God Is Our Keeper

Psalm 121:1-8

A Song of degrees

“I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help.  My help cometh from the LORD, which made heaven and earth.” (Psalm 121:1-2)

The God who created Heaven and Earth had chosen Mount Zion, the place where the Temple was located as his special place.   It is where David went to consult the Lord.   He expects God to send the help he needs at the proper time, and he wants to sing for joy as a result. 

“He will not suffer thy foot to be moved: he that keepeth thee will not slumber.  Behold, he that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep.” (Psalm 121:3-4)

He knows that God will protect him from his enemies, and also that he will give him the power to avoid falling into sin.  He will not fall asleep or neglect his job.    As Christians, we are not depending on our own faith and power to keep us saved.  I Peter 1:3-5 tells us, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, To an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you, Who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.”   

We are kept by the power of God, and as Jesus said in John 10:27-30, there is no human power capable of breaking his hold.  “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.  My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand.  I and my Father are one.”  There is no danger of us losing our salvation. 

“The LORD is thy keeper: the LORD is thy shade upon thy right hand.  The sun shall not smite thee by day, nor the moon by night.” (Psalm 121:5-6)

The Lord will protect us from even minor physical problems so that we don’t even have to worry about a sun burn or an inability to sleep at night because the moon is too bright.  While we still suffer those things in the physical world, they will be completely eliminated in eternity. 

“The LORD shall preserve thee from all evil: he shall preserve thy soul.  The LORD shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in from this time forth, and even for evermore.” (Psalm 121:7-8)

It is the Lord who keeps us saved, and he is able to keep us from sin through the Holy Spirit’s power.  He will direct our paths, starting at the present time and throughout eternity. I John 3:8-9 says, “He that committeth sin is of the devil; for the devil sinneth from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil.  Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God.”  The word translated commit here refers to a pattern or lifestyle of sin.  Different words are used for a single or unintentional sinful act. 

I Corinthians 6:9-11 points out that a wicked lifestyle is evidence a person will not be saved.  “Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind,  Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God.  And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.”   While that may have been what we were before, when we became a Christian, we became a new creature, and that old lifestyle is taken away.  The Holy Spirit keeps us from going back to it.