Published in Rensselaer Republican Newspaper August 29, 2024

“I lift up my eyes”

I remember the first time I experienced Psalm 121outside of church or devotional reading. I was in the audience watching a play based on the Diary of Anne Frank. Anne and her family were hiding in the attic of a Christian home during the dark days of Nazi rule in Germany. Anyone deemed Jewish, regardless of their personal belief, was systematically hunted, forced into ghettos, and when taken to prison camps, annihilated. The Nazis created fear and out of fear people cooperated with them. 

In the play, there was a climactic moment of great distress when several things came to a head. Anne’s mother looks up to the heavens and prays the first lines of Psalm 121: “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 scene often comes back to me. The Frank family was a praying family before. But, when they are at their wits end and mortal danger is coming with no escape possible, what are they to do? Do they give in to despair, or do they cry out to the Lord our God who is our only true and everlasting hope? 

The Frank family chose to cry out to the Lord for help. Anne’s mother made both a confession and a plea using the words of Psalm 121. They confess that the Lord is their only true hope. Caught amid powers and forces beyond their control, they plea for the Lord’s help.  

Psalm 121 is a pilgrimage prayer that is traditionally recited as the faithful walk the long road up to Jerusalem. The prayer also accompanies us as we journey toward the completion of our life. Sometimes our pilgrimage takes us through difficult and challenging situations. We sense that what is before us is too much to handle on our own. We cry out to the one who can help us. I have prayed Psalm 121 with others who are in the midst of grief for loved ones; the horrible acknowledgement that the precious gift of medicine can no longer turn back the ravages of disease and death is imminent; in the endgame of addiction when all appears to be lost; when a series of financial decisions go the wrong way.

Where do we turn in our moments of desperation? We turn to the Lord Jesus. He is the God-Man who knows our sorrows intimately. He knows suffering. He knows desperation. He has died on the cross and risen from the dead so that in midst of things we cannot understand or have control over, he gives us his forgiveness and his peace. He walks with us. He gives us strength to move forward. He is our help.

Rev. Jeff Zell, Pastor of St. Luke Ev. Lutheran Church, Rensselaer, IN and Lutheran Church of Our Saviour, Monticello, IN.