.............................................................................................
“I will
lift up mine eyes unto the hills . . . “
Why did David
lift his eyes to the hills? A new perspective on an old question
Rebecca Davis
Psalm
121:1 says in the King James, “I
will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help.”
But
David’s help didn’t really come from the hills, of course. Verse 2 says:
Because of that confusion, later versions changed the
punctuation.
The ESV says, “I
lift up my eyes to the hills. From where does my help come? My help comes
from the LORD, who made heaven and earth.”
That makes it a little clearer, but it doesn’t answer the
question. Why
did David lift his eyes to the hills?
I remember growing up hearing
the answer that the hills represented strength, and God was strong. And I
accepted that answer, and maybe it’s right.
But one time when I was
reading Psalm 121, I began to think about David’s life.
It appears that
David wrote this psalm after he was king, which means it was after he had
spent a lot of time in those hills, the ones to which he was lifting his eyes.
What had happened in those
hills?
For
years, maybe as many as ten or fifteen years, he had hidden in those very
hills, from a maniacal king who was dead-set on killing him.
When David lifted his eyes up
to the hills, he didn’t just see a beautiful view. He saw his life flash before his
eyes.
He
remembered moving from one hill to another, from one cave to another, hiding in
the back of a cave while the king slept in the front, working his way around
one side of the mountain while the king and his army marched inexorably around
the other side.
When David looked at those
hills, he saw despair and grief and darkness and hopelessness.
But when he looked at those
hills, he saw something more. He saw protection. He saw deliverance. He saw
safety in the cleft of the Rock.
In
those hills, David knew the presence of God.
When David became king, he
wanted to remember that even in the darkest places, God was still there,
leading him, protecting him, fulfilling the promise He had given him when he
was a youth, even when it seemed impossible.
He wanted to remember, even
as he sat on a throne, that the same Lord who had helped him when he was hiding
in the hills — even in the times when he couldn’t perceive God’s help — would
be helping him still.
Lift up your eyes to your own
“hills.”
What
are your own hills?
They
are your time of greatest darkness and despair, when it seemed that God had
forgotten you, but when afterwards you could look back to see that He was
really holding you. He was there.
For Joseph of the book of
Genesis, the “hills” he looked to
might have been a memory of his years in the dungeon, waiting for the purposes
of God to be fulfilled.
And
they were, far beyond his imagination.
For the apostle Peter, the “hills” he looked to might have been a
memory of his faltering and failing when he followed Jesus as a disciple,
knowing that Jesus loved him and protected him and eventually filled him with
His Holy Spirit to do miracles and preach with power.
For Jesus, the “hills” He looked to were the cross of
Calvary that He had to endure for the joy that He knew was set before Him on
the other side.
For a friend of mine, the “hills” she may look to might be the
days when she despaired that she would ever recover from the effects of
horrific sexual abuse, only to see later that the Lord Jesus was walking with
her through her healing journey to the other side.
For me, one set of “hills” I would look to would be a time of darkness when, spiritually speaking, I couldn’t
see my hand before my face.
But
then seeing the Lord bring me out to the other side and show Himself strong and
manifest Himself to me.
What are your hills?
Are
you in them now, crying out for God to be there with you in the darkness and
hiding and fear? Are you feeling like He has abandoned you?
Don’t lose heart. Hold on to
hope. Trust Him to finish what He has started.
There will come a day when you’ll lift your eyes to those hills
and say, “See those hills right there?
Those, right there. They are the place of my greatest despair and grief and
darkness and hopelessness.”
And then you’ll say, “But
they are also the place of my greatest protection and deliverance. They are the
place I was kept safe in the cleft of the Rock. They are the place I began to
know the presence of God.”
Psalm 121
A
Song of Ascents.
“I
lift up my eyes to the hills. From where does my help come?
My
help comes from the LORD, who made heaven and earth.
He
will not let your foot be moved; he who keeps you will not slumber.
Behold,
he who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep.
The
LORD is your keeper; the LORD is your shade on your right hand.
The
sun shall not strike you by day, nor the moon by night.
The
LORD will keep you from all evil; he will keep your life.
The
LORD will keep your going out and your coming in from this time forth and
forevermore.”
I’m Rebecca
Davis, a writer, editor, wife, mother, grandmother, speaker, friend,
advocate for the oppressed, and lover of Jesus who lives in Greenville, South
Carolina.
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