Psalm 121 English Standard Version

My Help Comes from the Lord

A Song of Ascents.

1 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 

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.

This truth is as good as any in all the bible. I have omitted verse 4 with purpose. Words can be misleading.

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

I omitted this line because I didn’t want you to feel like this only applies to Israel. It does not.

Exodus 12:48 – 12:49
If a stranger shall sojourn with you and would keep the Passover to the Lord, let all his males be circumcised. Then he may come near and keep it; he shall be as a native of the land. But no uncircumcised person shall eat of it. There shall be one law for the native and for the stranger who sojourns among you.”

A stranger is not a family member. The word is let them, not make them. The stranger has the choice to become a member of the family. If they so choose they will be treated like a member of the family. What applies to one member of the family applies to all.

Part of being this stranger comes down to keeping the Passover of the Lord. We that are adopted into the family of God do keep the Passover of the Lord, just not the one connected to being set free from Pharaoh.  We keep the Passover Lamb that sets us free from the power of sin.

John 1:29 The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!”

John the Baptist proclaimed that Jesus is the Passover Lamb. In many ways I want to hold it against the Pharisees and Scribes for not putting this truth all together. Jesus just didn’t fit the picture they had for the coming Messiah. There were missing pieces to the puzzle. I can see that now.

International Standard Bible Encyclopaedia

Senate; Senator:

sen’-at, sen’-a-ter: In Ps 105:22, “teach his senators (the Revised Version (British and American) “elders”) wisdom.” The Hebrew is zaqen, “elder” Septuagint presbuteroi). In Ac 5:21, “called the council together and all the senate of the children of Israel.” The Greek gerousia, is here evidently used as a more precise equivalent of the foregoing “council” (sunedrion), to which it is added by kai, explicative. Reference is had to the Sanhedrin. This term gerousia occurs in Septuagint Ex 3:16, etc., and in 1 Macc 12:6; 2 Macc 1:10; 4:44 of the supreme council of the Jews (see GOVERNMENT). Originally, like the gerousia of the Jews, the representatives of families and clans (gentes), the senators were subsequently the ex-magistrates, supplemented, to complete the tale of members, by representatives of patrician (in time also of plebeian) families selected by the censor. The tenure was ordinarily for life, though it might be terminated for cause by the censor. Although constitutionally the senate was only an advisory body, its advice (senatus consultum, auctoritas) in fact became in time a mandate which few dared to disregard. During the republican period the senate practically ruled Rome; under the empire it tended more and more to become the creature and subservient tool of the emperors.

I am sure many who read my blog yesterday were thinking; “Don’t go there!” This isn’t about politics but rather how conquering rulers held influence over Israel with lasting effects. 

The land of modern-day Israel was conquered and ruled by various groups, including the Persians, Greeks, Romans, Arabs, Fatimids, Seljuk Turks, Crusaders, Egyptians, Mamelukes, Islamists and others. Source History.com

When we look to the bible, especially the books of the prophets of the Babylonian exile we can see how that culture influenced language and restricted service. This happened with the Greeks also and then the Romans. Influence is influence and if history has taught us anything it is the rulers that set the tone for the nation. Israel has had its share of bad rulers that the religious leaders could not hold in check.

Luke 11:47 Woe to you! For you build the tombs of the prophets whom your fathers killed.

Acts 7:52 Which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? And they killed those who announced beforehand the coming of the Righteous One, whom you have now betrayed and murdered,

Romans 11:3 “Lord, they have killed your prophets, they have demolished your altars, and I alone am left, and they seek my life.”

Looking back to Exodus it is no surprise that 58 of the 60 with the Spirit resting upon them stopped prophesying. They probably saw it coming. Culture has always had influence over men making it difficult to hold to the truth. Difficult, but not impossible. We have to rely on the indwelling Holy Spirit to guide us in all truth.