Five-minute study · Day 291 · Psalms 121
Psalm 121:1
A word worth stopping on: lift up נָשָׂא nasa
'I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help.' The word translated 'lift up' is nasa. To lift, to carry, to bear. Psalm 121 is a Song of Ascents, one of fifteen psalms (120-134) sung by pilgrims walking uphill toward Jerusalem for the annual feasts. The hills around Jerusalem were visible for miles. They were also covered with high places, shrines to Baal and Asherah and Chemosh, altars where the surrounding nations burned incense to gods made of wood and stone. A pilgrim lifting his eyes toward those hills saw two things at once: the destination and the temptation. The question embedded in the verse is real. When you nasa your eyes toward the hills, which hill are you looking at? The one with the Temple, or the one with the shrine?
Word study: lift up
- Hebrew
- נָשָׂא
- Pronounced
- nasa
- Strong's
- H5375
- Definition
- To lift, to carry, to bear, to take up, to raise. Used for physical lifting, bearing a burden, carrying guilt, raising the eyes, and lifting the voice. One of the most versatile verbs in the Hebrew Bible.
Nasa appears over 650 times in the Hebrew Bible. BDB provides an extensive range of meanings: to lift, to bear, to carry, to take away, to forgive (literally: to bear away guilt). The verb covers physical actions (lifting a stone, carrying a load), emotional states (bearing grief, carrying shame), spiritual transactions (God 'lifting' or forgiving sin in Exodus 34:7), and bodily gestures (lifting the eyes, lifting the hands, lifting the voice).
Allen's commentary on Psalms 101-150 in the Word Biblical Commentary identifies Psalm 121 as a Song of Ascents, part of the collection (Psalms 120-134) associated with pilgrimage to Jerusalem. The 'ascents' (ma'alot, from the root 'alah, to go up) refer to the upward journey to Jerusalem, which sits on a ridge at approximately 2,500 feet elevation. Pilgrims traveling from the Jordan Valley climbed over 3,500 feet. The hills around Jerusalem, visible from great distances, served as both landmark and liturgical signal: the journey was almost over.
Allen notes that the hills carried ambiguous associations. The 'high places' (bamot) were locations of unauthorized worship throughout Israel's history. 1 Kings 3:2 acknowledges that 'the people sacrificed in high places, because there was no house built unto the name of the LORD.' Even after Solomon's Temple was completed, the high places persisted. 2 Kings 23:5 records Josiah destroying the high places where priests had burned incense to Baal, the sun, the moon, and the constellations. The hills around Jerusalem were geographically beautiful and theologically contested.
The phrase 'lift up mine eyes unto the hills' uses nasa with the preposition el (toward, unto). Allen observes that the question in verse 1b ('from whence cometh my help?') may be genuinely interrogative: the pilgrim looks at the hills and asks aloud where help comes from. Verse 2 provides the answer: 'My help cometh from the LORD, which made heaven and earth.' The nasa of the eyes is the beginning of the question. The answer pulls the gaze past the hills to the God who made them. The verb captures the physical gesture of a person on a road, tilting the head upward, scanning the horizon, and choosing where to fix attention.
Historical context · The pilgrimage festivals of ancient Israel (Passover, Pentecost, Tabernacles); the Songs of Ascents (Psalms 120-134) sung during the approach to Jerusalem; the persistent problem of high-place worship from the period of the Judges through the monarchy
Pilgrimage Roads, High Places, and the Hills Around Jerusalem
Three times a year, Israelite men were required to appear before the LORD at the central sanctuary: Passover (Pesach, Nisan 14-21), Pentecost (Shavuot, fifty days after Passover), and Tabernacles (Sukkot, Tishri 15-22). Deuteronomy 16:16 codifies the requirement. The pilgrimage roads leading to Jerusalem funneled travelers from across the land. The road from Jericho climbed through the Judean wilderness, a barren landscape of chalky hills and deep wadis. The road from the coastal plain ascended through the Shephelah foothills. The road from the north passed through Samaria. All routes ended with the same experience: the hills of Jerusalem rising into view.
The high places (bamot) were elevated sites used for worship throughout the Ancient Near East. In Canaan, they typically included a stone altar, a standing stone (massebah), a wooden pole representing Asherah (asherah), and sometimes a small shrine building. The Israelites were commanded to destroy them (Deuteronomy 12:2-3), but the command was never fully carried out. The book of Kings evaluates virtually every king of Israel and Judah on whether the high places were removed. Most failed. Even good kings like Asa (1 Kings 15:14) and Jehoshaphat (1 Kings 22:43) left the high places standing.
Allen places Psalm 121 in this layered landscape. The pilgrim lifting eyes toward the hills was seeing a terrain that held both promise and danger. The Temple mount was one hill. The Mount of Olives was another. And scattered across the ridgelines were the remains of centuries of compromised worship. The psalm's answer is emphatic and immediate: help comes from the LORD, the maker of heaven and earth. The maker of the hills themselves. Allen notes that the shift from question (verse 1) to answer (verse 2) moves the focus from the landscape to the person behind it. The hills are just geography. The help comes from the one who shaped them.
Archaeological surveys of the Judean hill country have identified numerous high-place sites. Aharoni's survey documented open-air altars, standing stones, and cultic installations at sites like the 'Bull Site' in the Samarian hills (discovered by Amihai Mazar in 1978). The physical evidence confirms the biblical picture: the hills were crowded with competing claims on the worshiper's attention.
For reflection
Nasa. Lift. The pilgrim is on the road, climbing, and the hills come into view. The hills hold the Temple. The hills also hold the shrines. Allen notes that the question in verse 1b may be genuine: the pilgrim sees the hills and asks, aloud, where help actually comes from. The answer in verse 2 pulls the gaze past the geography to the God who made the geography. You nasa your eyes every day. Toward a screen, toward a person, toward a fear, toward a plan. The verb is not passive. Lifting is a choice, a directed act. Where are you lifting your eyes this week? And is the hill you are staring at the one with the Temple, or the one with the shrine? The pilgrim had to choose. Verse 2 is the choice he made.
Nasa: to lift, carry, bear. BDB traces its 650+ occurrences across physical lifting, bearing guilt, forgiving sin, and directing the gaze. Allen identifies Psalm 121 as a Song of Ascents and notes the ambiguous associations of the hills: pilgrimage destination and high-place temptation.
Sources: BDB; Allen, 'Psalms 101-150' (WBC)