The Treasury of David

Charles Spurgeon

PSALM 121
 

"I will lift up my eyes unto the hills, from whence comes my help. My help comes from the LORD, who made heaven and earth. He will not allow your foot to be moved: he who keeps you will not slumber. Behold, he who keeps Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep. The LORD is your keeper: the LORD is your shade upon your right hand. The sun shall not smite you by day, nor the moon by night. The LORD shall preserve you from all evil: he shall preserve your soul. The LORD shall preserve your going out and your coming in from this time forth, and even for evermore!"

Verse 1. "I will lift up my eyes unto the hills, from whence comes my help." It is wise to look to the strong for strength. Dwellers in the valleys are subject to many disorders for which there is no cure but a sojourn in the uplands, and it is well when they shake off their lethargy and resolve upon a climb. Down below they are the prey of marauders, and to escape from them the surest method is to fly to the strongholds upon the mountains.

Often before the actual ascent, the sick and plundered people looked towards the hills and longed to be upon their summits. The holy man who here sings a choice sonnet looked away from the slanderers by whom he was tormented, to the Lord who saw all from his high places, and was ready to pour down succor for his injured servant.

Help comes to saints only from above, they look elsewhere in vain! Let us lift up our eyes with hope, expectancy, desire, and confidence. Satan will endeavor to keep our eyes upon our sorrows—that we may be disquieted and discouraged; be it ours firmly to resolve that we will look out and look up, for there is good cheer for the eyes, and they that lift up their eyes to the eternal hills shall soon have their hearts lifted up also. The purposes of God; the divine attributes; the immutable promises; the covenant, ordered in all things and sure; the providence, predestination, and proven faithfulness of the Lord—these are the hills to which we must lift up our eyes, for from these our help must come. It is our resolve that we will not be blindfolded—but will lift up our eyes.

He inquires, "Whence comes my help?" The next verse answers the question, and shows whence all help must come.

Verse 2. "My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth." What we need is help: powerful, efficient and constant help! We need a very present help in trouble. What a mercy that we have it in our God. Our hope is in Jehovah, for our help comes from him. Help is on the road, and will not fail to reach us in due time, for he who sends it to us was never known to be too late. Jehovah who created all things is equal to every emergency; heaven and earth are at the disposal of him who made them, therefore let us be very joyful in our infinite helper. He will sooner destroy heaven and earth—than permit his people to be destroyed; and the perpetual hills themselves shall dissolve—rather than he shall fail, whose ways are everlasting.

We are bound to look beyond heaven and earth to him who made them both! It is vain to trust the creatures—it is wise to trust the Creator.

Verse 3. "He will not allow your foot to be moved." Though the paths of life are dangerous and difficult—yet we shall stand fast, for Jehovah will not permit our feet to slide; and if He will not allow it—we shall not be moved! If our foot will is thus kept—we may be sure that our head and heart will be preserved also! Those who have God for their keeper—shall be safe from all the perils of the way.

Among the hills and ravines of Palestine, the literal keeping of the feet is a great mercy; but in the slippery paths of a tempted, tried and afflicted life, the blessing of upholding is of priceless value—for a single false step might cause us a fall fraught with awful danger! To stand 'steadfast' and pursue our holy way—is a blessing which only God can give. It is worthy of His divine hand, and worthy also of our perennial gratitude. Our feet shall move in heavenly progress—and we shall never be overthrown!

"He who keeps you will not slumber." We could not stand a moment—if our Divine Keeper were to sleep! We need him by day and by night; not a single step can be safely taken—except under His guardian eye. This is a choice stanza in a pilgrim song. God is the convoy and body-guard of his people. When dangers are all around us—we are safe, for our Preserver is awake also, and will not permit us to be moved. No fatigue of exhaustion can cast our God into sleep—His watchful eyes are never closed!

Verse 4. "Behold, He who keeps Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep." The consoling truth must be repeated: it is too rich to be dismissed in a single line. It were well if we always imitated the sweet singer, and would dwell a little upon a choice doctrine, sucking the honey from it. What a glorious title is in the Hebrew "The keeper of Israel," and how delightful to think that no form of unconsciousness ever steals over him, neither the deep slumber nor the lighter sleep. He will never allow the house to be broken into by the silent thief; he is ever on the watch, and speedily perceives every intruder.

This is a subject of wonder, a theme for attentive consideration, therefore the word "Behold" is set up as a waymark. Israel fell asleep—but his God was awake. Jacob had neither walls, nor curtains, nor body-guard around him; but the Lord was in that place—though Jacob knew it not, and therefore the defenseless man was as safe as in a castle. In after days he mentioned God under this enchanting name, "The God who led me all my life long;" perhaps David alludes to that passage in this expression.

The word "keeps" is also full of meaning. God keeps us as a rich man keeps his treasures, as a captain keeps a city with a garrison, as a royal guard keeps his monarch's head. If the former verse is in strict accuracy a prayer, this is the answer to it—it affirms the matter thus, "Lo, he shall not slumber nor sleep—the Keeper of Israel." It may also be worthy of mention that in verse three the Lord is spoken of as the personal keeper of one individual, and here of all those who are in his chosen nation, described as Israel. Mercy to one saint is the pledge of blessing to them all. Happy are the pilgrims to whom this psalm is a safe conduct; they may journey all the way to the celestial city without fear.

Verse 5. "The Lord is your keeper." Here the preserving One, who had been spoken of by pronouns in the two previous verses, is distinctly named— JEHOVAH is your keeper! What a mint of meaning lies here! The sentence is a mass of gold bullion, and when coined and stamped with the king's name it will bear all our expenses between our birthplace on earth and our rest in heaven. Here is a glorious person Jehovah, assuming a gracious office and fulfilling it in person— Jehovah is your keeper, in behalf of a favored individual— YOUR. This is a firm assurance of revelation that it is even so at this hour—Jehovah is your keeper. Can we appropriate the divine declaration? If so, we may journey onward to Jerusalem and know no fear; yes, we may journey through the valley of the shadow of death and fear no evil.

"The Lord is your shade upon your right hand." A shade gives protection from burning heat and glaring light. We cannot bear too much blessing; even divine goodness, which is a right-hand dispensation, must be toned down and shaded to suit our infirmity, and this the Lord will do for us. He will bear a shield before us, and guard the right arm with which we fight the foe. That member which has the most of labor shall have the most of protection. When a blazing sun pours down its burning beams upon our heads the Lord Jehovah himself will interpose to shade us, and that in the most honorable manner, acting as our right-hand attendant, and placing us in comfort and safety. "The Lord at your right hand shall smite through kings." How different this from the portion of the ungodly, who have Satan standing at their right hand, and of those of whom Moses said, "their defense has departed from them." God is as near us as our shadow, and we are as safe as angels.

Verse 6. "The sun shall not smite you by day, nor the moon by night." None but the Lord could shelter us from these tremendous forces. These two great lights rule the day and the night, and under the lordship of both we shall labor or rest in equal safety. Doubtless there are dangers of the light and of the dark—but in both and from both we shall be preserved — literally from excessive heat and from baneful chills; mystically from any injurious effects which might follow from doctrine bright or dim; spiritually from the evils of prosperity and adversity; eternally from the strain of overpowering glory and from the pressure of terrible events, such as judgment and the burning of the world.

Day and night make up all time: thus the ever-present protection never ceases. All evil may be ranked as under the sun or the moon, and if neither of these can smite us—we are indeed secure. God has not made a new sun or a fresh moon for his chosen, they exist under the same outward circumstances as others—but the power to smite is in their case removed from temporal agencies; saints are enriched, and not injured, by the powers which govern the earth's condition; to them has the Lord given "the precious things brought forth by the sun, and the precious things put forth by the moon," while at the same moment he has removed from them all curse of heat or damp, of glare or chill.

Verse 7. "The Lord shall preserve you from all evil," or keep you from all evil. It is a great pity that our admirable translation did not keep to the word "keep" all through the psalm, for all along it is one. God not only keeps his own in all evil times—but from all evil influences and operations, yes, from evils themselves. This is a far-reaching word of covering—it includes everything, and excludes nothing. The wings of Jehovah amply guard his own from evils great and small, temporary and eternal. There is a most delightful double personality in this verse: Jehovah keeps the believer, not by agents—but by himself; and the person protected is definitely pointed out by the word "you"—it is not our estate or name which is shielded—but the believer himself.

To make this even more intensely real and personal another sentence is added, "The Lord shall preserve you from all evil; he shall preserve your soul,"— or Jehovah will keep your soul. Soul-keeping is the soul of keeping. If the soul is kept—all is kept. The preservation of the greater, includes that of the less, so far as it is essential to the main design. The kernel shall be preserved, and in order thereto the shell shall be preserved also. God is the sole keeper of the soul. Our soul is kept from the dominion of sin, the infection of error, the crush of despondency, the puffing up of pride; kept from the world, the flesh, and the devil; kept for holier and greater things; kept in the love of God; kept unto the eternal kingdom and glory. What can harm a soul that is kept of the Lord?

Verse 8. "The Lord shall preserve your going out and your coming in from this time forth, and even for evermore." When we go out in the morning to labor, and come home at eventide to rest—Jehovah shall keep us. When we go out in youth to begin life, and come in at the end to die—we shall experience the same keeping. Our exits and our entrances are under one protection. Three times have we the phrase, "Jehovah shall keep," as if the sacred Trinity thus sealed the word to make it sure! Ought not all our fears to be slain by such a threefold flight of arrows? What anxiety can survive this triple promise?

This keeping is ETERNAL—continuing from this time forth, even for evermore. The whole church is thus assured of everlasting security. The final perseverance of the saints is thus ensured, and the glorious immortality of believers is guaranteed. Under the protection of such a promise, we may go on pilgrimage without trembling, and venture into battle without dread. None are so safe as those whom God keeps; none so much in danger as the self-secure. To goings out and comings in belong peculiar dangers, since every change of position turns a fresh quarter to the foe, and it is for these weak points that an especial security is provided. Jehovah will keep the door when it opens and closes, and this he will perseveringly continue to do so long as there is left a single person who trusts in him, as long as a danger survives, and, in fact, as long as time endures! Glory be unto the Keeper of Israel, who is endeared to us under that title, since our growing sense of weakness makes us feel more deeply than ever—our need of being kept.