PSALM 121 – A SONG OF ASCENTS. I lift up my eyes to the hills. From where does 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. Behold, he who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep. The LORD is your keeper; 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 keep you from all evil; he will keep your life. The LORD will keep your going out and your coming in from this time forth and forevermore. “
THEME OF THE DAY: OUR KEEPING GOD. The Christian life is hard. Jesus told us it would be; “Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few” (Matthew 7:13-14).
The difficulties in the Christian life are many. We fight against our remaining sin and this war is intense. There is a godless world constantly enticing us by its pleasures and false promises to distract us from the Lord Jesus. Finally, we face a devil whose tactics and methods are deceitful, malicious, and masterful. He roams about as a roaring lion seeking to devour us (1 Peter 5:8). And one of his chief weapons against God’s children is doubt leading to a lack of assurance of salvation.
How does one defeat this painful dart from the evil one? A couple of ways. First, remember the promise of the Lord Jesus – All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out (John 6:37). He keeps His Word. The second means of overcoming doubts of salvation is found in today’s scripture; the keeping power of God.
Charles Spurgeon once said, “It isn’t our hold on God that keeps us, it is His hold on us.” And the Psalmist mentions five times in eight verses the keeping power of God. He will not only keep us as His children, but we are told He will keep our going and coming in from this time and forevermore. What does this mean? The Lord, our keeper, will ensure our arrival to heaven. Though attacks will come from the devil, he cannot overcome the keeping power of the Lord. We will make it, not because of our perseverance, but of the Lord’s perseverance. And because He perseveres, we, too, will persevere all the way home!
PRAYER: “Father, I praise You for keeping me and never letting me go.”
QUOTE: “When we feel like we cannot hold on, stop and remember God’s hold on us.”
In the affection of Christ Jesus,
Pastor Jim