Psalm Meditation 1104 Proper 15 August 15, 2021 Psalm 121 1 I lift up my eyes to the hills—from where will my help come? 2 My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth. 3 He will not let your foot be moved; he who keeps you will not slumber. 4 He who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep. 5 The Lord is your keeper; the Lord is your shade at your right hand. 6 The sun shall not strike you by day, nor the moon by night. 7 The Lord will keep you from all evil; he will keep your life. 8 The Lord will keep your going out and your coming in from this time on and forevermore. (NRSV) In the midst of a difficult trial we may find ourselves wondering how we will ever get out of this one. We fret, worry, and forget about all the resources that are at our disposal. We stare off into space, lost in the worry, consumed by the stresses and strains of our current situation. Once we have stewed over it for a while, we begin to seek solutions to our difficulty. At some point we realize that this is going to take more energy than we can muster alone. We may consider the resources our friends have available and wonder if they would be willing to help out. This is where we join the psalmist in the realization that whatever help we may receive, it comes from God. We have the gifts of friends, family, and in some cases strangers who will offer the resources at their disposal to help us out of the situation in which we find ourselves. God is an always available source of help. Depending on the need, we might receive the help directly from God. Most of the time the help comes in the form of people who are open to God’s leading, and who have probably been in a desperate situation or two themselves. Whether the situation works out the way we want it to or not, we can live in the assurance that we have received the help of God. August 10, 2021 LCM