“To you I lift up my eyes, O you who are enthroned in the heavens!” Psalm 123:1 ESV
Reflection: what is God doing in your life these days?
Pick any of your favorite story from the Old Testament. Perhaps of Noah and the flood, building an Ark to save his family and the animals. Maybe the story of Abraham and how God spared Isaac by providing a sacrifice. Or Joseph becoming the second in command under Pharaoh to prevent a great famine. Maybe Moses leading the Israelites out of slavery and towards the promised land. They are all amazing stories. But how did these great people know what direction God was leading them? Did He speak with an audible voice? Or was it something else? We often read and talk about these stories with an understanding that God in a way was very “present” back then, compared to now, compared to what we can experience and see? But, is this right?
Let’s turn the clock forwards, to the days of Jesus, when God through Jesus steps into the world Himself. We certainly see God’s presence, and Him speaking directly to us. And, in the end of the book of Mark, we see Jesus saying what will happen after He ascends to heaven, “And these signs will accompany those who believe: in my name they will cast out demons; they will speak in new tongues; they will pick up serpents with their hands; and if they drink any deadly poison, it will not hurt them; they will lay their hands on the sick, and they will recover.”” Mark 16:17-18 ESV. Certainly, Jesus is saying that the presence of God will be with all believers. That “signs” will follow “those who believe”. So what is the problem here? Is it lack of faith, or lack of vision? Is God still doing work, and we just don’t see it?
Psalm 123 may help answer this question. Let’s read the first two verses. “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.”Psalm 123:1-2 ESV. This is another “psalm of ascents”, a psalm sang on the way up to Jerusalem. Up towards the temple of the Lord. Keep in mind the figurative language here. And, notice the first thing that the psalmist writes, what the first necessary in order to see the works of God. “To you I lift up my eyes, O you who are enthroned in the heavens!” Psalm 123:1 ESV. The idea here is that we need to look beyond an immediate “solution”in the physical. To see the bigger picture of what God is doing.
Secondly, we notice something very interesting that the psalmist is writing. “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.”Psalm 123:1-2 ESV. We get here almost an intense anticipation of the observer, watching, looking for every little movement of God. Why? Because we then can start to put the bigger picture together. Of what the direction God is leading. And, we finally see the prayer, the request of the Lord from the psalmist, as we read “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.” Psalm 123:3-4 ESV.
I am afraid we often jump to the prayer, asking God to fix something in our lives, without the right frame of mind. Looking for a “quick fix” of God, without first “lifting our eyes” to Him, looking for His will and His leadership. And, we miss out watching Him work. There is such deep treasure here, not just for God’s people thousands of years ago. But for God’s people today. Remember, “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.” Hebrews 13:8 ESV.