Grandma and the 121st Psalm

My Grandma died suddenly last Monday.  I was fortunate to have seen her just 2 days earlier when she had been in good spirits and was even grappling with Alex in a playful manner that amused the pair of them; a very recent memory to treasure.  Dorothy was my last Grandparent and had outlived my Grandpa John by 9 years.  I only realised that tonight; it’s a long time to be without your life-partner and although she had lived to see my Sister marry and delighted in the arrival of 3 Great-grandchildren those were joys she couldn’t share with him. 

 

Writing a card tonight the 2 words I picked out to describe my Grandma were spirited and inspirational.  She had battled and beaten cancer, and although her health had deteriorated over the last couple of years there were ups as well as downs and she would surprise me by rebound back to her caring and very interested self.  

 

I know I’m a bit emotionally repressed and I’m looking to change that over time, but the moment that has moved me most over last week was when the Hospital Chaplain read the 121st psalm to comfort Mum, Dad, my Sister and myself.  It’s the only Psalm I ‘know’ apart from the 23rd and the 40th (and that one only seems familiar due to U2’s version of it).  The 121st Psalm transported me back 25 years to my Bury Grammar School days as it was recited every founder’s day.  These words are chasing me around at the moment because Grandma has chosen it for her funeral service as it was used for Grandpa’s too.   This feels like some sort of a sign or message and even if it’s not, the passage is very comforting and warrants my daily reading of it.

 

 ¹I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help.

 ²My help cometh from the LORD, which made heaven and earth.

 ³He will not suffer thy foot to be moved: he that keepeth thee will not slumber.

 ⁴Behold, he that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep.

 ⁵The LORD is thy keeper: the LORD is thy shade upon thy right hand.

 ⁶The sun shall not smite thee by day, nor the moon by night.

 ⁷The LORD shall preserve thee from all evil: he shall preserve thy soul.

 ⁸The LORD shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in from this time forth, and even for evermore.