ris3n's Apologetics Codex
Psalms 121.4
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Passage

Psalms 121.4

Book: Psalms · NASB95

Immediate context (±2 verses)

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ASV

2. My help cometh from Jehovah, Who made heaven and earth. 3. He will not suffer thy foot to be moved: He that keepeth thee will not slumber.

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

  1. Jehovah is thy keeper: Jehovah is thy shade upon thy right hand. 6. The sun shall not smite thee by day, Nor the moon by night. (Psalms 121:2-6, ASV)
WEB

2. My help comes from Yahweh, who made heaven and earth. 3. He will not allow your foot to be moved. He who keeps you will not slumber.

4. Behold, he who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep.

  1. Yahweh is your keeper. Yahweh is your shade on your right hand. 6. The sun will not harm you by day, nor the moon by night. (Psalms 121:2-6, WEB)
KJV

2. My help cometh from the LORD, which made heaven and earth. 3. He will not suffer thy foot to be moved: he that keepeth thee will not slumber.

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

  1. The LORD is thy keeper: the LORD is thy shade upon thy right hand. 6. The sun shall not smite thee by day, nor the moon by night. (Psalms 121:2-6, KJV)
YLT

2. My help [is] from Jehovah, maker of heaven and earth, 3. He suffereth not thy foot to be moved, Thy preserver slumbereth not.

4. Lo, He slumbereth not, nor sleepeth, He who is preserving Israel.

  1. Jehovah [is] thy preserver, Jehovah [is] thy shade on thy right hand, 6. By day the sun doth not smite thee, Nor the moon by night. (Psalms 121:2-6, YLT)

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Setting

  • Speaker: A pilgrim speaks in verses 1-2 ("I will lift up mine eyes"); from verse 3 another voice answers him as "thee," perhaps a fellow pilgrim or a priest
  • Audience: The pilgrim, and through him Israel ("he that keepeth Israel")
  • Location: The road up to Jerusalem; the title "A Song of Ascents" marks Psalms 120-134, a collection traditionally linked with pilgrims going up for the feasts
  • Time period: Not stated; the psalm cannot be dated with confidence

Theological reading

"Behold, he that keepeth Israel Will neither slumber nor sleep."

The keeper. The psalm turns on one verb, "keep" (Strong's H8104). It appears six times in verses 3-8: "He that keepeth thee will not slumber," "he that keepeth Israel," "Jehovah is thy keeper," "Jehovah will keep thee from all evil; He will keep thy soul," and "Jehovah will keep thy going out and thy coming in From this time forth and for evermore." Verse 4 widens the promise from the single pilgrim to the whole nation.

No sleeping god. "Slumber" (H5123) and "sleep" (H3462) together cover everything from dozing to deep sleep. The contrast with the gods of the nations is pointed. On Carmel, Elijah mocked the prophets of Baal: "peradventure he sleepeth and must be awaked" (1 Kings 18:27, ASV). Jehovah needs no waking.

A watchful God or a distant one. The Deism vs the Christian God comparison sets this verse against the deist picture of a Creator who sets the world running and steps back. The deist can answer that a perfectly made world does not need constant attention, and that this is a higher view of God's skill. The psalm answers on different ground. The pilgrim's danger on the road is personal, sun by day and moon by night (121:6), and his help is personal: "My help cometh from Jehovah, Who made heaven and earth" (121:2). The same God who made everything keeps one traveller.

Jesus asleep in the boat. The Gospels say Jesus slept in the stern during a storm, and the disciples asked, "Teacher, carest thou not that we perish?" (Mark 4:38, ASV). Christians hold that the Son, as a true man, really slept, while the God who keeps Israel never ceases his care. The story ends with Jesus rebuking the wind, the kind of deed this psalm assigns to Jehovah.

Key words

Theologically-loaded Greek or Hebrew words in this verse may have entries in the lexicon. Curated to roughly 100 contested terms across the corpus, not every word.

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Notes

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Why these four translations

ris3n chose ASV, WEB, KJV, and YLT for two reasons together. They are the most literal English translations available (formal-equivalence: word-for-word renderings that preserve the Hebrew and Greek grammar rather than smoothing it into modern dynamic-equivalence idiom). And they are in the public domain in the United States, which means fair-use quotation at any length requires no publisher license. Modern licensed translations (NASB95, ESV, NIV) restrict volume of quotation under their copyright terms, so they are not used at stub-level coverage here. NASB95 appears only on hand-curated rich passage hubs under Lockman Foundation's fair-use allowance.

The four:

  • ASV (American Standard Version, 1901). The basis of the modern critical-text English tradition.
  • WEB (World English Bible, contemporary). Public-domain revision in the ASV line, in current English.
  • KJV (King James Version, 1611). Reformation-era, Textus Receptus base.
  • YLT (Young's Literal Translation, Robert Young, 1862). Hyper-literal preservation of Hebrew and Greek grammar; useful for word-study work even where English reads stiff.

See Bibles for the full per-translation history, translators, textual basis, strengths, and weaknesses.