Psalm 123

I direct my gaze to the LORD in heaven.

 


 

I DIRECT MY GAZE TO THE LORD IN HEAVEN

A Song of Ascents.

NOTE: The term “A Song of Ascents” identifies psalms 120 to 134 as pilgrim songs to be sung when the Israelites “ascended” (went up) to Jerusalem for the annual feasts.

 

VERSE 1. To you I do lift up my eyes, you who sit in the heavens.

To you. Our best destiny is found when we direct our gaze to the LORD Gd.

lift up my eyes. To direct our gaze onto the LORD God means to lift them.

Instead of focusing on the horizontal, the worldly, the transitory, the temporary, we instead focus on God, and the things of eternity.

sit in the heavens. Many people uncritically think of heaven as a “place,” sort of like how “Toledo, Ohio” is a place.

But the heavens are the realm of eternity.

Eternity is completely outside our universe, our limited realm of time and space.

Our universe is a temporary construct. It is characterized by chronological time and three-dimensional space.

It is beyond our limited human brainpower to conceptualize a realm that does not involve time or space. This is one of the many ways that God’s thoughts are far beyond ours.

Many believers assume the LORD God thinks and acts like them. But he is infinitely beyond us. Read more »

 

VERSE 2. Behold, as the eyes of servants look to the hand of their master, as the eyes of a maid to the hand of her mistress; so our eyes look to the LORD, our God, until he has mercy on us.

our eyes look to the LORD. That is, “our eyes wait upon the LORD.”

For many of us, waiting is the most difficult aspect of the spiritual life. Whatever it is that we want, we want it NOW!

 

VERSE 3. Have mercy on us, LORD, have mercy on us, for we have endured much contempt.

Have mercy upon us. That is, show us your favor. It is great to ask the LORD for his favor.

we have endured much contempt. That is, “arrogant people have exhibited contempt for us Jewish people.”

They have been victimized, and they need a fresh outpouring of God’s mercy.

In the course of world history, an evil antisemitic agenda repeats over and over again. In our day, professing Christians are often the worst of the worst when it comes to Antisemitism. Read more »

 

VERSE 4. Our soul is exceedingly filled with the scoffing of those who are at ease, with the contempt of the proud.

 


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PSALMS

CHAPTERS: 01, 02, 03, 04, 05, 06, 07, 08, 09, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 1617, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 3435, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 5253, 5455, 56, 57, 58, 59, 60, 61, 62, 63, 64, 65, 66, 67, 68, 69, 7071, 72, 73, 74, 75, 76, 77, 78, 79, 80, 81, 82, 83, 84, 85, 86, 87, 888990, 91, 92, 93, 94, 95, 96, 97, 98, 99, 100, 101, 102, 103, 104105, 106, 107108, 109, 110, 111, 112, 113, 114, 115, 116, 117, 118, 119120, 121, 122, 123, 124, 125, 126, 127, 128, 129, 130, 131, 132, 133, 134135, 136, 137, 138, 139, 140, 141, 142, 143, 144, 145, 146, 147, 148149, 150

Deuterocanonical chapter: 151

RESOURCES: Summary, Outline, MemorizeDavid’s Fasting

Unless otherwise noted, all Bible quotations on this page are from the World English Bible and the World Messianic Edition. These translations have no copyright restrictions. They are in the Public Domain.