Psalms

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Psalm 123

To you have I lifted up my eyes,
you who dwell in the heavens:
my eyes, like the eyes of slaves
on the hand of their lords.

Like the eyes of a servant
on the hand of her mistress,
so our eyes are on the Lord our God
till he show us his mercy.

Have mercy on us, Lord, have mercy.
We are filled with contempt.
Indeed all too full is our soul
with the scorn of the rich,
(with the proud man’s disdain).

Commentary

This very simple prayer also comes from the collection of pilgrim songs. The nation of Israel, in the person of this pilgrim, expresses her grief over foreign domination in post-exilic times (probably the overlordship of Persia), but there were also pressures and problems within the nation itself. What makes this poem great is the solution it offers to both the individual and the nation to find its peace in God. It offers illuminating help to anyone who wants to walk close to the Lord also.

To you have I lifted up my eyes,
you who dwell in the heavens:
my eyes, like the eyes of slaves
on the hand of their lords.

Like the eyes of a servant
on the hand of her mistress,
so our eyes are on the Lord our God
till he show us his mercy.

Have mercy on us, Lord, have mercy.
We are filled with contempt.
Indeed all too full is our soul
with the scorn of the rich,
(with the proud man’s disdain).
                                      (vv. 1-4).

Like the traveller in Psalm 121 this sufferer knows God, and therefore he unerringly finds victory, even though he is in more difficult circumstances. The solution is the same, but the spiritual victory is greater. Like St Paul he could say: “I know the One in whom I believe” (see 2 Timothy 1:12). In his distress he confidently lifts up his eyes to heaven, thus putting his problem in a context large enough for it to be solved. In troubled times our choice is to magnify the problem or magnify the Lord! When placed in the hands of the infinite One, the problem loses its power to frighten or to freeze us into inactivity. Jesus began the Lord’s Prayer by putting it into the same vast context of the Father in heaven. He expected us to deal with our life problems through this relationship with the Father of mankind.

Aware of the immense difference between the awesome majesty and splendour of God on the one hand, and the lowliness and helplessness of the creature on the other, the pilgrim approaches God humbly and with submission, just as slaves approached the masters of their day. There is a poignancy here because this pilgrim could possibly have served his time, like the rest of the nation, in long years of slavery, and learned the hard way that pride and stubbornness merely worked to his own destruction, whereas humility and submission were the only way to survive. He now transposes this knowledge into his relationship with God, because God, after all, was seen as the great ruler of the universe. If he had to come trembling into the presence of mere human masters who were not even kings, then how much reverence would be required of one who dared to enter the presence of the King of Kings?

The relationship with God is described in the utter attentiveness of the slave-girl to her mistress, and the slave-boy to his master. The poet is not saying that God is cruel, like many of the masters and mistresses of the day, who were ready to punish at any moment. Rather he expresses the reverential awe of the creature before the creator, and the utter dependence of the creature on God’s mercy and goodness, whilst acknowledging God’s absolute power and lordship over the world and submitting to Him in everything. The difference lies in the fact that God is not only supreme Lord, but also the Pater familias, the Father of Israel, or, in the words of St Paul, the Father from whom every family, whether spiritual or natural, takes its name (see Ephesians 3:14-15). We are utterly dependent on this kind and generous Father for all our spiritual and temporal needs. This image also implies that the pilgrim, and the nation as a whole, refuses to ease the strain of waiting on God by renouncing Him, or to buy off the contempt of the unbelievers by joining them. They will wait in confident love for the Father to notice their plight, and supply their need.

Jesus used the ideas expressed in this psalm to urge the Church to remain faithful, and to watch for His return in the Second Coming. He said that He expects to find His servants at their employment. Those who prove unfaithful and therefore unworthy of such a master will be punished (see Matthew 24:45-51). He expressed a similar idea in the waiting of the wise and foolish virgins for the bridegroom to return. Only those who were ready, and actively waiting, entered the banquet. In the parable of the talents each of the servants is gifted for his task and will be judged on his use of those gifts (see Matthew 25:1-30). Clearly the devotion of the slave-boy to his master or the slave-girl to her mistress urges upon us real devotion to the accomplishment of God’s will in our lives.

The humility and submission of the pilgrim provide the background to the lovely petition to God to be gracious, and to manifest, yet again, His loving-kindness to His people. The very simplicity of the request reveals the depth of prayer in the heart of this man, and is a reminder of Jesus’ teaching that we would not be heard for our many words (see Matthew 6:7-8). The pilgrim makes this request because he and the nation are suffering for the proud arrogance and contempt of their oppressors. It is only when this suffering is highlighted at the end of the psalm that we appreciate the purity and restrained, but loving, surrender that enabled this afflicted man to lift his eyes above all the oppressive darkness surrounding him, to breathe the pure air of God’s love and life as he seeks redemption and peace for himself and for the nation.

This psalm gives eloquent guidance for the spiritual pilgrim, whose journey through life is often compared to a dark night, because we are surrounded by unbelief and immorality in the world, where many suffer from unjust laws and political systems. Others suffer from oppression because of their faith in Jesus. The world about us is weighed down by the burden of its own rebellion against God, and there seems no relief, for she will not seek God. She seeks, instead, to destroy the Church which houses God’s presence and the solution to her problems. The only solution for the pilgrim lies in prayer to God.

Like the pilgrims of old, we must learn to fix our eyes on the Lord until He shows us His mercy in our world situation. The believers must stand in the breach for all those who do not understand, and for all those who do not believe, until God’s solution to our situation is revealed (see Psalm 106:23). Spiritual pilgrims do not walk alone, just for their own benefit. They are the remnant through whom the many will be saved, even without their knowledge; another sign of God’s incredible love. The cost is high, for they must live in total surrender to God in everything, even in the most trivial things. But they know that true freedom lies in this absolute surrender to the will of God and His sovereign Lordship over our lives. It makes them the happiest people on earth, and this is no small compensation for the price of surrender!

The surrendered person has found paradise on earth, and lives, even now, in the joy and peace of an unbroken relationship of love with God. He experiences true personal freedom, for he has learned , like Peter, to keep his eyes on the Lord, not on the wind and the waves of the stormy sea of life around him, so he magnifies the Lord, not the problem. Because of this stance, he experiences miracles in his life, because the obstacles to God’s loving intervention are removed. Christians should not so much believe in the impossible, but do it!

Nevertheless, Christians must accept the contempt of the unbeliever as part of their lot, for the unbeliever does not share their vision and considers them foolish, and so rejects them. The world of the rich laughs them to scorn too, for their god is money and the worldly power that it buys, and the pilgrim is very often bereft of both. Jesus, the greatest pilgrim, and the leader of those on the way, had to take the contempt of the world before us, especially during His Passion, when the world poured its scorn onto Him for being foolish enough to think that He could change it and transform it by love alone. He has won for us the grace and the power to continue that transforming work in a world that will never appreciate what is being done for it, because it is blind to the presence of God in its midst, and deaf to His Word, so that its people cannot see, hear or understand, else they would be converted and live (see Matthew 13:15).

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