Our eyes look to the Lord our God
[Psalms 123]
In our life of faith, there are times when we have no choice but to come to the Lord and cry out. At such times, as we look at the situation we are in, we go quietly before the Lord and cry out to Him with our oppressed heart, a truly heavy and distressed heart. In such a prayer, the Holy Spirit works to pour out our heavy and distressed hearts before Heavenly Father. The Holy Spirit reminds us of the word of God, and through it, He convicts us of our sins and also makes us repent. In such work of the Holy Spirit, we must ask God for forgiveness of our sins. Also, the Holy Spirit embodies the heart of our Heavenly Father and makes us to ask Heavenly Father with His heart. And He helps us to seek His will. Therefore, the distressing and difficult situations in our lives are a precious opportunity to cry out to Him as we look to the Lord.
In Psalms 123:2, we see the psalmist looking to God in a distressing situation. What was the distressing situation the psalmist was facing? It was the situation of ridicule and contempt (v. 4). Here, those who were at ease refers to people who lived safely without any realization of God's warnings (Park). These are the proud people who had no reverence for God. In other words, the psalmist was suffering because of the ridicule and contempt of these people who were at ease and and “the proud” (v. 4). In this distressing situation, he looked only at the Lord. I want to meditate on how the psalmist looked at the Lord in these distressing situations and receive lessons from it. I hope and pray that we can also overcome the distressing situations with the grace of God as we look only at the Lord.
First, we must lift up our eyes and look at the Lord in the heavens.
Look at Psalms 123:1 – “To You I lift up my eyes, O You who are enthroned in the heavens!” We will face endless hardships and difficulties while living on this earth. Therefore, our hearts will be heavy and difficult. In that case, what is the first thing we should do? It is to lift our eyes and look at God in heaven. What should we do when there is nowhere to be help us in the midst of the many hardships and challenges that we encounter on this earth? We must lift our eyes to the mountains (121:1-2). This is because our help comes from the Lord who made heaven and earth (v.2). Never let us be content to gaze at anything on earth and get help. Rather, knowing that only the salvation of God the Most High is true salvation, let us lift our eyes and long for the salvation of God in heaven (Park).
Personally, I am empowered by Jonah 2:4 – “So I said, ‘I have been expelled from Your sight Nevertheless I will look again toward Your holy temple.’” The reason I like this word is because even though I myself, like Jonah, disobeyed the Lord's words and was discouraged for sin, as if my soul fell into a deep swamp, I would find comfort and strength through this word of Jonah 2:4. In other words, I like Jonah 2:4 because this word makes me to look at the Lord again just as Jonah looked at the temple of the Lord again. In Psalms 123, the psalmist didn’t direct his gaze to the distressing and difficult situation he was facing. Rather than looking at the situation, he lifted his eyes and looked at God in heaven. Like the psalmist, let's lift our eyes and look at the Lord in heaven. Although we can see difficult and hard situations with our physical eyes, let our spiritual eyes only look at the God of salvation who can deliver us from those distressing and difficult situations. The God of our salvation will deliver us. The just God will defeat those who are at ease and the proud ones who afflict us. Surely God will help and strengthen us.
Second, we must look to the Lord with servant attitude.
Look at Psalms 123:2 – “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.” What does it mean to look to the Lord “as the eyes of servants look to the hand of their master? This means that the psalmist's act of looking to the Lord was considered as a calling (Park). What does it mean by calling? Calling is like a mission in this earth from heaven (Internet). Are we really thinking of looking at the Lord as a calling? Yes. The calling on earth that God in heaven has given us is to look to the Lord. Then, what should be the attitude of servants when we look at the Lord as our calling on earth in the midst of the ridicule and contempt of the proud? We must be humble. Those who know that looking at the Lord is their calling and with servant attitude don’t resent slowness of the Lord's salvation when they look to Him in distressed situations. They don't even know how to resent it (Park). And even if the Lord doesn’t save servants like us, if we look only at Him, we will continue to serve Him. The servants acknowledge the Lord's sovereignty. How dare we, His servants, to complain about the Lord's sovereign work?
While living on this earth, we must go up to the high places as we look only at the Lord. The Bible teaches that this is our attitude as servants of the Lord. While living on this earth, we must look to God who is our Lord as we believe that suffering for the Lord is an essential subject of grace. Especially when our hearts overflow with the ridicule and contempt of those who are at ease and the proud, we must rely on the mighty hand of the Lord. The right hand of his power will grasp our hand and deliver us from our deep swamps. He alone is our Savior. In the midst of that, let's not resent the slowness of the Lord's salvation. Let's just look at the Lord with faith and go forward with patience.
Third and last, we must look to the Lord until God is gracious to us.
Look at Psalms 123:2b, 3 – “… So our eyes look to the LORD our God, Until He is gracious to us. Be gracious to us, O LORD, be gracious to us, For we are greatly filled with contempt.” The psalmist didn’t stop looking at the Lord and prayed until God was gracious to him. In other words, he was determined not to stop looking at God until God was gracious to him. This word reminds me of Jacob's determination as he wrestled with the angel in Genesis 32:25 – “When he saw that he had not prevailed against him, he touched the socket of his thigh; so the socket of Jacob's thigh was dislocated while he wrestled with him.” The psalmist didn’t stop looking at the Lord and prayed until the Lord showed him mercy and grace. This is what Dr. Park said: ‘Therefore, he cries out to God. In this way, prayer is a saint's weapon. He overcomes all difficulties with prayer. Although the environment may change by prayer, the prayer's heart is changed and thus he is able to endure all difficulties’ (Park). It is one of two whether the distressing situation given to us changes by looking at the Lord and praying, or whether we, as prayers, are changed and can overcome the distressing situation.
In times of distressing, we must pray to the Lord, remembering four things, constantly asking for God's mercy and grace (Park): (1) We must remember that it was because of the Lord that we encountered the distressing situation, (2) We must remember that God gives us the strength to endure the distressing situation, (3) We must remember that God blesses us even in such distressing situation, and (4) We have to remember that later on, God will guide us away from that distressing situation.
There is a Korean gospel song I used to love to sing. It is “Yearning for God’s Love”: (v. 1) When you’ve been longing for God’s unfailing love/ When you’ve been yearning for God’s perfect peace/ God, our Lord, the Creator of heaven and earth, we know/ Is the One who loves you so. (v. 2) When we worship and lift up our praise to the Lord/ When we pursue His goodness and to be more like Him/ God, our Lord the Creator of heaven and earth, we know/ Is the One who calls you His own. (Chorus) Our God keeps His eyes upon you/ He’s always watching over you, His children/ God shed His blood to redeem you and me/ Day and night, He inclines His ear to us/ He has shone the light in the darkness/ He has heard your faintest moaning, then/ Wherever you are, lift your eyes to the Lord/ Look up to the Lord, to the Lord alone/ Look up to the Lord, to the Lord alone.
Let's lift our eyes and look to the Lord in heaven. Let us cry out to Him humbly, relying on the right hand of His power. Let us ask God until He is gracious to us and delivers us from our distressing situation.
Thinking the grace of God who helped me in my weakness and made my heart to pout out to Heavenly Father,
James Kim
(With gratitude for God's saving grace)