“The Lord watches over you—
the Lord is your shade at your right hand…” (Psalm 121:5)
Usually, when we’re in times of tiredness, we don’t have the option to just stop living our regular lives until our energy returns. Life continues, with all its demands and opportunities. We have to keep going. We have to keep using what the poetic language of Psalm 121 refers to as our “right hand.”
The right hand symbolizes the working hand. It’s a picture of doing the things that need done.
Most of the time when we read about the “right hand” in the Bible, we’re reading about the “right hand of God” as a way of describing God’s work. It’s with His right hand that He provides, like Psalm 16:11 pictures. He strengthens His people with His right hand, as Isaiah 41:10 reassures us. With His right hand, Psalm 20:6-7 explains, He saves us.
We have a “right hand” because we are made in God’s image, and He is a God who does. Part of His good work in our lives is watching over us and providing for us as we do the work He plans for us to do.
What “working” looks like varies for each of us and in each season of life. Sometimes we have to scale back to just the necessities. Sometimes we have to persist through a too-busy time. But at all times, we can rely on the Lord in our work.
But He looks out for us as we do what He calls us to in this life.
Whatever we have to work at and no matter how tired we may be, our good God is working on our behalf. He is our right-hand refuge – strengthening, protecting, equipping, and upholding us as we work to His glory.
What sort of work must you still do while tired? How do you see God helping you to keep going in it?
Find the whole series at this link. If you’d like to download a PDF of these devotions, just let me know here and I’ll email it to you! I’ll also post each one on Instagram.