Lifted Vision Ministry

-Psalm 121-
“I lift up my eyes to the hills– where does my help come from? My help comes from the LORD, the Maker of heaven and earth. He will not let your foot slip– he who watches over you will not slumber; indeed, he who watches over Israel will neither slumber nor sleep. The LORD watches over you— the LORD is your shade at your right hand; the sun will not harm you by day, nor the moon by night. The LORD will keep you from all harm— he will watch over your life; the LORD will watch over your coming and going both now and forevermore.”

Greetings Church,

Today’s blog is about Psalm 121, a song that was written by (dare I say) the most famous King in the Bible; the King of Israel and Judah… King David! You may be thinking; who exactly was King David?! Well, in addition to being an incredibly successful King, King David was also a musician! An extremely skilled harpist in fact! David was a great song writer and composer of his time and we are blessed enough today that the preserved collection of his poem-like songs are actually stored in the book of Psalms in the Holy Bible that we read today! Hooray! See God is not opposed to music; actually God LOVES music so much so that he included at least 150 songs in the Bible. How many of you know that if it’s in the Bible repetitively, it’s important to God for us to know and pay attention to! Anyways! King David had a heart to worship the Lord and I’d like to take a look at one song in particular today to highlight this one, specific point: where we place our vision, directs our life outcome. Let’s dive in together!

This song of King David’s and today’s key verse (found above) is quite an encouraging one if you ask me! David is talking to the reader about God’s nature and involvement in the life of a believer. He reminds us of God’s faithfulness and His watchful eye over us as we go about our daily life. He mentions how God protects us, keeps us from harm, and how his ever-present gaze is locked on us. We have all of His attention on us at all times. There is not one area of our life that He is not interested in! Whether in the early morning hours or in the deep of the night, God’s watch over us never ceases. I don’t know about you, but I find great comfort in that truth and am grateful that God loves us so much that He never takes His eyes off us~!

What we also learn from this song is that God never sleeps or grows tired! His involvement in our life is absolute! Isn’t that a relief? We can be assured and know that we are never alone and that our Heavenly Father is always watching over us; concerned with the things that concern us. God knows everything about us, which makes Him the closest family member we can ever have and the closest friend that we could ever confide in. He knows us even better than we know ourselves, because He created us; which also makes Him a wonderful counselor, companion and life partner. That’s a bit about God’s nature, but what about human nature and behavior?

How many of us know that as humans, we have the ability to be very short sighted at times. Our vision is limited and most of the time we can only see “so far” into the future of what’s to come. The chaotic world around us vies for our attention with constant and relentless “shouts” that tell us to subscribe to diverse ways of thinking each and every day. Modern thought and the culture of our times tries to continually convince us that that everything we need is right here on earth and that there is nothing beyond it. The current and “accepted” modern view echoes something along the lines of: “don’t even bother concerning yourself with anything beyond what your eyes can see in this temporal life. It doesn’t matter anyways.” However, if we know the one who Created the world; if we have a relationship with the one who is in control of everything, then the inverse is actually true. Once we realize the truth of God and who He is, then we don’t need to actually worry or concern ourselves with anything in this world! Most people are walking around, so concerned about the cares of this world; what they are going to do for their career, where they are going to spend their weekend, what clothes they will buy for this season, what they will have for dinner, etc. They are so focused on the temporal things surrounding them that they can’t see heavenly things because they are so distracted by what’s right here on the ground. With God however, this isn’t what is pleasing to Him. This isn’t the way it was meant to be. Jesus wants to free us from the cares and concerns of this life by giving us a single focus while we are here: Him.

Now, as Christians, we don’t want to be so heavenly minded that we are not earthly focused. We need to be paying attention to both, however, the lens with which we view the world should be based on the truth of what God says and God’s perfect Word, which is the Bible. We should be focused on the things of God and who He is and in that simple truth, there is freedom.

-Matthew 6: 25-34-

²⁵ “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? ²⁶ Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? ²⁷ Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?”
²⁸ “And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. ²⁹ Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. ³⁰ If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? ³¹ So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ ³² For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. ³³ But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. ³⁴ Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

So how’s your vision? Have you been near sighted or far sighted lately? Are you focusing on God and being seated with Christ in Heavenly places? Or have you been too carried away by the worries of life and going through the technical motions of every day human existence? Dear ones, I encourage to put your faith and trust in God alone. Let us lift our vision together and focus on the Lord above. That way, everything else in life will fall into place exactly as it’s supposed to. Exactly the way that God intended.

Be blessed