LIFTING UP OUR EYES
Aug 20, 2025
Photo of Cameron Highlands by Ravin Rau from Unsplash
LIFTING UP OUR EYES
Psalm 121:1-2
“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.”
Born and raised in Singapore where we have only hills, I saw mountains for the first time during a visit to Cameron Highlands in Malaysia. I was awestruck by their beauty and majesty. But what really hit me was their antiquity. They were there before I was born, and they will still be there when I am gone.
The psalmist lifts his eyes up to the mountains surrounding Jerusalem, and asks, “From where does my help come from?” He may be thinking of idol-worshippers who look to their gods in altars built on high places. But he answers his own question, “My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth.” Man made the idols but God made everything.
The psalm is one of the songs of ascents which pilgrims sing as they make their way to Jerusalem for the annual festivals. How apt that it should become known today as a traveller’s psalm, its final verse (v.8) becoming a prayer bidding farewell to anyone embarking on a journey: “The Lord will keep your going out and your coming in from this time forth and forevermore.”
Along the pilgrim’s journey, the dangers he meets are addressed here: slipping and falling, heat from the sun, cold in the night, harm, from robbers. God who accompanies the pilgrim keeps a watchful eye, does not fall asleep, provides shade and protects from harm. My wife and I, already in our 70’s, accepted a challenge to hike the “Dragon’s Back” in Hong Kong. During the four-hour trek, we moved intermittently between scorching sun and chill in the shade, up and down the unpaved rocky terrain, constantly keeping our eyes on the goal in the distance.
Mountains turn our eyes upwards, and trekking through them keeps us looking to the LORD who made them. However long these mountains have been around, God was there already. However arduous our journey may be, God has been there already. We are safe
Lift up your eyes to the LORD