To You I Lift Up My Eyes
Devotional
Companion to the Psalter
A Devotional Guide to the Psalms
O you who are enthroned in the heavens!
As the eyes of servants
look to the hand of their master ...
So our eyes look to the LORD our God,
until he has mercy upon us.
-- Psalm 123:1b-2a, 2c
Theme: Prayer of the scorned faithful
Outline
1-2 -- We look to the LORD, like servants to their master, dependent on him for our needs and our directions.
3-4 -- Have mercy, Lord! We are being treated with contempt!
Notes
• Lament
• One of the Song of Ascents (Psalms 120-134).
• Probably written in Nehemiah's day, when returning exiles expected great things from God but found themselves in humiliating situations, receiving abuse and jeers from the Samaritans and heathen neighbors.
• The "proud" and "at ease" may be those who have no mission in life but to selfishly live it up and look down on the struggling faithful.
• Used on pilgrimage to remind them of God's care in trials and, when scorned, to pray.
For Reflection
• Cruel treatment causes bitterness, resentments, and emotional stress.
• The psalmist looked to God hoping for relief and renewal, his sore need.
• Shall we seek renewal and relief by means of prayer and our worship of the Lord?
Prayer
O God, who hast made man in thine own likeness and who dost love all whom thou hast made: Teach us the unity of thy family and the breadth of thy love. By the example of thy Son, Jesus our Savior, enable us, while loving and serving our own, to enter into the fellowship of the whole human family, and forbid that, from pride of race or hardness of heart, we should despise any for whom Christ died or injure any in whom he lives. Amen.
-- from The Book of Common Prayer
As the eyes of servants
look to the hand of their master ...
So our eyes look to the LORD our God,
until he has mercy upon us.
-- Psalm 123:1b-2a, 2c
Theme: Prayer of the scorned faithful
Outline
1-2 -- We look to the LORD, like servants to their master, dependent on him for our needs and our directions.
3-4 -- Have mercy, Lord! We are being treated with contempt!
Notes
• Lament
• One of the Song of Ascents (Psalms 120-134).
• Probably written in Nehemiah's day, when returning exiles expected great things from God but found themselves in humiliating situations, receiving abuse and jeers from the Samaritans and heathen neighbors.
• The "proud" and "at ease" may be those who have no mission in life but to selfishly live it up and look down on the struggling faithful.
• Used on pilgrimage to remind them of God's care in trials and, when scorned, to pray.
For Reflection
• Cruel treatment causes bitterness, resentments, and emotional stress.
• The psalmist looked to God hoping for relief and renewal, his sore need.
• Shall we seek renewal and relief by means of prayer and our worship of the Lord?
Prayer
O God, who hast made man in thine own likeness and who dost love all whom thou hast made: Teach us the unity of thy family and the breadth of thy love. By the example of thy Son, Jesus our Savior, enable us, while loving and serving our own, to enter into the fellowship of the whole human family, and forbid that, from pride of race or hardness of heart, we should despise any for whom Christ died or injure any in whom he lives. Amen.
-- from The Book of Common Prayer
