121 I will lift up my eyes to the mountains;
From where shall my help come?
² My help comes from the Lord,
Who made heaven and earth.
³ He will not allow your foot to slip;
He who keeps you will not slumber.
⁴ Behold, He who keeps Israel
Will neither slumber nor sleep.

⁵ The Lord is your keeper;
The Lord is your shade on your right hand.
⁶ The sun will not smite you by day,
Nor the moon by night.
⁷ The Lord will protect you from all evil;
He will keep your soul.
⁸ The Lord will guard your going out and your coming in
From this time forth and forever.

Psalm 121

Dear God, when I read this passage this morning, it reminded me of what I learned from Walter Brueggemann about the psalms being categorized into three categories, with some psalms fitting into more than one: Orientation (God, thank you, everything is going great), Disorientation (God, help, everything is going wrong), and Reorientation (God, thank you for bringing me through everything going wrong). For this poem, I see it as a kind of psalm of reorientation. The psalmist is saying claiming his own victory through Jesus and then encouraging those in disorientation with it. In the first two verses, he is remembering back on his life and his times of disorientation and needing help. And you were faithful to be there for him.

Then the rest of the psalm is encouraging others. Encouraging us. Hey, I’ve been there. I know it’s hard. But he will not let your foot slip (verse 3). He will be your shade from oppression (verses 5 and 6). He will protect your soul from evil and keep it with him (verse 7). He will guard you (verse 8). This psalmist is the voice of evidence that you are good and an encouragement to those around him. To me sitting here today.

I was visiting with a friend yesterday who is experiencing pain that I have experienced. We shared our pain and our experiences. Our weaknesses. In some ways, I was like the psalmist trying to encourage her. And while my pain still exists, you’ve taught me to use it to form who I am in you and then encourage others in similar situations. Oh, how I pray that this friend does not experience the pain to the extent I have. Please, Father, be with that situation.

⁵¹ Behold, I tell you a mystery; we will not all sleep, but we will all be changed, ⁵² in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet; for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. ⁵³ For this perishable must put on the imperishable, and this mortal must put on immortality. ⁵⁴ But when this perishable will have put on the imperishable, and this mortal will have put on immortality, then will come about the saying that is written, “Death is swallowed up in victory. ⁵⁵ O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?” ⁵⁶ The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law; ⁵⁷ but thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

1 Corinthians 15:51-58

Then there is the pain of death. But Paul is being the psalmist here to the Corinthians. To us. To me. He is giving us comfort in the midst of our pain when we lose someone. Maybe when we fear our own death. He is reminding us of what the Old Testament prophets said about death.

I mentioned Saturday the friend who died suddenly. This is a time of disorientation for all who knew him, but especially his wife and children. Extreme disorientation. How could it not be. But I pray that they will find comfort. That you will raise up people to be your hands and feet to them. I pray that they will welcome in and accept the help and love you have for them. Be glorified, somehow, through this loss. Do not let this pain be wasted. Help his widow one day get to the point where she is the psalmist for others. Where she is encouraging someone else that their foot will not slip because of you. That you will be their shade. It won’t be today that she is the psalmist. And it won’t be tomorrow. But help her and all of your church to be that encouragement to a lost world and to all in the church who are currently disoriented. Help us to be what you need us to be so that your kingdom will come and your will will be done on this earth as it is in heaven.

I pray this in Jesus and with your Holy Spirit,

Amen