When the Going Gets Tough

Background to passage: Other than the classification of this Psalm as one of Ascents, sung while heading to Jerusalem for the feast and sacrifice. Very little else is known about the background of the Psalm. My initial thought was that I do a series on worship. I wanted to be a little more specific, but today we will think of worship in the most basic of ways - we worship God for who he is and what he has done.

Psalm 121 ESV

A Song of Ascents. 1 I lift up my eyes to the hills. From where does my help come? 2 My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth. 3 He will not let your foot be moved; he who keeps you will not slumber. 4 Behold, he who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep. 5 The Lord is your keeper; the Lord is your shade on your right hand. 6 The sun shall not strike you by day, nor the moon by night. 7 The Lord will keep you from all evil; he will keep your life. 8 The Lord will keep your going out and your coming in from this time forth and forevermore.

Opening illustration: “Modern man has been infected with the myth of autonomy, the myth of self-sufficiency. He has been told to be the captain of his own fate, the commander of his own destiny. Yet a simple virus can fell him.”

Main thought: This morning we will think upon three ways that God protects us, because when the going gets tough, believers trust the Lord.

1) God Steadies our Feet (v. 3-4)

Psalm 121:3–4 ESV

3 He will not let your foot be moved; he who keeps you will not slumber. 4 Behold, he who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep.

1) God Steadies our Feet (v. 3-4)

Explanation: The picture here is two-fold. God is guiding our steps and will not let your feet slip. This doesn’t mean that we will never stumble, but that God will only allow a permissible fall. His sovereign hand knows exactly where and when to support for his greatest glory and your greatest good. The second comfort found in him is that he never grows weary. He never sleeps. He’s never tired. He is never asleep at the wheel. He is ALWAYS holding up our feet.

Habakkuk 3:17–19 ESV

17 Though the fig tree should not blossom, nor fruit be on the vines, the produce of the olive fail and the fields yield no food, the flock be cut off from the fold and there be no herd in the stalls, 18 yet I will rejoice in the Lord; I will take joy in the God of my salvation. 19 God, the Lord, is my strength; he makes my feet like the deer’s; he makes me tread on my high places. To the choirmaster: with stringed instruments.

Psalm 37:23–24 ESV

23 The steps of a man are established by the Lord, when he delights in his way; 24 though he fall, he shall not be cast headlong, for the Lord upholds his hand.

Isaiah 43:1–3 ESV

1 ...Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine. 2 When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you. 3 For I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior.

Illustration: Tell about Waffles and Whitewater on the Hooch

Application: There are many times, probably some of you here today, that feel like you have reached the end of your rope; that you can’t go any further; that life is just too much. Remember that God will steady your feet. He will with provide for your need. This is the God that we worship. He will sustain you, hold you up, keep you from drowning, not let you be consumed by the fire.

2) God Covers our Heads (v. 5-6)

Psalm 121:5–6 ESV

5 The Lord is your keeper; the Lord is your shade on your right hand. 6 The sun shall not strike you by day, nor the moon by night.

2) God Covers our Heads (v. 5-6)

Explanation: The middle eastern sun could be brutal. The desert climate also brought about bitter cold in the dark. The symbolism is quite obvious. The natural represents the spiritual in that the Lord will cover us in our walk through life.

Argumentation:

Illustration: Mackenzie and Madison hiking the Grand Canyon, tell about the Silicon Valley prodigy, Leopold Aschenbrenner, who was the Nostradamus of AI, but lost 30 billion dollars on his wedding day.

Application: We are promised that when we toss and turn at night, God will be there for us. He can give you peace when no man can give you peace. There are 10K dangers that we are preserved from every day. Think about it for a moment. How many people have accidents each day, how many fall, how many hit their head on the corner of the cabinet? How many lose money, have cars that break down, business deals that go south? How many of us didn’t get phone calls bearing bad news from relatives, friends, doctors, or our boss yesterday?

Worship the Lord because He covers our heads day and night. He is our protector and shield from and through the pitfalls of life.

3) God Protects our Lives (v. 7-8)

Psalm 121:7–8 ESV

7 The Lord will keep you from all evil; he will keep your life. 8 The Lord will keep your going out and your coming in from this time forth and forevermore.

3) God Protects our Lives (v. 7-8)

Explanation: The psalmist has/is seeing hardship, not being shielded from it. The added angle in this couplet is the comprehensive scope of his protection from evil. He says that he will keep you from ALL evil, through all your going out and coming in, and from now until forever. There will never be a time when God is not about the business of protecting you, keeping you, guarding you. He doesn’t just watch, he actively guards and protects his children.

Job 1:12 ESV

12 And the Lord said to Satan, “Behold, all that he has is in your hand. Only against him do not stretch out your hand.” So Satan went out from the presence of the Lord.

Job 2:6 ESV

6 And the Lord said to Satan, “Behold, he is in your hand; only spare his life.”

Jude 24 ESV

24 Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy,

Illustration: Protective parents have to learn that they can’t shield their children from everything. Sometimes that is hard.

Application: We are not promised health and wealth, nor a bed of roses. However, we are promised protection. There is not a place we can go, and evil force too powerful, a time limit on God’s protection for us. He is the perfect guardian because he knows every evil, every good, every moment, and has all things under his sovereign hand.

Some of you need to relax in his protection. Fall into his arms of love, faithfulness, and trust in the fact that He is your protector. Our response to the reminder of his perfect care and protection is trust. Will you trust him today? Will you be saved today? Put your trust in the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ for your only hope.

Closing:

Romans 8:31–39 ESV

31 What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 2 He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? 33 Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. 34 Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. 35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? 36 As it is written, “For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.” 37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

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