February 17, 2008
Passage:Psalm 121
I lift up my eyes to the hills—
from where will my help come?
My help comes from the Lord,
who made heaven and earth.
He will not let your foot be moved;
he who keeps you will not slumber.
He who keeps Israel
will 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 will keep you from all evil;
he will keep your life.
The Lord will keep
your going out and your coming in
from this time on and for evermore.
This is one of my favorite Psalms. When I was younger and couldn’t sleep, my mother would tell me to read Psalm 121:4; “He who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep.” It provided some comfort, though I did wonder why Mom couldn’t just come into my room and comfort me like a Mom is supposed to do.
The Psalm reminds us that even in hard times, God is with us, always there as we make our way through life. In the good times and bad, God is present and we don’t need to fear because of that.
Of course, we do fear. We wonder when we read that God will keep watch over Israel if God was asleep during the Holocaust as millions of Jews were sacrificed to the Nazi regime. But God is not a superhero that comes in to save us just in the nick of time. Instead, God is standing by our side, more like a grandmother who comforts us when things go bad.
The night before he was felled by an assasin’s bullet, Rev. Martin Luther King delivered on his most famous sermons, “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop.” His last words were prophetic:
Well, I don’t know what will happen now. We’ve got some difficult days ahead. But it really doesn’t matter with me now, because I’ve been to the mountaintop. And I don’t mind.
Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place. But I’m not concerned about that now. I just want to do God’s will. And He’s allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I’ve looked over. And I’ve seen the Promised Land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the promised land!
And so I’m happy, tonight.I’m not worried about anything.I’m not fearing any man! Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord!
This speech shows us the faith King placed in God. He placed his faith in a God that would bring a future where equality was no longer a goal, but a reality. He knew that no matter the outcome of his life, God would be with him.
“In life and death, we belong to God,” says the Brief Statement of Faith. The Psalmist and King reminds us that God is Immanuel, God With Us, Always. All the Time. May it be so.
Immanuel, we praise you that you are with us through the good and the bad. Give us the courage to strive for justice. Amen.
Dennis Sanders is the IT/Communications Specialist for the Presbytery of the Twin Cities Area. He is also an ordained minister in the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ).
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