PSalm 123--Our Eyes Look to the LORD Our God

Psalm 123
English Standard Version
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Our Eyes Look to the LORD Our God
A Song of Ascents.
123 To you I lift up my eyes,
    O you who are enthroned in the heavens!
2 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.

3 Have mercy upon us, O LORD, have mercy upon us,
    for we have had more than enough of contempt.
4 Our soul has had more than enough
    of the scorn of those who are at ease,
    of the contempt of the proud.

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This also is a song of ascents.  As the people were climbing the mountain to visit the Temple (though the Temple didn't exist yet when David wrote this, but he had made the plans for it), they had no choice but to look up and see the Temple, for it was the biggest and brightest building there.  It would have easily been mistaken for the palace as usually the biggest building belonged to the king, and in this case, it did--the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.  The Temple of the LORD was one of the wonders of the world, yet that is not where He lived.  No Temple could contain Him.  He sits enthroned in the heavens (the entire universe cannot contain Him).  So, while the people literally lifted their eyes up to the Temple, we may literally or figuratively lift our eyes up to the LORD, the maker of heaven and earth, when we are in distress and need help.

We are but servants looking to our Master for help.  We have no resources with which to help ourselves, but He has infinite power and resources at His disposal.  He loves us and cares for us even in our state of poverty and impotence.  He loves to save His people when they call on Him for aid.  All we need to do like Peter was sinking in the sea is cry out, "Lord, save me!" and He will.

The LORD has mercy on us--showing pity and favor to those who are undeserving of it.  We are deeply in need of His compassion, grace and mercy.  Without them, the cross of Christ would have never happened.  Everyone else sees us as contemptable for what we are, but the LORD sees us as what He wants to make us to be--the image of His Son, Jesus, whom He loves and in whom He is well-pleased.  The rich, powerful and proud can insult and jeer all they want because it is not their opinion that counts.  The LORD has given us a new identity and has lifted us up from our lowly estate.  Therefore, the world and the devil may no longer make accusations against us or slander us to the face of the LORD.  He will not listen to them because our identity is in Christ and based off of who He is and what He has done, not in who we were and what we have done.  The one who wrote the books has blotted out all of our transgressions and all that remains is that our name is in the Lamb's Book of Life, and that is all that needs to be seen.  Christ will claim us as His own and we will be glorified so that we will be without trace or stain or sin.