โ€œFrom whence comes my help?โ€

Our pup Zuzu is a curious creature who likes to sniff, well, everything. When she pokes her nose into whatever weโ€™re doing (or trying to do), we joke that sheโ€™s โ€œhelpingโ€โ€”which, of course, she is not. Mostly, sheโ€™s in the way.

Thatโ€™s often what โ€œhelpโ€ amounts to, isnโ€™t it? There are a good many jobs Iโ€™d rather just do myself than let someone help meโ€”though I confess that list of jobs gets shorter as I get older. Other times, I welcome an extra hand (but not usually a paw) to finish a job thatโ€™s bigger than I amโ€”like canning twenty jars of salsa or designing a website or moving across the country.

The level of help required depends on the situation and the person in need.

But there have been times when I desperately needed someone to rescue meโ€”like the afternoon I had a panic attack driving the Dan Ryan Expressway through Chicago or the night I couldnโ€™t find my way out of downtown Minneapolis.

The level of help required depends on the situation and the person in need.

So, when the psalmist of Psalm 121 says his โ€œhelpโ€ comes from the LORD, what does he mean? Certainly not Zuzuโ€™s kind of help. But in context, he doesnโ€™t mean a helping hand eitherโ€”assistance that he may or may not accept on a given day, depending on mood, level of fatigue, or sense of confidence.

“In English, without โ€˜helpโ€™ we might manage okay but a little less comfortably; in Hebrew, without สฟฤ“zer [help] we would often be dead.”

John Goldingay

I like what commentator John Goldingay says about the word โ€œhelpโ€ in Hebrew (สฟฤ“zer):

โ€œHelping does not connote assisting people who are doing their part but rescuing people when they are helpless, people such as the wretched or the orphan, who have no protection and no resources. โ€˜Helpโ€™ is thus a rather feeble equivalent for สฟฤ“zer, which suggests a powerful person taking decisive action on behalf of a weak person who is in dire need. In English, without โ€˜helpโ€™ we might manage okay but a little less comfortably; in Hebrew, without สฟฤ“zer we would often be dead.โ€[1]

Goldingay points to several other psalms for examples of this kind of help:

  • 94:17โ€”Unless the LORD had given me help, I would soon have dwelt in the silence of death.
  • 107:12โ€”So he subjected them to bitter labor; they stumbled, and there was no one to help.
  • 118:13โ€”I was pushed back and about to fall, but the LORD helped me.[2]

In Psalm 121 the dangers are real. The psalmist is embarking on a long journeyโ€”without a cell phone, GPS, or AAA. He recognizes that capital-h Help is needed. More importantly, he knows where to find it.

And so do we.


[1] John Goldingay, Psalms. Volume 3: Psalms 90-150,* Baker Commentary on the Old Testament Wisdom and Psalms), Grand Rapids: Baker Academic 2008), 757.

[2] All references are from the NIV.

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Photo by Tim Mossholder on Unsplash

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