“Finders, Keepers”
Psalm 121
June 30, 2002
The Rev’d Quintin Morrow
St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church
Ft. Worth, Texas
www.st-andrew.com
Recently, third- and fourth-graders at Wheaton Christian Grammar School in Wheaton, Illinois, were asked to complete the following sentence: “By faith, I know that God is…” And here is some of what the children said:
• “By faith, I know that God is forgiving, because he forgave in the Bible, and he forgave me when I went in the road on my bike without one of my parents” (Amanda).
• “Providingful, because he dropped manna for Moses and the people, and he gave my dad a job” (Brandon).
• “Caring, because he made the blind man see, and he made me catch a very fast line drive that could have hurt me. He probably sent an angel down” (Paul).
• “Merciful, because my brother has been nice to me for a year” (Jeremy).
• “Faithful, because the school bill came, and my mom didn’t know how we were going to pay it. Two minutes later, my dad called, and he just got a bonus check. My mom was in tears” (anonymous).
• “Sweet, because he gave me a dog. God tells me not to do things that are bad. I need someone like that” (Hannah).
It is no wonder, then, that during His earthly ministry our Lord Jesus thanked His heavenly Father for revealing the truths of the Kingdom, not to the worldly-wise, or accomplished, or educated, but to the simple and childlike. For it is they who often recognize what we fail to see.
Our entire lives, the sum of our Christian lives, our hope of heaven, and indeed our very next breath, depend upon two things: The power of God, and the character of God. If God is not omnipotent—if there is even one thing in the cosmos more powerful than He—then our lives are a crapshoot. Things like death, disease, disappointment, and desertion by loved ones really do have the last say, and we frail creatures that break so easily must crawl between heaven and earth, for our brief lives, in constant fear of the blind twists of misfortune. If God is not holy, and does not accomplish every thing He promises, how He promises, when He promises, we can have absolutely no confidence in what He says, no assurance of the forgiveness of our sins, no hope of heaven, no expectation of resurrection on the Last Day. Praise God, there is nothing in this universe more powerful than the Lord, and not a single atom which is out of His control; and praise God, He is holy—His character is flawless—and He can be trusted to the uttermost to do all He has promised to do.
Remember that the Psalter was the prayer book and hymnbook of the Old Covenant people, Israel. Psalm 121, the psalm appointed for today, is part of a grouping of psalms known as the “Songs of Ascent”; the King James Version of the Bible entitled them “Songs of Degrees.” Psalm 120-134 are all Songs of Ascent. These psalms are called the Songs of Ascent because they were sung by pilgrims as they went up to Jerusalem to worship for holy days. Only three of these Songs of Ascent have authors known to us: Psalm 127 was written by Solomon, and Psalms 131 and 133 were written by David. The author of Psalm 121 is unknown, but no doubt he was a pilgrim inspired by God to write and sing of the Lord’s power and impeccable character, for so he did.
Psalm 121 can be divided thematically into two parts quite neatly. Verses 1&2 discuss believers looking up to the Lord for help; verses 3-8 describe the Lord looking out for believers. The title of the message this morning is “Finders, Keepers.” As we will soon see, when we find the find the Lord, He is able to keep us.
I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills; from whence cometh my help? My help cometh even from the LORD, who hath made heaven and earth (Ps. 121:1-2, Coverdale Psalter).
The King James Version translated Psalm 121:1 in such a way that wrongly led readers to the conclusion the psalmist was looking to the hills for help. The Coverdale Psalter used in our prayer book is more accurate. Here, the pilgrim-psalmist looks on the mountainous region of the City of Jerusalem, and the mountain-top Temple where God promised to allow His presence to reside, and asks where reliable help can be found. The only answer? Verse 2: My help comes from the LORD who made everything.
Let me tell you what we are prone to do. Most of us are content to live with the Lord on the periphery of our lives. And then when we are faced with turmoil, need, or pain we go to our little bag of tricks—our wit, our money, our education, our good looks, our friends—for relief. When they are all exhausted we start to worry. And when we are barely making it, hanging by our proverbial fingernails, then we call out to God to help us out of our jam. But that isn’t how we are supposed to live our lives believers. We are supposed to live lives of daily trust, obedience, worship, and love, so that when we are confronted with the vicissitudes of life our first response is not to look down in fear, or to look around for a way of escape, but to look up to the Lord for help. Isaiah 55:6 admonishes to seek the Lord while He may be found, and to call upon Him while He is near. Where else can succor and comfort and provision and protection be found? The psalmist asks a question expecting a negative answer—nowhere. Everything in this life can by death, disease, time, deceit, or misfortune be taken from you. Nothing of your own making has the permanence or the power to save you; that’s why, as Isaiah 44 points out, idolatry is so ironic. Idolatry posits that you make a god yourself, with your own skill, then fall down before it and ask it for help. Look for help in the only place where real help can be had: The Lord who made everything. That is to say, the Lord who is omnipotent. Pleasure, and pills, and possessions, and position are not capable of helping you. There are plenty of ways these days to drown your sorrows, but sorrows know how to swim. Everywhere else you turn besides the Lord you are only going to find cut-rate saviors and discount deities. My help cometh even from the LORD, who hath made heaven and earth.
And notice the response. When we as born again members of the New Covenant, united to Christ by faith, look up to the Lord for help, He responds by looking out for us.
What we miss in our English translations is the repetitive use of the same word over and over in the Hebrew text to describe God’s ever-vigilant watchful protection. It is the Hebrew word shamar, used six times in the six verses of 3-8. Shamar is translated variously into English with the words “preserves,” “keeps,” and “watches over.” Let’s look at the passage again.
3) He will not suffer—or allow—thy foot to be moved; and he that shamar thee will not sleep. 4) Behold, he that shamar Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep. 5) The LORD himself is thy shamar; the LORD is thy defence upon thy right hand; 6) So that the sun shall not burn thee by day, neither the moon by night. 7) The LORD shall shamar thee from all evil; yea, it is even he that shall shamar thy soul. 8) The LORD shall shamar thy going out, and thy coming in, from this time forth for evermore.
By the way, the Hebrew word “shamar” is a word rich in meaning—both connotatively and denotatively. It means “to watchfully protect,” and “to preserve from calamity.” The point here, of course, is that with this God looking out for you, you have absolutely nothing to fear. But if this repetition of God’s promise to keep you from danger were not enough to bring you comfort and to quell your fears, the Psalmist goes on to describe several other characteristics of this Lord.
The first is that, verse 3, He shall not allow your foot to be moved. This describes much more than just helping you keep your feet in a fixed geographical point. It is a poetic way of describing the Lord taking an active role in ordering the details of your life. David describes the same phenomenon in Psalm 23: “The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want. He makes me to lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside the still waters…. He leads me in the paths of righteousness for His name’s sake. And Ps. 37:23 says that, “The steps of a righteous man are ordered by the LORD.” The second is that God is never off duty. He that watches over His covenant people never slumbers nor sleeps, is how the Psalmist puts it. Of course the Lord doesn’t need to sleep as we do. This is another poetic way of describing God’s never-failing vigilance. There will never be a time when you are completely alone, bereft of help, or without His care. The third characteristic of this covenant-keeping God of ours is that He Himself is our shade, or shelter, or shield, so that, as verse 5 declares, “the sun shall not burn thee by day, neither the moon by night.” The Psalmist here is employing a poetic device called a merism—or the contrast of two opposites to convey totality. David does the same in Psalm 137 when attempting to describe the impossibility of escaping God’s presence:
Where can I go from your spirit? Or where can I flee from your presence? If I ascend into heaven, you are there; If I make my bed in the grave, behold, you are there (Ps. 139:7-8).
In Psalm 121 God protecting us from the negative effects of the sun by day and the moon by night communicates 24 hour, complete protection from ultimate harm. And notice the fourth characteristic of God’s guidance, protection, and provision: It lasts throughout this life into the next. In fact, it never fails. Verse 8: The LORD shall preserve your going out and your coming in (another merism, by the way, communicating God’s watchful care wherever you go and whatever you do), notice: From this time forth for evermore. David says it this way in Psalm 23:6: Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life; and I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever. Psalm 100, the Jubilate Deo, declares, “For the LORD is gracious, his mercy is everlasting….”
Someone once asked the Greek conqueror Alexander the Great how he was able to sleep so soundly surrounded by constant danger. He replied that his faithful guard, Parmenio, was watching. How much more confidence may we have then, how much less anxiety, being persuaded that God, our faithful guard, is watching.
Being a Christian of course doesn’t mean having a “Get Out of Jail Free” Card—a magic immunity—from the cares and concerns of this life. But it does mean that we don’t face them alone. And it does mean that no ultimate harm will come to us, because the One who inhabits eternity is there to catch us if we fall. What have we really to be afraid of? David Hubbard writes:
If our times are in someone else’s hands—and we know they are often beyond our control—whom would we choose to manage them rather than God? Our options are narrow since all human agencies—family, friends, experts, governments—are subject to most of our own limitations. We can attribute circumstances to chance and let the numbers come up as they will, like the throw of the dice. We can blame the devil for everything bad and live in terror of his next prank or plot. Neither luck nor Satan presents credentials worthy of our trust or fear or love.
St. Paul put is this way:
31 What then shall we say to these things? vIf God is for us, who can be against us? 32 wHe who did not spare His own Son, but xdelivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things? 33 Who shall bring a charge against God’s elect? yIt is God who justifies. 34 zWho is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, awho is even at the right hand of God, bwho also makes intercession for us. 35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? 36 As it is written:
c“For Your sake we are killed all day long;
We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.”
37 dYet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. 38 For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor eprincipalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, 39 nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
When your back is up against the wall, don’t look down in fear, or in for witty gadgets, or around for escape. Look up to the Lord. The holy, omnipotent God of all creation is there watching, guiding, provisioning, and protecting you.
It is just precisely here, folks, at this point, of flying to the Lord and trusting Him for your provision and protection, despite the circumstances, that genuine Christian living begins. It is seeing difficulties through the lenses of God’s total sovereignty and unfathomable love for us, and trusting Him—casting our worries upon Him—and refusing to be overwhelmed by anxiety, that the pilgrimage to confident, Spirit-filled Christian living begins. This whole business is really about an end in confidence in ourselves and a total confidence in God. It’s that simple. I don’t know or am even concerned about what troubles you walked in here this morning with. It doesn’t matter, don’t you see? Nothing is beyond God’s ever-vigilant watch, and nothing is out of His control.
Give your trials, and the requisite anxieties that accompany them, to God, and then get out of the way.
One man had it exactly right. “Fear knocked at the door. Faith answered. No one was there.”
AMEN.
