I love the joke about the importance of punctuation. Are you familiar with it? You could invite your Grandmother to dinner by saying, “Let’s eat, Grandma!” If you lose the comma though, you say, “Let’s eat Grandma!” and your family becomes a horde of cannibals! Who knew a simple comma had that much power over mankind!?
I’d like to apply this perspective to Psalm 121. A familiar passage, I’m sure. I heard a radio preacher talk about it the other day and he said something that really caught my ear. (When I looked it up in my Bible later, I saw notes I had made so apparently this wasn’t the first time I had heard this!) The King James says, “I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help.” Is my help coming from the hills? Sort of sounds that way, doesn’t it? Most of the other translations I checked alter the punctuation (or translation) slightly. One translation made it a separate sentence. “I look to the hills. Where does my help come from?” A lot of others go a little further to explain it and it goes something like this. “I look to the hills (as if that’s where my help will come from. But it doesn’t.) So, where does my help come from? It comes from the Lord. And not just anybody, no, this is the Lord Who made heaven and earth.”
The Lord, through the guy on the radio, reminded me about that question mark. Where does my help come from? It comes from the Lord who made heaven and earth! Once I know that wonderful fact, I can embrace it and run with it! And I will no longer need that question mark in my life. I can state it emphatically, “My help comes from the Lord!”
Until our next togethering,
love ya!
Bret
