Psalm 121: It Is No Bother To Watch Over Us

I lift up my eyes to the mountains—where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth.

He will not let your foot slip—he who watches over you will not slumber; indeed, he who watches over Israel will neither slumber nor sleep.

The Lord watches over you—the Lord is your shade at your right hand; the sun will not harm you by day, nor the moon by night.

The Lord will keep you from all harm—he will watch over your life; the Lord will watch over your coming and going both now and forevermore. - Psalm 121

 "My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth." There is a shift from the first two verses of this psalm and the next six verses. The psalm was a song sung by pilgrims heading up to worship in Jerusalem. Each of the mountains around were "high places" that were often mentioned in the rest of the Old Testament as places where people had traditionally tried offering sacrifices to petition God--or a god--for help. The psalmist testifies how the God who made the earth, the mountain and the heavens had helped him and in the remaining six verses he says that same help is available to the rest of his people.

I realize that sometimes I have a slightly different picture of God in my head--even though I wouldn't say it out loud--a picture of God who needs to be actively "petitioned" or "pleaded with" or "begged" or "bargained with" before he will act on behalf of me or his people. As if he's busy doing other important business and we need to raise our hand to signal that we need some special help. 

But when I read these verses, it doesn't seem like it is such a bother for God to act for us. In fact, it says "he will watch over your life; the Lord will watch over your coming both now and forevermore" When it comes to his children, his default posture is watchfulness while my own tends towards forgetfulness. God has enough bandwidth and enough care that it is no bother to watch over his children and that is really warming for me to know that God thinks that way about me.