Sermon
on Psalm 121
January 31,
2009
Text: I will lift up my eyes to the hills - From
whence comes my help? My help comes
from the Lord, Who made heaven and earth.
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 Shade at your right hand. The sun shall not strike you by day, Nor the
moon by night. The Lord shall preserve you from all evil; He shall preserve
your soul. The Lord shall preserve your going out and your coming in from this
time forth, and even forevermore.
*****
In Christ Jesus, Dear Fellow Redeemed:
This
past year saw more than its share of financial unrest, lost jobs, terrorist
attacks, and just general uncertainty.
What kind of year did you have in 2009?
Did the Lord continue to provide for you throughout the year? I don’t want to know if you received
everything that was on your Christmas list.
I mean, were you taken care of, as the holy writer states, “Having food and clothing, with these we
shall be content.” -- 1 Tim 6:8.
Throughout
2009, one way or another, the Lord God provided for us food for nourishment and
clothing to cover our bodies. And He
has provided a wealth of extras. In
addition to food and clothing, the Lord has provided jobs, families,
transportation, entertainment, etc., etc., and the list could go on and on.
The
Lord is, as we note in our text, the One “Who
made heaven and earth.” All
blessings flow from the Creator, i.e., the one, true God revealed in the
Bible. It is He who made all things,
and it is He who provides for us the things that we need.
But
the Lord does so much more for us than simply providing for us our daily bread
and all of things included under that heading.
As our text for this evening states:
Again,
this does not mean that the Lord is like some divine zoo keeper, who merely
feeds us and houses us. Lit., in the
original language, our text reads, “The Lord
is your watchman.” He has made it
His task to guard and protect us from all harm and danger, as He promises, “No evil shall befall you, nor shall any
plague come near your dwelling; for He shall give His angels charge over you,
to keep you in all your ways. They
shall bear you up in their hands, lest you dash your foot against a stone.”
-- Ps 91:10f. Even some injury as
simple as stubbing your toe is the Lord’s concern, as our text notes, “He will not allow your foot to be moved.”
Whenever
we are in need of help, usually before we even realize that we need it, the Lord
provides it. He has done so in 2009 and
He will continue to do so in 2010, for “He
who keeps you will not slumber. Behold,
He who keeps Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep.”
Which
is the point made by the psalmist in verses five and six, “The Lord is your Shade at your right hand. The sun shall not strike you by day, nor the moon by night.” The Lord promises to cover us completely, to
preserve us from harm and danger in the daytime and through the night.
How
this is beautifully demonstrated throughout Holy Scripture again and
again. We think of Lot and his family
delivered from the destruction of Sodom and Gomorra; of Joseph delivered out of
slavery and prison to become the ruler of Egypt; of Daniel in the lion’s den and
the three men in the fiery furnace, delivered by the Angel of the Lord; We
think of the angel that delivered Peter from prison in Jerusalem; we think of
Stephen; we think of...
What’s
that, you say? Stephen wasn’t
delivered, he was killed by the Jews for confessing Christ’s name. We might think that he could well have used
some cover at his right hand as he was struck by rocks. Where was the Lord then?
He
was where He promises to be for all of His people, as we read in our text, “The Lord shall preserve you from all evil;
He shall preserve your soul. The Lord
shall preserve your going out and your coming in from this time forth, and even
forevermore.”
If
you recall the account given in the book of Acts, Stephen died praying for his
murderers, at a time when many, even many Christians, would have died cursing
their killers, hoping they would get what they deserved.
Well,
again I ask you, what kind of a year was 2009 for you? Did you get everything that you
deserved? I hope not, because, when we
speak of deserving something, that
means we’ve earned something.
Did
you do everything that you were supposed to have done this past year? Did you always tell the truth? Did you deflect every temptation to sin? Did you think only holy thoughts and speak
only God-pleasing words? An honest look
at the past year in the light of God’s law will reveal that, no, you did
not. Neither did I. Thank God that I did not get what I deserved
this year, for you and I were, even in this past year, yes, even in this past
day, guilty of sin, and we are told in Scripture that, “The wages of sin is death.” -- Rom 6:23. We have had many sins for which we have repented in this past
year.
Now
what does this have to do with our text for this evening? To put it simply, you and I did not get what
we deserved this past year, nor will we suffer what we have deserved, because
Christ got what He didn’t deserve.
I.e., He got what we deserve, as it is written, “Christ was delivered up for our offenses...”
-- Rom 4:25; “[God] made Him who knew no
sin to be sin for us...” -- 2 Cor 5:21; “Christ...[became] a curse for us...” -- Gal 3:13.
I
mentioned earlier that many times, we don’t even realize the number of times
the Lord has preserved us or delivered us from some physical danger. This is even more true in the realm of
spiritual things! It is not possible
for us to number the instances in which the Lord turned away some temptation or
gave us the strength to turn from a sin and repent during the last year. And He
will do so again in 2010, for it is written, “The Lord shall preserve you from all evil.” Why does our heavenly Father do this?
Again,
it is not because we have done anything to deserve this preservation. We were not so good that the Lord decided to
be the watchman for our souls; it is not because we were so perfect that the
Father determined to send His Son to die for us. Rather, it is because God
is so good that He watches over our souls; it is because the Father is so good that He sent His Son
in our place, for, indeed, “...all have sinned and fall short of the
glory of God, being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that
is in Christ Jesus...” -- Rom 3:23f.
The Lord promises to preserve us from all evil, to preserve our
soul. This He has done through Christ
Jesus who redeemed our souls from eternal punishment by paying for our sins
upon the cross.
In
our text the Lord promises to guard us at all times from harm and danger. This He does by His grace. But this is not to say that we will never
cut our finger, stub our toe, or even die.
Does that mean that the Lord does not keep His promises? Of course He keeps His promises. But again, what about Stephen?
In
Stephen’s case, the Lord was where He promises to be for all of His people, as
we read in our text, “The Lord shall
preserve you from all evil; He shall preserve your soul. The Lord shall preserve your going out and
your coming in from this time forth, and even forevermore.” Stephen set a wonderful example for us as
he, at his death, did not curse his killers or curse God, as many would have
been tempted to do. Instead, we read, “And they stoned Stephen as he was calling on
God and saying, `Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.’ Then he knelt own and cried out with a loud voice, `Lord, do not
charge them with this sin.’ And when he
had said this, he fell asleep.” -- Acts 7:59f.
How
could Stephen do this? Just prior to
Stephen’s death he saw something: “...he, being full of the Holy Spirit, gazed
into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of
God, and said, `Look! I see the heavens
opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God!” -- Acts
7:55f.
Though
he suffered a violent death, Stephen died at peace. And so will you and I. As
the apostle reminds us, “...we have a
building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.” --
2 Cor 5:1.
God
does keep His promises. In Stephen’s
death we find, once again, “All things
work together for good to those who love God, who are the called according to
His purpose.” -- Rom 8:28. To those
who killed him Stephen might well have applied the words Joseph spoke to his
brothers when he forgave them for their evil against him: “But
as for you, you meant evil against me; but God meant it for good...” -- Gen
50:20.
For
his listeners, God was glorified as Stephen testified of their Savior, Jesus
Christ. For Stephen his death was for
his eternal good, for as we have seen, heaven was opened to him and the Lord
received his soul into eternal life.
For us, Stephen’s death serves to strengthen our faith, as we see that
no matter what the Lord permits to enter into our life, it will be to His glory
and to our eternal good.
Rather
than worrying about what will happen in 2010 we then look forward to the New
Year with hope and faith, for the psalmist shows us that “The Lord shall preserve your going out and your coming in from this
time forth, and even forevermore.”
We
go in and out of the house, in and out of church, in and out of the car, many
times every week, so much so that we hardly think of it. But the Lord is thinking of it. He who has numbered even the hairs of our
head is working to preserve our going out and our coming in. As He has kept us from all harm and danger
throughout the past year, so also He will keep us from all harm and danger in
the New Year. After all, He is the Lord,
“Who made heaven and earth.” He has
promised to keep and preserve us forevermore.
That’s
right. When we stop coming and going at
the end of our life, we will be blessed with exiting this world, this veil of
tears, and we will be blessed with coming into everlasting life in heaven.
Of
this He has assured us by raising His Son from the dead, for, Christ was “...delivered up for our offenses, and raised
again for our justification.” -- Rom 4:25.
In Him we have the complete forgiveness of sins, so that we do not
receive what we deserve, but what Christ deserved by His righteousness, viz.,
the favor of God, so that we are Israel, the people of God, through faith in
Christ.
By
our beloved Savior, the Lord has preserved us from evil. By His Holy Word He continues to preserve
our souls, from this time forth, even forevermore. By His Gospel, the forgiveness of sins given us in Word and
Sacrament, the Lord will continue in 2010, even as He has through 2009, to keep
us in the one true faith, until He grants us His grace to receive our spirit
for Jesus’ sake.
No
matter what happens in 2010, we know that it will be a blessed year. This we know for we have the same faith as
the psalmist, the same faith as Stephen, and the same faith as the apostle
Paul, with who we confess, “For I am
persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor
powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other
created thin, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in
Christ Jesus our Lord.” -- Rom 8:38f. We know it will be a blessed year for
God’s Word continues with us, assuring us daily of God’s grace, the forgiveness
of our sins, and life eternal.
We
have this assurance from our great God and Savior from this time forth, even
forevermore.
AMEN.
Pastor
Joel S. Fleischer
Calvary
Lutheran Church
Marquette,
Michigan