Beloved congregation in the Lord Jesus Christ, we are all looking for comfort. We are all looking for assurance. We are all looking for that safety, that security, that there is only one place to find it, but we're all looking for it. Whether you're a believer or an unbeliever, every person in this world is looking for security, for assurance, for comfort, to want to understand and to want to know why the things are the way that they are. And there is only one place to find that comfort. There is only one place that the Scripture reveals where there is security, where there is the assurance, where there is safety, and that is found in the Lord Jesus Christ and in Him alone. All of the scripture bears witness to that fact, that it's the Lord who is our keeper. He is the one who keeps us so that nothing will ever separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus. He is our keeper so that in John 10, as he says, no one will snatch you out of my hands. You think about this, again, as Jude says the same thing, "...now unto him who was able to keep us from falling." He preserves us, Jude verse 1, in Christ Jesus. We are preserved in Christ. We have safety, we have security, we have assurance in our Lord Jesus Christ. And this is what this psalm speaks of. There are eight verses, there are eight groupings of two verses. Notice, these verses are going together with these eight verses, the four groupings, excuse me, four groupings of two verses. And within these verses, you'll find the word keep or keeper used six times. That's the theme of this psalm. It's the Lord, our keeper, the one who keeps Israel, who keeps his people. Paul said that the church is the new Israel, the Israel of God, Galatians chapter 6. So when you think of the background of this hymn, notice the title of it, the Song of Ascents. The Song of Ascents are those psalms that, as they would go up to the feast days, which they would go up three times a year for the feasts, and they would gather together. They would sing these psalms as they were going up to Jerusalem to worship. Now, Jerusalem was like 3,000 feet above sea level, and so it was quite high compared to the other cities that were around them. For instance, Jericho was like 400 or 500 feet below sea level and there's only about seven or eight miles difference between the two. So you think about ascending up and how it would be walking up and the way that you would be going up it would be arduous because it would be in a mountainous region. would also be dry. It would be hot. It would be dirty. You'd be sweaty. It would be difficult. It wouldn't be an easy trip. Also, it's within these type of terrain that the highway robbers would be seated. They would place themselves there for the weary, the unsuspecting, as they were making their trips up, so that they could pick them off. This is what happened with the man, the Good Samaritan, the man who was overtaken by thieves. So, they would sing these Psalms, and they go from Psalm 120 to 135, speaking of the songs of ascent. And they would sing these antiphonally. So, there would be a group that would sing a portion of it, and another group that would respond, and it would be going back and forth as the people of God, singing the glory of God as they were making their way up to Jerusalem to partake of the feast. So, that's the background of this hymn, of this psalm. Now, think about this for a moment. As you would be going up, and as it would be an arduous journey up, even though it didn't seem like a long way, it would probably seem it would be like twice as far because of the roughness of the terrain. I once climbed Harney Peak and I make the comment that I've done a lot of dumb things in my life and that ranks within the top 10. But going up there, it didn't seem like it was a long distance, but it was like 2 hours and 40 minutes to make the climb up. And I don't know how far I went, but I tell you what, when I got down from there, I was exhausted. I mean, my legs felt like spaghetti coming down. They were so wobbly. And I was dehydrated. That whole evening, I think I drank a couple of gallons of water. I had sweated so much. So, you know, you get an idea of what kind of a journey that would be to go up. And they would go up with joy. They would go up with festivity. They would go up with singing. They would go up in glorying in their God. So, as you would see these worshipers going up, and as the trip became more and more arduous, they couldn't wait to see Jerusalem. They couldn't wait to see that city that was surrounded by a fortress, an impregnable wall, a mountain, and they would rejoice in that. And so, this is what you find here in verse 1. Notice, and it seems as if the psalmist is speaking to himself. It almost seems like he is meditating upon this truth, and he is speaking within his own heart that, I will lift up my eyes to the hills. We find that in Psalm 42. We find that the psalmist begins to speak to his heart. I don't think we do this enough as the people of God. I don't think we meditate. This is an art of meditation right here. Meditation is reflecting upon God's Word, muttering it back to yourself. That's what you do when you meditate, is you mutter God's Word back to yourself. You take a portion of Scripture, and you mull over that Word. And you pray for the Holy Spirit to do that work, to give you insight, to give you understanding, to cause you to be one who desires greater worship of the Lord. And so I think the psalmist is here doing just that. Even though they sang this as the songs of ascent, yet it was penned by the psalmist, and it was penned as he was reflecting upon this. So he says, I will lift up my eyes. The eyes are what we look with. Scriptures are filled with the worshipers, the God fears, those that worship the Lord, of looking unto the Lord. Look unto me, all ye ends of the earth, and be saved. The eyes of the Lord run to and fro, seeing if there are any that worship Him. It's the Lord who sees us. He sees all of us. He sees into our hearts. He knows us. He knows us intimately. He knows us infinitely. He knows us eternally. But He's given us eyes. And He's given us eyes to see the beauty of the Lord, the grandeur of the Lord. We see the love of the Lord. We see it in the cross. of Jesus Christ. We see the provision of the Lord. We look for these things. Even as the eyes of the servant look to the Master for provision, so it is with the people of God. We see and we understand. God has created all things in the created world, and He has done so that they would reflect His glory, so that everybody would see it. And everybody does see it. You see it immediately. The unbeliever, the believer alike, sees the glory of God immediately when he looks upon the creation. There is no mediation to that. He knows immediately that God has created everything that there is. Now, what he does is what Paul says in Romans 1. He suppresses the truth that he knows. Then he wants to come up with all kinds of other types of explanations for the creation. You know, that we evolved. There was a big bang. The world evolved by chance. Whatever he comes up with. He is suppressing the truth that he knows in his heart. He is revolting against God. He is a God-hater. But he sees it. So, when we go out as believers, and as the heart has been tuned now, as we just sang this hymn, tuned to sing thy grace, we see the glory and the grandeur of God, and we give Him praise. We see it in the little things, in the insects that God has created. The works of the Lord are to be studied by all those who take delight in them, the psalmist says. And so we see it. We see it in the sunset. We see it in the morning when the dew is on the leaves. We see it in a rainstorm that comes. We see it when there is a rainbow. We see it in the fresh snow. We saw it just this past week, didn't we? One day it snows, what do you get, a couple of inches of snow? And the next day it's gone. Much of it was gone that same day. I like that kind of snow. That's good moisture. Here today, gone tomorrow. That's great. That's good. But we see it. We see the wonder of God. The psalmist is saying that he lifts his eyes towards the hills. Now, don't misunderstand what he's doing. He's not trusting in the hills. The hills are reflective of the grandeur of God. The hills are reflective of the stability that God brings, the protection and the security that God brings. Hills could also be translated mountains. And so you think of that when you see the Rocky Mountains. I saw a documentary recently on the Rocky Mountains and how they stretch through the states, but especially in Montana. And the number, I think there's seven out of 10 of the highest peaks of mountains are found in that stretch in Montana. And they were awesome. It was awesome to look, it was awesome to see what the Lord had done. And it brings this sense of security, a strong mountain, a mountain like that cannot be moved. So, that's what the psalmist is seeing here. He's seeing of the character of God, a God who cannot be moved. a God who does not lie, a God who does not change, a God who loves His people, who cares for His people, who surrounds His people. Think about this, Psalm 125. As the mountains surround Jerusalem, so the Lord surrounds His people from this time forth, even forevermore. That reminds me of Job. That the Lord put a hedge around Job. It's like the Lord's hands around Job. The Lord said to Satan, Have you considered my servant Job? Well, yeah. But you put a hedge around him. I can't get at him. You've surrounded him. You've put a security around him. And I can't get to him. I think that this is what the psalmist is seeing here. He's tired. His muscles are probably weary. and he sees the security and the rest that is imaged there in God through the mountains of Jerusalem. From whence comes my help? Notice he's declaring this to himself, and he speaks, he asks and he answers it immediately. My help comes from the Lord. Beloved, where does your help come from? When you are in problems and difficulties, tribulation, trials, persecution. When you are in a dark night of the soul, a sad state that you're going through, a difficult time of life, maybe similar to the time we're going through now. Many have lost their jobs, the economy is in the dumps. Where do you go? Where do you run? You know, as the Christian, as believers, It's our practice and ought to be our practice every single day to run to the Lord. Not when times are dark, but when times are sunny, we run to the Lord. Oftentimes, we don't. The Heidelberg Catechism, when it speaks about the providence of God, and when it gives what the providence, it defines the providence of God, and then it asks this question about the benefit that we receive now by the providence of God. What does it help you now that you believe all these things? That I can be patient in adversity, thankful in prosperity, and for what is future, have good confidence in our faithful God that nothing will ever separate us from his love. Everything is so in His hands. Without His will, they cannot so much as move. He turns all things to the good of His people. He's able, being Almighty God, He's willing, because He's a faithful Father. But patient in affliction. Thankful in prosperity. I've posed this question before. Do you think it's easier to be patient in affliction, or do you think it's easier to be thankful in prosperity? My own opinion is it's easier to be patient in adversity. Adversity, search the scriptures, Genesis to Revelation, adversity tends to press us to the Lord. Count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith is producing endurance. Job, when he went through the suffering that he did, cried out and worshiped the Lord. You find it consistently. David worships the Lord. Moses worships the Lord. You find the people of God, when they go through a time of struggling and suffering, they press in to worship the Lord. But in prosperity, this can be a real trap. The Lord gives prosperity. But one of the things that he told the Israelites when they went into the Promised Land is not to forget something. Not to forget who gives you strength to get wealth. Lest you think of your own ingenuity, your own understanding, your own strength, that you got wealth. And then you deny your God. You see, one of the problems we've had for years within the United States, being a prosperous nation, the Lord, in His providence, has given much bounty to this land. From the west coast to the east coast, north and south, this country has prospered. And you know what we have done in that prosperity? We have ignored our God. You know, when the churches were most filled, that I can remember in my lifetime, was 9-11. In 9-11, people started running to the Lord, crying out for help. They didn't want anything to do with Him when things were sunny, and the bank account was nice and fat, and I was making my six-figure salary. I ain't got time for the things of God. Now that I'm in trouble, now I better go to somewhere where we don't call Him the Lord, we call Him the higher power. That's what people did. That's what hypocrites do. As Christians, It ought to be our daily exercise to be worshiping and running to the Lord daily and finding our help in Him. Because, beloved, it's in Him we live and move and have our being. You can't breathe, you can't worship, you can't work, you can't roll out of bed in the morning, you can't fall asleep at night apart from the Lord blessing these things to you. So let it be our practice every single day to be finding our help in the Lord, to be running to the Lord, be fleeing to Him, keeping our mind's eye upon Him continually. Our help comes from the Lord. He's the one who undergirds us. when your foot is about to slide. And the sliding of the foot, the slipping of the foot in scripture, is the unbelievers, the reprobate under a curse, their feet will slide in due time. It's the Lord that gives us stability. You know why we have stability? Because we are founded upon the rock, Christ Jesus. If your life is not founded upon the rock, your feet will slip in due time. You will suffer loss of all things if you're not founded upon the raw Christ Jesus. Our help comes from the Lord. We need to meditate upon that truth. We need to speak that truth to our heart. My help comes from the Lord. Too often, we run to some expert of the day. Rather than going to the Lord in prayer, crying out to the Lord, seeking Him through His Word, and in prayer, we immediately want the answers at the back of the book. We don't want to search. We don't want to do the diligent study to grow in the knowledge of truth that honors our God, that we find out things in the Word of our God that we didn't know before. We want quick, pat answers. That's the age in which we live. We live in a Twitter age. You know, tweet me a couple of words. Don't make it long. I used to write, the devotionals I used to write used to be a lot longer. People didn't read them. Boy, that's a page long. I don't have time for that. I've got to get to work. You know, I'm too stressed out for time. You're wound too tight if you can't get up, have a cup of coffee, and read a page in the morning. You're just wound too tight. You need to loosen it up a little bit. We need to meditate on the things of the Lord. So, my help comes from the Lord who made heaven and earth. This is the one where we find our security, our strength, our safety, is the one who made all things. the heavens, the earth, the sea, and all that in them is. He is the one who has created everything. It's in his hand, beloved. What security? What assurance? What safety? What is the worst thing that can come upon you in this life? What is the worst thing? People think that death is the worst thing that can happen to an individual. That's not the worst thing that can happen to an individual. For the believer, our death is a dying to sin and entering into eternal life. Entering into a bliss of eternity. The wonder, love, and praise of being in the presence of our God. Is that bad? Is that something to be avoided? Not for me. That's great. That's wondrous. What a blessing. Christ is the one who has merited that for us. The worst thing that can happen to anybody is to die in their sins and go to hell and suffer the eternal, infinite wrath of God. The wrath of God meted out His justice on that individual forever and ever and ever and ever. People say, well, hell is the separation of God. No. God is in hell. That's what makes hell hell, is the presence of God, of Him and His justice and His wrath. Who do you think is meting out the wrath? It's God. You know, the sinner would do everything to be in a place where God wasn't. God is everywhere. He's omnipresent. And so He is there in His punishment and His wrath upon the reprobate. And so He is the one who has made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is. And do you think about that often? This is our God. This is the God that we worship. We gather tonight, we gather this morning, and we gather to worship the One who has created the heavens and the earth and the sea and all that in them is. That's the One that we look to. This is what the psalmist is looking to. The psalmist is speaking that to his own heart. This is who I'm looking to. This is the One who sustains me and cares for me. The One who has created all things. Created me as well. He says in verse 3, he will not allow your foot to be moved, to slip. And as I mentioned, that slipping and the sliding of the foot, the falling from a certain place, that is the curse on the reprobate. Even as it said in Deuteronomy, the foot will slide in due time. So he keeps us from sliding. He gives us sure-footedness. That's important, isn't it? As you are traversing the mountains, going up to Jerusalem, one of the things that is of great importance is being of sure foot, so that you don't slip, so that you don't fall, so that you don't break a leg. Can you imagine breaking a leg when you're halfway up the mountain? And how that would be? What do you do then? You know, who's carrying you? What are you going to do in that situation? God is the one who keeps us from falling. Now, this is what Jude says. He is able. He has the strength. And that's what it means that He keeps us. Shemar, He guards us. He protects us. God is the one who protects us. Now, this doesn't mean that temporally that you might not fall. It means eternally that you will never fall out of the hands of God. A good analogy would be the believer can fall on board a ship, but he can never fall overboard the ship. It's the Lord who keeps him. Though we may fall numerous times in this life, though there may be serious falls, yet it's the Lord who keeps us from falling everlastingly. We will never fall out of the hands of God. Peter had a tremendous fall, didn't he? When he denied Christ three times. Denied with cursings that even knew him. That was a serious fall. But he didn't fall out of the love of God. He didn't fall out of everlasting life. He didn't fall out of salvation. He had a serious fall, but he didn't fall overboard. Judas, who was one of the twelve, he also fell, didn't he? He fell overboard because he never was one of Christ's redeemed. He was a devil from the beginning. God keeps our feet. He will not allow it. He will not allow it to happen. So you think about security, you think about salvation, you think about that. God will never allow you to fall out of the realm of salvation. He will never allow you to fall out of His hand. You understand that, that imagery? You're not going to jump out of His hand. You're not going to fall out of His hand. You're not going to lose your salvation. A believer cannot lose his salvation. God will not allow it. It can never happen. He who keeps you, he will not allow your foot to be moved. He who keeps you will not slumber. How do you slumber is when you get sleepy. You know, a soldier that gets sleepy, that slumbers, is when the Trojan horse has moved in and the opposing army is able to sneak into the camp. It doesn't happen with the Lord. The Lord never slumbers. His eye is upon His people continually. He watches over you. The song says, His eye is upon the sparrow, and He watches over you. Remember what Jesus says in Matthew 6. He speaks about the sparrows and who feeds. They don't reap, they don't sow and reap and gather into barn, yet your Heavenly Father feeds them. Are you of not much more value than they? You're created as God's image bearers. Sparrows are not. If He feeds the sparrows, will He not also likewise feed you? Will He not care for you? Will He not provide you of your necessities? The problem we have is we get wants and necessities mixed up, all tangled up. And then when we don't get what we want, we may not need it, but it's the want category, then we get angry. Then we say, God never gives me what I need. Well, you don't need that. You need a house. You don't need a mansion. You need a house. How much square foot do you need in your house? You go out to Hollywood, you go out to California, and some of those stars, I remember Kobe Bryant, I think it was, had his home at one time was 25,000 square foot. For what? You can only be in one room at one time. 25,000 square foot? It's like a warehouse. Well, you don't need that. Nobody needs that. I don't need a house that has 15 bathrooms in it. For what? I mean, even if you had 15 people, is that necessary? 15 bathrooms? But these are things we want, and we think we deserve. We think we're entitled. And then we put them over into the need category, and then we get angry. But those are not things that we need. God provides the things that we have need of. He gives us the things that we need. And He never slumbers. God watches all the time His people. He doesn't sleep. He is not as a man. He doesn't get hungry. He doesn't sleep. He doesn't slumber. God is continually caring for His people. That's security. What a blessing to know that that's the God who keeps us. He who keeps Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep. Do you worry at times about your salvation? When you sin and you wonder, am I going to be cast out? Does God still love me? Does he still care for me? Does he still provide for me? Do you think the unbeliever asks those questions? Do you think the unbeliever asks questions about the love of God? About the forgiveness of God? About the care of God? The security that is found in God? Unbelievers don't ask those questions. When I was an unbeliever, I never asked any of those questions. They were not on my mind. Why? Because the natural man does not understand the things of the Spirit of God. They're foolishness to him. It's the man who is alive to the things of God, who has been raised up spiritually, who has the deep concern for these things. He has the deep concern of offending the God that he loves. That is truly the fear of the Lord. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. It's the beginning of knowledge. The fear of the Lord is reverence. The fear of the Lord is obedience. The fear of the Lord is love relationship with the God who has redeemed us. And so, He doesn't sleep. He doesn't slumber. He keeps His people. You've got to meditate upon that. That's what the psalmist was doing here. And as they were going up to worship, they were singing this back and forth. Can you just hear it? One chorus, you know, I will lift up my eyes to the hills. From whence comes my help? Oh, my help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth. He will not allow your foot to be moved. He who keeps you will not slumber. What a strengthening of the soul! Speaking truth to the heart. We need to do that, as the people of God, with one another. We need to speak to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in our hearts unto the Lord. We need to counsel one another with God's Word. When we are dealing with each other, with different struggles in our lives, we need to take one another to the truth of God's Word. That's where you're going to find your comfort. That's where you're going to find your joy. The Psalms is saying, simply boils down to this. God keeps you. We're on a journey, just like these going up to Jerusalem. We're on a journey. We're headed to the new Jerusalem. We're in this dark world in which we live. We're just passing through. Heaven is our home. We're just passing through here. Yeah, we labor, and we do what God calls us to, but this is not our final destiny in this world in which we live. This is going to be cleansed. The new heavens and the new earth are going to come down out of heaven upon this earth. The new heaven, the new earth, the new Jerusalem. And there we will ever be with the Lord. Let that comfort your heart as we make our way through this difficult life. There's trials and troubles and sickness and the pandemics and the tsunamis and the murders and the 9-11 and all the things that continue to go on in this world. As you are a traveler, as you are a sojourner in this world, heading for the celestial city, let this be your comfort. God keeps you. God keeps you. That doesn't mean you won't get sick. That doesn't mean that you won't fall down and skin up your knees. That doesn't mean that you won't deny Him and then have to ask for forgiveness. It means that you are eternally in the hands of our God, and He keeps you. And no one, Jesus said, no one snatches you from me. That is the comfort of knowing that the Lord, the Lord who made heaven and earth, is the keeper. of His people. Amen. Shall we pray?