Psalm 121. I've often said, and
I believe the record of scripture bears it out, the only place
a sinner will worship is at the throne of the sovereign, holy
God. The only place a sinner will
truly worship is at the throne of the almighty, sovereign God. Religion in our day has reinvented
God. They've got a God that's different
than the God that's described in Holy Scripture. They don't
like Him, so they reinvented another God that kind of comes
down to their level. A God that they can manipulate
and control. Our God in the heavens, He had
done whatsoever He had pleased, when He pleases, with whom He
pleases, as He pleases, all the time. He always does all his
pleasure. He always works all things after
the counsel of his own will. Never makes a mistake. Everything
he does is right and on time. As Jacob or Abraham said, shall
not the judge of all the earth do right? Oh yeah, all the time. He will do right. So I'm taking
the title for the message from Psalm 121, From verse five, the Lord is
thy keeper. The Lord is thy keeper. And as
I pointed out in the reading, that word can also be rendered
preserver. The Lord shall preserve thy going
out and thy coming in. The Lord shall keep us. The Lord
shall preserve us. What a great thought. He'll keep
us from falling. You remember that? Scripture
over in the book of Jude where it said he's able to keep us
from falling. He's the only one who can. He's
able to keep us from falling and to present us, and think
about that, before the Father, faultless, holy, unblameable
in his sight. He's able to keep us kept by
the power of God. What a wonderful, comforting
thought. The Lord who saves us shall certainly keep us. We were lost, he found us. He
won't let us go. He will preserve us. He will
bring us home all the way to glory. We read in 1 Peter, we're
kept by the power of God. Chapter 1, verse 5. And then
1 Peter 3, verse 18 says that Christ suffered once for our
sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us unto God. And that's what he does. He brings
us unto God. And I like this scripture too.
Found in 1 Peter 5, verse 10, that the God of all grace, who
had called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after
that you have suffered a while, make you perfect, establish,
strengthen, settle you. To him be glory and dominion
forever and ever. Amen. He's the God of all grace.
Grace is sovereign grace. Sovereign mercy. He will have
mercy on whom he will. He gives us all grace now. Daily grace. Oh to grace how
great a debtor daily I'm constrained to be. He gives us all grace
now and then he gives us glory forever. Can it get any better? He gives us himself. He gave
himself for our sins. The Lord Jesus Christ 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 father loved the son before
the foundation of the world and he loved us in him before the
foundation of the world. He chose us in love before the
foundation of the world. Now think about this, we were
kept by the power of God even before we knew him, he knew us. He preserved us and kept us even
before we knew the true and living God, he kept us and preserved
us until the time he crossed our path and revealed himself
unto us. And I get that from the scripture
where it says in 2 Timothy 1.19, the foundation of God then is
sure having this sealed, the Lord knoweth them that are his. You remember what it said to
Jeremiah in Jeremiah chapter one, before I formed thee in
the belly, I knew you, I ordained you, I kept you. We're kept by
the power of God. Before we ever heard the gospel,
learned the gospel, before we ever had faith in the Lord Jesus
Christ, we were kept in Him, preserved in Him, justified in
Him before the foundation of the world. Now, I don't understand
those religious people who think the Lord cannot keep those for
whom He's redeemed. Those who think they are kept
by their own puny, sinful, fleshly efforts or works, it must be
and can only be that they don't know the true and living Christ
of God. Our Lord said in John 10, my
sheep hear my voice, I know them, I give them eternal life and
they shall never perish. That sounds like we're preserved
and kept, doesn't it? And then he said, no man can
pluck them out of my hand. My father which gave to me is
greater than all and no one can pluck them out of his hand. Now
that sounds to me like we're kept and preserved, doesn't it
sound that way to you? His covenant, his covenant is
everlasting covenant of grace. Well, by we are given to the
Lord Jesus Christ in that covenant. He's made the surety of that
everlasting covenant, the sacrifice of that covenant. He saved his
people by his grace. Listen to this promise is Isaiah
54. Don't turn. Let me just read
it to you. Isaiah 54 10 for the mountain shall depart. and the
hills be removed, but my kindness shall not depart from thee, neither
shall the covenant of my peace be removed, saith the Lord, that
hath mercy on thee. Oh, the hills and the mountains,
they're gonna be removed, but his covenant of mercy, his
kindness will never be removed from us. You see, we're kept,
we're loved in Christ with an everlasting love. Therefore,
with loving kindness, he does draw us unto himself. Now this psalm clearly sets forth
that blessed Bible doctrine. We find all through the scripture
that salvation that we so desperately need is of the Lord. The Lord Jesus Christ is all
our help, all our hope, all our happiness, all of our salvation
now and forevermore. Notice what it says in verse
eight, Psalm 121 verse eight. This we have in Christ is not
some kind of temporary thing. He saves us with an everlasting
salvation. Look at verse eight. The Lord
shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in from this time forth, forward,
this time forth, and even for evermore. Evermore. Now look at verse one. I will. I will lift up my eyes. I will
lift up my eyes. These are eyes of faith. The
eyes of faith look unto the Lord Jesus Christ who is seated on
that holy hill of Zion. David is not saying that I look
to the high mountains around Jerusalem or any other physical
mountain. He says I'm looking to the Lord
who is on the high holy throne of God and He is my help. He is all my salvation. My help
cometh from the Lord, and my salvation cometh from the Lord. He's the one who made heaven.
Now if he can make heaven and make earth, there shouldn't be
any problem for him to save us by his grace and then keep us.
Keep us. The lifting up of the eyes here
is a prayer, gesture, and it's expressive of boldness and confidence
looking to the Lord as our hope, as our help, and all of our salvation. I quote that verse in Hebrews
4 all the time, verse 16, where it says, Let us therefore come
boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and
find grace to help in time of need, seeing that we have a great
high priest. The Lord Jesus Christ prayed
in John 17, He lifted up his eyes to heaven and said, Father,
the hours come, glorify thy son that thy son may also glorify
thee. What did he do? He lifted up
his eyes and set his heart and affection upon God Almighty,
his Father. With eyes of faith, the believer
looking unto the Lord Jesus Christ all the time. He said, look unto
me and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth. I'm God, beside
me there is no other. To whom coming? We're coming
to the Lord Jesus Christ. And this is not something physically
we do, but with eyes of faith and in our heart, we're always
coming to the Lord Jesus Christ. We're always looking to him,
believing him. The instruction of the Lord unto
us is to look to him for help and hope. in Christ. I noticed when reading some of
these Psalms, look right across the page and down at the bottom.
If you have the Cambridge, I'm reading Psalm 124, look at verse
8. You see it there? Psalm 124,
verse 8. Our help is in the name of the
Lord who made heaven and earth. He's the great creator. He made
all things. He is our help. He is our hope
at all times. So when come with my help? Well,
my help comes from the Lord. And we certainly do need help,
don't we? In Psalm 46, don't turn, let
me read it to you. God is our refuge and strength. Psalm 46 verse one, a very present
help in trouble. Therefore, will not we fear,
though the earth be removed, though the mountains be carried
into the midst of the sea, though the waters thereof roar and be
troubled, though the mountains shake with the swelling thereof?
There is a river, the streams whereof shall make glad the city
of God, the holy places of the Multi, tabernacles of the Multi. God is our refuge, God is our
help, God is our strength. We are not instructed to look
within. All we see as we look within
our own selves is despair, sin, and depravity. We say with Paul,
oh wretched man that I am, God-given faith always looks outside of
self. We say faith is objective. That is, we look at Christ, who's
the object of faith. Saving faith doesn't look here.
Saving faith looks back to the giver of faith. Who's the giver
of faith? He's the author and finisher of faith. Looking unto
the Lord Jesus Christ, who's the author and finisher of our
faith. Who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross,
despising the shame, and he is set down on the throne of God. We look to him, don't we? Now, the hills that are mentioned
here are not physical hills. Now, I have a weakness about
looking at mountains. I like looking at mountain ranges. I have my favorite mountain ranges
that I love to go in and look at. The Sawtooth Mountains in
Idaho were beautiful. The Wind River Mountain Range
in Wyoming. That's another beautiful mountain
range. It's a Wasatch Mountain Range
in Northern Utah. It's a beautiful mountain range.
And I love looking at those mountains, but that's not my help or my
hope. The mountains and the hills that
he's talking about is the sovereign, holy throne of God. It says over
here in Psalm 2, I think it's verse 6, God said, I've set my
king upon my holy hill of Zion. And that's talking about the
sovereign throne of Almighty God, our Lord Jesus Christ. It's the hill of His sovereign
purpose. It's the hill of His immutable promises that are exceeding
great and precious. The hill of His covenant mercies
ordered in all things and ensured. The hill of His grace. My help comes from Him. That's
a good place. If you need help, wouldn't you call upon someone
who could help you? You wouldn't call upon someone
who is unable to do anything for you. If you really need help,
you'll call upon someone who is able to help you. And in the
realm of salvation, it's the Lord Jesus Christ alone. He states
in verse 2, my help comes from the Lord. My help comes from
the Lord. How big is the Lord? How great
is the Lord? Well, the Lord is the one who
created heaven. I was looking at something the
other day about the Hubble telescope, how it looked into the deep recesses
of space, 160 million light years away. I can't even think in that kind
of realm. But God created all things by
the word of his power. And we can invent all these scientific
things and we can just get a glimpse of who God is. He's the one who
created and made the heaven by the word of his power and he
created the earth and everything in it. Man upon it. God created man, let us make
man in our image. Even though this flesh and this
body is frail, weak, Dying, it's still a marvelous thing to behold. I heard the other day that medical
science never had any cure for any disease until 1855. It took
them that long to finally figure out how to cure some disease. You know they're still trying
to figure this thing out? A wise doctor told me, who had practiced
for many years, he said, medicine is not a perfect science. We're
still practicing. We're still learning. And that's
true. That's true. But just think how
glorious the heavens are. The heavens of heaven cannot
contain the Lord. and how each intimate detail
in the whole creation, the order of the universe, the seasons,
the day, the time, the sun, the moon, all these things are in
exact order. Every year, the stars in their
courses, I mean, they can navigate on that North Star because it
never moves. Why doesn't it move? God doesn't
move. He put it there. And he said,
you stay right there. You know, scripture says he knows
every star by name. He said, North Star, you stay
right there. Still there. Still there. This is the one, the mighty creator
God, who created man and put man upon the earth. who created
all things by the word of His power. He's the only one who
can help us. He is our helper. Now that encourages
me. I need help. I need help. I need help in every way. I cannot save myself. I cannot
keep myself. No man can. So my help comes
from the Lord. Our help comes from the Lord,
the only one who can help. Our hope is in Jehovah, for our
help comes from Him. Help is on the road and will
not fail to reach us in due time, for He sends it to us. He who
sends it to us was never late, never known to be late. While
it is vain to trust a creature, it is wise to trust the Creator. said Charles Pershing. Look at
verse three. He will not suffer, or he will
not permit thy foot to be moved. You know what it says over there
in the book of Deuteronomy somewhere about the ungodly? He said their
foot will slide in due time. Look that up sometime. Their
foot will slide in due time. But he says here, thy foot, he
will not permit thy foot to be moved. You see, we're fastened
to the rock. And that rock is Christ. We're
fixed on Christ. He's a solid rock. To move the
believer, you gotta move the rock. That's not gonna happen. He will not suffer thy foot to
be moved. He that keepeth thee will not
slumber. The Lord will not permit us to
be moved from the foundation that he has established. You
remember that verse in Isaiah 28, 16, where it said, behold,
I lay in Zion for a foundation of stone, a tried stone, a precious
cornerstone, a sure foundation. He that believeth on him shall
never be moved. Never be ashamed, never be confounded,
as that verse is quoted in the New Testament. Let's turn to
this one. Turn back here to Psalm 62. I
call Psalm 62 the only psalm. The only psalm, you remember? And the reason I call it the
only psalm, because that word is repeated
so many times. Psalm 62 verse 5, My soul wait
thou only upon God, for my expectation is from Him. He only is my rock
and my salvation. He is my defense. I shall not
be moved. And God is my salvation, my glory,
the rock of my strength, and my refuge is in God. Trust in
Him at all times, you people. Pour out your heart before Him.
God is a refuge for us. You see what he's saying here?
He will not suffer thy foot to be moved. He that keeps thee, he didn't slumber asleep. Behold, he that keepeth thee
will never, you'll never, he'll never be caught sleeping on the
job. Never. The Lord will not permit
us to be moved from the foundation he has established. The Lord
is our keeper. He's never asleep. He never vacates
his post. He never vacates his throne.
Remember, you remember Elijah mocked those priests of Baal.
The prophet of Baal, when they cried and cried and cried, jumped
up and down and cut themselves and said, O Baal, hear us. Remember
what Elijah said? Why don't you cry a little bit
louder? Maybe you're going to sleep.
You see, he knew Jehovah never slumbers, never sleeps. The Lord
is our keeper. He never vacates his throne.
He keeps us by His holy power, kept by the power of God. He
preserves us by His sovereign grace. He holds us by His mighty
hand. None can stay His hand or say
unto Him, Lord God, what doest thou? He guides us by His holy
word. The word is a lamp and a light
unto our feet. The Lord is my shepherd, I shall
not want. He will never forsake us, he
said. No, never. He will never leave us. Notice verse five, the Lord is
thy keeper. He just keeps on saying this,
doesn't he? The Lord is thy keeper. The Lord is thy shade. Upon your right hand, the Lord
is the shade. We rest under the shade of His
almighty power. The Lord is not only our savior
and keeper, He's our refuge. He's 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 all that come to God
by Him. The Lord is our keeper. The Lord is our refuge. A shelter in a time of storm,
he's our refuge. We run to him and rest. We are
safe and secure under the shadow of his almighty wings. God has
wings? Symbolically he does. We rest
under his wing, turn back to Psalm 91. Like little chicks. under the
wings of the mother hen when the storm comes up. Psalm 91,
Psalm 91, verse 1, He that dwelleth in the secret place of the Most
High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. I will save
the Lord, He is my refuge, my fortress, my God, in Him I'll
trust. Surely He shall deliver thee
from the snare of the fowler, from the noise of the pestilence. He shall cover thee with a feather,
and under his wings shalt thou trust. His truth shall be thy
shield and thy buckler. He is our shield. He is our refuge.
He is our hiding place. As the Lord provided for the
children of Israel, 40 years in that wilderness journey, when
they came through the Red Sea, being delivered from Egyptian
bondage, 40 years they dwelled in that wilderness. All those
men that were 21 or 20 years or older, in that 40 years, they
all died with the exception of two men, Joshua and Caleb. But the Lord provided for them
in that wilderness journey those 40 years. They had food from
heaven. They had water out of the rock.
It says their shoes never wore out, their clothes didn't wear
out. The Lord provided for them, gave them that cloud During the
daytime, shade and refuge from the heat. At night, they had
that pillar of fire that gave them warmth and light at night.
The Lord provided for them, didn't he? Even so, and more so, does
the Lord provide a refuge for us, a shelter in the time of
storm. He is the shade upon thy right
hand. The Lord protects us from the
flaming sword of God's justice. He provides all things for us.
By God shall supply all your need according to his riches
in glory through Christ Jesus. He provides protection from the
flaming sword of God's justice in the Lord Jesus Christ took
our sins in his own body on the tree and bear the wrath of God
against our sin in his own body. He protects us from the fiery
penalty of the law. Christ has redeemed us from the
curse of the law being made a curse for us. He protects us from the
holy wrath of God to come. He delivered us from the wrath
of God to come. He's not appointed us unto wrath,
but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ. He protects
us from the fiery darts of Satan. He gives us the shield of faith. Look at verse six. Psalm 121,
the son shall not smite thee, S-U-N. shall not smite thee by
day, nor the moon by night. Christ is our shelter, our salvation,
our refuge, and righteousness all the time, day or night, day
or night, 24-7. He's always on the job. His ever-present protection never
ceases, never is diminished, but rather is always prevailing
Precious and present, day or night. The heat of the sun or the coolness
of the night. Doesn't matter. Day or night. Make up all time. Thus the ever-present
protection, his ever-present protection never ceases. All
evil may be ranked as under the sun or the moon, if neither can
smite us, then indeed we are secure. We live under the sun and under
the moon. The sun or the moon shall not
smite thee. Day or night the Lord protects
us and watches over us. Look at verse 7. The Lord shall
preserve thee from all evil and from the evil one. He shall preserve
thy soul. He shall preserve thy soul. We
have a body. Man has a body. But he is a soul. That's what he is. He's a soul.
We have a body. But the Lord shall preserve us
body, soul, and spirit. He's redeemed us body, soul,
and spirit. This word preserved here is the
same word that's translated keep, or keeper. It means to protect,
to guard, to hedge about, to hedge about. I just recently read through
the book of Job, and if you go to Job chapter one, when the
Lord and Satan are having that conversation about Job, And the
Lord said, hey, have you ever considered my servant Job? He's
upright, and he hates evil, and he believes me, and he trusts
me. And Satan comes back and said, yeah, you put a hedge upon
him. You put a hedge around him. I can't get to him. Satan said,
well, you just remove that hedge, and he'll curse into your face. Job never did. Job never did. But you see, the point is God
put a hedge around Job. And Satan could not touch him
without God's permission. Without God's permission. The
Lord prayed for us in John 17, I pray not that thou shouldest
take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them
from the evil one. We're no match for Satan. Remember
our Lord said to Peter, Satan had desire to sift you like wheat. Oh, but I prayed for you that
your faith fell not. He shall preserve our soul. If our soul is kept and saved
by the sovereign power of God, all is well. We're going to sing
that in a minute, I think. It's well with my soul. For Christ
redeemed us, body, soul, and spirit. If God be for us, He that spared not his own son,
but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also
freely give us all things? If God be for us, who can be
against us? Look at verse 8. The Lord shall preserve thee
from all evil. Verse 7. He shall preserve thy
soul. And then he says it again in
verse 8. The Lord shall preserve thy going out. He just keeps
saying it, preserved thee, preserved thee, kept, kept, kept. It seems
like he's abundantly overstating this that we might hear a word
from him. The Lord shall preserve thy going
out and thy coming in from this time forth and even forevermore. Now, how many times have you
went out of your house and come back home? How many times have
you went to work out of your house and come back home? I mean,
that's a lot of times. How many times have you got out
of bed and then came back home, went back to bed? The Lord shall
preserve thy going out and thy coming in from this time forth
and for even evermore out of Youth and inexperience in old
age. The Lord shall preserve thee. He shall keep us, preserve us
in all our goings and all our comings. We have the guarantee
of the holy, blessed Trinity. I think that's why it said three
times there, verse seven and eight, the Lord shall preserve
thee. The Lord shall preserve thy soul.
The Lord shall preserve father, son, holy spirit. I don't think
it's any accident. were kept by the triune God. You remember Psalm 37, it says,
the steps of a righteous man are ordered of the Lord. He has blessed us abundantly
in the Lord Jesus Christ. In this time, right now, blessed
with all spiritual blessings right now, and even for, what
does it say there? Even for as long as you hold
out, Long you do the best you can, God's gonna bless you. Thank
God it doesn't say that. You see, our blessings are not
conditioned upon our obedience. Our blessings are conditioned
upon the faithfulness of Christ. The Lord shall preserve thy going
out and thy coming in from this time forth and even for a long
time, evermore. How long is that? Make it as
long as you want, all eternity, all eternity. You are blessed
of the Lord which made heaven and earth, it says in Psalm 115. The Lord not only preserves his
people in this life, but in heaven and to all eternity. Because the Lord Jesus Christ,
when he saves us, it's not temporary amnesty. It's eternal life. It's everlasting salvation. The
whole church is thus everlastingly secured and preserved. And because we're kept and preserved,
the saints of God, they persevere. They continue in the faith because
they're kept by the power of God. How many, turn to John chapter
six. I'll quit with this. How many of those given to the Lord Jesus
Christ in that covenant of grace, John chapter six, verse 37. How
many of those who were given to Christ in that covenant of
grace and for whom the Lord Jesus Christ successfully redeemed
their soul and put away their sin, how many of them will be
lost? Will any of them be lost? Let's
see what it says here. John 6, 37. All that the Father
giveth me shall come to me, and him that cometh to me I will
in no wise cast him out. For I came down from heaven,
not to do my own will, but the will of Him that sent me. And
this is the Father's will which has sent me, that all which He
has given me, I should lose." What's that word? Nothing. Raise it up again at the last
day. This is the will of Him that sent me, that everyone would
see it, the Son, and believeth on Him, may have everlasting
life, and I'll raise Him up, at the last day. I will be their God and they shall
be my people. His promises are certain and
sure. All the promises of God in Christ are yes, and in Him,
amen, and to the glory of God by the Lord Jesus Christ. So
as we end this year, 2022, and begin the new year 2023. Let us always look to the Lord
Jesus Christ. He's our keeper. He will preserve
us. He will bless us in Christ Jesus
now and forevermore. Amen.