Psalm 115: Help

Help is a bit subjective, is it not? We tend to offer what we assume is needed or what we believe we would want in a particular situation, sometimes we offer exactly what is asked for and yet, often, our help does not seem to help at all. Some of this comes down to the goal of help, what is it that we are hoping our help will accomplish or alleviate for the one we are helping? Often, we thought is that a singular action will change a long-developed issue or that a quick fix will provide a long-term solution. We have all been the helper, but we have also been the one in need of help, and most of us have believed that if we could just get the help we needed in the moment we would never go back to that moment again. And yet, we have probably all ridden the wave of a cycle, been lifted out of the trouble we are faced with only to return to that same trouble when we discovered that the circumstances were not alleviated, just delayed because the true issue we were dealing with had never changed. What do we do when the help we need is not at all the help we want? 

In Psalm 115, the first psalm read after the Passover meal, the psalmist writes three times that the LORD is our “help” and our “shield”. How did God help Israel in the Exodus story? Let us try to be honest and practical, not just spiritual. He brought the 10 plagues to shake the heart of Pharoah and lead to Israel’s release from bondage, also to show Egypt that He alone was the living God. He did not lead them the short way from Egypt to Canaan because He knew that if they faced war, they would be afraid and turn back (Exodus 13:17). He did not just lead them the long way though, He led them the wrong way. God led Israel directly toward the Red Sea, there was no way for them to get across it unless He did a miracle for them. God’s help was to put Israel in a position that would protect them from giving up but also that would cause them to depend upon only Him. It was God’s leadership, the literal presence of God in a cloud by day and fire by night, that led Israel to stand with the Red Sea in front of them and the charging Egyptian army behind them. That is probably not what they, or we, would call help. 

God did not only know their hearts, but He also knew His plans; and so His help was never to give them what they wanted or to make their journey easier, it was to teach them who He was and to change them into His image. Deuteronomy 8 says that God caused them to hunger to teach that His Word was more substantial and satisfying than food. Multiple times He led them to places with no water to teach them that He could provide for them from anything, even from nothing. He led them there not only to show His power but because He was the lover of their souls. He promised them a land that was occupied with cities, armies and giants, to teach them that He was their defender and protector. God was always helping Israel, even when the help He gave was not at all the help they wanted. 

I am not sure we understand the word help when it comes to our relationship with God. We tend to think of help as some little bit extra that is pitched in to push us over the hump, we do the majority of the work, we just need a little help. I think we have this all wrong. The Hebrew word that is used three times in Psalm 115 is the same one used in Genesis 2:18 and 2:20 to describe how God made woman to be a “help meet” (KJV) or “helper” for man. This has caused man, wrongly in my opinion, to think of the woman as secondary to man, as an inferior, under him in some sense, but think about what God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him (Genesis 2:18).” There was something purposefully missing in man, he was incomplete, not yet fully what God desired or had created him to be, the woman was help for the man just as much as the man was a help for the woman. This is God’s created order, His plan, His purpose and it is not only for His glory, but from His love. 

So, when the psalmist writes that God is our help, He is not saying that He is the little push we need to finish the task, but that He is constantly working, leading, and guiding to make us what He created us to be. Living in our strength is less than God desires. Living from our wisdom is less than God planned. Living in our emotions is less than God created for us. Living to fulfill our expectations and dreams is less than God will allow. There was a shorter way from Egypt to Canaan but that was not the way that would fulfill God’s plans. We can probably all see a shorter way, an easier way, what we or others would call a better way, for the plans, hopes and dreams for our lives to be accomplished, but God’s help is not to get us where we want to be, but to make us who we were created to be. Maybe that is the hardest part of all of this, we want God’s help to change our circumstances or situation and the help He gives is always to change our heart and our character. 

The help we need, and that God gives is not only the help that changes us, but the help that teaches us to believe, by experience, who He really is. Most of us do not truly know what we think we do, and we do not really believe what we say we do, not in the measure that God desires. In I Kings 17, God sent Elijah to be fed by a widow that had no food of her own. When Elijah met her, she was out gathering sticks so that she could go home and use the last of her flour and oil to make a loaf of bread for her and her son, and then, as she put it, starve to death. Elijah told her to make him a loaf of bread first and that God would provide enough for her and her son. She did as he said and every day there was enough flour and oil to obey again. The provision of God always leads us to and requires more obedience, another step of faith, another opportunity to build our trust in His character. 

Just like Israel was fed by manna each day, this widow and her son were fed by God’s miraculous provision each day. I know we do not often see it this way, but we are all fed the same way, by the hand, love, and grace of God. One day, while still eating of God’s miraculous provision, the widow’s son became ill the Scripture says, “there was no breath left in him”. The widow accused Elijah, “You have come to me to bring my sin to remembrance and to cause the death of my son!” (I Kings 17:18) Elijah, unoffended, asked for her son, carried his lifeless body to the place where the prophet slept and prayed. God raised the boy from the dead and then the woman said, “Now I know that you are a man of God, and that the word of the LORD in your mouth is truth.” (I Kings 17:24) Now she knew? The miraculous flour and oil were not enough? The prophet sent just as she was about to run out of food was not enough? Seeing God provide day after day was not enough? Here is the beauty, apparently it was not, but God was willing to help. How is the sickness and death of her son help? It is what it took for her to believe, not only in Elijah as a prophet, but as the LORD as the God of Elijah.   

After the psalmist assured us three times that the LORD is our help and our shield, he promised us four times that the LORD will bless us. We want the help of God to remove the tension of our lives, but what the Scriptures, especially the Exodus story teaches us is that God creates the tension to teach us to trust, that it is the tension that changes our hearts and reveals God’s glory. The thing we call trouble is the thing that God calls help, the good news is whether you view it as trouble or help, it always leads to blessing. We cannot be blessed unless we have been helped, and all God’s help leads to and demands trust. We view it backwards, right? We think God helped Israel when He opened the Red Sea, but His help was leading them to it. God helped when He poured water from a rock, but His help was leading them to a place with no water. God helped the widow when He raised her son from the dead, but His help was allowing illness that led to the resurrection that taught her finally, that Elijah was a prophet and God’s Word was true. The help is not what gets us out of the tension, it is the tension that teaches us to trust God. Today, you are being helped and if you will allow yourself to see God’s hand in your trouble, to see God’s goodness in your darkness, to hear God’s voice in your silence, He will use this tension to teach you to trust Him and there is no greater blessing than trusting God. It is not only what He desires for us, but also who we were created to be.