Psalm 121:8
The LORD shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in from this time forth, and even for evermore.
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 {x}, are said to go with a good or prosperous foot. And such persons, in the Punic language, are called Namphanians, as Austin observes {y}; 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" {z}; 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. 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.
{x} Virgil. Aeneid. l. 8. "Adi pede sacra secundo"; & l. 10. "adsis pede diva secundo."
{y} Epist. 44.
{z} Vid. Sterringae Philol. Sacr. p. 169. Reinesium de Lingua Punica, c. 8. s. 10.