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1. The Lord is my Watchman! I remember that in the days of my boy-hood when my father was away from home, it was sometimes my duty to lock up the house. I used to try every door and every window, but never went to bed with a feeling of peace. I never gained an assurance that everything was safe. I feared that some door remained unlocked, or, if I were sure about the doors, some window would haunt me through the night and disturb my rest. But when my father was the "watchman," and had gone round the house and seen to the doors and windows, I "laid me down in peace and slept." I could trust his vigilance and his care, and the trust was the parent of restful contentment. "The Lord is thy Watchman." Our Father does not leave us to our own self-discovery; He tries the doors and windows of my being. He knows the state of the locks. He knows every room in my personality, and just what are the chances of each room being burglariously entered and despoiled. Our Father especially watches over our safety in the seasons of the night. When sorrow is in the home, when death is at the gate, when calamity blackens the sky, the heavenly Watchman is always near. "He keepeth watch over His flock by night."

2. He is not only my Watchman, He is my Defence.

(1) Now let us remember that our Father is sometimes compelled to provide defences for us in ways that are not agreeable or welcome. Defences may sometimes seem the agents of cruelty. The cruelty, however, is only apparent. There is no cruelty in the act of a father who places barbed wire fencing round the edge of the precipice. There is no unkindliness when we put the barbed wire round the mouth of a perilous well. The thorny hedge may keep us from the more dangerous ditch. Have we not sometimes heard people speak in this wise: "Ah, well, his present illness is no doubt saving him from a greater one." Only the other day I heard a doctor say, speaking of a certain patient: "His fever was his salvation." In the feverish fire something was consumed that might have been productive of a more perilous disease. And our Father sometimes sends the fire into our life in order that He might keep us from something infinitely worse. The fire in the forest wards off the wild beasts; and in the fire which God sometimes permits to dwell in our life many things are seared away, and many things are destroyed. In the fire of tribulation superciliousness is destroyed, and so is callousness and every form of pride. The Lord is our Keeper, and in apparent cruelty He pours out the treasures of His heart.

(2) Now let us mark the thoroughness of our Father's "keeping." "He shall keep thee as the apple of the eye." How wonderful is the figure I The delicate, sensitive organ, the eye, is protected by the bony framework like an encircling cave. The exquisite instrument is enthroned, as it were, in walls of rock. And just as the eye is protected with these strong encircling ramparts, so my Father will protect me. "He is able to keep you from falling." It is an exquisite figure; the mother is training her little one to walk, and while in great timidity and uncertainty it moves from step to step, the mother's arms almost encircle it, and most surely prevent it from falling. And I, too, am learning to walk, am learning to walk as a child of light; and my feet are so uncertain, and my resolution is so Wavering, that I need the encircling care of the everlasting arms. "The Lord is thy keeper," and "He is able to keep you from falling."

(J. H. Jowett, M. A.)

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

WEB: Yahweh is your keeper. Yahweh is your shade on your right hand.