The second Psalm in our study is Psalm 121.  Last week we started our Christian pilgrimage.  We said no to the world and yes to God.  As a result all of our troubles are over.  All our problems solved.  As Christians we are people who do not have accidents, do not have arguments with our spouses and whose children do not disobey us.  Right?  I don’t think that’s how it works and I am sure you do not think so either.

Psalm 121 is a gentle reminder to us that we are wrong if we think being a Christian is going to be easy. No sooner do we confidently stride out on the road of faith than we trip on some obstruction and fall to the hard surface.

When that happens, where do we find our strength?  Do we look to the mountains?  People during the Psalmists time did.  Those who worshipped Baal built altars and shrines to Baal on mountain tops.  it would be common in those days to expect to look to the mountains in times of trouble in search of Baal.

No, the psalmist says, He will look to the Lord for strength.  He will look to God who made the mountains.  He will look to the Creator, not the creation for strength.

Three possible misfortunes might befall the traveler in our Psalm.  A person might step on a loose stone and sprain an ankle.  A person might get a heat stroke or might fall prey to pressures of fatigue or anxiety ( described by the ancient writers as moonstruck).  We can update our own list of dangers.  A crazy man, with explosives in his underwear, may try to blow up the plane we are on.  An accident – in an automobile, from a stepladder , on the athletic field – can, without warning, interrupt our carefully laid plans.  A medical test result could throw our whole health into question.

The promise of the Psalm is not that we shall never stub our toes, but that no injury, no illness, no accident, no distress will have evil power over us, that is, will be able to separate us from God.

All the water in the oceans cannot sink a ship unless it gets inside.  All the trouble in the world cannot harm us unless it gets within us.  The promise of the Psalm     is that God guards you from every evil.

The only serious mistake we can make when illness comes, when anxiety threatens, when conflict disturbs our relationships with others is to conclude that God does not care.  This is the mistake of supposing that God’s interest in us waxes and wanes.

The Christian life is a pilgrimage toward God, but in going to God, Christians travel the same ground everyone else walks on, breathe the same air, shop in the same stores, pay the sames prices for gas and groceries, fear the same dangers, are subject to the same pressures and distresses and, ultimately, buried in the same ground.  The difference is that each step we walk, each breath we breathe, we know we are preserved by God, we know we are accompanied by God and we therefore know that no matter what doubts we endure or what accidents we experience, God will guard us from all evil.

This walk of faith is the solid, secure experience of God, who keeps all evil from getting inside us, who guards our life, who guards us when we leave and when we return, who guards us now, who guards us always.