Psalm 121 begins, "I will lift up my eyes to the hills. From where
will my help come? My help comes from Jehovah, who made heaven and earth"
(v. 1-2). We received a vision from the previous psalm that the world
is a constitution of lies and vanity. Once we see through the world
we have no other choice but to come to God. In Psalm 121 we come to
the very God who is the Maker of heaven and earth. Leaving the world
behind, we begin our spiritual ascent up Mount Zion.
The Lord Will Not Let Us Fall Back into the World
"He
will not let your foot slip; He who keeps you will not slumber" (v.
3). When we come to the Lord, He will not let our foot slip. This means that once we come
to the Lord, He has a "keeping" power. For our foot to slip means
to go back to the world. The Lord will keep us from sliding back to
the world. When we see the world with all its emptiness, we come to
cry out to God. When we come to Him, what happens? Praise the Lord,
He keeps us! He secures us! We have all had this experience.
Furthermore, "He who keeps you will not slumber." Our God does not
go to sleep. Sometimes we may think, "Lord, You are keeping me today,
but tomorrow, when You are napping, I will sneak back to the world."
But the Lord is still with us. He doesn't stop guarding us. He keeps
us from falling back into the world.
The Lord is the Keeper of Israel - His Testimony
The psalmist continues, "Behold, Israel's Keeper will neither
slumber nor sleep" (v. 4). We must realize that the Lord's keeping
of us is not for our sake. At first we may think, "He keeps my foot."
But eventually we realize, "He is keeping Israel." He is not keeping
a person, He is keeping a testimony. He is not keeping us for our own sake, He is keeping
us for His testimony's sake. Such a realization means that we are
ascending in our experience and understanding. When we are young in
the Lord, we feel many times that we are being kept for our own sake.
After we have a little growth in life, we begin to realize, "No, this
is not for me. This is for His testimony. He is keeping me for His
testimony's sake." This is a spiritual "ascent." We not only ascend
out of the world, we not only ascend into Christ, but we also ascend
into the very desire of God. We begin to realize, "My God is a God
of purpose. My God has a desire. My God has something to accomplish
- that is, His testimony." At such a moment we have had some ascending.
Our Lord is the Lord that keeps Israel. This One shall never slumber
nor sleep.
The Lord Becomes Our Rest When We Live for His Testimony and Exalt
Him
After saying that Jehovah is the Keeper of Israel, the psalmist goes
on to say, "Jehovah is your Keeper; Jehovah is your shade at your
right hand" (v. 5). This is such a restful word. When we are still
living for ourselves it seems that sometimes the Lord keeps us, and
other times He does not. Of course, He is still keeping us regardless
of what we may think. But once we are no longer living for ourselves
and instead are living for the Lord's testimony, then we become peaceful
and restful. We realize that His keeping of us is not merely a matter
of our personal struggles as a Christian. He is not keeping us so
that we would have a victory or become spiritually prevailing. He
is not keeping us for our own sake. Instead, He is keeping us for
the sake of His testimony.
This verse also says, "Jehovah is your shade at your right hand" (v.
5) With this kind of keeping we know how to put the Lord in the proper
place. In the Bible "the right hand" is the place of exalting. To
have the Lord on our right hand means that we exalt Him. It means
that we say, "Now You really are my Lord." At the beginning of this
psalm the writer lifted up his eyes to the hills for help. This was
actually still quite low. But now he has grown to the point where
the Lord is at his right hand. The Lord is exalted. When we have a
proper understanding of the Lord's keeping we will know how to exalt
Him. Then He will be at our right hand, where He becomes our shade.
The Lord will Be Our Protection
"The sun will not strike you by day, nor the moon by night" (v. 6).
This is a simple testimony from the psalmist. It means that in God's
creation we will be protected. The psalmist continues, "Jehovah will
keep you from all evil; He will keep your soul" (v. 7). This means
that Satan will not be able to do that much against us. Also, the
Lord will keep our soul. This indicates that even we will not be able
to do too much damage to ourselves. The Lord will protect us in these
three ways: from His natural creation, from the evil of Satan, and
from ourselves. Then the psalmist says, "Jehovah will keep your going
out and your coming in from now and to eternity" (v. 8). The Lord
even protects our walk, our going out and our coming in. The Lord
gives us all the protection we need to keep us for His testimony.
Our Vision of the Lord Causes Us to Trust in Him
We surely have a marvelous Lord, who keeps us in every way for His
economy. We can have such a strong and solid trust in Him. We trust
in Him not only as our Creator but as the One who keeps us for His
testimony. This is the second vision, the vision concerning the Lord.
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