This Psalm is the fourth of the 15 “Songs of Ascent”, traditionally sung by Hebrew pilgrims as they traveled upward toward Jerusalem for the annual festivals. This Psalm echoes the prayer of Psalm 121, where the Psalmist believed that God watches over. With this same faith, now the Psalmist turns to God in his need, like slaves who are dependent on their master.
The Supreme Ruler
I lift up my eyes to you, to you who sit enthroned in heaven.
Psalm 123:1 (NIV)
To receive the fullest blessings from God in every walk of life, we should believe that God, as Creator, has complete control over everything on earth, seen and unseen. Here many fail by attributing their failures to darkness, as if darkness lay outside the Creator’s jurisdiction. They argue that darkness prevailed even before creation (Genesis 1:2), and that God only separated the light from the darkness. But if we churn butter from milk, it does not mean that the milk was beyond our control because the cow, not we, gave it, or that we extracted the butter and left the milk untouched. We know very well that this is not the case with butter and milk, and so we should understand that darkness was never beyond God’s control, since He handled it in order to separate the light out of it.
An incredible truth is hidden here: darkness contains light within it, and the light can shine only when God intervenes. When God brings forth light out of darkness, darkness has no power to overcome the light (John 1:5); rather, the light overcomes the darkness. If we understand this, we will gladly seek Him in our darkest periods, so that He may make us shine for Him despite all the darkness hovering around us. We must rid our minds of the thought that some areas of our life are out of bounds for God.
An Attitude Of A Slave
As the eyes of slaves look to the hand of their master, as the eyes of a female slave look to the hand of her mistress, so our eyes look to the LORD our God, till he shows us his mercy.
Psalm 123:2 (NIV)
Perhaps it is hard for us to understand the state of a slave in ancient times, and therefore their attitudes. Since slaves had nothing and could claim no rights, they always looked to their masters for instructions and for the provision they needed for their work. First they sought the instructions, and then they expected the resources necessary to carry them out. In all this, slaves looked for mercy from masters who had none. From this we should learn how much easier it is for us to receive mercy from God, who is abundant in love and kindness.
If we consider our own attitude in looking to our Master for instructions, provision and mercy, our situation is entirely different from that of ancient slaves. Yet we are reluctant to heed His instructions while ready to grab all His provisions. Seeking mercy from the One who shows it has become difficult for us, because our own iniquities, though forgiven by God, still come between us and Him. God has liberated us from slavery to sin, yet we still want to live as slaves to sin, rejecting the freedom He gave us. As slaves to sin, we use the freedom God gave us as a cover for our sin. Peter addresses this attitude, urging us to live as free people (1 Peter 2:16). Paul is likewise clear about believers misusing their freedom, and he asks them not to use it to live in sin again (Galatians 5:13).
We have been called to serve our God freely, as His own children and not as slaves or paid servants. We do serve God, but not because He compels us to; we serve because of what He has done for us. Having become His children, we no longer need to wait for Him to show us mercy; we need only receive the mercy He has freely given us. Unaware of their present status, many people are still looking to Him with fasting and prayer to receive His mercy.
Pleading For His Mercy
Have mercy on us, LORD, have mercy on us, for we have endured no end of contempt.
We have endured no end of ridicule from the arrogant, of contempt from the proud.
Psalm 123:3-4 (NIV)
Even after God has shown His mercy to us, why do we still expect Him to have mercy on us, especially when we come across difficult situations in our lives? The reason is simple. After showing us mercy, God asks us to love mercy. We love and seek mercy all the time for ourselves, but we fail to love the same mercy when it comes to others. We want our God to be partial: to show mercy to us and, on the other hand, to be merciless to others.
The foremost reason we are unable to cherish His mercy in its fullness is that we seek it only to overcome the challenges of daily life, such as financial crisis, hostile situations or sickness. His mercy is already upon us in all these difficulties, whether we ask or not. But we fail to seek His mercy in our daily battle between following the true God, our Father, and submitting to king of this world, the devil. In this area too, His mercy was granted to us publicly on the cross, but we are ignorant of what God has already done to the devil and his schemes. We still believe the devil’s lies, and we seek His mercy for them.
People are proud when they have everything in their lives. However, if we are filled with contempt because of their pride, we somehow want to become like them in future, after overcoming our present struggles. This idea fills us with contempt and sorrow, and the devil prevents us from receiving the love and kindness of God. Only when we understand that God has already won the battle which we struggle to win within ourselves will we stop bothering about the lies of the devil, which push us back into the regime of law from the present era of mercy, reigned over by the Sovereign God.
Father God, make us aware of Your love and kindness, as You revealed to Moses. Help us to understand that You are the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion, and sin. Amen.
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