Psalms 121

Dr. Blaikie, in his Life of Livingstone, tells that this Psalm and the 135th were read by him when he parted with his family and went out first as a missionary to Africa 'I remember my father and him,' writes his sister, 'talking over the prospects of Christian missions. They said that the time would come when rich and great men would think it an honour to support whole stations of missionaries, instead of spending their money on hounds and horses. On the morning of 17 November, 1840, we got up at five o'clock. David read the 121st and the 135th Psalms and prayed. My father and he walked to Glasgow to catch the Liverpool steamer.' The old man walked back with a lonely heart to Blantyre, while his son's face was set in earnest toward the dark continent.

—J. K.

The Religion of the Threshold

Psalm 121:8

Between these two things—the exits and the entrances of the day—lie the whole problem and struggle of existence.

I. Get into the habit each morning and evening of meeting God for a moment on the threshold as you go out and come in, and though you may not see it, others will begin to see a new element of strength and tenderness in your character. The man and the woman who keep tryst with God at the threshold for just a moment each day as they go out and come in are ready for every contingency.

II. Of course, to offer that kind of prayer means that you and I are determined to live a certain kind of life. There are three definite blessings on which we may surely count every day as we go out and come in, if we live this religion of the threshold.

(a) It will redeem the monotony of the day, and will sweeten its drudgery.

(b) It will make us ready for the unexpected things in life.

(c) It will hallow our evenings and sanctify our moments of rest. A simple religion, this religion of the doorstep, but death will be sweeter if we have learned to keep tryst with God as we go out and in.

—D. S. Mackay, The Religion of the Threshold, p. 25.

References.—CXXI. 8.—H. Melvill, Penny Pulpit, No. 2241. CXXI.—International Critical Commentary, vol. ii. p. 446. CXXII. 3.—Canon Barnett, A Lent in London, p. 114. CXXII. 4.—S. Baring-Gould, Village Preaching for a Year (2nd Series), vol. iii. p. 242. CXXII. 6-9.—J. Bowstead, Practical Sermons, vol. ii. p. 80. CXXII. 8, 9.—H. M. Butler, Harrow School Sermons (2nd Series), p. 183. CXXII. International Critical Commentary, vol. ii. p. 448. CXXIII. 2.—J. Keble, Sermons for the Sundays After Trinity, p. 1. Expositor (3rd Series), vol. iv. p. 80 CXXIII.—International Critical Commentary, vol. ii. p. 450.