86
February 1928
T h e
K i n g ' s
B u s i n e s s
Jehovah, the Keeper of His People (Psa. m) B y R ev . A lva J. M c C lain ( Professor o f Bible Doctrine, Bible Institute o f Los Angeles)
HERE are but two real differences between the Revised and Authorized versions of this Psalm. The American Revised Version puts “ Jehovah” for “ Lord” throughout the Psalm. It also re- WflBUr tains the word “ keep” or “ keeper” throughout I Til the Psalm instead o f changing to the word “ pre serve” in the last two verses as the Authorized version does. It is the same Hebrew word throughout. This blessed Psalm pictures Jehovah as the Keeper of His people. No less than six times’ in the short com pass of the eight verses,- the Psalmist speaks o f Jehovah as the One who “ keeps” His people. “ He that keepeth thee will not slumber.” . “He that keepeth Israel will neither slumber nor sleep.” “Jehovah is thy keeper.” “He will keep thee'from all evil.” “He will keep thy.soul.” - “Jehovah will keep thy going'out and-thy coming in.” The Psalm has four rather natural divisions with two verses in each division. I. V erses 1-2 contain a question a n d its answer . In the Authorized version verse one appears as a simple assertion: ‘T will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help.” There is apparently a suggestion here that the help o f the Psalmist came from hills. Yet this seems to sound a false note, for the hills o f Palestine, “the High Places,” had always been associated with idol atrous worship. It was on the “ hills” that the pagan na tions had erected their altars dedicated to false gods. To the “ hills” the Israelites went when they forsook the true God and strayed into idolatry. David, who is thought by some to have been the writer of the one hundred twenty- first Psalm, would never, have said, “ / will lift up mine eye's unto the hills from whence cometh my help.” But let us read verse one in the form o f a question, as it may properly be read: “ I will lift up mine eyes unto■ the hills. From whence shall my help cbmej’L tf DoesHt- come from the'hills? N o! Now the answer, in the.second verse, “ My help cometh from Jehovah, who made heaven and earth.” Verses one and two are really a soliloquy“ The Psalm ist feels the need of help, and so he muses within himself,. “ I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills,” those hills where the altars to the false gods were standing. Then lie stops and this question flashes into his mind, Whence cometh my help? Have these gods of the heathen ever helped me ? Then comes the answer, his great declaration o f faith, “My help cometh from Jehovah, who made heaven and earth.” There is a lesson here for us. Sometimes in the midst o f our human needs we are tempted to lift up our eyes unto the hills and seek help from false gods. At such times we should stop, like the Psalmist, and ask, Whence cometh my help ? Who was it that helped us in the years that are past? Plave we ever received any help from the false gods, from the world, from the flesh, and the adversary? Not once! Then let us answer with the Psalmist, “ My help cometh from Jehovah, who made heaven and earth.” There is no room left in this Psalm for that Panthe istic nature-worship which the carnal mind loves ’ so well.
The Psalm repudiates it. The writer is not one of those who worship God in nature, in the forests, and the hills. He says in effect, “ Why should I look to the hills for help, when I may have the help o f that God who created the heaven, the earth, and all its hills?” The writers o f the Bible never indeed lost sight of the immanence o f God. T o them, God is omnipresent as a living God in His uni verse ; He fills heaven and earth, but they never get Him tangled up in the world which He has created, as some of our modern thinkers have. done. The God of the Bible is, always separate and distinct from His creation, never con fused with.it. T he W atchfulness of J ehovah II. V erses 3-4 speak of jehovah ’ s watchfulness . "H e will not suffer thy foo t to be moved; H e that keepeth thee will not slumber-. Behold, H e that keepeth Israel will neither slumber. nor sleep.” In the hills and ravines of Palestine, the traveler’s path often lay along the edge of a dizzy precipice where a single slip o f the foot meant no mere inconvenience and a few bruises, but perhaps com plete and lasting disaster, even death itself. It was un doubtedly this thought primarily that was in the writer’s mind when he wrote,..“ Jehovah will not suffer thy foot to be moved.” But the thought goes deeper than this. The Psalmist had in mind more than mere physical danger. He is think ing oi soul danger.’ This is evident from the seventh verse where, he says that Jehovah’ “ will keep thy soul.” From this standpoint what a wonderful promise there is in verse three: “ He Will not suffer thy fo o t to be moved’! There are times in our lives when the path grows exceed ing difficult and slippery. W e are like the writer of the seventy-third Psalm when he said, “ A s fo r me, my feet [Q>ere; alm
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