The Unsleeping Guardian Text: Psalm 121
Introduction: The Anxious Age
We live in an age of pervasive anxiety. Men are anxious about their finances, their health, their jobs, and their children. They are anxious about the government, the culture, and the future. And so they look for help. They lift up their eyes, not to the mountains, but to the talking heads on the news, to the self-help section at the bookstore, to the promises of a politician, or to the bottom of a bottle. They are looking for a source of stability in a world that is shaking, a source of security in an age of threats. But all these sources of help are created things. They are part of the problem, not the solution. They are finite, fallible, and will ultimately fail you.
This Psalm is a Song of Ascents, meaning it was sung by pilgrims on their way up to Jerusalem for the great feasts. The journey was often dangerous, through bandit country, with rough terrain and exposure to the elements. These pilgrims knew what it was to be vulnerable. And so they sang this song, not as a wistful hope, but as a confident declaration. It is a song for travelers, a song for sojourners, and that means it is a song for us. We are all on a pilgrimage from the city of destruction to the celestial city, and the road is filled with dangers, both seen and unseen.
This Psalm confronts our anxieties head-on. It asks the most fundamental question a man can ask: "From where shall my help come?" And it gives the only sane and solid answer. It directs our gaze away from the created things, however imposing they may be, and fixes it upon the Creator of all things. It is a profound lesson in applied theology, teaching us where to look, who to trust, and why we can walk through this world with a confident and quiet heart.
The Text
A Song of Ascents.
I will lift up my eyes to the mountains; From where shall my help come?
My help comes from Yahweh, Who made heaven and earth.
He will not allow your foot to stumble; He who keeps you will not slumber.
Behold, He who keeps Israel Will not slumber and will not sleep.
Yahweh is your keeper; Yahweh is your shade on your right hand.
The sun will not strike you by day, Nor the moon by night.
Yahweh will keep you from all evil; He will keep your soul.
Yahweh will keep your going out and your coming in From now until forever.
(Psalm 121 LSB)
The Right Question and the Only Answer (v. 1-2)
The Psalm begins with a traveler's observation and a pilgrim's question.
"I will lift up my eyes to the mountains; From where shall my help come? My help comes from Yahweh, Who made heaven and earth." (Psalm 121:1-2)
The pilgrim is on the road, and he sees the mountains. What do these mountains represent? They could be the physical dangers and obstacles looming before him. Or, more likely, they represent the idolatrous "high places" where the pagans worshipped their false gods. The temptation for a man in distress is to look for help from a power that is near and visible, to trust in something created. The mountains are big, they are solid, they are imposing. And so the question arises, is my help to be found there?
The Psalmist immediately answers his own rhetorical question. He does not say, "My help comes from the mountains," but rather, "From where?" He looks past the mountains. He looks higher. His help comes from Yahweh. And who is Yahweh? He is the one "Who made heaven and earth." This is the fundamental distinction that undergirds all of reality: the Creator/creature distinction. The mountains did not make themselves. The government did not create the world. Your bank account is not the ground of all being. Your help does not come from a powerful piece of the creation; your help comes from the one who created all the pieces. He is not a bigger gear in the machine; He is the architect of the whole machine. To look for ultimate help from anything within the created order is idolatry, and it is the height of foolishness. It is like a character in a novel looking for help from the ink and paper instead of the author.
The Nature of Divine Protection (v. 3-4)
Having established the source of our help, the Psalmist now describes the character of that help.
"He will not allow your foot to stumble; He who keeps you will not slumber. Behold, He who keeps Israel Will not slumber and will not sleep." (Psalm 121:3-4)
The first promise is one of stability. "He will not allow your foot to stumble." On a treacherous path, a single misstep can lead to disaster. God's care is not a clumsy, reactive sort of help. It is proactive. He is watching the path ahead of you. He is concerned with the details of your journey. This is a promise of divine preservation.
The reason He can offer this kind of detailed care is that He is perpetually vigilant. "He who keeps you will not slumber." This is a direct polemic against the idols of the nations. Remember Elijah on Mount Carmel, mocking the prophets of Baal? "Cry aloud, for he is a god; either he is meditating, or he is busy, or he is on a journey, or perhaps he is sleeping and must be awakened" (1 Kings 18:27). The gods of the pagans are part-time gods. They have limitations. They get distracted. They sleep. Our God does not. The Psalmist drives the point home with emphasis: "Behold, He who keeps Israel Will not slumber and will not sleep." He does not doze, He does not nap, He does not even blink. His watchfulness is absolute and uninterrupted. He is the eternal sentinel over His covenant people, Israel, which is to say, the Church.
The Personal and Pervasive Guard (v. 5-6)
The psalm now shifts from a general statement about God's watchfulness over His people to a deeply personal assurance for the individual believer.
"Yahweh is your keeper; Yahweh is your shade on your right hand. The sun will not strike you by day, Nor the moon by night." (Psalm 121:5-6)
Notice the repetition of the personal pronoun. "Yahweh is your keeper." It is not just that God keeps His people in general, but that He keeps you. He is your personal guardian. He is "your shade on your right hand." In the ancient near east, shade is a profound blessing, a relief from the oppressive, life-threatening heat of the sun. God is your portable refuge, your personal protection from the elements. The "right hand" was the sword hand, the hand of action and strength. God's protection covers your strength, your work, your very ability to function in the world.
The protection is comprehensive. "The sun will not strike you by day, Nor the moon by night." The sun represents the known, visible dangers of the world, like sunstroke on a hot journey. The moon represents the unseen dangers, the superstitious fears, the terrors of the night. The ancients often associated the moon with madness and malevolent spiritual forces. The Psalmist is saying that God's protection covers you from both the dangers you can see and the dangers you can't. It covers you from both rational threats and irrational fears. There is no time of day and no kind of threat that is outside the scope of His sovereign care.
The Unending and All-Encompassing Promise (v. 7-8)
The Psalm concludes by expanding the scope of God's keeping to its absolute, ultimate limits.
"Yahweh will keep you from all evil; He will keep your soul. Yahweh will keep your going out and your coming in From now until forever." (Psalm 121:7-8)
This is a staggering promise. "Yahweh will keep you from all evil." This does not mean that Christians will never experience hardship, tragedy, or pain. The Bible is clear that we will have trouble in this world. What it means is that nothing can happen to you that is ultimately evil, that is, nothing can happen that will separate you from the love of God or thwart His good and ultimate purposes for you. God is such a masterful sovereign that He takes the very things that Satan and wicked men intend for evil and He weaves them into the tapestry of our ultimate good (Romans 8:28). He will "keep your soul." The body may suffer, but the essential you, your soul, is eternally secure in His hand.
This keeping covers all of life's activities. "Your going out and your coming in" is a Hebrew idiom for everything you do, from the beginning of a project to its end, from leaving your home in the morning to returning at night. It encompasses your entire life, your work, your rest, your relationships. And what is the duration of this promise? "From now until forever." This is not a temporary guarantee. It is a covenant promise that has no expiration date. It is an eternal security grounded in the unchanging character of the God who made heaven and earth.
Christ, Our Keeper
How can these promises be true for sinful, stumbling people like us? They are true because they have been purchased and secured for us by Jesus Christ. This Psalm finds its ultimate fulfillment in Him. Jesus is the true pilgrim who journeyed to Jerusalem, and though He was tempted in every way, His foot did not stumble.
On the cross, He was not protected by the shade. He endured the full, scorching heat of the Father's wrath against our sin, the ultimate "sunstroke," so that we might have everlasting shade. He endured the ultimate evil on our behalf, so that we might be kept from all evil. He is the one who kept His soul through the trial of death itself.
His "going out" was into the tomb, and His "coming in" was His glorious resurrection on the third day. Because He went out and came in victoriously, our going out and coming in are secured forever. He is the great keeper of Israel, the Good Shepherd who watches over His flock and does not sleep.
Therefore, our confidence is not in our own strength or our own ability to persevere. Our confidence is in Him. Our help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth, and who has given us His Son. Because of Christ, we can face the mountains of this life, not with anxiety, but with a song on our lips. For our Guardian, our Keeper, our Shade, will not slumber and will not sleep, and He will bring us safely home.