此先进，我们几乎可以从互联网上找到所有答案。但神是自有永有的神，没有什么比我们的神更高，因此我们必须宣告我们的帮助来自神。让我们对自己宣告，对我们的弱点宣告，对我们的不可能宣告，宣告神与我们同在。我们的帮助来自神，没有任何事物和任何人可以威胁我们。
Section Two V3-6 To Know God’s Help 要知道神的帮助
V3 ‘He will not allow your foot to be moved; He who keeps you will not slumber.’ We are afraid of falling, we are afraid of failures, we are afraid of many things, we think that we can’t do it anymore, we can’t follow God any more, but God says we must seek His help, stop trying to help ourselves, stop hiding in the cave, when we turn to God, when we really know God is our help. Then He will help us and protect us.
V4 ‘Behold, He who keeps Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep.’ When we turn to God, He will definitely protect us, He will not slumber and He will not sleep. He will not ignore us; He is our Protector. Everything belongs to Him; everything was created by Him. V5 ‘The Lord is your keeper; the Lord is your shade at your right hand.’ He is at our right hand, the hand of blessings, He is always blessing us and protecting us. We are often fear of God’s judgement and God’s punishment, but today God reminds us that He wants to bless us.
V6 ‘The sun shall not strike you by day, nor the moon by night.’ The people at the time worshipped the sun god and the moon god, but only God wanted to protect His people. Are we afraid? Are we worry? Because we don’t believe God is the Creator of the Heaven and Earth. We think that God is out of date, we think that this is the time of technology, but we forgot that everything is created by God, the I Am Who I Am God, the Creator God, and the Almighty God. Why do we back slide? Because we don’t know God helps us, and we want to find our own ways to make ourselves feel better. We thought time will heal, we thought taking a rest can restore us, but only God is our true help. Only God can help us, only God can heal us, and we must walk with God.
Section Three V7-8 To Receive the Help of God 要领受神的帮助
V7 ‘The Lord shall preserve you from all evil; He shall preserve your soul.’ We know the help comes from God, but are we willing to receive the help of God? We know the truth, but we don’t receive, then we will never get better. God wants to protect us and to preserve us from all evil, but when we don’t receive this protection, when we use our own ways, the ways of the world, the ways of people… at the end we are the ones who will be in lack. We will walk further away from God, we will walk into the world, we will connect with the death, and we will fall into the darkness. The darkness is not from God, but from this world, the plague, the earthquake, the storm… are not from God but from this world. But God strongly shows His intention to protect us. He will and He must, because He knows we are in danger.
V8 ‘The Lord shall preserve your going out and your coming in from this time forth, and even forevermore.’ God wants to protect us, but are we willing to receive this help from God? God’s help is not only in David’s time, not only in Daniel’s time, not only in Jesus’ time, but also now and forever. God helps us not to control us or give us pressure, He helps us because He loves us. Let us be willing to receive the help of God, and the help of our authority. God appointed authority for us in this world to help us, when we know then we must see and we must receive. God has already given the responsibility to our authority to guide us and lead us. Let us walk with God, in this dark time, God wants to protect us.