Prayer for the Lord’s Help.
A Song of Ascents.
123 To You I lift up my eyes,
O You who are enthroned in the heavens!
2 Behold, as the eyes of servants look to the hand of their master,
As the eyes of a maid to the hand of her mistress,
So our eyes look to the Lord our God,
Until He is gracious to us.3 Be gracious to us, O Lord, be gracious to us,
For we are greatly filled with contempt.
4 Our soul is greatly filled
With the scoffing of those who are at ease,
And with the contempt of the proud.
Can you relate with the psalmist in verse 4? It seems some folks have it made, not a care in the world, and they flaunt their life in front of everyone. But backup a minute, start back at the beginning. Here the psalmist lifts his eyes to God, the phrasing is similar to Psalm 121, but the focus in squarely on God this time. And of course, this is in stark contrast to the scoffers and the proud of v. 4.
So do they really have it that easy? For those who look to God, v. 2 paints a picture we see Paul use in his letter to the Romans (6). As servants look to the master, and maids to the mistress, so our eyes look to God, and He is gracious to us. And that’s putting it mildly. Paul put it clearly, that we are slaves to the one whom we obey.
Either we serve our flesh and become slaves to sin, or we serve God and experience actual true freedom. Our hearts are only filled with contempt if we allow jealousy and envy to enter in when we look at those who seem to be only serving themselves. The flesh is a hard and cruel taskmaster, and they may enjoy it for a season, but it never lasts.
We were not designed to live for ourselves. So it should not be surprising that we find the most joy and fulfillment when we serve others, and most of all when we serve God. He has the truest heart of all, and when we follow Him, he will fill our hearts with peace and joy. The contempt will be driven out, there will be no room for it anymore. Instead, we ought to have compassion on those who still serve the flesh, as God’s heart, His motives, His love fills our own heart.