IT is customary in Palestine to have watchmen or keepers to protect the traveler in his tent at night; and courage, strength, and constant watchfulness are requisites indispensable to a true keeper.
Psa. 121. celebrates the absolute protection afforded by the Lord as our Keeper. We are pilgrims on earth, going up to the heavenly city. Dangers surround us, but “He will not suffer thy foot to be moved.” His incessant watchfulness fills the heart with the sense of perfect rest. We have not to protect ourselves, nor to listen for the footfall of the foe; for “He that keepeth thee will not slumber.” Frequently the keeper of the traveler’s tent will, as the night wears on, wrap himself in a thick cloak, and, indifferent to his trust and the danger of the night, fall asleep upon the ground, but “Behold, He that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep.”
The tent of the traveler, moving from stage to stage, and pitched nightly in a new field, demands the utmost energy on the part of the keeper. The craft and the courage of the robbers in Palestine is notorious—hence while the pilgrim is at his rest the faithful keeper is without, looking into the darkness and listening for the enemy as his hand grasps his weapon. Sometimes—nay, too often—the believer keeps awake, as it were, fretting and anxious, forgetting His Lord’s ceaseless care. He almost thinks he has to protect himself, and that he is left to keep himself. Let the pilgrim to the heavenly Zion rejoice in the words of truth― “The Lord is thy Keeper.”
We need our Lord’s care every step of our way, and every hour of our lives. We shall never be so full grown as to be able to walk alone in our own strength. The oldest believer needs the preserving care of his God as much as does the youngest saint. Blessed, then, are these words, “The Lord shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in from this time forth, and even for evermore.”