and for evermore.” Let me unpack those words by telling you about a Vietnamese pastor and translator called Hien. In the 1970s Hien was captured by the Vietcong and imprisoned and tortured. His captors beat him continually. They forced him to clean the latrines and brainwashed him with communist material. After some time, he cracked. He stopped praying and became an atheist. But one day, on latrine duty, he saw a piece of paper that had been used as toilet paper. At the top of the page he noticed a single word, “Romans”. He rubbed off the human excrement, folded it up, and put it into his pocket. That night, in the darkness of his cell, he switched on his torch and read these words: And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified. What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written, “For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are
regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.” No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Rom 8:28–39) He began to cry and said, “Lord, you would not let me out of your reach for even one day.” The next day Hien asked if he could do latrine duty again, and, over subsequent weeks he recovered the whole Book of Romans. His faith was restored, and he later escaped and became a pastor to Vietnamese Christians here in America. This is the kind of keeping Psalm 121 is talking about—it’s about spiritual preservation. We’ve heard about the perseverance of the saints. Well, Psalm 121 is about the preservation of the saints. It’s about the preservation of God’s people in relationship with him, both now and for eternity, come hell or highwater. Psalm 121 is to Old Testament saints what Romans 8 is to New Testament saints. It is the reassurance that nothing in this life or the next can separate us from the God who has redeemed us in his Son, Jesus Christ. Those are the key words—“in Christ Jesus”—because the help and protection promised in Psalm 121 first finds its fulfillment in Christ. Every benefit we receive in this life, including protection, comes to us through Christ. Only when we are united to Christ do we receive the benefit, and these benefits are only ours because they were first Christ’s.
It’s easier to turn to Google before we turn to God when we experience difficulty. 9