The Pilgrim’s PrayerНамуна

The Presence of the LORD

The LORD is your keeper; the LORD is your shade on your right hand.

The sun shall not strike you by day, nor the moon by night.

Psalm 121:5-6

The LORD who keeps Israel also keeps every individual believer. He personally takes charge of the protection of each member of the covenant community. His providential care overshadows the believer for the LORD is his shade. He is the trusted bodyguard by one’s right hand fending away every threat. Even before the pilgrim enters the premises of the temple upon Mount Zion, his God is present by his side. If God is by one’s side, then what has one to fear? This was certainly King David’s bold confidence despite enemies on every front that he said, “I have set the LORD always before me; because he is at my right hand, I shall not be shaken” (Psalm 16:8). 

The intense sun over Israel was the pilgrim’s great adversary. The sun burns the traveller’s skin and parches the throat. The sun’s rays sap up all energy and cause heat strokes. The sun struck down many strong travellers. The moon likewise was feared! It was thought that the moonbeams made men mad. This thought prevails so widely that the English word "lunacy" is derived from luna - the Latin word for moon. The pilgrim facing around the clock danger – day and night - is assured that his LORD who keeps him also overshadows him by his ever-present presence. He covers his children in the shadow of his wings as a hen hides her chicks (Psalm 17:8; 57:1). Whoever dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty (Psalm 91:1). Therefore, one need not fear the terror of night, nor the arrow that flies by day, nor the pestilence that stalks in the darkness, nor the plague that destroys at midday (Psalm 91:5-6). 

East Africa’s first Anglican Bishop, James Hannington, followed David Livingstone’s missionary footsteps. Travelling across the untamed African land with hazards on every side, Psalm 121 became Hannington’s personal prayer. Every sunrise and sunset, Hannington recited these words of God’s providential preservation. He delighted in God’s sustaining grace that saw him through another day. It is the same God of Hannington who also sustains us today! Jesus never promised us that we will not be afflicted with the miseries of this life. However, he did promise to keep us amid the storms of life by his abiding presence. He is our Emmanuel – God with us (Matthew 1:23)!