THE SONGS OF ASCENT – PART 3 – PSALM 121 – CAN YOU KNOW THE LORD WHO HELPS, KEEPS AND GUARDS?
[A]. FROM WHERE DO I FIND MY HELP?
{{Psalm 121:1 “I will lift up my eyes to the mountains. From whence shall my help come?
Psalm 121:2 My help comes from the LORD who made heaven and earth.”}}
This is a remarkable Psalm, magnificent in its beauty, its promises and its content. Every part of the Psalm is positive and of the greatest help and encouragement for God’s people in every age.
Remember these Psalms/Songs of Ascent were sung by the pilgrims making the journey three times a year to Jerusalem for the Passover, the Feast of Pentecost, and the Feast of Booths. The psalms encompass the experiences and emotions of these faithful ones as they steadily gathered in small companies or larger ones and wended their way on the climb to Jerusalem when at last they stood before the Temple. These songs were very precious to the pilgrims and should be precious to us also.
Psalm 121 begins with a positive statement that is not made frivolously, but which is based on fact of previous experiences with God. There is too much hot air ascending from churches these days, from ministers and congregations; statements made without understanding. That is hypocritical and shows immense irreverence for the Lord. If you don’t know the truth of an experience then don’t speak it!
The psalmist would echo the experiences of the pilgrims, most of whom had a personal walk with God and could affirm what the psalm was saying. There is such a beautiful truth here and the way it is expressed is so delightful.
The opening sentence is “I will lift up my eyes to the mountains,” and it may sound poetic but it contains real truth. Just looking at the hills and peaks and mountain ranges as an exercise does nothing, but what is behind this does. The psalmist is speaking of the whole Jerusalem area. It is said Mt Zion sits on the mountains forming Jerusalem, as the chief mountain and is often used alone for Jerusalem.
Now we may ask what was the significance of looking “spiritually” at these mountains forming Jerusalem? The answer to that is “what they represent”. It was the Lord who founded Jerusalem which was, and is, and shall be, the chief city in the earth. One day it will be the very place where the Lord’s throne will be in the Millennium when Jesus reigns over the whole world as King of Kings and Lord of Lords,” and righteousness will be throughout His kingdom.
The psalmist was not merely “looking at the mountains” but at what they represent. They meant God’s selection, God’s favour and God’s presence. The psalmist is acknowledging the sovereignty of God and His presence and power. That is why he quickly adds the rest of verse 1 – “From whence shall my help come?” This question had nothing to do with uncertainty but is a device used to focus the answer, which is verse 2. He knew very well where his help came from. His faith and security in God was as solid as a granite mountain.
Verse 2 is the clear fact of his source of help. Of that there is no doubt. The solution is not found in books (except one), or in other people (except one Person), or in government directives; not even with a church minister or pastor. His help comes from the Lord. How did he know that? The reason is the usual one – it comes from experience! In a round about way it confirms the promise, {{Psalm 34:8 “O taste and see that the LORD is good. How blessed is the man who takes refuge in Him!”}}
Once you have proven the faithfulness of the Lord, then you know with certainty He can always be relied upon. Trust rests on confirmation and proof. The Lord will never go back on His promises. He loves to serve His children of faith. A verse in Proverbs is this – {{Proverbs 30:5 “Every word of God is tested. He is a shield to those who take refuge in Him.”}} Why is God a shield for those who take refuge in Him? The answer is that the word of God has been tested and He is found to be true.
Each afternoon I feed a number of peaceful doves that come to the bottom of my steps. A few years ago there was one dove that sat on the clothes line some distance away and was very tentative as these doves are. I sat near the bottom of the steps and threw some seed out and over time the dove came closer and closer. Now there are a couple of dozen of them and when I sit on the steps they come in quite quickly, still a bit shy, but they come within a metre of me and I toss them seed. They know I can be trusted. That they proved. Now their coming rests on that knowledge.
Is it no different with the Lord? We have proven Him through experience. No doubt those pilgrims singing as they went sang with confidence in the unchanging God who cared for them, and in whom they found refuge.
[B]. GOD KEEPS HIS OWN INTACT AND DOES NOT SLEEP IN NEGLECT
{{Psalm 121:3 “He will not allow your foot to slip. He who keeps you will not slumber.
Psalm 121:4 Behold, He who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep.”}}
This is one example of parallelism that is generally lacking from these Songs of ascent. In verse 3, there are two definite promises –
1. He (The Lord) will not allow your foot to slip.
2. He keeps you because He does not slumber.
This may seem quite elementary to us at first but it again rests on the basis of continuing trust. The Lord keeps the faithful ones. We can not walk a selfish life in sin and then expect the Lord to bless us automatically. His promises are for His followers, not for those who are fair-weather disciples.
Have you ever experienced a foot slip? You have placed your foot on something slippery like moss and then you slide and fall.
He who keeps you will not slumber. I wonder if Elijah had that promise in mind when he taunted the priests of Baal – {{1Kings 18:27 It came about at noon, that Elijah mocked them and said, “Call out with a loud voice, for he is a god. Either he is occupied or gone aside, or is on a journey, or perhaps he is asleep and needs to be awakened,”}}
Then in verse 4 you have the parallel truth of verse 3.
1. He (The Lord) keeps Israel.
2. The Lord does not slumber nor sleep.
[C]. THE LORD IS OUR KEEPER AND PROTECTOR
{{Psalm 121:5 “The LORD is your keeper. The LORD is your shade on your right hand.”}}
These last four verses, 5-8, all go together but I am going to separate them. Here in verse 5 we are told two things.
[1]. THE LORD IS OUR KEEPER. Lord should be LORD, the name Jehovah in special regard to Israel. Many questions arise with this. In what matters does the Lord keep us? Do we have to request His keeping? How does He keep us?
With regard to Israel I suppose the primary thing regarding the Lord’s keeping was security and safety from enemies. Israel seemed to be under attack often, some times from an enemy without provocation, but mostly because of Israel’s own sin when God raised up enemies to invade and chasten Israel. They never did learn to walk in trust and dependence on God, and reverted to sin even after they were delivered, time and time again. God tolerated their sin and rebellion for a long time but the curtain call came. They were dispersed from their land three times (Israel/Assyria; Judah/Babylon; Israel/Romans).
However we must put this verse in context and say that the “your” includes only the faithful ones, and in this case in particular, the pilgrims making their way to Jerusalem for the Feasts. The verse has a much deeper application than just those pilgrims. It would have included all the faithful ones in Israel, and it includes all the redeemed of the Church even in our day. The Lord is our Keeper.
Immediately we are reminded of a great New Testament verse and this is the NASB – {{2Timothy 1:12 “For this reason I also suffer these things, but I am not ashamed for I know whom I have believed, and I am convinced that He is able to guard what I have entrusted to Him until that day.”}}
The AV uses “keep” instead of “guard” but the words mean the same. What have we committed to the Lord? The answer is our lives. We are His sheep and He will guard His sheep from being lost and from every danger that would eat them up. The Lord is faithful.
We looked at the following verses in another message but the truth here lies in the Lord’s keeping – {{Psalm 91:10-13 “No evil will befall you, nor will any plague come near your tent. He will give His angels charge concerning you TO GUARD YOU in all your ways. They will bear you up in their hands lest you strike your foot against a stone. You will tread upon the lion and cobra. The young lion and the serpent you will trample down.”}} The Lord entrusts our keeping to angels and I do believe that. Of course the Lord is omnipotent but there seems to be a special work entrusted to the angels. Of course the Lord is in complete control – it is just the way the Lord plans it.
There have been a few incidences in my life where I know something “unhuman” has taken place. I had an axe glance very strongly off a log and it seemed it was directed away from my leg which it just missed by the smallest fraction. I have fallen off ladders and it is as if I was guided in my fall in a way I can not explain. I attribute all that to God, to His keeping and the angelic work.
The Lord keeps and guards us because He loves us. Look at what the rest of the Psalm 91 says – {{Psalm 91:14-15 “Because he has loved Me, therefore I will deliver him. I will set him securely on high because he has known My name. He will call upon Me, and I will answer him. I will be with him in trouble. I will rescue him, and honour him.”}}
[2]. THE LORD IS OUR SHADE. This seems like a strange thing to say and what does it mean? Commentators vary in the way they understand this, but I think Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges steers a good middle course in understanding – [[“your shade on your right hand” ‘Shade’ seems simply to denote ‘protection’ generally, the idea of the metaphor being lost, hence it can be joined with “on your right hand,” that being the usual position of the champion or protector. The phrase may however be a poetical abbreviation for Jehovah is your shade, (he is) on your right hand.
Verses 5–8. The comforting thought that Jehovah is the guardian of Israel is developed and appropriated to each individual Israelite. Psalm 121:5; Psalm 121:7 may have been sung by one singer or group of singers, and Psalm 121:6; Psalm 121:8 as a response by another singer or group of singers: or perhaps Psalm 121:5-6 by one, and Psalm 121:7-8 by another.”]]
[D]. NOTHING OUTSIDE OF GOD HARMS US
{{Psalm 121:6 “The sun will not smite you by day nor the moon by night.”}}
We delve into poetic language here in a special device to say that when we are under God’s care nothing outside His will can ever harm us. We know if we are shirtless in the full sun at the beach for hours then most likely we will get sunburnt. “The sun has smote us.” Obviously the verse is not referring to that but is understood in a wider context. The Lord keeps us all day and all night and the forces of the day and night can not harm us in any way UNLESS the Lord allows it.
Remember Job? He was smitten with the most horrible afflictions in the permissive will of God yet in all that time He was kept by the hand of the Lord. We must not make the mistake that because we are Christians, then nothing whatever that is distasteful will come our way. We live in the world and are subjected to the ills of the world. In these days of inflation, interest repayment rises and an evil world, these cause hardship. Christians are not exempt from those things.
However we are kept by the Mighty God and nothing evil will sweep us away into the flooded river and then into a lostness. The sun can not harm us. The moon can not harm us. We are in the Lord’s hands. We are the sheep of His pasture. The Good Shepherd guards His sheep.
[E]. THE TESTING OF FAITH IN A FAITHFUL GOD
{{Psalm 121:7 “The LORD will protect you from all evil. He will keep your soul.”}}
We have covered some of this above in the previous verse. The righteous ones of God find this a difficult verse when they lose a close family member like a young spouse, or losing a job or a career, or taken over by some other tragedy. Has the Lord really kept your soul? Have we been protected from all evil? These are very personal searchings and are often heart-rending. Our spirits tell us that God is faithful but our emotions are causing havoc. What must we do in these cases?
Well, I think the answer lies in two words the whole bible repeats hundreds of times. Those words are faith and trust. Faith is what grabs the situation even though human logical thinking might not understand what is happening. Trust holds on when all else is being swept away.
Try to consider Job’s position when the first tragedy hit him. It must have shaken his composure and the whole episode was to unsettle his faith but he remained steadfast. Then the second tragedy came and it is at that point a number of people walk away from God. Is that not a selfish response? I get affected so I respond against God. What sort of trust is that? It is what we could call “fair-weather sailing” Christians. Once a wind arises and a storm comes then they run away from God.
The testing of faith can only happen in a storm. It will never happen when all is calm and gentle. Faith is tested by adversity, not by the calm inside a palace. I think faith and trust is a living operation that feeds on trouble and hardship, and shows what kind of person the real YOU is. God’s people are meant to be strong because the strong God has equipped them to be strong in the strength of the storm.
“But I don’t have enough faith!” Well the only way I can answer you is with this verse you must take and wrap it around your whole person and never lost sight of it – {{Romans 10:17 “Therefore faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ.”}} There is a principle here – the greater God’s word has infused and embraced your life, the more equipped you are in the battle. That brings us to another verse – {{Ephesians 6:17 “Take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.”}} Faith must overcome and the overcomers find the secret in the following verse – {{1John 2:14 “I have written to you, fathers, because you know Him who has been from the beginning. I have written to you, young men, because you are strong, and the word of God abides in you, and you have overcome the evil one.”}}
Job faced more tragedy than we considered before, but his faith and trust were unshakable because they were rooted in the unshakable God. That is the secret. The word of God! The word of God!
[F]. THE LORD WILL GUARD HIS OWN FOREVER IN THIS EVIL WORLD
{{Psalm 121:8 “The LORD will guard your going out and your coming in from this time forth and forever.”}}
I think the secret in this verse is the One in the picture. Is it you or the Lord? Of course it is the Lord. Who does the keeping; you or the Lord? Well it is the Lord. Is not the trouble too often that we try to guard our lives to the exclusion of the Lord, and that we try to do all the keeping ourselves.
Realise this. You can not guard your comings and goings and you can not keep yourselves in this evil world. It is the Lord’s work and He must do the entire process. He does not need your help, for your interference weakens the pure work of the Lord. Just hand over your entire life to God and allow Him to direct your ways; your comings and goings. He will do it at this time, and forever. There is a special verse people know but I think they overlook its importance and certainly overlook the practical nature of it. It is this one – {{Psalm 37:5 “COMMIT your way to the LORD. Trust also in Him, and He will do it.” Psalm 37:6 “He will bring forth your righteousness as the light, and your judgment as the noonday.”}} There is the simple solution – “COMMIT”.
IMAGINE!
Just imagine this for one moment. You are conducted to a dark room in a dark house, led by the hand all the time and assured all is fine, and placed there for a while. You see nothing the whole time. The unseen guiding hand turns on the light and you are amazed at what you see. There is glory and beauty all around. Well that is a nice story but I want to change it a bit . . .
“The unseen guiding hand turns on the light and you are amazed at what you see. There are vile faces snarling at you and grotesque forms all around. They are trying to overcome you. You are in a room of awful evil, but the unseen hand takes yours again and says, “Do not fear. I have overcome the world. Just hold my hand as I guide you to the daylight of My Presence.”
What we have sought to portray is a scene where evil surrounds you and threatens you but you are kept by Almighty God. Satan is the prince and power of the air (this world’s atmosphere) and we do not see these wicked beings all around doing the works of darkness. However we are not to worry. It is the Lord who will guard our going out and our coming in. The Lord does it perfectly. His angels are all around also doing the Lord’s bidding.
There is nothing to worry about. We are in the Lord’s hand. Better still He takes our hand and guards us and guides us. Praise His name forever. The pilgrims on the journey to Jerusalem knew all about that. No wonder they could sing this psalm on their journey!
Psalm 122 will follow next.
ronaldf@aapt.net.au
