“Ps 84:11-12  For the LORD God is a sun and shield; The LORD will give grace and glory; No good thing will He withhold From those who walk uprightly. 12 O LORD of hosts, Blessed is the man who trusts in You.”

Have you ever thought to yourself, How did I get here?  Why am I not where I thought I would be?  Why do I not have this or that?  I know I have.  Sometimes I have asked God what are you doing, how could you allow that to happen to me?  I thought you loved me, but you certainly are not showing it right now.  I’m only being serious!!  The thing is when we are in our situation we don’t always recognize that God has the best planned for us.  We tend to forget that “Jer 29:11 For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the LORD, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.”  Do you know why?  The devil constantly wants us to believe that God is holding out on us.  As if for some reason, God is punishing us for something we did years ago or even the other day. He did this to Adam & Eve when they had everything in the Garden of Eden, and he tries the same thing with us time after time. But remember this:

1. God Has All We Need & More:  “For the LORD God is a sun and shield; The LORD will give grace and glory.”  Whether it is life (sun) for a dead situation, protection (shield) from the enemy’s attacks, unmerited favor and supernatural strength (grace) to make it thru tough times or special honour & praise (glory) just because we’re His kids (or all of the above); Jesus has it all.  His blessings go way beyond just these few things, and this Psalm clearly tells us tha the Lord will not withhold any good thing from us.  Jesus has it all!!!
2. God Can Be Trusted:  “Blessed is the man who trusts in You.”  The problem often is that our definition of good and the Lord’s definition of good is often not the same.  Good to us often means what we want, when we want it and not necessarily what God wants or His timing.  What we want might make things better, but it will never be “Beyond-Beyond!.”  When we trust God we will allow some good things to pass us by so that we can receive “exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think (Eph 3:20).”   We can trust God because He is trustworthy.  We are blessed “according to the power that works in us,” and for those of us who are saved, this power is Jesus (the one who has all we need & more).  Trust That!!

Conclusion: God will never hold out or keep good things from us because He loves us too much.  What kind of Father would He be if He did that?   Don’t let the Devil fool you anymore, it may not be exactly what you want but trust the Lord and you will see the exceeding an abundant blessings from God.  Enjoy them, they’re for you!!!

Ps 121:1 I will lift up my eyes to the hills, From whence comes my help? 2 My help comes from the LORD, Who made heaven and earth. 3 He will not allow your foot to be moved; He who keeps you will not slumber.  4 Behold, He who keeps Israel Shall neither slumber nor sleep. 

Psalm 121 is a “Song of Ascents;” what does that mean?  These are 15 psalms historically believed to have been sung when the Israelites would ascend to the Temple in Jerusalem for one of the three major festivals.  It was an exciting time for Israel as they were celebrating some type of victory God gave them over their enemy.  In other words it is a song of joy and triumph.

The psalmist encourages us when we are in need of help, by saying “I will lift up my eyes to the hills.”  It is interesting that he says to focus our eyes on the hills.  The Hebrew word for hill in this text actually refers to mountains and since we are to look to the mountains for our help, I wanted to take a look at a few mountains in the bible that reveals our help.

By looking to the hills we find our help in the following ways:

1. The Lord’s Provision: On a high mountain in the land of Moriah, Abraham brought his son Isaac to sacrifice him in obedience to God.  Imagine the agony he must have experienced, taking the one he had waited so long for and loved so very much to the place where he would die. Abraham was following God, but did not realize that God had already provided for his need.  Abraham was giving up his only son to show his love for another (does that sound familiar).  When we look to this hill,
   remember that God provided a ram to take the place of Abraham’s son, but He gave Jesus to take the place of Each One of Us. “…how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him (Matt 7:11)?”  When you’re in need of any provision, look to this hill from “from whence comes my help.”
   
2. The Lord’s Presence:  Mount Sinai was the place where Moses would enter the presence God and spend time with Him on a regular basis.  Moses received the wisdom, direction and protection required to get the children of Israel to the Promised Land.  During this “Quality Time” Moses learned much about himself as well as God’s plans for his life.  This hill is also where God gave Moses the Ten Commandments, or what we often call the “Law.”  He gave this “Law” to show us
   God’s standards and more so to show us how much we need Jesus as our Savior.  At this mountain, God demonstrates both the importance of His presence and our need for His Son Jesus
   in our hearts.  When you’re looking for direction or just need a word from God, look to this hill from “from whence comes my help.”
   
3. The Lord’s Transformation:  Jesus took his three closest disciples to the mount of transfiguration and on this hill He was transformed before them until “His face shone like the sun, and His clothes became as white as the light.”  The three disciples saw Jesus like never before; it was different from anything they had experienced with Jesus in the three years they knew him.  After that night on the mountain, everything changed for those disciples.  The Lord is so amazing that we will never completely understand Him, yet we continue to gain a deeper understanding of His love for us.  So when you need to see the Lord in a different way, look to this hill from “from whence comes my help.”
   
4. The Lord’s Triumph: Lastly, there was a hill called Golgotha, and on that hill the Lord demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us (Rom 5:8).  It was here that Jesus went to the cross and died for every one of our sins, past, present and future.  Jesus became our Passover lamb, whose blood covers the door post of our souls covering our sin while imputing on us His righteousness.  It is on this hill that we were given a savior who would change both our everyday lives and eternity forever.  Whenever the devil is attempting to condemn you when you fail and keep you from resting in the Lord’s finished work on the cross, look to this hill from “from whence comes my help.”

Conclusion:  Our help comes from Jesus and although there are several other hills we could look to (Mount
Carmel, Elijah’s victory; the mount of olives; Jesus in Gethsemane; just to name a couple), these four hills clearly show that Jesus is the source of our help.  When we look to these hills, regardless of our situation we can find the Lord Jesus “from whence comes my help.”