Psalm 121

“I will lift up my eyes to the hills - from whence comes my help? My help comes from the Lord, Who made heaven and earth. He will not allow your foot to be moved; He who keeps you will not slumber. Behold, He who keeps Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep.”  Psalm 121:1-4 (NKJV)

A while back, I got a rather frantic call from my wife, “Stephen, the refrigerator is broken; it is defrosting and leaking all over the kitchen floor!”  Of course, I rushed home, but upon further inspection, I discovered the unit was cooling properly.  The source of the running water was a faulty water filter for the icemaker we had recently replaced.  In order to save money, we decided to buy an off-brand filter instead of the manufacturer’s filter.  Now, we had a pool of water on the floor.  Lesson learned!  

Israel had abandoned her “manufacturer,” the God of all creation.  The writer of Psalm 121, who warned against aftermarket gods, was very concerned.  We must remember that this is a “song of ascent.” And as the worshipper was making his journey to Jerusalem, he looked at the hills to the right and left of the road and spied the pagan shrines way up high.  Many of his countrymen had compromised their beliefs and stopped short of God’s standard, choosing to sort of worship God but to do so through pagan ways.  Folks, compromised worship is never true worship!  No, the Jesus follower on his pilgrimage was to be reminded that his help comes not from a man-made religion propped atop a high place but from the One Who is above all creation, the Maker of heaven and earth.  God neither sleeps nor loses focus on us.  He remains ever watchful, even as we are journeying through difficult circumstances.

“The Lord is your keeper; the Lord is your shade at your right and. The sun shall not strike you by day, nor the moon by night.”  Psalm 121:5-6 (NKJV)

Having personally made that shade-less journey from the Judean desert up to Jerusalem, with the fierce hot sun beating down upon me, I can attest to how the average person could be convinced to cut short their trip before reaching their destination.  A cool drink of water and the empty promises of pagan worship (to minister to the parched and tired flesh) would seem very enticing in that noonday sun when temperatures soar well over 100 degrees.  Or, what if you departed later in the day to avoid the heat, but the moon was not full so that you may lose your way? The pilgrim was to remember that God is our shade and our keeper, day and night.

“The Lord shall preserve you from all evil; He shall preserve your soul.  The Lord shall preserve your going out and your coming in from this time forth, and even forevermore.” Psalm 121:7-8  (NKJV)

Consider Jesus’ prayer over us: “I do not pray that You should take them out of the world, but that You should keep them from the evil one.” John 17:15 (NKJV)