Psalms 121:5-6 NIVUK
[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.
Have you ever begun a journey and asked yourself, ‘How am I going to get there?’ and then arrived and asked yourself, ‘How did that happen?’
That happened to me in, I believe, 1999.
I was based in Pitești, Romania. I needed to take a break from my work as a missionary for a while. I thought I would visit my friends, who lived in České Budějovice in Czech Republic.
Seemed like a good idea.
It involved an overnight train at 03:00 from Pitești to Bucharest, then a train at around 09:00 to Prague, which also crossed Hungary and Slovakia, and then a train from Prague to České Budějovice – a journey of approximately thirty hours across three sets of border crossings (these countries were not yet in the EU).
Alone.
In three countries where I did not speak the language.
Undeterred, I set off.
But I still have memories of jumping into a slow train from Pitești in the early hours of the morning, realising that some of my fellow travellers looked a little shifty, and clinging to my belongings for dear life until the train reached Gara Nord in Bucharest.
I also recall my first flight to Asia, which had the rather wild route of Bucharest to Budapest by train, followed by Budapest to Heathrow to Hong Kong to Cebu.
I remember the feeling of panic when I stepped off my first ever long haul flight in Hong Kong, completely exhausted, and saw that all of the departure boards were in Cantonese, and the feeling of complete and utter relief as they changed a few seconds later to English.
The ability to travel is a tremendous privilege. It takes us to new experiences that expand our mind, and may also contract our bank balance, but it can also be a source of tremendous maturity that we may not obtain elsewhere.
But we must very honest: it also comes with significant obstacles and sources of stress, and not all of them are immigration related.
This Psalm comes from a series of fifteen Psalms called the Psalms of Ascents. These are pilgrim songs, sung by returning Jews heading to Jerusalem to perform their mandatory religious duties. This pilgrimage wasn’t exactly on charter flights from modern airports to nice hotels. Journeys were more often than not done on foot, with accommodation provided en route by inns with poor and fully deserved reputations.
It was anything but easy.
This Psalm is written by a pilgrim approaching Israel from the north – quite possibly returning from exile in Babylon. The mountains he refers to are likely the Golan Heights, as there are no imposing mountains to the south, east or west.
Nowadays, I would not recommend anyone to attempt to cross the Golan Heights between Israel and Lebanon. Increased tensions between the Israeli state and the Hezbollah-led government in Lebanon make it highly dangerous, and potentially deadly.
However, it was also dangerous, but in a different way, in the Psalmist’s days. The mountains were pretty desolate. There were wild animals. The increased elevation would cause them to be much colder than the valleys. There was also the ever-present danger of robbers.
This was, quite simply, a scary journey to make.
Hence his opening words:
Psalms 121:1-2 NIVUK
[1] I lift up my eyes to the mountains – where does my help come from? [2] My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth.
Yet to fulfil his religious duties as a Jew, the Psalmist would need to make this journey.
Often in life our path takes us to places where we would prefer not to be, and our route becomes hazardous. We come face to face with wild and seemingly uncontrollable risks that we would rather not face.
If that is you right now, this Psalm is for you.
Because the Psalmist describes three things God is for those in this situation.
The first of these is that He is The God Who Watches.
This is a description that is repeated many times throughout this Psalm:
Psalms 121:2-8 NIVUK
[2] My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth. [3] He will not let your foot slip – he who watches over you will not slumber; [4] indeed, he who watches over Israel will neither slumber nor sleep. [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. [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 for evermore.
We might look at this picture and equate it with something more modern, like a security guard, or a night watchman, or a person viewing CCTV screens.
But this is much, much more than that.
A watchman in ancient times had a difficult, and very dangerous, job. Without the aid of modern inventions like radar or night vision, their task was to stand on the city walls, peer into the darkness and raise the alarm any time they saw a potential enemy approach. The lack of light would make this very hard. If they held a lit torch aloft to provide them with light, it would make them a target for archers.
They also occasionally patrolled the city, keeping an eye out for anyone who perpetrated evil under the cover of darkness (see Song of Songs 3:3 and 5:7 for examples).
So although their job was absolutely essential, it was nigh on impossible.
The closest equivalent we have to this is those who perform night watches on ships. They keep watch in the dark using binoculars to make sure their ship does not collide with smaller vessels that might not appear on radar. But even their job is recognised as being very difficult – they only keep watch for four hours at a time.
Hence these verses that we find elsewhere in the Psalms:
Psalms 130:6 NIVUK
[6] I wait for the Lord more than watchmen wait for the morning, more than watchmen wait for the morning.
I can fully understand why they would.
And yet their function was necessary. They kept people safe.
That is the essence of this Psalm. God is watching over these travellers, not to spoil their fun or infringe upon their freedom, but to keep them safe, while they were on a perilous journey.
This compares to the word God gave to Jacob, who was on an equally perilous journey, but in the opposite direction:
Genesis 28:15 NIVUK
[15] I am with you and will watch over you wherever you go, and I will bring you back to this land. I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.’
And as we see in Psalm 34:
Psalms 34:15 NIVUK
[15] The eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and his ears are attentive to their cry.
There are many nowadays who are quite paranoid about the abilities the state and our employers have to watch over us and check on our behaviour.
But Paul, who suffered more than most in the hands of godless authorities, has this to say:
Romans 13:3 NIVUK
[3] For rulers hold no terror for those who do right, but for those who do wrong. Do you want to be free from fear of the one in authority? Then do what is right and you will be commended.
So whether or not ‘Big brother is watching us’ is completely immaterial.
What matters is that God is watching over us, and He is watching over us for our good, not evil.
So if we have to walk a dangerous, perilous path, then we can have confidence that God is watching to take care of us, and this helps allay our fears.
Secondly, apart from the God who watches, we also see The God Who Shades:
Psalms 121:5-8 NIVUK
[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. [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 for evermore.
When my daughter was little, and on one of our early visits to the Philippines, we went to a swimming pool resort with our family. It was a hot day. We told her that she needed to stay in the shade and limit her exposure to the sun.
However, being a small child and not wanting to miss out on the fun, she ignored us and kept heading out into the fierce heat. We would call her back. We would bring her back. But as soon as our backs were turned, she was on her way out of the shade.
We had an awful night that night. She was sunburned, dehydrated and sick. She had a dose of sunstroke.
And that day she learned a very important lesson: in tropical heat, shade is important.
Definitely no less important in the fierce desert heat of the Middle East.
These verses teach us of God’s protection.
This protection, as Isaiah describes it, is brought about because of God’s presence:
Isaiah 4:5-6 NIVUK
[5] Then the Lord will create over all of Mount Zion and over those who assemble there a cloud of smoke by day and a glow of flaming fire by night; over everything the glory will be a canopy. [6] It will be a shelter and shade from the heat of the day, and a refuge and hiding-place from the storm and rain.
This presence, as is easily visible in these verses, was something enjoyed by the people of God as they journeyed through a place where the heat was unrelenting: the desert.
Yet this promise and this protection requires something else: proximity. You cannot be sheltered by the shade of something unless you are standing close to it, as we saw earlier in Psalm 91:
Psalms 91:1 NIVUK
[1] Whoever dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty.
A shelter and a shade are not optional – they are absolutely necessary. In the same way, the shade that God provides is one hundred percent necessary.
But we have to be close to Him to get it.
So we see that God is one who watches and who shades. We also see that He is The God Who Keeps.
Psalms 121:7-8 NIVUK
[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 for evermore.
As he embarks in this intimidating journey and heads towards the ascent into the Golan Heights, the Psalmist sees God as the One who will keep him safe.
Now, given the threats he was facing, that was quite remarkable.
In the book of Ezra, possibly written before thus Psalm, we see a different but still similar situation, where Ezra is leading a group of returning exiles back to Jerusalem with many of the treasures of the Temple.
So not only was this journey dangerous, but, heavy-laden with gold, silver and other valuables, these returning exiles would have had a target on their back.
But this is what happened:
Ezra 8:21-23 NIVUK
[21] There, by the Ahava Canal, I proclaimed a fast, so that we might humble ourselves before our God and ask him for a safe journey for us and our children, with all our possessions. [22] I was ashamed to ask the king for soldiers and horsemen to protect us from enemies on the road, because we had told the king, ‘The gracious hand of our God is on everyone who looks to him, but his great anger is against all who forsake him.’ [23] So we fasted and petitioned our God about this, and he answered our prayer.
Ezra 8:31-32 NIVUK
[31] On the twelfth day of the first month we set out from the Ahava Canal to go to Jerusalem. The hand of our God was on us, and he protected us from enemies and bandits along the way. [32] So we arrived in Jerusalem, where we rested three days.
What a beautiful thing!
I have been in several situations where I was physically at risk. I should have been used to it: I was raised in a neighbourhood where my family and I were at risk every day for seventeen years. But as a missionary and as a tourist I have also found myself in some pretty interesting places.
Not recklessly. You must understand this. I was never, ever taking foolhardy risks. Every one was carefully calculated.
But they were risks all the same.
However, in all this I have learned a critical lesson: when you are doing the Lord’s work, you are invincible until you are not.
That is, He keeps you safe until He says, ‘Okay, that’s enough.’ and calls you home.
That doesn’t necessarily mean that you will be free from risk, as Paul experienced:
2 Corinthians 11:24-29 NIVUK
[24] Five times I received from the Jews the forty lashes minus one. [25] Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was pelted with stones, three times I was shipwrecked, I spent a night and a day in the open sea, [26] I have been constantly on the move. I have been in danger from rivers, in danger from bandits, in danger from my fellow Jews, in danger from Gentiles; in danger in the city, in danger in the country, in danger at sea; and in danger from false believers. [27] I have laboured and toiled and have often gone without sleep; I have known hunger and thirst and have often gone without food; I have been cold and naked. [28] Besides everything else, I face daily the pressure of my concern for all the churches. [29] Who is weak, and I do not feel weak? Who is led into sin, and I do not inwardly burn?
That doesn’t sound like the type of experience that a Health and Safety Officer would readily sign off.
But, even in the middle of a huge, life-threatening storm, which panicked even experienced sailors, he was rock-steady in his belief that when he was serving God’s purposes, he was invincible until he wasn’t:
Acts 27:21-25 NIVUK
[21] After they had gone a long time without food, Paul stood up before them and said: ‘Men, you should have taken my advice not to sail from Crete; then you would have spared yourselves this damage and loss. [22] But now I urge you to keep up your courage, because not one of you will be lost; only the ship will be destroyed. [23] Last night an angel of the God to whom I belong and whom I serve stood beside me [24] and said, “Do not be afraid, Paul. You must stand trial before Caesar; and God has graciously given you the lives of all who sail with you.” [25] So keep up your courage, men, for I have faith in God that it will happen just as he told me.
And it did.
I wonder: when we set out, as the Psalmist did, on a journey to honour God and fulfil His purposes, are we convinced that we will be kept safe by God?
In 2003, I set out on an epic journey that changed my life. The journey was from Glasgow to Heathrow to Doha to Singapore to Cebu. The flight through the Middle East took place a short time after the second Gulf War, for all it's rights or wrongs, had taken place. American troops were still stationed in Doha.
As the plane approached Doha Airport, the pilot announced that the flight would be delayed as the flight path had been altered to avoid flying over Iraq.
As far as I was concerned, he could have taken as long as he liked.
Arriving with no little trepidation on Middle Eastern soil for the first time, I was fully prepared to spend my five hours waiting time in the airport. That was not going to be a problem for me. But local staff led me to a visa counter, where I was promptly given a visit visa, taken to a bus, and driven through the Qatari streets to a four star hotel, where I had a wash, a sleep and ate breakfast, before returning for my onward flight.
I had been apprehensive of the journey – and most people would say I was fully justified – but God, and my airline, took great care of me that day.
It isn’t at all unusual for us to face journeys through life that scare us witless. It happens. It happens to all of us. Such is life.
We can do whatever we want to try to avoid it, but it will still happen anyway.
The only thing we can control is how we respond to it.
In this precious, and very encouraging, Psalm, we saw that the God who loves us is also the God who watches over us, shades us and keeps us. He doesn’t just stand over us, He also stands beside us and with us.
The question is: will our faith in Him hold when trouble strikes?
Prayer
Lord Jesus, when I face a difficult and intimidating journey in life, help me to stand strong in You and be unafraid. Help me to learn what it means for you to be the God who watches over me, shades me and keeps me. Amen.
Questions
1. What circumstances do you face that can intimidate you and steal your peace? How do you react?
2. How did the Psalmist react to his scary journey? What can we learn from this?
3. How has God been the God who watches over you, shades over you and keeps you in your past? How can you know that He will do it again?
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