Title: Raise Your Eyes and See the Mountains!
This is the last day of December 1998. It is a time to look back and reflect on the year, and to prepare the mind with plans and preparations for the new year 1999. For each person, in a negative or positive sense, 1998 can be an unforgettable year. I don't know, but I think it will have a bigger meaning in the negative aspect than in the positive aspect in the aftermath of the IMF. As the meaning of 1998 for our church was recorded in the previous chapter of No. 91 of the Fountain of the Word that I am writing now, it is essential to meditate deeply on what the meaning of 1998 was for each person. But while meditating and remembering, you should not sit down, be frustrated, proud, or excited. Reflecting on the past should be nothing more and nothing less.
Among the songs sung by singer Yeowoon ...If a pleasant day could come, I would go back to the distant past and convey my feelings, but no matter how much I regret, the past passed... There is a song that goes back to , and tells the stories of things that were not done, but no matter how much you repent, the past is gone... This song is filled with the regrets of love and expresses regret, but what makes this song pierce the heart of the listener is that no matter how much they regret it, the past is gone. No matter how much you repent, the past is gone! 1998, good or bad, is a thing of the past. No matter how much we repent, the past has passed, and an uncertain future is now upon us.
送舊迎新, literally it's time to let go of the old and welcome the new. Here, we should look at what the Bible is saying.
2. The Bible is Future-Oriented
3. I lift my eyes to the mountains!
If you look at all the information that predicts 1999, it's more negative than positive. All data is. World economic instability, currency and financial instability, high unemployment rate due to restructuring, US attack on Iraq, economic crisis in Southeast Asia and Russia, rapid climate change caused by El Ni o La Ni a, heavy snowfall, cold wave, drought, flooding, property damage Due to human casualties, food shortages due to crop degradation, North Korea’s constant provocations leading to submarine invasions and missile launches in Yeosu, Gangneung, and rumors of the end of the world in the early 2000s, the future of 1999 has a more gloomy rather than bright atmosphere preponderantly.
Like most of the Psalms, Psalm 121 was not written in a safe, bright and comfortable setting. It was recorded in a more desperate situation than the reality we live in today, in which we did more and never did less. As Israel's history proves, it is a poem written in the real pain of war, destruction, contempt, insecurity, violence, the horror of captives, death, and piercing the bones. In this short poem, the word < I protect shamar > is used six times, which proves how much the poet is exposed to existential danger.
But nevertheless, the poet raises his eyes towards the mountain. In the field of life where all kinds of negative and dark conditions come crashing down like raging waves, the poet raises his eyes toward God toward the mountain. Take your eyes off the winds and waves of this world and hope in God. I hope and believe that God will protect me, and I hold onto it tightly.
4. Where will my help come from?
The scene of the poet's life is not only uncertain, but also unsettling and hopeless. It's a bleak situation with no one to turn to for help. The poet has taken all the human measures known to him, but sighing rather than coming out and cold water than seeking. In this situation, the poet raises his eyes to see the mountain. Oh! Where will my help come from? In his sighs and sighs, he sees a ray of light.
Where will my help come from? He wasn't even a rich friend. It wasn't even a bank. It wasn't even a marketplace. He wasn't even a powerful person. Oh, I realize that there is only one Jehovah God who made the heavens and the earth. Do not depend on those in power, nor on people who do not have the strength to help. The poet vomits blood and confesses that there is only one God who can help me.
5. Closing Story /
It is said that managers who predict the future will perish. Because our future does not allow for prediction itself, we lose our chance to get caught up in our predictions. It is time to entrust our future to God and live. Because our God is the very God of verses 3-8.