The God who watches over us

Psalm 121 is one of the most beautiful psalms in the book, and was my father’s favorite.  I can see why.

It is a psalm of utter trust in the Lord.

It starts out,

I lift up my eyes to the hills —
where does my help come from?

My help comes from the LORD,
the Maker of heaven and earth.  (Psalm 121:1-2)

This is another of the psalms of ascents, sung when people made their pilgrimage to Jerusalem.

And I can just imagine that as they looked up to where Jerusalem was, hope and joy sprang in their hearts.  For there, they knew the presence of God resided in his temple as he had promised Solomon.  (I Kings 9:4)

The temple, of course, could not contain God, as Solomon himself admitted.

Nevertheless, God promised to come and meet his people there.  And he promised that when people would pray towards the temple, he would hear them.  (II Chronicles 7:15)

And as the pilgrims made their way to Jerusalem, they took comfort in the knowledge that God would watch over them and protect them because he is a God that never sleeps.  That he would be their shade during the hot days, and their protection at night.

But it went far beyond that.  They knew that he was not only with them during their pilgrimages to Jerusalem, but during their pilgrimage through life.  And so the psalmist wrote,

He will watch over your life; the LORD will watch over your coming and going both now and forevermore.  (7-8)

Let us also take comfort in those words.

Nothing ever happens to us that doesn’t first pass through the hands of God.  And he will never let us endure anything beyond what we can bear.

He will guard our lives while we are on earth.  And then he will bring us into glory.