My love will carry you
13th October 2022
Psalm 121
I lift up my eyes to the hills; from where is my help to come?
My help comes from the Lord, the maker of heaven and earth.
He will not suffer your foot to stumble; he who watches over you will not sleep.
Behold, he who keeps watch over Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep.
The Lord himself watches over you; the Lord is your shade at your right hand,
So that the sun shall not strike you by day, neither the moon by night.
The Lord shall keep you from all evil; it is he who shall keep your soul.
The Lord shall keep watch over your going out and your coming in, from this time forth, for evermore.
That Psalm is one of the best known psalms – and often the first line is used in church windows, with a picture of hills – or sometimes on benches with a view of the hills.
‘I lift up my eyes to the hills’ – it seems to capture that sense of looking up to the hills and breathing in, and feeling our lungs and our souls expand. We had a new stained glass window like that in our old church, but we were told when we applied for permission to put it in that actually the original meaning wasn’t like that at all. The tribes people of the middle east when this was written would have been camping down near a spring or a river, and looking fearfully up to the hills around them, in case they were about to be attacked.
That makes sense of the next line – ‘from where is my help to come?’ And the rest of the psalm is then a prayer of trust in God from someone who is very aware of the danger that they are in. They are trying to remember that instead of looking anxiously around them, they can put their trust in God who is watching over them all the time.
It might be quite a reassuring thing to read or to hear. But it can also feel like it jars with our experience. We have a close friend called Ann who is living at the moment with a particularly aggressive form of cancer, and coming towards the end of her life. In my prayers for her, I would love to believe that God will protect her and keep her safe. But I know, sadly, that this isn’t going to happen.
And yet the psalm still has something to say. The song we listened to by Mavis Staples which you can hear here is a reminder that even at the worst times God is not sleeping – he is still working. Whatever our situation we are still held by love. That certainly doesn’t make the pain of a situation go away – but knowing that ‘underneath are the everlasting arms’ does make a difference. We may sense, even in the most awful circumstance – a benevolence – a love upholding us – not changing everything but making a difference to the way we are able to be in the middle of it.
And maybe that can also help us as we look beyond the boundaries of this life. When I take a funeral service I usually read this psalm at the committal in the churchyard or at the crematorium, because of its promise that God’s love is always holding us – ‘The Lord shall keep you from all evil, it is he who shall keep your soul… The Lord watches over your going out and your coming in from this time forth, for ever more’.
I’m reminded of another song, one which we sing at Everybody Sing. ‘Your love will carry, your love will carry me – I know your love will carry me.’ This Psalm encourages us to let go – like a trust exercise – with the promise that God will be there to catch us – to hold us – to carry us – through all that this life brings – and beyond this life.
Think of those like Ann who are living with fear, or struggling in some way… Lord, watch over them, be with them and support them with your love.
Think of your own life – struggles you may be facing now or that you may face in the future – fears that you may have – remembering God’s constant love…. Lord, help us to remember that your love will always carry us.
As we face the reality that our life here will end one day… Lord, help us to trust that the love which we know now, and which has held us all of our lives, will continue to surround us beyond this life – and when the time comes help us to let go into the everlasting arms.