Psalm 121:8

Psalms 121:8

The Lord shall preserve thy going out, and thy coming in
In transacting all the business of life, in going in and out about it; in all ways, works, and conversation; in journeying and travelling; in all affairs, civil and religious; and not only preserve, but prosper in all, ( Psalms 1:3 ) ; the Lord blessing him, coming in and going out, ( Deuteronomy 28:6 ) ; and such, with the poet ^F24, are said to go with a good or prosperous foot. And such persons, in the Punic language, are called Namphanians, as Austin observes ^F25; who says the word signifies a man of a good foot: and the word seems to be the contraction of (wmep Men) , which signifies "his good" or "pleasant foot" ^F26; and so one that, wherever he comes and goes, things prosper with him, and with those that are in connection with him: such an one was Jacob in the house of Laban, whom the Lord blessed, as he says, "since my coming", or at "my foot", (See Gill on Genesis 30:30); and such a foot Joseph had wherever he went, ( Genesis 39:5 Genesis 39:23 ) . Arama interprets it of a man's going out into the air of this world, and of his entrance into the world to come. The Targum is,

``the Lord will keep thy going out to business, and thy coming in to study in the law.''

from this time forth, and even for evermore;
for the Lord not only preserves his people in life and at death, but in heaven, to all eternity; in the utmost safety and peace from all molestations by men or devils, and from their wrath and malice: not only his purpose and decree, but his power and providence, are the vast gulf between the one and the other; by means of which the wicked cease from troubling, and the weary are at rest, ( Luke 16:26 ) ( Job 3:17 ) .

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FOOTNOTES:

F24 Virgil. Aeneid. l. 8. "Adi pede sacra secundo"; & l. 10. "adsis pede diva secundo."
F25 Epist. 44.
F26 Vid. Sterringae Philol. Sacr. p. 169. Reinesium de Lingua Punica, c. 8. s. 10.