Psalm 121 part 2 

In part 1 vs1-2 we found the psalmist asking for and declaring the source of his help in the crisis of the moment. We all have these moments during which we need to manifest the same spiritual determination. I am also reminded that Jesus and the disciples, as tradition dictated, would have sung each of these psalms together on their final journey from Galilee to Jerusalem. 

The rest of the psalm is a blessing. The pronouns switch now from the first-person “my” and “I” of vs1-2 to second-person singular “you” and “your.”The genre here is benediction. An under-utilized genre in our world. Vs3-8 has two parallel “legs.” The keyword is keep/keeper which occurs 6 times. The logical movement in these 6 verses is from God’s identity and character to God’s identifying and characteristic actions. 

Who is God? God is a keeper. God’s identity is to protect, shield, watch over, guard, keep. God does this like a watchman keeping guard over a city (130:8) or a bird shielding its young in the shelter of his wings (91:4).  
What does God promise to do? God promises to keep you. God will guard you as you go on your journey of life, and as you return home. As you ‘go out and come in’. As you face the dangers of the day and of the night. 

The list of promises here is not meant to suggest that those who walk in the shelter of God will face no harm or that nothing ill will befall them. The Psalter knows all too well that the wicked, and the wicked ones are everywhere and that they thrive unjustly. These promises, however, are meant as characteristic promises — these are the sort of things that the Lord does for those who rely on him. And the words of blessing and promise evoke God’s protection and our awareness of it. 

“The Lord will keep your going out and your coming in, from this time on and forevermore.” Do you not belong to those who, in the journey through this wilderness of sin, “desire a better country, that is a heavenly one?” (Heb11:16)