Word of Salvation – April 2026
Text: Psalm 121
Sermon by Rev John Haverland
Readings: 1 Chronicles 23:24-32; Hebrews 5:1-9
Theme: The Lord protects his people in all the circumstances of our lives for all eternity.
Purpose: To explain the Lord’s protection in your life and assure you of it.
Our lives are often described as a journey, or a pilgrimage, a movement from one place to another.
This is a common picture in literature. Think of John Bunyan’s great book, “Pilgrim’s Progress” which describes the journey of a man named Christian who travels from the City of Destruction to the Celestial City.
This is also a common theme in the hymns we sing:
“Guide me O thou great Jehovah,
pilgrim through this barren land.” (SttL 466)
This is the theme of this Psalm, which is often known as the “Traveller’s Psalm”.
Many of us turn to this Psalm when we are about to travel; and many of us know it by heart; and many believers, both in the Old and New Testament times have been encouraged by it.
The theme of this psalm is that the Lord protects his people in all the circumstances of our lives and for all eternity.
We will consider the Lord’s help, his watching and his protection.
- The Lord’s Help, v 1-2
The Psalm begins, “I will lift up my eyes to the mountains.”
We live in a country that has many hills and mountains.
That was also true of the land of Israel.
The psalmist asks, “From where shall my help come?”
He was aware of his need for help, and conscious that he was dependant on the Lord.
This is a good question and one that all of us should ask, and be able to answer. Every one of us should be able to answer, along with the psalmist; “My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth.”
The city of Jerusalem was built on a cluster of hills, and the temple was built on one of them.
The people of Israel would travel to Jerusalem three times a year for the three important festivals. As the city came into view they would lift up their eyes to those hills. They knew that their help came from the Lord, who was the King of Israel and of Jerusalem.
The word LORD occurs five times in this psalm.
It translates the Hebrew word Yahweh, which refers to our Covenant God, God in a relationship to his people. The many promises of the LORD in the OT came to their fulfilment in Jesus; “They will call him Immanuel – which means, God with us” (Matt 1:23).
This Lord is “the Maker of heaven and earth.”
The psalm immediately moves from the hills to the heavens and also to the entire earth!
In early April 2026 NASA’s Artemis II launched from its base for a ten day flight around the moon and return to earth. The photos of the dark side of the moon and of the earth from the perspective of the moon were breathtaking.
As Christians we know that the LORD made the earth, and the moon, and the solar systems and the vast galaxies of the universe!
We affirm that our help comes from this God, the Lord, who made heaven and earth.
The psalm begins by affirming the Lord’s help to us.
- The Lord’s Watching, v 3-6
a. “He will not allow your foot to slip” (v 3).
In the days of ancient Israel no one, of course, travelled by car, and very few travelled by a horse drawn cart or chariot. Most people walked; and they didn’t walk on concrete footpaths, like we do, but on narrow and rocky tracks, on mountain paths with steep ravines that dropped away into deep valleys.
It was essential that your foot did not slip!
This psalm assures you that God is watching over every step you take, literally and figuratively – the Lord is watching over your journey through this life.
Our journey is full of dangers and temptations, disease and illness, thieves and robbers. But God is watching over us, watching over you and me.
b. He watches over you all the time because he never slumbers or sleeps (v 3b).
Children, there are time when you are supposed to be doing your maths, or your writing, or reading, but you will get distracted with something else.
As adults we get distracted when we are driving, or listening to a lecture, or even a sermon!
But God is eternally awake, alert and attentive.
Even when you are sleeping, he is not – he never nods off, never loses focus, is never distracted or inattentive!
He never slumbers nor sleeps!
In v 3 the word “your” is singular – “your foot”. The Lord is watching over you personally, you as an individual. That is a great comfort and consolation!
c. But in v 4 this is extended to “Israel”, to all God’s people: “Behold, he who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep.”
The Lord watched over the people of Israel as they made their pilgrimage to the temple in Jerusalem.
The Lord watched over Jacob on his travels from Canaan to Haran,
and over Joseph as he was taken from Canaan to Egypt, and over Moses and the people of Israel as they travelled from Egypt to the promised land.
God watched over Richard Wumbrand imprisoned in the USSR, and over Dietrich Bonhoeffer imprisoned by the Nazis in Germany, and he is watching over the many Christians in prison today in many countries.
God is watching over you personally, and over us as a church. What a great comfort this is for these difficult times in which we are living. God knows what you are going through and he is always attentive to your needs.
The Lord is watching over you day and night.
He is at your right hand, he is always there, always close by. He is your Keeper, Guardian and Defender.
d. (v 5b-6a) “The Lord is your shade on your right hand. The sun will not strike you by day.”
The people of Israel travelled for 40 years in the desert under the heat of the sun, but the Lord guided them by a pillar of cloud during the day.
The sun is intense in New Zealand and you can burn easily if you are out in it, even for a short time. Many New Zealanders suffer from skin cancer because of too much sun. Sometimes people get heatstroke or sunstroke when their body temperature gets to 40 degrees or higher, which can be very dangerous!
But this psalm is using the sun as a picture of general harm, physically and spiritually.
Remember, “The Lord is your shade” and “the sun will not strike you by day”. God is watching over you, he is keeping you in his care through all your life.
We sing of this in one of our hymns:
“Beneath the cross of Jesus I gladly take my stand,
the shadow of a mighty rock within a weary land.
O blessed shelter from the storm, the sinner’s sure retreat, O glorious place where heaven’s love and heaven’s justice meet.” (SttL 276:1)
This is poetic language. It pictures the cross of the Lord Jesus casting a shadow that shelters and protects us, like a mighty rock in a desert.
By his death on the cross the Lord Jesus satisfied the demands of God’s justice and so protects us from the punishment we deserve.
If you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ God will forgive your sins and you will be kept safe from the burning heat of the fires of hell.
e. This protection is also pictured in this psalm using the image of the darkness of night.
Some cultures in the world think that the phases of the moon affect people’s minds. They call this moon stroke, or lunacy, from the Latin word, luna, meaning moon.
Modern medical studies have not found any connection between mental health and the phases of the moon.
But there are dangers at night. Thieves and murderers use the darkness to carry out their evil deeds.
Sometimes people travel by the light of the moon, but this can be dangerous because you can’t see as clearly at night as you can by day.
But God will watch over you and protect you at night.
He will protect you from the dangers of prosperity and of poverty. He will guard you from the temptations of this world and the judgment that is coming.
These two lines of v 6 are an example of Hebrew poetry where the same thought is repeated or contrasted.
Here there is a contrast between the day and the night.
But God watches over you all the time, day and night, every minute and hour of the day and the night.
He is always present.
This was true of the Son of God, the Lord Jesus, during his life on earth. God watched over him all the time.
He kept him during the 40 days in the wilderness, in the hot sun when he was tempted by the Devil.
He kept him in the moonlit night in the Garden of Gethsemane when he was betrayed by Judas and deserted by his friends.
God provided Simon of Cyrene to carry the cross when Jesus he stumbled under its weight as he went out to Golgotha.
God watched over his Son, and he promises to watch over you and me.
- The Lord’s help, his watching, and his Protection, v 7-8
These closing verses move from the particular to the general, from the specific details to the big picture.
v 7, “The Lord will keep you from all evil”.
We need to pause here to refute a popular misconception about the Christian life.
Some, who claim to be Christians, teach that if you believe in Jesus you will always be healthy and happy.
They teach that Christians will be never be sick or poor, and if you do get sick, and you pray with faith, you will be healed.
But this is wrong and false! Yet, sadly, many preach and teach this heresy, which is known as the health/wealth gospel, or the prosperity gospel.
This psalm does not promise that you will never have an injury or accident; it is not a travel insurance that promises you a life free of trouble or trial.
The rest of the Bible is very clear that all of us will experience sickness and sadness, darkness and despair, persecution, and one day death.
In Luke 21 Jesus warned us of wars, earthquakes, disease and famine. He warned us of persecution and imprisonment.
But he assured us, “By standing firm you will gain life” – eternal life in heaven! (Luke 21:19)
Psalm 23 assures you that even in the valley of the shadow of death God is with you and will comfort you.
And this Psalm, 121, assures you that no matter what happens to you in life the Lord will be with you, even in sickness, in suffering, or in prison.
The Lord will be with you and nothing “will be able to separate you from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom 8:39).
The Lord God will protect you from the Evil One, Satan.
He will “keep your going out and your coming in” (v 8).
“Going out and coming in” covers the totality of life, all you do, everything that happens.
God will watch over you in all the varied circumstances and situations of life – when you go out in the morning and you come home at night, when you begin life as a child and you come to the end your life in your old age.
Three times a year the people of Israel would make their way from their homes, often travelling for many days, on their way to Mount Zion, to Jerusalem and the temple.
As they came closer they could see the hills of the city.
They knew that their help came from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth.
As New Testament pilgrims we are travelling through this life, and we are on our way to the Heavenly City, the New Jerusalem, the City that has foundations whose architect and builder is God.
He will guard you and guide you,
he will watch over you and keep you,
all through your pilgrimage,
to the end of your days on this earth.
“The Lord will keep your going out and your coming in from this time forth and forevermore.” (v 8)
Amen.