Psalm 121- Lift Up My Eyes
This article is taken from Bunni Pounds podcast series - “Jesus for America - Biblical Meditations for Modern America “.
By Bunni Pounds
God knows the end from the beginning. He knows how our life will end and the legacy that we will leave. He is not sleeping till He completes the work He has started in us. It is His primary goal – to bring justification to His people – redeeming us through His blood, then sanctification – making us more like Christ, and then glorification – our final home with Him in heaven seeing Him face to face.
Philippians 1:6 – “being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ.”
Let’s start at the end of this Psalm and work our way backwards to catch the full picture of a God who gives us stability, hope, longevity, faithful nurturing, and protection. He acts like a good father and a mother making sure every detail of our lives is watched over and protected. Even more than an earthly parent – He wants to protect us from the evil one. When we see a mother who is hurting and burdened because of the destruction that one of her children is in – imagine how God feels.
“The Lord shall preserve you from all evil;
He shall preserve your soul.
The Lord shall preserve your going out and your coming in
From this time forth, and even forevermore.” (verse 7-8)
Our past, present and future ultimately is in the hands of God.
God is our “keeper” (verse 5). This is not a promise to live without suffering, pain, accidents, or evil, but it is a promise that God is the one who is ultimately in control and knows our end from the beginning. He will keep us on this earth as long as we are supposed to be here. If we have finished our course and He sees fit to take us home then our “going out” is in Him. He is the preserver of our lives.
Thinking about this scripture from a completely opposite side, God preserves or amplifies our influence as He sees fit as well. As ministers of the gospel – we don’t have to worry about the effect that we are having on others, we just need to love Him with everything we have and love our neighbors as ourselves.
In a world where influence and impact are defined by “subscribers” or “views”, I am meditating on this passage beyond the physical aspect of God’s protection, to his ability to take our lives and use them however He wants to. He “made heaven and earth” (verse 1), so why could He not create everything we have need of - to do what we have been called to do?
I have two measurables related to this ministry that I think about most days – the dollars we need to impact the nation and to do our jobs, and the people we are trying to reach. Money needs to come in to help us impact the people we are already ministering to, and we need money to find and impact more people. Though I work faithfully to expand those buckets every day, it is up to God how far and wide this ministry goes. I can’t open people’s hearts to give. I can’t cause people to be affected by something I say, or our ministry produces. Only God can make that happen.
“I will lift up my eyes to the hills – From whence comes my help? My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth.” (verse 1). It is God’s help that I am petitioning and the only real help there is. To obtain it – I must “lift up my eyes” to the God who owns “the cattle on a thousand hills.”
Psalm 50:10 - “For every beast of the forest is Mine, and the cattle on a thousand hills.”
I must focus on the Lord of the Harvest. Again, it is not my responsibility to bring in the harvest myself, but to look to Him who is the master of the harvest and is rallying His people to do the work. I have my part to be faithful to my calling, but He will ultimately bring in the results.
“Then He said to His disciples, “The harvest truly is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore, pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest.” – (Matthew 9:37-38)
“The Lord is your keeper;
The Lord is your shade at your right hand.
The sun shall not strike you by day,
Nor the moon by night.” (verse 5-6)
When the enemy tries to impact even our effectiveness, the Lord will keep us. He will shade us from the blazing heat that seeks to destroy us and the fruit of the Word of God.
“He will not allow your foot to be moved;
He who keeps you will not slumber.
Behold, He who keeps Israel
Shall neither slumber nor sleep.” (verse 3-4)
Keeping Israel was a hard job. They were a constantly rebellious people who kept wandering away into idolatry and disobedience, but God kept reaching. He didn’t sleep. He didn’t give up. He was going to have a bride who would love Him. In the same way that God was going to honor His promises to Israel, He will do so with us as well.
1 Peter 3:9 – “The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.”
Knowing the nature of God – we have one response: we lift up our eyes. We look to Jesus. We rest. He will not let us down. He will not slumber.
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