Travelling to Zion – Psalm 121
Psalm 121 is the second of the fifteen songs of ascent or degrees (120–134) that were put together to help the pilgrims as they travelled to Jerusalem to keep the annual feasts. Although the psalms were written at different times and in various places, the collection was made after the Babylonian exile. By that time most Jews were scattered all over the world and needed help in preparation for attending these feasts in Jerusalem.
The first three psalms depict the actual journey: Psalm 120 presents the pilgrim’s location of exile by using the names of Meshech and Kedar, two countries that were far away from Jerusalem; Psalm 121 describes the journey from the place of exile to Jerusalem; Psalm 122 details the welcome they received as they entered Jerusalem. The remaining psalms in the collection focus on various features found in the religious life of God’s people as they kept these annual feasts.
The parallel between the Jewish experience of keeping their feasts and our keeping of the Lord’s Supper are obvious. Both they and we are pilgrim peoples, travelling through this world, dependant on God for his provision and help. Their feasts depicted God’s redemption from slavery (Passover), God’s provision for their needs (Weeks), and the their temporary stay in this world (Tabernacles); the Lord’s Supper reminds us of these features as well.
But the parallel is not confined to the Lord’s Supper because it is also fulfilled in the various activities of the Lord’s Day. Every time we gather together for worship, we fulfil what these feasts typified. In Hebrews 12:22-24, the writer says to his readers (who were Jewish exiles in the main) : ‘But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering, and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.’ These verses refer to our redemption through the blood of Christ, to the provision we receive from Christ as the mediator of the new covenant, and to the way that our weekly experience of the heavenly Zion is a foretaste of the full experience ahead of all God’s people. Each church service is a reminder of our deliverance from slavery, is an occasion for feeding our souls, and is an anticipation of the better world to come.
We don’t only apply Psalm 121 to ourselves three times a year; we can/should apply it to ourselves every time we journey to what the feasts depicted, be it the Lord’s Supper in particular or the means of grace in general. While it is always possible to apply the words of the psalm to ourselves without referring to the way it helped the Jewish pilgrims, it is useful for us to use the imagery of their annual journeys to Zion to get spiritual insight for our own journeys.
The psalm has two speakers. Verses 1 and 2 are in the first person singular and verses 3 to 8 are in the third person. We should picture a group of pilgrims making their way along the road and looking up to the hills. One pilgrim sings or says the words of verses 1 and 2, and then the others with him respond with the words of verses 3 to 8. The obvious lesson from this dialogue is the necessity of fellowship. This psalm does not depict a traveller going by himself to keep the feast; instead he was journeying with those who shared his faith and sympathised with his concerns. Fellowship was not merely experienced at the feast in Jerusalem, but was experienced as part of the preparation for the feast. Preparation for the Lord’s Supper and for other Sunday services must included interaction with other Christians. It is not good for our souls not to have fellowship as we anticipate participating in the means of grace. True, we have to make individual preparation but not at the expense of corporate preparation.
The first speaker
The psalmist begins by referring to the hills. When he looked at the hills, the writer was not admiring the scenery. Instead he was concerned about two common details of life as he made his way along the road. The first detail was his sense of danger because the hills were the hiding place of bandits and robbers; the second detail was his observance of pagan temples and statues because they were built on high places. There should be a question mark after ‘help’ in verse 1: ‘I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help?’ The hills were permanent reminders of (1) his need of God’s protection and (2) his worship of the true God. Therefore, he says to his fellow pilgrims in verse 2: ‘My help cometh from the LORD, which made heaven and earth.’
We face dangers as we travel. There is the danger of our culture with all its false gods of pleasure, politics, and prosperity. There are the false religions increasing in size around us. At one level, they seem so powerful, especially when contrasted with ourselves. What can we do as we look at them? We should do what the psalmist did and turn our eyes of them and look unto the Lord.
In a situation where he sensed his weakness, he turned to look at the almighty God who made heaven and earth. As he sensed his inability to deal with these enemies, he thought of the wise God who maintained the universe in all its order and functioning. We can summarise his response by saying that he did two things. First, he applied to the situation attributes and activities of God that were suitable to the circumstances; second, he reminded himself of the big picture (he was a mere man, but God rule all creation). We should do the same. In each circumstance in which we find ourselves, think of the appropriate attribute of God. If we sense our sinfulness, think of his mercy and forgiveness; if we sense the presence of the enemy, think of God’s promise to protect; if we sense fear, think of God’s faithfulness and commitment. It is good to always be thinking about who God is.
But we should also take the big picture into our perspective. The traveller turned away from his current situation and located it within the overall framework of what God was doing. That is what we should do as we journey on. Remind ourselves of God’s eternal purposes, that he loved his people from everlasting, that he sent his Son to redeem them, that today he is gathering his people to himself, that one day he will bring about the new heavens and the new earth. When we do that, we discover that our big moment of crisis becomes a stage in God’s big picture.
The second speaker
His companion on the journey now contributes to the conversation and continues speaking about the way God helps his people as they journey through life, throughout each stage of it. He reminds his friend that God will be his personal shepherd for the entire journey.
First, he reminds him that God will be his guardian. He will function in this way both when the pilgrim is on the move and when he is at rest. As he moves, making his way to Zion, God will watch over each step that he takes. We can imagine a traveller having to avoid holes in the road or rocks left by landslides. There would always be occasions of danger, of falling. He guards every step to make sure that we cannot be tripped up. We, too, as we journey are always facing situations where we might fall into temptation or into sin. It is wonderful to know that the Lord is so concerned about us that he takes note of where our next step will be.
God, the guardian of his people, does not sleep. The allusion here is to the practice of travellers placing guards round the encampment during the hours of darkness. Even if they chose the best guards, there was always the concern that they might fall asleep and allow robbers or wild animals into the camp. There could never be a sense of total security. How different it is with the Lord! Each of his people can rest secure, knowing that God is in charge of their protection.
Second, he reminds him that God will be with him as his refreshing protector. This is the point of him being described as a shade from the heat of the sun or from the cold of the clear, moonlit skies at night. Travellers had to take rest at noon from the strength of the sun; they needed shade at night to keep warm. God does not merely provide a shade, he is the shade. What a wonderful reality that is. In the heat of the day, the heavenly Shepherd provides his pilgrim people with rest of soul by reminding them of who he is and what he has done and of the joys that are ahead of them.
Third, he reminds his friend that God will be his permanent protector and his comprehensive protector (vv. 7-8). There will never be a time when God will not be protecting them (their going out and their coming in) and there will never be a situation in which God cannot help them. From what enemies will they be safe? Paul provides a list in Romans 8:38-39: ‘For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, 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.’
Application
The obvious point of the psalm is that God keeps his people. It reminds us that we who a debt to the intercession of Christ: ‘Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are one’ (John 17:11). While the immediate concern of Jesus there is his eleven disciples, the subsequent verses make it clear that he is concerned about all his people.
It also reminds us that we are to praise God the Father in the light of this activity of his: ‘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, to the only God, our Saviour, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen’ (Jude 24-25).
It is something that we should pray about: ‘And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ’ (1 Thess. 5:23).
How does God keep us? What means does he use? One such is afflictions: ‘Before I was afflicted I went astray: but now have I kept thy word’ (Ps. 119:67). Another is our resolve; for example, the psalmist in Psalm 17:3 said, ‘I am purposed that my mouth shall not transgress.’ A third means is repentance for failures, as expressed by David in Psalm 51. A fourth means is faith in God’s promises: ‘Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust’ (2 Pet. 1:4).
They come under the practice of self-examination. Paul says in 2 Corinthians 13:5: ‘Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves.’ We should pray in the words of the psalmist in Psalm 26:2: ‘Examine me, O LORD, and prove me; try my reins and my heart.’ It was by self-examination that the psalmist could also say, ‘For I have kept the ways of the LORD, and have not wickedly departed from my God’ (Ps. 18:21). The point of self-examination is not to discover perfection within our souls; rather it is to see if we are travelling in the right direction. This is what the pilgrims were doing as they use Psalm 121 when they journeyed to Jerusalem to keep the feasts.