¹ I lift up my eyes to the hills—
from where will my help come?
² My help comes from the Lord,
who made heaven and earth.

³ He will not let your foot be moved;
he who keeps you will not slumber.
⁴ He who keeps Israel
will neither slumber nor sleep.

⁵ The Lord is your keeper;
the Lord is your shade at your right hand.
⁶ The sun shall not strike you by day,
nor the moon by night.

⁷ The Lord will keep you from all evil;
he will keep your life.
⁸ The Lord will keep
your going out and your coming in
from this time on and forevermore.

Psalm 121

We live in a world where “protective services” are touted daily. I haven’t been anywhere in the past year (Winter Haven, Tegucigalpa, Washington, DC, Tampa, etc.) where there wasn’t some evidence of our desire for protection and help.

The Psalmist echoed this desire that also existed in ancient Israel in the words of a question:

I lift up my eyes to the hills, from where will my help come?

Psalm 121:1

The question was then answered with a reflection on God’s care:

My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth.

Psalm 121:2

I love how the Psalmist then recounts the extent of God’s protective care. The Lord will not slumber or sleep. (That’s good, because the nighttime is when I often feel the least secure.) The Lord will protect me from the forces of nature, being a shade from the sun. The Lord will protect us from evil, and will keep our very lives.

And it ends beyond where I can even worry for today:

The Lord will keep our going out and our coming in from this time forth, and forever more.

Psalm 121:8

Today, and tonight, I need to lean on God’s protective care. With God watching over me, I feel pretty secure.

Prayer

Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray the Lord my soul to keep. And I trust Your care in the daytime too. Thank You for protecting me today and each day. In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen.