Paraphrase Upon the Books of the Psalms, Book 5 · Psalm 121
The Hundred Twenty First Psalm.
A Song of ‖Ascents, see note on Psal. cxx. a.Degrees. The hundred twenty first is a repose in God, and a confident expectation of succour and safety under his protection.
1. I Will lift up mine eyes unto the hills from whence cometh my helpe.
2. My helpe cometha. †from before, or from the presence of the Lord.from the Lord, which made heaven and earth.
Paraphrase. Whatsoever, or how great soever my distresse or pressure be, whether bodily or spiritual, I have no other Sanctuary or refuge to which to apply my selfe, but that one supreme of heaven, (the image of which is the Arke on Zion, that holy hill or mount where God is pleased to presentiate himselfe) even to the all-sufficient omnipotent Creator, Ruler and Governor of the world. To him I can confidently address my prayers, and chearfully expect a seasonable aide, which he by his holy Angels shall gratiously afford me, (by the intercession of his own Son, who hath assumed my nature.)
3. He will not suffer thy foot to be moved; and he that keepeth thee will not slumber.
4. Behold he that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep.
All other guards may faile; either through the strength of a more powerfull affailant, or being at some time overtaken with sleep or weariness: But the watch that God affordeth us is impregnable; neither he nor his Angels, to whom he assignes this office of guarding, under him, all his faithfull servants, can ever be surprised by any such advantage.
5. The Lord is thy keeper, the Lord is thy shade upon thy right hand.
6. The sun shall not smite thee by day, nor the moon by night.
The omnipotent Lord of heaven and earth shall be†Nigher then thy shadow at, or from thy right hand, Jewish Arab. present to thee, and overrule all his creatures, and keep thee from being mischieved by them; his protection, as the cloud to the Israelites, or as a faithfull second in a duel, shall defend thee from all approach of danger: Neither the open assaults in the day-time from enemy or devill, nor the the secret ambushes in the night from any treacherous underminer either of thy temporal or spirituall estate, (the former fitly compared to the scorching of the Sun, the latter to the malignant influences of the Moon) shall be able to do thee any hurt.
7. The Lord shall preserve thee from all evil; he shall preserve thy soule.
The Lord shall assuredly defend thee from any real mischief, of what kinde soever, that can approach thee.
8. The Lord shall preserve thyb. going out and thy coming in, from this time forth and even for evermore.
He shall keep thee under the shadow of his own wings, and in the beginning, progress, and end of thy undertakings and designes, when thou goest out to worke, or comest home to rest, in thy business, or in thy retirement, his guard shall continually attend thee, and (if thou continue to adhere to him) never forsake or destitute thee.
Annotations on Psalm CXXI.
V. 2. From the Lord] The Hebrew is foreign foreignfrom with, or before, the Lord; which the Jewish Arab read foreign from at, or with the Lord. The Lxxii. read only foreign before the Lord; but the Chaldee and the Syriack agree in foreign from before, or from the sight or presence of the Lord, referring hereby more generally to the good Angels (stiled the Angels of his presence, those that stand before the Lord, and allwayes behold the face of God, and where they appear, there God is said to be in a peculiar manner) by whose ministery mercies and deliverances are solemnly conveyed to godly men; or rather to Christ incarnate, with whose Humanity the Deity being inseparably united, God is allwayes present with him, and through him with us, for whom sitting at Gods right hand, he constantly maketh intercession: But more immediately referring to the Arke of God, where he is pleased to exhibite his presence, and audience to the prayers of his servants, who there address them to him; which being placed on mount Zion, that sure is the meaning of foreign foreignto the hills, v. 1. to which as they then came when they could to offer up their prayers, so when they were hindred and detained from that personal address, they yet turned their faces, and lift up their eyes that way, as here it is said. See Dan. vi. 10. This for the full and ultimate importance of the words. But for the immediate sense of them, the scheme seems to be military. The beseiged person daily looks to the hills, to see if any relief be coming from any quarter, any signal by fire or the like, giving intelligence of succour approaching; so saith Aben Ezra as men doe in a seige, and so Kimchi also. And then by this scheme the Psalmist expresses his own repose to be in God, that dwelleth above in heaven, and presentiates himself to his servants in Zon; Our help cometh from a place higher than any earthly hill, from a more sure deliverer.
V. 8. Going out and coming in] foreign foreigngoing and coming, or going out and coming in, being, as here, used by it selfe, without any addition, hath a different importance from what it hath when it is used with foreign before the people, 1 Sa. xviii. 13. and the like. For then it imports governing or ruling only. So v. 16. all Israel and Judah loved David, because he went out and came in before them. So Act. i. 21. all the time that Jesus went in and out among us, i. e. taught us, ruled us his disciples here on earth. But in this place, without that addition, it signifies more generally, doing any thing of what sort soever, all actions being comprehended under one of these two sorts, going out to more publick, and coming in to more private affairs; or again, going out to begin, coming in at the end of the work. The Chaldee here paraphrase it, by going out foreign (a corruption of the Greek foreign) to affairs, to negotiation, and coming in foreign to the study of the Law.