This week I read about a cartoon that appeared in newspaper several years ago. The first panel showed a man entering a gas station. In the background were his car packed for vacation, his flustered wife fuming, and his children bickering. The man said to the gas station attendant, “I am a man. I am lost. And I am asking for directions.” The next panel showed the man getting back into the car and the gas station attendant saying to a friend, “It must be some kind of self-help program for husbands.”
As they travelled from their homes to worship God in Jerusalem several thousand years ago, the Hebrew pilgrims also needed some help on their journey. But the help they needed went far beyond just needing some directions. They often travelled long distances on foot and there were numerous dangers along the way. They faced the threat of being attacked by wild animals and, like we see in the account of the Good Samaritan, there was always the danger of being ambushed by robbers. During the day, they had to deal with oppressive heat and the direct rays of the sun – and I don’t think they had any SPF 50 sunscreen to protect them. At night, they had to camp out in the open, exposed to the elements.
So it’s not surprising that the second of the fifteen psalms of Ascent that these Hebrew pilgrims sang on their way up to Jerusalem deals with the help that they need as they make that journey. Once again, let’s read that Psalm out loud together.
I lift up my eyes to the hills.
From where does my help come?
My help comes from the LORD,
who made heaven and earth.
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.
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.
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.
Psalm 121:1-8 (ESV)
Let me make a few general observations about this Psalm and then we’ll see how we can apply this Psalm to our own journey toward becoming mature disciples of Jesus.
General Observations
1. “The hills” – three possibilities:
There is certainly no universal agreement about the significance of the hills mentioned in verse 1. As with many places in the Scripture where several interpretations are possible, it seems that God leaves the language intentionally ambiguous so as not to limit the passage to one specific meaning. According to the most frequently proposed ideas, the hills could picture:
• Jerusalem
Although we can’t know the setting of this Psalm with certainty, it certainly seems possible that this is the song that the Pilgrims would sing on their last night before they arrived in Jerusalem, with the hills of Jerusalem in the background.
• Danger
As we’ve already discussed, the people were also constantly looking up to the hills during their journey since those hills were often the place where the dangers they faced came from.
• Religion
During the time this Psalm was used in worship, Palestine was overrun with pagan worship, which was usually practiced on the hilltops. Thus, we have all the references in the Old Testament to the “high places” where people were lured to participate in the rituals that promised fertile lands and protection from evil.
Given the rest of the Psalm, that seems to be the primary picture the Psalmist had in mind. As the Hebrew pilgrims approached Jerusalem, the option to seek help from those high places would have been right there in front of them.
2. Key word – “keep/keeper”
As you read through this Psalm, what would you consider to be the key word? [Wait for answers]. That’s right – the words “keep(s)” and “keeper” appear a total of six times in the eight verses of this Psalm. So it would probably be a good use of our time to take a moment to understand the meaning of the word.
The Hebrew word is “shamar” which comes from a root word that originally described a sheepfold. When a shepherd was out in the wilderness he would gather thorn bushes to erect a makeshift corral for the sheep at night. Those thorns would then protect and guard the sheep from harm. So the word came to convey the idea of guarding and protecting.
3. Pronouns change from first person (I, my) to second person (you, your) between verses 2 and 3
This is a really interesting feature of this Psalm, leading many to conclude that this particular song was sung first by the Psalmist in verses 1 and 2 and then the rest of the community answered back in song in verses 3 through 8.
That seems to be borne out by the fact that “you” and “your” in that section are all singular, which actually makes this Psalm quite personal and intimate. God is not just everyone’s keeper. He keeps the Psalmist personally. And He also is willing to keep each of us personally as well.
But at the same time, that kind of dialogue reinforces the idea that we are best able to face the challenges of life when we’re in a community of like-minded believers that can encourage us in our journey by reminding us of God’s loving care for us. So the Psalm is not just about my personal journey with Jesus – it’s about making that journey with the other people that God has brought into this body so that we can encourage and support each other as we make that journey together.
With that background in mind, we are now ready to spend some time examining the main theme of this Psalm:
Why I can count on God to keep me
As the Psalmist and his companions made their way to Jerusalem, there were many places they could have looked for their help. We’ve already made reference to several of those ways. But as they meditated on the Lord – YHWH – they recognized that their help came only from Him. In this passage we find three significant aspects of God’s keeping of His people:
• God is a capable Keeper
The Psalmist recognizes immediately that He can count on God to be His helper and keeper because God is the one who created heaven and earth. That is certainly a claim that none of the others gods who people turned to for help on those hilltops could make. And obviously that is a clam that none of us would dare make.
I wonder how many times in our lives we seek our help somewhere else because, even though we may not voice it out loud, we fear deep inside that God is just not capable of dealing with whatever difficulties and problems I might be facing in my life. But if God created the entire world, including you and me, don’t you think He’s perfectly capable of helping us with our relationship issues or our finances or our health or our problems at work?
One of my favorite passages whenever I’m dealing with any trials and difficulties in my life is Isaiah 43, which begins with these words:
But now thus says the LORD,
he who created you, O Jacob,
he who formed you, O Israel:
“Fear not, for I have redeemed you;
I have called you by name, you are mine.
When you pass through the waters, I will be with you;
and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you;
when you walk through fire you shall not be burned,
and the flame shall not consume you.
Isaiah 43:1-2 (ESV)
We’re going to come back to this passage in a moment, but for now what I want us to see is the fact that we have no need to fear, regardless of what we’re going through because the One who created us is more than capable of being our helper and of keeping us by guarding us and protecting us through whatever we might face.
But just the fact that God is our creator is insufficient by itself to help us understand why we can count on God to be our keeper. As we develop a more intimate relationship with God, we also come to understand that…
• God is a caring Keeper
In the Psalm, we see that God is concerned about the dangers that the Psalmist and his fellow travelers face in their journey to worship Him. Unlike Baal and the other gods that were worshipped on the hilltops, God never sleeps or slumbers. The account of Elijah and the prophets of Baal in 1 Kings 18 is actually rather amusing, especially as Elijah taunts those prophets:
And at noon Elijah mocked them, saying, “Cry aloud, for he is a god. Either he is musing, or he is relieving himself, or he is on a journey, or perhaps he is asleep and must be awakened.” And they cried aloud and cut themselves after their custom with swords and lances, until the blood gushed out upon them. And as midday passed, they raved on until the time of the offering of the oblation, but there was no voice. No one answered; no one paid attention.
1 Kings 18:27-29 (ESV)
What a contrast to the Lord God who never sleeps or slumbers. He is constantly caring for all of His children. And He is both aware of and in control of the dangers that they face on their journey. We see God exercises this caring keeping of His people in three ways:
First, we see that He guards against physical danger. He gives them firm footing and protects them from being overcome by the scorching sun.
He also guards them from emotional danger. At first, it doesn’t seem to make much sense that God shades the people from the moon. After all, when is that last time you got a moon-burn? But in the culture of the day, people believed that exposure to the moon could cause mental problems. That is why our English word “lunatic” comes from the Latin word “luna” and literally means “controlled by the moon”. Even today, although there is no scientific evidence to support it, many still believe that “the crazies come out” during the full moon.
God also guards against spiritual danger. He does that by keeping us from all evil.
So if that is true – if God really does guard against physical, emotional and spiritual danger, then does that mean that God’s people will never face those kinds of problems in their lives? In order to answer that question, we need to draw from some additional Scriptures that will help us to understand two important aspects of the way God keeps us. First, we must understand that…
o God keeps me through danger, not necessarily from danger
We already saw this clearly in Isaiah 43. Let’s look at that passage again for a moment:
But now thus says the LORD,
he who created you, O Jacob,
he who formed you, O Israel:
“Fear not, for I have redeemed you;
I have called you by name, you are mine.
When you pass through the waters, I will be with you;
and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you;
when you walk through fire you shall not be burned,
and the flame shall not consume you.
Isaiah 43:1-2 (ESV)
Notice here that it is assumed that God’s people will go through difficulties – God uses the word “when”, not the word “if” when describing the difficulties of life using the pictures of floods and fires. So God clearly never promised to keep us from encountering danger in our lives. The familiar words of Jesus confirm that fact:
I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.”
John 16:33 (ESV)
Again, Jesus says we will, not we might, have tribulation in this world.
But in both passages, we have the promise that God will not leave us alone when we go through those difficult times. He will be with us. And it is His presence during those times that allow us to have peace, even in the midst of tribulation.
This leads us directly to a second important aspect of God’s caring help…
o God keeps me for His delight, not for my comfort
Because we are naturally so self-centered, our main concern is often for our own comfort. But God has something much more important in mind.
We’ve already looked at the beginning of Isaiah 43 a couple times, but a little later in that same chapter we find these words:
I will say to the north, Give up,
and to the south, Do not withhold;
bring my sons from afar
and my daughters from the end of the earth,
everyone who is called by my name,
whom I created for my glory,
whom I formed and made.
Isaiah 43:6-7 (ESV)
First, we see that God refers to his people as His sons and daughters. That certainly speaks volumes about the fact that God delights in us, much in the same way those of us who are parents delight in our children. But there is so much more here. God has actually created each one of His children for the purpose of bringing glory to Him.
We see this same idea in the New Testament as well:
For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities - all things were created through him and for him.
Colossians 1:16 (ESV)
Notice that God created all things – and that includes us – for Himself. That thought totally blows my mind – God intentionally created me exactly as I am so that I could bring delight to Him.
So when God keeps His children, He does it in a way that will ultimately bring glory to Him and to give Him delight. And that is often not comfortable for us. Those of us who are parents certainly can understand that. Even though we love our children and do our best to protect them from harm, there are times that we have to allow them to experience things that are quite uncomfortable because we know that is best for the development of their character. And at least one of the goals in doing that is so that one day, they will give us delight and reflect favorably upon us as parents.
Petra Anderson can certainly testify first hand to this truth.
[Show video]
What Petra and her mom are going through is certainly not comfortable. Although we get a hint of it from the video, we aren’t really sure that Petra and her mom are Christ followers. But this week I read an account from their pastor that gives many more details and give pretty good evidence that God is keeping them through this ordeal and, because they are His children, He is going to get a lot of glory from what they are going through. And He is certainly finding delight in the faithfulness of these two women He created.
But in the self-centered world we live in, it’s often difficult for us to get the focus off of what’s in it for me and to focus on what’s in it for God.
God is not only a capable keeper and a caring keeper…
• God is a constant Keeper
I think there is sometimes a tendency for us to think that God’s care for us waxes and wanes according to our spiritual temperature. But the last two verses of the Psalm certainly reject that kind of thinking.
First, we are promised that God will keep us from all evil. So that means that His care for us is unlimited. We are also promised that He will keep our life and our going out and our coming in from this time forward and forever more. Once again we see Hebrew poetry at work here. The idea of “going out and coming in” is a Hebrew idiom that pictures the daily going out of town to work the fields each morning and then returning home each evening. So it is just another way of describing our daily lives. And God promises to keep our lives not just in this world, but also in the one to come. That idea is confirmed in the New Testament as well:
Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy, to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen.
Jude 1:24-25 (ESV)
In this passage, we actually see all three aspects of how God keeps us. He is the capable keeper who is able to keep us from stumbling and able to present us blameless in His presence. He is the caring keeper who takes pleasure in keeping us so that we, His creation, will bring glory to Him. And he is the constant keeper who keeps us now and forever.
Up to this point, we’ve developed some really important and exciting information about God as our keeper. But what do we do with that now? What difference does that information make in our journey to become mature disciples of Jesus? What we find on that journey is that every hour of every day, we have to ask and answer the same question that the Psalmist posed at the beginning of the Psalm:
FROM WHERE DOES MY HELP COME?
I was thinking this week about all the places where we try to find security in our lives. We try to make our home secure by installing locks and security doors and alarm systems. We try to make our trips in our car secure by putting on seat belts. We try to make our finances secure by buying insurance and making investments. We try to make our relationships secure through marriage. And there is certainly nothing wrong with taking those prudent steps. In fact, I could make a good Biblical case that we ought to do many of those things. But we need to recognize that none of them will ever make our lives secure.
Thieves still break into houses that have good locks and security systems. People still get injured and killed in car accidents even if they wear their seat belts. Insurance companies go bankrupt and investments lose their value. And even the best of human relationships often come unraveled.
But even though it seems like there are innumerable places where we can try to find help, we really only have two options.
• There are only two options:
o Self
Let’s be honest. Even those of us who are genuine Christ followers often start here, don’t we? We don’t want to bother God with the things we consider to be “small stuff”, so we just try to handle those things in our own power and strength. We rely upon our intelligence, our own plans, our own strength and our own resources. Anything I do to try and find help apart from God is essentially relying upon what I can do for myself.
But what we ultimately find is that we are not capable, we are not really caring and we certainly aren’t constant.
o God
In his book, A Long Obedience in the Same Direction, Eugene Peterson does a really good job of why we need to make God the first place we go to find help. We’ll close our time with those words:
The great danger of Christian discipleship is that we should have two religions: a glorious, biblical Sunday gospel that sets us free from the world, that in the cross and resurrection of Christ makes eternity alive in us, a magnificent gospel of Genesis and Romans and Revelation; and, then, an everyday religion that we make do with during the week between the time of leaving the world and arriving in heaven. We save the Sunday gospel for the big crises of existence. For mundane trivialities - the time when our foot slips on a loose stone, or the heat of the sun gets too much for us, or the influence of the moon gets us down – we use the everyday religion of the “Reader’s Digest” reprint, advice from a friend, an Ann Landers column, the huckstered wisdom of a talk-show celebrity…But Psalm 121 says that the same faith that works in the big things works in the little things. The God of Genesis 1 who brought light out of darkness is also the God of this day who guards you against every evil.
