In this sermon, Pastor Chuck Smith emphasizes the importance of believing in a Creator and seeing God in creation. He highlights that believing in a Creator gives life meaning and purpose, while rejecting the idea leads to a meaningless existence. Pastor Smith also encourages listeners to seek help from God, reminding them of His power as the creator of the vast universe. He references Psalm 121, which emphasizes the need to look to God for mercy and guidance, just as a servant looks to their master's hand for direction.

Oh, let the Son of God enfold you With His Spirit and His love Let Him fill your heart and satisfy your soul Oh, let Him have the things that mold you And His Spirit and His love We'll descend upon your life And make you whole I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills From whence cometh my help As we mentioned, Jerusalem is situated in what they call the hills of Jerusalem. And the Jews have this thing that they always say, let's go up to Jerusalem. You never go down to Jerusalem. You may be living in the north part of the country, but you wouldn't say, well let's go down to Jerusalem. You'd say, let's go up to Jerusalem. If they lived on the top of Mount Hermon, 10,000 feet, they'd say, well let's go up to Jerusalem. Because the final leg of the journey to Jerusalem is uphill. No matter what direction you're coming from, your final last lap into Jerusalem is uphill. Whether you're coming from the coastal area, whether you're coming from Ephraim, whether you're coming from the south, or of course from the area of the Jordan Valley, it's always up to Jerusalem. From whence cometh my help is, I believe, a question. He's not declaring, surely, that my help comes from the hills. And I think to read it that way is to read it wrong. I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills from whence cometh my help. The hills don't help me. But my help comes, and he answers it in verse 2, from the Lord which made the hills, the Lord which made the heaven and the earth. And again, the vast importance of believing in a creator. Seeing God in creation. It makes such a vast difference in the whole way that you look at life, that you look at circumstances in life. Whether or not life has meaning and purpose, or life is just a mistake, and a series of accidents, it all depends on whether or not you believe in a creator, and you believe in creation. But if you don't believe in the creator, then life is just, you know, here today, gone tomorrow, and, you know, let's eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die. And there's no meaning for life, there's no purpose for life, there's no purpose for your existence. Makes a big difference. My help comes from the Lord who made the heavens and the earth. Surely if God is great enough to make the heavens and the earth, he's great enough to take care of my little problems. For he will not suffer thy foot to be moved. He that keepeth thee will not slumber. Behold, he that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep. God is always there when I need him. Anytime I call him, he's available. He never slumbers, he never sleeps. The one who keeps us neither slumbers nor sleeps. For the Lord is thy keeper. He is your shade upon your right hand. Now, the dangers of traveling were the sun, by day, sunstroke, or dehydration. Any of you that know anything about the desert know the dangers of dehydration. And so, the Lord is your keeper, he is your shade on your right hand. The interesting thing, the right hand was the, the right side was, was the side that you were most vulnerable on, because you always held your shield with your left hand. And thus, your left side was pretty well protected by the shield, but the right side of the, of the fighter was exposed. And so, he will be, you know, your shield on your right side. He'll be the protection on the right side, that, that side that is most vulnerable. And the sun will not smite thee by day, nor the moon by night. The Lord shall preserve thee from all evil. That's a great promise. The Lord will preserve you from all evil. He will preserve your soul, your mind. The Lord shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in from this time forth, even forevermore. So, traveling to Jerusalem for these feasts, you're going to be traveling through the desert areas, you're going to be exposed to the elements, the sun, the heat of the sun, the moon, and the slippery pathways, but God will preserve you. God will keep you. He will watch over you. He won't slumber. He won't sleep on the job. I was glad, the next psalm declares, when they said unto me, let us go into the house of the Lord. When the suggestion came, let's go to the house of the Lord. The joy, I was glad at the prospect of going to worship God. For our feet shall stand within thy gates, O Jerusalem. The anticipation of coming, standing within the city itself, within the walls of Jerusalem. For Jerusalem is built as a city that is compact together. Where the tribes go up, the tribes of the Lord. That idea of compact together is where national groups can come together in a unity. Where the tribes go as one, though they are the 12 tribes, yet as they gather together that unity that they experience as they feel. Unified together. A place where we are unified together. Where the tribes go up, the tribes of the Lord, unto the testimony of Israel to give thanks to the name of the Lord. I was glad when it was suggested, let's go to the house of the Lord. That we might give thanks unto God, to the name of the Lord. For there in Jerusalem are the set thrones of judgment. There is the national headquarters, the national capital where the Supreme Court, the thrones of the house of David, the places where the judgment issued forth. Pray for the peace of Jerusalem. For they shall prosper that love thee. And then David's own prayer for Jerusalem and for the peace. He exhorts you and others to pray for the peace, but this is his prayer. Peace be within thy walls and prosperity within thy palaces. For my brethren and companions sake I will now say, peace be within thee. Because of the house of the Lord our God, I will seek thy good. So, moving now towards Jerusalem. Seeing the hills, the anticipation, the joy, the excitement, the thrill. Glad when they said to me, let's go to the house of the Lord. Oh, the blessed city of Jerusalem, the place that it holds in the heart of every Jew. It's interesting, there's almost a Jerusalem cult. Those Jews who live in Jerusalem feel that they are blessed above all Jews in the world. And they feel that those who live in Tel Aviv are pagans. I mean, to live in the land of Israel and not to live in Jerusalem, man, you're just a real pagan, you know. And that love for Jerusalem, those that live there, I mean, they just really have an intense love for Jerusalem. And it's great to hear them talk about Jerusalem. And their love for this city. Because it is the city of God and has a special place in their hearts. So, now the beginning of the worship. Unto thee lift I up mine eyes, O thou that dwellest in the heavens. Behold, as the eyes of the servants look to the hand of their masters. And as the eyes of a maiden unto the hand of her mistress. So our eyes wait upon the Lord our God, until that he have mercy upon us. Now, in those days in which they had servants. The man of the house would have the male servants that attended to his every desire. The wife, the women would have their maidens who attended to them. And the masters would develop hand signals that were imperceptible to other people. And they would direct the movements of their servants with just a slight movement of the hand. And they would have certain signals that would indicate to, you know, bring me a glass of water or time to bring the food or whatever. And they would just have these slight little hand signals. That would direct the servants activities. And thus, whenever the master was there, guests were around, the servants would always watch his hands. Because he would give that signal with his hand and he would expect then the servant to respond. They would never give them verbal commands. Always just a signal with a hand that the servant understood and would respond to those hand signals. And thus, the servant would just always stand there attentively watching the hand. Waiting for the directions that were to come to him through these little signals that would be given by the hand of their master. So, as the servant, the eyes of the servant look to the hand of their masters, the eyes of the maiden unto the hand of her mistress, so our eyes, we stand looking to God, waiting for those signs of God's mercy. Waiting for those indications of God's mercy upon us. So we, our eyes, look upon the Lord, our God, until we have that mercy upon us. And then the prayer, have mercy upon us, O Lord, have mercy upon us, for we are exceedingly filled with contempt. That is the contempt of those around us who hate us. God have mercy. Our soul is exceedingly filled with scorning of those that are at ease and with the contempt of the proud. And so, being ill-treated by the world around me, I look to God for solace, for mercy, for comfort. Psalm 124, If it had not been the Lord who was on our side, now may Israel say, If it had not been the Lord who was on our side when men rose up against us, then they had swallowed us up quick when their wrath was kindled against us, when the waters had overwhelmed us and the stream had gone over our soul. Many of these psalms are ascribed to the period of captivity and to the period of Nehemiah, Ezra, when the temple was rebuilt and the people were again coming, many of them from Babylon, who lived in these hostile environments. As you remember, there was at one time even in the Persian Empire an edict to exterminate all the Jews. And so, if it had not been for God's preservation, if it had not been the Lord who was on our side, of course, this psalm is ascribed to David, and so it is before that time of the great persecution by Babylon and later by Persia. But David had, of course, experienced his own trials by Saul, who sought to destroy him. Absalom, who sought to drive him from the kingdom. And, of course, they were surrounded by their perennial enemies, the Philistines, the Ammonites, the Moabites, the Edomites. So, if it had not been for the Lord who was on our side, the face of the Lord is against those that do evil, but the Lord is on the side of those that do good. When men rose up against us, they would have swallowed us up quickly when their wrath was kindled against us. God has preserved us. It's recognizing that it was God who gave us the victory. Then the waters, the deep waters, would have overwhelmed us. The stream would have gone over our soul. Talking now about the emotional experiences of life, those deep waters that we often go through. When we have a death of a loved one, when we have financial reverses, when we have a breakup of a marriage, problems in interpersonal relationships that just deep water and they seem like they're going to swallow us up. When the proud waters had gone over our soul, we would have been destroyed. We wouldn't have survived if the Lord had not been with us. Blessed be the Lord who has not given us as a prey to their teeth. Now, that goes back to the enemies who surrounded us, who would have swallowed us up when they were angry with us if it had not been for the Lord. God didn't give us as a prey to them. Our soul is escaped as a bird out of the snare. Talking now about the mind, the emotions, which are so caught in this, I see no way out. I feel like I'm trapped. And I feel like there's just no way out of this dilemma. It's sort of like, you know, I can't see any way out. I'm trapped. And so many times a person feels trapped in the conditions that they are. It's a horrible feeling to think, man, this is the rest of my life and I'm trapped. I can't see any way out. But the psalmist declares, my soul is escaped as a bird out of the snare of the fowlers. The snare of the fowlers, of course, is an old English term. It goes back to when they used to trap birds. And so the snare being a trap of the fowlers, the men who trapped birds. And so I feel like a bird that was caught in the trap, but yet I was able to escape out of the trap for the snare of the fowlers. The snare is broken. We are escaped. For our help is in the name of the Lord who made the heaven and the earth. Because God is my help. And again, the idea of creation and the creator. He made the heaven and the earth. And it's such an important concept to hold whenever you're in trouble. Whenever you're desperate and you go to God in prayer. It's important to remember God's power. To realize that I'm calling upon the one who is so great as to have created this universe. There has been an interesting conference of the National Academy of the Astronomers. And many of the astronomers have been presenting their papers to this convention back there. And thus the interesting thing that I have noted as I've been reading the summary of their papers is the amazement that the astronomers have of the universe in which we live. The discovery of how much more vast is this universe than we ever dreamed before. We had no idea of how vast the universe actually is. And of course this great wall that they've discovered out there which stretches from horizon to horizon some 500 million light years. How much further it stretches we don't know. But it's out there just as a great wall. How there seems to be new galaxies that are being birthed in the universe. And all of these interesting things that they're discovering as they're able to improve the various telescopes and means of exploring the universe. They're finding out that it's far more vast than they'd ever comprehended before. It always excites me because it means that God is just that much bigger than we ever thought he was before. Because he stretched out the heavens like a curtain. Now it's interesting they say wall but the Lord says curtain. He just stretched out like a curtain. That vast what they call wall out there of light 500 million light years long. And so the greatness of the God who created the heavens and the earth. He is the God that listens to you when you pray. He is the God who is interested in your little problems. He is the God who wants to help you and reveal himself to you. Because he loves you. Now that just is mind boggling. To think that God loves me. That God is interested in me. The one who created the universe is interested in me in my needs. And those things that overwhelm me are nothing to him. He is God. He said to Jeremiah behold I am God. Is there anything too hard for me? Thus believing in creation. A God who created this universe. I have great comfort. I have great assurance. Because he is going to see me through every difficulty. Every trial. He's going to protect me. He will be my defense. I don't even have to defend myself. He is my defense. We'll return with more of our verse-by-verse study through the book of Psalms in our next lesson. As Pastor Chuck continues with, the Lord is our strength. And we do hope you'll make plans to join us. But right now, if you'd like to secure a copy of today's message, simply order Psalm 121, verse 1, when visiting thewordfortoday.org. And while there, be sure to browse the many additional biblical resources by Pastor Chuck. You can also subscribe to the Word for Today podcast. Or sign up for our email subscription. Once again, that's thewordfortoday.org. And for those of you wishing to call, our toll-free number is 1-800-272-WORD. And our office hours are Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Pacific Time. Again, that's 1-800-272-9673. And if you prefer to write, our mailing address is The Word for Today, P.O. Box 8000, Costa Mesa, California, 92628. And now, on behalf of The Word for Today, we'd like to thank all of you who share in supporting this ministry with your prayers and financial support. And be sure to join us again next time as Pastor Chuck continues his verse-by-verse study through the Bible. That's right here on the next edition of The Word for Today. Now, once again, here's Pastor Chuck with today's closing prayer. Father, we thank you for that mercy and grace whereby, Lord, we have been forgiven, cleansed from the pollution of our own sin, and we've been made your children. Help us, Lord, to learn from the mistakes of the nation of Israel who so often turned from thee, who so often turned after the flesh and the things of the flesh, who rebelled against your ways and against your truth. Lord, help us that we might walk after the Spirit, following after Jesus Christ, living a life that is pleasing unto Him. Sometimes it's difficult to celebrate the holidays like Christmas or New Year's Eve because of a recent death in the family or a sudden tragedy that's happened. And it's in times like this that we want to be used by God to bring encouragement, hope, and most of all, love to our family and friends who are going through a hardship. That's why I'd like to tell you about a book by Chuck Smith called When the Storm Hits. I'm amazed when I read this book that it's able to encourage and strengthen a person and persuade them to look to Jesus and not at their problem. It encourages us to be patient, not to lose hope, and when the storm hits, to get anchored on Jesus, the rock, and don't let go. To order a copy of Chuck Smith's book, When the Storm Hits, please call The Word for Today at 800-272-9673. Or you can visit us online to read a preview of the book by visiting thewordfortoday.org. This program has been sponsored by The Word for Today in Costa Mesa, California.