The Enigma of the World (2)

 

 

After posting yesterday’s reflection, I was reading Psalm 121 and thought I ought to connect it to John 17:15, “I do not ask you to take them out of the world, but to keep them from the evil one.”

 

In the Lord’s Prayer Jesus teaches us to pray, “And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil” (Matthew 6:13). As you may know, “from evil” can also be translated “from the evil one.” Considering that Jesus has just faced Satan, the evil one, in the Wilderness (Matthew 4:1 – 11), this may make sense, plus there are grammatical reasons for it…or not. In any event, since evil comes from the “evil one” Matthew 6:13 has us praying along with Jesus in John 17:15.

 

As we saw in the previous reflection, Jesus promises to keep us, which takes us to Psalm 121 (ESV):

 

 A Song of Ascents.

121 I lift up my eyes to the hills.

    From where does my help come?

2 My help comes from the LORD,

    who made heaven and earth.

3 He will not let your foot be moved;

    he who keeps you will not slumber.

4 Behold, he who keeps Israel

    will neither slumber nor sleep.

5 The LORD is your keeper;

    the LORD is your shade on your right hand.

6 The sun shall not strike you by day,

    nor the moon by night.

7 The LORD will keep you from all evil;

    he will keep your life.

8 The LORD will keep

    your going out and your coming in

    from this time forth and forevermore.

 

I prefer the ESV for this psalm for its consistent use of the word “keep” in translation, if you compare it to other translations you’ll see what I mean. I strongly believe that if the original text uses a word repetitiously that we ought to be true to the text, Biblical emphasis should take precedence over our English convention of not repeating the same word.

 

In verse 4 we see that God keeps Israel, God keeps His People; He kept ancient Israel when Psalm 121 was written, and He keeps the New Covenant Israel (Galatians 6:16; Ephesians 2:11 – 22) today. One of the messages of the book of Revelation is God’s protection of the Church through tribulation, with the background motif of Israel in Egypt and the Wilderness, Revelation portrays a victorious People in Christ who overcome by the “blood of the Lamb and because of the word of their testimony, not loving their lives even when faced with death” (Rev. 12:11). God does not keep us by removing us from the world but rather keeps us in Christ as we live in the world and overcome evil and the evil one.

 

“You are from God, little children, and have overcome them; because greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world” (1 John 4:4).

 

“We know that we are of God, and that the whole world lies in the power of the evil one” (1 John 5:19).

 

We must not minimize the distinction between the Kingdom of God and the world, we must not ignore the gulf between light and darkness, good and evil, life and death.

 

Notice that in Psalm 121:3 and 4 that our God is ever watchful over us, He never slumbers or sleeps; when we must sleep, He watches over us; we are always and forever in His tender loving and almighty care.

 

In 121:7 we see that our Father keeps us from “all evil” and that He will keep our soul.

 

(Here the ESV uses “life” but in this verse I much prefer the other option “soul.” I think it better captures the essence of who we are, going beyond physical life into the core of our being.)

 

We can connect 121:7 with Matthew 6:13 and John 17:15, being assured that our Good Shepherd will walk with us through the Valley of the Shadow of Death, comforting us and preparing a Table (His body and blood) before us in the presence of our enemies, anointing our heads with oil, and giving us overflowing cups (Psalm 23).

 

We can be confident that God will keep us from “all evil,” and that our souls are secure in Him; that no matter what may happen to our bodies, that our souls are safe in Christ and that we have eternal bodies waiting for us…glorious beyond our comprehension (2 Cor. 5:1 – 10).

 

If we consider the context of John 17:15, we will remember that shortly after Jesus prays that we will be kept from the evil one, that Jesus will be betrayed, arrested, tortured, mocked, abandoned, and crucified – yet through all of this the Father not only kept Him from the evil one, but Christ Jesus defeated the evil one through His obedience and sacrifice.

 

This, my friends, is our calling in Christ. We see this calling throughout the Old and New Testaments, we see our participation in the sufferings of Jesus Christ for His glory, for our koinonia with Him, and for the salvation of others. As the Father sent Jesus, so Jesus sends us. We behold this calling throughout the book of Revelation where the saints experience an ironic and irenic victory through suffering, even unto death. This has been our testimony through the ages, beginning with Abel (Hebrews 11:4). Let us not be so foolish as to follow a different gospel that would spare us the Cross of Christ.

 

We may have supreme and unwavering confidence that the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit will keep us, they will keep our souls; our future is sure and certain in God, He protects us from the evil one, He keeps our souls.

 

Now, let us live for God and others.