'I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my
help. 2. My help cometh from the Lord, which made heaven and earth.'
--PSALM cxxi. 1, 2.
The so-called 'Songs of Degrees,' of which this psalm is one, are
usually, and with great probability, attributed to the times of the
Exile. If that be so, we get an appropriate background and setting for
the expressions and emotions of this psalm. We see the exile, wearied
with the monotony of the long-stretching, flat plains of Babylonia,
summoning up before his mind the distant hills where his home was. We
see him wondering how he will be able ever to reach that place where his
desires are set; and we see him settling down, in hopeful assurance that
his effort is not in vain, since his help comes from the Lord. 'I will
lift up my eyes unto the hills'; away out yonder westwards, across the
sands, lie the lofty summits of my fatherland that draws me to itself.
Then comes a turn of thought, most natural to a mind passionately
yearning after a great hope, the very greatness of which makes it hard
to keep constant. For the second clause of my text cannot possibly be,
as it is translated in our Authorised Version, an affirmation, but must
be taken as the Revised Version correctly gives it, a question: 'I will
lift up mine eyes unto the hills. From whence cometh my help?' How am I
to get there? And then comes the final turn of thought: 'My help cometh
from the Lord, which made heaven and earth.'
So then, there are three things here--the look of longing, the question
of weakness, the assurance of faith.