My Keeper

My Keeper

Third Sunday after Epiphany

Collect of the day: Almighty and everlasting God, mercifully look upon our infirmities, and in all our dangers and necessities stretch forth thy right hand to help and defend us; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Psalter: 121

1 I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills; from whence cometh my help?  

2 My help cometh even from the LORD, who hath made heaven and earth.

3 He will not suffer thy foot to be moved; and he that keepeth thee will not sleep.

4 Behold, he that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep.

4 The LORD himself is thy keeper; the LORD is thy defence upon thy right hand;

5 So that the sun shall not burn thee by day, neither the moon by night.

6 The LORD shall preserve thee from all evil; yea, it is even he that shall keep thy soul.

7 The LORD shall preserve thy going out, and thy coming in, from this time forth for evermore.

You may have heard the old anti-Darwinist joke. A monkey in the zoo asks himself: “Am I my keeper’s brother?”

The verb “keep” and noun “keeper” occur four times in the Prayer Book version, but the Hebrew word is found seven times in the original. It is the theme of the Psalm.

When my wife gets frustrated with my losing things, she is prone to say, “You need a keeper.” I don’t like the idea of a keeper, because it sounds like she wants someone to put me in a cage.

But, if something I were facing a great danger, I would welcome a keeper. That’s why the Psalmist loves to use the word.

1. Question

Psalm 121 is the second of 15 Songs of Ascent. They were recited or sung by pilgrims making their way from Galilee and Judah up to Jerusalem to one of the annual Feasts. It is easy to see how this particular Psalm was included in this series of Psalms.

1.1. A pilgrim is traveling, and he sees ahead the hills. There are two possibilities of what hills he sees.

• It may be that the sees the hills that lie between him and his destination - the hills he is about to go over on his way to Jerusalem.

• Or it may be that he is looking at the hills of Jerusalem and the Temple in the distance - the hills that are his goal though he has miles to travel before he gets there.

1.2. As he lifts his eyes to the hills - whichever hills he has in mind - he asks the question, “From whence cometh my help?”

• If he is thinking about the hills he is about to ascend, his concern is the dangers that lurk ahead in the hills, possibly bands of robbers.

• Or, if he is closer to Jerusalem and thinking about the hills of the city and the Temple, then he is thinking about the things that could yet happen to him before he gets there. And he asks, Where is my help coming from - my help to keep me safe and let me arrive in Jerusalem unharmed?

1.3. You know how it is when you let your mind go to all the things that could go wrong. The Psalmist thinks of all the evils that could occur. “Evil” has two meanings in the Bible. One is “moral evil” - sin, wickedness. The other meaning is calamity, catastrophe, tragedy. The Psalmist is thinking about evil in this second sense. A number of things could happen:

• He could lose his footing on a slippery spot or trip on a rock or vegetation.
• He could get burned by the son and suffer heatstroke.
• Something could happen at night when the moon is out - maybe he is thinking about dangers that lurk in the night or he could have in mind the popular but questioned belief that weird things happen when the moon is full.
• There are all sorts of dangerous and calamitous possibilities on such a journey.

Our whole lives are journeys. We can look back, and see the truth of John Newton’s hymn - “through many dangers, toils, and snares.” On the journey ahead there are dangerous hills and dark valleys. As we think about all that could happen between now and our journey’s end, we find many reasons to ask with the pilgrim, “From whence shall my help come?”

2. Answer

2.1. He answers himself in verse 2: “My help cometh even from the LORD, who hath made heaven and earth.” Sometimes, when you ask anxious questions, you know the answer already. You know, and you need to say it to yourself. So the Psalmist says, “From where does my hope come?” It comes from the LORD.

• The LORD is the self-existent, always faithful, self-revealing God who spoke to Moses from the burning bush. He is the God who entered into a covenant with Abraham, and said, “I will be your God and the God of your descendants. I am with you.”  

• The LORD is the God who created the heavens and the earth. He not only is the God of the hills, as were some of the pagan gods of the day. He is not a geographical god or a god who rules over some limited aspects of life. He is the Creator of heaven and earth, of all things that exist. He has power over all these things.

• This is how the pilgrim steadies himself. “I see dangers. I am anxious. Who will help me? The Creator of all things, and Israel’s Redeemer is with me and will help me.”

2.2. Then, it seems in verses verse three someone else begins to speak, perhaps a priest or another pilgrim.

He that keepeth thee will not sleep. Behold he

that keepeth Israel will neither slumber nor sleep.

The LORD Himself is your keeper.

• The Lord is not only your Helper. He is your Keeper - the God who cares about you, who watches over, who protects you, who provides for you. He is your personal Keeper. He is the Keeper of his covenant people of which you are a member.

• Your Keeper does not sleep. We may have had people sit with us in hard times. But people are limited - they have to sleep. Remember how Jesus took three of his disciples deep into the Garden of Gethsemane. He told them his heart was deeply troubled even to the point of death. He asked them to watch and pray with him. But three times they fell asleep. He finally. said about them, “The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak” But your God does not sleep. At Mt. Carmel Elijah the prophet had a great contest with the prophets of Baal. The prophets of Baal were supposed to call on their god to send down fire from heaven to consume an offering on an altar. But nothing happened. Elijah ridiculed them. “Maybe your god is on vacation. Maybe he is using the bathroom. Maybe he’s taking a nap.” Not so with the LORD. He is awake, alert, paying attention; he is with us as our Keeper.

3. The Promises

Based on God’s being our Helper and Keeper, there are reassurances and promises.

3.1. Based on those truths, the pilgrim finds encouragement for his journey. On this trip the Lord be at his right hand to defend him. He will keep his foot from slipping. He will protect him from the dangers of the sun and daytime. He will protect you from the moon and the dangers of the night. The Psalm says to the pilgrim, “These specific things you are concerned about are all under the LORD’s watch and control. You are safe.”

3.2. Then the assurances broaden.

The LORD shall preserve thee from all evil;

yea, it is even he that shall keep thy soul.

As the Psalm moves from the dangers of the trip to Jerusalem to concern about the whole and rest of the pilgrim’s life, the assurance gets bigger. Think of all the evils - all the dangers, natural disasters, the spiritual traps, the tragedies, the calamities. The Lord will be your Helper, Keeper, Defender, Provider in all those circumstances, too. Because of this truth Paul could say that “all things work together for good to those who love God, who are called according to his purpose” and that nothing could separate us from the love of God in Christ.

3.3. The scope of the promise gets even bigger:

The LORD shall preserve thy going out, and thy

coming in, from this time forth for evermore.

The Lord will be with us and take care of us in the totality of our lives. When we go out the Lord is there watching over us. When we come in, he will be there to help. Forevermore. That is endless. When you go out of this world; the Lord will be there to watch over. And as you leave this world, he will be there to care for and welcome you into this heavenly kingdom. And there you will enjoy his presence, his love, his helping and keeping forever and ever.

And now we come to the Table where Christ assures us he is with us throughout this life.  And here he gives us a foretaste of the glorious blessings to come when our journey through this life is done.