What’s your family like getting on the way for a trip? Who is always first to the car in your family? Who is the one who always runs last?  Do you have a family member who always just happens to go to loo just as you pull the car out of the drive way?  Same with those long trips, what does your family do to keep sane on the roads? Is your family game spot the white horse; or ‘eye spy’, or with the rise of personal tablets and iPads, does each member bunker down in their own space?

Psalm 121, in the Psalms of ascents, is the song of the traveller, a travel guide for the pilgrim.  This Psalm is like the modern Lonely Planet Guide series for pilgrims travelling the roads on the pilgrimage of life.

@ Tamworth Community Presbyterian Church 30-4-16

Psalm 121

In Psalm 121 we get a panoramic sweep of this pilgrim in the country side from the start, like a camera panning across the plains and the fields rising up to take in the heights of the hills and mountains.  As we read in verse 1  I lift up my eyes to the hills--  where does my help come from?  The hills feel like they should offer protection for this Psalmist even though the higher ground of the hills offer defence, and yet they fail to give him help he's seeking.  The Psalmist rallies himself with verse 2 My help comes from the LORD,  the Maker of heaven and earth.  See it this way it is like suddenly it’s like that camera pans right back, beyond the hills beyond and mountain tops, through the clouds, even beyond the moon, seeing the earth from far away.  For the Psalmist his help comes from the living God, who takes personal interest in the Psalmist’s plight

Please look down with me at the rest of the Psalm we see just how personal this Psalm is. I would like you to count the number of times the words "He", "The Lord", and "you" are used.  In verses 3 and 4 "He will not", "he who watches", and the "you" and "your" in verses 5-7.  See "the Lord watches over you".  The protection of God becomes a little sharper, as he doesn’t let your foot slip, he doesn’t slumber, he also brings shade and keeps you from harm while watching over your life.  We are told he watches your coming and going.  We can take away form this that nothing escapes the attention of God, and nothing happens that isn’t meant to, everything is part of God’s plans.

in verse 3 it begins sounding like someone else is answering the Psalmists question 3  He will not let your foot slip-- he who watches over you will not slumber. This verse reads more like a prayer that God won’t go to sleep on the job.  See this as more than wishful thinking the Psalmist relies on God’s dependency. God never misses a trick verse 4 indeed, he who watches over Israel  will neither slumber nor sleep. 

Then the fears and perils of this journey kick in with physical harm from the elements, emotional well being of the road verses 5 and 6  5  The LORD watches over you--  the LORD is your shade at your right hand;  6  the sun will not harm you by day,   nor the moon by night.  It’s an idea I think requires a little more explanation as we are well aware of the perils of travel.  Even modern travel isn’t without it’s risks as plains fall out the sky, buses crash, people die and get hurt travelling.  In ancient times there was another fear of the traveller, not only does the sun burn your skin by the day; they believed you can also suffer a degree of burning, or madness from the night.  We get the modern word lunacy from it, the belief was the cycles of the moon, could affect the mind and body through exposure to moonlight.  This is not so for the Psalmist, his courage comes from God as he reminds himself nothing escapes God’s attention.  As the Psalm ends on a promise verse 7-8 7 The Lord will keep you from all harm- He will watch over your life; 8 the LORD will watch over your coming and going. Both now and forevermore.  Looking at that verse not only does God’s protection start from now, it is also day by day month by month, season by season as his protection endures.  

Please look at the last word of the Psalm ‘forevermore’; as we have been seeing harm could come whether it be from sprain or injury, sunstroke or moon stroke, and yet nothing happens without God’s foreknowledge.  It is just like with all our well thought out plans we cannot guarantee their success.  For this Psalm of ascents what did it teach the pilgrim on their journey?  As Jerusalem is located on a hillside often called the hill of Zion, the holy hills, these hills remind the psalmist of God’s abode.  God who is the maker of heaven and earth.  Also unlike the other localised deities who also were put up on shrines on the sides of hills that these pilgrims passed by on their journey; the pilgrim is to be assured of God’s presence.

It’s the type of Psalm we can imagine the leader of a group singing verses 1&2 and the group answering with verses 3-4 and then so on as these pilgrims travel towards Jerusalem.  Preparing themselves to go to the feast.  Then of course there are the reminders of the loneliness and perils of the open road which reminds us that Psalm 121 is really a Psalm all about Providence.  That is about how God cares for us, and that the detail and direction of our lives are under the purposeful control of God.[1]  I want us to see  the tension like have you "Ever said to yourself that ‘God must be impatient with our fickle faith, so he has gone off to take care of someone more deserving of his attention’"?[2]  As a follower of Jesus today by looking at Psalm 121 what does it teach us? The struggle we often face is of dealing with the stress of life.  So do we start thinking of times when we say it feels like we’re been abandoned by God, to work it out all by ourselves?

Psalm 121 reminds us like a beacon on a hill the clear promise of God, that His purposeful care in a world where evil is present, even when bad things happen to good people.  Just as Jesus said to his disciples  "29  Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from the will of your Father.  30  And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered.  31  So don't be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows." Matthew 10:29-31

Is there anything that will cause you to abandon the cause of Christ? I’m drawn also to think about the passage of 1 John 2:15-17 15  Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.  16  For everything in the world--the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does--comes not from the Father but from the world.  17  The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever.

Psalm 121 draws us towards Jesus as he points us to hold a real view on life.  That is Jesus never promised we would never be met with injury or illness or accident or distress if we follow him; instead Jesus promised that God will never allow any evil power to rule over us.  That is nothing is able to separate us from the love of God shown to us in Christ Jesus.  As someone put it this way: “the only serious mistake we can make when illness comes, when anxiety threatens, when conflict disturbs our relationships with others is to conclude that God has gotten bored looking after us and has shifted his attention to a more exciting Christian, or that God has become disgusted with our meandering obedience and decided to let us fend for ourselves for a while, or that God has gotten too busy fulfilling prophecy in the Middle East to take time now to sort out the complicated mess we have gotten ourselves into.  That is the only serious mistake we can make…Faith is not a precarious affair of chance escape from satanic assault.  It is the solid, massive, secure experience of God, who keeps all evil from getting inside us, who guards our life, who guards us when we leave and when we return, who guards us now, who guards us always.”[3]

Let’s pray...