Psalms 123:1 - Meaning and Application

Here we have:

I. The solemn confession God’s people make of faith and hope in him, in Psalm 123:1, 2. Notice, first, the title they give to God: “O you who live in heaven.” Our Lord Jesus taught us to pray with our eyes on God as our Father in heaven. This does not mean God is limited to heaven, but that he shows his glory there in a special way, like a king in his court. Heaven is a place of wide sight and great power, and from there God sees all the troubles of his people and sends help to save them.

At times, God seems to have left the earth, and the enemies of his people ask, “Where is your God now?” But even then, believers can say with confidence, “Our God is in heaven.” Some translate the phrase, “O you who sit in heaven,” meaning he sits there as Judge. The Lord has set his throne in heaven, and wronged innocence may appeal to that throne.

Second, notice their posture toward God. The psalmist lifts up his eyes to him. The eyes of a good person are always toward the Lord (Psalm 25:15). In every prayer, we lift up the soul, the inner eye, to God, especially in trouble, which is the situation here. The eyes of the people wait on the Lord (Psalm 123:2). Mercy comes toward a people when the eyes of all the tribes are fixed on the Lord (Zechariah 9:1).

Our physical eyes are raised upward. As the old saying goes, “He gave human beings an upright form,” to teach us which way to direct the eyes of the mind. “Our eyes wait on the Lord” means the eye of desire and prayer, the begging eye, and the eye of dependence, hope, expectation, and longing. Our eyes must wait on God as the Lord and our God until he shows mercy.

This is explained by the picture in Psalm 123:2. Our eyes are to God like a servant’s eyes to the hand of a master or mistress. A servant watches the master’s hand in several ways. First, for direction, expecting work to be assigned and shown clearly. “Lord, what do you want me to do?” Second, for provision. Servants look to their master or mistress for food in due time (Proverbs 31:15). In the same way, we must look to God for daily bread and for enough grace, and receive it with thanks.

Third, a servant looks for help. If a servant cannot do the work alone, where else should he look but to his master? So we must go forward in the strength of the Lord God. Fourth, a servant looks to his master’s protecting hand. If he is opposed, questioned, or injured in his work, his master should defend him. So God’s people, when they are persecuted, may appeal to their Master and say, “We are yours, save us.”

Fifth, a servant looks to his correcting hand. If he has angered his master and is being punished, he does not call for help against his master. He keeps his eyes on the hand that strikes him until it says, “It is enough, I will not contend forever.” God’s people were under his rebuke at this time, and where else should they turn but to the one who struck them? (Isaiah 9:13) To whom should they plead but to their Judge? They will not do as Hagar did, who ran away from her mistress when hardship came upon her (Genesis 16:6). Instead, they submit to God and humble themselves under his mighty hand.

Sixth, a servant looks for the reward hand. The servant expects wages and approval from the master. Hypocrites fix their eyes on the world’s hand, and that is all the reward they get (Matthew 6:2). But true Christians look to God as the one who rewards.

II. The humble prayer God’s people bring to him in their painful condition (Psalm 123:3, 4). They ask for mercy without telling God what to do, and without claiming any merit of their own. They simply say, “Have mercy on us, Lord, have mercy on us.” We find little mercy among men. Even their “tender mercies” can be cruel, and there are cruel mockings. But this is our comfort, that mercy belongs to the Lord. We need ask for nothing more to ease us than God’s mercy itself. Whatever troubles the church faces, God’s mercy is the sure remedy.

They also state their grief: “We are greatly filled with contempt.” Reproach is the wound and burden they complain of. Notice, first, who was being reproached: “We, the ones who look to you.” Those whom God owns are often despised and trampled by the world. Some understand the phrase to mean “those who are at ease” and “the proud,” describing the people who are mocked and looked down on. Their grief is that those who live at peace, and the excellent ones, are scorned and despised. The saints are a peaceable people, yet they are abused (Psalm 35:20). They are the excellent ones of the earth, yet they are undervalued (Lamentations 4:1, 2).

Second, notice who did the reproaching. As the words stand, it was the comfortable, worldly, sensual people (Job 12:5). The scoffers are those who follow their own desires and serve their own appetites. The proud are those who defy God and think highly of themselves. They trampled on God’s people, hoping to lift themselves up by putting others down.

Third, notice how deeply they were reproached. “We are filled with it,” they say, “our soul is greatly filled with it.” Their enemies thought they could never mock them enough or make them look low enough, and they could not help taking it to heart. It was like a sword in their bones (Psalm 42:10). Scorn and contempt have been, are now, and are likely to remain the lot of God’s people in this world. Ishmael mocked Isaac, and that is called persecution, and so it is still (Galatians 4:29).

In the face of human scorn, it is a comfort to know that mercy is with God, mercy for our good names when they are cruelly treated. “Hear us, O our God, for we are despised.”