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COMMENTARY ON PSALM 121 A Song ofthe Steps. HIS PSALM ALSO BEARS on those living in Babylon. I lifted up my eyes to the mountains, from where will come my help (v. 1): beset by many and varied sorrows, I cast my eyes in all directions in my desire to enjoy some assistance. My help is from the Lord, the maker of heaven and earth (v. 2): but I know that, while I shall enjoy no human help, God's benevolence alone is sufficient for me. To bring out the efficacy of the help, he went on, The maker ofheaven and earth: he who formed these things by a word is capable of meeting my needs, too. At this point the inspired author explains what needs to be done for them: May he not let your foot slip, nor the one guarding you slumber (v. 3). If you continue to have firm hope in him, he is saying, you will receive complete care from him. He employed the phrase nor the one guarding you slumber in human fashion by analogy with those keeping careful guard over flocks and armies and cities. For he indicated the fact that the divine nature is free from passion by what follows. (2) Behold, he will not slumber, nor will the one guarding Israel go to sleep (v. 4): the guard is naturally wakeful, whereas you totter, and for his part he will treat neglect like a kind of slumber; he will no longer take care of you, giving free rein instead to those choosing to devise schemes.! The Lord will guard you, the Lord your protection at your right hand (v. 5). This he said also in the fifteenth psalm, "I foresaw the Lord ever before me, because he is at my right hand lest I totter."2 So at this place, too, [1880] he is saying that he is at your right hand and will protect and guard you and accord you complete providence. 1. The comment does not seem to bear on the drift of the verse, or the psalm as a whole. 2. Ps 16.8. 282 COMMENTARYON PSALM 121 283 (3) By day the sun will not burn you, nor the moon by night (v. 6). They say the moon is not only wet but also hot, and burns bodies like the sun. [The psalmist] means instead, By night and by day you will enjoy providence from him and be kept clear of harm. He reminds them also of past history: when they were freed from the slavery of the Egyptians, they were covered by the cloud and suffered no effects of the sun's rays.3 The Lord will guard you from all evil, the Lord will guard your soul. The Lord will guard your coming in and your going out, from now and forever (vv. 7-8). In these words he indicated the manifold providence of God: when it is present we prove stronger than the hostile enemy and avoid the snares of people seen and unseen.4 3. Not quite the function of the cloud spoken of in Exodus and Numbers. Theodoret seems aware of ancient ideas of the moon·s harmful potency, though (pace Dahood) taking the verse in a more benign fashion. 4. Again the psalm is dispatched curtly, despite the spiritually fertile sentiments of the psalmist, which could-had Theodoret been inclined-have been applied at some little length to the lives of his readers. He hardly shares Weiser 's response: "This psalm produces by the simplicity of its language and piety a deep impression that continues until this day." ...

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