What does "the Lord is my helper" mean (Hebrews 13:6)?

(Vv. 5, 6). Furthermore, we have temporal needs to meet. We are to beware that they do not become the occasion of avarice. We are to be content with the present circumstances in which God has placed us. The reason given is very blessed: whatever our circumstances, the Lord is with us. He has said, “I will not leave thee, neither will I forsake thee.” If the Lord speaks thus, we may boldly say, “The Lord is my helper, and I will not be afraid: what will man do to me?” The last sentence is really a question. If the Lord is my helper, what can man do?

The second point of interest is not so much the application of this Old Testament text but rather the reasoning which is based upon it. The skeleton outline of the reasoning runs thus, "He has said … so that we may boldly say …" If God speaks we may accept what He says with all confidence. More than this, we may assert what He asserts with all boldness. And we may do even more than this. For if He asserts things concerning Himself in regard to His people, we may, since we are of His people, assert these things boldly as applying to ourselves. Indeed we may take it home with all confidence as applying to each individually; even as here we read, "The Lord is MY Helper, I will not fear." In our reading of Scripture let us form the happy habit of thus applying the words of God to ourselves.

Then comes the call, "Let your course of life be free of avarice, contented with things present. For he hath said, I will in no wise leave thee, no, nor at all forsake thee; so that we say confidently, Jehovah [is] my helper, [and] I will not fear: what shall man do to me?" (verses 5, 6.) Avarice, sordid and unworthy of moral men, is peculiarly beneath those called to follow Christ in faith and love, with their eyes opened to their better and enduring substance where Christ is. Discontent with things is natural to unbelievers. It is good and due that we confide in His word to one, although no less meant for all His own. The vulgar text falls far below the impressive promise and challenge the O.T. furnished: and God as a Father only gives it more force.

Verses 5, 6. They had taken joyfully the spoiling of their goods. Yet they are not above the necessity of a warning against covetousness. For, as they declined in grace, they had grown in selfishness. Alms might be given to the saints, while diligence was being exercised to add to their own worldly goods. As our hearts remove from Jesus, they draw nearer to themselves. God is the competent Provider of His people. He has said, "I will never leave thee nor forsake thee" to each several pilgrim of His grace. For the words with which He comforted the fathers, when He spoke to them in vision as their Saviour and their Blesser, have been written for the nourishment of our faith. That godliness with contentment is great gain, was a lesson that the Hebrew saints had but imperfectly acquired. They would prove its value and enjoy abundantly its blessings if they took God simply at His word. They daily needed Him, and by His promise He anticipated all their need. For the God of the believer is the God of salvations (Ps. 68:20), not one, but many. Having given His own Son for their redemption, He withholds no good thing from the cherished people of His blessing. He would have this known and reckoned on by us. Because of His words of faithful promise, we may speak confidently amid circumstances of the most disheartening appearance. Each one may boldly say "The Lord is my Helper." And if we say thus much in faith, we shall not spare to add with meekness, yet with all assurance, the remainder of the Spirit's words. For man is still and harmless before the power of the Lord who numbers, for safe keeping, all the hairs of our heads. For his temporal weal the man whom truth has made a pilgrim need feel no alarm. The earth and its fulness are the Lord's, who loves him. Enough is promised him to speed him on his way. God shows His children only kindness, when He traverses their foolish and injurious schemes of personal aggrandizement in the present world (1 Tim. 6:9-10).

We have our title to everything we need throughout our entire pilgrim journey in the gift of Christ Himself. "So that we may boldly say, The Lord is my Helper" — no matter what are the circumstances; no matter what confederacies of men may do — whether the vast associations of wealth close down the little honest business in which you have been earning a livelihood, or labor unite and shut out of employment every one who will not bow to its mandates. Still we have the living God, the Lord and Master of all; and shall we not be in peace, and boldly say, "The Lord is my Helper, and I will not fear what man" — one or all shall do unto me"? The Lord pour into our hearts the balm and stimulus of this precious truth!

There are two points of great interest about verses 5 and 6. The first concerns the way in which the Old Testament Scripture is quoted. It was to Joshua that the Lord said, "I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee." We might very properly say to ourselves, "But I am no Joshua. He was a very eminent man of faith, and I am a very insignificant and often a very feeble believer. Would it not be a rather forward and impertinent thing for me to calmly assume that a promise made to him is equally valid for me?" It is delightful to discover from these verses that such an application of this ancient promise is not the boldness of presumption but the boldness of faith. The fact is, of course, that what God is, He is towards His people in all time and circumstances. There is no variableness nor shadow of turning with Him. He will not be less towards His people in this dispensation than He was in a past dispensation. We may wholly count upon Him.

What will take the carking care out of our heart, and keep us from discontent? If we realize that we have Him who is the source of all wealth, the living God as our portion — if He fills the heart, there is no room for covetous desire. If we have Christ — Him in whom all the fulness of the Godhead dwells — what more can we have? Is God's creation of more value than Himself? Suppose you could have everything that your mind can conceive of in all creation, would you be happier? Look at the men of wealth today are they distinguished for contentment, peace of heart and joy of soul? We know that the resources of this world are but trash, so far as feeding the soul is concerned. But when we have the Source and Author of all blessing, as the meal may reach the bottom of the vessel, and the oil in the cruse be so little that it seems almost worthless even to pour it out, we hear Him saying to our widowed circumstances, "I" — oh, blessed substitute for all the hoarded wealth of this poor world — "I," the living God, "will never" — not merely at this time of need, or in these circumstances of strait, "I will never leave thee nor forsake thee." As that precious assurance takes possession of the soul, we can look care, need, poverty, distress and everything else in the face, and rejoice, as the prophet Habbakuk does when he says: "Although the fig-tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines; the labor of the olive shall fail, and the fields shall yield no meat; the flock shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no herd in the stalls: yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation."

That is the blessed substitute and cure for all covetousness and discontent. As we think of that we can boldly say, "The Lord is my helper." Sometimes we are tempted not to be bold in this, but in our precious Epistle we are encouraged to all boldness, both in the presence of God and before the world.

The world is full of unsatisfied desire, which leads to covetousness. The word to us is, "Let your conversation be without covetousness: and be content with such things as ye have" (Heb. 13:5). "Satisfied with your present circumstances" (N. Tr.). Are our present circumstances then so very desirable; are they just what they should be? They are the very reverse of that. They are so undesirable that a clean sweep will be made of them immediately this age closes. Why then are we to be satisfied with them? Because as Hebrews 12 has shown, they are appointed of God to act as chastening and discipline for us, and also because He has said, "I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee." That is it. We may be satisfied in the midst of present circumstances because there is guaranteed to us the abiding presence of the One for whom we thirst.

When the widow cried unto the prophet, "The creditor is come to take unto him my two sons to be bondmen," what answers Elisha? At first as if embarrassed by this touching appeal, he replies, "What can I do for thee? Tell me" (he continues as if he had discovered the mode of relief), "what hast thou in thy house?" God does not allow us to be placed in circumstances which bear no evidence of His providing mercies. They may be very small and scanty, yet faith appropriates them, and encouraging the soul in God proclaims, "The Lord is my helper," not outside His own mercies, but through them. The widow here borrows from abroad from her neighbours empty vessels. The testimony in asking the loan of an empty vessel was that she who was known to be in such abject circumstances had something to put into them. She might doubtless have been taunted that her poverty was notorious, and that it was folly to borrow empty vessels. She had only boldly to say, "The Lord is my helper!" Now this is an example of the simple action of faith in the use of means. Nature would have despised the "pot of oil," and sought unto the king and those in high estate, or to the lender for relief; but this is not God's way. God only wants to bring Himself into the scene, for He can touchingly appeal to His people, "What could have been done for my vineyard which I have not done for it?"

Secondly, he finds that the LORD is his helper. If I am not to take vengeance upon my enemies, "Who will rise up for me against the evil doers? or Who will stand up for me against the workers of iniquity?" Experience answers these questions, for, says the Psalmist, "Unless the LORD had been my help, my soul had almost dwelt in silence." So again, the Apostle, realising that the Lord will never forsake the godly man, can boldly say, "The Lord is my helper, and I will not fear" (Hebrews 13:6).