Many days ago when this coronavirus pandemic began in earnest here in America, about the time we in Wisconsin had a limit of not more than ten gathered in any one place placed on us, the Wisconsin Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church began producing a daily reflection. (Find them under “Prayers and Reflections” on https://www.wisconsinumc.org/) They appear to be prepared daily by the Bishop, a Cabinet member or a Conference Employee. This morning’s post was by District Superintendent Forrest Wells of the Southeast District. Forrest wrote on Psalm 121–From Whence Does My Help Come.

It was a timely reminder to me of the first sermon I prepared in seminary. The professor asked us to prepare a message on a favorite Psalm. I suspected Psalm 23 might be a favorite of many and wanting to avoid that I chose Psalm 121 and promptly spent a good deal of time in the seminary library researching this Psalm. I was swiftly amazed at the many resources and commentaries available on this Psalm. I don’t remember my grade but do remember a comment my professor shared that I had chosen one of the more difficult Psalms since it provided opportunity for a variety of interpretations. Leave it to me to pick a challenging Psalm for a first sermon.

But isn’t our present quarantine with threat and fear from the coronavirus a perfect time to reflect on our source of help? Psalm 121 begins:

¹ I lift up my eyes to the mountains—
    where does my help come from?
² My help comes from the Lord,
    the Maker of heaven and earth.

One understanding of this Psalm is that it is written from the perspective of pilgrims on their way to Jerusalem to observe one of the Jewish festivals. They travel on foot along pathways that often were mountainous and treacherous and so they had fear as to what lay ahead–not only fear of a foot slipping on the path plunging them to a disastrous fall or to thieves and robbers lying in wait to ambush them along the way. As they began their pilgrimage they firmly aligned their thoughts and prayers with God for guidance and safety.

As we too travel unknown paths through this threat to our physical well being as well as our economic status we too would do well to keep our eyes and minds lifted heaven-word from whence comes our ultimate care and salvation, no matter what. And further, we are not only traveling through this time of quarantine but through life to our ultimate destination. While we look forward to a return to “normal times” at the end of this quarantine surely it will be a new normal as we go forward.

My prayer is not only for God’s compassionate provision through these troubled days but that our nation–and indeed, our world–will “come to Jesus” and those who already claim to be followers of Christ will have had a time of revival and we will all be in a much better place–one in Jesus Christ as Lord. May this not just be an old man dreaming dreams. (Acts 2:17)

Please take a moment to read for yourself Psalm 121. Its only eight verses.