Bible Study: Psalm 123

“Unto thee lift I up mine eyes, O thou that dwellest in the heavens. Behold, as the eyes of servants look unto the hand of their masters, and as the eyes of a maiden unto the hand of her mistress; so our eyes wait upon the Lord our God, until that he have mercy upon us.  Have mercy upon us, O Lord, have mercy upon us: for we are exceedingly filled with contempt.  Our soul is exceedingly filled with the scorning of those that are at ease, and with the contempt of the proud.”

Psalm 123 begins with similar statements found in Psalm 121.  We are looking to you Lord.  Our eyes are continually brought back to ground level.  The nearness of the reality of what is taking place always has a way of drawing our eyes off of the Lord it seems.  Faith on the other hand continually lifts our eyes upwards to God beyond this earthly plane of existence to the Lord.  The latter part of this psalm brings back to mind Psalm 120 in which there is a reminder that we may not dwell in our own sin but that we still live among sinful people and our hearts desire is to be delivered from the evil they may treat us to.

The question then is how do we deal with our reality and keeping our eyes on the Lord at all times.  The psalmist in verse two has a prescription for us.  We are to look unto the Lord with the eyes of a servant.  Not as a hateful, complaining servant, but one who loves their master and finds fulfillment in serving.  We watch what direction God’s hands are doing and when He gives the signal, we move.

That’s an amazing thought.  It’s like any game that uses hand signals to communicate instead of verbal communications.  As when the the pitcher watches the catchers hands.  Servants who love the Lord don’t have to wait for a loud sign, they know the Master’s through experience and study what He wants them to by a simple gesture with His hands.

How is the hand of God moving upon your life?  Even if your life is in distress you can sense the hand of God moving you in a certain direction.  The leading of God is there if we learn to watch His hands.  What is he pointing you toward?  We are reminded to serve the Lord by Paul’s in Colossians 3:23, “And whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men.”  By serving the Lord in all we do, we are watching the hands of God and waiting on His leading.