Psalms 121

I look up toward the hills. Where does my help come from?

1I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help.

NoteIn Hebrew manuscripts this psalm carries the heading "A Song of Ascents," a label shared by Psalms 120–134; these were associated with pilgrims traveling up to Jerusalem, which sits in hill country. The King James "from whence cometh my help" reads as a statement, but the Hebrew can equally be a question, "where does my help come from?", and most modern translations take it that way. The hills themselves are left unexplained: they can be read as the direction help comes from, or as the empty horizon the speaker scans before answering in the next verse.

2My help comes from the LORD, who made the heavens and the earth.

2My help cometh from the LORD, which made heaven and earth.

NoteWhere the King James prints LORD in small capitals it is standing in for the personal name of Israel's God, four Hebrew consonants usually written YHWH. Jewish readers said "Lord" aloud in its place, and the translators followed that custom rather than writing the name out.

3He will not let your foot slip. The one who guards you will not doze off.

3He will not suffer thy foot to be moved: he that keepeth thee will not slumber.

Note"Suffer" in 1611 English meant "allow," not "undergo pain", the line means "he will not let your foot slip." From this verse to the end the psalm switches from "I" and "my" to "you," and the Hebrew "you" is singular throughout: one person is being addressed, not a crowd. English cannot show that difference any more.

4Listen: the one who guards Israel will never doze off and never fall asleep.

4Behold, he that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep.

Note"Israel" here means the whole people, not the land, the descendants of Jacob, who was also called Israel.

5The LORD is the one who guards you. The LORD is the shade at your right hand.

5The LORD is thy keeper: the LORD is thy shade upon thy right hand.

NoteIn a climate where the midday sun was a genuine danger, shade meant protection, not gloom. The right hand was the side an armed companion or defender would stand on, since it was the side left unguarded by a shield carried in the left hand.

6The sun will not strike you during the day, and the moon will not strike you at night.

6The sun shall not smite thee by day, nor the moon by night.

NoteSunstroke was a familiar hazard; harm from moonlight was also widely feared in the ancient world, and the same belief survives in the English word "lunatic," from the Latin for moon. Naming the two together is also a way of saying "at every hour," the whole day covered by its two halves.

7The LORD will keep you safe from all harm. He will keep your life safe.

7The LORD shall preserve thee from all evil: he shall preserve thy soul.

Note"Soul" translates Hebrew *nephesh*, which means a person's life or their whole living self, not a spirit separable from the body. The line promises the preserving of the person, not of an immaterial part of them.

8The LORD will watch over you as you go out and as you come back in, from now on and forever.

8The LORD shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in from this time forth, and even for evermore.

Note"Going out and coming in" is a stock Hebrew phrase for the whole round of a person's daily activity, leaving home in the morning and returning at night, or setting out on a journey and arriving back safely. It means everything you do, everywhere you go.