Look to the Hills

 
The picture below was taken on my phone after this morning’s service. From the rear of the chapel, you can see the Yorkshire three peaks, Ingleborough, Whernside and Penygent. I was mindful of the psalmist who writes ’I will lift up my eyes to the hills’. But why? Because:
 
The hills are a place of danger. Therein lies bandits and outlaws. They are dark and forbidding. They remind us of God’s judging the world and making the earth uneven in Noah’s flood. They are natural borders, through which enemies pour.  We therefore look to God’s help because of those hills. 
 
The hills are fertile and lush. They can be places of real growth. Unlike the parched plains, Israel’s hills and mountains received the dew. We look unto the hills that we might grow. 
 
The hills speak of God’s majesty. Ascending a hill is a challenge. They are impressive and daunting. How much more their architect and creator? We look to them that we can see to reveal to us Him whom we cannot. 
 
They are places of meeting God. Although the high places were forbidden in Israel, the Lord often met His people on the mountains, be they Sinai, Carmel, Zion or Calvary. We look to them that we might more closely walk with our God.
 
 
Psalm 121 King James Version (KJV)

I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help.

My help cometh from the Lord, which made heaven and earth.

He will not suffer thy foot to be moved: he that keepeth thee will not slumber.

Behold, he that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep.

The Lord is thy keeper: the Lord is thy shade upon thy right hand.

The sun shall not smite thee by day, nor the moon by night.

The Lord shall preserve thee from all evil: he shall preserve thy soul.

The Lord shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in from this time forth, and even for evermore.