The Dog Days of Summer
“The Lord is your keeper; the Lord is your shade on your right hand. The sun shall not strike you by day, nor the moon by night.” ~Psalm 121:5-6
Summer is here and it is hot! Having recently attended (survived) a local baseball game in the 90+ degree heat, I was reminded of how much I love the shade. This took me back to 2018 when I traveled to Israel with my father. Every time we exited the tour bus we noticed that our tour guide would immediately move to the shade. It didn’t matter if it was just a little tree branch casting minimal shade; if it was less than the full sun, he took advantage of it. My dad remarked, “I think they must have invented shade here.”
Sometimes the blazing sun and scorching heat serve as an analogy to hard seasons of life. Have you experienced a season of unrelenting sun? A time when you simply can’t find any relief? It’s as if the penetrating, draining, and burning rays of the sun follow you wherever you go, and you feel exhausted from the moment you wake up. Perhaps you are in such a sun-baked season right now.
Consider the words of Psalm 121: “The Lord is your shade on your right hand. The sun shall not strike you by day…” Imagine how wonderful those words would have sounded to the man or woman reading them 3,000 years ago. This psalm is a Psalm of Ascent, meaning it was recited on annual festival pilgrimages to Jerusalem, at least one of which might occur in the relentless heat of summer (Shavuot, or “Weeks” fell on June 1-3 this year). Walking around in a semi-arid environment whilst the sun beats down on your head is not only miserable, it’s dangerous. Dehydration and heat exhaustion are real threats to travelers. So the psalmist reminds his contemporaries — and us — that the Lord is to us like a shade is to a sun-saturated traveler. He is a relief from its burning effects. He is a cooling presence when the trials of life threaten to raise our internal temperate to dangerous levels. He is a safe place to find rest when our souls can’t take another step.
Do you know what it’s like to experience the cooling, protecting, and safe presence of the Lord in times of difficulty? Sometimes the shade is difficult to find, but not our God! Rather, He is always near to us (Psalm 34:18), will never leave us (Hebrews 13:5), and promises to protect us from the scorching dangers of life (Psalm 121:6).
Consider also how this serves to prepare our minds for eternity. Revelation 7:16 tells us what it will be like for those who worship around the throne of the Lamb: “They shall hunger no more, neither thirst anymore; the sun shall not strike them, nor any scorching heat.” One day, all God’s redeemed will know what it means to have the blistering heat of the sun removed. How sweet it will be to experience the eternal shade of God’s gentle presence. Are you starting to cool off yet?
Rev. Kyle Lockhart, Pastor of Teaching & Spiritual Formation