God Guards You From Every Evil

Tuesdays are important corporate days of Prayer and Fasting for the Kansas City Underground. As we continue in 2023, we invite everyone to focus on a Psalm on the first Tuesday of each month. The chosen Psalm for March is one that our sisters and brothers in Jesus’ global Church around the world are focusing on at the beginning of this month across ancient and fresh traditions and denominations. We want to join with them in anchoring in the Psalms because they are “at the heart of Scripture, and they unlock and express the secrets of our hearts: our deepest fears, longings, and hopes” (Malcolm Guite).

This week, we step into one of the first “songs of ascent” in the Psalms, often focused on during the season of Lent. Eugene Peterson, in his modern classic, A Long Obedience in the Same Direction, shares the theme for Psalm 121 as “God Guards You from Every Evil.” He writes:

Three times in Psalm 121, God is referred to by the personal name Yahweh, translated as LORD (or GOD in The Message). Eight times he is described as the guardian or as the one who guards. He is not an impersonal executive giving orders from on high; he is present help every step of the way we travel. Do you think the way to tell the story of the Christian journey is to describe its trials and tribulations? It is not. It is to name and describe God, who preserves, accompanies and rules us. All the water in all the oceans cannot sink a ship unless it gets inside. Nor can all the trouble in the world harm us unless it gets within us. That is the promise of the psalm: “GOD guards you from every evil.” (pg. 43, italics emphasis added)

Theme: God Guards You from Every Evil

Today’s scriptures: Psalm 121, NIV & The Message (MSG)

Read: Psalm 121:1-2, NIV & MSG

NIV:
I lift up my eyes to the mountains—where does my help come from? My help comes from the LORD, the Maker of heaven and earth.

MSG:
I look up to the mountains; does my strength come from mountains? No, my strength comes from GOD, who made heaven, and earth, and mountains.

Reflect:

Where are you looking for help this week? What do you think will give you more strength than God?

Pray:

Be still and see where your mind goes first in relation to your strength for today (ex., sleep, work, exercise, food, person). Then thank God for His creation and give it back to Him as a gift (&/or release it as an idol).

Read: Psalm 121:3-4, NIV & MSG

NIV:
He will not let your foot slip—He who watches over you will not slumber; indeed, He who watches over Israel will neither slumber nor sleep.

MSG:
He won’t let you stumble, your Guardian God won’t fall asleep. Not on your life! Israel’s guardian will never doze or sleep.

Reflect:

Is there anyone in your life or your community’s life whom you want God to “wake up” to and protect?

Pray:

Cry out to the God who neither slumbers nor sleeps to move on behalf of all those who come to mind.

Read: Psalm 121:5-8, NIV & MSG

NIV:
The LORD watches over you—the LORD is your shade at your right hand; the sun will not harm you by day, nor the moon by night. The LORD will keep you from all harm—He will watch over your life; the Lord will watch over your coming and going both now and forevermore.

MSG:
GOD’s your guardian, right at your side to protect you ... GOD guards you from every evil, He guards your very life. He guards you when you leave and when you return, He guards you now, He guards you always.

Reflect:

What does it mean for you to trust GOD as Guardian? At home? At work? In your mind? On mission?

Pray:

Pray for the days and nights ahead that the Spirit would reveal how the LORD is moving on your behalf.

Praise:

We get to worship the God who can and ultimately does guard us from every evil, including the powers of death and hell, which are limited by Him because He is the Resurrection and the Life, the Good Shepherd who guards His sheep. Close by praising Emmanuel for being with you in your mountain &/or valley this week.