Please turn with me in your Bible to Psalm 121. Psalm 121. This week and next week we will be in the Psalms before Wiley picks back up in Mark’s gospel on the evening of August 16. So tonight, Psalm 121. The passage begins on page 516 in the church Bible in front of you.
Before we read, something to help get us settled in this text. I saw a screenshot a few months ago that was the homework of a child who might have been five or six or seven years old, not very old, and the first question was, “Who is your hero?” and the child answered, “My dad.” And the second question was, “Why do you consider this person your hero?” and the child answered, “Because he is brave.” And then the third question was, “Is there anything that your hero is afraid of?” and the child answered, “Mom.” And you love that honesty! Fear comes in all shapes and sizes. We all have big fears; we have small fears. Some of us are experts in fear. We’ve learned the habit of fear. Fear is like the water we swim in; it’s been since we remember. Maybe fear of man, maybe fear of loss, maybe fear of failure.
Look at the text. Psalm 121 is a psalm of confidence, that even in the midst of this great fear, the psalmist has learned to say, “The Lord is my keeper.” And so what did he learn and what can we learn from him tonight? If you look with me at the text, Psalm 121 is part of a collection of fifteen songs, a special songbook, Psalms 120 to 134. You see the title at the beginning of each of those psalms, the title, “A song of ascents.” And the Israelites would sing these songs, they would pray these songs for the ascent, for the journey to the mountains of Jerusalem, to the city of God, on their three-time yearly pilgrimage for the three great feasts of Passover, Pentecost and the Feast of Booths. And these songs are our songs as well as God’s people. They are our songs to form us on the journey and to fortify us on the journey to the city of God. And so, “The Lord is my keeper.” What did the psalmist learn and what can we learn from him tonight?
Before we read, let’s go to Him in prayer and ask for His help. Let’s pray.
Our great God and Father, we pray that You would help us this evening. We come here from all different places. Some are anxious. Some are doubting. Some of us have wandered off from You. For all of us, we pray that You would come and speak and give Your Word success and work through my lisping, stammering tongue. We pray that You would remind us of Your steadfast love for us. We pray in Jesus’ name, amen.
So Psalm 121, a song of ascents. This is God’s Word:
“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.”
Amen.
Psalm 121 is often called “The Traveler’s Psalm,” and this psalm, especially through this psalm, we learn something about how to read our own story, especially in the midst of the twists and the turns and the tangled threads in which we often find ourselves. And so look with me again at the text. Children, I want to ask you to do something. This is something to give attention to. I want you to notice the repetitions of two words in this text. First, the word “help” in verses 1 and 2, and then second, “keep” or “keeper” in verses 3, 4, 5, 7 and 8. I want you to come find me after the sermon and tell me how many times do you see the word “help” and do you see the word “keep” or “keeper” in the text.
These repetitions, they give us the main idea of the psalm. This is the main idea – that the covenant Lord, our covenant Lord helps and keeps His precious people. And so our covenant Lord helps and keeps His precious people. Christopher Ash said that, “Jesus is the great Helper of the Church of every age.” He is the great Helper, that we are in His grip, that He will not lose us or leave us or forsake us. So this isn’t just a pilgrim, this isn’t just a pilgrim song for the traveler then, but this is a psalm for our travels are pilgrims on the road. That no power of hell, no scheme of man, can snatch us from His hand, from His grip, but Christ will keep us. As David quoted this morning from John 17 – Jesus said, “I shall lose nothing of all that He has given Me. I shall lose nothing.” And so He will keep you on your journey to the celestial city, to Canaan’s side, to the healthful shore where sickness, sorrow, pain and death are felt and feared no more.
And so you see in this psalm, in these eight verses, you see four couplets. And I want to simply take them one at a time. And as we sing together, as we travel together on this road, on this journey, each of the four couplets teaches us something important about the Lord. And so four things. Number one, verses 1 and 2 – the Lord’s power. Verse 1 provides important context for the psalm. “I lift up my eyes to the hills. From where does my help come?” We need to begin by noting that the hills are part of the problem and not the solution. Commentator Jonathan Cruse notes that, “I think it’s best to read Psalm 121 like this. That as the psalmist steps out on his journey, he looks at the road ahead, he sees that it’s not going to be easy. Between him and Jerusalem are mountain ranges and treacherous landscapes, 3,500 feet in elevation, and this journey brought danger in various forms – robbers and thieves. And so who will be his protection? Who will keep him safe on the road? Who will be his help?” That’s the question of Psalm 121.
You might remember Jesus’ story, His parable, the parable of the good Samaritan. And the man was attacked. He was left for dead. Where? He was on the road between, remember, Jericho and Jerusalem. And so the hills of Jerusalem are filled with thieves and enemies and dangers and threats. And so verse 1 is not saying, “I lift up my eyes to the hills because the hills are the source of my help,” but rather it is, “I lift up my eyes to the hills. I am small and scared and weak and fearful. So where can I look for help?” And so this question, the question of verse 1, this is certainly a question that we are all asking. We are all asking this question. We daily, desperately feel our need for help as we navigate the hills, as we navigate the news, as we navigate the diagnosis, as we navigate cancer, as we navigate parenting, as we navigate our own soul, this question, “From where does my help come?”
And you see verse 2, the psalmist has confidence that he can trust in the God – look at the language – “who made heaven and earth,” this phrase that worked its way into The Apostles’ Creed, that the Lord controls and directs all things. That He is the King of creation. That He is the God of the hills. As R.C. Sproul said that, “There are no maverick molecules in His universe.” And so whatever it is that you are fearful of, it must yield to Him as powerful Creator-King.
I want you to notice, notice in the second couplet, you notice that there are two voices in this psalm – this is important in our understanding of Psalm 121 – notice the voice changes from first person testimony in verses 1 and 2 to second person encouragement in verses 3 to 8. And so verses 1 to 2, “I lift up my eyes. From where does my help come? My help.” And then notice in verses 3 to 8 that, “He will not let your foot. He who keeps you. The Lord is your keeper.” And so on and so forth – your, your, you, you. Commentators believe that this was maybe originally written to be a call and response psalm. Another commentator believed that this was an inexperienced young pilgrim in verses 1 to 2, and then a seasoned traveler in the faith encouraging him in verses 3 to 8.
Now some of you maybe are familiar with what has become one of the most moving and memorable stories in triathlon history, of the Brownlee brothers, of Jonny and Alistair from Great Britain when years back they were at the World Triathlon Series in Mexico. And Jonny was leading the race at the last corner – and you might have seen this clip – he became overheated in the hot and humid Mexico conditions, and his legs started to give way. And so Jonny stumbled 700m from the finish line and he collapsed onto a volunteer onto the sidelines. And then around the corner comes his brother, Alistair. And instead of darting past him to win the race, he saw his brother unable to finish. And without hesitation, he stopped and he caught his brother, Jonny, and he put his arm around him and they began to run together those final 700m. And he pushed his brother to the end. And I loved what he told, what Alistair told a reporter afterwards. I love this. He said, “My mom wouldn’t have been happy if I left my brother behind.” Mom wouldn’t have been happy!
I think that’s the picture here. I think, as one commentator said in verses 3 to 8, “The individual of verses 1 to 2 no longer speaks, but there is another voice that reassures this pilgrim that his trust is not misplaced.” One minister put it like this, that, “Here, alongside this uncertain pilgrim, this afraid pilgrim, not sure” – notice – “of much more than that he believes in a God who created the heavens and the earth, he hears the voice, this voice of spiritual experience, who has been there and done that, who is able to speak about the riches of his experience.”
And so the experienced pilgrim is now wanting us to come in further and to carry a second thing about the Lord that we see in verses 3 to 4, a second thing on our journey, and that is, the Lord’s grip. “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.” So that verb occurs over and over again – “to keep,” meaning, “to protect you, to guard you, to watch over you, Christian.” And in verses 3 to 4, who does the Lord look like to you? I think a gentle father who, in his strength, is stooping low and carrying along his weak, weary child.
I don’t know if you have that memory. I have a memory in the back of my Volvo station wagon as a child, taking these long road trips, and arriving home and my dad would wrap me up in his strong arms and the next time I can remember any consciousness I was in my bed. I don’t know if you have a memory like that as a child. The memory is that in my fatigue and in my weakness, I was carried along; I was carried along by someone who was not fatigued, who was not weak. Spurgeon said of these verses that, “God is the convoy and the bodyguard of His saints. He is a vigilant watchman over His people.”
I recently heard the story that when Alexander the Great was asked how he slept in the midst of his military battle, some 20 major, military battles, Alexander the Great replied that he slept “really well.” You think about all of those battles, all of the conflicts, all of the dangers, and he was asked, “How can you sleep so soundly with all the trouble that surrounds you, all the enemies that surround you?” And his answer was, “Parmenio” – his chief general, his faithful guard. Parmenio was watching over him while he slept. And so the point is that you only dared close your eyes as much as you trust that man, that he won’t close his.
And so Christian, the Lord’s care for you, verses 3 to 4, the psalmist is teaching us the Lord’s care for you is without wearying. He cannot, He will not tire of caring for you, of watching over your soul. That He doesn’t grow faint or weary, but He’s always awake, always attentive, always watchingful over His people. And this is the Lord’s faithful covenant promise throughout the Bible – “I am with you and I will keep you.” This is His faithful promise. This is your promise, Christians. It’s yours. Isaiah 41, “I have chosen you and will not cast you off. Fear not, I am with you; be not dismayed. I will strengthen you, help you. I will uphold you.” Did Jesus say to His disciples in Matthew 28 before He was ascended, “I am with you always, even to the very end of the age.”
So the psalmist here is not promising the absence of a bad day. He’s not promising the absence of sickness and sorrow. He’s not promising the absence of being crushed in spirit or being broken-hearted. He’s not even promising the absence of real failure in your life. You will experience danger, toils and snares, but this is a promise that the Lord’s people will remain kept in the Lord’s grip. You will remain kept from slipping, from sliding away. To be kept is to endure to the end and be saved. This psalm promises perseverance. It promises your perseverance, Christian, not because of the strength of your grip, not because of your feelings of faithfulness, not because of your resume, not because of anything that you bring to the table. But the good news that you can rest in – you are not your keeper. That is good news. You are not your keeper, but you will remain kept because of the strength of the Lord’s grip on you. He will not let your foot be moved.
Now you may be here tonight and you may not think that you can make it to the end. As we’re talking about this is the traveler’s song, you may not think that you can make it to the finish line because of the sin in your life, because of a temptation, because of doubt in your life. Or it may be that there is a disease that has showed up at your front door and it is hounding your faith and it is harassing your faith and it was unwanted, it was unplanned, it was unannounced, and you feel like giving up. Or it may be that you come here with a past and your past says to you that you are dirty and damaged, or your feelings tonight say to you that you are filthy, you are foul. It may be that the enemy says to your heart again and again and again that you are your sin and shame. But remember, believer, stand on this, anchor your life on this – that the Bible declares that your soul is kept, protected, guarded, watched over by the Lord who never sleeps or slumbers. So this is His work. This is His heart. He will not let your foot be moved.
Do you see in verse 4, not only does He watch over you but He watches over Israel. One commentator suggested that this is a reference not to all of God’s people, even though that is true, but this is a reference to the one named Israel, to Jacob, to the thief who stole his brother’s birthright and blessing, who cheated his family. Remember, he wrestled with God. He said to God, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.” And the psalmist is remembering the story of Jacob and how the Lord went after him and the Lord relentlessly pursued him and changed him and humbled him and gave him a limp, and that his life was changed and marked by repentance. And the psalmist is remembering how the Lord changed his life.
In other words, the psalmist is saying that the Lord is able to watch over you, He is able to keep you, no matter how far you have run from God – and we all have. No matter the mess. Even when you are fragile and frail and most alone and most hurting, you see what the psalmist is saying to us tonight about our Lord, about our Jesus? That if you have a checkered past, that if there’s baggage and regret and shame, if you are withering inside, if you feel you are a bruised reed, a faintly burning wick, that I’m not faithful enough and I’m not productive enough and I’m not put together enough, the psalmist is saying that you are the Lord’s type. You are Jesus’ type. That He is for the bruised and the broken among us. He is for the people here tonight who are barely hanging on. And He won’t break you. He won’t break the weak, the wounded, the weary, the fragile. That He will keep you. He will keep you in His grip, believer in Jesus.
And so we see first, the Lord’s power – that He owns the hills. He is the God of the hills. There are no maverick molecules. We see second, His grip – that He is that gentle Father who carries along His weak and fragile child. And now a third thing about the Lord, verses 5 and 6 – He defense. “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.” And so what is the picture here? That we move from verses 3 and 4, the gentle Father, to verses 5 and 6, the defense, the shield. That He stands between you and that thing that threatens to harm you. He knows the way that you take. He knows the threats that come against your body and your soul and He knows what you need. Whether it is daytime, daytime dangers – that “the sun shall not strike you by day,” all that rushes upon your soul in the day – or nighttime anxieties and threats – “nor the moon by night” – we see that the Lord is at your right hand. “I am with you. I am beside you.”
Sinclair Ferguson preached on this psalm. He referenced this image that stuck with me. He said this phrase, “the dragons of the night.” And that stuck with me. And that’s true for you and for me, isn’t it, that maybe as you’ve gotten older, some of your daily anxieties, some of your daily fears become nighttime dragons. Another minister said that, “The child scared to sleep because of monsters in the bed becomes the adult waking in the night because of monsters in the head.” “The child scared to sleep because of monsters in the bed becomes the adult waking because of monsters in the head.”
This past spring, I watched on television the Kentucky versus Arkansas college basketball game. And this was a homecoming game for the longtime Kentucky basketball coach, John Calipari. He now serves not at Kentucky any longer, but now as the head coach at the University of Arkansas. And so Coach Cal came and surprisingly, he came to Lexington, Kentucky as the underdog team and his team left victorious. They won. And so Coach Cal beat his old team at Rupp Arena in Lexington. But after the game, Coach Cal told the media that over and over again during the game, during the battle on the court, that as he looked up at the scoreboard and he thought that he was losing because he kept looking at the wrong team! He kept just over and over in the game looking and thinking that he was coaching again Kentucky and not his new team, not Arkansas. And so he had forgotten his identity and his allegiance and his team.
And who here doesn’t know what it is to wake in the middle of the night to those dragons, those stalking dragons. And so the vision that is in our heads and the vision that is in our hearts is that our opponents are ahead, that they are the winning team and that they will take us down. And all of the anxieties of the day come rushing upon us, those daytime dangers, and the dragons of the night come rushing upon us, and we are pressed with fear. And the question is, “What is your only comfort in life and in death?” In the daytime dangers and the dragons that stalk you at night, “What is your only comfort in life and in death?” Is it my resolve, or my resolutions, or my resume? What is your only comfort in life and in death? You can’t say those answers at 3am to the dragons of the night. What is your only comfort in life and in death? “That I am not my own, but I belong, body and soul, in life and in death, to my faithful Savior, Jesus Christ.” And so Psalm 121, this pilgrim song, this helps us to remember that if we are singing this song at daytime or at nighttime, at every moment of your day, every moment of your night, that the Lord helps and He keeps His precious people. The Lord keeps you, Christian.
Sinclair Ferguson added, “Some of you are probably susceptible to the dragons that come at night, and you need to learn to say to them, if you truly believe in the Lord, ‘The only way you could have got here is by having your fangs de-poisoned by the shade on my right, and you cannot harm me because I am His, and He has given me this promise – that He keeps me. And so away you go.’”
You carry with you on the journey four things. The Lord’s power – He owns the hills. Second – His grip; that He is that gentle, strong Father. Third – His defense; He is your shield against the fiercest trials of the day and the dragons of the night. And then the fourth and final couplet – His comprehensive keeping. “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.” And so the psalmist uses what’s called a merism in this psalm, five times, which are contrasts; they are opposites to include everything in between them. And so you see, if you look with me at the text, first in verse 2, heaven and earth, and then two times in verse 6, day and night and sun and moon. And then two final merisms in verse 8 are coming and going, both now and forevermore.
And so the point is that our mornings and our evenings, our infant years and our gray hairs, that the same God has His grip on you. Every moment He is guarding you, He is keeping you, each moment of your life along the journey. Derek Kidner added that, “To be kept from all evil does not imply a cushioned life, a comfy life, but a well-armed on.” And so you are well-armed, Christian. And this word “keep,” again, it’s repeated over and over. Charles Spurgeon even says of this, “This is a mass of gold. There is enough here to pay all of our expenses between our birthplace and our rest in heaven. There is enough for all that you need, all the days of your life. God keeps us like a rich man keeps his treasure. God keeps us like a captain keeps a city with a garrison.” And so the idea is that you keep that which is precious to you. You take care of, you’re faithful with that which is precious to you.
I’ve told this story before. As many of you know, my dad was a football coach. He coached in college for many years. And I remember as a child begging my dad for a football, and not just any ball, but I wanted to play with my neighborhood buddies with one of his game balls that he was given. And one in particular when he coached at Tulsa University that he had received from a big game. And so I begged him to let me play with this ball, and finally he obliged. And he said something along the lines of, “Take care of it.” And you know, I think, where this is going, but we played with this ball outside for maybe five minutes and then someone wanted to ride bikes or someone wanted to play with Legos and so we went and did something else. And after a few days and after some weather and after some wear and tear, my dad found that football in the yard. And I will spare you the details of that conversation, but the point is that I was not faithful with what was entrusted to me. The son was not faithful with what the father had entrusted to him.
And I think we can all share stories, all of us have stories that, “I borrowed my dad’s truck and I wrecked it,” or, “I lost his pocket knife” or his old baseball glove. This is what you need to see – that the Lord Jesus is not going to lose you. He’s not going to leave you. He’s not going to fail you. He’s not going to forsake you. He’s not going to mishandle His people. And the idea, again, is that you keep and you take care of that which is precious to you.
And so let me close with this. Maybe tonight you would say, “Yes, but David, how do I know that I am precious to Him, that the Lord helps and He keeps His precious people, but how do I know that I am precious to Him?” And so let me close with this. You might have noticed the repeated word “keep” in the psalm. It echoes a benediction that we often say as ministers at the end of the service – the Aaronic blessing. Numbers chapter 6, “The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make His face to shine upon you and be gracious to you. The Lord lift up His countenance upon you and give you His peace.” And that benediction is yours in Christ; it is yours, Christian. And that is yours because you are precious to Christ.
And because you are precious to Christ, Christ experienced the opposite of that benediction on the cross. And so, “The Lord bless and keep you.” And Christ, on the cross, was not kept, but He was forsaken. “The Lord make His face to shine upon you and be gracious to you.” But the Father turned His face away. “The Lord lift up His countenance upon you and give you peace.” But the Father poured all of His wrath on Christ. Christ was, even in verses 7 and 8, Christ was not kept from all evil. He did not keep, the Father did not keep Christ’s life. Christ took the sting even of death. And so here is the wonderful truth, Christian, that this psalm points us to the great keeper, the Lord Jesus Christ, our Christ, who went to the cross for His precious people, for you, Christian, and He helps and He keeps you on the journey.
And so four things to take with you. The Lord’s power – He owns the hills. There are no maverick molecules. The Lord’s grip – He is your gentle Father who carries the weak. He carries the fragile. The Lord’s defense – that He is your shield against daytime dangers and the dragons of the night. And the Lord’s comprehensive keeping. His comprehensive keeping. This is yours. These are yours to take with you on the journey, and this is good news for us tonight. Let me pray for us.
Let’s pray.
Our great God and King, we pray that You would, as we go from here, make us to finish this day with gratitude, with joy in our hearts because we know that You are with us, we know Your power, we know Your grip, we know Your defense of Your people and we know that You are our Keeper. We pray that You would work these rich promises deeper into our hearts and we pray all of this in Jesus’ name, amen.