“He will not allow your foot to slip; he who protects you will not slumber. Behold, he who protects Israel will neither slumber nor sleep. The LORD is your protector; the LORD is your shade on your right hand…. The LORD will protect you from all evil; he will protect your soul. The LORD will protect your going out and your coming in from this time forth and forever” (Psa 121:3-5, 7-8).
Psalm 121 functions as a spiritual pep talk for those who are fearful of the journey to God’s temple and convinced they can’t make it. The psalmist’s answer to their fear is not greater confidence in themselves, but greater confidence in the LORD. Six times he reminds spiritual pilgrims that the LORD will protect them throughout the entire journey, from start to finish, from this time forth and forevermore.
O the joy of knowing that our helper is the maker of heaven and earth, and that our personal bodyguard is the LORD!
Three times he tells us that the LORD is our “protector” (a Hebrew participle; vv. 3-5), and three times that the LORD “will protect us” (a Hebrew yiqtol; vv. 7-8). The LORD’s protection is grounded in who he is: the One who keeps his pilgrims will keep them all the way home. Our Keeper never slumbers or sleeps but protects us from the beginning of the journey until we arrive safely home.
O the joy of knowing that our helper is the maker of heaven and earth, and that our personal bodyguard is the LORD! Psalm 121 may not teach “eternal security” in the technical theological sense, but it certainly teaches us to trust the Eternal Securer, who keeps his pilgrims all the way home!
“My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me; and I give eternal life to them, and they will never perish; and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand” (John 10:27-29).
