If we regard the Psalms as one of the lost treasures of the Bible, we can do worse than go back to number 121. This may have echoes of our junior school days. It belongs to that 'inner ring' of psalms that include 40, 46 and 150. If these psalms do not inculcate christian belief they lead us into loyalty to our Creator. And that is something that christian belief has to include in its prospectus.
The KJV (King James Version) has a strong hold on this poem. We join him in lifting up our eyes to the hills. We are tiny creatures on the flanks of a hill. We are engaged in close work - tatting, prehaps or proof reading or inlaid work. We sometimes forget this and need reminding that the hills are our geological starting point. Even if as happened in the year 1000 in Iceland the inhabitants made their way to a level meeting place where they pledged their nation to Christianity as its chosen religion, we know our place and the benefits and dangers that come from the high places.
Psalm 121 offers reassurance. It comes from the Maker who has a care for us. We know that the words about protection from sun or moon are stronger on rhetoric than delivery (See also Psalm 91.7). Whether we stay put or venture abroad, his concern is just as great when the Maker put into practice his plan for human beings (and we know much more now than the writer of this psalm could have known), he saw in humans a sturdy copy of himself a self-correcting, and thinking creature who saw it as his duty to be like his Maker as far as he could. In the end all comes from God the Maker.
'Your Guardian God will not fall asleep' says Peterson in his one man translation of the Psalms at this point. A telling point that gains force from the next sentence: '"Not on your life!"' with God as our Guardian with the Maker protecting and backing us we approach worship with confidence. Our worship is homage. It is a recognition of whom we belong to and whom we serve.
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