Psalms 121:1. I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help.
No help comes from anywhere else but from the eternal hills. Let us lift up our eyes, therefore, hopefully expecting help from the hills; it is on the road, it «cometh.» The psalmist with the eye of faith could see it coming, so he watched its approach.
Psalms 121:2. My help cometh from the LORD, which made heaven and earth.
He would sooner unmake them than desert his people. He that made heaven and earth could certainly find shelter for us either in heaven or in earth. He cannot, he will not leave us, he will make room for us in heaven when there is no room for us here. What a blessed thing it is to look right away from the creature to the Creator! The creature may fail you; but the Creator is an ever-springing well of all-sufficient grace.
Psalms 121:3. He will not suffer thy foot to be moved:
He will not endure it, he will not suffer it. Many would like to trip thee up; but he will not allow it, he loves thee too well.
Psalms 121:3. He that keepeth thee will not slumber.
Thou mayest slumber, for thou art frail, but he is a Watchman to whose eyes sleep never comes. You are always safe. Alexander went to sleep, he said, because Parmenio watched; and you may take the sleep of the beloved because Jehovah watches over you.
Psalms 121:4. Behold, he that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep.
Behold it, that is, mark it; put a nota bene at the side of it, take cognizance of this as a great and sure truth. Jacob went to sleep with a stone for his pillow, but he that kept him did not sleep; he came to him in the night-watches, and revealed to him his covenant.
Psalms 121:5. The Lord is thy keeper: the LORD is thy shade upon thy right hand.
Oh, what a keeper we have! Can you not trust him? Will you not be at peace in your mind if it be indeed true that Jehovah keeps you, and is your guard in the hour of danger?
Psalms 121:6. The sun shall not smite thee by day, nor the moon by night.
Then, when canst thou get hurt? If thou art protected both day and night, these make up all the time. God does not make a new sun for his people, the sun would smite us as well as others, but he takes the sting out of the sun's excessive brightness: and we have the same sickly moon as others have, with the same influences over us, but God takes care that the moonbeams do not harm his people. Neither the sun of prosperity nor the night of adversity, neither the light of truth nor even the dimness of mystery, shall injure one of the chosen seed.
Psalms 121:7. The LORD shall preserve thee from all evil: he shall preserve thy soul.
That is the soul of our preservation; if the life, the soul, be kept, then are we kept altogether.
Psalms 121:8. The LORD shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in
Thine early days of youth, when thou art going out into life; and thy coming in, when the older days creep over thee, and thou art coming in to God and heaven; thy going out into business, and thy coming in to private devotion.
Psalms 121:8. From this time forth, and even for evermore.
Let us, therefore, feel restful at this time, and even for evermore, having the Lord for our Keeper and Preserver.
This exposition consisted of readings from Psalms 121, 122.