Help from the Creator

When something is wrong, most of us keep looking at the problem. We look down at the phone, sideways at what other people seem to have, and back at the problem itself, as if staring at it long enough will make it smaller.

The first line of this psalm is more interesting than it looks, and careful translators have read it in two ways. The KJV gives it as a calm statement: "I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help." Many other translations make the second half a question, asking where help will come from, and then the next verse answers it. There is a good reason to read it as a question. Many of the hills in that land held shrines to other gods, the "high places" the Bible condemns again and again, where frightened people went to ask for help. A pilgrim who looked up at the skyline saw plenty of help on offer, and most of it was useless.

The second verse answers with a title for God rather than a feeling: "My help cometh from the LORD, which made heaven and earth." That help comes from the One who made the hills and everything around them. So the psalm's argument is about size. The One who spoke everything into being will not be stretched thin by your situation, and every other high thing you were looking at is part of the scenery He built.

So there is a way out of the loop of worry, and willpower is not it. Lift your eyes past the problem and past every false hope, to the Lord who made heaven and earth. The psalm is not simply telling you to worry less. It is telling you where to look for help.

Daily Manna runs on a two-year cycle. The year two reading for day 350 is The Vineyard Inventory (Isaiah 5:4).

All 365 readings in Daily Manna