Psalm 122&123
Sunday, 9 May 2021
“To You I have raised my eyes, You who are enthroned in the heavens!” - Psalm 123:1
The Psalm is an earnest plea to the Lord Almighty, to be shown mercy in a time of great distress. There is a contempt faced by the petitioners from those who try to deride them and so they plead for God’s intervention. Though it is not clear what the circumstance is, there was a time when the people of God had faced ridicule from those who had taken them to exile.
The Psalm calls our attention to the following:
A Focused Look
A looking up to the One enthroned in heaven! That is where help comes from- the One who made heaven and earth and is enthroned above all! By acknowledging the Lord who is enthroned, they acknowledged His rule which is over all. He is sovereign! Jeremiah 32:17 reminds us: “Oh, Lord GOD! Behold, You Yourself have made the heavens and the earth by Your great power and by Your outstretched arm! Nothing is too difficult for You...”
V.2 defines that focused look as it is compared to the servant’s attentive look at his master’s hand for any slight intimation of a command that he needs to obey. Such is the attentive petitioner before the LORD-he has nothing to do but wait; can resort to nothing else as he can do nothing if he turns away from Him. The hope of relief is to wait on God; and it is the purpose of our souls to expectantly wait until we find help and deliverance. “Until He is gracious to us!”
This is the attitude of the earnest prayer in the next verses.
A Focused Plea
The repeated “Be gracious to us” gives emphasis to the plea. There is a sense of desperation as well as an expectancy of help which could come only from God, looking only unto Him. They have been treated with such contempt and they could bear it no longer! It was aggravated by the fact that those who looked down on them were those in “in easy circumstances;” the affluent; those in rank. Therefore they were earnestly praying to the Lord for relief!
Most of us can relate to this Psalm in the way we have suffered great distress or scorn and the way we cried out to the Lord for deliverance. Maybe you are going through one right now. An upward look is what we require in such circumstances. The right help comes only from the One enthroned in the heavens!
We see before our very eyes the distress caused by the pandemic around us. There is much oppression we face as an outcome of the restrictions imposed on life in every area. We cannot close our eyes to the suffering and misery all around us. What is the believer to do in such circumstances? Our first response is AN UPWARD LOOK! Let us raise our eyes to the One enthroned above- as we lift our pleas to the LORD Almighty to be merciful to us! Can we wait on Him as our only source of deliverance from this universal affliction and entreat Him to be gracious to us? May we keep our eyes on Him alone until He sends relief!
Shall we look to the LORD in prayer?
I will raise my eyes to the mountains;
From where will my help come?
My help comes from the Lord,
Who made heaven and earth.
(Psalm 121:1)
Listen: ‘Chattan’
Ref: https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/eng/bnb/psalms-123.html