“He will not let your foot slip — he who watches over you will not slumber.” — Psalm 121:3 (NIV)

This is a walking song. Pilgrims sang it on the road up to Jerusalem, watching the hills, aware of how much could go wrong between here and there.

What it says is oddly practical. Not that nothing will go wrong. That someone is awake.

There is a particular tiredness that comes from feeling you are the only one keeping watch — over a business, a parent, a child, a situation you cannot fix by turning it over at midnight. The verse does not tell you the situation is fine. It tells you that you are not the only one awake to it, and that you are allowed to sleep.

Whatever you were going to lie there thinking about: it will keep till morning.