Helped and Kept by God - Psalm 121

I lift up my eyes to the hills.
    From where does my help come?
2 My help comes from the Lord,
    who made heaven and earth.
3 He will not let your foot be moved;
    he who keeps you will not slumber.
4 Behold, he who keeps Israel
    will neither slumber nor sleep.
5 The Lord is your keeper;
    the Lord is your shade on your right hand.
6 The sun shall not strike you by day,
    nor the moon by night.
7 The Lord will keep you from all evil;
    he will keep your life.
8 The Lord will keep
    your going out and your coming in
    from this time forth and forevermore.

Two things I frequently desire as a woman: help and security.  God is both of those things for me, and he fills the roles perfectly.  This psalm spells it out for us; walk with me through it today.

Help:  Whether I admit it or not, I am a needy person.  I need help in many areas of life, from housework to hugs.  My family can help in limited ways, but never perfectly.  Only God can be my true Helper.  He alone is fully sufficient to cover all of my lacking, all of my imperfections (and boy, do I have a lot of them!).  On the days I feel overly strained and empty, I call on him even more.  I pray for his help, I lift my eyes to the hills (v. 1), up to the horizon, looking forward to where I am going…to where he is!  When I feel weak, I read the Words he wrote to me and am reminded that my foot cannot slip because he holds it fast (v.3).  He is where I am planted and I will not fall (praise God for that because somedays I feel like I might).  What can hinder my God from helping me?  Nothing!  He has made everything and it is at his command (v.2).  He is always there, he does not sleep or get weary (praise God, because I sure do).  He is present, strong and attentive (what comfort that brings!).  I am helpless, I cannot save myself at all.  God is that help I desperately need and he has saved me.

Protection:  The Lord keeps me! How precious to know that I am safe because God has declared me “a keeper!”  This is by his grace alone (knowing myself, I would have thrown me back).  I cannot keep myself from evil, I find myself wandering toward it every day, but the Lord keeps me from “all evil” (v. 7).  I will not be forever stained by it, I cannot be (what a relief!).  He sustains my life, it is his, he purchased it at an unfathomably high price.  I am not worthy, but he keeps me because what he spent on me declares me as worthy - the infinitely valuable blood of his son.  

He uses his creation to bless me and not harm me (vv. 5, 6).  All things bend to his will, even the sun and moon (yes, be amazed).  “Your going out and your coming in” (v. 8) is language from Old Testament times when kings went out to war and came home (in) again.  War still rages today and my Lord has placed me in the fray.  I am NOT terrified because he is my help and he comes from the hills.  So that is where my gaze rests.  I go on battling and watching, battling and watching every day.  I will be kept by him “forevermore” (v. 8).  Eternally protected by my Keeper, this causes me to fight harder.  My Lord wins, he has told me that already (he wrote it down over and over again so I wouldn’t forget), so I fight on like the woman he destined me to be.
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My God keeps me and my God helps me.  My God is mighty and Lord of all!  I pray you serve him too.