A devotional from Psalm 121:1–8
A Song of degrees. 1 I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, From whence cometh my help. 2 My help cometh from the Lord, Which made heaven and earth. 3 He will not suffer thy foot to be moved: He that keepeth thee will not slumber. 4 Behold, he that keepeth Israel Shall neither slumber nor sleep. 5 The Lord is thy keeper: The Lord is thy shade upon thy right hand. 6 The sun shall not smite thee by day, Nor the moon by night. 7 The Lord shall preserve thee from all evil: He shall preserve thy soul. 8 The Lord shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in From this time forth, and even for evermore. (Psalm 121:1–8)
I have fond memories of road trips when my youngins were smaller, memories of us playing games as we travelled. Sometimes we would just sing or play, “name that tune” or play “punch buggy”. We had this one great game where I would use this game show host voice and we would play BIBLE TRIVIA (I just wish you could hear the voice). My children loved to irritate me whenever we would go to the beach by singing, “Palm, Palm shake your booty in the air”, whenever they saw a palm tree. I don’t have the most spiritual kids. The point is simply that we would keep each other occupied and happy as we travelled. It brings back sweet memories and it made the long journeys pretty fun. Psalm 121 was a traveller’s song, that is what is implied by the title of the Psalm, “A Song of Degrees”. God’s people would sing this psalm to each other as they travelled up to Jerusalem for the various feast days. The leader of the travellers would say a couple of verses and then the rest of the traveller’s would sing verses. It was sort of like a drill sergeant leading the cadence of his soldiers within the platoon as they march.
You can see that when I read those first verses in the first person singular.
Psalm 121:1–21 I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, From whence cometh my help. 2 My help cometh from the Lord, Which made heaven and earth.
It is as though traveller is troubled and in need of encouragement. He looks around at creation with the hills of Jerusalem ahead and encourages himself in the Lord.
We see the others join in because these verses are written in third person.
Psalm 121:3-8
3 He will not suffer thy foot to be moved: He that keepeth thee will not slumber. 4 Behold, he that keepeth Israel Shall neither slumber nor sleep. 5 The Lord is thy keeper: The Lord is thy shade upon thy right hand. 6 The sun shall not smite thee by day, Nor the moon by night. 7 The Lord shall preserve thee from all evil: He shall preserve thy soul. 8 The Lord shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in From this time forth, and even for evermore.
It is as though the one troubled traveler tries to encourage himself but then the rest of the party join in to encourage him. That my friends is what Christian community is supposed to be like. I am reminded of the old song that says,
“This world is not my home
I’m just passing through
My treasures are laid up
Somewhere beyond the blue”
We are passing through together on this road to our heavenly home. The trip gets rough and tedious but at least we have one another. When a fellow traveler is in need of encouragement, we can preoccupy their mind and help them stay focused on the Lord who can and will help. I can’t tell you how many times a fellow Christian has helped me as a travel, especially lately. Christian brothers and sisters, we need each other to make this road trip more enjoyable, so why not try?
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