#873 Keeper

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. Psalm 121 ESV

The second Psalm of Ascents, a song of degrees. 

I lift up my eyes to the hills. From where does my help come - Considering the passage before, the Psalmist's dealings with deceitful men, it is a revelation and a different direction. It is a revelation of the circumstance, the surroundings and the ways of men. If it is your great hope, if you are banking on some inherent goodness in them, that your good will not return evil from them, this is a vain hope. Do you have the power to change men's hearts, raise them from the dead? No, it is more than he can accomplish, he must look up. I was talking to a friend yesterday, recounting the Tsunamis in the east, and how the elephants began to act differently, not listening to their trainers, they took off for the high ground. They sensed what the tourist and other people did not, they had ears to hear, they heard and ran to the place of hope. The song writer could fall deep in the mire of depression, could be washed away by the waves if he continues to look at things at ground level, but he chooses to look up.

My help comes from the Lord, Who made heaven and earth - This is a high hope, and eternal perspective. The Maker of all is above all.

…2 Open the gates so a righteous nation may enter—one that remains faithful. 3 The steadfast of mind You will keep in perfect peace, because he trusts in You. 4 Trust in the LORD forever, because GOD the LORD is the Rock eternal.… Isaiah 26: 2-4

He will not let your foot be moved - In Psalm 119 we hear the Psalmist resolve to abide in the word, but we also hear his plea to be kept in the way. 

- In the original the words express a wish or prayer, --"May he not suffer thy foot to be moved." Promised preservation should be the subject of perpetual prayer; and we may pray believing; for those who have God for their keeper shall be safe from all the perils of the way. Among the hills and ravines of Palestine the literal keeping of the feet is a great mercy; but in the slippery ways of a tried and afflicted life, the boon of upholding is of priceless value, for a single false step might cause us a fall fraught with awful danger. To stand erect and pursue the even tenor of our way is a blessing which only God can give, which is worthy of the divine hand, and worthy also of perennial gratitude. C. H. Spurgeon 

He, Who keeps you, will not slumber - We may rest in this, that God does not sleep, does not change, cannot be moved. Never has a house been built by Him in the sand, He is the rock upon which all that last will withstand.

The Lord is Your Keeper - Have you noticed a theme yet? Hope not in self, what you have done, can do, but look up to Him, Who can keep even amidst the trials, that from eternity, will not make even a single grain upon the beach. The answer is always outside of you, above you, it is always God, and when you come alive to this, it is Christ (God) covering you, and His Spirit bringing you. 

…5 For we do not proclaim ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake. 6 For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” made His light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. 7 Now we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this surpassingly great power is from God and not from us.… 2 Corinthians 4: 5-7

The sun shall not strike you by day, nor the moon by night - This encompasses all time, awake or asleep. When things are clear or dim, we shall not be burned up, nor shall we be left in the dark. The safest place is in the shadow of the cross, Christ bears the full heat of God's wrath, and in the dark hours, the place of atonement protects the mind from wandering into error.

- Doubtless there are dangers of the light and of the dark, but in both and from both we shall be preserved--literally from excessive heat and from baneful chills; mystically from any injurious effects which might follow from doctrine bright or dim; spiritually from the evils of prosperity and adversity; eternally from the strain of overpowering glory and from the pressure of terrible events, such as judgment and the burning of the world. C. H. Spurgeon

1 When I came to you, brothers, I did not come with eloquence or wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God. 2 For I decided to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. 3 I came to you in weakness and fear, and with much trembling.… 1 Corinthians 2: 1-3

…13 until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God, as we mature to the full measure of the stature of Christ. 14 Then we will no longer be infants, tossed about by the waves and carried around by every wind of teaching and by the clever cunning of men in their deceitful scheming. 15 Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into Christ Himself, who is the head.… Ephesians 4: 13-15

He will keep your life - 

- God is the sole keeper of the soul. Our soul is kept from the dominion of sin, the infection of error, the crush of despondency, the puffing up of pride; kept from the world, the flesh, and the devil; kept for holier and greater things; kept in the love of God; kept unto the eternal kingdom and glory. What can harm a soul that is kept of the Lord? C. H. Spurgeon

Your going out and Your coming in - The pilgrimage to the festival and the return home. When I go to face the world at work, or return to my family at night.  

…19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey all that I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”  Matthew 28: 19-20