Psalm 121 | Psalms for Shepherds

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Psalm 121 | Psalms for Shepherds

An audible devotional on Psalm 121

June 22, 2024 • Holly Culhane, Psalms for Shepherds, P4S • Psalm 121

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This is Holly Culhane with Presence Point and welcome to our Psalms for Shepherds podcast.

Today we’ll be looking at Psalm 121, the second of the Psalms - or Songs - of Ascent.

Raechel Myers, the founder of She Reads Truth, contemporizes this group of psalms this way: “These songs for the journey are words to set our hearts on as we go. They are written to help us feel what we are meant to feel – the blunt force of tragedy, the wonder of beauty, the longing for rescue, the indignation that opposes injustice and evil. They are a way for us to inscribe the history of our faith on our own memory and feet.”

With that in mind, here is Psalm 121:

I look up to the mountains - does my help come from there?

My help comes from the LORD, who made heaven and earth!

He will not let you stumble; the one who watches over you will not slumber.

Indeed, he who watches over Israel never slumbers or sleeps.

The LORD himself watches over you!

The LORD stands beside you as your protective shade.

The sun will not harm you by day, nor the moon at night.

The LORD keeps you from all harm and watches over your life.

The LORD keeps watch over you as you come and go, both now and forever.

This psalm almost begs you to sing it, doesn’t it? And the Provision, Protection, and Presence of our Good Shepherd are so evident!

Notice the psalmist’s use of the phrase “watches over”, “keeps”, or “keeps watch”. It is used six times in these eight short verses.

The phrase is a translation of the Hebrew word “shamar”, which has a rich meaning and is used frequently in the Old Testament.

In 1 Samuel 17:20, the word “shamar” is even used specifically to mean caring for sheep!!

You can imagine how much those of us at Presence Point love that! And Who is it that is doing all this shamar’ing on our behalf? It’s Yahweh!

Does it not seem that God is whispering – or maybe even shouting – this psalm as an encouragement to His beloved under-shepherds? What a reminder that He is indeed our Good Shepherd!

So, as you journey with the sheep God has entrusted to your care, may I suggest you develop a practice, or rhythm, of remembering God’s careful keeping of you, His guarding, His watchfulness...... because you have purpose to Him.

Furthermore, dear shepherd, if you need reassurance that you are not alone, if you are longing for protection and rescue, if the road feels steep and treacherous, I implore you then to cling to the beautiful truths of Psalm 121.

Thank you so much for joining me this week. I pray you join me next time for more “songs for the journey”, and as you go, may you live deeply into the Lord’s call on your life to shepherd well those entrusted to your care.

Psalm 130 | Psalms for Shepherds

October 5, 2024 • Holly Culhane, Psalms for Shepherds, P4S • Psalm 130

This is Holly Culhane with Presence Point and welcome to our Psalms for Shepherds podcast. This week, the journey through the Psalms of Ascent continues in Psalm 130. This song begins with the psalmist in deep distress on behalf of the Jewish community, crying out to God for mercy and, ultimately, placing his hope in the Lord. His perspective changes because he knows that Yahweh will save them in His divine time. Based on that confidence, the psalmist then invites Israel to wait for the Lord. I recently read the Christian allegory The Pilgrim’s Progress by John Bunyan. One of the lessons of the book is that a despairing state cannot actually hurt a pilgrim unless they choose to believe it, because it does not reflect the reality of the truth of our God. That is exactly what the psalmist is illustrating in this song. When in despair – no matter the cause – we must cry to our God for help. It is only He that can lift the burden, fill us with hope, and love us with a love that never betrays, never stops, never collapses, and never disappoints. He then allows us to do the same for others (even the most difficult of sheep). He delivers us from the enemy, whether that enemy is ourselves, one or more of the sheep of our pasture, or the evil one himself. And that deliverance – the deliverance of our Good Shepherd – will come with abundance. My friend, what or who represents despair in your life right now? What do you need to do to move forward with hope? Is there a burden you need to lay down at the foot of the cross to move from being a pilgrim with a heavy load to walking more freely? Is there hope in the Lord you need to claim today, or His love in which you need to dwell, or His redemption and rescue that you need to celebrate? I encourage you to take fifteen minutes right now to seek the Lord’s face, to jot down the answers to those questions, and to spend time with Him. His Provision, His Protection, and His Presence will sustain you. Thank you for joining me this week. I pray that you lighten your load and live even more deeply into your calling as shepherd in the lives of those sheep entrusted to your care.

Psalm 129 | Psalms for Shepherds

September 28, 2024 • Holly Culhane, Psalms for Shepherds, P4S • Psalm 129

This is Holly Culhane with Presence Point and welcome to our Psalms for Shepherds podcast. This week, the journey through the Psalms of Ascent continues in Psalm 129. The psalmist begins: "From my earliest youth my enemies have persecuted me. Let all Israel repeat this: From my earliest youth my enemies have persecuted me, but they have never defeated me. My back is covered with cuts, as if a farmer had plowed long furrows. But the Lord is good..." As the psalmist continues, it seems he is saying, "Accept the suffering allowed by the Father. Be sure you benefit from that suffering. And commit your suffering to the Lord." None of us are strangers to difficult times and remarkably hard circumstances. Some of us have suffered in far greater ways than others. The same is true of those of faith who lived thousands of years ago. Charles Spurgeon prayed this prayer related to Psalm 129: "Lord, number me with Your saints. Let me share their grief if I may also partake of their glory. Thus, would I make this psalm my own and magnify Your name because Your afflicted ones are not destroyed, and Your persecuted ones are not forsaken." We are not forsaken, fellow under-shepherd. Whether the difficulties we face are our own or those of the sheep of our pasture, our Good Shepherd is with us. I pray that today you sense His presence, especially if you are in the midst of a challenging time, a difficult decision, or an especially hard circumstance. And I pray that, with the psalmist, you can say: From my earliest youth my enemies have persecuted me, but they have never defeated me.

Psalm 128 | Psalms for Shepherds

September 21, 2024 • Holly Culhane, Psalms for Shepherds, P4S • Psalm 128

This is Holly Culhane with Presence Point and welcome to our Psalms for Shepherds podcast. This week, the journey through the Psalms of Ascent continues in Psalm 128. This song may be a psalm of ascent, but it feels like a remarkable blessing to me! One resource I read calls this psalm the “The Celebration of Fruitfulness”. Another speaks of how this psalm illustrates that “the godly will know true happiness because the Lord is with them, building their home life and blessing them across generations”. That is exactly how it feels when you read this beautiful prayer and exhortation. When we fear the Lord, when we live as if He truly exists and as if He is who He says He is, when we follow His ways, we will be fruitful! What a beautiful way of life! It is the life the people we shepherd need to see us demonstrate day by day in the tough, in the easy, in the extraordinarily exciting times and in the excruciatingly difficult times, when all is going well, and when it seems that everything around us is falling apart. If that way of life seems foreign to you, fellow under-shepherd, you have some work to do. Maybe spend some time pouring your heart out to the Father, or journaling a prayer to Him, or asking Him why your joy and peace and the sense of blessing in your life have gone and what you need to do to see it return. Remember it is not our circumstances that dictate joy, peace, and blessing in our daily walk with Him, but rather, it is our time with the Father. Thank you for joining me today, as we have looked at the blessing and promise and Psalm 128.