Lord, help!

If you read the Daily Office for your daily devotional, you know that one of our Psalms for today is Psalm 121. Psalm 121 says,

I lift up my eyes to the hills—
from where will 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.
He who keeps Israel
will neither slumber nor sleep.

The Lord is your keeper;
the Lord is your shade at 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 on and for evermore.

I love this picture of the Lord. Fortunately, or unfortunately these days, when I wake up in the morning sometimes the only prayer I can blurt out before a child comes jumping in my bed is “Lord, help!”. What those two short words are actually saying is, “Lord, help me in my parenting. Lord, help me be a better wife. Lord, help me to love others as you love them. Lord, help me to put the words on paper that you’ve written on my heart.”

What jumped out in those first couple of verses to me today is the 2nd part of verse 2. Obviously, I know my help comes from the Lord, hence the “Lord, help!” shout out. But, do I REALLY believe that He can and will help? Or, do I just throw that prayer out into the universe because that’s what a good Christian does and then I go about my life trying to help myself?

But, the psalmist says that our help comes from the Lord who made heaven and earth. The creator and sustainer of the ENTIRE universe is standing at the ready to help. And not only is our Help the creator of heaven and earth, He doesn’t need anything. He is ready, willing and able to help His children because He needs nothing and fully able to freely give all things.

Verses 3 and 4 says he doesn’t need slumber or sleep, but He is able to fully give rest to those who put their trust in Him. The Lord doesn’t need protection or to be looked after, but He is the Keeper of His children. He provides for all our needs and fully protects us by being the “shade at our right hand”.

Not only does He provide for all our needs and protect us from the world around us that threatens to beat us down like the noon day sun, He keeps our entire life. Nothing is beyond His reach. He stands guard for us in all our comings and goings from here until eternity.

The next time I shoot up my rapid-fire prayer, “Lord, help!”; I pray that the depths of my soul will remember that He is willing and ready to help so that I will lay down all my natural inclinations to help myself. My Lord has the full capacity to help me no matter what surrounds me.