I’ve written before about my morning walks. I used to take my old Basset hound, Dixie, the wonder-dog. But back in May, God called Dixie home to heaven. Now, I admit that I have no Biblical basis to believe that dogs go to heaven when they die, but I just believe they do, at least the good ones. Cats—I’m not so sure about. I could probably make a case that cats go to hell, but that’s beyond the scope of what I want to write about here. But I’m quite sure that I’ll be reunited with Dixie in heaven, along with her sister, Belle, and Gracie, the gospel-dog, and Gabby, the golden retriever (but Kim and I will have to share her with the Stallworths, since they had her first). I believe that God will provide us in heaven with whatever it takes to be happy and content, and for Kim and I that will be Basset Hounds—Gracie and Dixie and Belle—and Golden Retrievers—Gabby.

We now have a Basset Hound puppy, Henry, and a Golden Retriever puppy, Peaches.

I would like to take them both on my morning walks up the mountain, but to this point Henry is not all that excited about walking up the mountain. Let’s just say that Henry likes to conserve his energy! But Peaches enjoys it quite a bit. She’s becoming my walking buddy. We walk up the mountain in order for me to get some exercise, but I also use that time to pray. And I start my prayer time by reflecting on Psalm 121. “I lift up my eyes to the hills. . .” I take in the beauty of the north Georgia mountains, and think through the truths of this psalm.

The psalmist looks to the hills and is reminded that his help does not come from the hills, but from the maker of the hills, the Lord, the maker of heaven and earth. He then shifts from viewing God as his helper to seeing God as his keeper. He who keeps you “will neither slumber nor sleep.” And then at the end of the psalm, the writer makes an incredible statement. He says, in verse 7, that the Lord “will keep you from all evil; he will keep your life.”

On a recent morning, as Peaches and I were starting to come down the mountain, I pondered a bit longer on that verse, and it bothered me. I thought, “Well, that’s not really true. God does not keep me from all evil.” You see, I experience evil all the time; we all do: harsh words or a demanding tone from someone we love, being excluded from a group of so-called friends, betrayal from someone that should have our best in mind, and so on. Financial disadvantage, disease, broken promises, dashed dreams: this world is not as it should be. Evil, hardship, suffering, difficulty are a damaging, but normal, part of living in this cursed world.

So, what do we do with Psalm 121:7, “The Lord will keep you from all evil.” Well, I’m not entirely sure. But I believe that the Bible is true, so I believe that this verse is true, and if this verse is true, then I have to figure out how the truth of this verse squares with my reality. We must always judge our reality based on the Bible, not the other way around. So, maybe this is the idea. God will protect us from ultimate evil, from the greatest evil. In other words, if we are part of God’s people, one of his children, then nothing ultimately can harm us. The greatest evil there is, being separated from God, will never happen to us. God is always with us, and he will always be with us, in this life and beyond.

Now if that is true, and it is, then that should tell us this. The evil we do experience in this life is nothing compared to being separated from him, and as part of the people of God, we will never experience that evil. I just had to spend a fair amount of money fixing our air conditioner; that’s nothing compared to being separated from God. I just broke my ankle; that’s nothing compared to being separated from God. A friend just lost her husband’s battle with cancer; and even that is nothing compared to being separated from God. If the worst this world can do to us is take our life, it still cannot separate us from God. The Apostle Paul assures us that nothing can separate us from the love of God.

“The Lord will keep you from all evil.” The next phrase in the verse says this. “He will keep your life.” That’s right. God will keep our life. Our life is in God’s safe-keeping. Every other evil we experience in this life, though hard and burdensome and at times devastating, is nothing in comparison to being separated from God. God is that good, that precious, that necessary. He will keep us, he will never leave us, and no evil will be able to separate us from him.