God is My Helper

 It is not good that the man should be alone.

We are social creatures.  No matter how much we have to enjoy, we are lonely until there is someone with whom to share it.

In Genesis, Adam literally had the world at his fingertips, but still was lacking something -- a companion.  God said, "I will make him a helper as his partner."  Our early English translations rendered, "I will make him a help-meet," which eventually became in popular usage, "I will make him a help-mate."  But the proper meaning is, "I will make him a helper suitable to him," (or like he is.)  Adam's response upon seeing Eve was, "This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh."  She is like him.

According to some ancient creation stories, woman is not equal to man, and those stories leached their way into our understanding of the Bible also.  But the word we translate "helper" is ezer in Hebrew, and more than a dozen times, that same word is used in the Hebrew bible to refer to God himself:

Blessed are you, O Israel!
Who is like you, 
a people saved by Yahweh?
He is your shield and helper (ezer)
and your glorious sword. (Deut. 33:29)

***

I lift up my eyes to the hills--

where does my help come from?

My help (ezer) comes from Yahweh,

the maker of heaven and earth....

Yahweh watches over you--

Yahweh is your shade at your right hand;

the sun will not harm you by day,

nor the moon by night.

Yahweh will keep you from all harm ---

he will watch over your life;

Yahweh will watch over your coming and your going

both now and forevermore (Ps. 121).

***

We wait in hope for Yahweh;

He is our help (ezer) and our shield (Ps. 33).

In the New Testament, Jesus promises to send The Helper (another name for the Holy Spirit) to his disciples, who will teach them all things:  I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you ....You know him, for he lives with you and is in you (Jn. 14).

Jesus' statement, "I will not leave you orphans," I think could be compared to God's compassion on Adam: It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make him a helper suitable to him.

We are not designed to go it alone.  We all need a helper, both human and divine. When I see the popular approach to marriage on tv, with people looking for fun and sex as their criteria in a partner, I think it might be a good idea to study Ps. 121.  The way our Divine Helper watches over our lives, as our "shade at our right hand," keeping us from harm, is a wonderful description of the way we need to be helpers to one another.