Run With It: He Who Keeps Israel

Sunday, June 22, 2025

He Who Keeps Israel

“I will lift up my eyes to the mountains;

From where shall my help come?

My help comes from the Lord,

Who made heaven and earth.

He will not allow your foot to slip;

He who keeps you will not slumber.

Behold, He who keeps Israel

Will neither slumber nor sleep.

The Lord is your keeper;

The Lord is your shade on your right hand.

The sun will not smite you by day,

Nor the moon by night.

The Lord will protect you from all evil;

He will keep your soul.

The Lord will guard your going out and your coming in

From this time forth and forever.” (Psalm 121:1-8 NASB1995)

The world is in chaos. Lies and liars abound. Deception is everywhere you look these days, except coming from God. Truth is hard to find. Evil is being spoken of as good. And good is being spoken of as evil. Evil men are being praised for their evil deeds while the innocent are being charged with evil they did not do. We MUST NOT put our trust in human beings who are bound to fail us or to trick us into believing their lies. Our trust must be in God.

So, don’t believe everything you hear or read or think you see just because “so and so” said it, or they showed you a video of it. Remember that we live in the era of AI, and anything can be faked and doctored and made to appear as one thing while it is something else entirely. And if Hollywood can make the fake look real, so can anyone else who has the money and the technology to do so. Really, stop believing the news. So many lies!

We, the people of God, by faith in Jesus Christ, need to be looking to God and to his word for truth, and not to the world. We need to be praying to God and seeking his face and calling out to him for wisdom and discernment and understanding to know who is lying and who is telling the truth, so that we don’t end up believing the lies and not the truth. The Bible warned us much about these times, so we need to be testing the spirits.

Instead of looking to people of prominence and importance and position and wealth to solve the world’s problems for us, we need to be lifting our eyes, our hearts, and our minds to God, and to God alone, seeking his counsel and direction and truth. He is the only one who we can trust fully, without question, because he alone is completely sovereign and all knowledgeable about everything that he has made. He is the only one who can look into the hearts of humans and know what they are really all about, in truth.

If our trust is fully in the Lord, and not in the flesh of humans, and if we are following our Lord in surrender to his will and purpose for our lives, in death to sin, and in walks of obedience to his commands, and if we seek his counsel and his wisdom, he will not let us go the wrong direction. But we must be sincere in our pursuits of God and of his wisdom, and we must be willing to unlearn the lies we believed and to learn the truth that we once rejected or ignored. And he will guide us and show us what is truth.

The Israel of God

Now this psalm is Old Testament, so back then Israel was the Jews. But under the New Covenant that God has with Israel, we are both Jew and Gentile by biblical repentant faith in Jesus Christ. For in his death he made the two one people, one Israel, the Israel of God, which is all who believe in Jesus Christ in truth and in righteousness, whether Jew or Gentile by physical birth. And all Jews who rejected Jesus Christ were cut out of Israel, but they can be grafted back in by faith in Jesus Christ as their Lord.

The physical nation of Israel, as a nation, does not believe in Jesus Christ as their Lord and Messiah. They, as a people, and as a nation, rejected the Lord, and all who reject Christ are antichrist, because they do not believe in him. So the physical nation of Israel is not biblical Israel, but it is a political entity created by human flesh, just like any other physical nation in the world. So please do not put your trust in this political nation, which is antichrist, but put your trust in God, and in God alone, and follow Him.

So, the “Israel” that God keeps today, are all who are of genuine biblical faith in Jesus Christ, who have died with Christ to sin, and who were raised with Christ to walk in newness of life in him, no longer to live as slaves to sin, but now as slaves to God and to his righteousness, in walks of obedience to his commands. Please do not give your support and loyalty and devotion to a godless nation which, as a nation, rejects Jesus as their Messiah. Don’t give your support to any physical nation that is of this fallen world.

[Genesis 17:7-9; Genesis 18:19; John 8:18-19,38-47; Romans 2:28-29; Romans 6:1-23; Romans 8:1-14; Romans 9:4-8,25-28; Romans 11:1-36; 1 Corinthians 10:1-22; Galatians 3:16,26-29; Galatians 4:22-31; Ephesians 2:11-22; Ephesians 3:6; Hebrews 3:1-19; Hebrews 4:1-16; Hebrews 8:6-13;1 Peter 2:24; 1 John 2:22; Jude 1:5; Revelation 2:9; Revelation 3:9]

God, our Protector

Now, when this psalm speaks of the Lord’s protection of his people, who are now the body of believers in Jesus Christ, his church (biblical Israel), this is not to be taken as assurance that no harm will ever come to us. Jesus said we will be hated and persecuted and beaten and falsely imprisoned and put to death for our walks of faith in Jesus. He promised us that suffering is part of our Christian walk of faith. But he will protect us spiritually from our enemy if we will trust him and not give way to fear and not give up.

[Matt 5:10-12; Matt 10:16-39; Matt 24:9-14; Luke 6:22-23; Luke 12:49-53; Luke 21:12-19; John 15:1-21; John 16:33; John 17:14; Acts 14:22; Rom 5:3-5; Eph 6:10-20; Phil 3:7-11; 1 Pet 1:6-7; 1 Pet 4:12-17; 2 Tim 3:12; 1 Thess 3:1-5; Jas 1:2-4; 2 Co 1:3-11; Heb 12:3-12; 1 Jn 3:13; Rev 6:9-11; Rev 7:9-17; Rev 11:1-3; Rev 12:17; Rev 13:1-18; Rev 14:1-13]

As the Deer

By Martin J. Nystrom

Based off Psalm 42:1

As the deer panteth for the water

So my soul longeth after You

You alone are my heart's desire

And I long to worship You

You alone are my strength, my shield

To You alone may my spirit yield

You alone are my heart's desire

And I long to worship You

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UZv3jzOTE70