Psalm 123
I lift up my eyes to you,
to you whose throne is in heaven.
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.
Have mercy on us, O Lord, have mercy on us,
for we have endured much contempt.
We have endured much ridicule from the proud,
much contempt from the arrogant.
Luke 18:9–14
The Parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector
To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everybody else, Jesus told this parable: “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood up and prayed about himself: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’
“But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’
“I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”
If you were to ask me who my all-time hero is, I would say the great Victorian preacher Charles Haddon Spurgeon – often just referred to as Spurgeon.
The story of his conversion is a remarkable one. As a young man, he was deeply troubled. He had a real sense of his own guilt. He was restless, and he was unable to find peace with God. One Sunday, in the middle of a snowstorm, he couldn’t get to his usual church, and so he turned aside into a small chapel. He was pretty much the only one there. The preacher was speaking on this text from Isaiah:
Look unto me, and be ye saved.
Much to Spurgeon’s annoyance, the preacher kept repeating, “Look and be saved! Look and be saved!”
Then at one point during the sermon, he simply looked at Spurgeon – this unknown teenager who had wandered in from the snowstorm – and said: “Young man, you look very miserable. And you always will be miserable, miserable in life and miserable in death, unless you obey my text. But if you obey now, this moment, you will be saved.” And then he said it again: “Look, look, look. You have nothing to do but look and live.”
And in that moment, Spurgeon later said, it was like a light broke into his life – not because he had finally improved himself, not because he had figured everything out, but because he had stopped looking at himself and looked to Christ.
From that point on, it was ever Spurgeon’s joy to be photographed pointing upwards. I love those photos of him as a young man in his early twenties, preaching at the Metropolitan Tabernacle in London, always pointing upwards, as if to say, “Look up. Don’t look at me. Look up and live.”
Isn’t it wonderful that that phrase, which once irked him – Look and be saved – is what he wanted evermore to preach? And our psalm begins with exactly this notion. In verse 1 the psalmist says:
I lift my eyes to you, to you whose throne is in heaven.
So first, let’s consider this idea of lifting our eyes to God – of looking to him and living. Because, basically, the point of every sermon is this: lift your eyes to God.
But our problem here is twofold. First, that we hardly ever look at God. Secondly, that sometimes we can’t see him even if we try. So let’s think about that second problem first. Paul says this in 1 Corinthians:
The unconverted person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him. They are a load of nonsense to him, and he is not able to understand them, because they are spiritually discerned.
Think about this. How does a colour-blind person know that they are colour-blind? The fact is, you can’t tell from inside your own sense of sight, can you? Because it just looks normal to you. You discover it through comments from others, perhaps through practical mishaps, or perhaps by taking the Ishihara test – those circles made up of red and green dots, where the number appears only if you can distinguish between the colours. If you can’t see the number, you’re colour-blind. So it would be pointless to say to someone who is red-green colour-blind, “Just try harder – tell me what number you see.” They can’t see it. They cannot distinguish the colours.
In exactly the same way, if someone is spiritually blind – that is, unconverted – it is pointless to say to them, “Just look up at the one true God,” because they cannot distinguish between the God of the Bible and anything else people might worship. We need the Holy Spirit to switch our spiritual vision back on through conversion. And then we can see what God is really like. And when we do, we realise how different he is – not just one option among many, but utterly unique.
But then we come to the second problem: even when we can see, we so rarely look. By “looking at God,” I mean spending time thinking about him – directing our attention to him.
I wonder, if we could have a printed breakdown of the subjects of our thoughts over the course of a single day, what would be at the top of the list? And where would God appear? Let’s remind ourselves of what that blunt preacher said to young Spurgeon: “You will always be miserable, miserable in life and miserable in death, unless you obey my text.”
Much of our misery comes from dwelling on things that are not God – and therefore cannot ultimately help us. That is why we need to set aside time each day to pray and to read the Bible. It is why regular Bible study with other Christians matters so much.
And this brings us to verse 2 of the psalm:
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 mercy.
Having thought about what it means to lift our eyes to God, we now see something else here: patience. Because looking to God does not always solve our problems instantly. He is the master, and we are his servants – not the other way round. The psalmist shows us the kind of patient attentiveness we need. He keeps looking – until the Lord shows mercy.
That word mercy is crucial. It can also be translated “favour” or “grace.” It means an unmerited gift. God is not a vending machine where we insert obedience and receive a predictable level of blessing in return. We do not deserve any blessing at all. So we cannot demand when it comes or what form it takes. Instead, we are to keep our eyes fixed on him – waiting for his mercy.
And this leads us into the final part of the psalm, where the psalmist cries out:
Have mercy on us, O Lord, have mercy on us,
for we have endured much contempt.
We have endured much ridicule from the proud,
much contempt from the arrogant.
Here we see the kind of mercy the psalmist longs for: deliverance from contempt. The word used here conveys scorn – a belittling attitude that places the speaker above others. And this is something Christians will always experience in this life. From the world, with its dismissive labels:
“Oh, you’re a fundamentalist.”
“You’re one of those evangelicals.”
“You’re naïve, outdated, judgmental.”
You only have to turn on the television to hear this kind of language. And from the evil one, who whispers:
“You’re too sinful to be forgiven.”
“You’re not a real Christian.”
“You’ll never make it.”
So what is the answer? We return to verse 1: “Look.” Look to the one enthroned in heaven.
First, make sure you are born again – that you have put your trust in Jesus to forgive your sins by his death on the cross. That was the whole point of our gospel reading. Two people appear before God. One says, “Thank you, God, that I am so good.” The other can hardly look up and says, “Lord, have mercy on me, a sinner.”
When we recognise ourselves as helpless sinners needing forgiveness, God opens our eyes to his glory. And once we know him, we must keep looking to him.
When the world mocks us, we look to the King of the universe – the source of all beauty, goodness, and joy. When the evil one accuses us, we look to Jesus on the cross – the Lamb of God who takes away our sin.
So this week, when you are distressed – perhaps criticised for your faith, perhaps weighed down by your sin – pray:
I lift my eyes to you,
to you who sit enthroned in heaven.
And I’ll end with words from a well-known hymn:
O soul, are you weary and troubled?
No light in the darkness you see?
There’s light for a look at the Saviour,
and life more abundant and free.Turn your eyes upon Jesus,
look full in his wonderful face,
and the things of earth will grow strangely dim
in the light of his glory and grace.