A DILEMMA TO BE FACED
Promise of the Psalm. Providence; Security. Basic need for all of us.
Are Christians immune to pain, suffering and trial?
Anxiety; accidents; disease; sickness; depression; bereavement; tragedy; natural disasters. Do Christians never sprain their ankles, sunstroke or have emotional problems.
Columbine massacre. Young men armed with an assortment of automatic assault rifles indiscriminately sprayed other students with a hail of bullets. Atheists and believers.
China…earthquake 8.0 on Richter Scale. Christians are part of these tragedies.

Two ways of dealing with this dilemma:-
Devil’s fault…blaming the devil. Dualism; Zoroastrianism.
Lack of Faith…blaming the victim. Not enough faith.
Others simply say, Psalmist is wrong.

Christians do meet troubles…we are not immune to suffering. We look around for help…I look to the hills…Where does my help come from?

AN ALTERNATIVE TO BE AVOIDED
Where does my help come from?
Context – High places; Hill Tops every spreading hill committed adultery…worship of false gods. Shrines, fortune tellers, spells, incantations, enchantments. All kinds of protection offered.
The World’s Symbols
Saviours. Bruce Willis(asteroid). Clint Eastwood. James Bond. Chuck Norris.
Sorcerers. Jonathan Edwards…consulting the dead…
Astrology. Many go here for help. Christian incantation.
Positive thinkers;
Put our trust in man …Rhonda Byrne…The Universe. (The Secret)
Symbols that imply Man will solve all his own problems.
Isa 30:1-2 "Woe to the obstinate children,"declares the LORD,
"to those who carry out plans that are not mine, forming an alliance, but not by my Spirit, heaping sin upon sin; who go down to Egypt,  without consulting me; who look for help to Pharaoh's protection, to Egypt's shade for refuge.

 

A TRUTH TO BE EMBRACED
My Help comes from the LORD who made heaven and Earth.  
Ps 73…My foot had almost slipped…when I saw the prosperity of the wicked!

The psalmist rejects the worship of nature, a religion of stars and flowers. Help comes from the Creator not the creation.