Psalm 123

A Bible Devotion from Psalm 123

I Lift Up My Eyes

1 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 maidservant
to the hand of her mistress,
so our eyes look to the LORD our God,
till he has mercy upon us.

3 Have mercy upon us, O LORD, have mercy upon us,
for we have had more than enough of contempt.

4 Our soul has had more than enough
of the scorn of those who are at ease,
of the contempt of the proud.

Psalm 123, NKJV

Psalm 123 is just four verses, but it is deeply profound in its meaning. Here the Psalmist paints a picture that we can all understand in illustrating our relationship to God as a true believer: we are servants. That is not a very popular picture in our politically correct world. What an insult that is to the unbeliever, where man is at the center and everything else revolves outward from him.

What do you think, dear Christian? Is it an insult to be a servant to God? I shudder at the thought. No, it is a privilege to be a servant of God, and not one that we deserve at all. Only the grace of God, through the blood of Christ that He shed for us, allows us to be raised up to the postion of a servant!

Think of the blessings we have as God's servant that are mentioned in this Psalm. We look to God for mercy and are completely confident that He will provide it for us. What does that mean, and why do we need it? There is only one man who ever lived who was perfect: the God-man, Jesus Christ. God requires complete perfection, He cannot even look upon sin. Because of this we are born condemned!

What are we to do? We fall down before our Lord and plead for mercy from this condemnation; mercy that will allow us to live instead of being eternally condemned. How can that be? This mercy doesn't make us perfect, does it? No, not until we are in heaven with the Lord. Christ came to this earth to die for His people. He was perfect as a man and as God, and as such was worthy to die in our place and take that condemnation upon Himself? Now, when God looks upon those who have cried out for mercy, instead of seeing their sin, He sees the perfect blood of Christ.

What do we gain from our fellow man? We gain contempt and scorn. That will never change, no matter how nice they are to us. Unless they have cried out to God for mercy, their hearts are proud and arrogant. Remember, we see people on the outside only, but God looks upon their heart.

What incredible mercy we receive from God! Mercy we never truly deserve. Do you understand that? Neither do I. God could have left us all condemned, but He chose to save a people for Himself. Does that make us proud because we were worthy to be chosen? No, we were never worthy to be chosen. Instead, we fall on our face before God in humility and thankfulness.

Psalm 123 just has four short verses, but what marvelous truths it expresses!

Pray today that God will have mercy on you and would save you from the condemnation of your sins.

Next: Psalm 124 - The Snare is Broken

More Devotions on the 123rd Psalm from my blog, Daily Bible Devotions.

Wait upon the Lord, verses 1-2

Contempt, verses 3-4