I often use Psalm 121 in prayer and in ministry. It was Alec Motyer who described the hills in this Psalm as more of a picture of fear and anxiety than that of covenant. And while that has some helpful application, as I consider the Psalm afresh, it seems the Psalm leans more to looking at the hills with hope. Christopher Ash argues convincingly in the following manner:1
The context of the Psalms indicates these hills are positively used in other Psalms (123:1; 125:2; 133:3). The first as referring to the covenant Lord, the second that this covenant Lord surrounds his people, and third that they are hills of Zion which is the place of blessing.
The lifting of the eyes is an idiom signifying desire and hope, and is never associated with fear.
Therefore, “it is more likely, that he lifts up his eyes in hope toward the hills of Zion. He looks through the hills as symbols of the covenant God himself.”
Ash goes on to make this profound paraphrase of the idea in the beginning of this Psalm. The idea is that…
“I lift up my eyes in faith and hope to the hills of Zion, because I know that in those hills the covenant God has set his promises. Where does my help come from? It comes precisely from the covenant Lord symbolized by those hills.”
Thus, God’s promises are rock solid from the very beginning to the end. That is the map of history laid out in God’s covenants which culminate on Mount Zion in the New Testament hope.2
The essential idea is that the mountains or hills carry a significance in Scripture, a significance of promise. We begin at the mountain of Eden (called such after Genesis in the book of Ezekiel 28) where the first promise was made (Genesis 3:15). And then we move on to the other mountains — Mount Ararat where God made a covenant with Noah promising a continuation of the world to the end. And then we move to Mount Moriah where God promised to Abraham to provide a Lamb. The next move is to Mount Sinai where the Law was given (the very law that Christ would be born under and fulfill). And lastly there is Mount Zion the mountain largely figurative of the heavenly church as stated in Hebrews.
I still plan to use Psalm 121 in prayer and ministry, but simply more deeply and faithfully. I want to point people to the strong gospel hope of God’s solid mountain-like promises all the way home to glory. As I minister to them, I want to join with my brothers and sisters in Christ in the amazement of God’s gracious promises and beautiful hope that above all carries all of history, and therefore certainly is to be trusted along the pilgrimage in our lives. God is faithful.
Christopher Ash’s commentary is four volumes on the Psalms and is published by Crossway
There was a scholar by the name of Pierre Courthial who brought out this picture. In his work called A Day of Small Beginnings. I do not espouse the reconstructionist lean that is often taken by implication of this author’s writing, but it did inform me so as to see a support to Ash’s observations. I have in some sense sought to gather the gold and throw out the dross in my above post.