Psalm 121 (NRSV)
Read Psalm 121 on biblegateway.com
Verse 1I lift up my eyes to the hills- from where will my help come?
Verse 2My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth.
Verse 3He will not let your foot be moved; he who keeps you will not slumber.
Verse 4He who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep.
Verse 5The Lord is your keeper; the Lord is your shade at your right hand.
Verse 6The sun shall not strike you by day, nor the moon by night.
Verse 7The Lord will keep you from all evil; he will keep your life.
Verse 8The Lord will keep your going out and your coming in from this time on and forevermore.
Devotion
In the movie The Sound of Music (1965), the Reverend Mother quotes Psalm 121 to Maria before Maria and the Von Trapp family flee Germany's invasion of their Austrian homeland. Psalm 121 is called the "traveler's psalm." Humans persistently travel. Traveling began when Adam and Eve left the garden. Traveling into Egypt, Abraham deceived to gain safety. The Israelites fled Egypt's violence to safety. The Holy Family fled their homeland's violence to Egypt's safety.
Countless people endure violent, forced travels without safe destinations. This year is the 400th anniversary of the first Angola-to-U.S. slave trade voyage. Currently, at the U.S. southern border and many countries' boundaries, people arrive having fled violence and poverty by undertaking forced, dangerous travels, which are not chosen, safe relocations. While humans persistently travel, Psalm 121 promises that God persistently travels with us. Furthermore, from Leviticus 19:34 onward, God persistently commands us to love arriving travelers as we love ourselves.
Prayer
God of travelers, thank you for persistently traveling with us, whatever our lives' journeys. Help us to persistently welcome and love travelers who come into our communities. Amen.