❖ Video
❖ Audio (Message)
The LORD watches over you
(Psalm 121)
Andy Nagahara
Today’s text is Psalm 121. Let’s read the entire text first, and then take in two verses at a time. The psalmist begins by declaring, “God is the one who watches over and helps me” (1,2) and calls us, “The one who also watches over you and helps you” (3-8).
0 A song of ascents. 1 I lift up my eyes to the hills– where does my help come from? 2 My help comes from the LORD, the Maker of heaven and earth.
3 He will not let your foot slip– he who watches over you will not slumber; 4 indeed, he who watches over Israel will neither slumber nor sleep.
5 The LORD watches over you– the LORD is your shade at your right hand; 6 the sun will not harm you by day, nor the moon by night.
7 The LORD will keep you from all harm– he will watch over your life; 8 the LORD will watch over your coming and going both now and forevermore.
1. Where does my help come from? (1, 2)
0 A song of ascents. 1 I lift up my eyes to the hills– where does my help come from? 2 My help comes from the LORD, the Maker of heaven and earth.
Looking at mountains and thinking about God is a feeling that everyone has in common. The ancients, who did not know that the world they lived in was just the surface of a celestial body in the universe, simply felt that God was above them, out of their reach. Altitude was also a measure of sacredness. And that feeling seems to be left in the DNA of people in every country, and we can’t help but install religious symbols on top of mountains.
When Moses heard something important from God, he was commanded to come to the top of the mountain. It was at the top of Mount Sinai that the Ten Commandments were given. According to the Gospel of Matthew, the disciples first met the resurrected Jesus on a mountain in the region of Galilee, to which Jesus had previously directed.
However, as stated in verse 2, God is not so small as to “dwell” in a mountain. Help does not come from the mountains, but from the Lord who made the heavens and the earth. He is the One who transcends the world, but is not beyond our reach. Because he came into the world that he made as Jesus.
The psalmist did not yet know Jesus. But we know Jesus as our Lord. Even if you are out of sight of the mountains, you can talk to Him, and He will speak to you. Help does not come from somewhere far away, but from Jesus who is with you.
2. The Lord will neither slumber nor sleep (3, 4)
3 He will not let your foot slip– he who watches over you will not slumber; 4 indeed, he who watches over Israel will neither slumber nor sleep.
Apparently, people in the psalmist’s time felt that God was cutting corners when there was a stagger in their course of life. When terrible things happened to them, they seemed to think that God was taking a nap.
Jesus has an episode like this.
Then he got into the boat and his disciples followed him. Without warning, a furious storm came up on the lake, so that the waves swept over the boat. But Jesus was sleeping. The disciples went and woke him, saying, “Lord, save us! We’re going to drown!”
He replied, “You of little faith, why are you so afraid?” Then he got up and rebuked the winds and the waves, and it was completely calm. The men were amazed and asked, “What kind of man is this? Even the winds and the waves obey him!” （Matthew 8:23-27)
Did the disciples think that Jesus was a carefree person who could sleep in a boat that was about to be swallowed by the waves in a storm? But when they woke Jesus, he said, “Why are you afraid, you of little faith?” and he rebuked the winds and the waves and calmed the storm.
Don’t we live our lives in the same way as the disciples who were in the boat with Jesus? Jesus did not tell them to have strong faith. If you misunderstand this point, Christianity will also fall into spiritual training or legalism that aims to reach a higher level by practicing on your own.
I imagine that Jesus didn’t sternly say, “Why are you afraid, you who have little faith?” but rather, “Oh, come on, you have faith, right? Why are you so afraid?” Jesus is well aware of our weaknesses, cowardice, and unreliable faith. The gospel of Jesus, which says that we can follow him as we are, doesn’t suit the expression of being a brave person of faith, or of deepening or strengthening our faith. Doubting and stumbling, nevertheless, believing that walking with the crucified and resurrected Lord is the only way to follow. That’s what faith is all about. There is no big or small, strong or weak.
3. From calamity and disease (5, 6)
5 The LORD watches over you– the LORD is your shade at your right hand; 6 the sun will not harm you by day, nor the moon by night.
The Lord is not so far away that He cannot hear our SOS, or so close that He is in a daze and fails to help us. It is not just near, but He is right there on the right.
Other than this latest Japanese translation of the Bible, most translations refer to it as “a shadow that covers the right hand,” but since the original word can be taken on either the right hand or the right side, I think this translation assumes that he is on the right side and covers his whole body. The reason why it is on the right side is that the left hand has a shield when fighting, so it seems that the right side is less defensible. In fact, some people are left-handed, so what this passage is trying to say is that the Lord is right next to us and protects us without fail.
In verse 6 the sun and moon are used as symbols of evil. The blazing sun weakens living things and causes drought. And the moon was thought to bring sickness.
The idea that the moon has a bad influence on the human spirit seems to have been widely believed, not only in Israel. There is a word that means madness called lunatic, and luna is the moon in Latin. The word comes from the idea that the moon drives people crazy. In Taketori Monogatari (The Tale of the Bamboo-Cutter), which is said to be the oldest story in Japan, it is written that someone was worried about Princess Kaguya gazing at the moon and being sad, and tried to stop her, saying that looking at the moon was bad luck.
However, the Bible itself teaches that the moon was also created by God, and that it actually causes illness is merely a human lore. This expression should be taken as a metaphor. Rather, the Bible strongly warns us not to bow down to the sun, moon, and all the heavenly bodies, which God has never commanded us to do.
(Deuteronomy 17:3) Relying on something other than God, the creator, to control natural disasters and illnesses is the same as idolatry.
Then what about science? Does trusting science amount to unbelief and idolatry? No, it’s not. Whether it’s the natural sciences or the humanities, they are gifts from God. It is a means of doing God’s will. However, humans with a sinful nature have used it against God’s will and caused calamities. It’s not that science is bad. The problem is that people overestimate their abilities and fall into idolatry, blindly believing in science rather than in God.
The only way to protect ourselves in such modern idolatry is to draw near to God and be protected by his shadow. To put it concretely, it means to live life with Jesus and according to His words.
4. Now and forevermore (7,8)
7 The LORD will keep you from all harm– he will watch over your life; 8 the LORD will watch over your coming and going both now and forevermore.
This is not to say that disasters do not occur. Disasters are still happening all over the world. He will protect us from disaster. If you walk with the Lord, all things will be changed for good.
And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. （Romans 8:28）
This does not mean that God shows favoritism toward those who love Him. Those who love God can receive things in a broader perspective, even if not completely, as God does, so that the results obtained are actually beneficial to the person. On the other hand, even if God gives a person what is best for them, if they do not feel that way, they will still not consider it to be beneficial.
God is the one who turns what seems like disaster into good. We may be left with scars on our body that will not heal. But no plagues can destroy us. To be more precise, no disaster can destroy our souls.
Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell. （Matthew 10:28)
Of course, what is called life here is not life in the sense of living in this world. It’s about our souls. Eternal life is not guaranteed to the body, but to the soul.
From the time we are born on earth until the time we leave this earth and forever, our souls will be with the Lord Jesus and will never be separated. Let’s continue to walk with Jesus from now until eternity.
(Prayer) Dear God, thank you for watching over each of us.
You came among us as a person, Jesus, and made it possible for us to walk through life with you.
Although we often experience hardships and disasters in our daily walk, we trust that You are with us.
We believe that You are watching over us.
And we trust You to turn all things into good.
Believing that our help comes only from you, we pray hopefully and gratefully in the name of Jesus Christ.
Summary
God is the one who created everything in the heavens and the earth, so he does not exist in one part of the world and not in another. Yet it cannot be said that God exists outside of this world, without relation to those of us who live in it. Even though He is the Creator, He came in a special way by coming as one person, Jesus, into the world He created, and even now He is close to those who believe and follow Him as a spiritual presence called the Holy Spirit. He is the one who watches over our lives from beginning to end and forever.
For Discussion
- Where is God?
- In what sense can we live forever?