2 Kings 17:10 They set up for themselves pillars and Asherim on every high hill and under every green tree.
Wherever they lifted their eyes they were confronted with the gods of the nations embraced by God's own people. Who will you choose in this buffet of helpers for success, love, security? Then in judgement the nation went through some dark years of their own choosing. They were brought to Babylon in exile to contemplate who will be their God, where will their help come from?
Psalm 121 A SONG OF ASCENTS
1. I lift up my eyes to the hills. From where does my help come? 2. My help comes from the LORD, who made heaven and earth.
From across the desert in Babylon they look back to the hill of the Lord and remember the promise from Isaiah 2
2. It shall come to pass in the latter days
that the mountain of the house of the LORD
shall be established as the highest of the mountains,
and shall be lifted up above the hills; and all the nations shall flow to it.
And now we come to the section of the Psalms of Ascent, the point when the King of Psalm 2 ascends to the throne to rule and reign on his mighty mountain above all other hills. The hope of the messiah and the renewed vow to make Yahweh their God out of the dozens of other gods of the nations.
As Cyrus decreed in the book of Ezra:
2 “Thus says Cyrus king of Persia: The LORD, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth, and he has charged me to build him a house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah. 3 Whoever is among you of all his people, may his God be with him, and let him go up to Jerusalem, which is in Judah, and rebuild the house of the LORD, the God of Israel—he is the God who is in Jerusalem.
