ENCOURAGEMENT FROM THE PSALMS

Psalm 121 (NIV)

1 I lift up my eyes to the mountains — where does my help come from?

2 My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth.

3 He will not let your foot slip — he who watches over you will not slumber;

4 indeed, he who watches over Israel will neither slumber nor sleep.

5 The Lord watches over you — the Lord is your shade at your right hand;

6 the sun will not harm you by day, nor the moon by night.

7 The Lord will keep you from all harm— he will watch over your life;

8 the Lord will watch over your coming and going both now and forevermore.

One of my favourite Psalms is Psalm 121.

Why not take a minute to read it?

This ancient Psalm was made to be sung by travellers on their journey up to the temple of God in Jerusalem. Travelling in the Ancient Near East was dangerous, very dangerous!

Wandering thieves and looters would be hiding in wake to attack if they thought something of value was coming up the path. The threat of mountain lions and even the route itself was not for the faint-hearted. Treacherous cliff edges that could take your life with the mere slip of a sandaled foot, sun beating down, and the moon calling out the jackals were more than enough reason to just stay at home. But as with the journey of life, the path must be taken; the thieves, lions, cliffs, sun and jackals must be faced.

As the travellers walk towards the temple, God’s protection follows them. As they walk through life-threatening circumstances, God watched over them. God’s presence and His goodness follows those who walk towards Him. He doesn’t promise that this path ahead will be rid of threat of destruction from these enemies. Instead, He offers help, a watchful eye and protection.

The Israelites would have interpreted this Psalm at face-value. They believed, ‘if we travel, we can trust that God will protect us from all harm’. And really there isn’t another way to read it from that literal perspective. But does, “keep you from all harm”, match up with the reality of our lives today? When I was 2, I fell on a brick and cut my knee clean open - that sounds a lot like harm to me. However, I firmly believe the Psalm isn’t untrue, we should just be looking at it differently. If not physical harm, then what?

I’d like to propose looking at this Psalm through the lens of what we know about Jesus’ mission. Jesus was born on earth to live a perfect life, to die a horrible death to then come back to life after being declared dead for three full days. Jesus came to earth to bridge the humanly unbridgeable void between us and God. He came to give us eternal life without sin’s hooks remaining in us. Upon choosing to believe and following Jesus, we begin our life with Him for eternity. Therefore, this life’s sufferings have such a lesser weight because of all that Jesus has done. Spoiler alert, our bodies will one day be gone because we will physically die. But it’s not the physical death that we should be steering away from it’s the spiritual death. We should be more concerned with our salvation and the salvation of our friends than with our physical security. Our journey in this life is to stay on course and bring others along too!

Now, re-read the Psalm considering your eternal salvation.

How completely different is it with this lens? We can be encouraged that God will watch over our path to eternity. Not the day nor the night affects our security in being with God for eternity; the jackals and the thieves lose their power. The fear of pain or death is still with us, yes, but the truth of our eternity stands taller than them both. So be encouraged, that if you have given up your life to follow Jesus, in the most beautiful and eternal sense “the Lord will keep you from all harm, he will watch over your life”.

BY SARAH SINGLETON HR & PA TO REGIONAL DIRECTOR