Please turn with me now in your Bibles to Psalm 121. Now, last week, we started a new sermon series on the Songs of Ascent that was going to be associated with our communion services. And this will be the one time I sort of grab onto one of the Songs of Ascent when we're not having a communion service. The simple reason for that, we're coming up on Matthew Chapter 24, known as the Olivet Discourse, and I wanted to take another week to study that chapter, and with the Songs of Ascent, a fresh new sermon series, well, we'll do one more week now and then return immediately to the Gospel of Matthew and to Chapter 24. So for this week, we have Psalm 121. As we continue forward in the Songs of Ascent. And before we read this Psalm together, and look then to the reading and preaching of God's word, let's pray. Our gracious Heavenly Father, we pray to you now as sheep whose hearts are prone to wander. Wherever we are straying, Lord, wherever we need to hear the voice of our Good Shepherd calling us back to himself, May you use your word and your spirit now to this end. May it truly be this morning, the Lord Jesus, from his place of exaltation at your right hand, shepherding us, calling to us, leading us, directing us, feeding us, by his word and by his spirit. Save, Lord God, and sanctify and bless and strengthen your people, we ask in Jesus' name, amen. I will lift my eyes to the hills, from whence comes my help. My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth. He will not allow your foot to be moved. He who keeps you will not slumber. Behold, he who keeps Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep. The Lord is your keeper. The Lord is your shade at your right hand. The sun shall not strike you by day, nor the moon by night. The Lord shall preserve you from all evil. He shall preserve your soul. The Lord shall preserve your going out and your coming in from this time forth and even forevermore. Have you ever been on a road trip that seems to be one difficulty after another? A couple people have announced to me that they're going to be taking road trips soon, and we will pray that your road trips will not be one of them. When we lived in Colorado years ago now, I think about nine years ago, this was before Ellie was even born, we lived in Colorado, we took a road trip to visit Melissa's parents in Michigan. By far, the most incident-fraught road trip I've ever experienced. Here are the highlights, and this was all on the way home. A stomach bug necessitating frantic searches for public restrooms in rural Michigan. An overnighter at a hospital in Des Moines, Iowa for an issue unrelated to the stomach bug. And then a minor car accident outside of Omaha, Nebraska. As I said, all on the way home, and if I had known the trouble that awaited us, I would have sat behind the wheel of the car there in Belding, Michigan, and I would have looked out to the road in front of us, and I would have said, I lift my eyes to the interstate highways, from whence comes my help. Now here's the point. When the psalmist here in the opening verse He's not looking to the hills here in verse one with, you know, these thoughts of peaceful, wistful meditation on the beauty of creation. The hills represent threat. Here in Psalm 121, verse one, the hills are the problem, not the solution. Remember what we established last week about the songs of ascents. They are pilgrim songs. And in the ancient world, if you're on a long journey, yes, of course, the hills can be very beautiful. But the hills can be very dangerous as well. The hills contained robbers and bandits. The hills contained dangerous wildlife. And particularly for Israel, there was spiritual danger in the hills as well. The hills in Israel were littered, right? with the pagan idol shrines that plagued Israel throughout her history. And so as a pilgrim, you don't look at the hills and get warm fuzzies. You look at the hills and you do a threat assessment. I lift my eyes to the hills. From whence comes my help. Now remember also the beautiful thing that these pilgrim songs do for the believer. Psalms 120 through 134, this collection of psalms that we call the songs of ascents, they show us that the whole life of faith is one great spiritual pilgrimage that we make from this present and passing evil age to the age that is to come, to the glory of the new heavens and the new earth. And brothers and sisters, as we make this spiritual pilgrimage, there is danger. The Bible calls us to this threat assessment. This spiritual pilgrimage has its own robbers and bandits looking to shipwreck our faith. It has its own wildlife looking to mercilessly tear and devour. Peter tells us our adversary is like a prowling Lion looking to devour. And our spiritual pilgrimage, even in our modern day, has its own pantheon of false gods. The demonic voices of this evil age calling us, tempting us, forever plaguing the people of God to worship and serve the creature rather than the creator. And so what is one of the great needs of this spiritual pilgrimage? Well, it's the title of the sermon this morning. We need traveling mercies. We need help along the way of our pilgrimage. Every single morning that we open our eyes in this passing age, we have no idea where spiritual threats may come from. spiritual threats to our faith and to our Christian walk. But Church of Jesus Christ, from whence comes our help? Well, praise God, every single one of you. Every morning that you wake up in this passing age, as you are trusting in the Lord Jesus Christ, you can say with confidence, my help comes from the Lord. who made heaven and earth. Now, why does verse 2 answer verse 1 with such power? Well, who is this Lord upon whom we call for help? He is the maker of heaven and earth. I believe in God the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, as Christians have been confessing for the whole history of the church. Our help does not come from any power inside creation. We do not look to any created thing. Our help comes from the power that existed before creation, and the power that brought creation into existence. And this would be a particularly powerful reminder to the Israelites as they made that pilgrimage and as they passed those pagan idol shrines in the high places. My help does not come from that. That's the work of a craftsman's hand. You know, that's nothing but a hunk of stone or metal or wood. My help comes from an altogether different craftsman. My help comes from the craftsman who brought the universe out of nothing by the word of his power. Does that grip you, brothers and sisters, on a day-to-day basis? It's meant to grip you. That when you open your eyes in the morning, when you, you know, perhaps your first thoughts in the morning are threat assessment. What do I have to deal with today? What problems do I face? From whence comes my help? Well, your help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth, the creator of the hills. the creator of the valleys, the creator of the rivers and the skies and the planets and the stars and the supernovas. He is the source of your traveling mercies, and he is the one to cry out to for help. And notice as we move now to the rest of the psalm, who is this mighty creator Lord? Is he the God of the deists? you know, who creates the world and winds it up like a clock and then just sets it off to govern itself by its, you know, internal laws without any subsequent care or interference. No, he is not. He is the Lord. He is Jehovah. He is the God of the covenant who draws near to his people and dwells with them and leads them and shepherds them with fatherly love and concern. Think of it this way. If all we knew was God's power, but not his love, well, we could have confidence that he was able to help us, but we couldn't have confidence that he would help us. But the other way around, if all we knew was God's love, but not his power, Well, then we could have confidence that He might desire to help us, but not confidence that He was actually able to help us. But when we cry out for help to the Lord, praise God, we know both His power and His love. And so the confidence is ours, brothers and sisters, as the Church of Jesus Christ, to know that He is willing to help us, and he is able to help us through the difficulties of our pilgrim journey. Now, look with me at an interesting shift that happens when we move from verse two to verse three of this psalm. Look at the pronouns in verses one and two. I will lift, my help, my help comes from the Lord. They're all first person pronouns, right? But now look at the rest of the psalm, verses 3 to 8. Verse 3, he will not allow your foot to be moved. Verse 5, the Lord is your keeper. Verse 7, the Lord shall preserve you from all evil. In verses 3 through 8, we get all, now, second-person pronouns. Now, here's what's taking place. The psalmist, in verses 1 and 2, he's expressing personal conviction. what he believes about his God. But having reached a deep level of conviction in his own soul about God's fatherly care and affection, what must he now do? Well, he now, as it were, turns toward us as the reader and now addresses us directly and calls us to join him in that same conviction. And so, you know, here's the crux of this shift in pronouns. It's not just an interesting grammatical observation. There's actually quite a profound spiritual lesson here. These are not truths that the psalmist wants us to leave somewhere out there, outside of our own lives and concerns. The psalmist doesn't want to read about his conviction in verses one and two and say, oh, well, that's great for him. It's wonderful that the Lord is his help. He wants us to own and to embrace these truths in our own lives and in our own experiences. The Lord is not just that guy's help over there. The Lord is my help. The Lord is my keeper. The Lord will preserve my soul. The psalmist is emphasizing that These truths are for all of God's people, not just this little sliver of the uber-spiritual, because actually there's no such thing. We are all on this pilgrimage together, we all face similar dangers and difficulties, and we are all utterly helpless apart from the power and the love of Almighty God to preserve us along the way. You know, have you ever heard a preacher emphasize, particularly in the New Testament epistles, that when you read you or your, often in the Greek what you get is a plural pronoun, so that the apostle isn't just speaking to one person directly, but actually the whole church, right? And that's a wonderful emphasis, you know, that God's promises are communicated to the body of Christ as a community of the redeemed. Well, this morning, I get to do the opposite, actually. These yous and these yours, here in Psalm 121, verses three through eight, they are not plural. They are singular. The emphasis here is for the individual pilgrim. And yes, the psalmist is turning now to address the whole church, but he's addressing the whole church as a group of individuals. Imagine his finger coming out of Psalm 121 and jabbing you right in the chest. The Lord is your keeper. The Lord is your shade at your right hand. It's wonderful, of course, to be addressed as the church and to know that we share in the promises of God with a great and vast multitude. But Psalm 121 makes a different, although, of course, very closely related emphasis. God doesn't love the church as this, you know, faceless blob. God loves and cares for the church as a collection of individuals. and He knows you by name. The Lord Jesus knows you and calls you by name. And Psalm 121 wants you to know that intimacy, the intimacy of God's promises. They're not for those people over there. Again, we're not to relegate God's promises to some sliver of the church that's somehow above everyone else. All of God's promises are for all of God's people. each and every one of you trusting in the Lord Jesus Christ. And those promises are yours individually, and intimately, and eternally. Now, here's what we're going to do. There are three stanzas of poetry in verses three through eight. And we're going to look briefly now at each one of them under three different headings. But again, keep this constant emphasis in mind. The psalmist is stretching out his hand, you know, it's coming out of your Bible, it's poking you in the chest, it's grabbing you by the collar, and it is calling you to embrace these promises as your own. If you are trusting in Christ, they are yours, and you are to embrace them in your heart and live them in your lives. Verses three and four, the Lord is our ever watchful keeper. He who keeps you will not slumber. Parents, I am positive that I know what some of your best memories are of your young children. And there are moments that your children don't even know are taking place, because it's when they're fast asleep. And you're standing over their crib, or you're standing beside their bed, watching them. Amazed that God would bless you with such a gift. Amazed and awed at what a truly awesome privilege it is to be a parent, a father or a mother. But as wonderful as those moments are, parents, what happens? You get tired and you eventually say, well, it's time for me to go to bed now. And we go to bed and we slumber. And there we are in our homes, and now everyone in the whole household is sleeping. And yet, there is still a father watching over us. Because we have a heavenly father who neither slumbers nor sleeps. Brothers and sisters, when we come, when we go, when we arrive, when we leave, when we stand, when we sit, when we walk, or when we run, or when we sleep, or when we slumber, God is watching us and caring for us, and through it all, every second of every day, He neither slumbers nor sleeps. He is stooped over our crib, as it were, caring for us, even at our most vulnerable, even when we are completely mindless when it comes to His presence, even when we have forgotten that He is there. He is our Father, and He is watching over us, and He is caring for us in our weakness, and in our vulnerability, ever watchful and never slumber. Remember, as impossible as this sounds to us in our human limitation and frailty, God can do it. Our God is infinite in all of his attributes. He can care for and watch over and protect every single one of his sheep with equal care and concern. because he is infinite, eternal, and unchangeable in his being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness, and truth. In fact, he can focus on each and every one of his children with infinitely better care and concern than even the best of earthly fathers, can give to only one child. His watchful and his loving eye is always upon you. Now, verses five and six, The Lord is also our personal guardian keeper. And here, I want us to imagine the farmer who has a prized tomato plant. And this farmer is looking to grow the finest tomatoes in the whole county, nay, the whole state. What's he going to do with that tomato plant? He's going to watch over it day and night. And he's going to do so with zeal. Why? Well, because daytime brings its peculiar threats. And nighttime also brings its peculiar threats. And this farmer is going to make sure that his prized tomato plant is protected from all of the potential threats, whether night, by night, or by day. And so it is with your God. He is your keeper. He is your shade at your right hand. And the sun shall not strike you by day, nor the moon by night. These verses express the zeal that God has for caring for us as his very own. Think again about the relationship between a parent and his or her children. You know, if I'm out with the kids, and my wife isn't with me, and we're out in public in a crowded place, let's say it's at a carnival, what would you say if I found the nearest stranger and said, hey, can you watch these three kids for, I don't know, five or 10 minutes? I have to go use the restroom. That would be unthinkable, right? Why? Because they're mine to protect, not someone else's. And what did we read in our call to worship from John chapter 10? My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish, neither shall anyone snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of my Father's hand. I and my Father are one. One of our Lord Jesus' favorite ways of speaking about the church in John's Gospel is to call us those whom the Father has given to him. Do you realize that about your identity this morning in Christ? You have been gifted to the Son by the Father. And you better believe the Son takes that gift seriously. The Son of God regards you with zeal as his very own special possession. You can hear, right, the fierceness of the zeal in his voice. No one shall snatch them out of my hand. The sun shall not strike you by day, nor the moon by night, because the Lord is your keeper, and you are his special and prized possession. Well, finally now, verses seven and eight, the Lord is also our forever preserving keeper. Our forever preserving keeper. And these verses emphasize like a gigantic exclamation point at the end of this psalm, that the Lord's fatherly watch-keeping of us. It has no limitations, no qualifications, and no expiration dates. It can't be stopped by anything, and it will never run out. You know, think of our response of reading from Romans chapter 8 as Paul meditates upon all of creation. Can anything Separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. No, nothing in all creation can do so. He shall preserve you from all evil, in all your goings out, in all your comings in, from this time forth and even forevermore. Which means there's a problem that we have to address now. What about when I look at my life and there's pain and suffering and sorrow? What about when there's frustration and failure? What about the time when from a limited, frail, earthly, human perspective, it seems that God is sleeping? When I do feel stricken by sun and by moon, when it doesn't seem as though I'm being kept from all evil. Well, brothers and sisters, that's why the psalmist is forcing his way out of the psalm and into our faces. You know, he's jabbing us, he's grabbing hold of us with those second-person pronouns. Because these promises are true for you regardless of your circumstances. no matter what befalls you in this present life. Now, to help make better sense of this, turn with me to Luke chapter 21. You can just listen, but if you'd like to turn there, Luke chapter 21. And I'll begin reading at verse 16. You will be betrayed, even by parents and brothers, relatives and friends. And they will put some of you to death. And you will be hated by all for my name's sake. But not a hair of your head shall be lost. By your patience, possess your souls. What a strange thing to say, right? They will put some of you to death, but not a hair of your head shall be lost. Remember the danger of this spiritual pilgrimage that necessitated the opening verse of this song to begin with. Brothers and sisters, the Lord has not promised his people lives free from pain and sorrow and suffering. Actually, what the Lord has promised is in fact difficulty for those who follow him. Difficulty in this passing evil age for those who call upon his name and seek to serve him and worship him and stand in that way utterly opposed to the darkness of this present evil age. And we will all experience that difficulty in different ways and in different measures. But Psalm 121 promises us a good shepherd who will be with us even in and through the valley of death, in the struggles and through the struggles, acknowledging that this life is not the end. As Paul says earlier in Romans 8, for I consider the sufferings of this present time not worth comparing to the glory that is to be revealed in us. For he who did not spare his own son, but gave him up for us all, how shall he not with him also graciously give us all things? That's how Paul puts it. Remember now how Peter puts it. You are being kept by the power of God through faith for salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you have been grieved by various trials, that the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ. And remember, brothers and sisters, that no matter how dark this present life may become for you in the Lord's providences, no matter how dark it may be, the Lord Jesus has been there. And the Lord Jesus has endured. And the Lord Jesus has conquered. And the Lord Jesus goes before you in this battle. He has conquered death and he gives victory to the sheep of his flock. And he sends his spirit, and he sends his promise that he will be with you even to the end of the age. He is not only a savior for this life. He is not only a savior for a time. He shall save you to the uttermost. He shall preserve your goings out and your comings in from this time forth. and even forever. And so yes, in this world, you will have trouble, but take heart. Jesus has overcome the world, and no one will snatch you from his hand. Let's pray. Lord God, we pray now against the lies of the evil one. When they come to us in our sorrow and in our struggle and in our suffering and say, look, if God really loved you, you wouldn't be going through these things. Those are lies from the pit of hell. And when we hear them in this present life, Lord, lift our eyes to the throne of God, and to the son who is seated at your right hand, our savior, the Lord Jesus, our great shepherd, who is our keeper, who is the shade at our right hand, and who will preserve our souls from this time forth and even forever. We praise you for such a Savior. And Lord, may these promises, may we not keep them at arm's length, but may we embrace them and draw them near. May they be the joy of our hearts when we awake in the morning and the praise of our lips when we lay down at night. For no one can snatch us out of your hand. And we do pray this and praise your holy name