The “behold” in this psalm is intended to help us grasp deeply that God is our true helper. In Genesis Jacob bemoans that things seem to always go wrong for him. “Everything is against me,” (42:36) he says. He has lost Joseph and now his sons beg him to allow his beloved youngest son Benjamin to go down with them to Egypt. Jacob fears that he will lose him as well.


All of us have probably expressed something to the same effect at some time. “It always rains when we go on vacation.” “It just figures that this would happen to me.” Or in an attempt to sympathize with others in their trials we might say, “It’s not fair that you have suffered this.” “Life can be so cruel.”


We said the latter to a bishop friend some time
ago and he asked, “who is being cruel?” That brought us up with a jolt! All these expressions reveal a distrust in the over-arching providence of God. But, behold! The Lord is the One who upholds our lives. Praise God that in Jesus He has delivered us through
every trouble.