Psalm 121 * October 28, 2007 * Pentecost 22 * Pastor Pagels
In the name of Christ Jesus, dear friends:
I can remember the day like it was yesterday. It happened less than a week after I had been
installed at
I was so new to the congregation that I didn’t know the family. I was so new to the area that I didn’t even know how to get to the hospital. As panic began to set in, as an overwhelming feeling of inadequacy came over me, I did the only thing I could think of. I did the same thing I had done many times before when faced with an extremely difficult situation. I called my dad.
My dad (who also happens to be a pastor) was able to calm me down. He helped me focus on what I needed to do. And then he suggested some Bible passages to share with the family once I got to the emergency room. You can probably guess some of them: John 3:16, Romans 8:28, Psalm 23.
In addition to these words of comfort my dad recommended another psalm, a psalm that he had read at many bedsides, a psalm that he had shared with lots of hurting families, a psalm that offered people hope when they needed it the most, Psalm 121.
I guess you could say that I have followed in my father’s footsteps. This psalm has become a favorite of mine. I have read these words on many different occasions. I have used them to assure the sick and dying that the Lord is watching over them. I have used them to remind their loved ones that God is watching over them too.
Psalm 121 is a wonderful psalm for Christians in crisis, but you don’t have to wait for something bad to happen before you read it. You don’t have to be in trouble in order to appreciate its message. No matter what is happening in your life, no matter how good or bad you are feeling, it is always reassuring for Christians to be reminded that…
THE LORD IS WATCHING OVER YOU
I. He is your Maker
II.
He is your Protector
III.
He is your Savior
The heading of this psalm describes it as “A song of ascents,” and there a number of different ways to explain what that means. Some scholars suggest that the psalm is comprised of a series of ascending thoughts, with each verse picking up and developing a word from the preceding verse.
Others take the term, “song
of ascents,” more literally. They
believe that the returning exiles sang this psalm (among others) as they made
the long journey from
Imagine a Jewish family walking for miles and miles, slowly
but surely climbing higher and higher until they finally make their way to the
ridge that looks over the
Perhaps this was the scene the writer pictured in his mind when
he wrote: “I lift up my eyes to the
hills—where does my help come from” (1)?
But this was not a conventional question. Before the psalmist even asked it he already
knew the answer: “My help comes from the
LORD, the Maker of heaven and earth” (2).
If you haven’t read the creation account in a while, I
encourage you to do that sometime this week.
Sit down and read Genesis 1 and relive the miraculous events of creation. Read about how everything there is was
created in six short days. Recall how
each of those days ends with the refrain: “And
God saw that it was good” (Genesis 1:4,10,12,18, 21,25,31).
But don’t stop there. Don’t see this account as just the opening chapter of Bible history. Don’t see in this account nothing more than the Christian’s response to the theory of evolution. The facts are more than just facts. These words are words of incredible comfort.
They declare that our God is all-powerful. They confirm that the God who created the heavens and the earth created everything in them. That means God made you. And the God who knew you before the creation of the world, the God who knit you in your mother’s womb, has also promised to protect you.
The psalmist uses two word pictures to demonstrate how the Lord protects us. The illustrations are easy enough for us to understand, but they held special meaning for the people who lived where and when this psalm was written.
“He will not let your
foot slip—he who watches over you will not slumber; indeed he who watches over
Ancient Israelites didn’t have the benefit of paved roads or sidewalks or crosswalks or guard rails. And especially when they traveled at higher elevations one misstep, one loose rock, one little slip, could result in serious injury or even death.
The Jewish traveler knew how important good footing was. He was grateful to hear God’s promise to keep him from slipping. And he appreciated the reminder that God would be watching over him every step of the way.
Now let’s take a look at the second picture of divine
protection: “The LORD watches over
you—the LORD is your shade at your right hand” (5). I think that most of us have enjoyed
sitting in the shade on a hot summer day, but it was when I participated in an
archaeological dig in
It was June, the beginning of summer, just like it is
here. Our group worked during the week
and toured on weekends. When we were traveling
in
But whenever we got out of the bus we didn’t crowd around to see whatever it was we stopped to see. I didn’t try to get up to the front to get a good look at these important historical places I will probably never see again. Because the sun was so hot (and I have pictures to prove this) everyone stood around the edges. We all huddled together under trees and pillars and ruins where we could find at least a little shade.
When the psalmist wrote: “The LORD is your shade at your right hand,” he wasn’t talking
about keeping the sun out of our eyes.
He was talking about much needed protection, protection from sun stroke
and heat exhaustion and dehydration.
Without that kind of protection in ancient
You are here today because and only because the Lord is watching over you. He is with you now. He will be with you until the day you die. And he will even be with you after that because your Creator and Protector is also your Savior.
The psalm continues: “The LORD will keep you from all harm—he will watch over your life” (7). That’s a pretty big promise, isn’t it? Have you ever thought about that promise? Have you ever questioned whether that is a promise the Lord actually keeps?
If God protects me from all harm, then why do I have a scar
on my left arm where I cut myself with a box cutter in seventh grade? If God protects me from harm, then why have I
already had not one but two knee surgeries?
If God promises to protect his people from harm, then why is the prayer
list at
It is a fact that all the bad things in this world are the result of sin, and because we are all sinful creatures bad things like sickness and disease and death are inevitable. Our heads know that “the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23), but our hearts still have trouble understanding why a loving God allows pain and suffering to come into our lives.
What does God have to say about this? He doesn’t give us the answers we might be looking for. He doesn’t give us all the information we would like to have. Instead he says: “Trust me.” He says: “Sometimes I will keep evil away from you entirely. Sometimes I will allow you to experience something bad so that you will avoid something far worse. Sometimes I will even take some terrible tragedy in your life and turn into something good.”
Nowhere in his Word does God promise to explain why
everything happens in our lives, but God’s promise remains: “The LORD will keep you from all harm—he
will watch over your life; the LORD will watch over your coming and going both
now and forevermore” (7,8).
Before we began using our new hymnals (which are now almost 15 years old), those words were paraphrased in the baptism liturgy. After making the sign of the cross on the child’s forehead and breast, after saying a prayer, after addressing the sponsors the pastor would place his hand over the child and say: “The LORD preserve thy coming in and thy going out from this time forth and even forevermore” (Lutheran Agenda 5).
For many of us the day of our baptism was the day when we came into the family of believers. Before that day we were on the outside. Before that day we were on the outside shivering in our sin and shame. But then Jesus wrapped us up in the warm robes of his righteousness. “He saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit” (Titus 3:5).
And the Lord who has cleansed us with his precious blood, the Lord who has washed away our sins in Holy Baptism, the Lord who continues to watch over us every minute of every hour of every day, that Lord will still be watching over us when we go to be with him in heaven.
Repetitio mater studiorum est is a Latin phrase that can be translated: “Repetition is the mother of learning.” Even though Psalm 121 was written long before that phrase was coined, the psalmist understood its value. In eight short verses he repeats the same Hebrew word six times.
“Shamar” is a fairly common verb that means to “watch
over.” When Jacob fled from his brother
Esau he stopped for the night at
When the Israelites were on their way from
Why did God need to constantly remind his people that he was watching over them? Why does the Lord remind us that he is watching over us half a dozen times in this one little psalm? Because he knows us. He knows how easily we forget. He knows that we are prone to doubt. He knows that his people need to hear these comforting words over and over again.
And so at the risk of repeating myself I will repeat them one more time. Christians, do not be afraid. Christians, you have nothing to fear because the Lord is your Maker and Protector and Savior. The Lord is watching over you. And he will watch over your coming and going both now and forevermore. Amen.