The Lord himself watches over you! The Lord stands beside you as your protective shade.
Parallel translations
- WEB Yahweh is your keeper. Yahweh is your shade on your right hand.
- KJV The LORD is thy keeper: the LORD is thy shade upon thy right hand.
- BSB The LORD is your keeper; the LORD is the shade on your right hand.
- NKJV The Lord is your keeper; The Lord is your shade at your right hand.
- NASB ¶The Lord is your protector; The Lord is your shade on your right hand.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Yahweh is your keeper and your shade at your right hand. God Himself personally guards and protects His people.
Overview
The psalmist makes the truth intimate: 'Yahweh is your keeper.' Like protective 'shade' at one's 'right hand,' God shields His people from harm and overwhelming heat. This nearness and protection are realized for believers in Christ, in whom we are kept and shielded by God's presence.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 8
- Isa 25:4For you have been a stronghold to the poor, a stronghold to the needy in his distress, a refuge from the storm, a shade from the heat, when the blast of the dreaded ones is like a storm against the wall.
- Ps 91:1He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty.
- Exod 13:21Yahweh went before them by day in a pillar of cloud, to lead them on their way, and by night in a pillar of fire, to give them light, that they might go by day and by night:
- Ps 16:8I have set Yahweh always before me. Because he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved.
- Isa 4:5–6Yahweh will create over the whole habitation of Mount Zion, and over her assemblies, a cloud and smoke by day, and the shining of a flaming fire by night; for over all the glory will be a canopy.
- Ps 109:31For he will stand at the right hand of the needy, to save him from those who judge his soul.
- Isa 32:2A man shall be as a hiding place from the wind, and a covert from the storm, as streams of water in a dry place, as the shade of a large rock in a weary land.
- Matt 23:37“Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets, and stones those who are sent to her! How often I would have gathered your children together, even as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you would not!
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Christ at the center
The Psalms are Christ's own prayer book and a gallery of his portraits — the suffering one of Psalm 22, the risen Lord of Psalm 16, the priest-king of Psalm 110, the Son to whom the nations are given.
How Psalms 121:5 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.