Psalm 121

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Hello and welcome back to the At His Feet Studies podcast on the Psalms. And today we are going to be talking about Psalm 121. So like always, let's start with the category and context. Chris, get us started. All right, so we got a lot of context for this one. Woo, can't wait.

Psalm 121 is a psalm of confidence. Ooh, I like that. Which remember is not like, I'm so great, look at me. I know. But confidence in God. Yes. For the Hebrew person, it's an expression of trust in God as they walk through trials. It's like their way of saying... This life is hard. We trust you. That's what all these are. But it's also a psalm of ascent, which we have not yet encountered in our series. That's ascent, A-S-C-E-N-T, meaning like...

upwards. And there's about 15 of these Psalms. And if you can put yourself in the shoes of a Jew for a minute and, and you know, before Christ came, it's going to help you understand what's happening. So here's the story. Three times a year, most Jewish families would have made their way, meaning walked to Jerusalem for a festival. It was several days walk. And the final bit of the way would have been literally an ascent, meaning like a climb in elevation because Jerusalem was.

among these hills and it was the highest point geographically in the whole area and as they walked they would have sung these familiar these particular psalms every year everybody would have known them They sang them year after year, probably between trips as well. And they would have walked as a group. The men would have gone ahead and the women and children would have traveled in a second group a little bit more slowly. So we're singing and we're walking. And imagine coming.

from a small village, like maybe Galilee, where most people were farmers. They worked the land, they tended their animals, and they would look forward to these trips and prepare for them and pack for them. Children asking, how many more days till we leave?

And then imagine you're walking for a few days with your people in this large group together. It wouldn't just been a family. It would have been like a bunch of people from your village, your mom, your little sister. Most of what you see every day is farmland and sheep. And you get to this certain point and you start to see bigger hills. And they come more into focus. And all that day they get bigger until you actually see on the horizon the city of Jerusalem. And then you see the temple.

which would have shown in the sun. It would have been like this magnificent, bright, beautiful sight. And as you ascend, you're walking up and you hear this crescendo of people singing around you. as you reach this place that the sacrifices would have been made and the lambs killed and the grain offered. You get to this point, this is the closest you ever got to God.

And all the ritual would have been right in front of your eyes. The priests and the blood and the singing and the smell and the huge altar and the bath. This was the high point of worship for you. Wow, I'm sitting here listening and I'm thinking, I want to go. I want to go. Is this an option for us? You know, and what a communal thing. Wow.

And then my immediate thought is we don't really have anything like this for the Christian at this point in history, other than maybe creeds. like this communal experience of traveling and worshiping together as we go to a holy place with our other brothers and sisters. So no wonder Israel was such a communal people because they had rituals like this.

so let's go back and visualize this again in our minds they would have probably sung this song in an antiphonium i'm not saying that right in my format Thank you. So it would have been two groups of people singing it back and forth to each other, like two choirs, or either side of the church singing to each other. We do that sometimes a day, you know, where the women will sing something and then the men will.

except they probably were traveling in two different groups. So one of men and one of women and children. That's right. Yep. So if you can keep all of that in your mind, now we can read this on. So just picture this group of people.

Walking, traveling together. Singing this together. Singing this together. Probably had it memorized, right? Oh, I would think so. Yeah. Love that. Okay, but I'm not going to sing it for you. Thank you. I'm just going to read it. Okay. Yeah. Better you than me if you did sing. I don't know about that. Okay. All right. Psalm 121. I lift up my eyes to the hills. From where does my help come? My help comes from the Lord who made heaven and earth. He will not let your foot be moved.

He who keeps you will not slumber. Behold, he who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep. The Lord is your keeper. The Lord is your shade on your right hand. The sun will not strike you by day nor the moon by night. The Lord will keep you from all evil. He will keep your life. The Lord will keep your going out and your coming in from this time forth and forevermore. Yes. Is there anything we should see right away that jumps out?

What would you say, Chris? Yeah, there's this one word that's repeated in this psalm, depending on the translation, you're reading either five or six times. It's the Hebrew word shamar, which in the ESV is translated as keeps. But in other, like the CEV, it's protects. In other translations, it's watches. So we know this repetition equals emphasis in the Bible. So we get this feeling that God is watching, protecting.

Keeping, guarding all the time, every hour, every place, every situation. Not just that he's aware, but he's actively guarding and protecting. The poster that I mentioned with all the images in our Psalm study, it's in the introduction, one for each Psalm. The campus minister who created it, he... For this psalm, the image that he chose is that of a carabiner. Is that how you say that? Yes. It's connected to a rope in a person, like when you're rock climbing. That's the image about being.

kept wow like that thing literally keeps you connected so you don't fall to your death there is a visual that's amazing right that's the keep we're talking about so you can imagine this refrain being sung by a group of people while they walked the road to Jerusalem. And that leads us to verse 1, which may not mean what you think.

Right, exactly. So yes, the temple, which was their ultimate destination, was in those mountains. And so they would have been looking for help from there, from the temple. But they also probably were looking at the mountains and saying, I'm looking to the hills where robbers and dangerous people hide because that was a reality of their day. Those hills were great hideouts for muggers and they knew that. They knew that was the way it was. So either way.

He's looking up towards Jerusalem and saying that the Lord is the one who gives him help. And this is a big claim to make. The fact that they made this sweeping claim about creation, quote, that the Lord who made heaven and earth. Because creation is so huge, it's everything, everywhere. And how we view creation says a lot about how we view ourselves. Because if there's a Creator God, then He made you. And that answers a lot of questions about authority and power, who we, you know.

who we answer to and who's in charge. So the Hebrews, the Israelites were making this claim about their God when they sang this song on their way to worship him in the temple and, you know, and saying that he made heaven and earth. They were saying a huge statement there. So you said that God was the keeper, the protector, the guardian. Protecting them from what exactly? Well, here's where this technique of Hebrew poetry, we see it where...

Naming the extremes, when this writer names the extremes, he's referring to everything in between as well. So remember how in Psalm 103, he says, as high as the heavens are above the earth and as far as the east is from the west. And we talked about how that means everything in between as well. So it's like you name the extremes and when you do so, you've named the middle.

Well, here it is again. He says God will neither slumber nor sleep, which are two different Hebrew words, meaning he's not going to be drowsy or fall asleep and nothing in between. Wow. No cloudy mind, no fuzzy remembering. No, I'm sorry, I didn't see that clearly. God's awake and aware. He's fully engaged. He's present. And then in verse six, he guards from the sun by day and the moon by night.

hot desert sun, which could be very dangerous, and all the mental vulnerability associated with the moon in that day, which is a little another story, and everything in between. He's guarding them physically and mentally. I love this. I love thinking about this image of God doesn't sleep. He doesn't sleep. You know, he's not like us. And he's not like, oh, I'm sorry. I didn't know that was going on. You know, this is so helpful. This is so helpful. In verse seven.

He just comes right out and says, the Lord will keep you from all evil. That's a pretty explicit and all-encompassing phrase. And yet the psalmist couldn't have meant God will keep you from anything bad happening to you.

not, you know, not only lived more than five minutes, we know that wasn't true. So, so what, when he says that, what are we talking about here? Right. Yeah. And this is a hard, this is where we get tripped up sometimes. Cause we're like, hold on. This is why, this is why I can't believe the Bible.

Right? Because it says things like this. That's right. And this is where people get stuck with Psalm 91, which we mentioned before too, right? People just get stuck. So I had a hard time with this, reading the Psalms. Sure. And so...

May he rest in peace. I tracked down Tim Keller at a conference and he was just trying to get a Diet Coke. Oh, I love this story. That's right. I wouldn't let him out of the corner until I asked him this question. You accosted the man while he was getting a Diet Coke. I really did. Yeah.

I did. Okay. Did he look surprised or was he like, oh, he was very gracious. He was helpful. Did you have a drink with you or you just kind of went up to him and was like, excuse me, sir. No, I just went after him. Wow. Impressive. Well, he's pretty impressive. Okay. So. Here's what he said. There's evil at all levels. There's evil at a level of like, I have a cavity because there's fallenness in the world. And now maybe decay eats away at the enamel of my teeth. That's maybe level one.

And then there's I lose my job because there's a recession and I can't find another job and my family struggles to pay the bills or keep the house. That's level two. And then there's somebody gets cancer and struggles with it for years and it's terrifying and we think we're going to lose them. Maybe they recover. That's level three.

And then there's a gunman in a theater who kills somebody in my family. We could go out, but you get the picture, right? That's right. Levels of evil. But he says there is an evil that is worse than all other evils. And that is complete separation from the goodness of God. Say that one more time because that's huge. There's an evil that's worse than anything else, any other kind of evil in this world. And that worst level of evil is...

total separation from the goodness of God. That's right. That is, there's no opportunity for redemption. There's no grace, no mercy, no truth. There is only the results of sin in the presence and evil. That is the highest level of evil. And that, the psalmist is saying, is what God protects us from. He's our guardian.

that's not going to happen to us. This is not exemption from pain or sin or even death. This is the promise that God will keep you as his. He won't abandon you. Eugene Peterson says about this, faith is not a precarious affair. of chance escape from satanic assaults. It is the solid, massive, secure experience of God who keeps all evil from getting inside us, who keeps our life, who keeps our going out and coming in.

from this time forth and forevermore. You cannot lose his presence. And how... all-encompassing that thought is you know it's so it's like yeah thinking in terms of these layers of evil is super helpful and hearing you to describe the various types of evil and the worst evil being the one I'm

for sure spirit of. I'm like, wow, that feels very personal, attentive. And it gives me deep confidence that all of my greatest fears are swallowed whole by this God who keeps me and that it's actually true. Therefore, everything is going to be okay. That's not just tongue in cheek, you know. This is more real than we can see. There was a moment recently when my son's choir concert where they sing a religious song about a city of Zion. This is a public school, by the way.

And had the same feeling then that despite how people feel in the room about this truth or how I feel about the truth of this psalm, this psalm is true. God keeps us and will always keep us and promises too. that's not up for, that's not optional. Right. That is fact. It doesn't matter if we believe it or not. It's true. That's right. Yeah. So many things in the faith are like that. It doesn't matter. We believe him or not. I mean, we need to believe him, but.

That doesn't change him. God isn't the liar. We are. Right. That's right. Yeah. We're the one who gets misled. So where do we need this song? I think it's a great psalm to pray when you are feeling anxious and afraid and not sure what might be lurking for you around the bend. Take these words and be reminded of God guarding and watching your life as well as his holistic care and provision for you and whatever you're walking through or walking into. He will show up for you.

as they expected him to as they walked to Jerusalem. He will do that for us too. Oh, that's a great visual. If you think about them walking as a group. That's right. And all their anxiety. Because it was exciting. Right. But there's also like they had to be mindful because they didn't know. right but they're gonna be safe think about wherever you're walking driving flying anything like yeah it keeps you

All right. Hope we only have two more Psalms left in this series, 126 and 130. So come back and join us next time. Sounds great. Thanks y'all for listening to the Addis Feet Study podcast. You can find our studies at addisfeetstudies.com along with other resources, including retreats. Follow us on Instagram at Addis Feet Studies. We love writing approachable Bible studies for women in every season.