Message by Brad Selley, Pastor of Northwest Bible Church, speaking at Parkers Lake Baptist Church on Sunday morning, September 28, 2008.

What we have today is called the Travelers Psalm. It's a Psalm of David, one of the second of what are called the Ascent Psalms. They are Psalms that are given up to God to say, "Lord, help!" And kind of come to Him and say, "What would you have me do?" And so as we see today in Psalm 121, it's a powerful, powerful Psalm. Let me just read it together. We already read it earlier, but follow in your Bibles.

I will lift up my eyes to the mountains; From where shall my help come?

That's a good question. 'Cause I'm going to be honest with you. We need help, don't we? The very nature of the question being asked demands that we need help. Any of us who would say we don't need help, that's a ridiculous statement. As a matter of fact, that's a dangerous statement, which finds us thinking that we're an island unto ourselves when we're not.

[I'm getting a wave. Can you hear me anyway? It doesn't matter. I've got no light here, Merlin. How's that? Now do we have a light? Zzzt. Just kidding! Boom! All right.]

The very nature of the question assumes that we've got a need. It assumes that we need help. And that is the case. We all stand in need of help. There's not one of us in the room -- not one of us -- who don't go through, literally every day, when we are need of help.

That is counterintuitive to what our world prescribes for us. Our American culture, our western world -- as wonderful as it is -- and it is. I wouldn't trade being an American and living in our world for anything. Yet, at the same time -- at the same time, there is an intrinsic danger into it that we never ask help. And we think things are going rough, what do we do? We pull in together, we circle the wagons, we pull ourselves up by the bootstraps, and we don't reach out and say, "Help!"

This is one of the Ascent Psalms, where David is calling out and realizing -- he ascends up with his voice. He ascends up and says from where shall my help come from.

He has, if you will, a longing gaze (number one on your outline). There's a longing gaze that reaches him where he knows [end of track 1, 2:28] he's going to have to look somewhere for help. He cannot do what he needs to do without some help. And that help is going to come from somewhere. Where shall it come? "I'll lift my eyes to the mountains. Where shall my help come from?"

Now at first when we look at this, at just the first blush, the idea would be: He's looking to mountains for help? What help will the mountains give? Mountains don't give intrinsic help. They don't have with them an idea that you're going to get help from a mountain, from a bunch of rocks or trees or something of that nature.

That's not what he's saying. He's not saying that he's literally looking to get help from the rocks. As all of the Jews in that area were used to, they would look up to the mountains to where the Holy City was, Jerusalem. So he's not looking up to getting help from the mountain or getting help from Jerusalem, but what was represented in Jerusalem. What was represented in Jerusalem was the very presence of God.

Later on, after David, of course, we know that his son, Solomon, brings into full fruition what happens with the presence of God residing in a place. In much of the Old Testament, that place was a moving thing we call the Tabernacle. Post-David it was a permanent place that is called the Temple and we know where it resided, in Zion -- the very city that David named. Zion, a prophetic name, meaning the place where God is going to come back and accomplish all that is going to happen.

He is basically saying this: "Where am I going to get my help? My eyes have to go to God."

Can I just say? That is exactly where our eyes should go. Our eyes need to go to God. There are times when the hurts are too severe. There are times when things are too overwhelming. There are times when things are beyond what we could imagine. And where could we possibly turn? Always to God.

David starts out by saying this Ascent in a longing gaze, as if, "Lord, help!" If you will, this is what he's saying. "Where will my gaze be fixed? Where will I have to put my focus? Where will I have to look for things?"

Just from personal testimony. Many of you know last week I had a very difficult week. And I preached a funeral that I hope I'll never, ever have to preach again. My brother took his life last week. And I went to Florida and I preached that funeral. And I can just tell you, that was hard. Really hard.

I know this. I got a lot of questions. Whys. Why would he do that? Why would this happen? Why would that happen?

My brother wasn't a down-and-outer. He was an up-and-comer. If you think I'm high-energy, I am mellow compared to him. He was an upbeat guy, and we have a lot of questions in our family swirling around. And you know what? I probably am never going to get those answered. But I know where I need to be looking. Not on my brother. Not on his death. Not even at my family. But my God.

I need to be focusing my gaze in exactly where the real help comes. The Lord. That's exactly what David said: "Where shall my help come from? I'm looking to the mountain because I know that's where you reside, God."

To get to know the personal God. To get to know the one who gives answers because He is the answer. Do you remember that old gospel chorus? "Jesus is the answer for the world today. Above Him there's no other." You guys know that song? If you were in youth group a hundred years ago, you remember that song.

That's exactly right. Our world is hopeless these days. We are so panicked.

Many of you may realize -- and if not, please, I encourage you to watch the news some time or read the paper. You may not realize, and if you don't, again, I encourage you. Please. Please. Get your shovel. Dig out from the rocks.

Our world is in trouble. We are getting ready to bail out some significant things to the tune of maybe up to one trillion dollars. Wow! Those numbers are unheard of in relationship to the amount of money that is getting ready to be spent to bail out a mess which may, in your opinion, waylay it to a later time. I don't know. I don't want to play politics today.

But my point is this. We are in trouble. Why? There are houses closing all over the place. The place where our church is is Wright County. Wright County is the number one foreclosure county in the state of Minnesota. And there's no question about it, as you go through subdivisions and as you go through places, you see home after home after home after home.

Where Jonah played baseball this year, his baseball field is in the middle of a new subdivision. I don't know exact numbers, but there was a house here and a house there that was occupied and street after street after street where homes were not even fully built yet, yet they sit empty because they've already been foreclosed on before they had somebody living in them. Home after home after home throughout the winter. People not paying a bill, not paying this or that, and the heat turned off and the water turned off and homes being ruined and all kinds of things. People losing their job, left and right and left and right. [end of track 2, 5:00] People getting to the point where they feel despondent