DUNCAN/Looking until He is gracious
If you have your Bible, I’d invite you to turn with me to Psalm 123. The context of this psalm is one of contempt. The psalmist and the community of Israel are experiencing scorn and contempt. We’re not told any more than that. We’re not told when it happened or where it happened. However, the omission of these details does not alter the comfort it brings. Surely this psalm again reminds us that this world is not our home, and this age is not our goal. Contempt and scorn will have no place in heaven, but while we are in this world that is a reality for many of God’s people. That is why we need this psalm.
The People of God Under the Contempt of the World
First, if you look in verses 3 and 4, we are reminded explicitly that the people of God often are under the contempt of the world. Twice it is said that they have had more than enough of contempt, more than enough of scorn. There are many things that can bruise. There are few things that go deeper than feeling the scorn and contempt of another. Isn’t it interesting that Jesus, in the Sermon on the Mount, speaks of contempt as more dangerous than anger which He compares to murder. In the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 5:22, He indeed indicates that those who wrongfully scorn and have contempt for their neighbor are in danger of hellfire. So searing is the effect of undeserved contempt on another person.
And of course, the people of God know well what it is to experience that kind of contempt and scorn, and they certainly knew it in the Old Testament. In Lamentations, Jeremiah writes of a time when the people of God were scorned. He saw the end of the line, or so he thought, of the Davidic kings. He saw Israel carried off into captivity and he saw, point blank, the scorn of God’s enemies for God’s people. Jeremiah understood that sometimes God puts His people in a circumstance in which they are the objects of scorn and contempt. In those circumstances they experience like sufferings with their Savior and God. He has purposes for their good and does not take delight in their grief but instead uses that grief for His glory and their good. The people of God do suffer contempt in this world and that’s why the psalmist is crying out in this psalm.
The People of God Lift Their Eyes to the God Enthroned in Heaven
And that leads us to the second thing. When the people of God are under the contempt of the world, what do they do? Well, you see the first answer to that question in this psalm in verse 1. When the people of God are under the contempt of the world they lift their eyes to God, who is enthroned in heaven. Listen to the language of verse 1. “To You I lift up my eyes, O You who are enthroned in the heavens.” Now there are several things that I want you to see. Who does he lift his eyes to? To the Lord. “You who are enthroned in the heavens.” So, his eyes are focused immediately on God. In searching for relief from his scorn, he does not look to circumstances; he does not look to earthly aid. That’s not where his help is going to come.
His help is from the Lord who is enthroned. He is reigning. It may look like the enemies of the people of God are reigning because we are under their contempt, but they are not. It is God who is reigning. And what is the purpose of His enthronement? To administer justice. He’s the right one to appeal to when you are under the injustice of undeserved contempt, and He’s not just enthroned on earth; He’s enthroned in the heavens. It’s the highest throne there is. There’s no higher court of appeal. The psalmist looks to God who is enthroned in the heavens. Now, is there another prayer you know that begins with an echo of that same truth? “Our Father, who art in heaven.” Jesus isn’t giving you a little throw away phrase to begin your prayer with. When you begin that prayer, you, like the psalmist, are to remember that your Father is enthroned as God, King, and Judge in the heavens. You are making the highest appeal that a human being can make. It’s designed to bolster the confidence of the downcast spirits of God’s people under duress and contempt. We are appealing to the One who is our God enthroned in the heavens.
The People of God Look to the LORD for Mercy
But he goes on to say something else in verse 2, “Behold, as the eyes of servants look to the hand of their master, so as the eyes of a maidservant looks to the hand of her mistress, so our eyes look to the LORD our God, till He has mercy upon us.” Now the eyes that were lifted up to the one who is enthroned in the heavens are focused directly on the hand of God as master waiting for the slightest sign that He has heard our prayers and will answer with mercy.
And specifically, we look for what? Well, we look for God’s graciousness, for His mercy. The psalmist is saying this — all we need in the hardest of circumstances is God’s mercy. That’s what we need. “Lord, have mercy” is a good prayer that ought to be regularly deployed because all we need in the hardest of situations for remedy is God’s mercy. I want you to remember that sometimes that mercy comes in a relieving of the contempt and the scorn that we are bearing. Sometimes in a change of heart for those who are our enemies. Sometimes in a change in our own heart towards our enemies.
When you lift up that prayer, “Lord, have mercy,” it is at the expense of, and on the account of, Jesus Christ. Those words are not meant to make you less apt to ask God for mercy, for He is more ready to give you mercy than you are to ask it, but when you ask, it is always appropriate to remember the cost that He bore to say, “Yes,” to you. When the psalmist asks three times, “Have mercy on me, Lord,” God is gracious to answer in the affirmative, but He does that because He gave His Son what you deserved to hear, and He gave you what His Son deserved to hear when He cried out for mercy from the cross. What He heard was no answer. And you never hear no answer. You always hear, “Yes child, because of what your Savior did for you, bearing shame and dying in your behalf, My answer to your plea for mercy is yes, yes, and yes again.”
Dr. J. Ligon Duncan III is Chancellor & CEO of Reformed Theological Seminary (RTS) in Jackson.