Pray:
Father in Heaven, help me to trust in Your protection. Keep my eyes from any other hope than Your promises.
Read:
Psalm 121:1-8
Meditate
Consider: "This psalm pictures God standing as a bodyguard to everyone who believes in him, and trusts in him. He stays close beside us, never sleeps, and guards and guides us through life's pilgrimage" (A. Leonard Griffith). Thanks be to God!
Think Further:
Psalm 121 is one of the Psalms of Ascent. These psalms (Psalm 120-134) were psalms for the long and dangerous annual trek to Jerusalem. On this trip God's people would pass numerous shrines perched on mountaintops, and so, as Psalm 121 opens, we see the predicament. On a dangerous path, whom will we look to for help? Will we look to idols, or will we trust in the help of God?
The answer becomes clear when we focus on verse 2. The God who made heaven and earth is the only one to bring help. Nothing else in the world can bring us true help, because this God is the designer and sustainer of all of it! But there are two lurking questions: how will we keep from trusting in idols, and what will this help look like on the way?
The first answer is hidden in the very form of the Psalm--prayerful expectation. The Psalm is a prayer designed to stay with us. It has a song-like quality that can stick in our heads. We keep our eyes from idols through continual prayer, worship and communing with God.
As for the second question, the answer is also within the psalm. God's help will look like the road to Jerusalem. It will look like the very same dangerous path with bandits, and victory, and tragedy. But the glorious side of this vision is that our road to Jerusalem is also Jesus' road to Jerusalem. At the end of Jesus' road to Jerusalem, he fulfilled the promise to guard us, because at the end of his road, there was a cross and a resurrection.
So, as the psalm closes with "The Lord will guard your coming and going forever," we know what God's help will look like--a winding road where each turn is a step to a present and promised redemption.
Apply:
Where are you ceaselessly working to find help in idols? Are you resting in the promise of the cross?
Pray:
Lord, I lift my eyes to the cross, where You redeemed my life and all of creation. I need You and You alone to be my shade, my watcher, and my keeper on this road to Your coming Kingdom.
