Look Up!

I was helped; my heart rejoices,

and I praise him with my song (Ps. 28:7).

"No," said Peter, "you shall never wash my feet."

Jesus answered, "Unless I wash you, you have no part with me" (Jn. 13:8).

The New Age Movement is filled with people who have no desire for God's help.  "We'll help ourselves," they claim, with a myriad of ways into the spiritual life:  transcendental meditation, humming, positive thinking, "manifesting" what they desire, etc.  "Ye shall be as gods," promised the snake to Eve in the garden, and there are many ways of modern man that cling to his promise.  "We can help ourselves," they proclaim; "we have no need of God."

But throughout the Bible, we see the tender mercy of a God who "stoops" to help the helpless. 

Somewhere, a prophet told the people: It was not because you were the largest of nations that the Lord chose you; indeed, you were the smallest of nations.  And why was that?  Israel had to know they had no defense but God.  He alone was the One to raise them up against nations stronger than they; He alone was to establish them as a people, as a nation; He alone was to take them from Egypt, the great, and to plant them in a land flowing with milk and honey.  They could do nothing for themselves.  Jeremiah quotes the Lord as saying: Let not the wise man boast of his wisdom or the strong man boast of his strength or the rich man boast of his riches, but let him who boasts boast about this: that he understands and knows me, that I am the Lord, who exercises kindness, justice, and righteousness one earth, for in these I delight (9:23-24).

It is always the poor, the lowly, the anawim in Hebrew, that know the help of God.  The proud, the haughty, the "rich," know nothing of His help.  But only those who "look up" are they who sing for joy.  Those who have been instructed, guided, and taught by the Lord sing for joy.  Those who have been drawn from deep waters, from the cords of death, and from the torrents of destruction recognize the God who helped them.  Those who have been cleansed from the sin that entangled them and set "upon a high place" bow down in worship and thanksgiving.  I love Psalm 18, for it is the testimony of someone (David) who was desperate and trapped and who has been rescued by the hand of the Lord:

It is God who arms me with strength

and makes my way perfect.

He makes my feet like the feet of a deer;

he enables me to stand upon the heights.

He trains my hands for battle;

my arms can bend a bow of bronze...

you stoop down to make me great.

You broaden the path beneath me,

so that my ankles do not turn....

Therefore I will sing praises to your name.

Whenever you find someone who sings to the Lord, who praises God with songs of thanksgiving, you know that person has experienced his/her own helplessness and has been helped by God.  The person who boasts of his own strength, wisdom, or knowledge has not yet discovered God.  The one who boasts of the goodness, the power, and the love of God on our behalf is someone who can be trusted, for his confidence is no longer in the flesh, but in the love and the strength and the willingness of God to help the weak and the powerless.