Knowing where to look takes us in the right direction

 6th  Sunday of Pentecost July 20, 2025

The texts for this sermon are: Psalms 121 and 123 and John 17:1-3, 11-12a

We have so many wonderful resources in our society. For most of us, the water is going to turn on when we open the tap, the furnace is going to kick on, the street lights are going to work, the schools are going to open every Fall, the ambulance will show up when we call, the grocery will be stocked with Oreos.

And, we have coaches and piano teachers and dance instructors and kung-foo masters to surround our children.

We have books and magazines to help us find release from the grind of our own lives. We have television to restore our sense of humor or to suspend reality for a bit of time. We have therapists to help us regain our emotional balance.

When it comes to our spiritual wellbeing, we have tela-evangelists, Christian novels, Upper Room devotional books.

Nothing wrong with all these things—help they do give, but the temptation is to depend on them; to think they provide the solid grounding we need for wholeness.

On the 6th we talked about waking up—getting a clear-eyed sense of who we really are, where we really abide. We awaken to the fact that we’re not living where God wants us. We’re not being all of who God wants us to be. We have to get up and move; move away from unhelpful influences, move emotionally, spiritually, ever closer to God’s realm—God’s intent for us.

So, we embark on a journey--a journey meant to take us to the land of forgiveness, of grace, of promise, of transformation, a journey to holiness.

But soon, we run into rough terrain. The glory of that epiphany and the prospect of that glorious destination seems to have receded and, beset by doubt, we look around for help. We spy that something we think will save us, something that will keep us on track.

If we were an ancient Hebrew, we’d be looking at a pillar of stone on the crest of the highest nearest hill. We’d be looking at a place where Baal is worshiped.

As a 21st Century American, we might be looking at a camping sight surrounded by the splendor of God’s creation thinking that’s where we’ll find help, or reading the newest Max Lucardo book. Or we might turn to the shopping network proffering that newest thing that will make us feel really good. Or we might turn to our favorite Bible verse or passage.

And while each of these things has their merits, they aren’t enough, even our favorite Bible verses can lull us into thinking they’ve got all the spiritual help we need or all that God wants to impart.

Let’s remember that the Psalmist is referring to himself in Psalm 121. He’s a believer, right? He has his own favorite Scripture passages yet he realizes he’s not where he should be. I think it’s not too far to say he realizes his spiritual development, his relationship with God has stalled. 

So he ponders and he reminds himself that God is both Maker of Heaven and Earth
and a personal God who attends to our blistered feet.

This is God who doesn’t sleep whereas Baal does. This God doesn’t fail us like all the quick easy fixes we want to rely on. This is a God who keeps us. This declaration is repeated six times in this Psalm. He says it in verses 3, 4, 5, twice in verse 7 and in 8.

he who keeps you will not slumber (v3)
he who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep (v4)
the Lord is your keeper (v5)
the Lord will keep you from all evil; the Lord will keep your life (v7)
The Lord will keep your going out and your coming in (v8)

Now when he speaks of keeping us from all evil, he uses the sun and moon to describe what he means. He says the Sun will not smite you by day, nor the moon by night. (v6)  He’s talking in terms his audience will understand. They would have thought of sunstroke and lunacy. The sun and moon had their benefits to be sure but they had a dark side as well.

This psalmist tells us that we who set out on the spiritual journey to the City of Zion, to God’s realm, can count on God who will oversee each day and night of our journey and that nothing can interfere with, derail, detour our journey if we keep our eye, our heart, our dependance upon the God of Heaven and Earth.

Paul recast this psalm in Romans 8:38-39 where he says:

For I am sure that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

This is active engaged Love and it is this love that protects our soul from destructive, i.e. evil, forces.

In Psalm 123 the psalmist again talks of lifting up his eyes. This time, though, he isn’t talking about looking for help—he’s already found that by saying that he’s lifted his eyes to God, the source of true and trustworthy help. Rather time he’s talking about holding the proper posture and attitude when looking to God.

When he says in verse 2 that he looks to the Lord, the verb he uses here speaks to an emphatic position; an insistent, vigorous, ardent attentiveness. I look to God emphatically, eagerly, completely oriented toward God, the God enthroned in heaven.

I look up to God just like a servant looks to the hand of the master, the eyes of the maid to the hand of her mistress.

In other words, I attend to God with that same wakefulness and intensity as a devoted servant; one who is ever ready to respond to the slightest flicker of request or instruction, ready to serve for the love of serving. 

The Psalmist says God will be gracious. God will be merciful.

Note, the psalm moves from first person singular in verse 1, I lift up MY eyes, to second person plural in verse 2, so OUR eyes look to the Lord.

That collective “we” continues into verses 3 and 4 with a plea Have mercy upon US, O Lord. He says this twice: Have mercy on US. This is a serious petition. And why does he pray this? He follows this plea with an acknowledge, a confession.  Too long our soul has been sated. Now because the word ‘soul’ is singular we might be inclined to think he’s talking about himself alone. That is not the case. He has already used ‘we’. No his audience would have understood he was talking about the collective, the community of believers. Too long have we been satisfied. 

Satisfied with what? Satisfied with the wrong kind of people or the wrong kind of things or the wrong kind thinking, the wrong kind of priorities, or, going back to the image in verse one: too satisfied with not paying proper attention to God.

Psalms 120, 121 and 123 lay out the blueprint of what all of us who say we love and want to serve God are to undertake. We are to wake up, we are to stop looking in all the wrong places, depending on all the old ways, thinking we already know what there is to know about God and our life with God, and turn our whole-hearted attention on God. God will take mercy on us and protect us as we set about our journey—a refreshed journey let us say.

Do we have the courage to ask God if these psalms have something to say to us individually? To us as a community?

If we do, we will see our way to going deeper and moving more fervently in praying that God’s Holy Spirit will meet us and guide us forward.

And we’ll see what that can look like when we consider Psalm 126.

L Quanstrom, Pastor 

Cornelius UMC