Ever get the feeling that you are being watched? Some people may be worried about such a thing happening, but that may well be unrealistic because in 2025 it is far from just being in the imagination of a dystopian novelist like George Orwell who in 1949 wrote his novel, “nineteen Eighty-Four”, from which also came the now well-known slogan, “Big Brother is watching you.” Today, in London, for example, “The live traffic camera feed provides images from 177 cameras at key sites across the Capital, showing what’s happening on London’s streets.” (data.london.gov.uk/dataset/tfl-live-traffic-cameras). And this is just “the tip of the iceberg” as the saying goes.
But way before all this began happening, the “watching” had already been going on for a very long time!
Listen to verse 3 of Proverbs 15:
3 The eyes of the Lord are everywhere,
keeping watch on the wicked and the good.
This is also mentioned in other places in the Bible. For example:
For your ways are in full view of the Lord,
and he examines all your paths. (Proverbs 5:21)
Job asked: Does he not see my ways
and count my every step? (Job 31:4)
Being “watched” can be either a positive experience or a negative one. The positive is when, for example, we as responsible parents “watch” over our young children in order to keep them safe from harm. The ‘negative’ (which can also be positive) is when, for example, we are being “watched” by those 177 cameras in London to catch out people who break the law, among their other purposes.
The former positive situation as found when God said to Jacob: “I am with you and will watch over you wherever you go…” (Genesis 28:15a).
The latter, ‘negative’ situation, as found in Jeremiah when the Lord says to his people, My eyes are on all their ways; they are not hidden from me, nor is their sin concealed from my eyes. (Jeremiah 16:17)
God is no “big brother”, seeking to control us, trip us up and punish every mistake. He desires much more than this for us. Consider that wonderful and well-known Psalm 121 with its encouraging truth about the “watchfulness” of God:
I lift up my eyes to the mountains—
where does my help come from?
2 My help comes from the Lord,
the Maker of heaven and earth.
3 He will not let your foot slip—
he who watches over you will not slumber;
4 indeed, he who watches over Israel
will neither slumber nor sleep.
5 The Lord watches over you—
the Lord is your shade at your right hand;
6 the sun will not harm you by day,
nor the moon by night.
7 The Lord will keep you from all harm—
he will watch over your life;
8 the Lord will watch over your coming and going
both now and forevermore. (Psalm 121)
Note the repetition of the words “watch over”in this psalm.They are used 5 times when the psalmist says that God watches over you … he watches over Israel, and thenconfidently states, he will watch over your life … the Lord will watch over your coming and going.
Note also the last verse when he says that God will watch over your coming and going both now and forevermore. As Michael Wilcock puts it:
“The going out and coming in of verse 8 have many dimensions. The believer is guarded as he goes to work and as he comes home, in every venture and every return to base, at every departure and arrival, at birth and at death… Both in the great movements of history and ‘in common things of life, its goings out and in,’ the Lord guarantees to guard his people, both now and forevermore. [Wilcock continues]It is ‘hard to decide which half of [the phrase] is the more encouraging: the fact that it starts ‘from now,’ or that it runs on, not to the end of time but [forevermore].’ (# 5)
So, in reality, the watchfulness of God is a beautiful thing. Our world would self-destruct if it were not for the truth that The eyes of the Lord are everywhere, keeping watch on the wicked and the good.
Stop and consider this truth and give thanks to the One who promises to watch over your coming and going both now and forevermore.
Worship and Wisdom - Psalms and Proverbs 