Keeper
A number of years ago my son and I were stopped at a light, waiting to turn left from the off-ramp of the 15 South and onto Ninth Avenue, heading east. We were the first car at the light. As it turned green, I headed into the intersection and was plowed into by a car that had blown a tire and couldn’t stop in time. Everyone was okay, but my car was totaled. (However, I still drove it for another couple of years! But that’s another story for another time.) While the outside of the car was wrecked, the lives of the people inside the car were still safe and protected.
When the psalmist writes in Psalm 121:7 that the LORD will watch over our lives, I think it’s helpful to think about what He really is protecting. The Hebrew word that the ancient songwriter intentionally chooses to use is the word nephesh. Perhaps you’ve heard of it before? Nephesh is used in Genesis 2:7 to describe man becoming a living being after the LORD God breathes life into his body. The nephesh is the soul or inner being of all people. It is not the outer shell we know as the body. It is Scott and Jordan inside the car, it is not the Kia Sedona in which they were riding. It is what the psalmist says will be kept from all harm.
As I reflect on this truth, I think, “Now we’re getting somewhere! Now I have something I can sink my teeth into and offer my praise to God for.” Here’s the great news that this passage points us to - He will never let anything happen to that part of me or you that is truly me or you. And when something eventually does happen to our body, we have the rock-solid promise and hope of resurrection. In His time, our soul will be reunited with a new, glorified body. The news just keeps getting better.
Today, it’s my prayer that you’ll be reminded that the LORD God will never let anything happen to that part of you that is truly you. Lots may happen to your body, but nothing can ultimately touch your soul. He’s got you.
Scott Smith
Connection and Growth Pastor
All Evil?
“The Lord will keep you from all evil; he will keep your life.” Psalm 121:7
Is this even true? It doesn’t really feel true. I mean, think about it... have you been kept from “all evil”? It doesn’t feel like I have. In fact, on the day that we studied this passage together in preparation for writing this devotional, my family and I were experiencing something that is objectively pretty evil.
On the Sunday prior, Beth’s uncle did the greeting and announcements in his church’s worship service and then just passed out. There was no warning. The paramedics were called, they gave him CPR and rushed him to the hospital. He had experienced a cardiac arrhythmia that led to a stroke and by the time of our study, he was completely paralyzed, unresponsive, and hours from death. It was absolutely tragic! I couldn’t help but think that this was a clear example of the evil that has infected our world as I read the words of this psalm. I couldn’t help but ask the question, “Why didn’t the Lord keep our family from all evil?”
Now, if you ever run across a passage of scripture that doesn’t seem to be true, it is a good indication that something is wrong. Not wrong with scripture, because it cannot fail us, but often something is wrong with our understanding of scripture. You see, while the scriptures are the words of God, the way we interpret those words can sometimes just be our own words. We have to have the humility to recognize that.
This situation was an instance in which my interpretation of this passage failed. However, I was given a new perspective by one of Beth’s cousins who had just been in the room during her dad’s last moments of life. Here is the text that she sent:
We had a sweet time of singing with dad. He opened his eyes several times as we sang It is Well, Be Thou My Vision, Great is Thy Faithfulness, Be Still My Soul, and Country Roads (yes, the John Denver song… they’re from West Virginia, what can I say?). We read some scripture. We prayed a few times, hugged him, and left while they took the tubes out.
What could be so “sweet” about saying goodbye to your father? How could such a terrible event be oddly beautiful at the same time? This was definitely evil. All death is evil, but clearly, this wasn’t “all evil.” It seemed to me that even in the face of clear evil, Jesus had kept this situation from “all evil.” Maybe this promise isn’t a promise God will keep us from every instance of evil, but a promise that God would save us from experiencing the full extent of the power of evil. While the evil was undeniable, God’s love and beauty broke through. We did not experience the totality of evil.
Sure enough, Beth’s uncle passed away within hours of those tubes being removed. His physical life ended, but his family could rejoice because they knew that his real life was just beginning. So it would seem that the promise is true after all. Not that evil wouldn’t touch us, but that God’s love and goodness will always win in the end!
Josh Rose
Teaching Pastor
Ultimately
“I’m already thanking God for what he will do.”
Dad sniffed, wiped his eyes, and grinned at us across the table.
My dad getting weepy at breakfast wasn’t unfamiliar; our breakfast conversation usually included something about God, and anytime Dad talked about God’s goodness, he always got emotional.
I vividly remember these kinds of comments throughout my childhood when my dad was going through something difficult. It was primarily in these times that he would come out from his prayer time crying over God’s love for him, and when he would often seem the most peaceful and joy-filled.
I began to realize that his peace and joy came from praising God for good things that weren’t a reality, but that he still thanked God for ultimately doing.
‘Ultimately’ is a keyword here. I think it’s an important word to keep in mind with Psalm 121, as it can be a difficult psalm for some to stomach. On the surface, it sounds incredibly comforting, but to someone experiencing great suffering, it might feel more like a slap in the face: “The LORD will keep you from all evil.” Hmmm… really?
What I would like to suggest is that the psalmist wasn’t a liar, naïve, or living his life under a rock; I think he was just as aware of the suffering found in this world as we are. You might ask, “Then why speak as if God won’t let any of it happen to us?”
What I think the psalmist is doing here is taking on a different perspective. He isn’t focusing on what God seems to be doing in the moment (which might actually feel at odds with everything this psalm says), but on what God can and will do. Like my dad, the psalmist is thanking God for who He is and how he knows He will ultimately work. He is confidently confirming that God will keep and protect him even as he feels like the world is closing in around him.
When we, like the psalmist, seek to focus on the ‘ultimately’ of God’s goodness, I think something like what happened for my dad begins to take place. How we feel in the moment begins to fade, and the beauty of God’s great love remains firm, steadfast, and ever-present. The ‘ultimately’ then inexplicably becomes solace for the present.
Ashley Carr
Childlike
I lift up my eyes to the mountains—
where does my help come from?
My help comes from the Lord,
the Maker of heaven and earth.
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.
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.
Psalm 121 seems like such a passionate statement of confidence. God will not let your foot slip. God will not let harm come to you. Too bad there’s a cynic inside each of us that immediately points out a laundry list of past harmful foot slippings. And just like that, this beautiful statement of optimistic faith is reduced to naive childishness. Obviously, the divinely inspired inerrant word of God is not naive nor childish, but this chapter doesn’t seem to line up with real life. What gives?
Well, we could get into the definitions of words and massage meanings. We could look at different perspectives and form a fairly comprehensive explanation that no one would remember the next time we read Psalm 121. Instead, I want to go after that inner cynic we all have.
An arrogant person might postulate understanding the Bible like this: “If it doesn’t make sense, it is not true.” When confronted with something tough in the Word, we don’t change the word to fit our understanding of life, rather, we change our understanding to fit the Word of God. We can then seek the nuances of the meanings and the perspectives which amplify the Truth and make it that much more applicable and awesome.
When a father tells his child about the world, the child takes his word for it and though he may have a myriad of questions, still accepts it. At the end of the day, as God’s children, we should probably do likewise. When God tells us about his world through the Bible, I think we should first respond with, “Okay, I accept that,” and then proceed with the questions.
If the Lord will in fact keep you from all harm, then the struggles of life aren’t the harms God protects us from. The Lord is keeping us safe from greater eternal spiritual harm, all the while working all things together for the good of those who love him. The trials and hardships of life are plots for the movie we are in, at the end of which it states, “No souls were harmed in the making of this film. The watchful director guarantees it!”
Jonathan Duncan
Jesus’ Journey
We’ve been looking at Psalms 120 this week and I’d bet some of you can relate to different parts of it. Some of you might relate to the strife of ongoing opposition, some of you might relate to not being where you’d like to be. Once you dig down a bit into the possible meaning of this poem, I think it becomes clear that this is about the common hardships of life. Everyone can relate to this Psalms to some degree
I call on the Lord in my distress,
and he answers me.
Save me, Lord,
from lying lips
and from deceitful tongues.
What will he do to you,
and what more besides,
you deceitful tongue?
He will punish you with a warrior’s sharp arrows,
with burning coals of the broom bush.
Woe to me that I dwell in Meshek,
that I live among the tents of Kedar!
Too long have I lived
among those who hate peace.
I am for peace;
but when I speak, they are for war.
I’d like to submit a thought for your consideration. All seven verses of this Psalm could very well be sung by the Lord Jesus during his ministry. Jesus had cried out to God in his distress at Gethsemane. He had railed with great vitriol against the Pharisees, describing what awaits them. Jesus lived among those who hated peace; those are the ones who would go on to kill him on the cross.
Obviously, Jesus didn’t directly pen this Psalm, but I think Jesus may have sung this song along with everyone else traveling to Jerusalem. The Lord himself entered the lonely song of the human experience, and then made it better! He took on the angst of strife and the bitterness of loneliness and answered it as only he could. Through his work on the cross, we now have inextinguishable hope for the future and a companionship unmatched.
Jonathan Duncan
We are for Peace
"Too long have I had my dwelling among those who hate peace. I am for peace, but when I speak, they are for war!" - Psalm 120:6-7
What impresses me about this passage is that the author expresses that he is committed to being all for peace even when those around him hate it and want war. I personally think that this is a massive challenge for all of us in these particular times. The reality is that we live in a very divisive moment in our history. The tension caused by our differences of opinions regarding health, political, and social issues in our country is very high. It seems to me as if more than ever before it’s getting harder to engage in respectful and meaningful conversations about certain topics, with people with whom we disagree. Many conversations nowadays feel like being in the middle of a minefield. And to make matters worse, the media keeps feeding us with new controversial topics almost every week, making it even harder for us to agree on much. As a result, we have become more impulsive in our reactions towards those who have different points of view than ours. We are taking other people’s opinions way too personally.
Now, to be honest, I don’t think this tension is going away anytime soon. The challenge for us, as disciples of Jesus, is that we are right in the middle of the controversies. The question is, how are we going to respond toward those with whom we have disagreements? The psalmist would suggest for us to respond in the following way: “I’m for peace!” Now, I know that this suggestion might sound very unrealistic to many of us because we don’t know how to handle the distress of being in disagreement with others without feeling personally attacked. For those of us who struggle this way, let me remind you that Jesus is the “Prince of Peace” (Isaiah 9:6), and surely He’s willing to show us how to “be for peace” even when people around us are for war. As followers of Jesus, we cannot allow ourselves to fall into the temptation of seeing our neighbors with suspicion instead of seeing them with love. Certainly, our opinions do matter, but not as much as our neighbors do, for we are called to love our neighbors like ourselves (Matt. 22:39). So, let’s not allow the “us versus them” mentality to take the best of us.
In my opinion, there’s only one thing about us that might make people around us uncomfortable, and that’s the message we believe, live, and share. However, being for peace includes sharing the message of peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ (Romans 5:1). Just be prepared, the message we are about is going to be extremely offensive to many people in today's society. Believe me, the more we share the gospel of peace, the more people will become enraged. But even as we share the gospel we do it for the shalom, for the peace, of all people.
Esteban Tapia
Spanish Ministries
Release - Psalm 120
The Psalmist here cries out to the Lord in his distress. Tired and weary of living in a strange land among strangers who only talked only of war, he had just had it! He had “battle fatigue.” “I call on the Lord in my distress, and he answers me.” (Psalm 120:1) That is astonishing. When you pray, the God who created all things, the God who is bigger than the universe, hears you. He pays attention to you. Never take that for granted. God hears you when you pray.
Ever see a pig wallow in mud? They love to roll in it and then it goes everywhere, the fence, other pigs—whatever they touch ends up muddy too. I am still learning that while venting to a friend might feel good at the moment, it solves nothing and can cause more problems. Usually, if I have honestly talked to God about what is weighing on me, the venting becomes unnecessary. Why, because when we put a problem or lament in God’s lap, we can “release” it and trust that God will work it out according to His perfect plan.
Charles Spurgeon said, “It is of little use to appeal to our fellows on the matter of slander, for the more we stir in it the more it spreads; it is of no avail to appeal to the honor of the slanderers, for they have none, and the most piteous demands for justice will only increase their malignity and encourage them to fresh insult.” In other words, the more you put yourself in the muck the harder it will be to get out of it, and the more it will spread.
The psalmist is wise in taking his distress to the Lord. He was honest in his lament; he didn’t hold back at all how he felt. He knew that the “battle” belonged to the Lord. I love these words of a song titled the same.
The power of darkness comes in like a flood
The battle belongs to the Lord
He's raised up a standard, the power of His blood
The battle belongs to the Lord
When your enemy presses in hard do not fear
The battle belongs to the Lord
Take courage my friend, your redemption is near
The battle belongs to the Lord.
Depending on the situation, God might want you to talk something over with a trusted friend, pastor, or counselor, but only after you have taken it to him in prayer. That is completely different from venting complaints or spreading muck (slander).
So, the question for me and for you . . . do we want to be stuck and spreading muck, or do we want to release our problems to the Creator of the universe who loves us and promises to walk with us through every trial and tribulation?
Deb Hill
Executive Assistant
Weary - Psalm 120
Three weeks. Alone. Sick with COVID.
It was one of the loneliest times I’ve ever known. Every day ran together in a weary procession that never seemed to end. I could barely have told you what day of the week it was. And this, after months of already lonely evenings with almost no social outlets and weary days trying to get students to love Dante and Homer while teaching behind a mask or a screen over Zoom.
Looking back, I think of those three weeks with a shudder; it was a dark time, trying to distract myself from my own thoughts and fears, trying to fill the silent emptiness.
It was this dark time that came to mind while I was pondering Psalm 120, because two of the words I would use to describe myself in January 2021 are two of the same words I would use to describe the psalmist: weary and lonely.
“In my distress, I called to the Lord…” As the psalmist continues, his tone screams for deliverance from isolation: he wants to be freed from the company of those who lie and deceive (vs. 2), bewails his time in foreign, hostile lands (vs. 5), and finally declares, in exasperation, “I am for peace, but when I speak, they are for war!” (vs. 7)
He isn’t really alone, though. He is clearly surrounded by people on all sides, but by people so different from him in values and goals, that he feels alone. I was struck by his frustration, which seems to come from this intense loneliness that springs from repeatedly not being heard or being ignored; his weariness seems to come from having to stand for the truth when everyone around him couldn’t care less.
Does any of this sound or feel familiar? Even if we cannot relate to the specific situation in which the psalmist finds himself, feeling lonely and weary is something we can all relate to in some way after experiencing a global pandemic.
The next question that comes to my mind is, “How do we respond to such a time?”
What of the psalmist? What was his solution?
Ashley Carr
Journey
I can remember driving to the appointed spot where we were going to meet the students that we’d spend the following week with on the trail. There was always excitement and a bit of trepidation. As guides, we came armed with a compass, a map, and a plan. We had an idea of the twists and turns we wanted the group to make, the miles we wanted to cover, and the peak we wanted to summit. But we also knew that the trail wasn’t about the destination and getting to all the right points on the map, it was about the journey. The journey of becoming; the journey of transformation.
I think that’s the way the ancient Jewish journey guides viewed their annual voyages to Jerusalem. See, there were three times during the year that Jewish families would make a pilgrimage to the Holy City: Passover (spring), Pentecost (early summer), and Tabernacles (autumn). Imagine traveling with a large group from your hometown, making your way toward Jerusalem to worship God; think of all the mishaps, inside jokes, and challenges along the way. The journey wasn’t just about getting to the Temple, it was about becoming the kind of people who hosted God’s presence and walked in his way. The trek was about encounter, worship, and formation.
The longer I live, the more I’m convinced that life is a journey, and the goal is not simply to get from one destination to another, it’s to become certain kinds of people. The ancient Jewish people believed that too, that’s why they had a “dog-eared songbook” that accompanied them on the journey to Jerusalem. Their songbook was a collection of psalms called the Psalms of Ascent – Psalms 120-134. These psalms give language to the soul that recognizes that it’s in-between point A and point B and the poems acknowledge that who we’re becoming on the journey is more important than arriving.
In many ways, these psalms give texture and dynamic to Paul’s statement, “Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 3:12-14) Notice how Paul points out that he’s continuing to push and progress, he doesn’t view himself as one who has arrived.
These poems are about pressing on. They’re about recognizing that none of us have arrived yet. They’re about engaging the journey that we call life and embracing it with all of its pain, detours, flat tires, and pitstops. They’re about ascending the mountain to meet with God and becoming more like him as we do. These psalms are about the journey of discipleship. Take some time today and reflect on the journey of your life. What are some of the high points and low points? How have you seen God in both?
Ryan Paulson
Lead Pastor
A Better Prayer
And fearing that we might run on the rocks, they let down four anchors from the stern and prayed for day to come. - Acts 27:29
Have you ever been in a situation where you actually “prayed for the day to come”? Once I was backpacking with a friend during winter. In a move that seemed to make sense to us at the time, we decided to hike out of Death Valley. We figured that since it is the hottest place on earth, it would be a smart place to backpack in January. These were the days before phones with GPS and even before you could Google whether or not this was a good idea. I bought a paper map, picked a destination that looked to be about 3200 feet above sea level, and started climbing. We climbed and climbed and climbed until we were exhausted, and then we climbed some more. At about the time that we started running out of daylight, we realized that the map we were reading was using a metric scale, so our goal of 3200 was not feet but meters (which works out to 10,498 feet!). By this time, it was starting to get dark, the wind started howling across the mountain, and in a matter of minutes, it got colder than we thought it could get. Little did we know that desserts can have rather drastic temperature swings in the winter. It was January, so the sun went down around 4:45 pm and it wasn’t coming up until 7 am. For 14 hours, all we could do was lay in our sleeping bags and pray “for day to come,” just like those men in charge of the prisoner ship Paul found himself on.
Now, here’s the funny thing about that prayer: It’s a prayer for God to do something that you already know is going to happen. I don’t think these men had any doubt that the day would actually come as if it sometimes decides not to. This was a prayer for their life… as if to say, “God, I want to see the day come! I don’t want to die!”
Now, there’s nothing wrong with a prayer about wanting to live. I want to live! But I just have to point out that it’s a prayer for God to do something that God doesn’t do. God isn’t in the habit of making the earth spin faster on its axis for everyone who prays “for day to come.” God also doesn’t take away people’s free will and change their minds for them, so we shouldn’t pray for that. God doesn’t make people fall in love with you. God doesn’t change bad grades to good ones. God isn’t a magic genie that manipulates the world for your benefit. That’s what I wanted from God up on that mountain, but now I realize that there was a much better prayer. Instead of praying for something to happen to me, I should have prayed for Someone to be there with me. That is a prayer that God will always answer, because God is Emmanuel (“God with us”). That’s really what prayer is all about, not getting God to do things for me, but inviting God to be there with me. So, today, will you join me in praying, not “for day to come,” but for Jesus to come in and enter into every aspect of our lives.
In doing so, we pray, “Maranatha!” “Come, Lord Jesus!”
Josh Rose
Teaching Pastor