My Keeper

In our travels, my husband and I have learned to take precautions. We generally feel safe, but we know that, especially in the crowds of foreign cities, we should be watchful. A pickpocket or a thief could come from any direction. We also aren’t aware of all the traffic rules or forget that in some countries cars will come from the right when we are looking left. We often use the train system in Europe, and sometimes the walk in the dark from the train stop to our hotel can feel vulnerable. We are watchful.

But you don’t have to travel to experience watchfulness. In everyday life, we don’t know when we will face illness, strife in a relationship, a loss of a job, the death of a loved one, unforeseen bills, or even weather that interrupts our plans. For some, it isn’t just one unexpected disruption, but trouble keeps coming in multiple forms. We try to control our personal worlds. We try to anticipate anything and everything that could go wrong in our lives, but we do not have the wisdom or power to control the unknowns (or even the knowns).

Psalm 121 speaks to us as we face the unknown. It is one of the Psalms of Ascents – Psalms sung by Jewish pilgrims going up to Jerusalem to worship.

A Song of Ascents.

1 I lift up my eyes to the hills.

From where does my help come?

2 My help comes from the Lord,

who made heaven and earth.

3 He will not let your foot be moved;

He who keeps you will not slumber.

4 Behold, He who keeps Israel

will neither slumber nor sleep.

5 The Lord is your keeper;

the Lord is your shade on your right hand.

6 The sun shall not strike you by day,

nor the moon by night.

7 The Lord will keep you from all evil;

He will keep your life.

8 The Lord will keep

your going out and your coming in

from this time forth and forevermore.[1]

Psalm 121

I used to read verse 1 with the understanding that the psalmist (and Jewish pilgrims) looked to the hills as the source of their help as Jerusalem is a city on a hill, the home of the temple where the Jewish people worshipped, and God’s presence filled the Holy of Holies. But verse 1 carries a different meaning. (This is why it is so good to study beyond an initial reading of a passage.)

When we were in Israel, my husband and I experienced first-hand what the trek to Jerusalem would have been like. Granted, we were in a bus not walking or riding a donkey or camel, but the climb up to Jerusalem is long and steep. The sun in Israel beats down on you. The dessert mountains provide little vegetation for shade. Aside from the rugged terrain, in the psalmist’s time there was also danger from robbers. As the Jewish pilgrims lifted their eyes to the hills they needed to ascend, they knew the potential danger and that it could come from multiple sources. The psalmist asks, “From where does my help come?” It can be difficult to stay the course of our path when all we see are the mountains and the dangers they may contain.

The psalmist knew he needed help for the journey, and immediately, he answers his own question: “My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth” (vs 2). The psalmist knew that God alone was his help. He understood that God’s presence was not only in the temple. God was with him on the journey. The psalmist further recognized who God, his help, was – maker of heaven and earth. God is creator. He created the hills. He is sovereign over the hills and all the dangers the hills hold. The psalmist was comforted remembering the creator of heaven and earth was his help.

Before I began writing today, I saw an ad from EllyandGrace.com for a t-shirt that seemed to echo the psalmist’s words in verse 1.

Like the psalmist, we need to remind ourselves (and tell our mountains) who our God is. Throughout the next six verses of the psalm, the psalmist makes God his focus not the dangers. Six times in eight verses, the psalmist describes God as the one who keeps him and Israel. I ran across a quote by Paul David Tripp today that is fitting: “Because David was not suffering from awe 'wrongedness' (1 Samuel 17:37), he made the right spiritual assessment and was therefore unafraid. It was not puny little David against this awesome giant. No, it was this puny little giant against the God who is the sum and definition of all that is awesome."[2]

David remembered who his God was. Goliath was nothing in comparison to God. Whatever our mountains, they are nothing before our awesome, God, maker of heaven and earth.

Let’s continue through the psalm: “He will not let your foot be moved; He who keeps you will not slumber. Behold, He who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep” (vs 3-4). First, God will not let our foot be moved. Throughout the New Testament we are given truths of how we stand firm in Christ, how our foot is not moved.

· We stand in grace (Romans 5:2)

• We stand in the Gospel (1 Corinthians 15:1)

• We stand in courage and strength (1 Corinthians 16:13)

• We stand in faith (2 Corinthians 1:24)

• We stand in Christian liberty (Galatians 5:1)

• We stand in Christian unity (Philippians 1:27)

• We stand in the Lord (Philippians 4:1)

• The goal: that we should stand perfect and complete in the will of God (Colossians 4:12)[3]

These truths help us understand how God keeps our foot from being moved. God abundantly equips us with grace, the Gospel, His Spirit, and so much more.

Second, the psalmist declares that God who keeps him will not slumber, and it is repeated in relation to Israel. God is ever vigilant to keep us. I am reminded of Elijah and the prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel. Elijah mocked the prophets of Baal because Baal did not answer them: “perhaps he is asleep and must be awakened” (1 Kings 18:27). God never slumbers. He is continually watching over and keeping us like the watchmen in Old Testament Israel “Watchmen in the Bible were guards responsible for protecting towns and military installations from surprise enemy attacks and other potential dangers. Ancient Israelite cities often stationed watchmen on high walls or in watchtowers. Their job was to keep watch and warn the townspeople of impending threats.”[4]

God is the perfect watchman. Not only does He never slumber, but He is omnipresent and omniscient. He knows every danger, temptation, and trouble, and He is sovereign over them. This does NOT mean that we will never experience anything difficult or that we will never suffer. It DOES mean that God will keep us until He completes His work in us and brings us home to eternal glory with Him, and that He will never leave or forsake us.

One more illustration from the Old Testament is from Exodus 13:21-22. God led the Israelites in the wilderness with a cloud by day and a pillar of fire at night. God gave them physical evidence that He was constantly with them. This would have been a sign to surrounding nations as well, and I imagine it might have struck fear into them.

“The Lord is your keeper; the Lord is your shade on your right hand. The sun shall not strike you by day, nor the moon by night” (vs 5-6). We learned earlier that Israel’s sun can be harsh, yet the psalmist says that God is the shade at our right hand. Psalm 91 is helpful here: “He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will abide in the shadow of the Almighty”[5] (vs 1). The Hebrew word for shelter and shadow in Psalm 91:1 is the same word translated “shade” in Psalm 121:5. The Hebrew carries the idea of God as our refuge. In Jonah, God caused a vine to grow up and provide shade for Jonah in the hot sun (Jonah 4:6). God can provide literal shade if that is what He chooses to do, but I think even more importantly is the truth of God Himself as our refuge. We know that whatever crosses our path is only because of God’s sovereignty, and whatever it is, God is using it for the good of conforming us to the image of Jesus and for His glory. We know that nothing can separate us from God’s love, and we will one day be with God, completely free from all the dangers of the hills. God is our comfort and hope. In Him we are secure.

The psalmist’s references to the sun and moon can be understood that there is nothing during the day or night that can ever succeed against God. It is another example of God’s sovereignty and power.

“The Lord will keep you from all evil; He will keep your life. The Lord will keep your going out and your coming in from this time forth and forevermore” (vs 7-8). I’ll admit the first part of verse 7 gave me pause because we all experience the effects of this fallen world and sinful people. From what I read, though, this means that God can keep us from falling into sin (1 Corinthians 10:13). He has given His Spirit to indwell us and His Word to instruct us, as well as Jesus conquering the power of sin on the cross so that we are no longer slaves to sin. God has equipped us to keep from evil.

We can also be assured that no one can ultimately do us harm. Our eternal future with God is guaranteed by the Holy Spirit. Nothing can change that. As the Apostle Paul said, “To die is gain.” The psalmist adds that God’s keeping is not only in this moment, but it is forever. Jesus was forsaken on the cross by the Father, so that we would never be forsaken.

“Our soul is kept from the dominion of sin, the infection of error, the crush of despondency, the puffing up of pride; kept from the world, the flesh and the devil; kept for holier and greater things; kept in the love of God; kept unto the eternal kingdom and glory.” (Spurgeon)[6]

Verse 8 gives us a comprehensive conclusion. We can trust God in every aspect of our lives, all the time. There is never a time, place, or circumstance that God is not keeping us. We can stay on the path God is leading us without fear of the hills and their dangers because we know God, the maker of heaven and earth who keeps us.

Reflection

1. What hills in your life tempt you to anxiety or to turn from the path God has you on? In these times, do you recognize your need for God to help you or do you look to other sources?

2. How does God as the maker of heaven and earth and your keeper encourage you to persevere? How does awe of God put the dangers of the hills in perspective? Be specific.

3. Which of the verses about “standing” so your foot is not moved encourages you the most in the face of the dangers of the hills? Why?

4. What other “God is…” truths do you find in Psalm 121?

[1] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Ps 121:title–8. [2] Tripp, Paul David. Awe: Why It Matters for Everything We Think, Say, and Do. Wheaton, Crossway, 2015. [3] David Guzik, Psalms, David Guzik’s Commentaries on the Bible (Santa Barbara, CA: David Guzik, 2013), Ps 121:3–4. [4] “What Are Watchmen in the Bible?” GotQuestions.org, https://www.gotquestions.org/watchmen-in-the-Bible.html [5] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), P1:1. [6] David Guzik, Psalms, David Guzik’s Commentaries on the Bible (Santa Barbara, CA: David Guzik, 2013), Ps 121:7–8.