Safety on the Journey

Psalm 121

On Christmas morning in 2005, when the church used to meet in Centre Ville, Annie and I were walking to the Christmas Day service when we were mugged. This was when Eid Al-Kabir, the big feast when everyone sacrifices a lamb, was celebrated on January 10, so the feast was two weeks away. We were walking with a friend on the path that parallels Mohammed VI Boulevard when two young men came up from behind, threatening us with two of the long knives they use for butchering sheep. Fortunately, some police trainees were running along Mohammed VI and heard our screams and came to our rescue. Although I fully expected to get cut by the knives, I was not and the two thieves did not get away with the purse they grabbed.

As an aside, I need to tell you that these next five weeks before Eid Al-Kabir are dangerous ones and you need to take precautions. The police told us that there is an increase in crime before the Eid because people need the money to buy a ram for the celebration. Don’t go out walking by yourself. Keep your eyes and ears open. Don’t carry more than you need to with you. Be very careful.

Being robbed is not a modern phenomena. In Deuteronomy 28 Moses presented to Israel the blessings Israel would experience if they obeyed the law God gave to them and Moses presented the curses they would experience if they did not obey the law. Among the curses is this: (Deuteronomy 28:29)
You will be unsuccessful in everything you do; day after day you will be oppressed and robbed, with no one to rescue you.

Hosea prophesied, speaking about the sins and crimes of Israel. (Hosea 7:1)
They practice deceit,
thieves break into houses,
bandits rob in the streets;

In the Parable of the Good Samaritan Jesus began by telling about a man who was attacked by robbers. This happened often enough that the people listening to this parable could identify with the man who was beaten and robbed. When Paul defended himself to the church in Corinth, he talked about all the ways he suffered for the sake of the Gospel. He was beaten, flogged, stoned and he wrote: (2 Corinthians 11:26)
I have been in danger from rivers, in danger from bandits, in danger from my own countrymen, in danger from Gentiles; in danger in the city, in danger in the country,

Most of us in this church can tell stories about having been robbed or attacked. This is not a safe world we live in. As you come out of the womb and open your eyes, there should be some way in which you can read this warning label: Warning! Being born into this world has been known to cause suffering, injustice and death. If we knew what was ahead of us, some of us might choose to crawl back into the womb and avoid what lies ahead. (Although I imagine the mothers would not welcome that return.)

We are learning from the Psalms of Ascent this fall. These are fifteen psalms Jewish pilgrims sang as they made their way up the hill to Jerusalem for the three annual festivals. I began last week with the first of these psalms, Psalm 120. This psalm helps us to understand that we are on a pilgrimage. From the moment we turn to Jesus and surrender to his love, we become his followers and we follow him to our eternal destination. This becomes our primary occupation in life. More important than being a mother or father, employee or boss, student or teacher, pastor or diplomat is that we are on pilgrimage.

As pilgrims we are aware that all that we pass will fade away. What we see around us will not last. These things will not endure. Only the faith God builds in us will go with us into eternity. We do not disregard our earthly occupations but we realize they do not have ultimate importance.

This morning we look at Psalm 121, sometimes called the Traveler’s Psalm. In our journey, we are sometimes anxious. Sometimes we have good reason to be fearful and this psalm assures us that we are safe on our journey.

The psalmist mentions three dangers travelers faced. When walking on a journey, there is a danger that you will turn your ankle on a stone. Anyone who has hiked knows the importance of good shoes and proper foot care. Getting a sprained ankle is a problem when you don’t have a car that can take you where you want to go. Over exposure to sun is also a problem. For most of us this is a problem only when we are on vacation and spend too much time sunbathing, but when people spend most of the day outdoors working and when people spend the day walking, this is a more common problem. Spending too much time in the sun can cause sunstroke. The third danger is associated with being moonstruck. It was thought in ancient times that the moon could have power over you to make you go crazy. It is from this belief that we get the English words lunacy and lunatic, from the Latin word for moon, luna.

Traveling is easier for us than it was for the ancients. We travel in cars and trains, boats and planes. And although sunstroke is less of a danger and we know the moon does not make us crazy, the stress of travel can cause us to come unraveled. The car can break down. We can miss a plane or the flight can be cancelled. We travel faster than our ability to learn languages so when we arrive, we are lost in a new language and new culture.

I remember my first business trip to Mexico City. I arrived at the airport at night, collected my bag, and headed outside to be besieged by a swarm of taxi drivers. I did not speak a word of Spanish so I handed the driver the name of the hotel and address, got in the back, and entrusted my life to this stranger who could take me anywhere he wanted. I felt very vulnerable. Thoughts of being taken somewhere and robbed crossed my mind. This concern was replaced with a fear for my life as the taxi driver shot through non-existent spaces between cars in traffic. I told God I was in his hands and leaned back in the seat, waiting to see what would happen. But then I arrived safely at the hotel and all was fine. I made two or three trips a year to Mexico City after that and loved the music, food, and culture of Mexico, but that first trip was unnerving.

Life is a dangerous journey. Car accidents, plane crashes, broken bones, disease, robbers, thieves, kidnappers, suicide bombers, loss of a job, financial hardship, fires, hurricanes, and earthquakes. I could go on for the rest of the morning. You don’t need me to stand here and tell you of the dangers we face in life. Just read the daily news for as many illustrations as you want.

In this life of danger, where do we look for help? As the pilgrims set out on a potentially dangerous journey, the psalmist asks this question:

I lift up my eyes to the hills—
where does my help come from?

When we visited our daughter and her family in Thailand last year, we flew from the north of Thailand to Phuket in the south. The beaches and coral and fish were absolutely beautiful. But there are also signs on the road for tsunami evacuation routes. The beach where we went had a memorial to the 1,000 people killed or missing in the region of Phuket during the 2004 tsunami. As Annie and I lay on the beach, we looked to the hills and thought about where we would go with the grandchildren if a tsunami occurred while we were there. The hills along the shore were where people fled to survive.

But the psalmist did not live by the sea and this was not what he was thinking when he asked his question. Could it be that he thought that God lived in the hills? Since it was believed that the earth was a flat plate with the heavens above and the underworld below, did the psalmist think that the hills were closer to God and therefore that is where help came from?

Eugene Peterson points out that during the time this psalm was written and sung, Palestine was overrun with popular pagan worship and much of this religion was practiced on hilltops. Shrines were set up, groves of trees were planted, male and female sacred prostitutes were provided. People coming to these shrines engaged in acts of worship that would enhance the fertility of the land, make you feel good, and protect you from evil.

Whatever you were afraid of on your journey, there was something to help you. If you needed protection from the sun’s heat, you could pay for protection from the sun god. If you were afraid of being driven mad by the moonlight, you went to the moon priestess and bought an amulet to protect you from lunacy.

Whatever you were afraid of, there was someone who promised to help. So the psalmist asks, “Where does my help come from?” From Baal? From Asherah? From the sun priest? From the moon priestess? Do I look to the hills where these shrines call out and offer help?

What kind of help did these temple shrines offer?

These shrines were not much different from those today who promise to cure you if you buy their charm, get their blessing or pay for a curse to be put on someone else. They were places of immorality, drunkenness and disease. The stories of Baal are full of tales of his orgies and the difficulty of rousing him out of a drunken sleep to get his attention. (Remember Elijah taunting the priests of Baal “Perhaps he is asleep and must be awakened.”)

We have many modern equivalents. Witch doctors are very common in Morocco and many of you come from countries where witchcraft thrives. Fortune tellers and palm readers are found in most cities I have visited in the US and in Europe. Shopping malls invite us to come in and buy something to make us feel better when we are depressed. Romance novels offer an escape from reality as does pornography. Drugs and alcohol offer oblivion as an alternative to life. Food beckons us, telling us we will feel better if only we have some more to eat. Financial planners tell us that our problem is we don’t have enough money in the bank. Self-help books abound, telling us life will be what we want it to be if only we will buy their book and diet or develop a positive attitude or exercise. At every step of our journey, there is someone calling out to us, encouraging us to look to them for help, telling us they have the answer to our problem.

As it is now, so was it then. Setting out on a journey, the Hebrew pilgrims looked up to the hills and saw many who offered help for any problems they faced.

But a look to the hills and a visit to the shrines ended in disappointment, as is also the case with modern fortune tellers, shopping sprees, drunken oblivion, financial success and self-help books.

Where do we find our help?

I have had the experience many times of going into a city somewhere on a business trip and then having to decide what I wanted to have to eat that night. Chinese or Japanese? Mexican or Italian? A steakhouse or seafood restaurant? And sometimes I would be paralyzed with indecision. I came to realize that when I became obsessed about what to eat, my problem was that I was trying to find the ultimate meal, a meal that would satisfy my inner needs. What I was trying to do was satisfy my spiritual needs with physical food. When I found myself in this state of paralysis, I knew I needed to take some time to pray and read my Bible. Looking to the hills around me and all the restaurant choices was not going to satisfy me.

In Jeremiah, God calls to Israel and in Israel’s response, we see the inadequacy of what can be found in the hills. (Jeremiah 3:23)
“My wayward children,” says the Lord, “come back to me, and I will heal your wayward hearts.” “Yes, we will come,” the people reply, “for you are the Lord our God. Our worship of idols and our religious orgies on the hills and mountains are completely false. Only in the Lord our God will Israel ever find salvation.

We know that. I’m sure there are many who could stand up this morning and testify to the inadequacy of seeking help from sources other than God.

The psalmist points out that life is a dangerous journey and so he asks the question,
1 I lift up my eyes to the hills—
where does my help come from?

His answer is that our help comes from the Lord.
2 My help comes from the LORD,
the Maker of heaven and earth.
7 The LORD will keep you from all harm—
he will watch over your life;

This is wonderfully encouraging. The pre-existing Creator God helps me. What more could I ask for? But we do ask. What happens when we get hurt on our journey? The psalmist says God will keep us from all harm. But if that is the case, why were the disciples martyred? Why was Paul beaten, flogged, and beheaded? Why do we suffer? We do sprain ankles. We do suffer from sunstroke. We do suffer from depression.

The psalmist does not promise we will not suffer. The word translated “harm” is better translated as “evil”. We are protected from evil, but read the whole of Scripture and it becomes very clear that there is no protection from suffering. Suffering and tragedy are part of life. Jesus said we would be persecuted. (Matthew 24:9) Not might be, but would be. Paul wrote to Timothy: (2 Timothy 3:12)
In fact, everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted,

We will suffer but what Scripture promises and the promise of this psalm is that God will watch over us and protect us. In verse 3 the psalmist writes he who watches over you will not slumber. Verse 5: the Lord watches over you. Verse 7: he will watch over your life. Verse 8: the Lord will watch over your coming and going. Four times in this short psalm the psalmist tells us that the Lord is watching over us. Unlike Baal, the Lord does not need to be awakened. The Lord does not slumber in a drunken stupor. The Lord is ever present, ever awake, ever alert.

God is present with us. God promised us in Deuteronomy (Hebrews 13:5)
“Never will I leave you;
never will I forsake you.”

I have heard many people talk about healing from a terrible incident in their past when they prayed and realized that Jesus was present with them in their ordeal. I have heard of women in the Arab world who have a dream of Jesus who is standing in the corner of their room weeping for the suffering they are experiencing.

We are not promised that we will not suffer but we are promised that we will never be alone.

When you are struggling, the temptation is to believe that God is not watching over you. You pray and pray and pray and God is silent. Is God busy doing something else? Does God not care?

The psalmist wants to make us understand that however much we struggle, this one thing is absolutely clear, God is present with us. God is watching over us. God is ever present, ever awake, ever alert.

It is helpful to realize that you in this psalm is always in the singular, not the plural. We are saved into community but God cares about each one of us. We are not a face in a crowd. We are individuals God loves and cares about. He knows our name. In our suffering we are never forgotten, never ignored, never neglected. God is not limited so his attention moves to other concerns. His concern is for you, singular, and he is determined to bring you safely into his kingdom.

Are you worried about your safety where you live? The Lord watches over you. Are you feeling overwhelmed with the pressures of your life? The Lord is your shade. Are you struggling about what to do next with your life? The Lord will watch over your coming and going both now and forevermore.

This is the benediction that comes at the end of Psalm 121:
8 the LORD will watch over your coming and going
both now and forevermore.

The phrase your coming and going can be understood in at least two ways. It means the Lord watches over everything. His watching is complete, all encompassing. It also means the Lord watches over us from birth to death, from the dawn to the sunset of life. David wrote in Psalm 139 (Psalm 139:13–16 )
13 For you created my inmost being;
you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
14 I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
your works are wonderful,
I know that full well.
15 My frame was not hidden from you
when I was made in the secret place.
When I was woven together in the depths of the earth,
16 your eyes saw my unformed body.
All the days ordained for me
were written in your book
before one of them came to be.

God was watching you when you were in the womb. He was watching you in your infancy. My grandchildren just went off to school this week, a couple of them for the first time. God went with them. Throughout the years of adolescence, God is watching over you. During the tumultuous teenage and young adult years, God is watching over us and shuddering when we act foolishly and dangerously. Through days at university, days at work, middle age, old age, up to the last day of our life, God is watching us.

He will protect us from all evil.

8 the LORD will watch over your coming and going
both now and forevermore.

He will protect us from all evil now, in this life. But that is not the completeness of his promise. He promises to be present with us in this life, watching over us, protecting us from evil. And then he promises to take us into forevermore. He will take us through this life and no matter how short or long we live, he will take us safely into his kingdom for all of eternity.

That is the promise of God. That is the safety we experience as followers of Jesus, on pilgrimage toward his kingdom. Are you on pilgrimage? Put your complete trust in God who watches over you and is faithful. He will keep his promise. Are you suffering? God has not abandoned you. Surrender to his love and persevere. Keep on the path. Do not lose hope. God is watching you and the Holy Spirit is working within you. Have you drifted from the path? Come back and renew your pilgrimage. God will never leave you nor forsake you. You are safe with Jesus.