September 1 — Psalm 123

“To you I lift up my eyes, O you who are enthroned in the heavens! 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 upon us. Have mercy upon us, O LORD, have mercy upon us, for we have had more than enough of contempt. Our soul has had more than its fill of the scorn of those who are at ease, of the contempt of the proud.”

Psalm 123 is the fourth in these Psalms that are called the “songs of ascents” (Psalms 120–134). For the first time in these particular Psalms, the writer speaks directly to the Lord. When we hear the words “Have mercy on us…”, we realize this Psalm is a prayer — and the writer prays for help.

Have you been praying to the Lord for help lately? I tend to pray often for the Lord’s guidance, for the Lord’s direction, and for the Lord’s help. Everyone needs help at some point in their lives. We might need help in a relationship, we might need help deciding a direction for our work lives, we might pray for our children or grand children that they will receive the help they need when they are struggling. There is no shortage of situations that we might look up to the Lord for help.

It is good for us to look to the Lord for many things, especially look to the Lord for help. We often spend too much time worrying and struggling to figure out situations on our own — when we should be learning to wait upon our Lord for the indication of his will and help.

Let us Pray:

O God, our creator and redeemer, we look to you for all that we need. Look with favor on us, your servants, and give us your grace; for the sake of Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord.

Amen.