Psalm 121 | Shaking in My Boots

Written by Joel Davis 

Have you ever misunderstood someone so completely that what they intended and what you understood them to mean were completely opposite? The question makes me think of the phrase, “Bless your heart.” Where I come from, if you say “bless your heart” to someone, it’s practically an insult. I’m blessing your heart because you’re such a pitiful person and I feel so bad for you that God Himself is going to need to intervene on your behalf, in the power of the Spirit, in Jesus’ name, just for you to survive! You can’t find your keys, bless your heart. You threw out your back doing the dishes, bless your heart. You get the idea! At the time of writing this devotional, we are in the midst of the US hosting the FIFA World Cup. I can just imagine any of the millions of people visiting these arenas in the South, getting their heart blessed, and walking away thinking they just met the nicest people on the planet, when in reality that person meant quite the opposite!  

Well, in the psalm I want to share with you today, the meaning I grew up attributing to it is almost exactly the opposite of what the psalmist originally intended. But that is actually great news! Let me show you what I mean. Psalm 121 starts like this:  

I lift my eyes toward the mountains. 
Where will my help come from? 

I imagine a number of you have heard this verse before. It’s one of 15 psalms in a mini collection of psalms from 120 to 134 called the Psalms of Ascent. These were songs that groups of Israelites would sing as they were journeying from the towns and cities where they lived back to Jerusalem for the Jewish feasts like the Passover or the Feast of Booths. They would sing these songs to prepare their hearts to worship Yahweh and enter into His city and His temple together.  

For probably 30 years of my life, when I heard that opening line, “I lift my eyes toward the mountain, where will my help come from?” I always envisioned it as a very optimistic tone, like the singers were looking up to Mount Zion, where Yahweh dwells, and were confident in His deliverance and this song was triumphant and fearless and a ra-ra celebration of their protected status as the people of God. 

That is not what that verse means. 

Think about this for a second: If you are a person living in the ancient world, what do the mountains represent? My family loves to go see America’s National Parks; we’ve been to about 20 so far. A few years ago, we drove to Rocky Mountain National Park. And in Rocky, you can take a road called Trail Ridge Road straight up the mountain, over the Continental Divide, take a pit stop at the Alpine Visitors Center at over 12,000 feet, and then head back down the other side. All in a day’s work! We did the summit and back, only took us a couple of hours. We were back by lunch, with pictures to prove it. 

But that is NOT the picture of the mountains that the ancient Israelites had. The mountains likely meant severe weather they were not equipped to handle. The mountains almost assuredly contained wild animals that would eat them for a tasty snack. The mountains could be hiding robbers or kidnappers who would haul us off into slavery or kill us on the spot.  

Now read verse 1 again and answer, how do we feel about the mountains?  

This psalm is a promise of our Father’s protective hand, but it’s not without a profound and potentially earth-shaking acknowledgement of the dangers we face in life.  

I lift my eyes up to the mountains and I’m scared to death. 

I lift my eyes up to the mountains that I’ve tried to summit before and failed. 

I lift my eyes up to the mountains that took the life of my friend.  

I lift my eyes up to the mountains and I know I can’t do this on my own. 

Where does my help come from?!  

But this is exactly where the power and potency of this psalm is just getting started: 

My help comes from the Lord, 
the Maker of heaven and earth. 

He will not allow your foot to slip; 
your Protector will not slumber. 
Indeed, the Protector of Israel 
does not slumber or sleep. 

The Lord protects you; 
the Lord is a shelter right by your side. 
The sun will not strike you by day 
or the moon by night. 

The Lord will protect you from all harm; 
he will protect your life. 
The Lord will protect your coming and going 
both now and forever. 

I think that Christians can often be accused of being a little too triumphalistic. I had a professor in Bible college that when we asked him how he was doing, he would always respond, “Too blessed to be stressed! Too anointed to be disappointed!” And to be totally fair, I thought it was funny and Dr. Estes was one of my favorites. But deep down, we certainly suspect that answer wasn’t ENTIRELY forthright. There are lots of days when I feel both blessed AND stressed, both anointed AND disappointed. 

Psalm 121 understands this. Your Heavenly Father understands this. And He promises you His protection. Maybe you’ve got some sharp rocks or some proverbial shadows lurking around the corner today. Are you believing the truth that Your heavenly Father is awake and aware of your situation? Are you walking in the power of the Holy Spirit, trusting that Your Father sees you and that Christ suffered for you and suffers with you? 

But you might be saying to yourself right now, “Okay Joel, but it certainly FEELS like my foot is slipping. It certainly SEEMS like the sun and moon have been really knocking me around lately” — Like I’m getting kicked around day and night, day in and day out. What could it possibly mean that I will be protected from ALL harm? We know it doesn’t mean I’ll never experience adversity. We know that because there isn’t a single faithful follower of Jesus in the entire Bible that didn’t experience significant adversity. And that includes our Lord and Savior Himself. In fact, I think it’s Jesus who really helps us understand the deeper truths at the foundation of psalm 121. In John 12:24-26, He says this: 

Truly I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains by itself. But if it dies, it produces much fruit. The one who loves his life will lose it, and the one who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. If anyone serves me, he must follow me. Where I am, there my servant also will be. If anyone serves me, the Father will honor him. 

Jesus tells us that in this life, that some degree of suffering is the necessary path to becoming more like Jesus. It’s the necessary path for a couple of reasons. First, it’s necessary because our desires are fickle are easily self-centered and those desires need to be put to death by the leading of the Spirit in order for us to experience intimacy with Him. And second, it’snecessary for us to suffer because Jesus suffered. And if our elder brother Jesus suffered, then we can expect to suffer as well if we identify with Him. Paul says it this way:  

My goal is to know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings, being conformed to his death, assuming that I will somehow reach the resurrection from among the dead.  —Philippians 3:10-11 

Brothers and sisters, I pray today that as you look up to the mountains of your circumstances, you will know with confidence that your Heavenly Father truly is protecting your life in the midst of trouble. I pray that you will look to Jesus, who suffered as well but offers to you and I the promise of abundant life, FULLNESS of life regardless of circumstances. And I pray that you will walk confidently in the power and leading of the Spirit, knowing that He will supply you wisdom for how to respond to your circumstances.