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In the record of David's flight from Jerusalem, we read:--
"And David went up by the ascent of the mount Olivet, and wept as he went up, and
had his head covered, and went barefoot" (II Sam. xv. 30).
But in spite of appearances, and in spite of the most serious alarms, we learn from this
Psalm that instead of a disturbed and anxious night, peace and calm assurance settled
down upon David's troubled spirit. Under that Shield, he says: "I laid me down and
slept; I awaked; for the Lord sustained me."
Here, then, is a title for us to remember in our own time of trial. He, the mighty God,
the Creator of heaven and earth, is "The lifter up of mine head".
#37. Lift up your heads.
"Shall I lift up mine eyes to the hills?" (Psa. cxxi. 1).
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The margin of the A.V. of Psa. cxxi. 1 suggests that the opening line be read as a
question: "Shall I lift up mine eyes to the hills?"
It is entirely foreign to the teaching of Scripture to suggest that our "help" comes from
"the hills". Indeed, Jeremiah has said: "Truly in vain is salvation hoped from the hills,
and from the multitude of mountains: truly in the Lord our God is the salvation of Israel"
(Jer. iii. 23). We can understand, perhaps, the poor idolater saying of Israel: "Their gods
are gods of the hills: therefore they were stronger than we; but let us fight against them
in the plain, and surely we shall be stronger than they" (I Kings xx. 23), but he whose
God is the Lord, the Creator, in Whose presence the hills "melted like wax"
(Psa. xcvii. 5), at Whose touch the hills "smoke" (Psa. civ. 32), surely his eyes will not be
"unto the hills", but he will say: "From whence cometh my help? My help cometh from
the Lord, which made heaven and earth" (Psa. cxxi. 1, 2).
When Isaiah would show the vanity of idolatry, he says:--
"Who hath measured the waters in the hollow of His hand, and meted out heaven with
the span, and comprehended the dust of the earth in a measure, and weighed the
mountains in scales, and the hills in a balance? . . . . . And Lebanon is not sufficient to
burn, nor the beasts thereof for a burnt offering" (Isa. xl. 12-16).
Why should Israel look to the hills, "everlasting" though they may be called? The
promises of the Lord will stand when mountain and hill have vanished: "For the
mountains shall depart, and the hills be removed; but My kindness shall not depart from
thee, neither shall the covenant of My peace be removed, saith the Lord that hath mercy
on thee" (Isa. liv. 10).