Everlasting Protection

One of the most exciting moments in a parent's life is watching that child that is crawling around, and then starting to stand up on furniture, embark on the adventure of walking.

Would you agree?

It's amazing.

And so for a father, one of my precious memories, we've had it vicariously with one of our grandchildren recently, literally in the last month, they started to walk.

I was like, wow, it's just so amazing to witness.

But I remember walking alongside behind as a dad, and when they're first taking this first steps and you're literally counting them.

And I think of that moment, that privilege of walking beside and behind and ready to catch my child as they were first walking.

I think of the Lord in Psalm 121.

I think of verse five where it says, the Lord watches over you.

I think it's like that.

Of course, he's in front as well, but he's right there as we learn to walk and we step out on the adventure of faith.

He's like a father, like a mother walking with us.

So we're coming to the end of this series, a short series in the Psalms.

Everlasting praise is what we've called it.

And today we're in Psalm 121, Everlasting Protection.

Psalm 121 needs a little context.

It's the Psalm of Ascent.

Psalm 120 to 134 are Psalms that the people of Israel used on their ascent.

And we say ascent because Jerusalem is on a mountain.

Israel had their main city there on the mountain of the Lord, and they would go there for the feasts, different feasts.

And on the journey, which sometimes could be perilous, they would use these particular Psalms, Psalms 120 to 134, and they would sing and recite and encourage one another about who their God is and what they have done on the journey, on the pathway, as it were.

This is my first adult Bible.

When I was an adult, I got into this, and it's quite dog-eared, and you can't see it, but it's very marked up.

It's the first Bible I ever read through.

But what I love to look back on is all these notes.

Anyone got a Bible like that?

Yeah.

So you're learning so much and it's fresh.

And I was preaching from this Bible.

It didn't used to have a brown cover like this, but this is the Bible I preached my first sermons at Caringborough as a full-time pastor with it.

And one day, and I loved my Bible, I used to sit there as I was reflecting and I chew the outside of it.

I just liked the feel of it for some reason.

It was meditative.

But the founding elder of Caringborough Baptist did not like my dog-eared chewed Bible.

So he came up and said, can I have your Bible for a week?

And he knew how to cover things.

So he put that on.

I don't like it as much.

But such was his respect for the word of God that he wanted one of his pastors to have a nice cover on his Bible.

Now, the reason I say that is, are the Psalms of ascent, Psalm 120 to 134, dog-eared in your Bible?

Do you have markings of how they have spoken to you in your life?

I don't know about you, but when I've reflected in with our home group we've been going through the Psalms, this series, Psalm 90, Psalm 145, Psalm 103, and today, Psalm 121.

I think you could pick any of these Psalms and just use it as discipleship content for a year.

Amen?

They're just so incredibly rich.

Jesus said, I am the way, and what he really said was, I am the hot-os, I am the road, the truth and the life.

Because when we put our faith in Jesus, we repent of our sins and we receive the gift of forgiveness and eternal life and we start walking.

We're on a road, we're on a journey, and certainly, this is what was happening for the people of Israel in springtime.

I don't know if you know, but in springtime, it was the Feast of Passover, and so they would go back, they'd share the Psalms of Ascent, 121 being one of them, and they would celebrate the way God redeemed them from Egypt in the Exodus.

In summer, they would go and it would be the Feast of Pentecost, and they would celebrate how God gave them the law at Moses, the law at Mount Sinai, the law to Moses.

And in autumn, it was the Feast of Tabernacles, and so they would go back to Jerusalem, and they would remember the shelter that God had given them when they were wandering in the wilderness.

So, they were a redeemed people, a commanded people, a blessed people.

And the Psalms of Ascent would speak into all of these aspects as they went back for the various feasts.

As a follower of Jesus, we are on a road, amen?

It's a journey.

It's a journey with lots of twists and turns.

And of course, we've heard about that from Daniel today.

We do not know what tomorrow brings.

Does anyone learn that?

Jesus knows everything, and he knows a bit about humanity.

And he's like, I wouldn't worry about tomorrow.

I know what's happening.

And the day after that, look, today's got enough worries, and I fully give you permission to worry about today.

Work out how to live today for my glory.

Tomorrow, leave it to me.

And so Psalm 121 is a wonderful Psalm that speaks into that journey, the journey of humans who are pilgrims, trusting the Lord and following him on this path of life.

We don't know how long it is.

So, very simply, the overview of Psalm 121 is that God watches over his people in every place, at every time, in all circumstances.

That's the simple truth of Psalm 121.

And let me just show you from the text.

God watches over us in every place.

Verse 1 says, I lift my eyes to the mountains.

Where does my help come from?

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

This Pilgrim is on a journey to Jerusalem.

And they're remembering, no matter what they might come across, where they will go, the One who made the heavens and earth is with them.

And it's the truth of Psalm 139, which maybe says it a little bit more in a more detailed way.

Where can I go from your spirit?

Where can I flee from your presence?

Is Psalm 139 a favorite of anybody's?

Lots of us know it.

If I go up to Psalm 139, it says, if I go to the heavens, you're there.

If I make my bed in the depths, you are there.

If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, there your hand will guide me.

Your right hand will hold me fast.

As I look around, I see lots of cultures, nations in the room.

Could you raise your hand if you are a person who left your home and travelled to a far distant place to find out whether God would guide you, his hand would guide you there?

Yeah.

Hey, lots of people in this church.

We know this is true.

Amen.

Whether I go here or I travel to the far side of the sea, there your hand will guide me because God watches over us in every place we will ever go.

Let that sink in.

What a wonderful truth.

True for the people of Israel, true for us.

Secondly, the psalmist says God watches over us at every time.

Every time.

There's no time day or night when God fails to watch over us.

He will not let your foot slip.

He who watches over you will not slumber.

Indeed, he who watches over Israel will neither slumber nor sleep.

The Lord watches over you.

The Lord is your shade at your right hand.

The sun will not harm you by day nor the moon by night.

You remember Baal, the god that Elijah came against at Mount Carmel.

Baal was known for falling asleep.

And so the priests of Baal, something that they used to do in their incantations was wake up Baal.

Pretty classic, isn't it?

Yahweh is not asleep.

He never sleeps.

But the song of humanity is, I am not sovereign.

I am not sovereign.

Because it doesn't matter how powerful you think you are, we all slumber.

Amen?

But our God doesn't.

He is running the universe when we are asleep.

And thirdly, God watches over his people in all circumstances.

So wherever we go, at every time, in all circumstances, verse 7, the Lord will keep you from all harm.

He will watch over your life.

The Lord will watch over your coming and going, both now and forevermore.

This is a theme you will find in many other parts of the Bible.

Jude 24 is a wonderful little verse.

To him who is able to keep you from stumbling, protection, and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy.

Second Timothy 418.

I wonder if you know this verse.

The Lord will rescue me, Paul says, from every evil attack and will bring me safely to his heavenly kingdom.

To him be glory forever and ever.

Amen.

Not a bad verse, is it?

For protection.

So these pilgrims are singing of his protection in every place at every time and at all circumstances.

And then we know, the text doesn't say this, but we know something happens.

And even while they're singing the song, something might happen that is completely counter to what they're singing.

Have you discovered that in life?

That we're singing, our God is the God who protects.

And then something happens to us or our loved ones in the journey of life, and we are caused to question, is he really there and does he care?

Because if he's meant to protect, I have just witnessed something happen that flies in the face of that truth.

It's part of the human condition.

We know this is true.

Psalm 91 is another favourite to add to Psalm 121.

It says, You will not fear the terror of night, nor the arrow that flies by day, nor the pestilence that stalks in the darkness, nor the plague that destroys at midday.

A thousand may fall at your side, ten thousand at your right hand, but it will not come near you.

No harm will overtake you, no disaster will come near your tent, for he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways.

But sometimes, we don't get guarded.

Sometimes, we are overtaken with harm.

Daniel's story is one of miraculous intervention, and yet, we don't know what tomorrow will bring.

And that's obviously the same for all of us.

And if you know your Bible, you know this is the story of Job, right?

Job has tragedy come across his life, and for 30 chapters, his friends tell him, it's because of your sin.

It's because of your sin.

It's the doctrine of retribution.

When you do bad stuff, bad things happen to you.

When you're good, good things will happen to you.

And it takes 30 chapters for God to get the truth through to him.

No, it's not as simple as that.

Bad things, as it were, happen all the time to people.

And maybe you could say good and bad.

1 Peter 4.19 is profound and impacting and mysterious.

So then those who suffer according to God's will should commit themselves to their faithful Creator and continue to do good.

This is what Peter says.

Suffer according to God's will.

What do we do with that, with Psalm 121?

It seems that the Bible is telling us there are things that will happen in our lives that we won't be able to understand without perspective.

Amen.

Things will happen in life and you know what?

It may not even come that you get the perspective.

It's as challenging as that.

That our God is a God who through his loving providence protects his people and yet also in this world that is fallen, allows there to be suffering for those same people.

Psalm 121 is a psalm of protection and providence, and yet we are not immune from suffering.

I think it's a hard pill to swallow and I've watched people, good mates over the years and people I haven't known, but I've known from a distance, the pain and suffering of life, the lack of perceived protection has caused them to walk away from faith.

And you probably know people or you've been on that journey yourself.

This dilemma is hard to handle, isn't it?

Like this stuff is hard.

We have a God who promises protection.

And yet, sometimes it feels like he doesn't protect us.

So, what do we do with these questions?

Here are three questions that you may have asked.

You may know people who are asking these questions.

Is God unfair?

Is God silent?

Is God hidden?

Is God unfair?

Is God silent?

Is God hidden?

Well, to answer the question, I think it's helpful to go back to the Book of Exodus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, and Joshua, the story of the early years of Israel as a people.

And you asked the question, was God unfair?

Not really.

No way.

The people, when they sinned, they tended to get punished.

And when they sort of did good, they were blessed.

It's what you read in the Pentateuch.

The sin will lead to punishment, and then repentance will lead to blessing.

It's a pattern that you read.

So I don't think you could say that God was unfair.

It was actually patently obvious.

He was very fair.

Was he silent?

There were stones with teaching on them.

Isn't that why he was silent?

When God wanted them to move, in the night, there would be a pillar of fire, and they would say, move now.

Pillar of smoke in the day, move now.

Like, he's fair.

He's certainly not silent.

And was he hidden?

Well, Moses speaks to him regularly in the tent of meeting.

So I wonder, how did it go for them?

How did that work for the people at that time, when it was obvious that God was fair, he was not silent, and he was not hidden?

They sinned terribly.

They sinned terribly.

I would put it to you that the era we're in that requires faith is not all so bad.

And it's the way God has designed it, that we need to believe.

We don't have it all laid out for us.

There is an element of our journey that requires faith.

It really does.

So let's return back to the Psalm for a clue to some answers to these dilemmas.

We begin with, I lift my eyes to the mountains.

Where does my hope come from?

My hope comes from the Lord, the maker of heaven and earth.

At the time that this was written, probably 3,000 years ago or something like that, much of the religious practices of the people were at the shrines in the high places.

And so, people would be lewd to these shrines and often they had male and female prostitutes there.

They would go there to try to find answers, to find power to be protected from evil, from the perils of the road.

Some of the things we read about in the psalm is, do you fear the sun's heat?

Well, the local people would go to the sun priest and pay for protection against the sun god.

Maybe you're fearful of the influence of the moon lights that will make you go mad, so you'd go to the moon priestess and buy an amulet.

Are you haunted by the demons that can use any pebble under your foot to trip you?

Go to the shrine and learn the magic formula to ward off the mischief.

But the psalmist says to the people, not so with you.

Not so with you.

You just raise your eyes to the heavens and see where your help comes from.

And this is not a man-made god that he's telling us to look to.

I think in our modern world, some of the problem is that we look to the heavens and we make that god out to be the lucky charm god who always will heal me.

That's making our god into a man-made god because he doesn't do that all the time.

He doesn't.

To me, one of the most important parts of the puzzle is to prepare for the worst.

And once we sit in that lament, there's so much to be learned that we can out of that lift our eyes up and go, wow, God, maybe you will heal me.

So, we don't want to create God into our own version of a man-made God.

But the psalmist says, no, I'm going to look to the God who created heaven and earth.

He is far above my challenges.

And so, what does God actually promise to the pilgrim on the discipleship road?

Verse 7, the Lord will keep you from all harm.

Psalm 121.

In the original language, what that text says is, He will keep you from all evil.

And that starts to push us in the direction, I think, that we need to go.

Yahweh will protect us from all evil.

Three times, His name is Yahweh, which is the intimate name of God, the personal name.

Eight times, He's referred to as a guardian in this text.

Our God promises to protect us from evil.

What did Jesus pray in the Lord's Prayer?

Deliver us from evil.

It's what God has promised.

He will deliver His people from evil.

Every type of evil, every effect of the fall, every eternal effect of sin.

How does He do that now when we look to the heavens with perspective in the history of God's salvation?

Two words, isn't it?

In Christ.

Amen.

There is no eternal protection.

We know this side of Pentecost, this side of the New Testament, without Christ doing all that He was called to do.

In Christ, every abundant blessing, every over-the-top, crazy sounding, outlandish protection blessing you find in the Psalms, it's only true in Christ.

Amen.

This is Lord, I'm sorry for the church, not very big on their amens.

In Christ, we, we see the manifest glory of God revealing how He gives this protection.

Amen.

It's so true.

Absolutely eternally safe through Jesus Christ's perfect life, His perfect death on the cross, His victorious resurrection and ascension to heaven through the gift of the Holy Spirit by faith, we are forgiven completely and changed into new humanity.

And we belong to a heavenly family and we have a hope that is absolutely sure that hope is eternal, everlasting, and we have the full power of heaven backing every promise we've been given.

Our help in every circumstance comes from this God, not a man-made God in the mountains, but the God who made the mountains.

Amen.

So, to wrap it up, I don't think there's anywhere better to go than Philippians 4, where Paul writes, Rejoice in the Lord always.

I say it again, rejoice.

Let your gentleness be evident to all the Lord is near.

Don't be anxious about anything, because there's lots of stuff to get anxious about.

But in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your request to God.

Do it, write Jesus on the wall.

Have some practical, intentional way of taking our requests to God.

And the promise is the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Pilgrims on this journey, which is us, we need our heart and mind protected, because it will take us to dark places.

Won't it?

But as we bring all of these needs before the Lord, Philippians' four promises, his peace will guard our heart and our mind in Christ, in Christ.

I think we're probably running out of time in this service, which has been rich and full.

I wanted to quote Romans 8, how and why we are more than conquerors.

And if you look at Psalm 8, sorry, Romans 8, you'll see there's a whole lot of challenges that come towards Paul.

And he says, no matter what, even death, even death itself, my hope is in Christ, in Christ, in Christ, hallelujah.

Our hope is in Christ.

He will not let your foot slip.

He who watches over you will not slumber.

He watches over us.

We can trust him for eternal protection and for protection today as well.

Let's ask him.

The text ends with forevermore.

That's the end of the Psalm.

He will watch over your life.

The Lord will watch over your coming and going both now and forevermore.

Guess what that word forevermore comes from?

Olam, which means our theme for the year.

Everlasting.

Everlasting.

His protection is everlasting.

So all year, Lord willing, we're just going to keep coming back to this truth.

We have nothing to fear.

Because when we put our faith in Christ, our hope is sure.

We have everlasting life.

And because of that, our God deserves everlasting praise.

Amen.

That is our hope, Lord God, that as we sit in Psalm 121 and we are confused about pain and suffering, I pray you would help us, help each individual in this room, those watching online, to find the hope which is in Christ Jesus, our Lord, to find the two words that change everything in Christ, and that they might change me, us.

They might change our today and our tomorrow.

And I know, Lord, by your grace, change our past.

In Christ.

Lord Jesus, receive all the glory.

You are our everlasting protector.

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