The Lord is Our Keeper

Text: Psalm 121 ESV

“I lift up my eyes to the hills. From where does my help come? My help comes from YAHWEH, 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. YAHWEH is your keeper; YAHWEH is your shade on your right hand. The sun shall not strike you by day, nor the moon by night.YAHWEH will keep you from all evil; he will keep your life. YAHWEH will keep your going out and your coming in from this time forth and forevermore.” (Psalm 121 ESV)

Introduction

As we mentioned at the beginning of our Psalm series, the Psalms are loved by many because of how relatable they are to our everyday life. Not all Psalms are written by David as he is running from Saul from cave to cave or after committing adultery, scheming to murder his lover’s husband, and being confronted by a prophet of God. Psalm 121 is a great example of this type of “relatable” Psalm.

“I lift up my eyes to the hills. From where does my help come?” (Psalm 121:1 ESV)

Undoubtedly everyone here this morning needs help in one way, shape, or form. Perhaps it feels trivial: maybe you need help cleaning up your leaves, getting your meal plan ready for the week, or washing your car. Maybe you even know a pastor who has a house under construction who might just email you soon for help painting his house?! 

Perhaps your need for help is centered around needing help with a sin. Maybe you feel angry at your family or significant other. Perhaps it is a struggle with pride, selfishness, pornography, alcohol, or more. And sometimes our cry for help comes from a place of utter desperation. Maybe you feel like you are in the middle of a marital crisis, full blown alcoholism, or a devastating physical illness. 

Our need for help highlights our humanity—we all need help in small and great ways. It marks us indelibly as human. 

I remember the summer between my second and third grade years. I woke up one morning to the whole side of my head covered in a scab. That began the long process of being diagnosed until we finally found out I had an infection called Kerion, subsequent to having a suppressed immune system for the past year. The misdiagnosis started with the recommendation that my mother, daily, remove and scrub out these scabs. I’ll spare you the details, and I don’t remember much of it, but I do remember the people who cried out for help on my behalf. I remember pastors, church members, and even teachers who cared enough to ask God for help. I remember my mother’s cries for help. I remember my grandfather, who loved to look sharp, even praying that God would take his hair if he would spare me mine (my grandpa is completely bald today). 

I don’t know where you are at on this spectrum of needing help today, but I want to ask you to stop for a moment and identify that area you would like help. And I want to revisit that after we look at Psalm 121 and see how this speaks to your need this morning.

Trouble and Our Typical Solutions

“I lift up my eyes to the hills. From where does my help come?” (Psalm 121:1 ESV)

This Psalm is helpfully titled as a Psalm of Ascent. These were Psalms that the people of Israel would sing as they walked up to the temple mount. There was no way to get to the temple but by going up from every direction as it was on the top of a hill. For this reason many, when they read this Psalm, think first of the temple mount as the object of the Psalmist’s vision. 

Yet, I don’t think that is the primary thought. There was only one “hill of God,” Mount Zion. Rather, the hills throughout Scripture and the ancient world were usually synonymous with “high places,” where idols were placed. We see this again and again throughout the Old Testament of the Bible as the kings of Israel repeatedly fail to remove the high places and their idols (1 Kings 13:1–5; 14:23; 2 Kings 17:29; 18:4; 23:13–14). 

I think the Psalmist is recognizing and demonstrating what we all often do. When we need help, where do we look first? Usually, it isn’t straight to God. We look to:

• Myself: I will fix this. Through my will, my determination, or my resolve I will fix whatever problem I have.

• Others: A significant other, friends, anyone else who may have knowledge or expertise, they can help me.

• Distractions or false comfort like Netflix, pornography, food, alcohol, and others.

When difficulty comes, we take in the multitude of options—the thousands of idols on a thousand hills around us. What will we do? Where will we find help? 

Unlike many Psalms where the problem is described in detail, this one doesn’t. In fact, recognizing the need for help and asking where it comes from is almost rhetorical for the Psalmist. The point of Psalm 121 isn’t to focus on the problem, but rather, to stop and focus on the one and only solution to our problem: Yahweh.

Yahweh, the Creator of Heaven and Earth, Will Help You!

“My help comes from YAHWEH, who made heaven and earth.” (Psalm 121:2 ESV)

The Psalmist starts with the reality that Yahweh is the one who made everything. The phrase “heaven and earth” is an idiom for “all things”. Think about that for a second: the Psalmist believes you will find help from the Creator of  all things!

The God who breathed into being butterflies. The God of newts, nightingales, and narwhals. The God who caused every leaf to sprout this spring and who now can tell you the shade and hue of each and every one as he carries them from branch to ground. The God of black holes, supernovas, countless galaxies, and you!

Of course, if you believe God is the creator of all things, who wouldn’t want his help! What could he not do?! But the question everyone would ask is, “would he?” Would he help me and you?

Yahweh, Your Keeper!

The Psalmist has set us up, because that is exactly what you are meant to question and then see in this passage. It should be shocking when you realize that this God, the creator of everything—all powerful, all knowing, all controlling—is for you! Not only is God for you, but he has assigned himself the task of being your keeper! As we read on to verses 3—8, we find the word “keeper” six times. This word is only used 44 times in the entire Old Testament (for those of us not doing the math in our heads that means about 15% of the occurrences are right here!)

Now, he isn’t our keeper in the sense of a “kept wife” or “servanthood/slavery.” Neither is he our keeper in the sense of a collector, like a cosmic SciFi villain placing his prized objects into his “special box” so he can treasure and keep us for his own pleasures. Keeper doesn’t mean that in Scripture. In fact, from the very beginning, keeping was an important concept.

When God placed Adam and Eve in the garden, here is what he said to Adam and by proxy to Eve: 

“The LORD God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it.” (Genesis 2:15 ESV)

This same word pair elsewhere is phrased as to “serve and guard.” The priests of the temple were told to guard and keep it and God’s word (Numbers 3:7-8; 8:25-26; 18:5-6; 1 Chronicles 23:32; Ezekial 44:14). [Sidebar: There is a whole different sermon about your role as God’s keeper of creation, and as his priest-kings and priest-queens to guard and keep his word!]

Yet God, Yahweh himself, has covenanted to be our keeper:

“Hear the word of the LORD, O nations, and declare it in the coastlands far away; say, ‘He who scattered Israel will gather him, and will keep him as a shepherd keeps his flock.’” (Jeremiah 31:10 ESV)

It is God’s covenant promise with his people, starting with Adam and Eve and on through every covenant he makes (Noah, Abraham/Isaac/Jacob, David), that he will be the covenant keeper and the keeper of his people!

What we see here in Psalm 121 is that our help comes from God, the creator of heaven and earth, and he has determined to “keep” you—to guard you. And as we continue through Psalm 121 we see four main comments about the nature of God as our keeper, and the type of keeping that he does. 

1) The Keeper who doesn’t slumber and won’t let you be moved.

“He [YAHWEH] will not let your foot be moved; he who keeps you will not slumber. Behold, he [YAHWEH] who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep.” (Psalm 121:3–4 ESV)

We see first that Yahweh will keep you by not letting your foot be moved. And all of us say, okay, yay?! This is one of those statements that definitely is helped by a little background!

Your foot is indicative of your direction, and so often our direction is either where God would have us, or not. Job says it this way:

“My foot has held fast to his steps; I have kept his way and have not turned aside.” (Job 23:11 ESV)

The Psalmists say it like this:

“For I said, “Only let them not rejoice over me, who boast against me when my foot slips!”” (Psalm 38:16 ESV)

The Proverbs say that when you know wisdom:

“Then you will walk on your way securely, and your foot will not stumble.” (Proverbs 3:23 ESV)

The picture is being established and set in God’s ways and plans for your life, staying on that path. Again, the Psalmist says:

“The children of your servants shall dwell secure; their offspring shall be established before you.” (Psalm 102:28 ESV)

Now, with a little more context, we can heartily say “Amen!” with the Psalmist of Psalm 121. We love God, and we want to be found in his ways, firmly rooted! Not only do we want to be there, but we want to not leave or stray. And that is exactly what we are promised. God himself will keep our foot secure. He will keep us from falling out of his will and his path. And what the Psalmist finds particularly helpful in remembering this is that God does not slumber. He never stops keeping us in this way. 

“From of old no one has heard or perceived by the ear, no eye has seen a God besides you, who acts for those who wait for him.” (Isaiah 64:4 ESV)

“For the eyes of the LORD run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to give strong support to those whose heart is blameless toward him.” (2 Chronicles 16:9 ESV)

Whether it is enemies, sin, fear, difficulty, we have a God who keeps us in his will and on his path in the midst of our problems. We can say confidently as Deuteronomy 31:6 says:

“for it is the LORD your God who goes with you. He will not leave you or forsake you.”” (Deuteronomy 31:6 ESV))

2) The Keeper who protects you from what you cannot affect.

“YAHWEH is your keeper; YAHWEH is your shade on your right hand. The sun shall not strike you by day, nor the moon by night.” (Psalm 121:5–6 ESV)

As those who live on the edge of the desert, we know well how important protection and shade is. Without it, you will die quickly in the heat. Drive a car from here to Pocatello in the summer without AC or try to go two days in your house without heat in February, and you will realize how frail our attempts at protecting ourselves from weather are!

I remember when we first moved to Minneapolis, we sent our kids outside to play in the snow. And instead of coming back in with rosy-red cheeks, they came in with white circles in the middle of that rosy color…not good! After that they all went out with Baklava’s when the temperature dipped that low. 

There are so many aspects of life that we cannot fully control—weather, health, the changes of cells into cancer, the trajectory of a stray rock on the freeway. Our God is promising not only to keep us as our protection, but to protect against that which we have no control over. God is completely aware of the difficulties we face, and he is promising that he will keep us amidst them. This even includes the real struggle we have against the unseen powers and spirits whom we think very little about (Ephesians 6:12). 

3) The Keeper who keeps your life and protects you from evil & 4) The Keeper who engages you in everything!

“YAHWEH will keep you from all evil; he will keep your life. YAHWEH will keep your going out and your coming in from this time forth and forevermore.” (Psalm 121:7–8 ESV)

And it is at this point that I would expect someone to be thinking, “Whoa, just wait a minute. Really? This isn’t my experience at all. God, keeping me from all evil? Watching my every going out and coming in? I feel like I suffer all the time. You told me to think of an area I need help, and I need that help because I do stumble, I do feel like life is out of control and affecting me in ways I can’t help, I feel like evil is happening. Is God really protecting me from all evil and preserving my life?”

The Problem of Suffering

That is a fair question. It is passages like this, Table Rock, that will press us again and again to have a robust theology of suffering. That is not our main point this morning, but we need to touch on it. The Psalmist is not unaware of suffering or difficulty. We know we will have suffering. Listen to what Scripture clearly says:

“Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you” (1 Peter 4:12)

“Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness” (James 1:2–3 ESV).

“the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us,” and that “for those who love God all things work together for good” (Romans 8:18, 28 ESV).

We are to count it joy that we have trials because they grow us, and they are nothing compared to the glory that awaits us. Romans 5 tells us:

“we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.” (Romans 5:3–5 ESV)

Yahweh, the Keeper of our Salvation!

If this is true, if we will have suffering and God will use it for our good in our life, then these statements must be referring to something more than just our temporary experience. God tirelessly keeping our foot unmoved, God keeping us by sheltering and protecting us, God keeping us from all evil, keeping our life, and keeping all our goings and comings. All of this is to remind us that God is the keeper of our salvation! That is assured, without a doubt. His children will not leave the path he has placed them on, he will shelter them from all trouble big and small that would come against their faith, and he will protect us and our life from evil—the evil of being away from him—in every coming and going in our life. 

Like all the prophets and writers of the Old Testament, the Psalmist undoubtedly longed to look into and know exactly how God would do this. How God, how would you ensure this?! They knew it would be through the Messiah, and we are blessed to live on this side of God's revelation and know that we are saved by the keeper of our salvation—Jesus Christ!

Yahweh, our Keeper revealed—Jesus!

Look how Scripture describes Jesus as the great keeper of you and me, his disciples:

“While I was with them, I kept them in your name, which you have given me. I have guarded them, and not one of them has been lost except the son of destruction, that the Scripture might be fulfilled.” (John 17:12 ESV)

“To those who are called, beloved in God the Father and kept for [or by] Jesus Christ:” (Jude 1:1 ESV)

We see in the New Testament that our feet and our way is established in Jesus (2 Corinthians 1:21, Romans 16:25; Colossians 2:7 ESV)

Jesus, as our great high priest is now in heaven, constantly, sleeplessly, interceding before the throne of God on our behalf. (Hebrews 7:25 ESV)

Jesus is the one described as a mother hen who gathers his chicks to himself and protects them under his outstretched wings. (Matthew 23:37 ESV)

Listen to what Jesus says about our “going in and out” in John 10:9:

“I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture.” (John 10:9 ESV)

And amazingly, we are told this in 2 Thessalonians 3, which I think is alluding back to this Psalm:

“the Lord is faithful. He will establish you and guard you against the evil one. And we have confidence in the Lord about you, that you are doing and will do the things that we command. May the Lord direct your hearts to the love of God and to the steadfastness of Christ.” (2 Thessalonians 3:3–5 ESV)

Conclusion

Remember the problem or area of need I asked you to think about at the beginning of this sermon? I promise you, I didn’t solve it by going through Psalm 121 with you. But I did exactly what the Psalmist did—I preached to you the glory of the God who keeps you and assures your salvation!

Table Rock, that is your application this morning. When you find yourself in need, look first to God and preach to your heart and soul the amazing wonders of the God who keeps your salvation in Jesus Christ! Preach it to your friends in need! Preach it to a world longing to know that they have hope in their suffering and trials. 

It is good to go to God for help with any need, small or large. He is a good father who wants to give us good things (Luke 11:11, Matthew 7:9). And the reason we can approach him with confidence is that he has already assured us that the most important thing, our salvation, will never be shaken. That is what we see in Psalm 121. He will keep your foot surely rooted in his path. He will guard you under his wings from all manners of disasters that would pull you away, and he will protect you from the ultimate evil and keep your very life through every coming and going. 

So, Table Rock, the goal of Psalm 121 is to remind us to preach this to ourselves again and again! Our God, creator of heaven and earth, is our Keeper—the Keeper of our life and salvation. We preach this through song, through deed, through the Word of God, and through communion. Communion is reminding ourselves again and again about the keeping of our God!

Benediction

“The LORD bless you and keep you; the LORD make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you; the LORD lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.” (Numbers 6:24–26 ESV)