Psalm 121 Outline

This is a brief outline of Psalm 121 that the Sunday School class of Grace Reformed Presbyterian Church in Dubois came up with as we studied. The study follows the basic method outlined in my Reading Bible Poems handout. This is just a basic outline, and omits very many things that we talked about in class.

Introductory Notes

• Type of Psalm: Three-Part Lyric.


• Superscript: A Song of Ascents - a lyrical psalm used by pilgrims on the road to Jerusalem for one of the three annual feasts (Unleavened Bread/Passover, Weeks/Pentecost, and Tabernacles/Harvest)

Read More

Section 1 - Controlling Lyric Theme

A  I lift up my eyes to the hills
  B  From where does my
    C  Help come?
    C' My help comes
  B' From Yahweh,
A' Who made heaven and earth

• Chiasm points out the main point of the Psalm- help. We know that Yahweh is our help, so we are forced to ask "What kind of help?"


• Images: The hills, from whence my help cometh - Since Jerusalem is situated at the top of a giant ridge running the length of the Holy Land parallel to the Mediterranean, a pilgrim traveler is usually going up into the mountains. The setting of this poem is a desert/mountain journey to Jerusalem.

Section 2 - 1st Developmental Image

He will not let your foot be moved
He who keeps you will not slumber.
Behold, He who keeps Israel shall neither slumber
  nor sleep

• This is the first of three "verses" that answer the question introduced in the controlling theme- "What sort of help?". Each of the three verses has a similar structure: two parallel lines describing a help that Yahweh gives, and a third line containing an amplification showing how extensive that help is using a double image ("slumber nor sleep", "sun by day, moon by night", "going out and coming in").


• Images: Let your foot be moved - Another mountain journey image picturing stumbling and falling on a steep mountain pass.


• God's help preserves us from our own mistakes and sins.

Section 3 - 2nd Developmental Image

Yahweh is your keeper;
Yahweh is your shade on your right hand.
The sun shall not strike you by day,
  Nor the moon by night

• Images: Sun shall not strike you by day, nor the moon by night - Dangerous environment of a desert/mountain journey.


• Yahweh protects us from the harshness of the world.

Section 4 - 3rd Developmental Image and Concluding General Application

Yahweh will keep you from all evil;
He will keep your life.
Yahweh will keep your going out 
  And your coming in
  From this time forth and forevermore.

• Images: Going out and coming in - All the journeys to and from Jerusalem for the rest of our lives.


• God protects us from evil, hostile forces who hate us.


• This also serves as the generalizing and concluding theme. God preserves our whole lives, all our journeys forevermore.

Conclusions

• Three types of helps (mistakes/sins, circumstances, evil) touch every area of life. "What kind of help?" Every kind of help we need.


• All the imagery is from a desert journey, an image that an Israelite would take as a metaphor for all our lives under the sun.


• God is always ready to help, and will be forevermore.

The Beech Creek Railroad in Clearfield County

Here's an interesting article on the Beech Creek Railroad in Clearfield County, specifically near Gorton, Grassflat and the ghost town of Peale in Cooper Township. The Beech Creek Railroad came up the Allegeny Front from Jersey Shore along Beech Creek, then across the mountain top from Clarence to the Moshannon Creek near Snow Shoe. The little towns through the area sprang up around mine shafts that provided the rail traffic. Most of these towns are gone now, and the railroad in the area is now a walking and four-wheeler trail.

To see some pictures from the trail, you can look at:

http://www.stoplandfill.com/gallery.htm

More info on Peale can be found at:

http://go.owu.edu/~jbkrygie/krygier_html/peale/peale.html

Clearfield County Waters

The Clearfield County Senior Environment Corp. was commissioned around time of the bicentennial to publish a booklet of stories regarding the watersheds of the county. Here is the fruit of their labors.

Presbyterianism in Clearfield County

From the Twentieth Century History of Clearfield County by Roland Swoope:

Presbyterian - In the first history of Clearfield county, published in 1878, we find the following lines:

"The first meeting house in Clearfield county was built in the year 1809 and was located at the site of McClure's cemetery. It was of the Presbyterian
faith."

To the members of this denomination, then, must be conceded the honor of
having erected the first house of worship in our county.

A church building was erected in Clearfield several years later, and one in Curwensville in 1826. These charges were admitted to the Huntingdon Presbytery,
which at that time had a total number of 558 communicants.

There is now a church membership of 3,111 in this county, and nineteen church buildings.

These statistics prove in a most convincing manner the marvelous growth of this denomination, and the powerful and thriving condition of the Presbyterian
church in Clearfield county at the present time.

Seeing Pennsylvania

Seeing Pennsylvania by John Thomson Faris (1919) describes various scenic journeys around Pennsylvania. There is an excellent chapter on Central PA, starting in Altoona and moving north. Look for the chapter called Through the Heart of the Black Forest starting on page 315 (not 135 as the table of contents states).

Here's an excerpt, about a place mentioned here before:

A point of special interest along Sinnemahoning is Round Island, several miles east of the west border of Clinton County. Here is Altar Rock. This oddity, seventy feet high, is described as a spiral of rocks, standing on the north bank of the stream in full view of the Pennsylvania Railroad tracks, and thus within view of the highway also.

Western Pennsylvania Coalfields

Western Pennsylvania Coalfields contains photos and info on the various coalfields that make up Western PA. Unfortunately, there's only a brief mention of any of the fields in Clearfield County. There are a few photos from the Bennetts Branch Field, including Tyler in Clearfield County and Byrnedale in Elk County.

Landforms of Central PA

Here is a fascinating map of the various geologic and geographical regions of Pennsylvania. For those of you curious, you can find Clearfield County in the corner between the Pittsburgh Low Plateau, the Allegheny Front, and the Allegheny High Plateau Deep Valleys sections.

Although the map would contradict, Clearfield's "mountain" is a finger of the Allegheny High Plateau that descends south. The front of the high plateau then runs to the northeast parallel to the West Branch, north of Frenchville and Karthaus. The Allegheny Front is the great mountain that goes runs from Somerset to Altoona and up to Williamsport. In this area, it goes by various names: Tipton, Tyrone, Sandy Ridge, Port, Snow Shoe, and Cooper.