Daily Manna · Day 112 · April 22
Going Out and Coming In
“The LORD shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in from this time forth, and even for evermore.”
A church stands to sing a hymn that begins with a man on a road: "Guide me, O Thou great Jehovah, pilgrim through this barren land." William Williams wrote it in Welsh in 1745. He was not painting a picture of the inner life. He spent his years riding on horseback around Wales to preach, so he wrote a travelling song because he was travelling.
Psalm 121 is the same kind of song. Its heading calls it "A Song of degrees," one of the Songs of Ascents which pilgrims sang on their way up to Jerusalem. It begins with a real problem: "I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help." The hills were not just scenery to a traveller; they were where the road got dangerous. The answer comes right away, and it has nothing to do with the hills: "My help cometh from the LORD, which made heaven and earth."
From there the psalm narrows, verse by verse, until it lands on today's verse. Verse 7 makes its widest claim: "he shall preserve thy soul." Verse 8 makes its most ordinary one: "The LORD shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in." Put together, going out and coming in is a Hebrew way of saying everything a person does. But in a walking psalm the plain meaning matters too: every time you leave the house and every time you come home. Then comes the length of the promise, which is the biggest thing in the psalm: "from this time forth, and even for evermore."
So think of your own doorway, because that is often where the dread hits. You have your keys in your hand and one foot outside, and your chest already knows what kind of day it will be. This psalm was written for someone standing right there. It speaks of two directions, and most of us have only ever prayed about the going out, so we come home each evening without noticing that the promise covered that too. Tomorrow, as you step out, and again as you step back in, you can thank Him that He keeps both.
Daily Manna runs on a two-year cycle. The year two reading for day 112 is Consider Your Ways (Haggai 1:5).