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

—Psalm 121:3-68

Read through the verses above a second time. Think about what the psalmist is saying! The Lord will help us up, and He will keep holding us up, even as we sleep, because He himself never sleeps nor slumbers. Night or day, He is keeping us. The Lord told Moses that they were to bless the children of Israel by saying, “The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make His face to shine upon you, and be gracious to you; the Lord lift up His countenance upon you, and give you peace.” And then He said, “So they shall put My name on the children of Israel, and I will bless them” (Num 6:22-27).

As Christians, we, too, bear the name of the Lord. We’re saved by the same name that was put on the children of Israel. The God of Israel is the God of the church. In Revelation, speaking of those who overcome evil, the Lord said He would make them pillars in the temple and write on them His name and the name of the City of the Lord, the New Jerusalem.

Regarding that Name, the Jews refer to Him as Hashem, meaning “the Name.” Of course, the name they will not say is the name of the Lord, Yeshua, that name by which we are saved, by which we are kept, and that is above every other name. It’s the name at which one day every knee will bow and every tongue confess what we knew all along: that Jesus Christ is the Lord!

To you pilgrims who are on a long, difficult journey but trying to keep your eyes lifted even as the enemy tries to pull them down to looking at your circumstances, remember this: not only is handling difficulty God’s specialty, but He never slumbers nor sleeps! His eye is ever upon you, even in the midst of trials. I can’t explain why He allows some situations and averts others, but I know this: as His children, He helps us up and keeps us up. To believe the devil’s lies that He has forsaken or forgotten you is from the pit.

We don’t have to like a painful situation, but just because you feel alone doesn’t mean you are! God didn’t nod off, and something bad happened to you while He was sleeping. He hasn’t forgotten you or your circumstances. He’s right there with you! You can rest and sleep sweetly, knowing that He who never sleeps will always take care of you.

This psalm tells us that the Lord is our keeper, meaning one who hedges in or guards someone or something— in this case, us! But we need to be on guard ourselves. Paul wrote: “Stand therefore, having girded your waist with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace; above all taking the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one” (Eph 6:14-16). Notice that God didn’t promise that the fiery darts would stop coming during our lifetime, but He said that faith in Him can quench them all as you use the shield of faith! Faith in what? Faith in Jesus, who helps us up and keeps us up!

If this is where you find yourself, lift your eyes up to where your help comes from. You haven’t been left to your own devices! That would be contrary to the nature and character of our loving Father! Friends, the Lord is your keeper. Say it to yourself often, “The Lord is my keeper, all night and all day long, every day.” Then you can lie down and sleep in peace in spite of the battle that rages all around you.

Excerpt from “Beside Still Waters” now available on Amazon.

BARRY STAGNER