This evening we want to take
a look at Psalm 121, a very familiar psalm. We've read it many times
and preached from it many times. And I'm entitling the message
from what is said in verse 5. The Lord is thy keeper. Now if the Lord is our keeper,
if the Lord is our Savior, our Redeemer, All things are well. The Lord is our Keeper. The Lord
is our Savior. The Lord is our Salvation. All
things are well. Six times in this one Psalm,
Psalm 121, we read the same word, keepeth, and the same word, preserve,
and it's the same word that's translated in verse 7 and 8,
that's translated in verse 3, 4, and 5, the same word in the
original, the Lord is our keeper. He's our protector. He's everything
in salvation. Now what a wonderful and comforting
thought. The Lord, who saves us by His
grace, shall certainly keep us and preserve us and bring us
home to glory. He'll bring us home to glory.
We read in 1 Peter 1, verse 5, we are kept by the power of God
through faith unto salvation, ready to be revealed unto us. We read in 1 Peter 3 that Christ
once suffered for our sins, the just for the unjust, that He
might bring us unto God. It's the only way we can come,
through Christ in Him crucified. In 1 Peter chapter 5, we read,
the God of all grace, who had called us unto his eternal glory
by Jesus Christ. After that you have suffered
a while, make you perfect, establish, strengthen, settle you to him
be all the glory and dominion forever and ever. We are a people
kept by his power. redeemed by His blood. In Psalm
84 it says, He gives us all grace now and glory forever. Remember our
Lord prayed In John 17, Father, I will that they also, whom thou
has given me, be with me where I am, that they may behold my
glory, which thou has given me, for thou lovest me before the
foundation of the world. The Lord prays that we will be
with him one day soon. And that day is vastly approaching,
is it not? Now, I don't understand those
who think that the Lord cannot keep those for whom he redeemed,
but you know, there are people that say that. I don't understand
their thinking. It's certainly not arrived from
what the scriptures teach, but we are redeemed by his precious
blood. If he put away our sin and justified
us by his blood, surely he'll keep us forever. and save us
forever for He saves us with an everlasting salvation. He
calls us to Himself, God's own purpose and grace. He given us
in Christ before the foundation of the world and He calls us
and saves us and calls us by His mighty grace. Shall He not
keep us? Justified freely by His grace. I had a man tell me one time, place of business that I was
one of my customers, and I visited with that customer and serviced
that customer regular, that every time he saw me, he was always
ready to argue and fight. One day, we were talking about
the Scripture where it says that He gives His sheep eternal life
and they shall never perish. Our Lord said, no man can pluck
them out of My hand or My Father's hand. I and My Father are one.
I said, how do you explain that a man can lose salvation reading
that Scripture? He said, well, a man can pluck
himself out. I said, my soul, you've got more
power than God? He gives His sheep eternal life,
and they'll never perish. You see, we're kept by the power
of God. There are some who think they
are kept by their own puny, sinful, fleshly efforts. It must be,
and it only can be, people who think that they're saved by what
they do and kept by what they do, that they don't know the
true Christ of God. because the true Christ is God,
everything he does is eternal. He saves us with an everlasting
salvation and we shall not perish. Let me read this to you. This is from Isaiah 54 verse
10. Let me just read it to you, don't
turn. where the mountains shall depart and the hills be removed,
but my kindness shall not depart from thee, neither shall the
covenant of my peace be removed. Who says so? Sayeth the Lord
that hath mercy on thee. The Lord's mercy is from everlasting
to everlasting. One old preacher of the past
called this psalm, the psalm of the keeper of Israel. The
Psalm of the Keeper of Israel, as it says there in verse 4,
Behold, he that keepeth Israel, he's never asleep on the job.
The Psalm of the Keeper of Israel, all the sons of Jacob, all those
spiritual sons of Jacob, the spiritual covenant children,
are kept safely and eternally by the sovereign power of God. Remember, I am the Lord, I change
not, therefore you sons of Jacob are not consumed. Now this psalm
clearly sets forth the blessed Bible doctrine. We find all through
Scripture that salvation is of the Lord. The Lord Jesus Christ
is our help, our hope, our happiness now, and forever. Look what it says in the last
part of, well, let's read verse eight. The Lord shall preserve
thy going out and thy coming in from this time forth and even
forevermore. He is our keeper. Look right across the page, Psalm
125 verse one. They that trust in the Lord shall
be as Mount Zion, which cannot be moved. but abideth forever
as the mountains are round about Jerusalem, so the Lord is round
about his people from henceforth even forevermore. Can you remove the mountains
from around Jerusalem? Oh, no. David said, I will dwell in the
house of the Lord forever and ever and ever. Now look at verse
one. Psalm 121 at verse one. I will. I will. I will. And notice that's kind
of written in bold language, isn't it? I will. I will be willing in the day
of God's power. You remember Psalm 110 verse
3. He makes us willing to call upon
the Lord. I will, David says here, I will
lift up mine eyes unto the hills from whence cometh my help. My
help comes from the Lord. He's the maker of heaven. Can
you explain the vastness of the heavens? The heavens of heavens? I mean, it's just infinite, isn't
it? Infinite. He made the heavens,
He made the earth. Certainly, if He made the heavens
and the earth and the purpose to redeem His people, surely
He's successful at it, is He not? Surely He shall keep His
people forever and ever and ever. The lifting up of the eyes, as
it says here in verse one, is a prayer gesture. It's expressive
of boldness and confidence in prayer and of hope and expectation. I will lift up mine eyes. Now,
he's not talking about these eyes here. He's talking about
the eyes of faith. The eyes of faith that look to
the Lord Jesus Christ alone. A hope of expectation and help
and salvation that is in the Lord. In Psalm 40, we read, I
waited patiently for the Lord, and he inclined unto me, and
he heard my cry. I will lift up my eyes unto the
Lord, from whence cometh my help. You remember when the Lord stood
at the grave of Lazarus, and they told him that Lazarus had
been dead four days, and he said to them, take away the stone.
Then they took away the stone from the place where the dead
was laid and Jesus lifted up his eyes to heaven and said,
Father, I thank you that you have heard me. That's what David's
saying here. I'll lift up my eyes unto the
Lord. And then in John 17, you remember
the priestly prayer of the Lord Jesus Christ in verse 1? These
words spake Jesus and lifted up his eyes to heaven and said,
Father, the hour has come. Glorify thy son that thy son
may glorify thee. Thou has given me power over
all flesh that I should give eternal life to as many as thou
has given to me. And this is eternal life that
they might know thee, the only true God, Jesus Christ. That is, we look to the Lord
with eyes of faith, don't we? Isaiah 45, our Lord said, look
unto me. Would you look anywhere else?
Saving faith doesn't look anywhere else. Saving faith has a single
eye set upon the Lord. Look unto me, he says, and be
saved. I am God, beside me there is none other. The instruction
of the Lord unto us is look unto him for all help, For all help
and all salvation, look unto the Lord. I cross the page again
in Psalm 124, verse 8. Psalm 124, verse 8. Our help is in the name of the
Lord who made heaven and earth. God is our refuge and strength
of every present help in trouble. We're not instructed to look
within ourselves. All we see there is sin, depravity,
wickedness, and evil thoughts. We say with hall of old, old
wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from this body of
death." God-given faith always looks to the giver of faith.
Now think about that. Faith's the gift of God. Every
good gift and every perfect gift comes from God. Saving faith
that's given of God always looks back to the giver. Never looks
in here. Saving faith is always objective. Looking unto Jesus, the author
and finisher of our faith. Remember? Hebrews chapter 12. Of course, the hills that are
mentioned here in verse 1 are not physical hills. Now, I love
to look at mountains. They're just majestic, aren't
they? I'm partial to the Rocky Mountains because that's where
I cut my teeth as a young man, as a young boy. Of course, these
hills here surrounding Jerusalem are not physical hills. They're
symbolic of the sovereign throne of God's sovereign grace. Turn
back to Psalm 2. Hold your place there at Psalm
121. Turn back to Psalm 2. I think we need to look at Psalm
2 again here, maybe in the near future. But in Psalm 2, look
at verse 6. I've set my king, he said, I've
set my king upon my holy hill of Zion. Now the hill there is
symbolic of his throne, of his sovereign, almighty throne. And then look at Psalm 3, verse
2. Many there be would say of my
soul, there's no help for him in God, but thou, O Lord, art
a shield for me, my glory, and the lifter up of my head. I cried
unto the Lord with my voice, and he heard me out of his holy
hill. I laid me down and slept. I wake,
for the Lord sustained me." We can rest knowing that our God
is on the throne, that he does all things right and well. Shall not the judge of all the
earth do right? This hill here represents the
hill of his sovereign purpose. Of him and through him, of him
and through him and to him are all things to whom be glory.
The hill here is symbolic of his immutable promises. All the
promises of God in him are yes, and amen, and in him, and to
the glory of God. Peter writes about the exceeding
great and precious promises that we have in the Lord Jesus Christ.
His promises never fail, do they? We can make a promise, but due
to circumstances, we might not be able to fulfill the promise.
His promises never fail. This hill here is symbolic also
of His covenant mercies. I like what David said, God had
made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things and assured,
this is all my hope and all my salvation and all my desire. The everlasting covenant of God's
grace. The God of peace that brought
again from the dead the Lord Jesus Christ, that great shepherd
of the sheep to the blood of the everlasting covenant. I will, by his grace, Lift up
the eyes of my faith, the eyes of my soul unto the Lord on the
sovereign throne and be at peace and rest in Him. For whence cometh
my help? Boy, He is my help. He is my
help. It's often said in religious
circles that God helps those who help themselves, That's not
so. God helps those who are helpless. He is our help. He is our help. My help, verse 2, cometh from
the Lord. Jehovah, God Almighty, God my
Savior. And He's the One that created
all things by the Word of His power. The One who is the Creator and
Sustainer of all things. He is my help. The Apostle Paul
writes this in Colossians 1, For by Him are all things created
that are in heaven and in earth, visible, invisible, whether they
be thrones or dominions, principalities or powers. All things were created
by Him and for Him. He is before all things, and
by Him all things consist. All things are held together.
You realize the exact order that's in God's universe. We're about to go into that summer
solstice. Happens every year at the same
time. And then we go into that winter,
that wintertime change. Happens that way every time.
It never varies. It never changes. God has an
exact order in His universe. He's a God of order. All things
are held together and consist by His power, His dominion. We can trust Him. My help cometh
from the Lord. He's the Creator of all things.
Now there is no help of salvation and forgiveness of sin from any
man, is there? Turn over a few pages to Psalm
146. Psalm 146. There's no help or salvation
from any man, but there is help from the Creator. Psalm 146,
look at verse 3. Put not your trust in princes,
nor in the son of man, or any son of Adam, in whom there is
no help. help, in whom there is no salvation. His breath goeth forth, he returneth
to his earth, in that very day his thoughts perish. Happy is
he that hath the God of Jacob for his help, whose hope is in
the Lord his God." That's our hope. He is our help. Our condition is so desperate
due to our sin and depravity, our sin against God, the only
one who can help us and save us is the Lord Jesus Christ alone. You remember Hebrews chapter
four, seeing we have a great high priest that is passed into
the heaven, Jesus Christ, the son of God, let us therefore
come boldly unto the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy
and find grace to help in our time of need. The Lord Jesus
Christ came to save us from our sin, didn't he? We read that
on Sunday, the Son of Man has come to seek and to save the
lost, his lost sheep. While it is vain to trust the
creature, we are to put no confidence in the flesh. It's vain to trust
the creature, it's wise to trust the Creator. He's a creator of
heaven and earth. We know that salvation is by
His purpose and by His grace. The Lord will sooner destroy
heaven and earth than to permit His people to perish. Trust in
the Lord with all your heart. Lean not to thy own understanding.
Trust in Him at all times, ye people. Pour out your heart before
Him. God is a refuge for us. Now, let's consider verse 3 and
verse 4. He will not suffer. That is,
He will not allow. He will not allow thy foot even
to be moved. The Lord is my rock. I shall
not be moved. Psalm 62. He will not suffer
thy foot to be moved. He that keepeth thee, will never
go to sleep on the job. He that keepeth thee will never
slumber. Behold, he that keepeth Israel, he shall neither slumber
nor sleep. Our God is always on the job. The Lord will not permit us to
be moved from the foundation He has established for us. What
is that foundation? Other foundation can no man lay
than that which is laid, which is Christ the Lord. The Lord
will not permit us to be moved from the foundation He has established. You remember from Matthew 16,
He says, I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not
prevail against it. Isaiah 28 said, Behold, I lay
in Zion for a foundation, a stone, a tridestone, a precious cornerstone. He that believeth on him will
never be forced to flee, never be ashamed, never be confounded. It's not so with the ungodly.
In Deuteronomy 32 verse 35, he said, Their foot will slide in
due time. He keeps our foot. Fastened to
the rock, the Lord Jesus Christ. We won't slide off that rock.
Where we went fishing last week, down in the Smoky Mountain National
Park. And we fished on those small
streams way up in the mountains. And you know those small streams,
they've had water running over those rocks for thousands of
years. And they're smooth. And they're also covered with
moss. And they're slippery. And as we try to fish up the
stream, we fish up the stream and we kind of get over those
rocks, sometimes you step and you slip. And we've fallen more
than one time. Those who are fastened to the
rock, the Lord Jesus cried, our foot never slides. Never slides. The Lord is our
keeper. He never sleeps on the job. He
never vacates His post. He never vacates His throne.
He keeps us by His holy power. He preserves us by His sovereign
grace, doesn't He? He holds us by His mighty hand. We studied in Psalm 95. He is our God. His people, the people of his
pasture, were the sheep of his hand. Whatsoever the Lord does, he
said, no one can stay my hand, or say unto me, Lord God, what
doest thou? All the inhabitants of the earth
are reputed as nothing. He doeth according to his will
in the army of heaven among the inhabitants of the earth, and
none can stay his hand, None can stay His hand or say unto
Him, what doest thou? We're safe in His hands. We're
safe in His hands. His hands hold us by His mighty
power. He guides us by His word. He
holds us by His hand. He comforts us by His Holy Spirit. He will never forsake us. Remember
we studied that in Hebrews 13? He said, I'll never leave thee,
I'll never forsake thee, so we can boldly say, the Lord is my
helper. I shall not fear what man shall
do unto me. He will bring us to himself and
to eternal glory, and then he'll present us faultless before the
presence of his glory with exceeding joy. That's good news, isn't
it? He will not suffer thy foot to
be moved. To move the believer, you've got to move the rock.
The believer is fastened to the rock, and that rock is Christ.
That rock is Christ. Let me read that to you. Don't
turn, let me just read it to you. He only is my rock and my
salvation. He's my defense, I shall not
be moved. And God is my salvation, my glory,
the rock of my strength, and my refuge is in Him. And God,
trust in Him at all times, ye people. Pour out your heart before
Him. God is a refuge for us. Now look at verse 5. Now this is no peanut God here.
This is the Lord. This is Jehovah Almighty God. I am that I am. The Lord is thy
keeper. God determined to save. God determined
to elect a people. God determined that Christ would
secure their salvation and put away their sin. God determined
by His purpose and grace to save them and He will keep them forever. They're His. He bought them.
He bought them. He's going to take home what
He bought. You ladies who go to the grocery store, you don't
buy your groceries and leave them, do you? Not on purpose. You buy your groceries and you
take them home. Why? You bought them. He made a grocery
list. He made up your list. What you're
going to buy. What you're going to buy. He went to store and
bought them and took them home. The Lord chose us. Bought us. And He's going to take us home
and enjoy us forever. Now look at verse 5. is thy keeper. The Lord is thy
shade upon thy right hand. The sun shall not smite thee
by day or the moon by night. The Lord our God is not only
our savior and our keeper, he's our refuge and our righteousness. He's able to keep that which
we've committed unto him against that day. He's able to save to
the uttermost. He's able to keep us from falling.
Received with meekness in grafted word, James says, which is able
to save your soul. We are safe and secure under
the shadow of his almighty wings. We looked at that just recently,
didn't we? Turn back to Psalm 91. Verse 1, Psalm 91, verse 1. Shalt thou trust, his truth shall
be shield and buckler. Thou shalt not be afraid for
the terror by night, for the arrow that flyeth by day, nor
the pestilence that walketh in darkness, nor the destruction
that wastes that noon day. A thousand shall fall at thy
side and 10,000 at thy right hand, but it shall not come nigh
thee. The Lord is our keeper. The Lord is a shade upon thy
right hand. The Lord does keep us. The Lord
does protect us. From the flaming sword of God's
holy justice, He bare our sin in His own body on the tree,
bearing the wrath of God for us. He keeps us from the fiery
penalty of the law. Christ redeemed us from the curse
of the law, being made a curse for us. He delivered us from
the wrath to come, having endured the wrath of God for us. He keeps
us from the fiery darts of the wicked one. Paul said, take the shield of
faith whereby you shall be able to quench all the fiery darts
of the wicked one. The Lord is our keeper. The Lord
is our shade upon thy right hand. We rest in the shade, don't we? Verse 6. The sun shall not smite
thee by day or the moon by night. Christ is our shelter and our
refuge at all times, day or night, day or night, 24-7. He's our shelter. His ever-present protection never
ceases, is never diminished, but always prevailing and present,
day or night. From the heat of the sun or the
coolness of the night, are not to be understood literally, but
rather spiritually and mystically in Christ. Day and night make
up all time. Thus the ever-present protection
never ceases. All evil may rank, be ranked
as the sun or the moon. All evil may be ranked as the
sun or the moon, and if neither of these can smite us, then indeed
we are safe in him." One old preacher said, trying to quote
him. Verse 7, the Lord shall preserve
thee or keep thee. The sun shall not smite thee
by day. Remember those 40 years in the
wilderness? What did the Lord provide in
that hot, burning, desert country? The cloud. What did He provide
at night to warm them and give them light? The fiery pillar. The Lord has not changed. Look
at verse 7. The Lord shall preserve thee
from all evil. He shall preserve thy soul. This word preserve is the same
word that's been translated in this psalm, keepeth or keeper. It means to protect, to guard,
it means to hedge about. The wings of Jehovah are our
guide, our sorrow, our guide, and our protector from all evils. Our Lord prayed in John 17. In
John 17, in His high priestly prayer, He said, Father, save
them from the The evil one. Let me read it to you so I get
it right. Psalm 17, I pray not that thou
shouldest take them out of the world, but thou shouldest keep
them from the evil one. The Lord is our keeper. He shall
preserve our soul. If our soul is kept and saved
by the sovereign power of God, All is kept. Christ has redeemed
us, both body, soul, and spirit. If God before us, who can be
against us? Who can lay anything to the charge
of God's elect? It is God that justifies. Who
is he that condemneth his Christ as he died, yea, rather, is risen
again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also intercedes
for us. The Lord shall preserve us from
all evil. He shall preserve thy soul. Now, it doesn't mean that we'll
be exempt from all trouble, heartache, and sorrow, but the Lord does
give us preserving grace for the trial. He said, my grace
is sufficient. Then verse 8, in closing, the
Lord shall preserve or keep thy going out and thy coming in. from this time forth and even
forevermore. Now what is this going out and
coming in? Well, how many times have you went
out of your house in the morning? When you went out? You went out
and the Lord was with you. And you spent the whole day doing
your business, on the job, whatever, and then you came back home and
went in. In and out. In and out. But there's more
here than that. There's more here than that. The steps of
a righteous man are ordered of the Lord. The Lord shall preserve
thy going out and thy coming in from this time forth and even
forevermore. He shall keep us, preserve us
in all our goings and all our comings. We sing that song day
by day and with each passing moment. Thy strength I find,
O Lord, in thee. The steps of a righteous man
are ordered of the Lord. We're going to close our service
in just a moment from a song in the hymn book, Jesus, I Come. And the words of that song, we'll
sing in a minute, but it says here, and this verse reminded
me of that song, out of my bondage, sorrow and night, into thy freedom,
gladness and light, out of my sickness, into thy health, out
of my want and into thy wealth, out of my sin and into thyself. Out of and into. And we'll sing
that whole song there in just a minute. From this time forth, because
God had blessed us abundantly in the Lord Jesus Christ, and
He has. He has. From this time forth
and even forever. How long is forever more? That's
forever more, isn't it? When we finish our study, Lord
willing, in the book of Matthew, in Matthew 28, when He tells
them to go into all the world and preach the gospel to every
creature, right? He said, all powers given to
me in heaven and earth, go therefore and preach the gospel to every
creature. And then he said, lo, I'm with you always, even to
the end of the earth. The Lord shall preserve thy going
out and thy coming in from this time forth and even forever and
ever. He says, I give my sheep eternal
life and they'll never perish. All that the Father giveth me
shall come to me, and those that come to me, he said, I'll never
cast them out. I'll never cast them out.