Podcast: Play in new window | Download
One of the great experiences as a father is to take your kids on a tremendous mountain hike. To be able to stand at the base of a mountain and to look up at the peak that seems so far away and insurmountable, and have your kids wonder how they will ever make it to the top.
In the Bible, Pslam 121 is known as the psalm of Ascent that begins, “I will lift up my eyes unto the mountains – but where does my help come from?” The psalmist is gazing at the distant mountain peaks and wondering where his strength will come. How will he ever climb the mountains. But just as a wise dad assures his kids at the beginning of a mountain hike, the psalmist exclaims: “My help comes from the LORD, the Maker of heaven and earth.”
Many times in life we are presented with mountains that we must overcome. Mountains that seem so high, so far, and so exhausting that we stand looking at the distant peaks crying out and wondering where our help will come. Financial mountains, relationship mountains, physical mountains, obstacles that are so difficult that we have no idea on how we will ever climb over them.
Around 520 BCE, Zerubbabel, the governor of Judah was responsible for the rebuilding of Jerusalem after bring the first wave of exiles back from Babylon after the 70 year exile.
Cyrus, the Persian King, had already agreed in helping the Jewish people return home, but the Jews that were already living in Jerusalem were not happy about all of the returning Israelites. So the citizens of Jerusalem began to make up stories and created serious obstacles to the Syrian appointed King Zerubbabel. Zerubbabel had begun plans to rebuild the Temple built by Solomon and to restore Jerusalem but there were major challenges and mountains facing him, and even before he began, it seemed that hope had already been lost.
Zechariah 4:7 recounts the story: “What are you, mighty mountain? Before Zerubbabel you will become a level plain; and when he sets the capstone of the Temple in place, the people will shout: ‘God bless it, God bless it.’
Sometimes in our lives, we face impossible mountains. But in these impossible situations God wants to show us that with Him, all things are possible. Just as God leveled the mountains for Zerubbabel, he will do the same for you. Every challenge and obstacle that you face today, God is there to help and support you.
We must remember that when we look at the mountains in our lives that, “Our help comes from the LORD, the Maker of heaven and earth.”