Yahweh will keep you from all evil. He will keep your soul.
Parallel Translations
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Yahweh will keep you from all evil. He will keep your soul.
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The LORD shall preserve thee from all evil: he shall preserve thy soul.
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The LORD shall keep thee from all evil; He shall keep thy soul.
Cross-references (11)
Passages linked to Psalms 121:7 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- 2 Timothy 4:18 And the Lord will deliver me from every evil work, and will preserve me for his heavenly Kingdom. To him be the glory forever and ever. Amen.
- Psalms 91:9-12 Because you have made Yahweh your refuge, and the Most High your dwelling place, no evil shall happen to you, neither shall any plague come near your dwelling. For he will put his angels in charge of you, to guard you in all your ways. They will bear you up in their hands, so that you won’t dash your foot against a stone.
- Psalms 41:2 Yahweh will preserve him, and keep him alive. He shall be blessed on the earth, and he will not surrender him to the will of his enemies.
- Proverbs 12:21 No mischief shall happen to the righteous, but the wicked shall be filled with evil.
- Psalms 145:20 Yahweh preserves all those who love him, but he will destroy all the wicked.
- Job 5:19-27 He will deliver you in six troubles; yes, in seven no evil will touch you. In famine he will redeem you from death; in war, from the power of the sword. You will be hidden from the scourge of the tongue, neither will you be afraid of destruction when it comes. You will laugh at destruction and famine, neither will you be afraid of the animals of the earth. For you will be allied with the stones of the field. The animals of the field will be at peace with you. You will know that your tent is in peace. You will visit your fold, and will miss nothing. You will know also that your offspring will be great, Your offspring as the grass of the earth. You will come to your grave in a full age, like a shock of grain comes in its season. Look at this. We have searched it. It is so. Hear it, and know it for your good.”
- Romans 8:35-39 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Could oppression, or anguish, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? Even as it is written, “For your sake we are killed all day long. We were accounted as sheep for the slaughter.” No, in all these things, we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing will be able to separate us from God’s love which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
- Psalms 34:22 Yahweh redeems the soul of his servants. None of those who take refuge in him shall be condemned.
- Matthew 6:13 Bring us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. For yours is the Kingdom, the power, and the glory forever. Amen.’
- Psalms 97:10 You who love Yahweh, hate evil! He preserves the souls of his saints. He delivers them out of the hand of the wicked.
- Romans 8:28 We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, for those who are called according to his purpose.
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this verse (11 sources)
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John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Psa 121:7 The LORD shall preserve thee from all…
Psa 121:7 The LORD shall preserve thee from all evil: he shall preserve thy soul.
Ver. 7. The Lord shall preserve thee from all evil] Whether of sin or of punishment; from the hurt if not from the smart thereof.
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He shall preserve thy soul] Which is oft untouched when the body is in durance. A sick servant of Christ being asked how he did, answered, My body is sick, my soul is well.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain The Lord shall preserve thy going out, and thy…
The Lord shall preserve thy going out, and thy coming in,.... In transacting all the business of life, in going in and out about it; in all ways, works, and conversation; in journeying and travelling; in all affairs, civil and religious; and not only preserve, but prosper in all, Psa 1:3; the Lord blessing him, coming in and going out, Deu 28:6; and such, with the poet (x), are said to go with a good or prosperous foot. And such persons, in the Punic language, are called Namphanians, as Austin observes (y); who says the word signifies a man of a good foot: and the word seems to be the contraction of , which signifies "his good" or "pleasant foot" (z); and so one that, wherever he comes and goes, things prosper with him, and with those that are in connection with him: such an one was Jacob in the house of Laban, whom the Lord blessed, as he says, "since my coming", or at "my foot"; see Gill on Gen 30:30; and such a foot Joseph had wherever he went, Gen 39:5. Arama interprets it of a man's going out into the air of this world, and of his entrance into the world to come. The Targum is,
"the Lord will keep thy going out to business, and thy coming in to study in the law.''
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from this time forth, and even for evermore; for the Lord not only preserves his people in life and at death, but in heaven, to all eternity; in the utmost safety and peace from all molestations by men or devils, and from their wrath and malice: not only his purpose and decree, but his power and providence, are the vast gulf between the one and the other; by means of which the wicked cease from troubling, and the weary are at rest, Luk 16:26.
(x) Virgil. Aeneid. l. 8. "Adi pede sacra secundo"; & l. 10. "adsis pede diva secundo." (y) Epist. 44. (z) Vid. Sterringae Philol. Sacr. p. 169. Reinesium de Lingua Punica, c. 8. s. 10.
Next: Psalms Chapter 122
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 7. The Lord shall preserve thee from all…
Verse 7. The Lord shall preserve thee from all evil] Spiritual and corporeal, natural and moral.
He shall preserve thy soul.] Take care of thy life, and take care of thy soul.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain The Lord shall preserve thee from all evil -…
The Lord shall preserve thee from all evil - This is an advance of the thought. The psalmist had in the previous verses specified some particular evils from which he says God would keep those who put their trust in him. He now makes the remark general, and says that God would not only preserve from these particular evils, but would keep those who trusted in him from all evil: he would be their Protector in all the perils of life.
He shall preserve thy soul - Thy life. See Psa 41:2; Psa 97:10.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain 7. He shall preserve thy soul—There is a rising…
7. He shall preserve thy soul—There is a rising in the sense here from preserve… from all evil, in the first member. That relates to the common casualties of life, this evidently to that higher preservation which belongs to the saints as such, the perfect peace (Isa_26:3) of a resting faith. Nephesh, (soul,) therefore, is here to be understood in its higher sense of spirit, the spiritual and immortal part. It is spiritual, or soul, preservation as distinct from mere physical. See the use of “soul,” Psa_19:7; Psa_24:4; Psa_25:1; Psa_25:13; Psa_25:20; Psa_57:1
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 7. Cp. 1Th_5:23.
7. Cp. 1Th_5:23.
7, 8. shall preserve] Render, with R.V., shall keep, to mark the connexion with the preceding verses.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (7-8) Instead of preserve, read keep, the persistent dwelling…
(7-8) Instead of preserve, read keep, the persistent dwelling on this one word making one of the chief beauties of this hymn.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain The Lord shall preserve thee from all evil; or,…
The Lord shall preserve thee from all evil; or, "keep thee." The same verb is used throughout. He shall preserve thy soul; or, keep thy soul.
Evil as God sees it.
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"All evil." All kinds of evil. We may not think that God estimates evil precisely as we do. In this "God"s thoughts are not as our thoughts." One important distinction may be Pointed out here. We think evil to be that which injuriously affects our circumstances; God sees evil as that which injuriously affects us. Consequently, some of the things which we call evil God does not so call, because their influence on us is good. And if this be so, the mere change of our circumstances is not the thing for us chiefly to desire; we should rather seek the Divine overruling, which includes defense from what God sees to be evil, and involves making "all things work together for good.
I GOD MISSES WHAT MAN SEES. For man evil is calamity. This is true in the physical sphere. Disaster, disease, disappointment, defeat, occupy man"s thoughts, and are, properly enough, from his point of view, classed as evils. But it is true also in the moral sphere, it is the calamity side of evil which absorbs man"s attention. Drunkenness ruining a life is evil. Dishonesty found out is evil. Quarrelsomeness breaking friendship is evil. It is only as man"s spiritual nature is quickened that moral evil, as distinct from moral calamity, is apprehended. But God does not call calamity evil. It has, indeed, no moral quality that he can recognize. It is only an agency for securing evil or good. It is a revelation to us to discover that God"s supreme interest is not in eyelets, as ours is. He is supremely concerned about us.
II GOD SEES WHAT MAN MISSES. The moral possibilities that are in all events. Man is profoundly interested in what happens, and is wont to stop there, and miss the meaning of what happens. God always sees in events that happen persons acting; and in their motives and moods and wills he sees evil or good. The spiritually awakened man sees evil as God sees it; and, therefore, when he prays to be kept from all evil, he means kept from himself from the evil that is in him. If he were but free from the answering of his moral evil, nothing that could happen would be a real calamity. R.T.
The safety of our life.
"He shall keep thy soul." The term soul" stands often in the Scriptures of both the Old and New Testaments for the animal life; but we use it for that spiritual being which man is, as distinguished from that bodily form which man has. Taking the first idea, it may be shown that God"s care of our natural life involves and includes all due provision for the thousandfold needs of that life. The greater includes the less. The daily renewed gift of life carries with it the gift of all the life will need day by day. This may be applied to the national life of Israel. The restored exiles may well gain and keep full confidence in God, seeing that he had kept their national life through such anxious and imperiling times. He had kept it; they might be sure that he would keep it. And this assurance carried with it the confidence that God"s defense and blessing were still upon the restored nation. If God keeps us in being, and gives us new days, then we may confidently hold him to his promise, As thy day so shall thy strength be." He is able and willing to make "all grace abound" unto "all-sufficiency." Taking the second idea, we come upon God"s continued interest in, and care for, the new life he has quickened in our souls. His concern for the material life does but illustrate his care for the spiritual life (This is the will of God, even our sanctification"). "Soul-keeping is the soul of keeping. If the soul be kept, all is kept. The preservation of the greater includes that of the less, so far as it is essential to the main design; the kernel shall be preserved, and in order thereto the shell shall be preserved also. Our soul is kept from the dominion of sin, the infection of error, the crush of despondency, the puffing up of pride kept from the world, the flesh, and the devil; kept for holier and greater things, kept in the love of God, kept unto the eternal kingdom and glory." But we need not miss the important fact that God"s soul-keeping runs along with, and works through, our own soul-keeping. Keep thy heart with all keepings, for out of it are the issues of life. R.T.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Charles H. Spurgeon 1885 · Public Domain Ver. 7. The Lord shall preserve thee from all…
Ver. 7. The Lord shall preserve thee from all evil, or keep thee from all evil. It is a great pity that our admirable translation did not keep to the word keep all through the psalm, for all along it is one. God not only keeps his own in all evil times but from all evil influences and operations, yea, from evils themselves. This is a far reaching word of covering: it includes everything and excludes nothing: the wings of Jehovah amply guard Iris own from evils great and small, temporary and eternal. There is a most delightful double personality in tiffs verse: Jehovah keeps the believer, not by agents, but by himself; and the person protected is definitely pointed out by the word thee, it is not our estate or name which is shielded, but the proper personal man. To make this even more intensely real and personal another sentence is added, "The Lord shall preserve thee from all evil:"
he shall preserve thy soul, or Jehovah will keep thy soul. Soul keeping is the soul of keeping. If the soul be kept all is kept. The preservation of the greater includes that of the less so far as it is essential to the main design: the kernel shall be preserved, and in order thereto the shell shall be preserved also. God is the sole keeper of the soul. Our soul is kept from the dominion of sin, the infection of error, the crush of despondency, the puffing up of pride; kept from the world, the flesh, and the devil; kept for holier and greater things; kept in the love of God; kept unto the eternal kingdom and glory. What can harm a soul that is kept of the Lord?
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Ver. 7. The Lord shall preserve thee from all evil. Lawyers, when they are drawing up important documents, frequently conclude with some general terms to meet any emergency which may possibly occur. They do this on the principle, that what is not in may be supposed to be intentionally left out. In order to guard against this inference, they are not content with inserting a number of particular cases; they conclude with a general statement, which includes everything, whether expressed or not. A similar formula is inserted here. It is of great Importance, that the feet of travellers be kept from sliding, as they pursue their journey. It is of great importance, that they be preserved from heat by day, and from cold by night. But other dangers await them, from which they require protection; and lest the suspicion be entertained, that no provision is made for these being surmounted, they are all introduced in the saving and comprehensive clause. No matter what may be their character, no matter from what quarter they may appear, no matter when they may nome, and no matter how long they may continue, the declaration covers them all. Divine grace changes the nature of everything it handles, and transforms everything it touches into gold. Afflictions are overruled for good; and the virtues of the Christian life are developed with unusual lustre. "The Lord shall preserve thee from all evil." N. McMichael.
Ver. 7. The Lord shall preserve thee from all evil, etc. It is an absolute promise, there are no conditions annexed; it honours God for us simply to believe it, and rest on the Lord for the performance of it. As we view it, what have we to fear? The mouth of the Lord hath spoken it, his word is immutable. Jesus preserves body and soul, he is the Saviour of the body as well as of the soul. Samuel Eyles Pierce.
Ver. 7,8. The threefold expression, "shall keep thee...thy soul...thy going out and thy coming in, "marks the completeness of the protection vouchsafed, extending to all that the man is and that he does. J.J. Stewart Perowne.
Ver. 7,8. It is of importance to mark the reason why the prophet repeats so often what he had so briefly and in one word expressed with sufficient plainness. Such repetition seems at first sight superfluous: but when we consider how difficult it is to correct our distrust, it will be easily perceived that he does not improperly dwell upon the commendation of tile divine providence. How few are to be found who yield to God the honour of being a "keeper", in order to their being thence assured of their safety, and led to call upon him in tile midst of their perils! On the contrary, even when we seem to have largely experienced what this protection of God implies, we yet instantly tremble at tile noise of a leaf falling from a tree, as if God had quite forgotten us. Being then entangled in so many unholy misgivings, and so much inclined to distrust, we are taught from the passage that if a sentence couched in a few words does not suffice us, we should gather together whatever may be found throughout tim whole Scriptures concerning the providence of God, until this doctrine"That God always keeps watch for us" is deeply rooted in our hearts; so that, depending upon his guardianship alone, we may bid adieu to all the vain confidences of the world. John Calvin.
Ver. 7.
1. Personal agency of God in providence.
2. Personal regard of providence to the favoured individual.
3. Special care over the centre of the personality "thy soul."
Psalms 121:8*
Charles H. Spurgeon's The Treasury of David (1869–1885) — public domain. Psalms only. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain The Lord shall preserve thee from all evil
Psa_121:7-8
The Lord shall preserve thee from all evil
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Preserved Item all evil
Lawyers, when they are drawing up important documents, frequently con-elude with some general terms to meet any emergency which may possibly occur.
They do this on the principle that what is not in may be supposed to be intentionally left out. In order to guard against this inference, they are not content with inserting a number of particular cases; they conclude with a general statement, which includes everything, whether expressed or not. A similar formula is inserted here. It is of great importance that the feet of travellers be kept front sliding as they pursue their journey. It is of great importance that they be preserved from heat by day and from cold by night. But other dangers await them, from which they require protection; and lest the suspicion be entertained that no provision is made for these being surmounted, they are all introduced in the saving and comprehensive clause. No matter what may be their character, no matter from what quarter they may appear, no matter when they may come, and no matter how long they may continue, the declaration covers them all. Divine grace changes the nature of everything it handles, and transforms everything it touches into gold. Afflictions are overruled for good; and the virtues of the Christian life are developed with unusual lustre. The Lord shall preserve thee from all evil. (N. McMichael.)
Preservation in unguarded moments
Guard me when I am off my guard, prayed one the other day. It was a wise prayer, for it is not the danger against which we have fortified ourselves, the temptations which we know and are watching, which are so likely to compass a fall as some unthought-of point where no peril was suspected. Look back over the days, and you will find that their failures have nearly always been in unexpected places. The task which seemed so easy that you scarcely thought of seeking help for it, the good temper which is yours naturally, the endurance manifested so many times that you were quite confident of finding it ready for any stress--just in these things came surprise and defeat, the weakness that wounded your self-respect and left you heart-sore. You gather your forces for the struggle you foresee, you arm against the enemies whose power you know, but, when human watchfulness has done its utmost, there is still a wide margin for that urgent petition: Guard me when I am off guard. (J. R. Miller, D. D.)
He shall preserve thy soul.--
Soul preservation
I. This soul preservation is divine. The Lord shall preserve, etc. No one else can preserve it--
1. In the right train of thought. Wrong thoughts are dangerous.
2. In the right objects of sympathy. Wrong affections are dangerous.
3. In the right course of action. One step out of the proper path is dangerous.
II. This soul preservation is complete.
1. It is a preservation guarding from all evil.
2. It is a preservation extending over all activities. In solitude and in society; in business and in recreation; in all engagements and in all scenes; the shield of His protection is over it. He is with it in all its ins and outs of life.
III. This soul preservation is everlasting. From henceforth even for evermore. Who shall tell the events, the ages, the requirements of the soul in that evermore ?
1. The soul is to live a life of dependence for evermore.
2. The Lord will be its support for evermore. (Homilist.)
Thy going out and thy coming in.--
The God of the threshold
The title of this psalm, A song of ascents, is one which it holds in common with a small group of the Psalms. Its reference is to the ritual usage of the psalm by the pilgrims, as they made their way up to Mount Zion. And yet it is not inappropriate to its spirit. The authors thoughts are lifted up, and our hearts and eyes rise with them. The whole atmosphere of the poem is homely and domestic. It sees the world framed in a cottage doorway. The mountains are not peaks of vision; they are the boundaries and the horizons of his prospects. The threshold of homo fills the foreground of the picture. Going out and coming in are its simple lines of motion. The hearth and the field are thus suggested to us. We see the labourer go out into the light of morning with an uplifting of the heart to the dawn-clad hills. We watch him returning to the homestead in the evening, and pausing with his hand upon the door for a last glance at the mountains, as they gather their grey cloaks upon them, the sentinels of his security. And as the psalm closes, one almost expects to see the light in the cottage window, shutting out that wizard world which is just suggested in the superstitious fear of the rising moon. This psalm might have been the work of some Hebrew Burns, following his plough, in glory and in pride, upon the mountain side. Its religion is very simple, and yet all his creed. The Lord Himself is thy keeper; that is the summary of his creed. He that keepeth Israel shall not slumber nor sleep. The foot kept from stumbling, the head shielded from the heat of the noonday sun, the blessing and the preservation of the threshold, these are the simple promises of the psalm. And wrought into them there is the recognition of the spiritual dignity of man. The souls of His children are precious in His sight. And my mind dwells with satisfaction upon these elementary and yet large outlines of life, as it is here presented to us. I am fascinated by the thought of the God of the threshold. As I said just now, the home is the centre of the picture. It is the beginning and the end of the daily journey. The motions of it are reckoned not by the points of the compass; its wanderings are not eastward and westward, but homeward, or away from home. The Lord shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in. For we, whose life moves in a somewhat narrow and restricted sphere from day to day, very easily form the habit of prosaic and dull outlooks, regarding our life as an ordinary, common affair. We go out without wonder; we return without surprise. We lose that fine fancy of our childhood, which made a journey into the next street an expedition, and brought us back from the woodlands as travellers from a far country. It is quite true that such a diminished sensitiveness saves Us from many terrors that might otherwise play upon us. But it is equally true that that crippled imagination robs us of half the zest and joy that life might otherwise possess. How much is covered for us by these simple phrases, as we take them in their widest meaning--birth and death, sowing and reaping, expenditure and income, giving and receiving, earning and spending, adventure and peace--all of them may be summed up and expressed for us in those phrases, our going out, and our coming in. And if we were to take these symbolic suggestions of them, we might find the promise of the text applicable to them all. But let us dwell, at any Fate to begin with, upon the simple and most natural sense of the text. Day by day we do actually and literally go out and come in. The phrase marks the ordered sequence of our ordinary existence--that daily life of the trivial round, and the common task of which we sometimes complain that nothing ever happens; that it is wholly commonplace. And yet the commonplaceness of it is surely in ourselves. The ordinary daily life that most of us live is, if we be spiritually alert, far less certain and far more adventurous than we conceive. It is only while we take a very superficial glance upon our life, that we can speak of ourselves as knowing the daily conditions under which we have to live. To the spiritually alert the street is as hazardous as the wilderness; and the office and the shop are to us as foreign lands. We may not meet a lion in the path, it is true; but we meet, every day, men and women who surprise us with the revelation of unexpected possibilities, and of unhinted thoughts, and whose action is a thousand times more difficult to forecast. We do not all pick up sovereigns in the gutter as we wander forth; but spiritual gold may wait for us at the corner of any street, and the words that alter the destiny of a life be spoken in the clamour and rumble of a railway platform. For the upbuilding and moulding of character the common events of ordinary life have a significance of quite unplumbed possibility. We may meet the spiritual adventure of our existence within a few yards of our own door. And God may come to meet us, supreme, in the street that our feet have trodden every morning. The path where we have enjoyed such quiet communions, may be changed in a moment into the scene of temptation and disaster. Any morning and any hour may bring to us the opportunity of either denying or entering into, and sharing the larger and fuller communion of our Lord. And it is just that which sets an expectation upon the threshold of the morning, and sends a man forth with a thrill that is partly of hope and partly of fear. Everything, anything, the supremest things may happen to-day. His going forth is always momentous. He knows that there is not the remotest likelihood that he will return again in the evening exactly the same man as he went forth. Changes will have come and impressed themselves upon his being; temptations will have been met and battles have been fought. And so he goes forth with trembling, with the awe of his hesitant and uncertain destiny upon him. The question prompts itself in ones thought whether all of us whom our Christian faith ought to have awakened to the intense possibilities of daily life in spiritual things--whether all of us do live that daily life with a sufficient seriousness, and the sense of its value in the moulding of Our destinies. Do we go out, too, each day as to a spiritual adventure? To go out--as I fear some of us do--to go out day by day without a sense, a zest of hazard in life, to stumble through our daily temptation without the sense of what we are meeting, or what perchance we are avoiding, speaks, as I said just now, a dulled and crippled imagination. On the other hand, to be finely sensitive and responsive to the menaces and suggestions of life, if that were all, might be just as crippling to us. Hope and fear might simply neutralize one another, and the uncertainty of our destiny keep us hesitant and unwilling to adventure ourselves in such a hazardous quest at all. And if I would have you pause upon the threshold, it is not simply that we may correct the thought which has been too carelessly and flippantly going forth to its daily life, but that we may take counsel of the God of the threshold and find our strength and assurance in Him. This word of the psalmist: The Lord is thy keeper; the Lord shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in--how rich and heartfelt it is in its quality! It was surely worth our while to pause to gather the richness of such a promise. This promise of the preservation of God over our going forth and our coming in, can only be realized by those whose purposes are in accordance with the will of God. The confidence of Gods presence is not something that we can conjure up at will. It is hot something which by constant reiteration we can impress upon our memory and get into our hearts, except it be confirmed by the testimony of our own conscience and by the assurance that the purposes and plans we have before us are holy in the sight of God. There is no promise of preservation for a Jonah fleeing from the purposes of God; for a Saul who is found to transgress and to fight against God. If we are to reap the rich promise that a text like this holds for us, then we must meet the challenge that it presents to our souls. And only as our purposes are clean and pure in the sight of God can its protection accompany us wherever we go. The Lord shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in. The returns of life are not less momentous than its going forth. There may be something of an over-sensitive morbidness in it, but I confess for one that whenever I have been away a few days from home, it is hardly possible to approach it again through the familiar streets without a vague sense of apprehensiveness. What may have happened in the hours of absence? And it is quite true that in the commonest day of our ordinary life, just as we ourselves do not return the same men that we went forth, so there have been changes in the home in our absence, which mean that the same presences will not wait for us there. The home also has its temptations, its spiritual disciplines, as well as the office and the shop. And it may be that our development during that time has not been upon the same lines, has not been even upon parallel lines; and so when we meet again there is a new point of contact to find. We may be coming home joyous and satisfied from a day in which everything has gone well to a home where the pressure of small tasks has weighed too heavily and has produced irritation and griefs. We have to readjust our relations. And how often is it true that we miss the point of contact. That instead of falling at once into a new harmony our moods strike a discord. So this second half of our text, while it means first of all to me that God, through the absences of our daily life, protects our home for us, and watches over those who dwell there, I think means more subtly that God has to protect our home from us sometimes. As we pass the God of the threshold to get into the street in the morning, we have, as it were, to pass through God on our return at eventide. Some of the things that have irritated, and bruised, and chafed during the day, and that ought not to be carried back into the home with us, have got to be slowed off, that so we may meet in peace, and our peace not return to us as a guest that finds no place. The Lord shall preserve thee from all evil. He shall preserve thy soul. The Lord shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in, from this time forth and even for evermore. (W. C. Piggott.)
Preserved in life and in death
It is a promise which should be kept in mind in all our business, in all our movements; amid all the changes and chances of this mortal life. We shall ever more be defended by that ready help, which supposes an eye that cannot close--an arm that cannot fail. But I know of a going out and of a coming in, where we shall especially need the preserving care of our God; and to these, as to every other, may the promise be extended. There is a going out from this world,--there is a coming in to the next world: the departure through death from the present scene, and the entering on the unknown futurity. But the Lord shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in. Christ Jesus, according to His own declaration, has the keys of death and the invisible world; He, therefore, it must be, who dismisses the spirit from the flesh, and opens to it the separate state. And why should the believer shrink from the act of dissolution, as though it would be something tremendously awful, when he is thus assured that the Redeemer Him-self will officiate (as it were) at the taking down of the earthly house of this tabernacle--be with Him at the going out and the coming in, which he is so ready to invest with terror and dismay? (H. Melvill, B. D.)
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Psa_122:1-9
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 Yahweh will protect you ... he will protect your…
Yahweh will protect you ... he will protect your life ... Yahweh will protect you
These phrases all have similar meanings. The repetition strengthens the ideas. (See: Parallelism)
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your life
This refers to the writer. AT: "you" (See: Metonymy)
translationWords
eternity
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.