The Lord Will Keep You

“I lift up my eyes to the hills. From where does my help come?” - Psalm 121

We’ve begun our foray into the Songs of Ascent, the fifteen Pilgrim Psalms (120-134) most commonly thought to be sung by Israelites on their way to Jerusalem for one of three annual agricultural festivals. Psalm 121 does sounds like the song of a sojourner, with hills in the horizon, the potential for feet to slip, language of sun and moon and coming and going. One has the sense of a traveler planting one foot in front of the other, and its structure mirrors this step-by-step progression. The idea towards the end of the previous line is often picked up and repeated in the next line, a literary technique known as “anadiplosis.”

The first step comes when he lifts up his eyes to the hills: when he stops looking at the ground, or the people around him, and looks up. Most think these are the distant hills of Jerusalem, the place for which he longs. But he needs help. The destination is far. Where does my help come from? He answers himself in the next line, the next step: from creator God. How does he help me? The rest of a song is a series of steps carrying along the word keep, Hebrew shamar, meaning “to watch, to guard.” The meaning of God-as-keeper builds in description as the word is used with increasing frequency of repetition. He does not sleep, which means he guards you day and night, which means he keeps your life, and he does so now and forever. Keeps, keeps, keeper, keep, keep, keep: the word is used six times. Each time, a step. Each time, a reminder. Each time, a further meditation.

I thought about this Psalm today as a prayer for my children, and suddenly it read completely differently. My help comes from the Lord, and just as surely, he will keep my children. I can pray this for them, whatever journey they take in life. The famous missionary David Livingstone read this Psalm before setting out for the African continent in 1840. His mother-in-law, Mrs. Moffat, wrote him in Linyardi that Psalm 121 was always in her mind as she thought about and prayed for him.

This Psalm was recited by the entire congregation, not while sitting in a building, but while walking side-by-side. And so it is a prayer meant to be spoken, not only over our children, but over every believer we travel with together. It is meant to be heard, to be received as spoken over us. The Lord will keep you.