Protection – Psalm 121

A text – Psalm 121

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.

A reflection:

I read a commentary on this psalm that noted that in verse 1, the psalmist makes a statement and then asks a question: “I lift my eyes to the hills.” And then, “From where will my help come?” (I have punctuated them in just that way, though there is often just a dash between them instead of a period.) So one question I want to ask, reading the first verse as two separate sentences, is this: why does the psalmist look up toward the hills? Maybe she is wondering how she will ever make it up there, or perhaps she even wonders if there will be bandits on her pathway upward. Then she asks who will help her on this journey. This interpretation was new to me and it made sense.

The psalmist wants us to know she has the best help possible; she declares that God, maker of heaven and earth, is her helper, and she lists everything God will do to protect her and anyone else. All these helps and benefits will come from the generous Creator. More than we think we would ever need. We won’t stumble, we’ll be watched over, we’ll have shade from both the sun and the moon, we won’t be at the mercy of evil, and we will have our life protected, whether we are coming in or going out. Forever.

Many of us are fortunate enough not to worry too much about coming in and going out on most days, let alone feeling we might need protection. But I can think of quite a few people who these days do worry about such things, and people who live in dangerous places or with dangerous people who never know when their life and those of folks they love might suddenly be in jeopardy. Isn’t this a wonderful psalm to read to or for someone who might be going into harm’s way? Over someone who faces danger? Perhaps we might pray it aloud on behalf of people who are afraid for their lives in these fraught times. Perhaps doing that for others might bring us all some peace from our same Lord and Creator.

A prayer:

Lord God, Thank you for loving us. Thank you for being our protector. Help us to feel you protecting our going in and our coming out in these fearful days. Let us know you are beside us and watching over us. Amen.