Chris Gomez: I did my job. Alright. Audio speeds and when you're ready.
Scott Schutte: Cool. Psalm one twenty one.
I look up to the mountains. Does my help come from there? My help comes from the Lord who made heaven and earth. He will not let you stumble. The one who watches over you will not slumber.
Indeed, he who watches over Israel never slumbers or sleeps. The Lord himself watches over you. The Lord stands beside you as your protective shade. The sun will not harm you by day nor the moon at night. The Lord keeps you from all harm and watches over your life.
The Lord keeps watch over you as you come and go both now and forever. This Psalm is one that I think many of us have heard before, especially that first verse. I look up to the mountains, does my help come from there? No, it comes from the Lord who made heaven and earth. And this Psalm is one of 10 or so Psalms that were songs of ascent as the Israelites were traveling to Jerusalem to celebrate festivals.
They would often travel together and in groups and travel to Jerusalem. And on their way, as they were on their journey, they would sing these together. And we kind of read that in context. Specifically what I want us to look at today is verses five and six. It says, the Lord himself watches over you.
The Lord stands beside you as your protective shade. The sun will not harm you by day nor the moon at night. And really what he's getting at here is that the Lord is always watching over us and he's always protecting us and and guiding our steps. And if you know anything about The Middle East, you know that it can be a pretty sunny and hot place. And the Lord steps in as our shade and he protects us from the sun.
And you may or may not know this, but, it was a pretty ancient belief that the moon could actually cause you to go crazy. And that's actually where we get the word lunatic from. But the Lord also protects us from whatever that fake power of the moon is. And so really what it's getting at is the Lord is always protecting us and always watching out for us. And so I just want to challenge you as you're on this chapter and today, what are you looking to to protect you and watch over you throughout your day?
Are you looking to money or family or any other number of things that may be good or bad? Or are you looking to the Lord as your protection? And so, God, I pray that you would, be with us today. I pray that you would help us to see you as you are, as our protector, as our our watchman over us, that you guide and protect our steps, that you protect us from stumbling, that you protect us from, so many things. And I pray that as we go about our day that you would help us to reflect on that.
And all this we lift up in the powerful name of Jesus. Amen.