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Posted by Psalms on Wednesday, 27 June 2012
Psalms 121:4
Behold, he that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep.
121:4. The consoling truth must be repeated: it is too rich to be dismissed in a single line. It were well if we always imitated the sweet singer, and would dwell a little upon a choice doctrine, sucking the honey from it. What a glorious title is in the Hebrew—“the Keeper of Israel”—and how delightful to think that no form of unconsciousness ever steals over him, neither the deep slumber nor the lighter sleep. He will never let the house be broken up by the silent thief; he is ever on the watch, and speedily perceives every intruder. This is a subject of wonder, a theme for attentive consideration; therefore the word Behold is set up as a waymark. Israel fell asleep, but his God was awake. Jacob had neither walls, nor curtains, nor bodyguard around him; but the Lord was in that place though Jacob knew it not, and therefore the defenseless man was safe as in a caste. In after days he mentioned God under this enchanting name—“The God that led me all my life long”: perhaps David alludes to that passage in this expression. The word keepeth is also full of meaning: he keeps us as a rich man keeps his treasures, as a captain keep s a city with a garrison, as a royal guard keeps his monarch’s head. If the former verse is in strict accuracy a prayer, this is the answer to it. In verse 3 the Lord is spoken of as the personal keeper of one individual, and here of all those who are in his chosen nation, described as Israel: mercy to one saint is the pledge of blessing to them all. Happy are the pilgrims to whom this psalm is a safe-conduct; they may journey all the way to the celestial city without fear.
The Treasury of David by Charles Haddon Spurgeon (1834-1892)
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