Look Up

Scripture Reading: Psalm 123

To you I lift up my eyes, O you who are enthroned in the heavens! 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. Have mercy upon us, O LORD, have mercy upon us, for we have had more than enough of contempt. Our soul has had more than enough of the scorn of those who are at ease, of the contempt of the proud.

Here, the Psalmist does things out of order. He gives us his solution before he tells us what his problem is. He doesn’t get to the problem until the last two verses. He was fed up with the contempt and scorn he was receiving from the unbelievers. They were at ease and full of pride and looked down on this struggling pilgrim, mocking his faith. He had had his fill of that.

But before he ever gets to the problem, he tells us the solution. He looked up to God. He shifted his focus.

One way to visualize what is happening here is to imagine you are walking down the street and you come across some guy who is staring up into the sky. You stop and ask him what he is doing. He responds by telling you he is looking to God for help. You ask him why and he tells you it is because he is fed up with the way things are going in life.

That is what is happening here. We begin with the Psalmist looking into the heavens before we are told why.

What is the point?

In part, I believe it is a way of saying that is where we should always begin. We should assume that this world, that is the devilish systems and demonic beliefs of this present age, are going to pester us until we get fed up. We are going to have more than enough. Since we can assume that is going to be the experience of the believer, we can also assume that we ought to go ahead and take the medicine before we get the sickness of fedupness.

We should begin by looking to God before we face the problem. Begin your day by lifting up your eyes to the Lord who is enthroned in the heavens. It won’t stop the contempt of the world, but it will help your spirit when you start to get your belly full of it.