Psalm 123
1 I lift up my eyes to you,
to you whose throne is in heaven.
2 As the eyes of slaves look to the hand of their master,
as the eyes of a maid look to the hand of her mistress,
so our eyes look to the Lord our God,
till he shows us his mercy.
3 Have mercy on us, O Lord, have mercy on us,
for we have endured much contempt.
4 We have endured much ridicule from the proud,
much contempt from the arrogant.
INTRODUCTION
Sometimes as a Christian it is good to view our lives as being like a sponge.
When we worship, as we were doing this morning in Psalm 122,
We are soaking up everything that God has to offer.
We soak up knowledge of God,
We soak up our experience of God.
We gather as much as we can,
Just like a sponge soaks up a liquid.
But there comes a point in the life cycle of a sponge when it cannot take in any more.
It is totally saturated.
And even the slightest movement results in the liquid squirting out on all sides.
And that is what Psalm 123 is all about this evening.
Having soaked up everything we can about God in worship,
Now we need to wring it all out in service.
So that we are ready to soak up even more.
A life of worship with no service leaves us bloated and useless.
BUT A life of service with no worship leaves us dry and without purpose.
But when Worship and service come together,
Then we are living in a healthy, balanced relationship with Jesus Christ.
As we learn about Jesus, we need to share that knowledge with others.
As we experience His Grace we need to be gracious to others
As we see his compassion for us, we need to show compassion to others.
So lets us learn how to serve.
LOOK UP TO GOD
The first step in serving God, is to come to Him with the correct attitude.
Many in the world today, look down on God.
They see God as fitting into their plans, and so they look down occasionally, to make sure that he is still about.
Sadder still are the many who never look near God,
Have no thought of him, and live their lives with no need of Him, and no interest in Him.
But if we are to serve God then we need to sing this Psalm,
And look up to God.
I lift up my eyes to you,
to you whose throne is in heaven.
2 As the eyes of slaves look to the hand of their master,
as the eyes of a maid look to the hand of her mistress,
so our eyes look to the Lord our God.
Psalm 123:1,2a
For us to be servants, God must be on his throne,
He must be the King.
He must be in full control and we must bow to His authority.
Service begins with an upward look to God, God is over us.
The person of faith looks up to God,
Not at Him or down on Him, but up to Him.
It is all about our posture before God.
Sometimes we can assume the leading role.
And we must guard against that at all cost.
We must be in the correct position in relation to God.
We must be His servants.
But that is difficult, because often we think that we know best.
We want to carry out our own plans.
But … As the eyes of slaves look to the hand of their master,
as the eyes of a maid look to the hand of her mistress,
so our eyes look to the Lord our God.
It hardly even matters what we are doing at this stage,
As long as we are always looking at God.
Then we know what he wants us to do.
It is all based on our attitude to God.
If we take our eyes off Him, then we are no longer servants.
We need to be ready to spring into action when we receive the call.
I heard a story recently about Prince Andrew who was at a press launch for an investment in an expanding company in Belfast.
There was a photographer at the event who was very loud and was very distracting.
Prince Andrew simply looked at one of his security guards and pointed to the photographer.
And, immediately they were escorted away.
The security guard was watching for the slightest movement of the Prince to leap into action.
Are our eyes on the Lord in such a way, that we are ready to serve?
Ready to spring into action as soon as he motions to us.
If God is God, then he will know, much more about our needs than we do.
Sometimes it is hard for us to understand this.
We find it unnatural to trust Him in this way,
But that is what it means to be a servant.
ASK FOR MERCY
If we are to be servants we must look up to God,
But what do we expect when we look to God.
What do we want from God?
If we start the journey at this Psalm,
Then perhaps we would have a long list of things that we would want as we look to God.
I’m looking to you Lord,
Give me health and wealth.
A comfortable life,
And happiness.
But this is not the beginning of the journey.
Indeed this is the fourth step of the journey,
We have already come quite a distance to reach this point,
So as the Psalm this morning directed us in worship,
So we have met with God and realised how awesome he is.
In Psalm 120 we became dissatisfied with this world and left the old life behind.
Now as we look to God we realise our greatest need.
And it is not health or wealth it is Mercy!
We must also ask for mercy.
Like a slave and a maid,
As the eyes of slaves look to the hand of their master,
as the eyes of a maid look to the hand of her mistress,
so our eyes look to the Lord our God,
till he shows us his mercy.
3 Have mercy on us, O Lord, have mercy on us,
for we have endured much contempt.
Psalm 123:2,3
We realise that there is no greater need than the mercy of God.
It is almost as though the initial excitement of going to the Temple has now been replaced with the reality of what is involved.
We are going to meet the King of Kings.
And he knows everything about us.
If all these people around us, knew what we were really like, then we are in trouble.
Lord Show me mercy
Have mercy
Have mercy.
I cannot take another step closer to you unless you show mercy.
Because the closer I come the more sin I notice.
You know what it is like when you are going to a job interview.
You start out excited at the opportunity of the new job.
And then as you sit in the waiting room, and look round at the other candidates, you suddenly notice the problems.
My shoes aren’t as shiny as they should be?
What is that stain on my jacket?
Why did I think that tie was a good idea this morning?
We ask God for mercy.
We are his servants,
And it is no longer the case that we think.
Why do I have to give of my time in service.
Now we think, Lord have mercy and I will gladly serve you.
I would love the opportunity to serve you.
Have mercy Lord.
Because when we have been shown mercy, we are more ready to share that mercy with others.
When we serve others, we do it to show mercy to others,
We do not do it for personal gain,
But out of compassion.
SACRIFICE
Now we could stop here this evening.
Because we have a good solid spiritual basis for service.
We are to look to God and ask for Mercy.
But although we are on a spiritual journey with these Psalms,
This is also a real physical journey.
The Israelites are on their way to the Temple in Jerusalem.
We are on our way to meet with God.
Notice that this Psalm does not mention serving others.
It only deals with serving God.
But the implication is that, if we have the right attitude to God,
Then we will naturally serve God.
So what do we do practically to serve.
Perhaps the best advice is found at the end of Romans from chapter 12-16.
We know the beginning of chapter 12 well,
Eugene Peterson paraphrases it like this:
So here's what I want you to do, God helping you:
Take your everyday, ordinary life––your sleeping, eating, going–to–work, and walking–around life––and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him.
Romans 12:1 (The Message)
This is service.
Take the ordinary things that we do every day, …
and do them for God.
In deed place them as an offering before God each day.
Say to God, here is my job today,
Take it and use it in your kingdom, may something be done to bring glory to you.
Take the little jobs that I will do today Lord and may they make an eternal difference in the lives of others.
The NIV calls this your spiritual act of worship.
Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God–this is your spiritual act of worship.
Romans 12:1 (NIV)
The next verse from Romans could be taken from this Psalm.
Don't become so well–adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You'll be changed from the inside out.
Romans 12:2
We are to fix our attention on God
Look to him with the eyes of a slave or a maid.
And in so doing our whole lives will be transformed.
If the attitude of servanthood is learned, by attending to God as Lord,
Then serving others will develop as a very natural way of life.
This Psalm is warning us,
That if we are not servants, then perhaps there is something wrong with our relationship with God.
Jesus of course sets this example of servanthood for us, remember in John 13 when he washed the feet of His disciples.
12 When he had finished washing their feet, he put on his clothes and returned to his place. “Do you understand what I have done for you?” he asked them. 13 “You call me ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord,’ and rightly so, for that is what I am. 14 Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet. 15 I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you. 16 I tell you the truth, no servant is greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. 17 Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them.
John 13:12-17
So we are to be servants just as Jesus has served.
CONCLUSION
So let us lift our eyes to the one who is in heaven,
And ask him for mercy,
And then offer our everyday ordinary lives as a living sacrifice to Him.
1 I lift up my eyes to you,
to you whose throne is in heaven.
2 As the eyes of slaves look to the hand of their master,
as the eyes of a maid look to the hand of her mistress,
so our eyes look to the Lord our God,
till he shows us his mercy.
3 Have mercy on us, O Lord, have mercy on us,
for we have endured much contempt.
4 We have endured much ridicule from the proud,
much contempt from the arrogant.
INTRODUCTION
Sometimes as a Christian it is good to view our lives as being like a sponge.
When we worship, as we were doing this morning in Psalm 122,
We are soaking up everything that God has to offer.
We soak up knowledge of God,
We soak up our experience of God.
We gather as much as we can,
Just like a sponge soaks up a liquid.
But there comes a point in the life cycle of a sponge when it cannot take in any more.
It is totally saturated.
And even the slightest movement results in the liquid squirting out on all sides.
And that is what Psalm 123 is all about this evening.
Having soaked up everything we can about God in worship,
Now we need to wring it all out in service.
So that we are ready to soak up even more.
A life of worship with no service leaves us bloated and useless.
BUT A life of service with no worship leaves us dry and without purpose.
But when Worship and service come together,
Then we are living in a healthy, balanced relationship with Jesus Christ.
As we learn about Jesus, we need to share that knowledge with others.
As we experience His Grace we need to be gracious to others
As we see his compassion for us, we need to show compassion to others.
So lets us learn how to serve.
LOOK UP TO GOD
The first step in serving God, is to come to Him with the correct attitude.
Many in the world today, look down on God.
They see God as fitting into their plans, and so they look down occasionally, to make sure that he is still about.
Sadder still are the many who never look near God,
Have no thought of him, and live their lives with no need of Him, and no interest in Him.
But if we are to serve God then we need to sing this Psalm,
And look up to God.
I lift up my eyes to you,
to you whose throne is in heaven.
2 As the eyes of slaves look to the hand of their master,
as the eyes of a maid look to the hand of her mistress,
so our eyes look to the Lord our God.
Psalm 123:1,2a
For us to be servants, God must be on his throne,
He must be the King.
He must be in full control and we must bow to His authority.
Service begins with an upward look to God, God is over us.
The person of faith looks up to God,
Not at Him or down on Him, but up to Him.
It is all about our posture before God.
Sometimes we can assume the leading role.
And we must guard against that at all cost.
We must be in the correct position in relation to God.
We must be His servants.
But that is difficult, because often we think that we know best.
We want to carry out our own plans.
But … As the eyes of slaves look to the hand of their master,
as the eyes of a maid look to the hand of her mistress,
so our eyes look to the Lord our God.
It hardly even matters what we are doing at this stage,
As long as we are always looking at God.
Then we know what he wants us to do.
It is all based on our attitude to God.
If we take our eyes off Him, then we are no longer servants.
We need to be ready to spring into action when we receive the call.
I heard a story recently about Prince Andrew who was at a press launch for an investment in an expanding company in Belfast.
There was a photographer at the event who was very loud and was very distracting.
Prince Andrew simply looked at one of his security guards and pointed to the photographer.
And, immediately they were escorted away.
The security guard was watching for the slightest movement of the Prince to leap into action.
Are our eyes on the Lord in such a way, that we are ready to serve?
Ready to spring into action as soon as he motions to us.
If God is God, then he will know, much more about our needs than we do.
Sometimes it is hard for us to understand this.
We find it unnatural to trust Him in this way,
But that is what it means to be a servant.
ASK FOR MERCY
If we are to be servants we must look up to God,
But what do we expect when we look to God.
What do we want from God?
If we start the journey at this Psalm,
Then perhaps we would have a long list of things that we would want as we look to God.
I’m looking to you Lord,
Give me health and wealth.
A comfortable life,
And happiness.
But this is not the beginning of the journey.
Indeed this is the fourth step of the journey,
We have already come quite a distance to reach this point,
So as the Psalm this morning directed us in worship,
So we have met with God and realised how awesome he is.
In Psalm 120 we became dissatisfied with this world and left the old life behind.
Now as we look to God we realise our greatest need.
And it is not health or wealth it is Mercy!
We must also ask for mercy.
Like a slave and a maid,
As the eyes of slaves look to the hand of their master,
as the eyes of a maid look to the hand of her mistress,
so our eyes look to the Lord our God,
till he shows us his mercy.
3 Have mercy on us, O Lord, have mercy on us,
for we have endured much contempt.
Psalm 123:2,3
We realise that there is no greater need than the mercy of God.
It is almost as though the initial excitement of going to the Temple has now been replaced with the reality of what is involved.
We are going to meet the King of Kings.
And he knows everything about us.
If all these people around us, knew what we were really like, then we are in trouble.
Lord Show me mercy
Have mercy
Have mercy.
I cannot take another step closer to you unless you show mercy.
Because the closer I come the more sin I notice.
You know what it is like when you are going to a job interview.
You start out excited at the opportunity of the new job.
And then as you sit in the waiting room, and look round at the other candidates, you suddenly notice the problems.
My shoes aren’t as shiny as they should be?
What is that stain on my jacket?
Why did I think that tie was a good idea this morning?
We ask God for mercy.
We are his servants,
And it is no longer the case that we think.
Why do I have to give of my time in service.
Now we think, Lord have mercy and I will gladly serve you.
I would love the opportunity to serve you.
Have mercy Lord.
Because when we have been shown mercy, we are more ready to share that mercy with others.
When we serve others, we do it to show mercy to others,
We do not do it for personal gain,
But out of compassion.
SACRIFICE
Now we could stop here this evening.
Because we have a good solid spiritual basis for service.
We are to look to God and ask for Mercy.
But although we are on a spiritual journey with these Psalms,
This is also a real physical journey.
The Israelites are on their way to the Temple in Jerusalem.
We are on our way to meet with God.
Notice that this Psalm does not mention serving others.
It only deals with serving God.
But the implication is that, if we have the right attitude to God,
Then we will naturally serve God.
So what do we do practically to serve.
Perhaps the best advice is found at the end of Romans from chapter 12-16.
We know the beginning of chapter 12 well,
Eugene Peterson paraphrases it like this:
So here's what I want you to do, God helping you:
Take your everyday, ordinary life––your sleeping, eating, going–to–work, and walking–around life––and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him.
Romans 12:1 (The Message)
This is service.
Take the ordinary things that we do every day, …
and do them for God.
In deed place them as an offering before God each day.
Say to God, here is my job today,
Take it and use it in your kingdom, may something be done to bring glory to you.
Take the little jobs that I will do today Lord and may they make an eternal difference in the lives of others.
The NIV calls this your spiritual act of worship.
Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God–this is your spiritual act of worship.
Romans 12:1 (NIV)
The next verse from Romans could be taken from this Psalm.
Don't become so well–adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You'll be changed from the inside out.
Romans 12:2
We are to fix our attention on God
Look to him with the eyes of a slave or a maid.
And in so doing our whole lives will be transformed.
If the attitude of servanthood is learned, by attending to God as Lord,
Then serving others will develop as a very natural way of life.
This Psalm is warning us,
That if we are not servants, then perhaps there is something wrong with our relationship with God.
Jesus of course sets this example of servanthood for us, remember in John 13 when he washed the feet of His disciples.
12 When he had finished washing their feet, he put on his clothes and returned to his place. “Do you understand what I have done for you?” he asked them. 13 “You call me ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord,’ and rightly so, for that is what I am. 14 Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet. 15 I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you. 16 I tell you the truth, no servant is greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. 17 Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them.
John 13:12-17
So we are to be servants just as Jesus has served.
CONCLUSION
So let us lift our eyes to the one who is in heaven,
And ask him for mercy,
And then offer our everyday ordinary lives as a living sacrifice to Him.
RSS Feed
