Psalm 121
A song of degrees
This exquisite psalm tells the pilgrim on his journey to have great confidence that God, the one who “keepeth Israel,” will also keep the pilgrim from evil “for evermore.” This psalm is the second of fifteen songs “of degrees” or “of ascents.” Three times a year the people of Israel were called to go to Jerusalem to participate in holy feasts. Jerusalem is higher than surrounding areas, and these fifteen songs were sung while the pilgrims went up Mount Zion to Jerusalem in order to worship God.
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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. 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. 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. 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. |