1 I lift up my eyes to the hills—
where does my help come from?
2 My help comes from the Lord,
the Maker of heaven and earth.
3 He will not let your foot slip—
he who watches over you will not slumber;
4 indeed, he who watches over Israel
will neither slumber nor sleep.
5 The Lord watches over you—
the Lord is your shade at your right hand;
6 the sun will not harm you by day,
nor the moon by night.
7 The Lord will keep you from all harm —
he will watch over your life;
8 the Lord will watch over your coming and going
both now and forevermore.—The words of the Psalmist from Psalm 121:1-8
During my years at Houghton College in the mid-1960s, I worked as a nightwatchman. Our principle duties were security and fire patrol. In other words, we focused on making certain the college buildings were secure and also kept watch for any possible condition that might start a fire.
We also kept watch on students out after “curfew.” This may seem incomprehensible to most of you reading this blog post, but in those days all women students had to be in their dorm rooms by 10:00 p.m. Music majors could stay out until 10:30 p.m. since they had so many practice hours to get in each day. As startling as that curfew may seem, the College had learned they could somewhat control the activities of the men by controlling the women.
As a nightwatchman, I kept tabs on any students out after curfew or inside any buildings that were supposed to be vacant and locked. I will spare you some of the interesting stories for now and save them for some future blog posts. But, in a very real sense, we nightwatchmen looked out for the safety and well-being of the students.
I usually split my shift with another student. I would work from 11:00 p.m. to 2:00 a.m. The other student would work from 2:00 a.m. to 6:00 a.m. In addition to the student nightwatchman, a regular college staff member served as chief nightwatchman. He would cover half the college buildings each night. We would cover the other half. So, two nightwatchman worked all through the night. Some other College staff members also worked as nightwatchmen when needed, such as when students weren’t available.
The actual watchman round took about 40 minutes of each hour. We carried a Detex watchclock into which we would put a key located at various stations throughout our tour. The watchclock would record the number of the key on a paper tape inside the watchclock. The next day, a secretary in the Business Manager’s office would open the clock and review the tape to see what time we “clocked in” at each key location. Even a quick glance at the paper tape would show whether or not we had completed our round on time and consistently throughout the night.
The worst offense: falling asleep and missing a round. Since we “rested” during the 20 minutes between rounds, falling asleep could certainly happen. Fortunately, I never fell asleep. But one watchman did fall asleep several times and eventually lost his job because of it.
After all, what good is a watchman who fails to do his job because he has fallen asleep?
In the Scripture passage at the beginning of this blog post, the Psalmist tells us that we serve a very dependable God. In fact, He is infinitely dependable. Just read through those verses again:
- He will not let your foot slip
- He will neither slumber nor sleep
- He is the shade at your right hand so the sun and moon will not harm you
- He will keep you from all harm
- He will watch over your life
- He will watch over your coming and going
We who believe in the life-transforming power of the Lord Jesus Christ—through his death and resurrection—should all take great comfort from knowing that the same God, who loves us with His everlasting love, watches over us. He never slumbers. He never sleeps. His eyes of watchful care remain steady in protecting us from all harm.
I love a capella singing. Back nearly 30 years ago, a group of six students from a Christian college blended their voices to sing some wonderful songs. That group became the internationally acclaimed vocal group, Take 6. Please read through the words of Psalm 121 again, as you listen to a partial clip of this song:1
Will you pray with me?
Thank You, God, for loving us. Thank You for sending Jesus to be our Savior. Thank You for sending us Your Holy Spirit to dwell within us.
Precious Father, we praise You and thank You that You watch over us with Your loving care. It gives us comfort and assurance that you neither slumber nor sleep. Because of Your consistent faithfulness, we humbly lay all our burdens and cares at Your feet.
Help us, Father, to learn to let go of everything that hinders us in our walk with You. Help us to fall back into Your loving arms. Help us to learn to rely on You to watch over us, care for us, and love us.
With expectation of victory in our hearts, we thank You, Loving Father, for hearing our prayer in and through the powerful Name of Your Son, our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
1 If you enjoyed that song, I would urge you to click on this link to purchase this song or to purchase the entire album of absolutely great a capella singing.
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