God Our Sustainer, an exhortation against the delusion of self-sufficiency (CCAR 1923)

Contributor(s):

Aharon N. Varady (transcription), Unknown and Central Conference of American Rabbis [CCAR]

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2 April 2026 under the Creative Commons Zero (CC 0) Universal license a Public Domain dedication

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20th century C.E., 57th century A.M., Angels, English vernacular prayer, exhortation, Gratitude, teḥinot in English

Contribute a translation	Source (English)
	I lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence shall my help come? My help cometh from the Lord who made heaven and earth. He will not suffer thy foot to be moved. He that keepeth thee will not slumber; behold He that keepeth Israel doth neither slumber nor sleep. The Lord is thy keeper; the Lord is thy shade upon thy right hand. The sun shall not smite thee by day, nor the moon by night. The Lord shall keep thee from all evil; He shall keep thy soul. The Lord shall guard thy going out and thy coming in, from this time forth and for ever. (Psalms 121)
	‘God’s Angel’ referred to in the Psalm^[1] The psalm and verse being referenced here in the Zohar is Psalms 85:14 means His Divine Presence which goeth with man and doth not depart from him as long as man obeys God’s law. Therefore let man beware against going forth upon his journeyings alone. That is to say let him obey the Divine Will so that he shall not go forth without the accompanying Presence of God — which will sustain him and deliver him in every hour of need. (as adapted from Zohar Bereshit 83.223)
	We cherish the hope of growing worthy of our innate godliness, and we know that the serious labor of noble living requires a spirit of sustained courage which no defeat can crush, and a high hopefulness which no success can corrupt. Such a sustained spirit is, alas, rare among us, for we are creatures of mood. Now we are elated at some trivial success, and now some chance event casts its shadows upon our hearts.
	We forget to seek the Lord and His strength, for, in moments of minor achievement, we grow proudly self-sufficient. Our hand has wrought, our powers have achieved, our strength has accomplished. We need no help! Yet our self-reliance does not endure for, although it beseems us to stand proudly courageous as the children of the living God, the slightest failure drives us into dejection. Our hand seems weak; our powers puny, and our strength turned to water. An unbearable sense of our ineffectiveness crushes us to earth.
	Thus driven by the stray winds of accident, from the proud harbor of exaltation to the rocks of despair, we turn from joy to sorrow, from sorrow to shortlived joy; we go from strength to weakness, and from weakness to illusions of strength. Left to our own resources, we endlessly waver, lacking the steadiness of aim, the firmness of purpose, which alone can make life nobly strong.
	We need help from God. We need the consciousness of His unfailing presence, His immovable power, His everlasting help. Conscious of His sustaining strength, we remain moderate in our success knowing that He has aided us. We retain hope in time of failure, knowing that His hand can help. Never swerving from its course, guided by the star of its faith, our life pursues its steady progress.
	Thou everlasting Help, be at my side. Thou hast ever been the help of our fathers. They trusted in Thee and were enheartened. When hatred beset them, when their life seemed a futile struggle against implacable hostility, their consciousness of Thine everpresent aid saved them from despair.
	O Eternal Power! Through all the changes of life, Thou dost not change. Teach me to look to Thee. Teach me to lean upon Thy strength. Let not pride corrupt me, nor weakness crush me. I lift up mine eyes to Thee. Thou wilt illumine my darkness. Sustain me; suffer not my foot to stumble. Make Thy Presence accompany me upon my way that I may walk firmly and confidently before Thee, towards the tasks which Thou hast set for me leaning upon Thy help, fulfilling Thy purposes. Amen.

“God Our Sustainer” is the thirty-fourth prayer found in ברכה ותהלה Blessing and Praise: A Book of Meditations and Prayers for Individual and Home Devotion (CCAR 1923), pp. 115-117. Unfortunately, we do not yet know of a resource providing clear attribution of authorship for any of the prayers in this volume.

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Notes

Notes
1	The psalm and verse being referenced here in the Zohar is Psalms 85:14

Aharon N. Varady (transcription)

Aharon Varady (M.A.J.Ed./JTSA Davidson) is a volunteer transcriber for the Open Siddur Project. If you find any mistakes in his transcriptions, please let him know. Shgiyot mi yavin; Ministarot naqeni שְׁגִיאוֹת מִי־יָבִין; מִנִּסְתָּרוֹת נַקֵּנִי "Who can know all one's flaws? From hidden errors, correct me" (Psalms 19:13). If you'd like to directly support his work, please consider donating via his Patreon account. (Varady also translates prayers and contributes his own original work besides serving as the primary shammes of the Open Siddur Project and its website, opensiddur.org.)

Unknown

Sometimes the best we can do in attributing a historical work is to indicate the period and place it was written, the first prayer book it may have been printed in, or the archival collection in which the manuscript was found. We invite the public to help to attribute all works to their original composers. If you know something not mentioned in the commentary offered, please leave a comment or contact us.

Central Conference of American Rabbis [CCAR]

The Central Conference of American Rabbis (CCAR), founded in 1889 by Rabbi Isaac Mayer Wise, is the principal organization of Reform rabbis in the United States and Canada.

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ויהי נעם אדני אלהינו עלינו ומעשה ידינו כוננה עלינו ומעשה ידינו כוננהו׃ (תהלים צ:יז) · "May the pleasantness of אדֹני our elo’ah be upon us; may our handiwork be established for us — our handiwork, may it be established." (Psalms 90:17)

God Our Sustainer, an exhortation against the delusion of self-sufficiency (CCAR 1923)

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