Psalm 121
This is a Psalm of encouragement to those making a journey to Jerusalem. A lot of parts in it really reverberate with me. The opening verses (1-2) are lines in one of my favorite Casting Crowns songs "Praise You in This Storm". The verses are: “I lift my eyes up to the hills. From where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord, who made the heaven and earth.”
When I read those verse my mind immediately went to that song, and it continues to play in my head. Whenever I hear that song, it first makes me think of the winter of 2006, when I was at my lowest as far as depression, because that is when I first heard it. After that, I think of all the low times when I started praising/worshiping God, whether it be by that song, some other song, or by completely different means, and God has pulled me out of whatever mire I was in. (Wow! That was a long sentence!) The most recent time being these past few weeks.
About 3 weeks ago, I did what I was thinking and praying about doing for a while, and that was giving [a friend] the letter asking him to not talk to me for a couple weeks so I could put my focus back on God and not on him. My prayer before and during that time was for God to show me that He is worth sacrificing my best friend for, and that He would also send other people my way so that I could spend them with them instead of being along. Particularly girls. I needed God to send me girls and speak to me through girls.
Frankly, I did not think God would grant either of those requests. I thought I would have to just grit my teeth and trudge on by myself, so when He did grant my requests, I was very surprised! I was also incredibly humbled and had to start worshiping with even more fervor and earnestness. (Is that even a word?)
The other time I am thinking of happened this past week. Early in the week, I lost my flash drive. The is the week before finals and all my projects and big assignments are due! Losing the flash drive was a huge setback! The assignment I needed it the most for was my portfolio which was due on Wednesday. Tuesday I started compiling everything again the new stuff I had done was backed up on my iLocker account, so I didn’t have to start completely over from scratch. Regardless, of that fact, I was super stressed out. During the day, I found that I was able to calm down and focus more clearly when I heard/listened to worship music. So, when I got to the library, that’s what I did. I started a Pandora station based on the worship music of the band Hillsong. As the night went on, I spend the night trying to remember to praise God, worship Him and thank Him for all He’s done. I did not get to sleep that night, but I was able to get my portfolio done!
The 2nd part of this Psalm is just as impactful as the 1st two verses. The past part repeat, in different ways, how God “keeps” Israel. The ESV notes sas that the original word for “keep”; Shamar, translates to keep, guard, watch over, attend to carefully. I thought this was really cool and kind of gave me montage image of what God’s protection tool like. To me, it has a similar feel to Romans 8: 38-39, where both talk about a specific attribute of God and compare it to all these different things. They are both passages that, for me at least, get me pumped, and motivate me and also help me remember why I follow the God that I do. I read through the 2nd part of Psalm 121 and replace “keep” with one of the synonyms and this is what I came out with:
He will not let your foot be moved;
He who guards you will not slumber.
Behold He who watches over Israel,
Will neither slumber nor sleep.
The Lord is your guardian;
The Lord is your shade on
Your right hand.
The sun shall not strike you by day,
Nor the moon by night.
The Lord will guard you from all evil;
He will attend to you carefully all your life.
The Lord will watch over
Your going in and coming out
From this time forth and forever more!
Cool!
