Well.... are you ready?

2000 - so far, no major blackouts or computer glitches..... that we’ve found, anyway. Haven’t turned mine on yet this year. Have you?

The door has opened and, like it or not, we're going to have to walk through it. And what will this future year bring us? We've got great anticipation, I'm sure. But perhaps some residual Y2K apprehension.

And, beyond all this computer stuff we’ve heard about,

with good reason.

We live in a world that is far from ideal. Carbon Dioxide gases cause greenhouse warming. Chlorofluorocarbons destroy the ozone layer. Garbage piles up all over, while toxic waste seeps into the underground water supply. No sooner do threats of war and violence diminish in one region of the globe, than new hostilities and tensions spring up elsewhere. Chemical warfare, nuclear chaos, terrorist bombings: these are the terms of today. AIDS continues to spread, virtually unabated.

And then there are things close to home that could hit any of us -

What WILL 2000 bring for us?

It seems as if the future presents great mountain-like obstacles.

Dangers lurk.

Questions pop up.

And we wonder how to react.

"I lift up my eyes to the hills." The fears and apprehensions that we experience are precisely the same as those felt by the writer of Psalm 121.

Hills in Palestine were rather majestic looking, beautiful from a distance, and filled with wonderful plant and animal life for those who came close. Hills were also a place where danger lurked. Cold at night. Wild beasts ready to tear at the sick and weak. Robbers waiting to victimize the unsuspecting traveller. Perhaps you are familiar with the story of the Good Samaritan: a man is waylaid by thieves on his way to Jericho. The dirty deed is done in precisely such hills.

"I lift up mine eyes to the hills." Uncertainty lies ahead. Danger waits for all who dare to approach. The unscrupulous nature of people is shown very clearly. Untrustworthy. That is what those hills are. Hardship. That is what those hills represent. Problems ahead. That is what those hills guarantee. Some of the hills may be small. Some loom large as mountains. But the road to tomorrow goes right through the middle of them all. None can be missed.

So what is the traveller to do? "I lift up my eyes to the hills, Lord, and they fill me with fear. When I think of who lives in those hills, I realize how weak I am, how frail, how utterly dependent.... Because all sorts of people who are not to be trusted - people who could hurt me, rob me, kill me - hide in those hills. [I look ahead in life and everything seems so untrustworthy.]

Look ahead and we get anxious. We get anxious for ourselves, and we get anxious for those children that God has entrusted to our care. It's an anxiety that hits us in a fresh way when we send them alone on the school bus for the first time; or when they go to summer camp; or when we hand them the car keys; or when they go on their first date or to their first party; or when they go off to university and campus dormitory life.

Parents, you all know the feeling.

Children, you have all seen it in your parents eyes and heard it in their sometimes strained voices as they struggle to keep control after you promised to be home at 10, didn't get in till 2, and they were about ready to call the OPP because they were worried sick you were involved in the accident to which they heard the sirens scream about an hour ago.

Look ahead in life and we all, to some degree, experience anxiety. And the question forces itself upon us: Where now does our help come from?

So we do well to read Psalm 121 as we enter 2000, with its ever-important words of reminder:

`Our help comes from the LORD, the Maker of heaven and earth.'

The one who helps you and me, the one who keeps little us in this big world is the Lord God Almighty, the Creator of the ends of the earth." [Sikkema, "The Lord Is Our Keeper" The Banner 8/12/86]

"Notice the word watch. 5 times in this short eight-verse psalm the writer uses the word.

He who watches over you will not slumber;

Indeed, he who watches over Israel will neither slumber nor sleep.

Did you hear? The Lord is always on guard. Never for a moment does he lose sight of his people!

The Lord watches over you

The Lord is your shade on your right hand.

And we are given the picture of an army guard, patrolling the perimeter of the camp, weapons always on the ready, letting no noise or suspicious movement go unnoticed. Nothing gets past without permission.

But what about this - what if the guard is helpless in the face of the enemy? What good is he if he cannot protect?" [Sikkema, ibid]

And Psalm 121 gives us the assurance that indeed God DOES watch, and he certainly DOES have the power and ability to protect his people.

The LORD will keep you from all harm -

he will watch over your life;

the LORD will watch over your coming and going

both now and forevermore.

"See, you may experience all kinds of dangers, all kinds of uncertainties, but the psalmist assures us that all things will work together for good to those who love the LORD. Why? Because the protecting care of the LORD covers every moment of your day, `your going out and your coming in.'

Many things in life are not certain - there are mountains and there are valleys. At times these mountains, the big obstacles, are not to be feared as much as the hills, the smaller obstacles. Often small things tend to become a source of daily anxiety and irritation. But in all of that we may live in the certainty that the Lord surrounds his people with his love." [Sikkema, ibid].

Can we be sure of that? Absolutely! Listen to the words of one who called himself a shepherd, a night watchman shepherd, caring for his sheep through the dark hours when terror stalked them and threatened their existence.

"I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me... and I lay down my life for the sheep.... I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved. He will come in and go out, and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full."

These are the words of Jesus in John 10.
 
 

And that Shepherd saw the greatest of dangers that lurked in the mountains ahead. He saw the danger of eternal damnation, separation, alienation from the Creator God in the eternity to come as well as alienation from the Creator God throughout this earthly existence.

So he laid down his life. He died for his sheep. He died that we may life and have it in the fullest possible way, both now and in eternity. He died that we may be called children of God, sons and daughters of God, heirs of the Kingdom of God, possessors of his riches.

Now he sits beside God the Father acting as our advocate, a watchful advocate for all of 2000. He says, "Father, do you see those people? They are my people. I claim your care for all of them."

When we read Psalm 121, we should remember that the pagan people of the day looked at the sun and the moon as unseen forces that were deities. The sun was a god and the moon was a god, and both could bring good or evil to bear on people. People were at the mercy of their whims.

Says the writer, "for those under the protection of God there is no such thing as being at the mercy of fate's whims. Evil will not crush you. Horrible fate cannot destroy you."

That doesn't mean that we won't suffer the hurts and pains that all creations groans with at present. No one is immune from that. We found that out all too well last year. And if we were merely to look at the outward appearance, at life as skin deep, we would have to exclaim, "This psalm is bunk. Look at so-and-so. Their feet did slip. They were NOT kept from all harm. God must not have been watching."
 
 

But that wasn't so for them. It isn't so for us. Let's not lose sight of the bigger picture. Life is far more than skin deep. It goes far longer than our average 76 statistical years here on earth. It goes on forever. And there is where the devil seeks to do his greatest harm. And there the Lord gave his greatest protection to His children. There the Lord does His greatest watching. So that one day we can rest under His watchful care in heaven. Forevermore.
 
 
 
 

How will it be for us in Y2K? As we look back at our own lives, and those of our families, I think many of us can point to experiences where we say, "Yes, God's providence was watching out for me. Someone Greater than I was caring for me. I couldn't have come to where I am alone."

And that, too, is what Psalm 121 speaks of.

And when the time comes, at it inevitably will for all of us, that the pains of creation are felt, even then we will be able to say, "still God doesn't abandon us."

Even in those times we may live in the certainty that the LORD surrounds his people with his love in Christ Jesus.
 
 

And there we end.

There we rest.

Knowing that He wants us to entrust ourselves, our lives, and those of our loved ones

.....placed in His strong Hands.

For there, and only there will we find rest, hope and peace.

Each day.

Amen.