NOTES for Psa 121

Although the eyes are lifted toward the mountains, the mountains are only a visible image of the invisible world, somewhat like an icon. Clearly, salvation comes neither from the mountains nor even from beyond them, but from the One who created both the mountains and everything else. It is He, the Creator of the world, who is the one reliable Guardian of everything on earth.

In the seventh verse, which says that the Lord “will preserve you and preserve your soul,” we may conventionally see the kind of semantic rhyme so characteristic of biblical poetry, where a thought is expressed twice in different ways. That is true, but such an explanation is hardly exhaustive. Yes, body and soul are united, and we should not separate them excessively after the example of non-biblical mystics. Yet a moment will come when the soul is separated from the body. Then the One who guarded us from every evil on earth will also preserve our souls for Eternity.