When Israel entered Canaan, a pagan land, they listened to the most popular hymn of the locals: "I lift up my eyes unto the hills.........". Their song reminded them that God's home was in the mountaintops.
The Hebrew faith had something better to offer: "My help comes from Him who made heaven and earth!." It is the Creator, not the creation, which is the center of faith.
But the pagan hymn was appealing in an agricultural community where so much depends on the sun and rain, factors that are presumably controlled by a deity who lives on the mountain top. So it was that many of the new Hebrew residents joined in the chorus.
Elijah was the first outspoken champion of the Hebrew position as he killed many prophets of that mountaintop God (Baal). Later on, King Josiah led a reform movement - that meant destroying the mountaintop altars of the pagan gods.
A nameless writer put these events into a kind of taunting poem, starting with a line echoing the popular refrain, "I lift up my eyes unto the hills!" Then the second line, countering the first: but "MY help comes from far beyond the mountain; my help comes from the Lord who created the heavens and the earth."
That abrupt shift between the first and second line of the poem was unfortunately overlooked as many printed versions of the Bible combined the lines into a single sentence. 'That made it sound as though the writer's help came from the mountaintop. Make no mistake here! It is the Creator God whom we seek, whom we honor, whom we worship. Let the marvels of mountain vistas remain forever attractive; they are not the residence of God.
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