The Keeper

Introduction

According to google: the top 3 tips in aiding school studies are the following:

Take good notes. While reading is good, we remember more of what we tke notes about than what we read.

Find good summaries. Teachers or professors are trained to summarize subjects into digestible chunks for memorization.

Participate in group discussion: This is the best way to comprehend written material.

In my experience, most of us treat God like a school subject rather than a living, active being.

We Read the Bible (at times), and take notes about it in journeling.

We come to church and hear good teachings, or podcasts, and take notes about it.

We go to bible studies, or community groups in an effort to better comprehend the material.

But HE isn’t a school subject… He is a living, personal being!

All of our “studies” leave us with theoretical knowledge but void of lived experience. As a personal, living being He desires to be experienced. To be appropriated. To walked with. Not merely studied. Let me illustrate:

There is a story of a captain of a sailing vessel that came across perilous waters. A storm had come in, and the swell was threatening to capsize. All the crew was anxiously running to posts, everyone doing their best to save their ship and themselves. Down below the captain’s young daughter was asleep, but of course the rocking and throwing of the boat woke her up. She saw everyone frantically running and bailing and inquired of the problem.“She’s going down. We can’t overcome this storm.” The little girl replied, “Is father on deck?” The crewman replied, “Yes, he has the wheel.” The little girl sighed, and calmly laid back down and went right back to sleep.

Oh the deep, soulful rest that accompanies faith in the character and nature of God our Father.

A student in this situation would theoretically know that God is all-powerful, and a “very present help in time of need,” but in the face of the circumstances that student would be in absolute PANIC.

This is how most of us live. We claim to know God, and we study Him, but in the daily walk of life we live lives void of this soulful rest in God. We are paniced. Hurried. Overly worried. Significantly stressed. And so busy that we lack the margin required to actaully know God.

We don’t need more facts, or studies, we need more faith lived out in the reality of who God is.

In his popluar book, John Mark Comer writes, “The reason we live in a culture increasingly without faith is not because science has somehow disproved the unprovable, but because the white noise of secularism has removed the very stillness in which it might endure or be reborn….”

We are so busy, so hurried, that we lack the stillness that faith needs to be grow.

Today’s passage really illustrates what it looks like to LIVE EXPERIENTIALLY with God. To walk thorugh life with soulful rest. Let’s learn from the Psalmist together.

Read 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.”

Context: 15 Psalms 120-134.

15 steps.

But more liekly Feasts (booths, weeks, unleavened bread). Geography.

You can rest… knowing you need Help!

Walking toward Jersulam, and see temples scattered across the high places.

The belief at the time was that gods are above, in the heavens, so to reach them we must place our places of worship high. So temples would scatter the highest hills or mountains.

“Where does my help come from?” Neighbors = false gods.

What about you? Here’s the thing… you need help. You were created to need help!

a. You were never created to live autonomously or independently. Relying upon your own self-sufficiency.

b.Whether you acknowledge it or not, you were created with limitations.

c. Everybody say that word with me… limitations.

d. We were watching tv with the kids the other day, and I can’t remember the exact details but a commercial came on and communicated the message, “You can be anything you want to be.”

i. Immediately told Josiah that’s a lie.

ii. Bill talks about Boomers and GenX in such great light,

iii. I looked at Jo and asked, “Josiah can you be an NBA Center?” Standing 7ft. dunking? No. Because he got his height from me, and his lack of a vertical jump from his mom.

e. You can’t be anything you want to be. You were each created by God, with intent, with limitations.

Did you eat today? Sleep? Breathe? These are natural limitations that reveal you aren’t self-sufficientl

But they get more specific.

Your personality limits you. Gifts and weaknesses. Upbringing.

So because of your designed limitations, you were created to live dependently upon YOUR CREATOR.

The question isn’t Do I need help? It’s “Where does my help come from?

g. The Psalmist says, that instead of seeking help from false gods, or maybe the refuge that the hills could provide, it comes from the maker.

You can rest… knowing His Sovereignty provides Stability

a. Vs. 3. He will not let your foot be moved.

i. The image here is a hiker, ascending, and perhaps he slips on a loose stone and falls perilously.

ii. But your stability is not found in your vibrams, your trekking poles, or the grade of your trail.

iii. He will not let your foot be moved.

b. Imagine for a second the peace, and rest it would provide knowing that there is no way you slip regardless of what you do.

i. The foundation in which you stand was not laid by you. But by Him.

ii. His infinite power and goodness cannot be moved.

iii. Many many times in scripture we are commanded to stand.

1. We stand in grace (Romans 5:2).

2. · We stand in the gospel (1 Corinthians 15:1).

3. · We stand in courage and strength (1 Corinthians 16:13).

4. · We stand in faith (2 Corinthians 1:24).

5. · We stand in Christian liberty (Galatians 5:1).

6. · We stand in Christian unity (Philippians 1:27).

7. · We stand in the Lord (Philippians 4:1).

8. · The goal: We will stand perfect and complete in the will of God (Colossians 4:12).

c. But never do we stand in our own strength. You aren’t strong enough. The waves of life are real, big, scary, and treachours. What are you standing upon. If it is HE, Yahweh, then nevermind the waves as long as they wash you upon the Rock.

You can rest… knowing that He never does

a. Ringing of the Bells.

b. The plethora of wishes burdens theK gods, and makes them tired. They need to rejuvenate. Catch a cat nap. Refresh a little bit. A little me time.

i. It’s what Elijah mocked the Baal prophets with… scream louder. Maybe he’s sleeping.

c. God doesn’t sleep. He doesn’t need too. He is ALL-POWERFUL.

i. But we do. We need sleep. Why? Because we have limitations.

ii. As much as you may hate it, you have to sleep. And when you are sleeping, you are most vulnerable.

1. Especially a pilgrim. Camping out in the open. Vulnerable to marauders and raids. But You can sleep like a BABY if you trust that He who keeps you never sleeps or slumbers.

iii. Guys… go to sleep. Knowing that you are perfectly kept.

iv. We are in a sleep crisis, because we think that the worlds’ revolution revolves around us. We pop up from sleep, and rush to email, or our phones, wondering what fires we need to put out today at our jobs. But let me let you in a Scriptural best kept secret.

1. You don’t have to wake up panicking… “What do I need to do today.” Why? Because while you slept, God was working.

2. Genesis 1, …there was evening and morning the first day.”

a. Days to God begin in the evening. When you are sleeping. Meaning that the first 8-10 hours of your day you are USELESS.

b. You don’t have to wake restless wondering how much you have to do. Instead, imagine the rest of waking up confident that while you slept not only did God keep you, but he was working on your behalf. Preparing goodworks for you?

c. Not “What do I need to get done today?”

d. But, “God, How can I join you in what you’ve already initated today?”

v. “A poor woman, as the Eastern story has it, came to the Sultan one day, and asked compensation for the loss of some property. ‘How did you lose it?’ said the monarch. ‘I fell asleep,’ was the reply, ‘and a robber entered my dwelling.’ ‘Why did you fall asleep?’…. ‘I fell asleep because I believed that you were awake.’ The Sultan was so much delighted with the answer of the woman, that he ordered her loss to be made up.” (McMichael, cited in Spurgeon)

d. He doesn’t sleep or slumber. You can rest… Knowing He never does.

You can rest… knowing He casts out fears

a. These guys were most likely traveling in packs, so the greatest fear to them wasn’t robbers or bands of robbers.

i. But instead, the natural elements. I’ve lived in desert regions. I’ve visited the Middle East. In some portions there is absolutely no respite from the Sun.

ii. How many of you have ever experienced dehydration, or heat stroke…

iii. It’s terrifying—India Bus.

b. These guys are walking, all day, in the sun. Under constant threat of overexposure. But Yahwah keeps. He is at your right hand. Ready and available to cast a shade.

c. But superstition would have them fear not only the sun, but the moon. The ancient belief was that moon exposure turned people crazy.

i. “lunatics”

d. Here’s the point: The perils of your day and the perils of your night are of no concern to those whom had God as their keeper.

i. He is your covering against all calamity!

ii. What do you fear throughout your days? What stresses you out?

iii. Tax season? Cultural slide we all seem to be so aware of? The culture our kids are being raised in? Your health? The health of a loved one? Finances?

iv. Are your fears bigger than your God? Put your faith in Him who is your keeper! You can rest, knowing that He neutralizes your greatest anxieties.

You can rest… knowing He preserves your soul

a. The Psalmist concludes his song by pretty much saying… you know what. Instead of detailing this out. Let’s just wrap it up.. He keeps you from ALL EVIL. HE WILL KEEP YOUR LIFE.

b. What then does this mean? Does it mean that you won’t meet any evil in life? That you won’t suffer? Or experience any pain/calamity?

i. The sad reality is that many Christians have gravitated toward this belief.

ii. “Safest place to be is in the center of God’s will.”

iii. Oh really? How’d that work for Jesus? Job? Apostles?

c. Keeping you from all evil does not imply a cushy comfort life. But a secure one. A Kept One.

i. “Our soul is kept from the dominion of sin, the infection of error, the crush of despondency, the puffing up of pride; kept from the world, the flesh and the devil; kept for holier and greater things; kept in the love of God; kept unto the eternal kingdom and glory.” (Spurgeon)

You can rest… knowing He keeps you forever

a. These pilgrims say… “God keeps our start, and keeps our end. Our journey and our destination.”

b. Men, he began your journey with Him through his grace and the gift of faith. He will not fail you on the way, He will see you through.

c. “And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day. (John 6:39)

Conclusion

God isn’t a subject like school. We don’t just learn about Him, we learn to live into that knowledge. And if we begin to live into that Knowledge we can rest. The soulful rest of the young girl in the boat.