What Does Psalm 121:8 Mean in the King James?

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

Psalm 121:8 · KJV

The analysis reads the King James wording.

King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.

THE KEY

The word translated “preserve” pictures a watch kept over every threshold of your life, from departure to return.

THE MEANING

The LORD keeps watch over you when you go out and when you come in. This care reaches from this moment through the ages.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

It undoes the belief that divine keeping belongs only to emergencies: your ordinary departures and returns are held within it.

THE ROOT

יִשְׁמָר

yishmor

GROWS FROM

שׁמר

To keep watch, guard, or attend to.

“preserve” in this verse is yishmor. This root carries the sense of attentive guarding, also found in words for a keeper and a watch or charge. Here, that keeping spans both your going out and your coming in, placing the ordinary thresholds of your life within its care.

ALSO GROWS

shomer: Keeper, watcher, or guard.

שֹׁמֵר

The keeper is one who watches over what is entrusted to them, giving “preserve” the shade of ongoing attention.

mishmeret: Guard, watch, or charge.

מִשְׁמֶרֶת

This branch names the watch itself, illuminating the verse’s image of care that remains present across your movements.

THE PATTERN

The LORD’s keeping spans the full range of human movement, from departure to return.

And, behold, I am with thee, and will keep thee in all places whither thou goest, and will bring thee again into this land; for I will not leave thee, until I have done that which I have spoken to thee of.

Genesis 28:15 · KJVThe promise of keeping travels with the one who goes out and includes the return.

Blessed shalt thou be when thou comest in, and blessed shalt thou be when thou goest out.

Deuteronomy 28:6 · KJVThe paired movements of coming in and going out mark the whole span of daily life under blessing.

But the Lord is faithful, who shall stablish you, and keep you from evil.

2 Thessalonians 3:3 · KJVKeeping is joined with being made steady, extending the pattern into the reader’s life.

THE THREAD

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

Psalm 121:7 · KJV

Verse 7 repeats the same word for keeping: the LORD preserves you from evil and preserves your soul. Verse 8 opens that same keeping across your going out, coming in, and the span of time.

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