Help!

Help!

‭‭Psalms‬ ‭121:1‭-‬2‬ ‭AMP‬‬

[1] I will lift up my eyes to the hills [of Jerusalem]— From where shall my help come? [2] My help comes from the Lord, Who made heaven and earth.

A search on the internet reveals that some of the mountaintops that are in or around the Old City of Jerusalem are Mount Zion, Mount of Olives, the Temple Mount, Mount Scopus, Mount Herzl, Mount of Rest, Mount Hotzvim, and Har Nof. Whoever the psalmist was, he must have lived in or around Jerusalem and seen the peaks and mountains, and was able to appreciate the protection and safety they seem to provide. That is both the challenge and the reality of physical measures. I am required to lock my door at night, yet I also understand that locked doors do not always keep out trouble. I can take the best of safety precautions, yet they may not be able to keep me truly safe in the day of trouble. 

What, then, is the solution? Do I completely dispense with the need for safely, trusting God to keep me safe, even if my decisions place me in harm's way? Or do I strike the right balance between physical measures, and the clear and simple  understanding that only in God am I truly safe and secure? This is the message of the verses above. As I cast my eye over the physical measures in place, I set my heart on the One who can make all these measures work as they should, whilst also keeping me safe. I am sure the psalmist here must have tried all the other options at some point, and realised they were limited in impact, scope and effect. 

If I lift up my eyes to the hills, and I know that they cannot really keep me safe, it helps me know that there is someone else more powerful than the mountains and hills. The verses above lay it out: the Lord, who made heaven and earth, including the mountains. God will not keep a man outside the scope of that man's heart. If my heart is fixed on that which is visible, I must trust the visible to work at all times. I cannot turn around and blame God for the consequences of my own decision. If God is the sole focus, His promise is that He is able to keep safe that which has been entrusted to Him. Which one is my heart fixed on: the mountains or the Lord? Both have earthly and eternal consequences. God's time of favour is here.