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<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "//www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"><html xmlns="//www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" /><meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width; initial-scale=1.0;"/><title>Psalm 121 Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers</title><link rel="canonical" href="https://biblehub.com/commentaries/expositors/psalms/121.htm" /><link rel="stylesheet" href="/5001com.css" type="text/css" media="Screen" /><link rel="stylesheet" href="../spec.css" type="text/css" media="Screen" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-width: 4800px), only screen and (max-device-width: 4800px)" href="/4801.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-width: 1550px), only screen and (max-device-width: 1550px)" href="/1551.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-width: 1250px), only screen and (max-device-width: 1250px)" href="/1251.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-width: 1050px), only screen and (max-device-width: 1050px)" href="/1051.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-width: 900px), only screen and (max-device-width: 900px)" href="/901.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-width: 800px), only screen and (max-device-width: 800px)" href="/801.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-width: 575px), only screen and (max-device-width: 575px)" href="/501.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-height: 450px), only screen and (max-device-height: 450px)" href="/h451.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link rel="stylesheet" href="/print.css" type="text/css" media="Print" /><script type="application/javascript" src="https://scripts.webcontentassessor.com/scripts/8a2459b64f9cac8122fc7f2eac4409c8555fac9383016db59c4c26e3d5b8b157"></script><script src='https://qd.admetricspro.com/js/biblehub/biblehub-layout-loader-revcatch.js'></script><script id='HyDgbd_1s' src='https://prebidads.revcatch.com/ads.js' type='text/javascript' async></script><script>(function(w,d,b,s,i){var cts=d.createElement(s);cts.async=true;cts.id='catchscript'; cts.dataset.appid=i;cts.src='https://app.protectsubrev.com/catch_rp.js?cb='+Math.random(); document.head.appendChild(cts); }) (window,document,'head','script','rc-anksrH');</script></head><body><div id="fx"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" id="fx2"><tr><td><iframe width="100%" height="30" scrolling="no" src="../cmenus/psalms/121.htm" align="left" frameborder="0"></iframe></td></tr></table></div><div id="blnk"></div><div align="center"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" class="maintable"><tr><td><div id="fx5"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" id="fx6"><tr><td><iframe width="100%" height="245" scrolling="no" src="//biblehu.com/bmcom/psalms/121-1.htm" frameborder="0"></iframe></td></tr></table></div></td></tr></table></div><div align="center"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" class="maintable3"><tr><td><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center" id="announce"><tr><td><div id="l1"><div id="breadcrumbs"><a href="//biblehub.com">Bible</a> > <a href="/commentaries/">Commentary</a> > <a href="../">Ellicott</a> > <a href="../psalms/">Psalm</a></div><div id="anc"><iframe src="/anc.htm" width="100%" height="27" scrolling="no" frameborder="0"></iframe></div><div id="anc2"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center"><tr><td><iframe src="/anc2.htm" width="100%" height="27" scrolling="no" frameborder="0"></iframe></td></tr></table></div></div></td></tr></table><div id="movebox2"><table border="0" align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr><td><div id="topheading"><a href="../psalms/120.htm" title="Psalm 120">◄</a> Psalm 121 <a href="../psalms/122.htm" title="Psalm 122">►</a></div></td></tr></table></div><div align="center" class="maintable2"><table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center"><tr><td><div id="leftbox"><div class="padleft"><div class="vheading">Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers</div><div class="chap"><span class= "bld"> CXXI.</span><p>This simple but exquisite little hymn of four fourline verses, dwells almost exclusively on the sleepless guardianship of His people by the (God who made the world. An implied contrast with the idols of the heathen, “peradventure sleeping,” while their votaries pray (<a href="/1_kings/18-27.htm" title="And it came to pass at noon, that Elijah mocked them, and said, Cry aloud: for he is a god; either he is talking, or he is pursuing, or he is in a journey, or peradventure he sleeps, and must be awaked.">1Kings 18:27</a>), is felt in every verse. (See Note <a href="/psalms/121-1.htm" title="I will lift up my eyes to the hills, from where comes my help.">Psalm 121:1</a>.) But it is only implied. The poet seems to want nothing to heighten his truthful confidence, neither vivid colouring nor elaborate imagery, nothing save the repetition again and again of the one word <span class= "ital">keep. </span>(See Notes.) What a history were that, if it could be written, of the countless thousands of Christians who have been consoled in trouble or sickness by this psalm! Among others, it was read at the deathbed of Julius Hare. It is in this psalm that the steplike progression of the rhythm is most plainly marked.<p><span class= "ital">Title.</span>—The Hebrew, in many editions, presents a variation from the usual “song <span class= "ital">of </span>degrees.” Here, “a song <span class= "ital">for the </span>degrees”—a variation which has been claimed in support of two rival theories, since it favours equally the view which make these hymns pilgrim songs, and that which sees in them a reference to the actual <span class= "ital">steps </span>leading up to the Temple.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/psalms/121-1.htm">Psalm 121:1</a></div><div class="verse">A Song of degrees. I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help.</div>(1) <span class= "bld">Whence.</span>—Our version is certainly incorrect in following the LXX. and Vulg. in making <span class= "ital">whence </span>a relative. The Hebrew word is always interrogative; even in <a href="/joshua/2-4.htm" title="And the woman took the two men, and hid them, and said thus, There came men to me, but I knew not from where they were:">Joshua 2:4</a> it is indirectly interrogative. But the margin is hardly right in making the whole verse interrogative. Render, <span class= "ital">I will lift up mine eyes to the hills. Whence comes my help? </span>The hills are those on which Jerusalem is built, the plural being understood, as in <a href="/psalms/87-1.htm" title="His foundation is in the holy mountains.">Psalm 87:1</a>. (See Note.) This gaze of hope does not absolutely decide the standpoint of the poet. He might have been like Ezekiel (<a href="/ezekiel/6-2.htm" title="Son of man, set your face toward the mountains of Israel, and prophesy against them,">Ezekiel 6:2</a>) when bidden to turn “towards the mountains of Israel” in the distant plain of Mesopotamia; or he may have been close on the end of the pilgrim journey, and actually under the sacred hills. But wherever he stands, this question is not one of doubt; he knows, as in <a href="/psalms/3-4.htm" title="I cried to the LORD with my voice, and he heard me out of his holy hill. Selah.">Psalm 3:4</a>; <a href="/psalms/14-7.htm" title="Oh that the salvation of Israel were come out of Zion! when the LORD brings back the captivity of his people, Jacob shall rejoice, and Israel shall be glad.">Psalm 14:7</a>, that help will come from God’s holy hill “out of Zion.” He puts the question for the sake of the emphatic answer in the next verse. Possibly, as suggested by the marginal rendering and reference, the poet may in his mind have been contrasting the confidence with which a worshipper of Jehovah might look up to the sacred city on the crest of the holy hill with that superstition and idolatry which was associated with so many hills and high places in Canaan. If this is so, the best commentary, both on the poetry and the religion of the psalm, is to be found in Mr. Ruskin’s fascinating discourses on mountains in “Modern Painters,” their influence on the ancient, mediaeval, and modern mind, and the part they have played alike in the mythology of the pagan times and the religion of the Christian world. There must also be added, in connection with the feeling of the Jew, the part his mountains played as a barrier of defence (<a href="/psalms/125-2.htm" title="As the mountains are round about Jerusalem, so the LORD is round about his people from now on even for ever.">Psalm 125:2</a>), and as heights of observation from which to watch for the messengers of peace (<a href="/isaiah/52-7.htm" title="How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of him that brings good tidings, that publishes peace; that brings good tidings of good, that publishes salvation; that said to Zion, Your God reigns!">Isaiah 52:7</a>; <a href="/nahum/1-15.htm" title="Behold on the mountains the feet of him that brings good tidings, that publishes peace! O Judah, keep your solemn feasts, perform your vows: for the wicked shall no more pass through you; he is utterly cut off.">Nahum 1:15</a>).<p>“In the mountains did he feel his faith<p><span class= "bld">. . .</span> . and there his spirit shaped<p>Her prospects.”—WORDSWORTH.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/psalms/121-2.htm">Psalm 121:2</a></div><div class="verse">My help <i>cometh</i> from the LORD, which made heaven and earth.</div>(2) <span class= "bld">My help cometh . . .</span>—Not as the superstition of the Canaanite said, from the sacred summits themselves, but from their Creator’s Lord. It is noticeable that the style, “maker of heaven and earth,” is a peculiarity of psalms which are certainly post-exile, and show how strongly the contrast with heathenism impressed the creative power of God on the Hebrew mind. When the idolater, pointing to his visible god, taunted the Israelite with having no god, the reply, that He made the heavens, and the earth, and all things, and that these were the proofs of His being, was most natural. (See <a href="/jeremiah/10-11.htm" title="Thus shall you say to them, The gods that have not made the heavens and the earth, even they shall perish from the earth, and from under these heavens.">Jeremiah 10:11</a>.)<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/psalms/121-3.htm">Psalm 121:3</a></div><div class="verse">He will not suffer thy foot to be moved: he that keepeth thee will not slumber.</div>(3) <span class= "bld">He will not.</span>—The LXX. and Vulg. rightly, “may He not suffer,” &c. The Hebrew cannot be a simple negative. That it is Israel which is addressed the next verse seems to prove.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/psalms/121-4.htm">Psalm 121:4</a></div><div class="verse">Behold, he that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep.</div>(4) <span class= "bld">Slumber nor sleep.</span>—This repetition, with the addition of a synonym, offers a very good instance of the <span class= "ital">step-like </span>style supposed by many critics to give their name to these psalms. But it must be carefully noticed that there is no climax in the force of the two words, the first, if anything, being the stronger. It is used of the sleep of death (<a href="/psalms/76-5.htm" title="The stouthearted are spoiled, they have slept their sleep: and none of the men of might have found their hands.">Psalm 76:5</a>).<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/psalms/121-5.htm">Psalm 121:5</a></div><div class="verse">The LORD <i>is</i> thy keeper: the LORD <i>is</i> thy shade upon thy right hand.</div>(5) <span class= "bld">Thy keeper.</span>—Notice again how the prominent word is caught up from the preceding verse and amplified, and then again repeated, and again amplified in <a href="/context/psalms/121-7.htm" title="The LORD shall preserve you from all evil: he shall preserve your soul.">Psalm 121:7-8</a>, where <span class= "ital">preserve </span>is an unfortunate substitution by the Authorised Version.<p><span class= "bld">Shade.</span>—An image of protection, and one peculiarly attractive to the Oriental. (See <a href="/numbers/14-9.htm" title="Only rebel not you against the LORD, neither fear you the people of the land; for they are bread for us: their defense is departed from them, and the LORD is with us: fear them not.">Numbers 14:9</a>, margin; <a href="/psalms/91-1.htm" title="He that dwells in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.">Psalm 91:1</a>; <a href="/isaiah/25-4.htm" title="For you have been a strength to the poor, a strength to the needy in his distress, a refuge from the storm, a shadow from the heat, when the blast of the terrible ones is as a storm against the wall.">Isaiah 25:4</a>; <a href="/isaiah/32-2.htm" title="And a man shall be as an hiding place from the wind, and a covert from the tempest; as rivers of water in a dry place, as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land.">Isaiah 32:2</a>.)<p><span class= "bld">Upon thy right hand.</span>—Some commentators combine this expression with the figure of the shadow, supposing the psalmist, in the phrase “right hand,” to allude to the <span class= "ital">south </span>or <span class= "ital">sunny </span>side. But this is prosaic. No doubt there is here, as so often, a confused combination of metaphors. We have several times met with the figure of the right-hand comrade in war, a protection to the unshielded side (<a href="/psalms/16-8.htm" title="I have set the LORD always before me: because he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved.">Psalm 16:8</a>; <a href="/psalms/109-31.htm" title="For he shall stand at the right hand of the poor, to save him from those that condemn his soul.">Psalm 109:31</a>, &c).<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/psalms/121-6.htm">Psalm 121:6</a></div><div class="verse">The sun shall not smite thee by day, nor the moon by night.</div>(6) <span class= "bld">Smite thee.</span>—The mention of shade leads to the amplification of the figure. The evil effects of <span class= "ital">sunstroke </span>are too well known to need comment. They are often mentioned in the Bible (<a href="/2_kings/4-18.htm" title="And when the child was grown, it fell on a day, that he went out to his father to the reapers.">2Kings 4:18</a>; <a href="/2_kings/4-20.htm" title="And when he had taken him, and brought him to his mother, he sat on her knees till noon, and then died.">2Kings 4:20</a>; Jonah 4; <a href="//apocrypha.org/judith/8-3.htm" title="For as he stood overseeing them that bound sheaves in the field, the heat came upon his head, and he fell on his bed, and died in the city of Bethulia: and they buried him with his fathers in the field between Dothaim and Balamo.">Judith 8:3</a>).<p><span class= "bld">Nor the moon by night.</span>—Possibly there is allusion to the belief, so common in old times, of the harmful influence of the moon’s light—a belief still recalled in the word lunacy. It is a fact that temporary blindness is often caused by moonlight. (See authorities referred to by Ewald and Delitzsch.) Others, again, think that the injurious cold of the night is here placed in antithesis to the heat of the noonday sun (comp. <a href="/genesis/31-40.htm" title="Thus I was; in the day the drought consumed me, and the frost by night; and my sleep departed from my eyes.">Genesis 31:40</a>; <a href="/jeremiah/36-30.htm" title="Therefore thus said the LORD of Jehoiakim king of Judah; He shall have none to sit on the throne of David: and his dead body shall be cast out in the day to the heat, and in the night to the frost.">Jeremiah 36:30</a>), the impression that intense cold <span class= "ital">burns </span>being common in the East, as indeed everywhere. Tennyson speaks of the moon being “keen with frost.” But it is also possible that the generally harmful effects of night air are intended.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/psalms/121-7.htm">Psalm 121:7</a></div><div class="verse">The LORD shall preserve thee from all evil: he shall preserve thy soul.</div>(7-8) Instead of <span class= "ital">preserve, </span>read <span class= "ital">keep, </span>the persistent dwelling on this one word making one of the chief beauties of this hymn.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/psalms/121-8.htm">Psalm 121:8</a></div><div class="verse">The LORD shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in from this time forth, and even for evermore.</div>(8) <span class= "bld">Thy going out and thy coming in.</span>—A common Hebrew expression to denote the whole of life. (See <a href="/deuteronomy/28-6.htm" title="Blessed shall you be when you come in, and blessed shall you be when you go out.">Deuteronomy 28:6</a>, &c; comp. St. Paul’s prayer, <a href="/1_thessalonians/5-23.htm" title="And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless to the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.">1Thessalonians 5:23</a>.)<p><div id="botbox"><div class="padbot"><div align="center">Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers<br /><br />Text Courtesy of <a href="//biblesupport.com" target="_top">BibleSupport.com</a>. 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