Day 4 of Week 1

June 27, 2009
Stepping Up – The Psalms of Ascent
Day 4 of Week 1

The Lord is Your Shelter

We will be focusing on Psalm 121, again, for today’s study. Please take a moment to read the Psalm aloud once more to refresh your mind.
Where does our help come from?
The Maker of heaven and earth
Now let’s think of help in terms of human help. We need to support one another as we are on this journey through earth. When the Jews would make their pilgrimage for the feasts, other Jews would travel with them. They knew they needed the help of their fellow believers to make the difficult journey. They ate together, bunked together and 1
What do the following Scriptures say about ways people can be of authentic help to one another?
Ecclesiastes 4: 9 – 10
“Two are better than one because they have good return for their work:
If one falls down, his friend can help him up.
But pity the man who falls and has no one to help him up!”
2 Corinthians 1: 10 – 11
These verses refer to helping our fellow believers through prayer

Write down a few names of people who are a tremendous help to you in your journey.
Be sure to write them down so you focus on their importance. Maybe you should send them a card or note, reminding them of how important they are to you.

Now, name specific ways that God can help you that other people simply cannot.
Often things happen to us that cannot be helped by humans. Think of the Jews as they would journey. If an army rose up against them or the weather became too much to bear, their human companions were very limited in what they could do to help. Isn’t it nice to know that God is not limited AT ALL. He is capable of things that our fellow humans could never do.
Jude 1: 24 says:
“To Him who is able to keep you from falling and to present you before His glorious presence without fault and with great joy…”

Our God will not slumber during our journey!!!
What did Elijah suggest Baal, the pagan god of the enemies of Israel, might have been doing rather than coming to their rescue?
Now all of you that did the Elijah study with me should know this one!!!
1 Kings 18: 27 –
“At noon Elijah began to taunt them. ‘Shout louder!’ he said. ‘Surely he is a god! Perhaps he is deep in thought, or busy or traveling. Maybe he is sleeping and must be awakened!’ “

Doesn’t it give you cold chills to think of worshiping a God that could be too busy to care for you? Ancient pagan people commonly held the notion that gods slept during the winter months. We are assured in Psalm 121 that our God does not slumber or sleep.

Psalm 121: 5 says, “the Lord is a shelter right by your side”. How does Psalm 91: 4 depict the closeness of God’s shelter?
“He will cover you with His feathers, and under His wings you will find refuge; His faithfulness will be your shield and rampart.”

I love imagining myself snuggled up against the warm body of God with the feathers of His wings covering me in protection! Think about it for a moment! Wouldn’t you love to kiss all the cares of this world good-bye for just one minute for this kind of peace? It will be ours one day!!!
Now, imagine the biggest battle of your life! Imagine the size of God’s faithfulness to us! Imagine Him racing you through this battle with His faithfulness acting as your shield. Arrows are flying all around you. Bombs are exploding at the edge of your feet. You don’t know how you are going to survive, but you look up to see your God holding you behind His shield as He allows the arrows of this war to penetrate His flesh. That is what Christ did for us on the cross!!! That is what our God watched as His son took every battle for us!!! Take heart in these Scripture! Know that the battle was fought for you a long time ago. Any battle this world has to offer us is small in comparison to what He took for us!!!

With this in mind, write a prayer to God using Psalm 121 as your guide!
You will feel so amazing once you have done it! Read it to yourself over and over again as you need to be reminded of what God is capable of!!!