Our text this morning comes from Psalm 121, a very familiar psalm to many of you here. Psalm 121. Hear now the word of the Lord. A song of ascents. I lift up my eyes to the hills, from where does my help come from? 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. So far the reading of his word. A few months ago, when I was here for an evening service, I chose to read a children's story only because as a father of a six- and four-year-old, I found myself doing most of my theologizing through their stories anyways. But afterwards, I told myself, I am a dignified and mature individual and I will not use children's story again until I sat here and saw so many children who are here for the morning service and I'm moved this morning to actually use another story by Shel Silverstein. Bear with me as the story goes, The Little Blue Engine. The Little Blue Engine looked up at the hill. His light was weak. His whistle was shrill. He was tired and small and the hill was tall, and his face blushed red softly and said, I think I can, I think I can, I think I can. So he started up with a chug and a strain, and he puffed and pulled with might and mane, and slowly he climbed a foot at a time, and his engine coughed as he whispered soft, I think I can, I think I can, I think I can. With a squeak and a creak and a toot and a sigh, with an extra a hope and an extra try, he would not stop. Now he near the top and strong and proud. He cried out loud. I think I can. I think I can. I think I can. He was almost there when crash, smash, bash. He slid down and mashed into engine hash on the rocks below, which goes to show if the track is tough and the hill is rough, thinking you can just ain't enough, is the end of that story. For those of you who are fathers and mothers, you can deal with the psychological effect of that story with your children when you go home. But I do think this is quite appropriate for our text this morning. You may recall that Psalm 121 is one of the 15 Psalms of Ascents, indicating the kind of praise and thanksgiving that the Israelites lifted up as they gathered minimally three times a year to worship the Lord in Jerusalem face to face. After days or perhaps weeks of travel, the pilgrim looks with anxiety at the hills that surround Jerusalem. His feet are sore, his muscles ache. He is hopeful yet weary as he mutters, I lift up my eyes to the hills. from where does my help come from? Complete recognition that he cannot complete this journey alone. Complete recognition that he is indeed tired. If it were simply up to willpower, he cannot carry on. He hasn't had the benefits of American positive thinking. Simply saying, just do it, will be the way to complete the journey. This is an impossible situation as he looks upon the hills, Recognizing this long journey still continues. It's for this reason that many of us, when we think about Psalm 121, we think of something in the past, whether figuratively or literally, a journey that we were on. For these words are so comforting to us as we remember the fact that it's we who do not complete this journey, but indeed God who comes to our aid. He is indeed our salvation. He's the one who completes the work on our behalf. For the psalmist simply answers with these words to the cries of the psalmist. My help comes from the Lord who made heaven and earth. My help comes from the Lord who made heaven and earth. For the psalmist, the Lord is the source of salvation. The Lord is the only source of salvation. He's the only one mighty enough and faithful enough to meet our needs. To depend on any other gods, or for that matter, to depend on ourselves, is not only wicked, it is useless and futile. This is why one of the Old Testament commentators, Derek Kidner, speaks of the way that the psalmist lifts our eyes to see the universe as a whole. As he says, the thought of this verse leaps beyond the hills, which is the immediate storyline of the pilgrim on a journey, but to the universe, beyond the universe, to the maker. Here is living help. Here is our God who is our primary, personal, wise, immeasurable God. This creator and redeeming God is the one who comes to save us. Indeed, this has been the confession of all true believers in the Old Testament and the new as we see throughout the book of Psalms in places like Psalm 3.8. Salvation belongs to our God. Your blessing be on your people. Psalm 124, yet another psalm of ascent. In verse 8, our help is in the name of the Lord who made heaven and earth. Jonah 2.9, as he sits in the belly of the fish, he declares these words of confession. But I, with the voice of thanksgiving, will sacrifice to you. What I have vowed, I will pay. Salvation belongs to our God. And as if to close the book with this thought, here in Revelation 7, verse 10 declares, salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne and to the Lamb. Perhaps there are many of us here who identify with this confession. Not just because we're traveling somewhere, Because this is not only for those who are on a physical journey. One cannot forget that this psalm is preceded by a psalm in Psalm 120 that cries out in distress. Nothing to do with traveling, but simply there is great need from which the psalmist needs to be saved. He cannot save himself. Thus, despite the positive beginning when he says, in my distress I call to the Lord and he answered me in Psalm 120, It ends with these words when he says right before 121, I am for peace, but when I speak, they are for war, he says. Tired from life's journey, filled with anxiety and doubts from uncertainties of life, and overwhelmed by our sense of inadequacy, we too, along with the psalmist, might cry out, Where does my help come from? It's at this point we need to hear and echo the confession of the psalmist who declares along with us, my help comes from the Lord, the maker of heaven and earth. My help comes from the Lord, the maker of heaven and earth. This should be the end of our sermon, technically speaking, for that's sufficient confession for all of us. Indeed, our help and our salvation does indeed come from the Lord. Often, however, what we confess and what we believe and how we act are quite different. And perhaps knowing our tendency to confess without conviction, knowing our tendency to sometimes believe one thing yet act completely differently, the psalmist provides reasons for such confidence that he just declared. And as many gather to sing this psalm, these confidences are repeated, reminded for them as to who God is. To reassure us of this salvation that comes from the Lord, the psalmist repeats a word variously translated, keeps, watches over, preserves. While the English translations might vary, it's the same word that is used six times in this short psalm. In verse 3, verse 4, verse 5, twice in verse 7, and verse 8. By its repetition, the psalmist calms our fears by reminding us that this is not only us serving lip service to the Lord, we have every confidence, every foundation to believe that what we confess is actually true. Because what he intends to tell us is in threefold ways who God is. Who is this Lord that we confess? Who is this God in whom we place our confidence? Is he worthy of our trust? He tells us three things about our Lord. First, the psalmist tells us that our Lord cares. Our Lord cares. In verses 3 and 4, he says, 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. I must say, I realize that the church recently switched over to the ESV, English Standard Version, where it talks about keeping, but as a person who grew up in the CRC and having memorized the NIV, the older version, I can't help but to go back to the imagery found there, where it's translated, he will not let your foot sleep. He who watches over you will not slumber. Indeed, he who watches over Israel will neither slumber nor sleep. This is an image of God as a vigilant watchman. I remember the first time we brought our firstborn Anna home. As inexperienced parents, I can vividly remember the number of times we stayed up late into the night to check up on our child just to make sure that she's alive. And the way we would do so is by going into a room every hour on the hour, placing our fingers under her nostrils just to make sure that she is breathing. Take away the anxiety and neurosis and you have the image of God watching over us. Here, indeed, never slumbering, never tiring. He is watching over us. The Lord cares. Psalm 37, 28 declares, for the Lord loves justice. He will not forsake His saints. They are preserved forever. He further goes on to say that the Lord is righteous in all His ways and kind in all His works. The Lord is near to all who call on Him, to all who call on Him in truth. He fulfills the desire of those who fear him, he also hears their cry and saves them. The Lord preserves all who love him, it says in Psalm 145. This is perhaps why the Matthew chapter 10 verse 29 is able to declare with such confidence when it says, are you are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from the will of your father. And even the very hairs of your head our number, so don't be afraid. You're worth more than many sparrows, Jesus says. Here we are reminded of the fact that our Father in heaven is indeed our Father in heaven. We're not just children who are adopted for a moment. We're not foster children who are standing in probationary period before our Father in heaven. Indeed, because of Jesus Christ, we are adopted, and the kind of confidence that we have before him should be remembered for our Father cares. But the psalmist not only reminds us that our Father in heaven cares for us, he also reminds us that the Lord is careful. Lord is careful. Verses 5 and 6. The Lord is your keeper. The Lord is your shade at your right hand, that sun shall not strike you by day, nor the moon by night. Do you recognize the comprehensive nature of his care remembered for us here? He is careful to meet all needs, not just partial needs. Imagine yourself a pilgrim. What might be your greatest fear? safety, probably. And here, the psalmist explains that even the details of the pilgrim's travel, even where his foot may fall, verse 3, is carefully provided by the Lord. When the psalmist says that neither the sun nor the moon will harm them, he is arguing not just about the sun and the moon, but simply that nothing on this side of glory, nothing of his creation can stand in their way. No adversity can overcome those protected and watched by the Lord. This is why Paul, who faces uncertain future as he visits Jerusalem with gifts gathered by the Gentiles, and as he writes Romans chapter 8, thinking about the blessings of God who sovereignly sustains us, not only in our lives, but our eternity as well, he cannot help but at the end of chapter 8, declare the joy that he has in the Lord by simply saying, who shall separate us from the love of Christ? For I am convinced, he says, he didn't say perhaps, maybe, you know, perchance the Lord might be with me. Without hesitation, with full conviction, he says, I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor, as he has a bucket list for the end here, just in case somebody wonders whether there is something left out, he simply says, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus, our Lord. He is careful to know our needs. He is careful to see our needs. He is powerful to take care in all the details, even of minutiae of our needs on a daily basis. A few weeks back, June 8th, was the 30th year of my and our family's immigration to America from South Korea. My guess is that there are some immigrants here as well. That June 8th, 1982, when I was nine years old, our whole family came, me being the second child out of five, my father being a CRC minister. Here we came to the States with really no language knowledge or any financial basis, but came to the States side to stay, live, be educated, and to grow up. And on that day in the morning, I called my mom and I said, happy anniversary. And she said, what? I said, happy anniversary. And she said, I have absolutely no idea what you're talking about. I said, do you not remember? This is the day we came to America 30 years ago. I happen to be a history major who's keen on dates. And she said, didn't we come in August? I said, no, no, it's June 8th. One thing I can say for our family, representing all of us in our family, is the simple fact that the 30 years of a foreign nation journey has not been an easy one. And in the meantime, my father church-planted for the CRC twice, once in San Jose, the other in Anaheim, and now he's retired, enjoying the benefits and fruits of his labors. And ultimately, all that we can say through all these changes, as all of us who are either 10 all the way down to 2, having now fully grown up with children of our own, the thing that we can say with confidence is that the Lord has been good to us. Every single year, every single moment, many ups and downs, hurdles, hills and valleys to overcome, yet our confession stays the same. Every need has been met. Every concern has been overcome. Every uncertainties have been shown and revealed by our Lord Jesus Christ. Perhaps too personal, but my guess is there are many of us who can testify to the same careful attention of our Lord, who providentially cares for us. And this is what the psalmist is reminding us of. Simply that not only is our Lord someone who cares for us, He is indeed careful in his care for us. He knows our needs. And as our Father in heaven, he hears our sorrowful and crying prayers and he answers us in a way that meets all the details of our lives. But not only does he care, not only is he careful, our Lord is also constant. Constant. Psalm 121, verses 7 and 8. 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. We probably can guess at this in light of the fact that we believe in God who is unchanging. He is immutable, we say. He who does not change does not forget nor forsake us. Although we may often suffer from spiritual amnesia like the Israelites of old, forgetting the blessings that God has granted us and given to us, here His promise to us is certain and sure for He is faithful to us. Our God is indeed a promise-keeping God. His desire to keep His promise and His ability and power to do so does not change. He not only cares, He's not only careful in His care for us, but that He is constant. And this is something that the Scripture repeats for us over and over and over again. Here, He is unlike us. And this is why we often do our theology by negation. We are finite, but He is infinite. He is not limited by time and space. We are changing and mutable, but our God is immutable. Simple point being that God is unlike us. We cannot look within ourselves. We cannot look even at our parents. We cannot look at those people that we admire. All those individuals may be admirable in many ways, but yet they will fall and fail. We have nothing on this side of glory that compares to the glory of our Lord. And our Lord, unlike all of us sitting here this morning, He is immutable. He is unchanging. He cannot forget. And He is ever faithful. This is why it's so important for us to remember His words when He says, This time forth and forevermore. This time forth and forevermore. Twice, surrounding these words in the Psalm of Ascent, he repeats the same sentiment of the unchanging nature of God who keeps His promise. Psalm 125, verses 1 and 2, Those who trust in the Lord are like Mount Zion, which cannot be moved, but abides forever. As the mountains surround Jerusalem, so the Lord surrounds His people from this time forth and forevermore. Psalm 131, verse 3, O Israel, hope in the Lord from this time forth and forevermore. It is one of his oft-repeated phrases, from this time forevermore. For Israel, and thus subsequently all of us, can place our trust and hope in our God because here He is faithful. He cares. He is careful because He is constant. from this time and forevermore. I wonder what the Israelites would have thought as they thought about this phrase, this time forth and forevermore, as the psalmist says. The promise from our unchanging God is not only reserved for those who are gathered to worship Him in Jerusalem, not only for those who are on a physical journey getting to Jerusalem, Not only for the Israelites of Old Testament who are turning to the Lord for their salvation times yonder way back behind our past, here it is a promise made to you and I. And the significance of the phrase this time forth and forevermore is seen in the fact that our scripture, the New Testament, reminds us that this is true in the New Testament as well. Do you recall that the scriptures remind us that we are aliens, pilgrims, and sojourners who are on a journey home? We are homesick travelers looking for a home, an eternal home, not just a building made by human hands, but an eternal home made by God's hands. And to us who are on this journey, this same promise is given to us as the psalmist gave the Israelites. One thing intriguing in the New Testament that we ought to remember is that out of numerous uses of the same word keep or watches over in the New Testament, often used to describe keeping the law or keeping someone or something safe, on a number of occasions, the same word is applied to God in Christ who carefully and unceasingly cares for his people. Look at the words of Jude 1, 24 and 25. Whereas people are suffering in the first century, there is a call out given to persevere in the midst of judgment and false teachers who surrounded them. As these individuals and the believers in the first century are struggling to figure out how they may be faithful to the Lord, the writer of Jude reminds them with these words when he says, Now to Him who is able to keep you, the same word repeated, from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of His glory with great joy. To the only God our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority before all time and now and forever. Amen. God in Christ now stands before us. The promise of the forever careful caring of our God, who is so constant, has been fulfilled in His Son, Christ Jesus, and in Him we place the same confidence. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, according to Jude, He will keep you from stumbling. Here in the words of 2 Thessalonians 3.3, in the midst of his call, that is the Apostle Paul, to stand firm in the midst of persecution in the first century, waiting for the day of the Lord, he says. Here is his words when he says, but the Lord is faithful. The Lord is faithful. He will establish you and keep you against the evil one. In the words of the Apostle Paul in 2 Timothy, 1.12, the last book probably that he wrote, as he faces his second trial, and certainly he will not escape now the wrath of the tribunal gathered before him. He seems to have known that he would surely die soon, and many who were trying to reach him were unable to reach him, and here he was feeling down about what was taking place. Yet, in the midst of the trial, in the midst of sitting in prison, these are his words found in chapter 1, verse 12 of 2 Timothy when he says, Therefore, do not be ashamed of the testimony of our God, of our Lord, nor of me, his prisoner, but share in suffering for the gospel by the power of God who saved us and called us to a holy calling, not because of our works but because of his own purpose and grace which gave us in Christ Jesus before the ages began and which now has been manifested through the appearing of our Savior Christ Jesus who abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel for which I was appointed a preacher and apostle and teacher which is why I suffer as I do. But I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed. And I am convinced, here's that conviction of Paul again, that he, that is Christ, is able to keep us until that day what has been entrusted to me. Our God in Christ, who fulfilled the promises of God, our God, who is never changing in his promises, stands before us as the one who cares, who is careful, and now forevermore, having kept his promise to save for all eternity, will keep us until we see him face to face. Just like the Israelites of old, we too look upon a hill, This time a hill where Christ our Lord indeed died on our behalf. And we are able to confess, along with all believers, our help comes from the Lord, the maker of heaven and earth. For he is God who cares, who is careful, and who is indeed constant. The culture around us tells us that maturity is witnessed to, by, and also indicated by, our desire to be independent. As we see our children grow up, as they hit different milestones, playing by themselves, tying their shoes by themselves, feeding them by themselves, and for parents of young children, you often hear, I do it, I do it. And you as parents look back and you are so thankful that the Lord has been so gracious to your family and your child. And this child grows up, later on drives, gulp, later on goes to college by him or herself, later on graduates, gets a job, forms a family, has children of his or her own, and actually live on their own. And all these things, the culture says, are indications of growth and maturity because independence is the marker of maturity. Scripture is completely reversed. The mark of spiritual maturity, according to the scriptures, is not independence, but dependence. It's our growing ability to see our own inabilities, the fact that we cannot, that we cannot save ourselves. We cannot sustain ourselves. We cannot fulfill our needs and desires. This growing sense of one's inability and ineptitude, which is so contrary to our culture that tells us, just do it. But growing more and more dependent upon our God, that is the marker of our maturity before God. And here, as we stand before Psalm 121, We are told and reminded that as we let go of our ability and let go of our trust in ourselves, we rely upon God who indeed stands over us, who is our creator, our redeemer, who cares for us, who is careful, and who never changes. This is why our confession makes sense. My help comes from the Lord, the maker of heaven and earth. In this crowd, I think the words of John Calvin perhaps may ring louder than anything I could say. So this morning, I want to end with the words of Calvin, who nicely summarizes these sentiments for us. When he says on his commentary on this particular passage, he says, being then entangled in so many unholy misgivings and so much inclined to distrust, we are taught from the passage that if a sentence couched in a few words does not suffice us, we should gather together whatever may be found throughout the whole scriptures concerning the providence of God until this doctrine that God always keeps watch over us is deeply rooted in our hearts so that depending upon his guardianship alone, we may bid adieu to all the vain confidences of the world. May the Lord's guardianship and the truth that God always keeps watch over us as he cares for us remind us of his grace, sustain us throughout the week, and not only as individuals, but as church, turn to the Lord in praises and thanksgiving for his goodness to us. Let's turn to the Lord in prayer. Father, we thank you this morning for the confession of the psalmist. For many of us gathered here this morning are tired throughout our life's journeys. Many of us face uncertainties of our future. And perhaps even as a collective whole, the church may feel the uncertainties of the future. But Lord, we confess that you indeed have been good to us. We have nothing to fear in you. So we echo the confession of the psalmist when he says, where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord, the maker of heaven and earth. Thank you for caring for us, O Lord. Thank you for being so careful to meet all our needs. Thank you for being a promise-keeping God who never changes. For we see in the coming and the dying and the rising of our Lord Jesus Christ, your promise indeed fulfilled. And so we turn our eyes to him this morning and trust in him, for there is no one else and nothing else that we can turn to. So, Lord, instill in our hearts and our minds this truth, not only for us to confess and believe, but may our daily lives be led by this conviction, not only with sense of peace and confidence, not in ourselves, but in you, but may our lips sing praises and thanksgiving to you for who you are. We thank you for this time, and we pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.