Our scripture for this evening is Psalm 121, and I invite you to turn to it if you have a pew Bible. It's found on page 612. We're not going to read it quite yet. If you were here this morning, you heard Pastor Contreras mention that pilgrims is a popular designation in the scriptures for Christians. You know, disciples is another very popular one, but pilgrims, sojourners, exiles, strangers. That's who we are. We are a people on a journey. We're focused on going somewhere. Where are we going? We're going to God. And the pathway for getting to Him is through Jesus Christ. So we're traveling, right? And tonight we're going to be looking at what is called one of the Songs of Ascents.
So there are 15 psalms here, dog-eared, right in the middle of the psalm book. So 120 through 134, Psalms of Ascent. Why were they called Psalms of Ascents? Because most pilgrims, as they went to the festivals in Jerusalem, had to ascend up. That's generally why they called them Psalms of Ascent or Songs of Ascent. Think about Jesus in Luke chapter 2. From very early on, it said He went up to Jerusalem. He was ascending up as He traveled there with His family for Festival.
Years ago, when we traveled back to the Midwest where I was from originally, we would travel with music. And what my brother would do is he would record music on a cassette tape. You remember those? I still have them. And he would mail them to me before the trip, and so he would have some songs from the 60s, or songs when we were kids, or he would have different themes. And so the idea was we would play this music as we travel. They were a travel playlist. Well, these songs of ascent are songs for travelers. They're a travel playlist for us as God's people as we travel forward.
I do want to say one other thing about traveling, though, before I read this. Recently, Kay and I traveled to Paris. It's not Lake Paris. It's Paris where there's Versailles and all the wonderful places that you can see. One of the things we did was we got a hold of Rick Steves, and, you know, here's his guide for what you need to see and where you need to go. And it was really helpful to have a travel guide, because without it, we would have missed a lot of things. Travel guides can be helpful.
As I was thinking about this, a couple years ago I was reading this tiny book by Gregory of Nyssa. You would like this, Richard. I'm talking to you. Gregory of Nyssa. So he's one of the Chalcedonian Fathers, and he had a sister named Macrina. And when Macrina died, he wrote a small book about her life. And he talked about her, and he remembered her, and he said this: "But also there was none of the Psalms which she did not know since she recited each part of the Psalter at the proper times of the day. When she rose from her bed, she performed and rested from her duties. She sat down to eat. She rose up from the table when she went to bed or she got up to pray. At all times, she had the Psalter with her like a good traveling companion who never fails." The Psalms are a good traveling companion. They're good for us. They're songs that we can hear for our travels, and they're guidebooks for us. They will never fail.
Let's look at Psalm 121. Hear God's word: "A song of ascents. I lift up my eyes to the hills. From where does my help come? My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth. He will not let your foot be moved. He who keeps you will not slumber. Behold, he who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep. The Lord is your keeper. The Lord is your shade on your right hand. The sun shall not strike you by day, nor the moon by night. The Lord will keep you from all evil. He will keep your life. The Lord will keep your going out and your coming in from this time forth and forevermore." Here ends the reading of God's holy word. The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of the Lord stands forever.
Well, when we think about traveling, one of the things that comes to my mind immediately, because I came from the upper Midwest, is that there are travel advisories. Any of you ever heard of a traveler advisory? Well, if you lived in the land of snow, every morning when you're getting ready for school, you'd have the radio on because you wanted to hear if school was going to be canceled. So you were listening for travelers' advisories. You were listening for them to say how the weather was and if there was a blizzard or whatever it might have been.
The Scriptures tell us there's a traveler's advisory for pilgrims: be aware. Christian life is not just a single moment, is it? The Christian life is not even a series of mountaintop experiences that are kind of strung together. The Christian life is a matter of our whole life. It's a lifelong apprenticeship to Jesus Christ. And so the Christian life is threatened each day with fresh trouble. Even the Scriptures tell us every day has enough trouble of its own, doesn't it? Certainly we have in ourselves no security to work out all these problems. We're just incapable of it. And especially when it comes to our salvation, we don't have it. We need help.
Travelers' advisories: one of the things the Psalms tell us is that there are threats from the outside and there's threats from within us. On the outside, there are even other people. They're called the ungodly. They're called transgressors or blasphemers or liars or people of violence. The wickedness of who they are and what they do is seen in what is said about them in the Psalms. Think about Psalm 59. There are people who are called howling dogs because they try to trip up God's people. Or Psalm 17, there are people who are called tearing lions because they want to devour. Or fowlers, people who want to catch us in a snare like Psalm 124. This is why the faithful of God have such painful experiences sometimes living in the world, because we have to live mixed in with the ungodly. These are the reasons why there are words of loathing, even sometimes in the Psalms, of the ungodly. They present all kinds of problems for us.
And then, of course, we're afflicted with hardships, anxiety, persecution, hunger, nakedness, sword, peril. Even the best Christians, let alone the rest of us, can be guilty of falling asleep, drawing back from our Savior, stumbling, regressing, erring. Troubles abound. Life is difficult.
John Calvin, in his commentary on Psalm 31, describes in such typical lucidness how vulnerable life can be. Listen to what Calvin said: "One's life is exposed to a thousand deaths. It hangs by a thin thread of silk and presents nothing more than a breath that passes away suddenly." Life filled with troubles. And the psalmist recognizes that. And he recognizes he needs help. He says, "My help." He knows he needs help. He's already started this journey, if you will. Psalm 120, which we did not address tonight, but it says there, "Deliver me, O Lord, from lying lips, from a deceitful tongue. Woe to me that I sojourn in Meshach, that I dwell among the tents of Kadar. I've been dwelling too long with those who hate peace." This path of following Jesus Christ is a challenging one. We begin the journey in a valley of humility, a valley of tears. Psalm 125, another psalm of ascent, says those who sow in tears, those who go weeping.
Psalm 121 serves us as we pilgrim in this land to the distant hills of Jerusalem. And it recognizes that there are issues that we will face. But this psalm also gives us such great encouragement. And there are three reasons it says. Three things that God promises for us: help, guardianship, and keeping us.
The first thing is help. "I lift up my eyes to the hills." You know, for years I read that and I thought, he must realize there must be danger up there. There are thieves in the hills. There are rascals out there who will cause all kinds of trouble. When you're on a journey and you're going through hills, you're taught, "Hey, be self-aware. You don't know who might be around the next boulder." But then I began to read these psalms more and more. And we see, like the psalmist, he has other reasons to look to the hills. Not for fear. Raising your eyes can be something else. It's a confession of faith. Listen to Psalm 123, verse 1: "To you I lift up my eyes, O you who are enthroned in the heavens." The gesture of looking up, lifting up your eyes and looking to the hills, is not a gesture of "I better watch out." It's a gesture of "God made these things."
The mountains surrounding the city of Jerusalem actually convey something else to the psalmist. It's an image of the Lord surrounding His people. Listen to Psalm 125, verse 2: "As the mountains surround Jerusalem, so the Lord surrounds His people from this time forth and forevermore." You see, the hills and the mountains for those pilgrims then didn't convey fear. It conveyed confidence. God had created those things. And so the psalmist knows that life is precarious. The Christian pilgrimage is fraught with difficulties. But where does his help come from? "My help is in the name of the Lord," he says. And that, of course, is echoed just a couple psalms later in 124:8: "Our help is in the name of the Lord. My help personally is in the name of the Lord. Our help as God's people corporately is in the name of the Lord."
That confession of faith became so important for those early reformers like Calvin and the others that they made it the beginning of every worship service. That's why we begin with that statement. It's the gospel in one sentence. It recognizes the greatness of God and the frailty of humanity. Our help is in the name of the Lord. What a beautiful statement!
Our help. My help. We're not lone rangers as we pilgrim, are we? You are a part of a covenant community. God is watching over you. Jesus Christ is your Good Shepherd. You have under shepherds here who serve you: elders, pastors, deacons who serve you. We are a part of a covenant community. Our help, we recognize together, is in the name of the Lord. This is the church of Christ. We're grateful for it.
So God promises help. And it's because He is the maker of heaven and earth. He is the one who created the mountains and the hills. And if He created them, He will be able to help us as well.
The second promise of God in this psalm is that He will guard us or watch us. A guard's key duty is to stay awake. How would you like to be out in the middle of the wilderness to have someone who is your watchman fall asleep? It's not good. But Psalm 127 says, "Unless the Lord builds the house, those who labor in vain. Unless the Lord watches over the city, the watchman stays awake in vain." So we know that the Lord is the one who watches over His people. The Lord will keep us from falling and stumbling. Why? Because He stays alert. He doesn't slumber or sleep.
He's not like the god Baal in the Old Testament. I mean, you remember that story, Mount Carmel. Elijah's on there. He's challenging these prophets, these false prophets. "Go ahead. Build yourself an altar. Get your sacrifice. Do whatever you want to do. Pray. Yell out. Scream. Dance. Call upon your God." They did it from morning till night. What happened? Nothing. And then Elijah taunts them: "Maybe he's asleep. Maybe you should go wake him up. Maybe he's relieving himself." Our God never sleeps. He never slumbers. He's always vigilant. He's endlessly awake, attentive to our needs. Every footstep of ours is important to Him. He will guard us.
He not only watches over us and guards us, but it says He's our shade. We all know how dangerous it can be living this close to the desert. Would you go out in the middle of the desert without water, without shade, just go wandering around? You and I know that. We hear stories about that. People going out and wandering and hiking, and then they're gone. It's dangerous. You need shade. You need water.
Listen to this comment by Abraham Kuyper about God being our shade: "Your God does not leave you to yourself. The way through the wilderness cannot be spared. The heat must singe, but the Lord follows after you. He comes to you. He draws near to you. He places Himself between this heat of the sun and yourself. He takes you by the hand. He covers you with the shade, which is His majestic greatness, and He casts upon you. And so you go on your way with gladness, refreshed by the love of God and covered by His holy shade." God is our shade in this life. He protects us from the excess heat, from the troubles of this life. He watches over us in our going out and in our coming in.
The third source of confidence that we get from the Lord is that He keeps us. You recall the words the Lord spoke of assurance to Jacob after his dream? "Jacob, behold, I am with you, and I will keep you wherever you go, and I will bring you back to this land, for I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you." Why is it so important that He keeps us? I think it's the difference between, say, Saul and David. Saul was anointed king, but David had God's true anointing. Listen to this passage: "Samuel took the horn of oil, he anointed David in the midst of his brothers, and the Spirit of the Lord rushed upon David from that time forward. And then it goes on, now the Spirit of the Lord departed from Saul. What's the difference? God kept David. He did not keep Saul.
What's the difference between Judas and Peter? Remember, Jesus said, "Peter, Satan has demanded to have you. He wants to sift you like wheat. But I have prayed that your faith may not fail." What's the difference? One was kept, one was not.
Do you recall the discourse that Jesus gave to his disciples? The bread of life discourse? And it says after he spoke those words, some of them just walked away. But some of them continued to follow him. And he said, "Why are you following me?" "Lord, you have the words of eternal life. Where else are we going to go?" What's the difference between them? Some were kept, and some were not.
God's preserving power is exerted on His people, the godly. His people, the people who have the true faith that we talked about earlier. He will keep us. It's repeated, if you notice this, six times. The word keep or keeper is used six times in this particular psalm. And it's personal. Ten times the word you or your is mentioned. You know how people sometimes say, "Hey, don't take it personally"? This psalm is saying, "Hey, take it personally. God's going to keep you. He's going to preserve you. He's going to make you go all the way on this long journey."
Now, the promise of this psalm to the Lord's church is not that we're ever going to not stumble or stub our toes, that there isn't going to be some injury along the way in this journey, that there aren't going to be accidents or even distress. We know that nothing will separate us from God's purposes, though. What promises we find in Scripture is that we will be preserved through those difficulties. We will be preserved from all the evil in them. Really, every page of Scripture says that our faith will encounter troubles. Even the Lord's Prayer: "Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil." That prayer, my friends, is answered every day, all throughout the day, for those who walk in faith.
All the water in all the ocean cannot sink a ship unless it gets in the ship. And the same is true about evil. No harm can come to us. No evil can overcome us because He's protecting us and keeping us from it. From the time we begin our pilgrimage, the time, that we repent the first time, the time we get out of Kedor and Meshach to our glorification, we are safe in His hands. The Lord will keep you from all evil.
So we can rest in the character of God. We can rest in Christ our Shepherd. He neither slumbers nor sleeps. There's not a moment when we are absent from Him, not a moment of withdrawal from His presence. His shadow is a refreshment in the heat of the day. His right hand is the hand that acts. And so God protects, God strengthens His people, and God gives us good encouragement. It's from all evil that He keeps us. He preserves our soul. This, beloved, is the life of His loved ones. He preserves your coming in and your going out. Where you come and where you go, the Lord is with you. Now in Zion, also on the journey home, under all circumstances, from now until eternity.
Rest assured with His protection. And if you still doubt tonight whether you have been received by Christ into His care and protection, He meets your doubt right now as He willingly offers Himself to you as the Good Shepherd. And He calls out to you and He says, "Come to Me." If we hear His voice and call upon Him, He enfolds us into His people.
Let's pray.
Heavenly Father, we thank You for these words of encouragement from Psalm 121. We acknowledge there are many troubles and we are in need of help. Help us tonight, Lord, where we need you. Be our guard and our keeper. We offer ourselves to you in this journey. Through Jesus Christ, we pray. Amen.