Psalm 123
123:1. Unto thee lift I up mine eyes. It is good to have someone to look up to. The psalmist looked so high that he could look no higher. Not to the hills, but to the God of the hills he looked. He believed in a personal God, and knew nothing of that modern pantheism which is nothing more than atheism wearing a figleaf. The uplifted eyes naturally and instinctively represent the state of heart which fixes desire, hope, confidence, and expectation upon the Lord. God is everywhere, and yet it is most natural to think of him as being above us.
O thou that dwellest in the heavens just sets forth the unsophisticated idea of a child of God in distress: God is, God is in heaven, God resides in one place, and God is evermore the same; therefore will I look to him. When we cannot look to any helper on a level with us it is greatly wise to look above us; in fact, if we have a thousand helpers, our eyes should still be toward the Lord. The higher the Lord is, the better for our faith, since that height represents power, glory, and excellence, and these will be all engaged on our behalf. We ought to be very thankful for spiritual eyes; the blind men of this world, however much of human learning they may possess, cannot behold our God, for in heavenly matters they are devoid of sight. Yet we must use our eyes with resolution, for they will not go upward to the Lord of themselves, but they incline to look downward, or inward, or anywhere but to the Lord: let it be our firm resolve that the heavenward glance shall not be lacking. If we cannot see God, at least we will look towards him. God is in heaven as a king in his palace; he is there revealed, adored, and glorified; thence he looks down on the world and sends succors to his saints as their needs demand; hence we look up, even when our sorrow is so great that he permits us to lift up our eyes to his glorious high throne; moreover, he invites and even commands us so to do. When we are looking to the Lord in hope, it is well to tell him so in prayer: the psalmist uses his voice as well as his eye. We need not speak in prayer; a glance of the eye will do it all. Still it is helpful to the heart to use the tongue, and we do well to address ourselves in words and sentences to the God who hears his people. It is no small joy that our God is always at home: he is not on a journey, like Baal, but he dwells in the heavens. Let us think no hour of the day inopportune for waiting upon the Lord, no watch of the night too dark for us to look to him.
123:2. Behold. See, O Lord, how we look to thee, and in thy mercy look on us. This Behold has, however, a call to us to observe and consider. Whenever saints of God have waited upon the Lord their example has been worthy of earnest consideration. Sanctification is a miracle of grace; therefore let us behold it. For God to have wrought in us the spirit of service is a great marvel, and as such let everyone turn aside and see this great sight.
As the eyes of servants (or slaves) look unto the hand of their masters. Orientals speak less than we do, and prefer to direct their slaves by movements ot their hands; hence, the domestic must fix his eyes on his master, or he might miss a sign, and so fail to obey it: just so, the sanctified person lifts his eyes unto God, and endeavors to learn the divine will from every one of the signs which the Lord is pleased to use. Creation, providence, grace; these are all motions of Jehovah’s hand, and from each of them a portion of our duty is to be learned; therefore should we carefully study them, to discover the divine will.
And as the eyes of a maiden unto the hand of her mistress. This second comparison may be used because Eastern women are even more thorough than the men in the training of their servants.
Even so our eyes wait upon the LORD our God. Believers desire to be attentive to each and all of the directions of the Lord; even those which concern apparently little things are not little to us, for we know that even for idle words we shall be called to account, and we are anxious to give that account with joy, and not with grief. True saints, like obedient servants, look continuously, for there is never a time when they are off duty. Upon the Lord they look expectantly, looking for supply, succor, and safety from his hands, waiting that he may have mercy upon them. They have no other confidence, and they learn to look submissively, waiting patiently for the Lord, seeking both in activity and suffering to glorify his name. When they are smitten with the rod they turn their eyes imploringly to the hand which chastens, hoping that mercy will soon abate the rigor of the affliction. Though we are sons, have we learned the full obedience of servants? Have we surrendered self, and bowed our will before the heavenly Majesty? Do we desire in all things to be at the Lord’s disposal? If so, happy are we.
Observe the covenant name, “Jehovah our God”: it is sweet to wait upon a covenant God. Because of that covenant he will show mercy to us; but we may have to wait for it.
Until that he have mercy upon us. God has his time and season, and we must wait until it comes. For the trial of our faith our blessed Lord may for a while delay, but in the end the vision will be fulfilled. Mercy is that which we need, that which we look for, that which our Lord will manifest to us. Even those who look to the Lord, with that holy look which is here described, still need mercy, and as they cannot claim it by right they wait for it till sovereign grace chooses to vouchsafe it. Blessed are those servants whom their Master finds so doing. Waiting upon the Lord is a posture suitable both for earth and heaven; it is, indeed, in every place the right and fitting condition for a servant of the Lord. Nor may we leave the posture so long as we are by grace dwellers in the realms of mercy. It is a great mercy to be enabled to wait for mercy.
123:3. Have mercy upon us, O LORD, have mercy upon us. He hangs upon the word mercy, and embodies it in a vehement prayer: the very word seems to hold him, and he harps upon it. It is well for us to pray about everything, and turn everything into prayer; and especially when we are reminded of a great necessity we should catch at it as a Keynote, and pitch our tune to it. Note that he has left the first person singular for the plural. All the saints need mercy; they all seek it; they shall all have it; therefore we pray, have mercy upon us.
For we are exceedingly filled with contempt, and this is an acid which eats into the soul. Contempt is bitterness; the person who feels it may well cry for mercy to God. Filled with contempt, as if the bitter wine had been poured in till it was up to the brim. This had become the chief thought of their minds, the peculiar sorrow of their hearts. Excluding all other feelings, a sense of scorn monopolized the soul and made it unutterably wretched. Another word is added—exceedingly filled. Filled to running over. A little contempt they could bear, but now they were satiated with it, and weary of it. Nothing is more wounding, embittering, festering than disdain. When our companions make little of us we are far too apt to make little of ourselves and of the consolations prepared for us. Oh to be filled with communion, and then contempt will run off from us, and never be able to fill us with its biting vinegar.
123:4. Our soul is exceedingly filled with the scorning of those that are at ease. Knowing no troubles of their own, the easy ones grow cruel and deride the people of the Lord. Having the godly already in secret contempt, they show it by openly scorning them. Those who do this are not the poor, the humble, the troubled, but those who have a merry life of it, and are self-content. They are easy in heart through a deadened conscience. They are easy as to any anxiety to improve, for their conceit of themselves is boundless. Such people take things easily, and therefore they scorn the holy carefulness of those who watch the hand of the Lord. Place someone perfectly at ease and he derides the godly, and becomes himself proud in heart and conduct.
And with the contempt of the proud. The proud think so much of themselves that they must think all the less of those who are better than themselves. Pride is both contemptible and contemptuous. The contempt of the great ones of the earth is especially acrid. Great hearts have been broken, and brave spirits have been withered beneath the accursed power of falsehood and the horrible blight of contempt. Our divine Lord was despised and rejected of men, yet he ceased not from his perfect service till he was exalted to dwell in the heavens. Let us bear our share of this evil which still rages, and let us firmly believe that the contempt of the ungodly will turn to our honor in the world to come: even now it serves as a certificate that we are not of this world.
The Treasury of David by Charles Haddon Spurgeon (1834-1892)
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