Psalms · psalm 121 of 150
Updated on
Psalm 121 is a song for pilgrims going up to Jerusalem. The traveler lifts his eyes to the hills and asks where his help will come from; the answer is the Lord, maker of heaven and earth, who never sleeps and keeps him by day and by night. The psalm ends with the promise that God will watch over his going out and his coming in, now and forever.
Psalm 121 is the second of fifteen Songs of Ascents (Psalms 120 to 134), sung by Israelites as they went up to Jerusalem for the festivals. After the anguished cry of Psalm 120, the traveler here sets out with a question and receives an answer of trust. Because of its tenderness and simplicity, it is one of the psalms most often read to bless someone who is beginning a journey.
The psalm begins with a gesture: the pilgrim lifts his eyes to the hills and asks where his help will come from. The roads of Judah were long and carried risks of falls, robbers and heat, and the hills could inspire fear or recall the pagan shrines on the high places. The answer comes at once: his help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth.
From verse 3 the poem speaks of a guard on watch. God will not let the foot slip, and the one who keeps the traveler neither slumbers nor sleeps; the keeper of Israel is always awake. The verb keep appears six times in the psalm, like a refrain of protection.
Verses 5 and 6 describe the Lord as shade at the right hand: the sun will not harm by day nor the moon by night. Verses 7 and 8 widen the promise: the Lord will keep from all evil, guard the pilgrim's life and watch over his going out and his coming in, from now and forevermore.
References follow ESV book names and verse numbers. Read each verse in your Bible before the explanation.
The pilgrim lifts his eyes to the hills and asks where his help comes from; he answers that it comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth. His trust is not in the landscape or in himself but in the Creator of all.
God will not let the foot slip, and the one who keeps Israel neither slumbers nor sleeps. Unlike idols, which other psalms say cannot see or hear, the Lord watches without rest.
The Lord is the traveler's shade at his right hand, so that neither the sun by day nor the moon by night will harm him. The picture of shade expresses a close care that goes with him step by step.
The Lord will keep from all evil and guard his child's life, his going out and his coming in, now and always. The promise covers the whole path of life, not only a trip to Jerusalem.
6 questions with answers and references, ready for Sunday school, small group or a Bible quiz night.
Answer: From the Lord, who made heaven and earth. — Psalm 121:2
Answer: He will not let it slip. — Psalm 121:3
Answer: He neither slumbers nor sleeps. — Psalm 121:4
Answer: His shade. — Psalm 121:5
Answer: They will not harm the pilgrim, by day or by night. — Psalm 121:6
Answer: The pilgrim's going out and coming in, from now and forevermore. — Psalm 121:8
Psalm 121 invites us to answer with faith the question of where our help comes from. Many of us look for security in money, plans or people, but the psalm points to the Creator, who is greater than anything that worries us and who never tires of caring for us.
In a small group this psalm can be read as a prayer of blessing for someone who is traveling, changing jobs or facing an uncertain season. It does not promise a life without danger but a God who keeps us in the middle of it. For Christians, that trust rests on Christ, the good shepherd, who promised not to abandon his own and who watches over their path to the end.
Psalm 121 ends with the certainty that the Lord keeps the pilgrim now and forever. Psalm 122 continues on the same road: the traveler finally reaches Jerusalem and expresses his joy at entering the house of the Lord.
They are probably the hills around Jerusalem, which the pilgrim sees as he draws near, though they could also be the high places where other peoples worshiped their gods. The psalm makes clear that help does not come from the hills themselves but from the Lord who made them. Some translations read the verse as a statement and others as a question; the final sense is the same.
In the ancient world the heat of the sun could cause illness or death on a journey, and the moon was linked with the dangers of the night. The psalm uses both ends of the day to say that God's care covers every hour and every circumstance, without promising that trials will never come.
The title calls it a song of ascents, that is, a song of pilgrims going up to Jerusalem for the great festivals. Some scholars think it was sung in turns, with one voice asking and another answering, though the text does not say so explicitly.