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The Mountains

 

I lift up my eyes to the mountains—  where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth. (Psalm 121:1-2)

            Have you seen the Rockies? The Himalayans? The Alps? The Andes? The Drakensburg Mountains? I’ve only seen the Rockies, and they are impressive. I love the mountains. If asked to choose between them and the seashore, I’d take the mountains. Granted -there are some seashores that I’d take as a second choice, but that’s because they have boulders and the tide comes crashing in. In other words, I like places that reveal power. They speak to me of my insignificance in a good way. It seems to me to be a universal thing, though perhaps only universal for those who normally live in a more two-dimensional, comparatively motionless world.

            Ancient people used to build pyramids, ziggurats, and mounds in honor of their gods and their dead (who were often like gods.) Temples were built on mountainsides. This seems to have been, in part at least, with the idea of providing the gods a stairway from heaven to earth, or man a stairway from earth to heaven.

            But as we consider mountain grandeur as connected with the gods and with God, we may be tempted to think of today’s passage as the author thinking of the mountains as a source of protection. But he doesn’t say that his help comes from the mountains. He says it comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth. In other words, the mountains aren’t the place where we meet God, but they are the place where we need God’s help.

            The mountains bring sudden storms, flash floods, crashing boulders, thunder that echoes, bandits, brigands, and wild animals. They are a dangerous place where you can’t see great distances, so you can’t know your enemy is coming. The mountains are the dangerous places through which you must pass to reach the mountain of the Lord, Jerusalem.

            Yesterday’s theme was trust, and the idea that trust is active, not passive. Today’s passage is from Bible Gateway’s verse of the day, and it dovetails nicely with yesterday’s theme. It is this message that I need to keep reminding myself as I wander through mountains, deserts, and lonely caves. And when I keep it in mind, then I can stop, survey my surroundings, and celebrate the God who made the mountains, the deserts, and the caves of life. It’s when you have no fear that you can shout and listen to the echoes.

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