From Where Does Our Help Come?

Psalm 124:1-8 (NIV)

If the Lord had not been on our side—
    let Israel say—
if the Lord had not been on our side
    when people attacked us,
they would have swallowed us alive
    when their anger flared against us;
the flood would have engulfed us,
    the torrent would have swept over us,
the raging waters
    would have swept us away.

Praise be to the Lord,
    who has not let us be torn by their teeth.
We have escaped like a bird
    from the fowler’s snare;
the snare has been broken,
    and we have escaped.
Our help is in the name of the Lord,
    the Maker of heaven and earth.

No one said it was going to be easy. In fact, being God’s people is sometimes pretty tough. As Christians, we are to be a different lot—but not for show or to grab attention or to control others. No, we are to be different because our focus is on goals not aligned with those in the world around us. We are to be different because we measure success not by how famous or how powerful or how rich we are, but rather by how well we answer the call of God to spread the Good News and to love our neighbor.

Jesus said to us, “If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you.”

If we are living as we should today, we will be out of step with the culture of our world and it will, with anger, fight against us. When this occurs, we must praise the Lord who has saved us and removed us from the snares in which we have been caught.

From where does our help come? Our help is in the name of the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth.

Now, go and praise Him and stand together with God!