“The LORD Is Your Keeper”
“The LORD Is Your Keeper”
Second Sunday in Lent Year A, March 5, 2023
Psalm 121 John 3:1-17
First Presbyterian Church of Sandpoint, Idaho
Andy Kennaly, Pastor
This summer part of the sabbatical time involves exploration into the places where certain authors lived. My inspirational authors tour will take Shawna and me to northern Minnesota on the edge of the Boundary Waters wilderness, and the home and writer’s shack in Ely where Sigurd Olson put his love for the environment into storytelling. His experiences on Listening Point and in hidden forests of the north country weave from the page into our own mind and heart. We then journey to Walden Pond in Concord, Massachusetts. Henry David Thoreau walked, noticed, and wrote journals.
We could stay home. I could just read about it. I could pick certain books and study them page by page. I could scour the internet. But something else needs to happen to take it to the next level, to open something that yearns to unfold broader understanding through direct experience. A spiritual pilgrimage explores lessons that cannot be gained in any other way. So, it’s worth the effort and expense to show up, be attentive, and thankful.
As we read the scriptures this morning we see Nicodemus making an extra effort to personally come to Jesus. We read the Psalmist’s vision in Psalm 121 and discover the same dynamic at work; a pilgrimage, spiritual leaning toward fulfillment, and the desire to personally show up with openness, with eyes to see and ears to hear as God’s Presence is manifest.
Psalm 121is the second Psalm in a collection of fifteen (Psalm 120-134) known as the Psalms of Ascent, or Pilgrim Songs. This psalm is filled with metaphors, images that express aspects of God and qualities of relationship. The “psalms of ascent are about restoration of the presence of God […] a call to once again pursue a dwelling with God.” (https://www.biblestudytools.com/bible-study/topical-studies/finding-encouragement-for-our-journey-in-the-psalms-of-ascent.html).
As songs, “the Lord Jesus would have likely memorized [them] and sang as he traveled to Jerusalem. […] These fifteen psalms introduce… themes of repentance, God’s presence, God’s protection, God’s mercy, God’s help, God’s goodness, [and God’s] sovereignty. The reader [or singer] is also reminded to seek help in God alone and that joy is only found in the Lord.” (same as above link)
These images are loaded, packed in, overlapping, and multi-faceted. Lifting eyes toward the hills, toward the mountains, could be general, or, most likely, specific to Jerusalem with the Temple built on a hill, the Temple where Jewish people understood God’s Presence dwelled. That’s why help comes from there. Rather than other temples on other hills, temples dedicated to other gods, this verse claims faith in Yahweh, God Almighty. Not a sun god or a moon god or a god of fertility like many of the other Greek and Roman-inspired gods, but the very God, the One and only, who made all there is seen and unseen. This God is the psalmist’s helper. A helper.
Notice the first two verses are from the Psalmist’s perspective, using I and my. This gives an intimacy to the relationship that God as helper has toward the pilgrim, the seeker, the one on a journey up to the mountain. The other verses are third person, using you to give more general and inclusive encouragement.
One biblical commentator years ago took the time to notice the syllable count. If you count the syllables, the rhythmic emphasis of each word and phrase, you can isolate the center of this Psalm. The Psalmist uses the very structure of this song to emphasize the main point, the central theme, the teaching: “the LORD is your keeper.” Some translate, “the LORD is your guard.” It also says, “your shade at your right hand.” Soldiers held their shields in their left hand, so it was important to have a friend, an ally to help guard you on your right hand. This is about protection and presence.
Also notice God doesn’t slumber or sleep. Slumbering, which is like dozing, or napping, a light sleep but one that doesn’t pay attention to what’s going on. The other is sleeping, which is deep sleep, very difficult to arouse or wake up from because it’s so deep. Ancient people assumed the various gods were distant and detached, in fact they were sleeping, slumbering at best. Not only did a person in need have to wake up their god for help, but it was likely that in waking up their god, that god would not have appreciated getting awoken, and instead of helping, a negative response would take place, one that condemned or destroyed the seeker. The Psalmist’s God is always attentive, trustworthy, and gracious in response. Not sleeping, not dozing.
The sun striking by day and the moon by night could be that kind of comparison with the sun god or moon god, both of which were assumed dangerous. God Almighty is not limited to the sun or moon, and is not dangerous but protective, that guard who indeed has made the sun and moon to serve as light, one stronger for day and one lesser for the night.
Even though we may not pick up on cultural ques or subtleties, we get it when it comes to God’s presence because we don’t always believe what this psalm teaches about God’s providential care. We don’t understand how everything belongs somehow and fits a larger picture and original purpose. When we hear “The LORD will keep you from all evil; he will keep your life,” and yet we see headline after headline that would be horrible enough on their own, yet they’re compounded on each other, there is so much pain and suffering; it’s hard to believe that we’re kept from evil like the psalmist says.
This is part of the human struggle. The Psalms of Ascent were not only for general pilgrims, they were beacons of hope to a people pushed over the brink. The Jewish people were killed, many taken into exile, the city of Jerusalem was destroyed, the Temple where God dwelt was demolished. The people, like that city on a hill, were crushed under powers and principalities.
They had doubts, they wondered if God was with them, and how that could be given the way life is.
This Psalm does not deny that bad things happen, that disasters take place; doesn’t deny that pain runs deep when everything gets stripped away and there’s nothing you can do about it. Questions, like “if God is loving and good, why did God let this happen” continue to echo as they’re repeated through the ages, and this psalm doesn’t deny their validity or minimize the traumas. As one scholar puts it, so scholarly, “the writer of this palm within that collection ‘understands well that the journey to God and the journey with God never occur in a vacuum, but rather in the context of a life that at times feels more like a tempest than a solitary walk down a quiet pathway.’ And yet the psalmist exudes confidence, which is rooted in the character of Yahweh. […] Yahweh as helper and maker; Yahweh as guardian and keeper.” (https://zondervanacademic.com/blog/psalm-121-commentary-where-does-our-help-come-from).
No matter what happens, God keeps our life. No matter what, God keeps our going and coming, now and forever. Those ancient Jewish people who returned to Jerusalem experienced the Presence of God in new ways. Their witness trusts a God who is powerful, the maker of Heaven and Earth, and also helper, a God who won’t let your foot slip. Transcendent and imminent. Incomprehensible, yet personal. This psalm, as a song, is a confession of faith. People who sing it or read it, either way, they trust it; these are ones who make claims about God, about their own lives, and about the world.
As we live this Lenten journey on our way to Easter, may we too gain confidence and trust in God’s living presence that is as close as our own heart and intimate as shared breath. As we experience life’s fullness in all its shades, may we follow Jesus who gives fullness as he sings his way up the mountain. May we sing as we ascend, and declare our trust in God our help, our guard, our Lord, now and forever. Amen.