October 23rd

Psalm 123

To You I lift up my eyes

Several years ago, PBS produced the documentary, Eyes on the Prize.  The movie recounts the fight to end decades of discrimination and segregation. It is the story of the people — young and old, male and female, northern and southern — who, compelled by a meeting of conscience and circumstance, worked to eradicate a world where whites and blacks could not go to the same school, ride the same bus, vote in the same election, or participate equally in society. It was a world in which peaceful demonstrators were met with resistance and brutality.  [1]

Most scholars believe Psalm 123 was written during or after Israel’s exile in Babylon. It speaks of God’s people enduring contempt and ridicule at the hands of the arrogant and proud (see verses 3-4). It’s not difficult to imagine groups of Jewish pilgrims traveling from distant, foreign lands toward the rebuilt temple in Jerusalem singing this poem. They’ve lived for generations as tiny, marginalized communities facing prejudice, injustice, and persecution for their devotion to only one God and his counter-cultural laws. Psalm 123 was their cry to YHWH for mercy and a prayer for justice against those who’ve mistreated them.

The most remarkable thing about the psalm, however, is not its complaint but its restraint. Despite facing ridicule and contempt, the people do not retaliate. They do not express hatred toward their foreign oppressors. They do not lift their own hands in vengeance. Instead, they lift their eyes and look at YHWH’s hand.  The message is simple and powerful. The people trust the Lord to defend them, so they do not have to defend themselves.  

In a beautiful comment, Charles Spurgeon says, ‘This psalm is ‘a sigh.’ We don’t have to pray long to get God’s attention for the force of prayer is not in many words.’ 

The ‘eyes’ have it (v. 1-2)

These first verses give witness to the sovereignty of God.  And our psalmist does this by focusing her eyes upon God.  Four times ‘eyes’ are mentioned.  The idea is that her intention is to look to God for her deliverance and protection.  

God’s favour (v. 3-4)

We look with our eyes expecting to receive something.  What we seek is ‘mercy or grace or favour.’   Mercy is not sufficient to convey the wonderful promise of abundance that is grace.  Grace is not sufficient to point to the vulnerability of the psalmist and us.  ‘Favour’ captures both of these and more. 

As with most laments in the Psalter, the oppressors of the psalm singers are not named — they are simply identified as “those at ease” and “the proud.”  The psalmists feel overwhelmed with contempt and mockery.  In Spurgeon’s words, ‘The faithful have more contempt than they can bear, a bellyful.’           

While the psalmist, and perhaps we too, feel God is not paying attention, we are reminded of an earlier psalms’ bracing affirmation:

¹² Rise up, O Lord; O God, lift up your hand;
   do not forget the oppressed.
¹³ Why do the wicked renounce God,
   and say in their hearts, ‘You will not call us to account’?

¹⁴ But you do see!  Indeed you note trouble and grief,
   that you may take it into your hands;
the helpless commit themselves to you;
   you have been the helper of the orphan.   [Ps. 10.13-14]

The church saw the treatment of Jesus in such contempt, but remarkably Jesus did not curse but blessed those who mistreated him.   

In the 1950s Blacks in the American South felt helpless and powerless. Then in the 60s they began marching, carrying out boycotts, filling jails, all with amazing self-discipline, with no action of retaliation. It turned the segregated world upside down, making a powerful moral appeal to the nation’s sense of justice.

May each of us, as we come to worship, turn our eyes away from the world and its distresses and distractions, and look anxiously to God for favor and compassion. 

[1]  https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/films/eyesontheprize/