THE LORD IS THY KEEPER

The theme of this psalm is the keeping power of Jehovah. Six times the word keep is used. The word preserve, vv. 7, 8, is the same word, and is given as keep in the margin. None should ever doubt God’s ability to keep. He is the Creator of heaven and earth, v. 2. He not only made the universe with its intricate system, but sustains it so that it never gets out of hand. The heavenly bodies are kept in their orbits. The earth rotates on its axis at an angle that brings the seasons with unfailing regularity, Gen. 8. 22. The atmospheric pressure, causing a force that bears down on the earth, never exceeds a prescribed limit, up or down; if it did, no one would survive. This, and much more beyond our finite capacities, display His omnipotence and omniscience. What is more, He never suffers from fatigue, nor is He ever off duty, for He neither slumbers nor sleeps. “Hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God … the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary?”, Isa. 40. 28. In view of this, how can we doubt God’s ability or His readiness to cope with the circumstances of our lives?

Elijah mocked the prophets of Baal who cried in vain to their god to answer them. How caustic were his remarks in suggesting that perhaps Baal was asleep and needed to be aroused, or was too preoccupied to hear them, 1 Kings 18. 27.

Consider the case of Peter, Acts 12. 4-10. Four soldiers at a time were charged to keep him in prison. What follows proves that the Lord was Peter’s Keeper not the soldiers. The same was true of Paul and Silas, 16. 23, 27.

Israel was the object of God’s providential care as was Jacob, Gen. 28. 15. That care extends to us. This does not mean that we, any more than they, will be always kept from trial. There have been many imprisoned who never had the miraculous deliverance that Peter and Paul had. If our Keeper allows us to endure trials, He will keep us through them. In this age we are kept spiritually, “preserved (kept) in Jesus Christ”, Jude 1. We should pray to be kept from evil, 2 Thess.3. 3; “preserved (kept) faultless”, 1 Thess. 5. 23; “to keep you from falling”, Jude 24. Confidently we affirm, “kept by the power of God”, 1 Pet. 1. 5.