Does Psalm 121 Apply to Believers Today, Living in This Age of God’s Grace?

Psalm 121 is a promise to keep & to preserve ‘Israel’ (cf. v4 below).

Psalm 121:1-6, 8 - I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help. 2 My help cometh from the LORD, which made heaven and earth. 3 He will not suffer thy foot to be moved: he that keepeth thee will not slumber. 4 Behold, he that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep. 5 The LORD is thy keeper: the LORD is thy shade upon thy right hand… 8 The LORD shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in from this time forth, and even for evermore.

We must realize this above is written to and concerning Israel (v4), whereby the blessings of God upon Israel were external, transient (not permanent) and conditional, based upon “the Law” (cf. Deut. 11:22). The so-called “traveling mercies” prayer we may hear in the Gentile church today is a misapplication of these verses.

Now compare the context of Israel’s insecurity “under the Law”… with the security that the regenerated, child of God today enjoys under Paul’s “dispensation of the grace of God” for the members of “the body of Christ.” Today, from the moment one is saved by grace through faith in Christ alone, he has received the very life of God, in Christ, now as the “Spirit of life” to forever indwell him as his new innermost life. We are sealed by the Spirit and secure in His love, knowing then that ALL that happens in our lives is vital and used of God “for the good” (Rom 8:28-29). The question is…do we trust His hand in refashioning our sin-sick soul?

Consider Paul’s words concerning our secure relationship with the Lord.

• Ephesians 1:13 (Christ) In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise,
• Gal 2:20 I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.
• Romans 8:35, 39 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? 39 Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
• Romans 8:28-29 … we know that ‘ALL THINGS’ work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. 29 For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to (refashioned like unto) the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.
• 2 Cor 1:8-10 For we would not, brethren, have you ignorant of our trouble which came to us in Asia, that we were pressed out of measure, above strength, insomuch that we despaired even of life: 9 But we had the sentence of death in ourselves, (why? so) That We Should Not Trust In Ourselves, but in God which raiseth the dead: 10 Who delivered us from so great a death, and doth deliver: in whom we trust that he will yet deliver us;

Conclusion:

For a grace believer today to pray in accord with Psalm 121, asking for “preservation in their going out and your coming in,” as those of Israel once did before the cross, is to deny the ever-present blessing of their permanent union with the Lord. The Lord now in us is our security in the midst of every life situation. Use of such ‘traveling mercies’ prayer denies the believer of the security afforded them by His ever-present love and indwelling “Spirit of life.” Today the Lord is not our help from afar off… He is “with us” and “in us” always. Every believer needs to know the Lord’s ways and His work in their lives by His use of “all things,” both the pleasant and unpleasant… as a tool to renew their soul’s mindset to trust Him always.

Our greatest worship is not in song, but to take Him at His word by Trusting Him in ALL Things. Paul makes clear that we ought to recognize that the negative the Lord permits into our lives is necessary and vital to our growth. Therefore, grace believers should not fear suffering the trials of life, but rather we ought to recognize every happening as His hand at work in growing us up in trusting His ever-present unconditional loving care. So now, under Paul’s grace gospel, our prayers ought to be those of Thanksgiving (cf. Eph. 5:20) to the Lord for His loving care and in doing for us what we could not do in and of ourselves. Then we will have grown from ‘faith seeking’ stage to…the stage of ‘faith praising’ Him in “ALL things.”

Therefore it’s a danger for believers to subscribe to this O.T. prayer of Israel. This erroneous practice only serves to instill insecurity and a lack of knowledge of the truth concerning the basis of the grace believer’s relationship with the Lord and His ongoing work in their lives (cf. Phil 2:13).