Read: Psalm 121

The Lord is your keeper; the Lord is your shade at your right hand. . . . The Lord will keep your going out and your coming in from this time on and forevermore. Psalm 121:5, 8

To be kept is the opposite of being discarded. God is a keeper. God does not discard those who turn to God for help. There are indeed times when we look to the hills to see if our deliverance will arrive, only to see nothing of particular note on the horizon. It is true that God is silent so much of the time, and that God is not clearly visible in most circumstances. This can lead us to assume that God is absent, as if God set our world and our lives in motion and then somehow lost interest in us.

Scripture, however, insists that God is present, that God loves creation, and that God does not intend to lose any of what God has made. God intends to preserve life. For God, preservation of life is not merely an earthly hope, it is an eternal reality. God’s plan is to keep us forevermore. We may not be able to see God appear on the mountaintop bringing us deliverance, because God’s deliverance expands beyond all human vision—God saves us and promises to keep us for eternity.

What does it mean for God to be your keeper?

Lord, I wish I had a clearer vision of You, or had a more concrete faith in You. It is very easy to mistake Your silence and invisibility for absence. Help me to believe that You are indeed present in the world, and that You intend to preserve life, and keep my life forever. In Your name, I hope and pray. AMEN.