I suppose I know what the hymn means, but it didn’t feel right to me. Maybe I misinterpreted the song, but I feel like my heart was in the right place.
I don’t know what the writer meant
who wrote,
I lift up my eyes to the hills
Where does my help come from
My help comes from the Lord
Maker of Heaven and earth
but I know, oh God, my help
doesn’t come from mountains,
from idols or altars.
It’s not sent in gratitude or trade.
Sacrifice matters less when I can’t atone
for what I’ve done.
My help comes from you
who dwells on no mountain,
whose house sits on no hill.
Maker of heaven and earth, you rest
on the seventh day, not to sate
your weariness, but ours.
You recline not on a couch
or bed, but on the very stars.
We can’t conceive, oh God,
we can’t capture you with our minds,
our imaginations.
But I know you’re not there
on that mountain.
I know because you’re here
with me.
It’s actually Psalm 121:1-2.
Yes, I know 🙂 And yet I still don’t know what the writer meant by it. There were several times in Israel’s history when they built altars upon hilltops with the impression that these brought them nearer God. They were obliquely rebuked for that practice.
Maybe the Psalmist is referring to these in a positive way (“Where is God? I look to his altar.”) or in a negative way, (“God is not in the altar on the hilltop, but rather is greater than the hilltop and the altar and is instead everywhere.”). Or maybe he meant God made the hills/mountains, or again maybe the Psalmist meant that God was the mountain.
I don’t know. What I do know is that God is great, and He sticks by me no matter what. That’s really all that matters, I suppose.