Co-workers’ Prayer Meeting
5th November 2010; 0800 hours
Psalm 121: The title – Song of Ascent
This is in fact a Song of Ascents, which really means ‘going up’. It means both a physical move upwards, suggesting a physical expression of worship, and a mental upward look, suggesting a certain psychological hope. But it also suggests to the congregation that the ‘song’ is meant to move up in tune, reaching a climax at the end where the people would declare and affirm the everlasting presence of Yahweh, and therefore of his ever abiding protection.
We do not know who in fact penned the psalm, nor can we tell who its author is. It has both very early wilderness connotations as well as post-exilic tones. Perhaps this is why we are able to use it more freely.
Verse 1
In verse one, the psalmist speaks of lifting his eyes to the hills, and there he raises a question: from whom does my help come? And he goes on to answer it himself.
‘Hill’ or ‘mountain’ in the Ancient Near East represented a dwelling of the divine, where worship usually took place. Thus, we read in the Old Testament that the kings of Israel committed sins by building places of worship on high places. Of course, ‘mountain’ also reminds us of the story of Moses’ ascent to Mount Sinai where Yahweh met and gave him the Ten Commandments. Similarly, we learn that Elijah encountered God in the mountains.
But over here in this verse, the psalmist uses the plural ‘hills’, as if to ask if all the gods might be able to help. He then goes on, in verse two, to refer to the God who created the heavens and the earth – thus he looks beyond hills and mountains to the one who transcends all creation.
Verse 2
Verse two is almost a declaration against all the gods of the nations by focusing on Yahweh as the creator of the heavens and the earth. What we see here is the ‘sovereignty’ of Yahweh, a concept of God that is relatively well developed, and therefore the verse suggests a relatively late date for this psalm.
Verses 3-4
When Israel was in the wilderness, and later during the exile, they had their own arrangements for centry and guards. They know how difficult it is to stay awake. But in the process they have experienced God’s protection and so concluded that the God who created the heavens and the earth does not slumber nor sleep (不打盹，也不睡覺). For they realise that those times when they fell asleep, it was their creator who preserved them and therefore ensured their continued existence.
Verse 5
Therefore in verse five, the psalmst is able to say that Yahweh is Israel’s ‘keeper’ (保護者) and ‘your shade’ (蔭庇者). Thus we see a move from understanding Yahweh as the creator of the heavens and earth, as someone who transcends the creation, to a national ‘keeper’ and ‘shade’.
This understanding shows us how they have come to understand God as not only universal but also national, and indeed personal.
Verse 6
That is why in verse six, the psalmist speaks about the sun and the moon (白日太陽和夜間月亮). Israel was in the wilderness and knew well the summer heat in the desert. The term ‘strike’ might well be a reference to ‘heatwave’ or ‘extreme sun-burns’. And the ‘moon’ will not pose a problem. The Chinese translation is interesting (夜間月亮不會害你). We know it is in the ‘dark’ that evil schemes plotted. The Israelites experienced sudden attacks in the night (突擊). The ‘sun’ and ‘moon’ also represent something beyond them, over which they have no control. But Yahweh is the creator and therefore is sovereign over his creation.
Verse 7
So from a high and lofty creator, the psalmist gradually comes to understand Yahweh as Israel’s ‘keeper’ and ‘shade’.
Here the term ‘keeper’ carries the concept of ‘保守’. And the psalmist understands this as ‘keeping Israel from all evil’; and the other way of looking at it is that Yahweh gives life when he keeps it (保守).
But how do we explain human plight, both natural and bilateral or transnationl?
Verse 8
In fact, this psalm was written for the purpose of Israel’s plight as well as restoration. Thus, the psalmist in this verse speaks about ‘your coming in and your going out’ (你出你入). The ‘going out’ and ‘coming in’ are not the ‘出入平安’ that we Chinese refer to, but are a reference to Israel’s history during which Yahweh was her ‘keeper’. Whether it was ‘going in’ to Egypt, ‘coming out of’ Egypt, ‘going into’ the wilderness’, ‘coming out of’ the wilderness’ and ‘going into’ the promised land, ‘being deported out of’ Jerusalem’ and later ‘back into’ Jerusalem’ (i.e. return), the high and lofty creator is their protector.
This final verse therefore suggests that the psalm was penned years after the return (post-exilic), after the destruction of the temple. That is why it is called Song of Ascent, perhaps there is no temple for them to go up to.
Conclusion
The psalm brings to mind the everlasting Yahweh, as the final clause says, who does not ‘slumber’ nor ‘sleep’. And the clause ‘henceforth and forever more’ became a central thought on which the people of Israel could draw for their national restoration in 1948, the years before which Jews everywhere basically kept in mind the ‘land of Israel’ (eretz Izra-el) as given by Yahweh.
He (Yahweh) goes on to deliver his people years later through Jesus Christ, so that a ‘new Israel’ was formed and ‘new people’ created. Today, believers in Christ Jesus are part of this ‘new people’, ‘new Israel’. And indeed, we are part of this.
It therefore calls for our similar act in ‘lifting up our eyes to the hills’ and re-affirm the fact that our help comes from Yahweh who made the heavens and the earth.
Let us pray:
Dear creator God and father of humanity, grant us eyes that lift up to the hills, and hearts that understand you as our ‘keeper’ and ‘shade’, our deliverer who will guard our ‘coming in’ and our ‘going out’, now and forever. Thank you in Jesus Christ. Amen.
