Embracing Safety and Serenity with God

Ever since my teenage years, Psalm 121 has been important to me. At boarding school it was read to us on the last morning of each term. Verse eight was especially meaningful: “The LORD will keep your going out and your coming in” (NRSVUE). Because they were associated with the excitement of going home, those words came to have happy connotations for me.

Psalm 121 was also the psalm my husband and I chose for our wedding service a few years later. Such joyous, reassuring words as we set out into our new life together! God’s promise “The LORD is your keeper” steadied us many times over the years that followed, particularly when we lived in a remote area overseas.

Now I am a senior citizen. My husband and one son have already gone ahead of me to be with the Lord, and I am finding Psalm 121 more valuable than ever. Sometimes a challenge seems too big for me to handle now, but then I hear God’s gentle reminder, “I will keep your heart safe,” and my anxiety is eased. God has kept me through the years — and always will.