O To Be Kept by Jesus
4. Behold, He who keeps Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep.
5. The Lord is your keeper: The Lord is your shade upon your right hand.
Psalm 121:4-5
God Is Your Keeper
There is great assurance in knowing that we are kept by God, especially when there are threats all around us. While many believers share this as a proclamation, very few acknowledge this as an application. What do we mean by this statement? There are many that can utter the words, but when terror strikes the soul, they quickly forget that they are secure in the Arms of Jesus.
Americans pay nearly $21 Billion each year for home security systems just to feel they are safe. The Washington Post reported that Americans also spend nearly $17 billion each year in gun ammunition. It is clear from the numbers that people don’t feel secure even if they do confess faith in God. I have some questions:
– How we can protect ourselves when we are frail, fragile, and forgetful?
– How can we protect ourselves when our greatest enemies are unseen?
– What systems will we put in place that can offer the security of knowing that we are fully secure?
These are not rhetorical questions but rather they are reminders that unless the Lord builds the house, the laborer works in vain … except the Lord watches over the city, the watchman awakes in vain. In other words, we need to embrace the unchangeable truth that God is your Keeper. As we delve into this passage, we need to investigate several interesting points. First, God keeps us because He knows us. Second, God keeps us because He knows our enemy. Third, God keeps us because of His plan. Lastly, God keeps us because He loves us.
God Keeps Us Because He Knows Us
While we marvel at the depth of God’s knowledge of us, we should also bear in mind that He knows our human frailties. The same God that numbered the hairs on your head also numbered the times you would drift into danger. Yes, God knows our every movement, but He also knows the intent of our heart. It is amazing how quickly we can turn aside to idols and idles. Author Patrick Morley, in his book, The Man in the Mirror, made an amazing observation. He says that while we, as the Christian minority, try to evangelize and reach the world, we are not aware that the world majority is attempting to do the same with us. I might add, with astounding success. Advertisements lure you, materialism calls out to you at every corner, and the lusts of our own eyes, the lust of our own flesh, and the pride of life would cause the strongest of saints to sin. We have One who guards and keeps us: Almighty God. No wonder the Psalmist found such great consolation in the Words, The Lord is your keeper: The Lord is your shade upon your right hand.
How does God keep us in the face of temptation? God keeps us by keeping our heart and mind. The hymn writer, Elisha Hoffman, pinned these words in his final verse: O how the world to evil allures me… O how my heart is tempted to sin … I must tell Jesus and He will help me, over the world the victory to win. It is God that sees our struggle with temptation and it is God who secures us by His power so that our heart is not captured by sin. O to be kept by Jesus.
The Psalmist, in another song, describes this profound knowledge of God with these words. Psalm 139:1-3, O Lord, You have searched me and known me … You know when I sit down and when I rise, You understands my thoughts from a distance … You are acquainted with all my ways. God knows us and He keeps us.
God Keeps Us Because of Our Enemy
God also keeps us because He knows our enemy. Yes, He knows us, but He also knows that we cannot stand against the mighty. Throughout Israel’s history they have been hounded by enemies who would love nothing more than to see them annihilated from the face of the earth. Yet, Israel remains a nation because of the One who protects them. Has Israel always acted faithfully? No, and neither have you and I. Yet the Unfailing Love of God preserves them as the apple of His Eye. God keeps His people safe from the enemy. God is your keeper.
This Psalm 121 is called a Song of Degrees along with fifteen other Psalms (120 through 134). It is believed that the Israelites sung these songs on their upward trek to Jerusalem. The closer they got to Jerusalem, their hearts would rejoice in the anticipation of worshipping at the Temple of God. These worshippers saw the hills around Jerusalem, and many of them had idols and so the Psalm opens with a question about these hills. I will lift up my eyes to the hills, from whence comes my help. Verse 2 answers, My Help comes from the Lord, which made heaven and earth. The hills were there but they offered no refuge. It was only in the Lord and from the Lord that help could be found. Psalm 121:7, states plainly, The Lord shall preserve you from all evil: He shall preserve your soul. It is amazing to know that God knows every attack the enemy will launch against His people and not only provides protection but also defense. O to be kept by Jesus.
God Keeps Us Because of His Plan.
Our limited understanding forces us to only think of today and our present situations and threats. We cannot see past this present moment, but God has given us faith to believe the rest of the way. This Psalm focuses on more than the here and now of God’s protection; it focuses on God’s eternal plan. When I say that God keeps us because of His Plan, that plan is our eternal existence with Him in His Kingdom. Psalm 121:8, The Lord shall preserve your going out and your coming in from this time forth. Let’s stop there. Pause and think about just that statement alone. That would mean, God preserves our coming and going from now on until. Until what? Here is the amazing thing. If the last part of that verse had been left out, we would have been puzzled as to how long God’s protection would last. We would be anxious about tomorrow.
You know we get anxious about the things that man gives. We want to know how long our Social Security is going to last. We want to know how long we will have Medicare benefits. Sorry young people, you are not there yet. We want to know if our supplemental insurance will cover certain things. How long will our health (constitution as the old folks said) will hold out? If we did not know the certainty of God’s Keeping Power for the future, we would be deeply concerned about tomorrow. God inspired the Psalmist to write one more phrase to add to the verse: even forever more. How long will God’s protection last? Even forever more. How long will God show mercy? Even forever more. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life and, and, and, I shall dwell in the House of the Lord forever. Even forever more. O to be kept by Jesus.
God Keeps Us Because He Loves Us
It is one thing to say that God keeps us because He knows us; that would be sufficient reason to be amazed at God’s keeping power. But His Grace did not stop with that. It added by saying that God keeps us because He knows our enemy. That would have been sufficient. But the Grace of God did not stop there. Grace went further to say that God keeps us because He has a plan for us and that plan is eternal. But Grace did not stop there. Grace went on to let us know that God keeps us because He loves us. O to be kept by Jesus.
Here we turn our attention to the greatest verse in the Bible (in my opinion). For God so loved the world that He gave His Only Begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. John 3:16. Why does God protect at the highest level. It is because of His great love for people.
Remember we opened this message by noting that Americans spend $21 billion for security systems and another $17 billion for gun ammunition. That is a lot of money spent on systems that cannot fully protect. It is a lot but it cannot compare with the heavy price God paid for our security system. This system will not fail because God has set His seal to certify that it will last forever. Whoever will believe in Him (Jesus Christ), shall not perish, but will have everlasting life. Why did God give so much? Just because of His Love. O to be kept by Jesus.
O to be kept by Jesus. Kept by the Power of God. Kept from the world unspotted, treading where Jesus has trod. O to be kept by Jesus, Lord at Thy feet I would fall. I would be nothing, nothing, no nothing; Thou shall be All in All. (Original Author Edith Gilling Cherry – Kept for Jesus).