Psalm 121
Scripture:
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.
Devotion:
Psalm 121 belongs to the Songs of Ascent, the collection of pilgrimage songs that Jewish worshipers sang as they climbed toward Jerusalem for the three great annual festivals. Scholars have debated whether this particular psalm was sung as a kind of call and response between a traveler and a priest, with the opening question voiced by the pilgrim and the reassurances that follow offered by someone sending him off with a blessing. Whether or not that was the original performance, the structure of the psalm carries that kind of dialogue within it: a question raised, then answered with the fullness of God's character.
The theological weight of this psalm rests on a single, repeated Hebrew word: shamar, meaning to keep, to guard, to watch over. It is a word used elsewhere in the Old Testament for the keeping of covenant obligations, for the careful tending of a garden, for the guarding of a city gate. In Psalm 121, God is described as the keeper of His people in a way that encompasses every dimension of their vulnerability: their footing on the path, the heat of the day, the dangers of the night, the going out and the coming in. Nothing falls outside the scope of His watching.
The phrase "he who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep" was not merely poetic. In the ancient world, the gods of the surrounding nations were thought to require rest, to have moods and limitations and moments of inattention. The psalms, again and again, declare something different about the God of Israel: He is not subject to the rhythms of fatigue that govern everyone and everything else. The pilgrim traveling a dangerous road through the night could count on a Keeper who had not looked away.
HEAR about it:
Explain:
In your own words, summarize what Psalm 121 meant to its original audience. What is the central truth? What does it reveal about the character of God?
Prayer and Reflection:
Take a few minutes to sit quietly and reflect on the passage you read today. Let the Holy Spirit bring to mind what stood out to you and why. Then spend some time in prayer. Pray for the people around you, for your outlook on this day, and for the needs you are carrying in your own life.
Father, the truth that You do not slumber is one I need to settle into more deeply than I have. Where I have been anxious about what might happen while I am not paying attention, or afraid that my circumstances are moving faster than Your awareness of them, let this psalm interrupt that fear with something steadier. You have been keeping watch since long before I started worrying. In Jesus' name, Amen.
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