Well, welcome back again to another podcast of Struggling Well. We're glad that you've joined us. You know, Suzi, as we begin today, I found myself thinking back, I don't know why because it's been many, many years. The Beatles.
Oh, the Beatles.
I know you didn't even like the Beatles.
I didn't like the Beatles, which I think is important for people to know that I while y'all were listening to the Beatles, I was listening to Perry Como, Andy Williams, Glenn Campbell, the real artists.
Okay. All that has nothing to do with what I want to say about the Beatles. they wrote a song called Help
and the lyrics are help. I need somebody help. Not just anybody help. You, you know, I need somebody help. When I was much younger than today, I never needed anybody's help in any way. But those days are gone. And these days, they're gone. I'm not so self assured. I mean, it was a great little song that they did. Paul McCartney and John Lyn.
I need somebody.
Yeah.
I shouldn't sing.
Well, no, that's fine. But it got me to thinking how we go through seasons maybe like the Beatles song where we don't think we need help.
Yeah.
And then we wake up one day recognizing we desperately need help, but where do we turn? And that made me think about the psalmist and one of the psalms of ascent or that they would do when they went up to Jerusalem every year was the 121st Psalm and it talks about where they look to for help. It's and this is now in the message by Peterson. I look up to the mountains. Does my strength come from the mountains? Does my help come from the mountain? mountains. No, my strength, my help comes from God who made heaven, earth, and mountains. You, he won't let you stumble. Your guardian God won't fall asleep. Not on your life. Israel's garden guardian never dozes or sleeps.
And what a great reminder of our need for help and where our help comes from.
I love that.
So, what do you what do you do when you get in trouble.
Well, last week I told y'all that I hide. but I think you know what I do is what a lot of people that follow Christ do is we cry out to God and we want him to make what we feel is wrong right. And I think Israel did that all throughout. We see that they wandered away from God, but then when they were persecuted and tormented and attacked, then they're crying out to God.
Yeah. And what's amazing to me or interesting I guess I should say about the Psalms of Ascent were that they were repetitively said by Israel three times a year when they went up for festivals to Jerusalem. The people would sing these psalms along the way. So it wasn't just in a dire time that they would sing these songs, but it was with regularity they would sing these songs. And I think it was an acknowledgement that God was their strength and God was their protection and God was there with them in life. And I think that's sometimes for me anyway when things get hard or things don't go the way I want it to go, I wonder if God's left me.
Why do you think that question is so important today? Because people back in the ancient days experienced trouble and discouragement as well. But It seems that there's a there's an added layer for us that keeps us from going to God and keep and makes us think that the mountains or our job or whatever will do what we want God to do or suffice in some way.
Yeah, I do think there is some sense in which we have interpreted or seen our Christian walk through the lens of the country that we live in. Mhm.
And America has always been a place that prides itself on self-reliance, self-independence, and not needing anybody. And so it's it becomes difficult to cry out to God because I think I can handle it myself.
Well, and there's so many things in our world, we've talked about this many times in our podcast, but there are so many things in this world that give us a false sense of control and a false sense of I can do this. I can, you know, if I have a question, I'm going to Google it. If I have a problem, I'm going to seek an advisor on this earth. I'm going to seek a financial adviser, an employment advisor, a doctor, or whomever. Whereas people in the ancient days didn't have anything other than God to rely on or oftentimes the people that tried to rely or make other gods that they needed something to rely on. And we have that in God, but for whatever reason, that's not oftenimes our first resort.
Yeah. And I think again, I agree with that, but I also would add to it, I'm going back to this thing of what this psalm was. It was regularly prayed, regularly sung
at intervals not based upon the individual's life circumstance, although those could intersect. It was regularly done based upon when the festivals, the feasts came up, these different feasts, three of the seven feasts that they were required to go up to Jerusalem. So, so there was a regularity to this singing of acknowledging where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord. He doesn't sleep. He doesn't doze off. He's there and will be my guardian throughout life. And I feel like sometimes I know for my own life, I reach out and cry out for help when things aren't going well as opposed to regularly making it a part of my life. Regularly making it a part of my walk with God that I would look to him to be my help even on those times maybe where my life doesn't have any big dramatic issue going on in it. But it's just that regular acknowledgement that he is I need him.
so you're saying you're encouraging us that to go to him regularly. and to be thankful and praise him regularly and see who acknowledge who he is all the time.
Yeah. And so that I don't get into the habit of waiting until life doesn't go the way I want it to go and waiting till I get to a crisis situation before I reach out to him for help. There's nothing wrong with reaching out in those times, but what would it look like if I acknowledged my need of him? the old him. I need the every hour. You know, I don't necessarily live my life with the regularity of looking to him for help. I wait until I get into a crisis.
So, I wonder, this is just coming to me as you're talking. So, when we go to him when we're in crisis, one of the things we're also asking, I mean, we're saying, I need your help, but we're wondering if he's there because we've not necessarily been going to him regularly. So, if I'm in conversation praising him, worshiping him, learning of him through his word regularly. That question of are you there won't come up as much because we'll have we'll know him. We'll know that he's there.
Right? It is recognizing that he is who he promises to be and he promises to be with me every day no matter what to walk on the journey. And unfortunately, when life isn't out of control the way I would define it. I don't I take for granted that he's there. I guess is
Oh, and yet the truth is we want him in that way,
right?
And our souls were designed for him. That they're designed God designed us to want him and to have fellowship with him and worship him and follow him. And so it makes logical sense. I know we've been talking about things not making sense. the last few podcasts, but it does make sense to lift up my eyes
and to seek him
and to read about who he is that my foot isn't going to stumble. He doesn't fall asleep on the watch with me. That's what I really want to know more than the answers to my piercing questions.
Right? So, our prayer this week is that maybe you'd look at the 121st Psalm and see that as not just something you cry out for when you're in trouble. trouble, but you make it a regular rhythm of your life as you look to him to be the one who is your help.
Thanks so much for joining us this week. We hope that you have a struggling well kind of week.