Sunday August 28, 2022
Mountain Climbing 101
There are moments in life when our only prayer is a cry for help…times when all we can do is lift up our heads toward the Lord and plead for help, relief, and comfort. That is just what the psalmist did. In this psalm he cries to the Lord for deliverance, all the while affirming that all true help comes from the Lord, the Keeper of Israel. Whatever the psalmist’s reason for looking to the hills, he found comfort there…he found peace there…he found God there.
Why the hills? What was so amazing about looking to the hills and mountains for help? What or who was there? The answers are powerful! There is a prayer in Psalm 43 that reveals the power of the hills:
Oh, send out Your light and Your truth! Let them lead me; Let them bring me to Your holy hill and to Your tabernacle. (Ps.43:3)
The psalmist is asking God to send the Light and the Truth to lead him to God’s very mountain. Who is the Light? Jesus! (Jn.8:12). Who is the Truth? Jesus! (Jn.14:6) In our darkest most difficult moments, it is Jesus who comes and ushers us into the reassuring presence of the Father. Isn’t that what John declares to us? (See WORD WISDOM for a deeper study of truth)
Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” (Jn.14:6)
It is Jesus who is dispatched from the hill to bring us into God’s presence. Now look at what the psalmist says in Psalm 72.
The mountains will bring peace to the people, and the little hills, by righteousness. (Ps.72:3)
Once again this is a picture of Jesus. He is our Peace (2 Thess.3:16) and He is our Righteousness (1 Cor.1:30). When David looked to the hills he saw protection. He saw deliverance. He saw safety in the cleft of the Rock. In those hills, David knew the presence of God.
Not many of us at least are living at our best. We linger in the lowlands because we are afraid to climb into the mountains. The steepness and ruggedness dismay us, and so we stay in the valleys and do not learn the mystery and power of the hills. We were created to look up…yet there are many who never look upward at all. They do not pray. They never send a thought toward God. They never recognize the Father from whose hands come all the blessings they enjoy.
But that is where we should always look. Ezekiel declares that the Lord will make a place around His holy hill a blessing.
I will make them and the places all around My hill a blessing; and I will cause showers to come down in their season; there shall be showers of blessing. (Ezek.34:26)
And in Joel, there is a promise of blessing and provision from the hills.
And it will come to pass in that day that the mountains shall drip with new wine, the hills shall flow with milk, and all the brooks of Judah shall be flooded with water; A fountain shall flow from the house of the Lord and water the Valley of Acacias. (Joel 3:18 NKJV)
What a refuge in times of need! But, “who may ascend into the hills of the Lord?” (Ps.24:3) and “who can dwell on His holy mountain?” (Ps.15:1) It is the one who walks with integrity, who has clean hands and a pure heart. The only way we can ever attain that purity is through the shed blood of Jesus who makes us clean. This is our part in the mountain climb…come to God through His Son.
We know that Jesus is the King of kings (Rev.19:16) King of kings and Lord of lords is a victorious title. It signifies sovereignty over all kings and all lords. Everyone will be in submission to Him, King Jesus! No matter what person in history is the most victorious king or ruler on the earth, Jesus Christ is the King of kings!
Is Jesus a King to you? Are you able to announce with the author of Revelation that Jesus is King of kings? If not, we must make Him King before we can come to the mountain refuge of God.
Yet I have set My King on My holy hill of Zion. (Ps.2:6)
In order to receive help from the hill, God must first be the Hill. What a wonderful picture of comfort, help, and victory. So, from whence does my help come? From Jesus. You see, the hills don’t simply come to us…He lifts us to the living mountain. Amen.
For you shall go out with joy, and be led out with peace; The mountains and the hills Shall break forth into singing before you, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands. (Is.55:12)
